Alby's Latest Posts
Doping Olympic Curler Shows Something Is Wrong With Us
I have managed to get through the Olympics without seeing any of it broadcast, but the constant flow of headlines at general-interest web sites makes a total news blackout impossible. That’s how I found out about the big doping scandal in that quintessential Winter Olympics sport, curling. Yes, a curler competing as an Athlete From […]
Open Thread Feb. 20: The Content of the GOP’s Character [UPDATED]
Lest we think all the bad behavior by Republicans and their white enablers is going unnoticed, Paul Krugman notes that their fealty to Trump exposes the rot at the core of the GOP’s character. Many of us have been ringing that bell for a long time — the party that loves to tell poor people to […]
Just a Couple of Random Thoughts About Guns
“Guns don’t kill people.” Then why does the Army issue one to every soldier? “Gun control won’t stop people bent on murder.” Yet virtually every kind of crime one can commit — robbing a bank, assaulting someone, you name it — is considered to be more serious when committed with a gun. What makes murder […]
Open Thread Feb. 19: Marching As to War
The kids at that Florida high school have learned something important: All the talk in the world won’t influence politicians. They do a lot of talking themselves, so they know how little it’s worth. So the Florida students are taking action, organizing a March on Washington for March 24. Republicans are going to find out […]
Wagner Won’t Seek Re-Election, Auditor Race Wide Open
State auditor Tom Wagner announced Saturday night at the annual Kent County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner that because of ongoing health problems, he won’t seek an eighth term. This didn’t come out of the blue. Campaign finance reports last month indicated that Wagner was throwing in the towel. The eagerness with which Voter Fraud […]
Open Thread Feb. 17: The Winning Continues Unabated
Trump-despising Republican TV fixture Rick Wilson best nailed Trumpworld’s response to Robert Mueller’s Friday indictment-palooza in a tweetstorm of invective: Sweet Jesus the MAGAS, the clickservatives, and Gentry Breitbart think he’s exonerated. It’s freaking spectacular. SPEC-TAC-ULAR. No. Really. Their level of self-delusion, day-drinking, head trauma, and lead-paint chip ingestion is a miracle of medical science….His […]
A Tale of Two Trump Stories
Two major pieces of journalism about Donald Trump hit the pixels today. One concerns the possibility he committed treason. The other is about a Playboy model who says she had an affair with him a decade ago. Guess which one has generated more attention. OK, so it helps that the New Yorker’s story has the […]
Buy My Policy or I’ll Shoot These Kids — And When I Do, It’ll Be Your Fault
That’s Trump’s thuggish, dull-witted position on the DACA issue. He rescinded Obama’s executive order protecting the Dreamers, and now he’s demanding that Democrats spend all their political capital protecting them or out they go. In any other context, you’d call it hostage-taking. The sad part is that this works on some people. You didn’t have […]
Open Thread Feb. 16: Loathsome Asshole Roundup
If you had been in a coma until today, you would still be able to figure out there had been another big gun massacre because all news outlets are running their typical Day 2 Aftermath stories. The Atlantic’s James Fallows points out that nobody knows how to stop this violence, except every other country on […]
Potter Flare-Up? Get Rid of It With Truthulax
Mayor Mike Purzycki thought Tuesday’s news release about the city issuing $43 million in bonds for capital projects exemplified “routine.” The city doesn’t sell bonds every year, but this issue was approved in the 2016 budget, and as news events go this was on a par with the altered trash-pickup schedule for holiday week. But […]
JFC Brushes Off Denn’s Proposals for At-Risk Kids
Consider this an addendum to El Somnambulo’s post this morning about the Joint Finance Committee. Just days after committee members soiled themselves like overeager puppies for the State Police, phony liberal Harris McDowell told Matt Denn to take a hike with his proposal for how to spend the $45 million windfall lawmakers already intend to […]
Open Thread Feb. 15: Insert Thoughts and Prayers Here, Repeat as Often as Necessary
Unless you’re an obsessive consumer of school-shooting stories, there’s not much in the news today. White House reporters are keeping up the heat on Sarah Huckabee over the Rob Porter scandal, but nobody outside Politico has noticed because the air is so thick with thoughts and prayers. Elizabeth Warren has been dogged for six years […]
The Media Loves School Shootings
Here’s a dirty little secret: The media loves school shootings. It’s part of a bigger dirty secret: The media loves mayhem and tragedy of all sorts, because those things bring eyeballs to the page or screen. Why do we have Trump as president? Because the media wanted him. If they didn’t want him, they wouldn’t […]
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