Month: August 2015

This is extreme reading of the tea leaves, but.....

If he were to run for President, Jill Biden would be a central figure in his campaign. However, according to Bloomberg, she just registered to teach a full load of classes this fall at Northern Virginia Community College – and that’s the ballgame. Why does this rule Joe Biden out as a candidate? If he were running, she would be on the campaign trail with him, helping orchestrate things behind the scenes, as she has in the past. Her decision to go ahead and teach this fall means that he has decided for certain that he won’t be running. Although the election is more than a year away, the Bidens would need to be on the road campaigning full-time this fall in the primary race. The only question now becomes at what point Joe makes the announcement official, and whether he formally throws his support behind his close ally Clinton now or waits until the primary results are official.

This assumes that Jill Biden could never quit the courses or job, or take a sabbatical, and that somehow her teaching schedule is set in stone. That assumes a lot, in my opinion. Indeed, what did she do in the fall of 2007? That was the last time her husband ran for President. I am willing to bet she taught. Plus, it's not like teaching precludes any campaigning. But, take it for what it is worth.

Conservatives have loved to declare, against all facts and logic, that Barack Obama is a dictator, a tyrant, and in a latest turn to conspiracy, is/was going to use a military exercise in the southwest called Jade Helm to take over the country and declare martial law so as to stay in power for life. Yes, yes.. I know. But it is either what they truly believe, or it is what they say to scare others. I don't think these folks have quite pictured how much the military will be in their lives if mass deportations ever become reality. What it will look and feel like to have soldiers surround and sweep through public schools and neighborhoods to screen and detain children as hostages to coerce their parents to turn themselves in as well. Or worse, how it might play out is if local militias pre-emptively do such deportation sweeps themselves. Because when that happens, it's not deportation: It's ethnic cleansing. It's been done before.

“You know, if this were another country, we could maybe call for an expedited election, right? I would love that. Can we do that? I’d like to have the election tomorrow, I don’t want to wait.” — Donald Trump, quoted by The Hill. OMG. The man's stupidity is staggering. There is no such thing as calling for an expedieted election in other countries. In some other countries, they have parliamentary systems rather than presidential systems, and elections are sometimes held earlier than scheduled because sometimes the government elected in the prior election loses a vote of no confidence, or for some other reason parliament is dissolved by the head of state (usually a constitutional monarch like Queen Elizabeth II, but also like President Reuven Rivlin of Israel). The point is, an earlier election is provided for by that country's constitution or charter. Our Constitution does not provide for earlier elections. It seems the Donald doesn't care much for our Constitution. Which is odd considering he is being supported by the Constitution-loving Tea Party, which of course tells me what I have always known: the tea party never cared about the Constitution. They only cared about the color of the President's skin.

At the Plum Line at the Washington Post, Paul Waldman says that the Republicans may have just given away the election with all this birthright citizenship fascist nonsense. I agree.

[T]his week has seen the most significant development yet in the immigration debate’s role in the 2016 election. I’d go even farther — it’s possible that the entire presidential election just got decided.... It’s possible to argue that you’re “pro-immigrant” while simultaneously saying we should build more walls and double the size of the Border Patrol. Indeed, many Republicans do, and while their argument may not be particularly persuasive, it’s not completely crazy. But you can’t say you’re pro-immigrant and advocate ending birthright citizenship. You just can’t.

Thus, in a scenario where it would be very difficult mathematically for a Republican to win the presidency without a pretty big improvement over Mitt Romney's performance among Latinos, the GOP is doubling down on the self deportation remarks that doomed Romney in the first place. According to Latino Decisions analysis that Waldman cites, Republicans will need 42% of the Latino vote to win even if they maintain their 2014 support levels among white voters and black turnout and Democratic support levels among black voters return to pre-Obama levels and Latino turnout is poor. You ain't getting 42% of the Latino vote with this rhetoric. You ain't getting 22%.

We could be guided by science, reason, and rationality, but that would conflict with our sacred duty to protect the profitability of oil, coal and natural gas companies.

These signs are popping up all over President Carter's hometown of Plains, Georgia. I spent some time in airports terminals yesterday, so I got to see most of President Carter's news conference concerning his cancer diagnosis. Saying that his life was in God’s hands and that he was “perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” Mr. Carter added, “I’m ready for anything. And I’m looking forward to the adventure.” I can only hope I'd look at things this way in his situation. Then again, it helps that he is 90, and it helps that he has completely and thoroughly used his life in the service of others. If I were President Carter, I would have no fear of death, and I would look forward to giving God a good talking to. Typically, presidential maladies are for hiding. And among all of us generally, we don't like to talk about the fact that we are ill. I myself did not like saying I had a heart condition last year, because you can feel, as soon as the words escape your mouth, that you are then diminished in the eyes of everyone, that you are somehow weaker, less than. I would like to thank President Carter for being so open and honest about his illness, with such ease and courage. May he instill it in all of us. For many years to come.

At this very moment, I am flying above your heads returning from a business trip to the Midwest. So have at it.

The reason for the 14th Amendment in the first place was due to the racism of those wanted to disenfranchise African Americans. And it was the Republicans of their day that fought for this amendment, that fought for the citizenship of those who did not look like your white bread framer of the past. And now we have come full circle, with Republicans wanting to end birthright citizenship because don't want people who don't look, or act, or speak like them to be citizens.