Open Thread

This is an eye-candy Open Thread -- a very cool infographic featuring visuals for 50 Incredible Natural Phenomena. The magnetic north one might be controversial, but this infographic is not for creationists:

Michael Tomasky has taken to the NY Review of Books to speculate about A New Populism in the Democratic Party. He sees signs of the party "soft-shoeing" its way leftward:

For example, the Center for American Progress (CAP), under its new president Neera Tanden, has pushed “middle-class” or “middle-out” economics as the left’s alternative to supply-side, trickle-down economics. The idea of middle-out economics is that the government, instead of investing in the top 2 percent by means of tax and other privileges, should instead invest in the broad middle through a number of left-leaning policy choices from which the bounty would radiate out to all sectors of the society. These would include a much higher minimum wage, paid family leave, and improvement of decaying infrastructure. Obama’s Knox College speech on inequality is one expression of the middle-out view in the way it ties middle-class investment to growth.4 CAP has been pushing the White House to take up these arguments, not the other way around. John Podesta, CAP’s former president, helped launch a new think tank, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, devoted specifically to issues related to inequality. Podesta is now a White House counselor, which gives these issues respected representation in debates in the Roosevelt Room and the Oval Office. This is all a welcome shift in emphasis, but of course it doesn’t mean that populist policies are going to become reality anytime soon. There is opposition to them within the Democratic Party and its broader policy solar system. Not nearly as much as there once was; the radical rightward shift of the Republican Party has, perhaps inevitably, moved the Democratic center of gravity leftward. But the opposition to populism continues.

So, now that Governor Chris Christie has been destroyed as a credible Presidential candidate in 2016, some in the GOP have turned their lonely eyes to Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin (R). Walker is a golden boy in the GOP hive mind for talking on the public sector unions and winning, and then surviving a recall, but I have never pictured him as a viable presidential candidate for one very important reason: he has what I call a permanent Eli Manning Face. You know that face, right? Come inside to see some picture comparisons if you don't. Anyway, Mr. Walker, like Mr. Christie, has an email problem.

Teabagger Senator Ted Cruz is apparently not very well liked by his fellow Republican Senate colleagues, and last week was yet another example as to why. You see, the debt ceiling bill, which had passed the House by a bipartisan majority of all of the Democrats and 28 of the non-gutless Republicans. Ideally, what the Senate Republicans wanted to do was to pass the bill with little fanfare, quickly and quietly by unanimous consent. Then Ted Cruz stepped in, and filibustered the bill, requiring a recorded vote that needed 60 votes to pass. That meant 5 Senate Republicans had to vote yes. But the Senate Republicans are even more gutless than the House, and the Republican leadership were having a hard time coming up with the votes. So they, the leadership, i.e. Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn, had to vote yes. And the votes probably guaranteed McConnell's defeat in his primary, and gave a serious boast to John Cornyn's teabagger challenger. Go read Dana Millbank's account of the incident. You will be amazed at how close our nation came to utter disaster because of the cowardice of Senate Republicans and Calgary Cruz.

Even though Volkswagon had no issues with the formation of a union at their plant in Tennessee, the GOP lied and howled and threatened enough to help narrowly defeat a vote for a union yesterday. The take away, of course, is that every time you hear someone in the GOP talk about the middle class or a better deal for workers, you know that is a lie. Because the only people the GOP were defending here were themselves and their anti-union special interests. Of course, you won't hear one word from the usual "Government should stay out of the way of business" crowd denouncing the GOP's clear interference with Volkswagon here.

VP Joe Biden tells CNN that he'll make a firm decision about running for President Summer 2015:

Vice President Joe Biden joked this week that being able to drive his Corvette – is one good reason not to run. But, when asked to give another good reason not to run, Biden responded simply. “I can’t.” “There may be reasons I don't run, but there's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run,” he said in the interview with Kate Bolduan on CNN’s “New Day.” Biden went on to say he would make a decision “realistically, a year this summer.”

Is it me, or is this a little late? Realistically, there ought to be operations need to get stood up in Iowa and NH right around then right?

In a bit of good news for freedom of speech, Beau Biden's office has withdrawn its subpoena to find out who Peaceful Rioters for Wilmington, Delaware is. The relevant bit:

“They decided it wasn’t essential to the investigation and that’s a good thing,’’ MacRae said. “They have to be very discriminatory when they seek private information like that.’’ Joseph S. Grubb, the chief New Castle County prosecutor, said Biden’s top supervisors decided this week to withdraw the subpoena because the information would not further the criminal case – not because of criticism or opposition. “The investigation kind of took a turn,’’ Grubb said. “It’s proven less likely there’s a relevant connection’’ between the creators of Peaceful Rioters and the Hockessin-area missives about top county officials.

Translation: We got caught in a fishing expedition and we're trying to put a good face on our backing out of this strategy.

PPP does some interesting polling in Alaska, finding that Hillary Clinton leads Sarah Palin in a matchup for President (44-43), with Palin still having pretty awful approval ratings (39% approve). Alaskans overwhelmingly approve of legalizing pot for medical purposes (74-22) and by a smaller, but still majority margin for recreational use (55-39). I'm especially interested in the polling for a referendum measure that looks to repeal Senate Bill 21, the Oil and Gas Production Tax which provided a big tax cut to carbon energy companies. This was a controversial thing and right now Alaskans say they will vote to repeal 43-31%. People do know when they are being screwed over for special interests and maybe if more of these had to be voted upon by taxpayers, there'd be fewer efforts to pad the pockets of the people paying for elections. The caveat, of course, is who knows what will happen with the special interests ramp up their fear and loathing campaigns.