Alby's Latest Posts
Open Thread for Nov. 6, 2017
People who want marijuana legalized for recreational use often talk up its tax advantages, but they’re seldom realistic about it. Consider this Los Angeles Times article about the coming tax increases a reality check on what will happen when full legalization arrives in California in January. Not only will the taxes raise the price for […]
Thoughts and Prayers on Gun Nuts (Updated)
Another week, another mass shooting in America. This one was less than half as deadly as Las Vegas, but it did break the Texas record. Yee-haw! The gunman grew up in a $1 million house (which is a lot less common there than here) in the San Antonio suburbs, joined the Air Force, was kicked […]
Breakfast Links/Open Thread, 11/5/17
If you read only one story today about the Democratic Party civil war, make it this essay by Andrew O’Hehir of Salon. He is firmly in the Jason330 School of finding the Democrats lost, hopeless and likely to blow the ’18 midterms, but I agree with him that this split is not about Hillary and […]
Russians Sure Have Americans Pegged
Revelations about Russian infiltration of social media are starting to creep me out. The Huffington Post looked for now-known troll accounts in online media and found scores of references to cut-out accounts like the now-notorious Jenna Abrams. And it’s still going on, especially in the heated Virginia governors race, where Russian bots are frantically retweeting racially […]
How Dumb Are Trump Voters? This Dumb
How can Trump voters fall for his lies? How dumb do you have to be for Trump’s obvious, transparent phoniness to read as sincerity, for his bullshit to smell like roses? This dumb: Valerie Volcovici of Reuters went to coal country and found that workers there are widely rejecting offers of job retraining because they’re […]
Open Thread for Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017
The civil war in the Democratic Party should be slouching toward Appomattox Courthouse, but the belligerents just won’t let it go. Shots are still being fired over Donna Brazile’s book excerpt, despite pleas from all quarters to focus on the Orange Menace. Most voters don’t know what’s in the GOP tax cut plan, but polls […]
Trifecta: The NFL, Mediocre Pizza and Trump
I dislike all three, so I’m a winner no matter who loses. This starts with the mediocre pizza made by jock-sniffing conservative pizza magnate “Papa” John Schnatter. He caused a stir the other day by criticizing the National Football League — kind of a dick move considering Papa John’s is the NFL’s official pizza. The […]
Religious Fanatic Guns Down 3 in Colorado
Demonstrating yet again the violence and terror fed by religious fanatacism, the Daily Beast reports that Colorado Walmart killer Scott Ostrem lived in a nearly unfurnished apartment apart from a literal stack of Bibles. Hispanic neighbors said he was especially mean to them. “He wouldn’t say nothing to us, but he talked to the only […]
Who’s the Real Victim? Biden, Says RWNJ
Conservative concern troll John Podhoretz of the New York Daily News has weighed in on the Donna Brazile flap — he’s shocked, shocked that the party’s presumptive nominee took control of the party machinery a year before the election — but he’s not worried that Bernie got the shaft. He’s chosen a victim more sympathetic […]
Open Thread for Friday, November 3, 2017
The owner of the Glasgow Court trailer park wants to oust residents to make way for a housing development, but the plan might have hit a roadblock. A FOIA request by WDEL’s Amy Cherry unearthed the fact that the park owes over $300,000 in unpaid sewer fees. The manager says that much water leaked from […]
No Baby Will Ever Be Named Harvey Again
After this year, the name Harvey will forever be linked with disaster. First Hurricane Harvey drowned Houston, then Harvey Weinstein’s fall triggered an earthquake in Hollywood. The first one is history, but the aftershocks from the second continue. Yesterday saw new allegations against Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Piven and — I kid you not — Dustin […]
Home Is Where You Make It
Rumors have swirled about state Rep. Melanie George Smith’s residence for more than a year now, ever since she bought a new home west of Newark and moved her family into it. The chatter wasn’t about whether she was breaking the law, but whether she was going to leave the General Assembly. In Delaware, you […]
Open Thread for Thursday, November 2, 2017
Oh, that pesky tax reform plan, always getting yelled at. Now some Republicans are upset because — brace yourself — they’re worried it will be portrayed as helping the rich while hurting the poor. Given that the lowest tax rate, applied to the lowest earners, would rise from 10% to 12%, you can see where […]
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