Today's Today

FDR signed the Beer and Wine Revenue Act on March 22, 1933. 

Of course, there was always a way around prohibition if you were properly connected. The more things change.

American History Museum on Twitter

Yay Tweety

Chris Matthews gets up on his hind legs and starts talkin' sense.

And we are left to wonder a coupla things - whether or not Phil Griffin knows about this, and if we missed the freeze warning for hell.

The Turnaraound

WaPo:

The 2016 election was just a month away when Steve Curtis, a conservative radio host and former Colorado Republican Party chairman, devoted an entire episode of his morning talk show to the heated topic of voter fraud.

“It seems to me,” Curtis said in the 42-minute segment, “that virtually every case of voter fraud I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats.”

On Tuesday, Colorado prosecutors threw a wrench into that already dubious theory, accusing Curtis of voter fraud for allegedly filling out and mailing in his ex-wife’s 2016 ballot for president, Denver’s Fox affiliate reported.

Curtis, 57, was charged in Weld County District Court with one count of misdemeanor voter fraud and one count of forgery, a Class 5 felony, according to local media.

The case is the only voter fraud investigation related to the 2016 election that has resulted in criminal charges in the state, the Colorado secretary of state’s office told Denver’s ABC affiliate.
In sales, it's called The Turnaround. You take a negative, restate it, and either make it a positive or at least make it sound better or deflect the criticism or duck your responsibility, etc.

"We never go out anymore"
=
"Gee, honey - I guess I was being selfish; I just wanna keep you all to myself"

"It's expensive, but it's worth it"
=
"It's the best quality product you can buy and the investment you make today will pay off for a long time."

In politics, it's a way to slam your opposition and invite the inference that you're a swell guy by comparison. And it can be a very effective tactic when you're selling your way into power - which is how it works now. We don't evaluate the resumé to make an informed decision. We vote for the one who looks good and sounds OK and carries fewer negatives - the one with the better Marketing Campaign.

But it gets full-blown destructive when it flops all the way over into the kind of Authoritarian Gaslighting we've seen from the Trumpsters (most recently), and from guys like Mr Curtis for a coupla generations now - because eventually:

• Every accusation is a confession
• Every boast is an expression of inadequacy
• Every warning of a threat is a statement of intent

Get woke - stay woke.

Today's Tweet

Al Franken v. Gorsuch is worth watching

“I had a career in identifying absurdity. And I know it when I see it.”https://t.co/cwKFUkk0oH pic.twitter.com/wA4b3KoVNR

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 21, 2017

Keith

NEW VIDEO: 60 days in, let's face it. By his own metrics, his people are idiots, and @realDonaldTrump is a Loser. pic.twitter.com/HSGzo1aiyj

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 21, 2017

The Onion

WASHINGTON—Rushing toward the president as he pressed the eight-inch bit into his temple, several White House aides managed to wrestle a drill from Donald Trump’s hand Monday while he attempted to remove Obama’s listening device from his skull. “Obama implanted a microphone inside my head to record everything I say!” Trump reportedly shouted shortly before three White House staffers pinned him to the floor and pried apart his fingers to seize the power tool. “You don’t understand, he can hear everything we’re saying! Obama can even hear my thoughts! I have to get it out! I can feel it! I can feel it! I can feel it!” At press time, staffers were panicking after Trump locked himself in the bathroom and began cutting his stomach open with a razor blade in an attempt to find the tracking chip he said The New York Times had put in his food.

Today's Tweet

Comey just confirmed both political parties were hacked in 2016 by Russians—but that only Democratic info was released.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 20, 2017

Take a candidate we've been conditioned to dislike - for a good 25 years now - and just play up everything negative even more. Hammer on it night-n-day. It's especially effective when "the dirt" just happens to include the magic word "email", which of course links nicely to the more recent negative inferences about Hillary that were set in place over the last 5 years or so.

Eventually you can move the needle enough to make a difference.

Because advertising works. The world is being run by some pretty smart people (current POTUS notwithstanding), and smart people don't spend $500 Billion a year on shit that don't work.

Keith

Keith Olbermann at GQ

Tiny Desk

Corrinne Bailey Rae

She needs a really great producer, and some better backing vocals, but it sounds promising.

Ignore The Obvious

The house is burning, Trump is casually strolling away carrying matches and an empty gas can, and the GOP congress critters are busy bitchin' about who called the fire department.

(more or less - Garry Kasparov, via Twitter)