Mar 12, 2019
Mar 11, 2019
Fun With Arithmetic
MAGA rubes are trying to make a big noise about "hate crimes" being perpetrated against them just because they're out and about wearing their Stoopid for all to see.
Newsweek:
In 2017, hate crimes in the U.S. increased 17 percent, rising for the third year in a row. Forty-nine percent of race-based incidents were “motivated by anti-Black or African American bias," while 17.5 targeted white individuals, according to the 2017 FBI Hate Crime report. More than 58 percent of religiously motivated attacks targeted Jewish individuals, the report stated.
Newsweek:
In 2017, hate crimes in the U.S. increased 17 percent, rising for the third year in a row. Forty-nine percent of race-based incidents were “motivated by anti-Black or African American bias," while 17.5 targeted white individuals, according to the 2017 FBI Hate Crime report. More than 58 percent of religiously motivated attacks targeted Jewish individuals, the report stated.
The piece lists, as examples, 9 reported attacks on Red Hats in the 47 days since January 18 this year.
So let's just fuck around with it a little.
If those 9 incidents represent the 17.5% of attacks that went against MAGA dopes, let's make a radical assumption and say the other 82.5% were against people not stupid enough to continue supporting a guy who is so obviously ill-suited to be POTUS.
If 9 attacks = 17.5%, then 82.5% = 51 attacks.
9 attacks in 47 days = 0.2 attacks per day.
51 attacks in 47 days = 1.1 attacks per day.
I don't think anyone should be physically attacked because of their political views - that's not the fucking point here.
The fucking point here is that we're still getting a shitload of what sounds a lot like False Equivalence from the Press Poodles.
If those 9 incidents represent the 17.5% of attacks that went against MAGA dopes, let's make a radical assumption and say the other 82.5% were against people not stupid enough to continue supporting a guy who is so obviously ill-suited to be POTUS.
If 9 attacks = 17.5%, then 82.5% = 51 attacks.
9 attacks in 47 days = 0.2 attacks per day.
51 attacks in 47 days = 1.1 attacks per day.
I don't think anyone should be physically attacked because of their political views - that's not the fucking point here.
The fucking point here is that we're still getting a shitload of what sounds a lot like False Equivalence from the Press Poodles.
Last Week Tonight
John Oliver.
The part with Susan Collins is fucking stellar.
The part with Susan Collins is fucking stellar.
And the payoff at the end is classic - exactly what we need journalism to do.
It's A Wonderment
I will forever marvel at how the Koch boys and the Mercers and DumFux news got working folks to vote against the people who want all of us to have higher wages, clean air and water, affordable college and healthcare, and ways to fight back against big business and government. It's just amazing.
Mar 10, 2019
That Campaign Thing
Lawrence Lessig On Campaign Finance and the Electoral College.
Take-away 1:
Talking about Campaign Finance Reform is a tough one because we have to figure out how to acknowledge the overall corruption of the way we're doing things without letting the discussion degenerate into "Both Sides".
Take-away 2:
99% of the money spent by the presidential campaigns in 2016 was spent in 14 states.
Take-away 3:
Mitch McConnell defends the current system of Money-Is-Speech and Electoral College Disproportionality because it supports his Minority Rules / Plutocracy approach to governance.
Take-away 4:
I'm still not buying the bit about "Bernie got screwed and it was all illegal and Trump's right, Hillary should be in prison - and that Wasserman-Schultz bitch too..."
There's a good argument to be made here, but it's way overblown and hyperbolic. Bernie's not a Democrat. He got used, and used badly - but the DNC didn't do anything to him that he wasn't trying to do to them. And it's devolved into pure speculation at this point anyway.
Take-away 1:
Talking about Campaign Finance Reform is a tough one because we have to figure out how to acknowledge the overall corruption of the way we're doing things without letting the discussion degenerate into "Both Sides".
Take-away 2:
99% of the money spent by the presidential campaigns in 2016 was spent in 14 states.
Take-away 3:
Mitch McConnell defends the current system of Money-Is-Speech and Electoral College Disproportionality because it supports his Minority Rules / Plutocracy approach to governance.
Take-away 4:
I'm still not buying the bit about "Bernie got screwed and it was all illegal and Trump's right, Hillary should be in prison - and that Wasserman-Schultz bitch too..."
There's a good argument to be made here, but it's way overblown and hyperbolic. Bernie's not a Democrat. He got used, and used badly - but the DNC didn't do anything to him that he wasn't trying to do to them. And it's devolved into pure speculation at this point anyway.
Mar 9, 2019
Gun Study
The Hill:
States with stricter gun laws and lower rates of gun ownership in general saw a lower rate of mass shootings between 1998 and 2015 than did other jurisdictions where gun laws were more relaxed, according to a new study.
A study published in The BMJ found a significantly higher rate of mass shootings and other gun crimes in states that had higher rates of gun ownership among the population.
"States with more permissive gun laws and greater gun ownership had higher rates of mass shootings, and a growing divide appears to be emerging between restrictive and permissive states," the study concluded.
"A 10% increase in state gun ownership [in a state] was associated with a significant 35.1% higher rate of mass shootings," the study said.
The study's co-author told Newsweek in an interview that researchers were surprised to see such a clear divide between states with less- and more-restrictive gun laws.
Swamp Thangs
Daddy State Awareness - rule 1:
Every accusation is a confession
Remember when Repubs were making all that noise about how rotten Hillary is and the whole "Pay-To-Play" thing? Yeah, that was mostly bullshit - this is mostly not.
David Corn, Dan Friedman and Daniel Schulman at MoJo:
The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.
Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. The company describes itself on its website, which is mostly in Chinese, as an “international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” But the firm notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the United States. On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)
Every accusation is a confession
Remember when Repubs were making all that noise about how rotten Hillary is and the whole "Pay-To-Play" thing? Yeah, that was mostly bullshit - this is mostly not.
David Corn, Dan Friedman and Daniel Schulman at MoJo:
The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.
Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. The company describes itself on its website, which is mostly in Chinese, as an “international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” But the firm notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the United States. On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)
Overheard
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| The Finns called - they asked me to tell you guys that the damage from those tornado thingies can be prevented by sweeping off your driveways and sidewalks. |
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| 45* revels in being the guy who embodies everything the bible warns us not to think say or do. When that guy signs a bible and it doesn't burst into flames, we've got a very strong argument against the existence of god. |
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