Month: February 2015

“Many historians have taken issue with how Morten Tyldum, the first Norwegian man to be nominated for Best Director, chose to portray mathematical genius Alan Turing in the film The Imitation Game. Those decrying the film’s depiction of events note that the script completely rewrites history, tossing out the literally thousands of people who worked alongside Turing in breaking the Nazi code so that the Allies could win the war, and replacing them with Keira Knightley. They also point out that the efforts of the American, French and British military forces, among others, have may have had an even larger role than Turing in ending World War II. Finally, some take issue with how Turing is never shown having actual sex with another man, despite the film being entirely set in buildings where no one has ever had sex. Tyldum has been quoted as saying that ‘sometimes liberties are needed to make truer art’ but this has not satisfied the rabid nay-sayers who cannot countenance this film.”

The wingnut consensus is that breaking laws related to guns is not a crime, and even if it was a crime, Democrats do crimes too, so...

"And Hunter Biden gets a job with a Ukrainian gas company and we hear nothing about that."

Amy Walter: “One of the biggest assets for Democrats – especially for Hillary Clinton – going into this next election is the fact that they are much more ideologically united than the GOP. From social issues to economic ones, the overwhelming majority of Democrats are on the same page. This, of course, leaves little room for a primary challenger to Hillary Clinton to expose a gap or drive a wedge.” “Not so much for Republicans who are divided on almost everything other than foreign policy and a desire to repeal Obamacare. This is will not only make it difficult for a Republican to become a ‘consensus’ candidate in the primary, but could make it difficult to unite the party post-primary as well.”

Republican Party official and former state Senate candidate in Delaware with illegally dealing in firearms. If these charges are true, and if Mr. Opaliski is convicted, then he is now the perfect symbol of the kind of criminal who get guns to people who do massive harm, such as murder and massacres. He would also be the kind of criminal who thinks he is supporting the Second Amendment when in fact he is directly harming it. Mr. Opaliski should stand trial, and if the facts are proven beyond a reasonable doubt, he should be convicted and he should serve time behind bars. Then these federal prosecutors need to check all the illegal weapons he sold, ever, because we know it is more than what is in the indictment. If any one of them were used in violent crimes, Mr. Opaliski should be charged with those crimes as well. In other words, throw the fucking book at him, and every single Second Amendment supporter in this small state and nationwide should agree, and they must agree.

This post from last year is getting massing nationwide traffic, so I am linking to it here and recopying it here for a rediscussion, since all of Delaware is closed today, which of course also gives us the opportunity to repost this:

Hillary Clinton held a private, one-on-one meeting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in December at Mrs. Clinton’s Washington home, “a move by the Democrats’ leading contender in 2016 to cultivate the increasingly influential senator and leader of the party’s economic populist movement,” the New York Times reports. “The get-together represented a step toward relationship-building for two women who do not know each other well. And for Mrs. Clinton, it was a signal that she would prefer Ms. Warren’s counsel delivered in person, as a friendly insider, rather than on national television or in opinion articles. And for Ms. Warren, the meeting offered the opportunity to make clear what she believes are the most pressing national issues.” To me, it sounds like that first step in the dance we usually see when a candidate for a party nomination has just more or less locked it up and is exploring an endorsement from the principal rival without demanding an acknowledgment of defeat, not unlike the meeting in a Washington townhouse in 2008 between then Senators Obama and Clinton. But Bloomberg Politics' Emily Greenhouse, thinks it might represent more, not Clinton vanquishing Warren, but the other way around:

Some might have interpreted the report as a sign that Clinton was taking Warren under her wing. But for Warren's most vocal supporters, the self-appointed army raging for economic populism, the tête-à-tête meant just about the opposite. Ilya Sheyman, the executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, which with Democracy for America launched the project Run Warren Run, sounded emboldened. "It's more evidence that Sen. Warren and progressives are driving the conversation within the Democratic Party,” he said, through a spokesman. “That's why we're eager for Elizabeth Warren to run for President, and any candidate would do well to speak to the issues she's led on -- like tackling income inequality, student debt, and taking on the big banks."