TomCat

A Close Win for Bernie

Posted by TomCat at 11:58 am Politics

Feb 052016

Last night I watched one of the best debates I have ever seen. It was hard fought from beginning to end. If you missed the debate last night, I have the complete video and transcript for you I think Hillary was the winner on foreign policy, but Bernie was the winner on domestic policy and the economy. This is how much.

Hillary Clinton appeared frustrated.

Dozens of prominent economists and academic experts have endorsed her plans to regulate the financial sector. Her policies would “try to prevent the problems of the future,” she explained in Thursday’s debate, in addition to reining in “the excesses of Wall Street.”

So why do so many voters not believe it?

Throughout the debate, Mrs. Clinton found herself cornered by Senator Bernie Sanders and the moderators about her ties to Wall Street, the political contributions that have bolstered her campaign account, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars in paid speaking fees she received from Goldman Sachs and other financial firms in the months after she left the State Department.

Mrs. Clinton tried again and again to explain that her plans for Wall Street would be tougher and go further than Mr. Sanders’s proposals by also regulating the shadow banking industry, the insurance companies and other wrongdoers.

“I have a broader view,” Mrs. Clinton said, contrasting her plan to that of Mr. Sanders, whose anti-Wall Street message has turned him from a long-shot candidate to a serious contender for the Democratic nomination… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

While the Gray Lady was clearly attempting to plug their choice, Hillary, even they could not cover up the fact that the audience wasn’t buying part of what she had to say. On one occasion, they even booed here for attacking Bernie.

If you missed the debate, here’s the complete video,

If you prefer, here is the full transcript.

In my opinion, the biggest difference was that, while hammering on his points, Bernie remained gracious, while Hillary let her frustration get the better of her.

What say you?

Open Thread–2/5/2016

Posted by TomCat at 11:55 am Open Thread, Politics

Feb 052016

TGIF!! I did not get the sleep I needed yesterday, because my helper friend came a day late. We washed my hospital bed sheets and made the bed. I need her help, because there is one corner where I cannot place the fritted sheet. There is no room to get close enough in my chair. That took up most of my afternoon nap time. Then I watched the debate, and I won’t take today off, because it may be the last time Bernie and Hillary debate head to head. so I have to report on it. Jeannie (Shower-Aide) has come and gone. Arvilla (PT) was due in fifteen minutes (now gone), and Tracey (OT) comes right after Arvilla! When I finish blogging, I’m going to hide! TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Jeff Merkley Channel:

Merkley: Stop the wave of dark money in politics

Amen Jeff!! He’s one of the reasons that Oregon leads the way!

From The New Yorker: In a feat that some observers called nothing short of miraculous, the embattled pharmaceuticals C.E.O. Martin Shkreli single-handedly made the American people side with Congress on Thursday morning.

According to polls taken after his appearance before the despised legislative body, Shkreli’s smug, smirking, and utterly douchey performance had the effect of temporarily transforming members of Congress into marginally sympathetic figures.

The University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, which tracks the American people’s attitudes toward the legislative branch, said that after Shkreli’s appearance Congress’s approval rating surged from eleven per cent to fourteen per cent.

Well the guy is an asshole (syn, Republican), but frankly, I think Andy has been smokin' that Wacky tobbacky. The only thing that could make Congress more popular is a Democratic majority!

From FAIR.org: A few months ago, I raised concerns about Washington Post food columnist Tamar Haspel (FAIR.org, 10/28/15) after she admitted taking money from agribusiness interest groups that she covers.

I pointed out that her columns are biased in favor of those industry groups, particularly on the topic of GMOs, even though her column is presented to readers as an unbiased effort to find middle ground in debates about our food system.

My article was met with crickets of silence from Haspel, her Post editor Joe Yonan and the band of biotech promoters who prolifically praise Haspel on Twitter. I figured that, soon enough, Haspel might write another column that would warrant raising the concerns another notch up the pole. She didn’t disappoint.

In her January column (Washington Post, 1/26/16), Haspel offered an investigation (“the surprising truth”) about the food movement—without speaking to anyone in the food movement—concluding that there isn’t much of a food movement after all, and most people don’t really care about labeling genetically engineered foods (GMOs).

Her sources? A two-year-old survey, another survey conducted by a food-industry front group, and consumer research by the agrichemical industry’s public relations firm. [emphasis original]

Busted!! GMOs must be contained where grown and labeled for consumers. Click though for the rest of this extensive exposé.

Cartoon:

0205Cartoon

Open Thread–2/4/2016

Posted by TomCat at 9:08 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 042016

Yesterday my helper=friend could not come, and that screwed up my schedule. I have lots of house work to do. I need to stay up late to watch the debate on MSNBC. It will have one bad moderator, Chuck Todd, and one fantastic moderator, Rachel Maddow. This will be today’s only article, and I will it be sending cards on Care2. That way, I get some rest.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:20 (average 4:45). Birdie for kitty-lunch? To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: I have always been a fan of Jimmy Carter, and once more he hits it out of the park. As reported today by the Guardian, here is what he has to say about the effect of money on our American political system, post Iowa caucuses:

Former US president Jimmy Carter has warned that US politics has been corrupted by billions of dollars of campaign financing following a supreme court ruling that he said legalised “bribery”.

He described the landmark 2010 Citizens United court decision, which equated campaign spending with free speech, as an “erroneous ruling”.

Speaking after the Iowa caucuses, in which Republican candidates spent $43m on TV advertising and Democratic candidates spent $16.8m, Carter said the domination of money in politics represented the biggest change since he was elected president in 1976.

SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) is wrong. Money is NOT speech!!

From The New Yorker: Declaring that “my time has come,” the former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum announced today that he was officially launching his 2020 campaign for President.

“Washington is broken, and I’ve got some fresh new ideas about how to fix it,” Santorum told a small clutch of supporters and whatever family members were available, at an intimate rally in Des Moines. “Once the people of this great nation hear those ideas, there’s no stopping me.”

“I’m in it to win it!” he exclaimed, to some clapping.

Launching his campaign in Iowa, where the next Presidential caucuses will not be held for another forty-eight months, Santorum brushed aside suggestions that he was entering the race too early. “You’ll have to take that up with Jesus Christ,” he said. “He’s the guy who told me to do this.”

Andy, did he slip and fall down in his own froth?

From Alternet: Hungry for a bloodbath? Good, that's exactly what the election is, and guys Stephen Colbert are just waiting for candidates to stumble. Last night Colbert paid tribute to those who had fallen after the Iowa Caucus, as well as one who should have.

The script must have been written before frothy was flushed. That would have been hilarious!

Cartoon:

0204Cartoon

A Big Win for Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity

Posted by TomCat at 1:03 pm Politics, Religion

Feb 032016

His Iowa Caucuses victory was more than just a win for Sen. Ted Cruz, aka Uranus Inspector, the only Canadian import worse than filthy Tar Sands sludge. It was also a big win for Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity, the exact opposite of authentic Christianity. To see how significant a win this was, we a;so need to look what he defeated, and it was a lot more powerful than the Hateful Hairball.

When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took the stage last night to declare victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses, he opened his triumphant speech with a direct appeal to the people who worked so hard to secure him his win — evangelical Christians.

“God bless the great state of Iowa,” he said. “Let me first of all say: to God be the glory.”

Cruz went on to make several more biblical references, working a litany of scripture passages and appeals to “Judeo-Christian values” into a 30-minute speech that often sounded suspiciously sermonesque. He then concluded by citing Psalm 30, stirring the crowd into a frenzy by reminding them that “joy cometh in the morning.”

“I tell you tonight, Iowa has made clear to America and the world: morning is coming,” he said.

Cruz’s engagement with Christianity on the campaign trail is nothing new, as he’s made no secret of his evangelical strategy. He launched his run for president at Liberty University, an evangelical school, courted the endorsement of leading theological conservatives in the Iowa, and organized a passionate network of conservative Christian volunteers to help him get out the vote on caucus day.

Cruz’s engagement with Christianity on the campaign trail is nothing new, as he’s made no secret of his evangelical strategy.

And in Iowa, at least, it worked. Evangelicals flooded caucus sites across the state last night, ultimately making up 64 percent of Republican caucus-goers — up 7 points from 2012 — according to entrance polls. And despite ample hand-wringing from political analysts over Donald Trump’s support among portions of the evangelical flock, the biggest slice of churchgoers sided with Cruz: he won the lion’s share of “born again” Christians at 34 percent, with Trump grabbing 22 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio — a Roman Catholic — pulling in 21 percent… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Note that Liberty University and Regent University has more graduates in permanent “nonpartisan” executive staff positions than the Ivy League, because so many “burrowed in” to permanent, “nonpartisan” positions, especially in DOJ, from political appointee positions during the Bush Reich. Then last thing America needs is more pseudo-Christians sabotaging our freedom.

Lawrence O’Donnell explained just how great an obstacle Uranus Inspector overcame.

Overcoming corn in Iowa with pseudo-Christianity is no laughing matter. While I have been laughing at the Cruz’ campaign of pseudo-Christian hatred, I’m not laughing any more, especially since so many front-end Republican primaries are dominated by the pseudo-Christians in their base. This magnifies how important it is for Democrats to turn out and vote!

Open Thread–2/3/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:01 pm Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics

Feb 032016

Today is another relatively busy day. I have a grocery delivery coming to put away, volunteer editing to do, meals to prepare, and my helper friend coming to help me wash and change the sheets on my hospital bed. I did managed to get a full night’s sleep last night, and I needed it. I still feel tired today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:42 (average 5:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Take a minute to celebrate and discover these 25 black "firsts" from the last 25 years.

1. First African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress: Halle Berry (2002)

It’s Black History Month. I shared the first Black “first” listed. Click through for the other twenty-four.

From NY Times: The state-appointed emergency manager of the Detroit Public Schools, who had also managed the city of Flint and oversaw its decision to draw its water from the Flint River, resigned on Tuesday, the day before a congressional committee hearing in Washington on Flint’s water.

Michelle Zdrodowski, a spokeswoman for Detroit Public Schools, said the manager, Darnell Earley, had declined to testify before a panel investigating the widespread contamination of Flint’s tap water after the city switched its water source, which led to elevated blood lead levels throughout the city.

On Tuesday evening, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a subpoena for Mr. Earley to testify on Wednesday, but his lawyer, A. Scott Bolden, said Mr. Earley would not be able to appear.

I’m glad this Republican race-traitor lost his job. Rachel Maddow explains why the Republican House hearings are just a smoke screen to protect Sturmbannführer Snyder.

I bet a fiver against a donut that the goose-stepping, sham committee will blame it on Obama or Hillary.

From Crooks and Liars: Rand Paul, the libertarian-minded freshman senator who was once viewed as a formidable presidential contender, is suspending his White House bid on Wednesday, several sources close to Paul told CNN.

I was happy to see that the Clown Car had barfed Upchuck Huck. I’m equally happy to see that it puked Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot!

Cartoon:

0203Cartoon

Monthly Report for January 2016

Posted by TomCat at 11:34 am Blog News, Monthly Report, Politics

Feb 022016

In January, Politics Plus was up from December in every category except page views. I’m pleased to provide a full report for the first time since before I lost my leg. It’s a long climb back.

Here is our latest summary:

Stats1-2016

Data from January 2016:

Reported period	Month Jan 2016
First visit	01 Jan 2016 – 00:00
Last visit	31 Jan 2016 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	11,128	32,480 (2.91 visits/visitor)	111,911 (3.44 Pages/Visit)	321,709 (9.9 Hits/Visit)	11.20 GB (361.42 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			400,825	467,669	8.34 GB

Data from January 2015:

Reported period	Month Jan 2015
First visit	01 Jan 2015 – 00:00
Last visit	31 Jan 2015 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	10,329	29,156 (2.82 visits/visitor)	79,523 (2.72 Pages/Visit)	241,305 (8.27 Hits/Visit)	3.34 GB (119.94 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			240,159	281,038	3.77 GB

I’m most pleased that we are greatly improved, across the board, from last year.

Here is our latest demographic data from Quantcast:

QUS1-2016

They miss a ton of raw data, but among those they can identify they are a valuable source of information. We are still mostly older, well educated, poor, and politically active.

Here is our archived ClustrMap for January only.

ClustrMap1-2016

ClustrMap misses a lot of visits, because many visits can’t be easily traced to a location. They have changed their format, since the last time I did this. When you click the map in the left column, it shows the current month only, no longer the year to date..

Here are our top five articles:

Jane Smiley: Capitalist Pigs 1/17/2010 1,935
Cruz’in Home to Canada 1/14/2016 239
5 Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories as Crazy as Donald Trump’s Lie About Muslims Cheering 9/11 11/25/2015 188
Open Thread–1/1/2016 1/1/2016 186
The State of Our Union Is Strong 1/13/2016 169

The count represents only the people who followed an external link to that specific article. I’m quite pleased that three from January made the cut, I’m especially pleased that one from one of our new co-administrators made it too. Congrats Squatch! Thumbs up Can you guess which is hers?

Here are our top non-blog/news referrers:

Care2 2,827
Google 1,757
Stumbleupon 351
Google (Images) 136

Here are our top blog/news referrers:

http://infidel753.blogspot.com
http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.oakcreekforum.blogspot.mx/
http://yournewswire.com/

Normally I have included fifteen here, but these four are the only ones with two or more referrals. This is the one stat that still disappoints me most, because it means that we are no longer a go-to site for bloggers. However, we seem to have become a go to site for activists!. Putting blogs’ links here increases the ratings of their sites, so this “linkey love” is our thank you for their support.

Here are our top commentators. As the resident Big Mouth, I don’t count. Those who leave their URLs in their comment headers, normally also get “linkey-love” here. However I overslept and did not even get the names off in time. Kudos and thanks to Lynn, our resident Sasquatch, that we have the names.

Joanne Dixon (166)
jla (144)
Lona Goudswaard (111)
Edie (107)
Lynn Squance (98)
Mitch D. (88)
SoINeedAName (69)
Pat B (65)
Vivian B. (56)
Jerry Critter (26)
Jim Phillips (24)
david (9)
Dotti Lydon (8)
dave c (7)
Arielle (6)
Avril Lomas (6)

There are over 15, because of a tie. People who submit articles to Care2 can use their submitted news link from there. These are the people that kept PP alive during my hospitalization.

We have 315,672 links on other websites.

As of Midnight on February 1, we have 6,203 articles and 74,591 comments.

Kudos to Judi Angell for posting the 74,000th comment.

I recommend using your own avatar. Go to Gravatar. Sign up using the email address you use to post comments here and upload the image you want to use as your avatar. Whenever you comment under that email address here or on any WordPress blog (several others too), that image will become your avatar.

In Case you did not know, we are no longer a one-author blog. Due to my reduced availability I appointed two Administrators, who are also authors. They are Lynn Squance, aka Sasquatch or Squatch and SoINeedAName, aka Nameless. I also appointed two more Authors. They are Judi Angell, aka JL A, and Joanne Dixon, aka JD. Please Join me in praising and thanking all four for a job well done.

I have never really spelled out our policy on links. We do not embed links to extreme Republican websites, like Faux Noise or World Nut Daily. However I leave an editors note when I delete such links, so readers, who wish to follow them can click through to the source article. I also remove topical links. Finally, I blank the target on all links, so they open in a new tab or window. Please do so, or if you commonly leave links and don’t know how to blank the target, please say so.

To be clear, we’ve had some weak months, and that is not your fault in any way. The cause was my three month trip to the hospital. With help from our new administrators and authors, we shall continue our new upward trend and overcome right wing insanity one day at a time.

Thank you for all that you do, here and elsewhere. You are why we are here!

Open Thread–2/2/2016

Posted by TomCat at 11:33 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 022016

I have another very busy day today. Jeannie (shower-aide) will arrive momentarily. Arvilla (PT) is coming at 10 AM. I have the Monthly Report to compose. I need to set up a schedule for PT and OT after home health ends. And I need to make a run to my bank. Now Jeannie just left, and I’m the kind of kitty that’s fun to pet.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:21 (average 5:50). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In an apparent attempt to set a new world’s record for projection, House Republicans are now accusing Democrats of wasting millions of dollars of the House Select Committee on Benghazi’s money on partisan nonsense.

Talk about partisan nonsense!

Barf Bag Alert!!

Forming the committee just to beat Hillary is partisan nonsense!

From The New Yorker: Senator Ted Cruz’s stunning victory in the Iowa caucuses is serving as a beacon of hope to despised people across the nation, a number of disliked Americans confirmed on Monday.

In interviews from coast to coast, dozens of pariahs said that the Cruz triumph meant that “the sky’s the limit” for widely hated people like them.

Andy is reporting news again.

From NY Times: Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont were locked in an intensely tight race in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday as Mrs. Clinton’s strong support among women and older voters was matched by the passionate liberal foot soldiers whom Mr. Sanders has been calling to political revolution.

The close results were deeply unnerving to Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as well as her advisers, some of whom had expressed growing confidence in recent days that they had recaptured political momentum after weeks when Mr. Sanders was drawing huge crowds and rising in the polls. The Clintons had appeared optimistic at rallies over the weekend, thanking Iowans for their support as much as urging them to turn out to vote.

The close vote means that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders are likely to split Iowa’s share of delegates to the Democratic convention, and Mr. Sanders will be able to argue that the Iowa result was a virtual tie.

I did not like watching a Hillary supported lying to uncommitted voters that Bernie favors a flat tax, and I thought Hillary’s victory announcement was disingenuous. Since then Hillary has subsequently been declared the winner, and she gets 23 delegates to Bernie’s 21.

Cartoon:

0202Cartoon

Poll Results–2/1/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:10 pm Blog News, Politics

Feb 012016

Here are the results of our “Establishment or Wing-nut” poll. Politics Plus Polls are not scientific, because those who respond are not balanced according to demographic categories. Therefore, we do not accurately reflect the makeup of the US population. Nevertheless, our polls are usually factually accurate, and more often than not, they reflect thinking or will of the national majority.

0201Poll

Since our polling site no longer enables us to copy and paste your poll comments, you may read them here.

I voted with the majority and my belief was confirmed. as the most establishment Republican Candidate, Strike Three, just trotted out the Terry Sciavo fiasco to prove his credentials to the rabid Republican base.

There is a new poll up, but please don’t vote until the Iowa results come in. Then please vote.

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