Alby's Latest Posts
High Praise for Kathleen Jennings’ Reforms
El Somnambulo wrote weeks ago about Attorney General Kathleen Jennings’ bold prosecution and sentencing reforms. Now her program is gaining national attention. Shaun King, the social-justice activist, journalist and author, positively gushed in The Intercept over Jennings’ memo: I need you to read and share this memo. It’s six pages of brilliance. Now listen, if […]
Even If Justice Is Blind, It Knows the Smell of Money
The light sentence a federal judge handed to Paul Manafort infuriated people who saw giving him only 4 years after his execrable behavior as a travesty of justice. But the truth is that for wealthy defendants, no matter how they acquired their money, lenient sentences are the rule, not the exception. Ken White, a former […]
Climate Change Won’t Wait for Your Incrementalism
Today’s Tom Tomorrow strip sums this all up nicely: Behind all the criticism of the “New Deal of Greenness” lies an inescapable truth: Doing only what is “politically possible” dooms us just as certainly as doing nothing at all. Good work, Sparky.
Song of the Day 3/11: AC/DC, “Hard as a Rock”
Can someone please explain why Viagra hasn’t used this as their theme song? The Young brothers didn’t even bother to disguise it a double entendre — it’s crystal clear what Brian Johnson is singing about. In case there was any doubt, the B-side to the single was “Caught With Your Pants Down.” “Hard as a […]
Song of the Day 3/10: The Outsiders, “Time Won’t Let Me”
The American answer to the British Invasion was in full swing by 1965, when a Cleveland R & B outfit called the Starfires got signed to Capitol Records and changed its name. Their first single as the Outsiders hit No. 5 in spring 1966, its punchy horns and driving beat making it an instant white […]
Song of the Day 3/9: Lloyd Williams, “Shama Lama Ding Dong”
Anybody who’s seen “Animal House” remembers the scene at the Dexter Lake Club — “Otis! My man!” — and the song Otis Day and the Knights launch into as it begins. “Shama Lama Ding Dong” fits right in with the movie’s soundtrack of late ’50s-early ’60s R&B, a doo-wop flavored number full of scat syllables […]
My Mr. Ed Standard for Presidential Candidates
Centrist presidential candidates are going to hype their electability, which is cheating of a sort — put any Democrat up against Donald Trump and that Democrat will look electable. And I would rather have any of the Democratic candidates, even Tulsi Gabbard, in the White House than Donald Trump. So the Trump yardstick is useless. […]
Will Caring About the Issues Help Elizabeth Warren?
People always say they wished campaigns would focus on serious issues and media should cover those issues rather than highlighting candidates’ missteps and updating the tote board. Elizabeth Warren is trying, and it’s instructive to see where that’s getting her. Today Warren laid out a proposal to break up the big tech giants so they […]
Song of the Day 3/8: Paul McCartney, “Let Me Roll It”
“Band on the Run” is a contender for best post-Beatles album by any of the Fab Four. It’s full of solid songs beyond the monster hits, especially this grinding number that sounds just like a John Lennon song to everybody on Earth but McCartney. The draggy tempo, the tape-echo vocals, the short, biting guitar licks […]
Another Torpedo Hits SS Biden’s Vulnerable Port Side
Even as the all-but-officially-running Joe Biden got a HuffPo cover piece touting his union bona fides, progressives with long memories and LexisNexis access scored another direct hit on his politics of the past. A Harper’s piece headlined “Joe Biden’s Disastrous Legislative Legacy” lays out a brief against Uncle Joe that is long, detailed and broad […]
I Love Michael Bloomberg and Sherrod Brown
I love the good judgment shown by politicians who explored running for president and thought better of it. This week billionaire centrist and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he’ll forgo a run to focus on funding Democrats, presumably centrist ones. According to the New York Times story, “Polling and focus groups found […]
Trump’s Elevator Skips a Few Floors
I did not watch Donald Trump’s two-hour breakdown at the CPAC conference, but it must have been incredibly bad, because more than a few journalists are asking why mainstream news outlets downplayed his lunacy. As Amanda Marcotte noted the next day, mainstream outlets used euphemisms that failed to convey the disjointed, phantasmic nature of his […]
Song of the Day 3/7: The Beths, “Future Me Hates Me”
They’re from New Zealand, they’re a bunch of kids who know each other from high school, they’re making a splash stateside (they played Philly last week) and the title track from their new album is the most kick-ass power pop song of the year so far. That’s all I know, and all ye need to […]
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