Thursday (mini) Open Thread [5.7.15]

Thursday (mini) Open Thread [5.7.15]

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Pandering, not baseball, has always been Smyrna's pastime. It is good to see Lumpy is keeping the tradition alive.
Delaware lawmakers score political points by offering free fishing tags to firefighters and discounted annual park fees to seniors. But those giveaways cost Delaware's parks system more than $750,000 in uncollected revenue each year, according to state figures. Now lawmakers have introduced new legislation that would expand those freebies, offering surf fishing tags at no cost to active members of ladies auxiliary crews at Delaware volunteer fire companies.
DL GOP Fantasy Pool Update – Is Jeb Bush DOA?

DL GOP Fantasy Pool Update – Is Jeb Bush DOA?

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Perhaps the most surprising Fantasy News so far is how badly top pick, Jeb Bush, is doing. A new Quinnipiac poll of likely Iowa Republican presidential caucusgoers finds Jeb Bush in SEVENTH place with a measly 5%, trailing behind both Ben Carson (7%) and chlamydia (6%). Is it possible that Bush MAY NEVER EVEN ANNOUNCE, thereby netting a big zero for AQC and Del Dem? I doubt it. Despite being hated by Iowa caucusgoers, Jeb Bush remains popular among billionaires with money to blow. So why not collect sacks of cash on his way to whatever lobbying job lies ahead?
DL GOP Fantasy Pool – Huckabee to announce today

DL GOP Fantasy Pool – Huckabee to announce today

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Michael Dale "Mike" Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician who did a plausible imitation of a sane person while serving as the 44th Governor of Arkansas (1996–2007). He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, winning the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses by throwing his reputation as a sane person under the bus and driving the bus over that reputation 30 to 40 times. Rick Perry, it seems, is going to announce tomorrow. Here are the revised standings: Newton and Jason330 now have 3 of 4 picks running. Division 1 Pandora: Walker, Paul* (30), Rubio (24), and Santorum | 54 Jason330: Huckabee (1), Christie, Cruz* (45),Carson (2) | 48 AQCL: Jindal, Bush, Fiorina (2), Ehrlich | 2 Division 1A Newton: Paul* (30), Rubio (24),Carson (2), Santorum | 56 Prop Joe: Cruz* (45), Jindahl, Walker, Perry | 45 Del Dem: Bush, Christie, Huckabee (1), Graham | 1 Here are the Candidates with points: Cruz - 45 points (March 23rd), Paul - 30 points (April 7th), Rubio - 24 points (April 13), Carson - 2 points (May 4th), Fiorina - 2 point2 (May 4th), Huckbee - 1 point (May 5th) (*) Indicates candidates who think we need to be worried that President Obama may be plotting to take over Texas with US military special operations forces. Let me know if I miss an announcement, and good luck.
Have Republicans simply gone completely bananas?

Have Republicans simply gone completely bananas?

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The evidence points to - yes. Not from The Onion:
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday asked the State Guard to monitor a U.S. military training exercise dubbed “Jade Helm 15″ amid suspicions that the war simulation is really a hostile military takeover.
My sense is that as the Democratic Party has become ever more conservative and indistinguishable from moderate Republicans over the years, there is a desperation among Republican partisans to distinguish themselves as LEGIT conservatives in ways that would have been viewed as coo-coo a mere 5 years ago.
Paul Krugman Takes Tom Carper to the Woodshed

Paul Krugman Takes Tom Carper to the Woodshed

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It is rare, in the history of economic thought, for debates to get resolved this decisively. The austerian ideology that dominated elite discourse five years ago has collapsed, to the point where hardly anyone still believes it.
Hardly anyone, that is, except the Tom Carper and John Carney. When Tom Carper and John Carney say that there is a "budget crisis" and that "austerity" is needed to grow the economy, they are lying. Yes. It is that simple.
Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, on the TPP

Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, on the TPP

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From a Salon interview. Please note what your Delaware Congressional delegation is pushing for:
I’ve talked to the health negotiators around the world. I’ve talked to people who’ve been involved in the arbitration process as part of the investment agreements. Even people who are arbitrators say the whole system is corrupt, that it’s a very expensive system, that therefore creates an un-even playing field with big corporations with big, deep pockets can get access to have recourse, whereas smaller firms can’t. That American firms can re-locate or do their investments in the United States as a subsidiary sue the U.S. government in ways that they could not if we didn’t have that trade agreement.
Carper’s views of TPP Fast Track are NSFW

Carper’s views of TPP Fast Track are NSFW

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The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership is a well known steaming pile of shit. Tom Carper says that the TTP gives him a huge boner because f#cking the American worker in the ass is what his paymasters sent him to Congress to do. And by GOD he is gonna do it. (paraphrasing) That said, the NJ's Nicole Gaudiano gives Claire Snyder-Hall the last word in this write up. "Fast Track and TPP are bad for American workers, but they are also bad for democracy," Claire Snyder-Hall of Delaware Americans for Democratic Action said in a statement. "TPP erodes the ability of the American people to make laws for themselves. Laws passed to protect American workers, the environment, local industries, or food safety could be deemed unfair trade practices under TPP, and there will be nothing we can do about it."
Which GOP candidate would be the best President?

Which GOP candidate would be the best President?

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I've spent a few weeks thinking about how bad the GOP field is, but I haven't turned the table upside down to think about which candidate would be a better President than the others. Obviously, we'd be talking about shades of differences...mere whips of perceived virtues where no real virtue abides. But let's give it a go, shall we?

10 places to visit before they’re ruined forever by climate change

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There is something about the "oh well" voice of this MSN travel piece that made it stand out to. I copied the whole thing below. 2. Glacier National Park © Provided by Business Insider True to its name, this Montana park — which borders the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and spans more than 1 million acres (4,000 square km) — was once home to hundreds of glaciers, but these stunning icescapes won't be around forever. Most of the 150 glaciers present in 1850 were still there when the park opened in 1910. But as of 2010, only 25 glaciers remained, and some climate models predict that the park's biggest glaciers will be gone by 2030, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.