Trump's terribly unqualified Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, may be ready to jump ship

Courtesy of Salon:

Thomas Toch, director of independent education think tank FutureEd, told Politico that DeVos was ignorant of the job's constraints when she accepted it and insiders are already preparing for her to vacate the position. 

"She can’t fill her senior staff slots," he said. "Morale is terrible at the department." 

DeVos was roundly criticized for her lack of basic knowledge about education policy during the confirmation hearing process. She blames President Donald Trump's transition team, claiming she was "undercoached." 

One doubts most nominees for education secretary need to be coached not to cite grizzly bears as a reason for guns in schools. 

"I’ll tell you, in Washington education circles, the conversation is already about the post-DeVos landscape, because the assumption is she won’t stay long," Toch told Politico. "I think she’s been probably one of the most ineffective people to ever hold the job.”

There have been other murmurings about Devos being frustrated and wanting out of her job, but at least one MSNBC contributor thinks that there may be another reason for her desire to up and quit. 

I’ve received reports today saying DeVos, Huntsman, Ross, Sessions, Tillerson & Zinke are resigning for ties to Russia &/or for corruption.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 6, 2017

Now I don't really care why Betsy DeVos quits necessarily so long as she quits.

But if I have to choose a reason, I like the one that Dworkin offered the best. Especially since it likely means that DeVos will be followed out of the door by a number of other Trump enablers. 

CNN reports on more evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

I swear this dude always looks guilty.

This was buried in a long piece by CNN on Thursday:

In the summer of 2016, US intelligence agencies noticed a spate of curious contacts between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian intelligence, according to current and former US officials briefed on the investigation. James Comey, in his Senate testimony, said the FBI opened an investigation into Trump campaign-Russia connections in July 2016. 

The strands of the two investigations began to merge. In the months that followed, investigators turned up intercepted communications appearing to show efforts by Russian operatives to coordinate with Trump associates on damaging Hillary Clinton's election prospects, officials said. CNN has learned those communications included references to campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Well looky there.

Boy, Paul Manafort's name sure does pop up a lot during conversations about Russian collusion.

Have you noticed that?

Of course Manafort's spokesperson denies that there is any fire behind all of this smoke:

Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, issued this statement on the latest round of accusations: “Paul Manafort did not collude with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 election or to hack the DNC. Other than that comment, we aren't going to respond to anonymous officials illegally peddling second hand conspiracy theories. But the Justice Department, and the courts if necessary, should hold someone to account for the flood of unlawful government leaks targeting Mr. Manafort." 

Hmm, have you also noticed that members of Trump's campaign always deny that there is any truth to various allegations, right before they have to admit that there might be a little truth to various allegations? 

Alt-Right brags that Trump Administration is "giving them space to destroy."

Courtesy of Daily Kos.

Courtesy of Salon: 

“He’s going to give us space to destroy,” Michael Peinovich, the creator of The Right Stuff, an alt-right podcast network said during a Sunday guest appearance on “Fash the Nation,” the movement’s most popular web radio show.

“He’s going to give us space to operate, and frankly, it is space to destroy,” Peinovich continued. 

“Now is the time that we have to make hay while the sun shines . . . while these investigations of ‘domestic terrorist groups’ are not being funded by the government, they’re not being pushed by the Department of Homeland Security” argued one of the co-hosts of the program, an anonymous former Republican political staffer who calls himself Jazzhands McFeels. 

“We’d probably be facing fucking [racketeering] charges or some shit like that,” Peinovich said, discussing what he believed might have happened if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 presidential election. 

“We have to use these four years to grow into something that can’t be defeated,” Peinovich said, referring to possible future investigations of neo-fascist groups. 

Some parts of the Trump administration actively want to encourage the growth of the alt-right, the former Hill staffer “Jazzhands McFeels” said, claiming that Trump’s top strategist Steve Bannon secretly was trying to enable the fringe movement. 

“They kind of expect us to be doing this. I’m not saying he’s our guy, but they want — at least Bannon, I would think — wants us to be able to operate in that space. So we should and we are,” he said. 

Both podcasters’ statements were met with agreement by guest Richard Spencer, an alt-right editor who operates a series of niche web publications and conferences catering to self-styled racist intellectuals who has since tried to rebrand himself as more of an activist.

You might remember Richard Spencer as a big Trump supporter who claimed that Trump was a white nationalist, whether he admitted it or not.

Whether Trump is as big of a racist as this Alt-Right crowd or not, the fact that he refuses to recognize any terrorism that does not come with a brown face and an Islamic background means it is open season for these clowns.

And that is very dangerous indeed.

Kentucky has passed law allowing public schools to teach course on the Bible.

Courtesy of Salon: 

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin signed into law a bill that will allow courses on the Bible to be taught in public schools beginning on Friday. Overwhelmingly passed by Kentucky’s Republican-controlled state legislature, HB 128 gives Kentucky school boards the option to add elective courses on Bible literacy to their social studies curriculum. 

“The idea that we would not want this to be an option for people in school, that would be crazy. I don’t know why every state would not embrace this, why we as a nation would not embrace this,” Bevin said during a public bill signing ceremony. 

According to the bill, the courses must discuss all aspects of the Bible — such as characters, poetry, and narratives — because they are “prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture.” 

The bill’s supporters argued that Bible literacy courses as a way to get a better insight on the structure of the country. Republican Senator Stephen West said the bill serves a “secular purpose,” claiming it would “help to educate our kids on the background of how they came up with our founding documents.” 

“It really did set the foundation that our founding fathers used to develop documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,” Republican Rep. D.J. Johnson said, “all of those came from principles from the Bible.”

“All of those came from principles from the Bible.”

Actually no, no they did not.

In fact Thomas Jefferson even said as much:  

In a January 24, 1814 letter to John Adams, Jefferson went through a detailed lawyer's brief to show that the entire idea that the laws of both England and the United States came from Judaism, Christianity, or the Ten Commandments rests on a single man's mistranslation in 1658, often repeated, and totally false. 

"It is not only the sacred volumes they [the churches] have thus interpolated, gutted, and falsified, but the works of others relating to them, and even the laws of the land," he wrote. "Our judges, too, have lent a ready hand to further these frauds, and have been willing to lay the yoke of their own opinions on the necks of others; to extend the coercions of municipal law to the dogmas of their religion, by declaring that these make a part of the law of the land."

The only people who believe this country was founded on Biblical principles are Fundamentalists  like that phony American history "expert" David Barton who Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee are constantly promoting.

The teaching of the Bible in public school will no more inform students about the history of this country than reading Harry Potter will teach them about science.

It is yet another sneaky attempt to teach religion in classrooms dedicated to the learning of facts and not primitive superstitious nonsense.

Of course what can you expect from a state which has a "museum" dedicated to teaching children a fable about a giant boat that magically fit two of every animal in the world?

If this Governor Bevin is so keen to have the children of Kentucky learn about the foundations for democracy he would be better served having them read about Greek and Roman history rather than from a book of iron age fairy tales.

Donald Trump admits he lied about taping Comey conversation in attempt to "keep him honest."

.@POTUS on why he wanted former FBI Dir. James Comey to believe there were tapes of their conversations pic.twitter.com/pCuibM5Z6k

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 23, 2017

Courtesy of Salon: 

“When he found out that there may be tapes out there — whether it’s governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows — I think his story may have changed,” Trump said. “You’ll have to take a look at that because then he has to tell what actually took place at the events. And my story didn’t change — my story was always a straight story, my story always was the truth. But you’ll have to determine for yourself whether or not his story changed, but I did not tape.” 

The president acknowledged on Thursday that he was not in possession of any recordings of his former FBI director. But Trump’s reasoning for saying that he did remained a mystery — until Friday, of course, when Fox News aired his interview, in which he conceded that he wanted to keep Comey honest. 

Trump’s confession was especially bizarre considering part of it directly contradicted his own past statements. Trump suggested in his interview with Earhardt that his strategy worked because Comey did not change his story. Earlier this month, Trump accused Comey of lying under oath to Congress.

How does Trump think he kept Comey honest when he wrote down their exchanges immediately after they happened and then simply shared that information with the Senate Intelligence Committee?

The only thing that Trump did with these lies about tapes, is to ensure that there would be a Special Counsel appointed.

So is that what he calls "winning?"

Because it sure feels like winning from my perspective. 

Rick Perry is working to end funding for renewable energy, also closes office working on climate change abroad. Welcome to the future ladies and gentlemen.

I wear glasses now which proves I'm smart, debonair, and..what's that third thing?

Courtesy of Salon:

Energy Secretary Rick Perry is cooking up a case to stifle further federal support of renewable wind and solar energy. He’s ordered a dubiously sourced staff study that is aimed to paint renewables as an unreliable source for the nation’s electric grid. 

The study, due June 23, seeks to determine whether federal tax and subsidy policies favoring renewable energy have burdened “baseload” coal-fired generation, putting power grid reliability at risk. It is being spearheaded by Energy Department political appointee Travis Fisher, who’s associated with a Washington policy group that opposes almost any government aid for renewable energy. 

Fisher wrote a 2015 report for the Institute for Energy Research that called clean energy policies “the single greatest emerging threat” to the nation’s electric power grid, and a greater threat to electric reliability than cyber attacks, terrorism or extreme weather. 

The Institute for Energy Research and its advocacy arm, the American Energy Alliance, has been the “influential force in shaping Donald Trump’s plans to dismantle Obama administration climate initiatives,’’ according to Bloomberg News.

Damn is that depressing to learn.

Oh and it gets even worse.

Courtesy of  the New York Times:


The Energy Department is closing an office that works with other countries to develop clean energy technology, another sign of the Trump administration’s retreat on climate-related activities after its withdrawal from the Paris agreement this month. 

The 11 staff members of the Office of International Climate and Technology were told this month that their positions were being eliminated, according to current and former agency employees. The office was formed in 2010 to help the United States provide technical advice to other nations seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The small office also played a lead role preparing for the annual Clean Energy Ministerial, a forum in which the United States, China, India and other countries shared insights on how best to promote energy efficiency, electric vehicles and other solutions to climate change.

After all of the hard work that President Obama put into making this country energy independent and moving us away from planet killing fossil fuels, here comes this Texas shit kicker to undo the whole thing.

And while we are all distracted by the Russian investigation Trump and his progress hating cohorts are slowly dismantling all of the advances we have made in the last eight years.

And it is not just in renewable energy. They are also undermining our civil rights, our education system, and even our access to affordable health care.

We need to keep all of this fresh in our minds as we approach 2018. Because that will be our first opportunity to start to put things right again.

Or should I say "Left again?"

Yale historian claims it is "pretty much inevitable" that Trump will attempt to take over the country by declaring a state of emergency.

This is from a much longer interview with Yale history professor Timothy Snyder:  

Q: In your book you discuss the idea that Donald Trump will have his own version of Hitler’s Reichstag fire to expand his power and take full control of the government by declaring a state of emergency. How do you think that would play out? 

 Snyder: Let me make just two points. The first is that I think it’s pretty much inevitable that they will try. The reason I think that is that the conventional ways of being popular are not working out for them. The conventional way to be popular or to be legitimate in this country is to have some policies, to grow your popularity ratings and to win some elections. I don’t think 2018 is looking very good for the Republicans along those conventional lines — not just because the president is historically unpopular. It’s also because neither the White House nor Congress have any policies which the majority of the public like. 

This means they could be seduced by the notion of getting into a new rhythm of politics, one that does not depend upon popular policies and electoral cycles. 

Whether it works or not depends upon whether when something terrible happens to this country, we are aware that the main significance of it is whether or not we are going to be more or less free citizens in the future. 

My gut feeling is that Trump and his administration will try and that it won’t work. Not so much because we are so great but because we have a little bit of time to prepare. I also think that there are enough people and enough agencies of the government who have also thought about this and would not necessarily go along.

I have been working to keep the hyperbole at manageable levels since Trump was elected, but I think most of us probably feel that the idea Trump will attempt to declare a state of emergency is more than just a little likely.

After all look how much control George W. Bush had over the government after 9-11.

However I take solace in what the professor says about how attentive we all are, and how prepared we will be if such an event takes place.

And with Fox News under new management, and currently being reorganized, Trump also may not have the propaganda arm at his disposal which served the Bush Administration so well.

Having successfully hijacked the election in America Russia set their sights on France.

Marie Le Pen and Vladimir Putin.

Courtesy of Salon: 

As the French prepare to vote Sunday in a presidential election marked by acrimonious debate about Russian influence in Europe, there’s little doubt about which candidate Moscow backs.

Last month, the combative populist Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Front flew to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin. It was a display of longtime mutual admiration. The frontrunner in a field of 11 candidates, Le Pen shrugs off allegations of corruption and human rights abuses against Putin, calling him a tough and effective leader. Her hard-line views on immigration, Islam and the European Union win praise from Putin and enthusiastic coverage from Russian media outlets. Her campaign has been propelled by a loan of more than $9 million from a Russian bank in 2014, according to Western officials and media reports. 

Meanwhile, aides to Emmanuel Macron, the center-left former economy minister who is Le Pen’s top rival, have accused Russia of hitting his campaign with cyberattacks and fake news reports about his personal life. Although French officials say the computer disruptions were minor and there is no conclusive proof of links to the Russian state, President François Hollande and other leaders have warned about the risk of interference comparable to hacking operations that targeted the U.S. elections. The French government, aided by briefings from U.S. agencies about their experience last year, has beefed up its cyber defenses.

“The Russians have had an aggressive espionage presence here for a long time,” a senior French intelligence official said. “The Russians now have more spies, more clandestine operations, in France than they did in the Cold War.”

This is really the lesson that the world needs to take from the election of Donald Trump, and that is that the Russians wish to disrupt their democracy in such as way as to not only select an incompetent leader but to also show that their political process is deeply flawed.

In short Russia wishes to completely undermine western democracy.

(Let's not forget the UK officials are also accusing the Russians of interfering in the Brexit vote.)

One would think that at this point rational people would immediately reject ANY candidate that was complimentary toward Vladimir Putin, or who had actually traveled to meet him, but sadly there are literally millions of irrational people driven by deeper feelings of racism and nationalism.

These are people who use their fear and insecurities to choose a candidate, and not logic nor intelligence.

If Putin gets his way Trump may soon be joined by a number of deeply flawed, and easily manipulated, world leaders who will either refuse, or be unable, to stand in the Russian leader's way as he accumulates even more riches and positions himself as a key power in the world.

And that, in no way, bodes well for the future of America or Western Democracy.

New legislation in Alabama might allow a fundamentalist church to form its own police force. Wait, what?

Courtesy of Salon: 

Donald Trump’s election didn’t just empower the alt-right troops with their #MAGA hats and Pepe the Frog avatars. The religious right is also more quietly making moves to consolidate power on a state and local level, aided by Trump’s promises to appoint conservative-friendly judges and to strike down legal limits on church-based politicking. 

But even in the current environment, it’s startling to learn that the Alabama legislature is considering a bill to give a Birmingham-based church its own police force. The bill, Senate Bill 193, would specifically authorize the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, which has more than 4,000 members, to hire its own police force that would be “invested with all of the powers of law enforcement officers in this state.” 

“The sole purpose of this proposed legislation is to provide a safe environment for the church, its members, students and guests,” the church said in a memo sent to Salon after requests for comment. The memo also mentioned the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, claiming that the church needs “qualified first responders” in case such a thing would happen there.

As the article goes on to point out this church is not sitting in the middle of the wilderness. In fact it is within the jurisdiction of two different sheriff's departments.

Besides allowing this may be unconstitutional.

“This proposed legislation seems like a clear violation of church-state separation, and a clear violation of the Constitution,” Alex Luchenitser, the associate director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a phone call. “Government bodies must not delegate official power to religious entities.” 

Luchenitser cited a 1982 Supreme Court case, Larkin v. Grendel’s Den, in which an 8-1 majority found that states could not give churches the official authority to grant and deny liquor licenses. 

The ACLU of Alabama cited the same decision in a memo sent, upon request, to Salon. 

“Indeed, allocating any quintessential governmental power to a religious institution plainly violates the Establishment Clause,” the memo said, warning the state of Alabama that giving a church its own police force “would not survive a legal challenge.”

You know it is bad enough that some churches and Christian schools still allow corporal punishment, but allowing them to have their own police force?

Oh hell no!

Ted Cruz warns that Democrats will be“obstructionists at a level we’ve never seen.” That's right Ted "Let's close the government down until we get our way" Cruz said that.

Please don't punish us like we punished you.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Ted Cruz warned that Democrats will become “obstructionists at a level we’ve never seen” under a Donald Trump administration. 

In what has to be a giant fit of irony, the Texas lawmaker — who single-handedly shut the government down because Democrats wouldn’t repeal their signature health care law — predicted to Turning Point USA that Democrats will “filibuster absolutely everything they can,” according to Texas Tribune reporter Patrick Svitek. 

Apparently Cruz, whose stunt was described by a Senate aide as “a toddler’s version of legislating,” is now worried that the minority party will resort to what was essentially the only page of the Republican Party playbook from 2010 to now. Since 2010 GOPers have filibustered hundreds of bills passed by the House of Representatives explicitly because they wanted to make Obama “a one-term president.”

You know I often say that conservatives have absolutely not sense of irony. And here is Ted Cruz working hard to prove that point.

Cruz warned that Democrats have been "radicalized" by Trump's election and will attempt to stop him at every turn.

God I hope so.

Only if Democrats do that, it will NOT be due to Trump's skin color (Burnt orange?), or simply as an act of partisan defiance.

It will be in the service of preserving our republic and defending our country from a crazed megalomaniac who appears for all the world to be channeling a certain mustachioed German dictator.

That is not "obstructionism," that's patriotism.

Joe Scarborough's "Amnesty Don" song. Is this what caused Trump to double down with his anti-immigrant rhetoric during his speech last night?

Courtesy of Salon: 

“Morning Joe” namesake Joe Scarborough on Wednesday put out a song called “Amnesty Don” mocking GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. The song makes light of Trump’s self-described “softening” on his primary promise to deport 11 million illegal immigrants. 

The song and accompanying lyric video — on Scarborough’s Facebook page — conveniently dropped just hours before Trump is scheduled to meet with Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City. And on Wednesday evening, Trump will further define his immigration policy during a rally in Phoenix.

Okay so like the article says this song started to make the rounds on the internet yesterday morning and continued throughout the day.

It is conceivable that Trump, who was on his way to Mexico earlier may not have heard it until after he met with President Nieto.

Which makes one wonder if THAT might not have triggered Trump into going full KKK rally last night in Arizona.

That is really not such a crazy theory considering how aggressive his Twitter war has been with Scarborough in the past.

Some day, when things calm down, I'll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016

And if that is true, perhaps it also underlines how easy it is to manipulate Donald Trump and make him your bitch.

Something of which I imagine Vladimir Putin is all too aware.

These guys are just nonchalantly walking around the streets outside of the Republican convention.

Courtesy of Salon: 

A dozen armed white men marched around outside the Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland on Monday afternoon. 

Salon spoke with the men, who call themselves the West Ohio Minutemen. 

Tim Alexander, 32, identified the group as a right-wing “militia,” and said they are from Mercer County, Ohio. 

“We’re tired of the way the country’s going,” Alexander explained. 

He condemned “the over-reaching government.” When asked what he meant by that, Alexander claimed that the U.S. government is using mass shootings to impose harsh gun control measures — although none have yet been passed. 

Alexander said he opposes all gun laws.

When asked what they do, they claimed that they "help people," and apparently they do so with the AR-15's, AK-47's and G3 assault rifles strapped to their chests.

How we have reached day three of this convention without anybody being shot or killed, is beyond me.

But if I had to guess I would attribute that to the incredible police presence.

The police even managed to rescue Alex Jones after he attempted to create a conflict with the other protesters and almost got his ass kicked.

Personally I might have actually allowed that to happen.

Guess that's why I'm not a cop.

Damn Sarah Palin is simply not going to let this Bill Nye thing go!

Palin's Facebook post links to a Salon article written on February 14th, 2014 about a then upcoming debate between Nye and the climate science denying Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn on Meet the Press.

The point of the article was that MTP was being lazy in not getting an ACTUAL climate scientist to come on debate Blackburn who is, insanely enough, the Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

However if Palin had bothered to read the article more carefully she might have noticed this portion:  

But Bill Nye is not actually a climate scientist. He is a former mechanical engineer turned television entertainer, and now professional edu-tainer. He’s clearly well-informed on the subject of climate science, and he has done quite a lot to popularize and explain the research. Against very well-funded opponents, he has long been a prominent voice for scientific literacy. I have no doubt that Bill Nye could out-debate Marsha Blackburn — or indeed pretty much any Republican elected official — on the subject of humanity’s responsibility for climate change and its probably catastrophic effects. What’s insulting (and insane) is that there is to be a “debate” at all, on one of America’s supposed premier news talk shows. 

What’s scary is that the side of this debate that is wrong, and that is wrong in a way that will very probably lead to worldwide disaster in a few generations, is taken seriously because it is the side taken by one of America’s two dominant political parties.

In other words Salon in no way is suggesting that Nye is ill equipped to debate Blackburn on this topic, but rather lamenting the fact that news programs such as Meet the Press are still acting as if there is a debate left to have on the subject.

However those are simply facts and in the world occupied by the likes of Marsha Blackburn and Sarah Palin, facts are not allowed.

New study proves that giving elementary children homework does not make them smarter, it only makes them hate school.

Courtesy of Salon: 

“There is no evidence that any amount of homework improves the academic performance of elementary students.” 

This statement, by homework research guru Harris Cooper, of Duke University, is startling to hear, no matter which side of the homework debate you’re on. Can it be true that the hours of lost playtime, power struggles and tears are all for naught? That millions of families go through a nightly ritual that doesn’t help? Homework is such an accepted practice, it’s hard for most adults to even question its value. 

When you look at the facts, however, here’s what you find: Homework has benefits, but its benefits are age dependent. 

For elementary-aged children, research suggests that studying in class gets superior learning results, while extra schoolwork at home is just . . . extra work. Even in middle school, the relationship between homework and academic success is minimal at best. By the time kids reach high school, homework provides academic benefit, but only in moderation. More than two hours per night is the limit. After that amount, the benefits taper off. “The research is very clear,” agrees Etta Kralovec, education professor at the University of Arizona. “There’s no benefit at the elementary school level.” 

Before going further, let’s dispel the myth that these research results are due to a handful of poorly constructed studies. In fact, it’s the opposite. Cooper compiled 120 studies in 1989 and another 60 studies in 2006. This comprehensive analysis of multiple research studies found no evidence of academic benefit at the elementary level. It did, however, find a negative impact on children’s attitudes toward school.

I have sat down to help children with homework more times than I can count. 

Not just with my daughter, or my step kids, but with other people's children, and most often children with learning disabilities. 

For that reason, though I disliked homework as a child, I hate it as an adult.

Especially when it interferes in a child's ability to learn the most important lesson they need to learn, how to be a child.

Yes children need to learn, but the best way for them to learn is to allow them to run, and jump, and play.

Allowing the release of their pent up energy is the best way to get their attention in the classroom.

And yet today we see schools cutting out recess, taking time away from lunch, and doubling down on homework assignments.

That does not create well educated, well rounded adults. That creates mindless cogs in a machine.

And mindless cogs do not write symphonies, create new technologies, or move this country forward.

Yes education is broken in this country.

But do you know who broke it?

The people who keep saying they are trying to fix it.

I certainly understand why this would trouble a lot of young (And older) Democrats.

Courtesy of Salon: 

The Democratic Party’s superdelegate system has come under attack this presidential election, as critics blast it as undemocratic. There are hundreds of superdelegates, unelected party elites, who can sway the primary election, undermining the candidate democratically chosen by the party’s mass base. 

Critics have begun to ask why this undemocratic system exists. CNN’s Jake Tapper posed precisely this question to Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an ally of Hillary Clinton who co-chaired her former presidential; campaign, in a Feb. 11 interview. She responded with shockingly blunt honesty. 

“What do you tell voters who are new to the process who say this makes them feel like it’s all rigged?” Tapper asked the DNC chair. 

“Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don’t have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists,” Wasserman Schultz calmly explained.

That answer has caused a great deal of blowback towards Wasserman Schultz and the DNC.

Which of course is understandable.

But is it fair?

After all the idea of Superdelegates was formed after the Democratic convention of 1968 in order to take some of the control out of the hands of party leaders and put it back into the hands of the voters.

However now there is fear that it might do just the opposite.

It should also be pointed out that though Howard Dean gained the support of a number of superdelegates before the primaries began in 2004 he was still ultimately defeated by John Kerry, and in 2008 when Hillary seemed to have the majority of them locked up, Barack Obama was still able to win the nomination.

Having said that there does exist the possibility of superdelegates playing a deciding factor in this 2016 nomination process.

So the ultimate question is, if that indeed happens, will many Bernie Sanders supporters see Hillary's nomination as legitimate? And if not will that ultimately have a truly negative impact on the future of the Democratic party?

Yet another reporter almost gets a brain aneurysm when interviewing Sarah Palin.

Courtesy of Salon.

So Jake Tapper attempts to get Palin to explain why she, who is considered such an aggressive "pro-life" supporter, can accept Donald Trump's past statements in support of pro-choice.

Seems like a simple straightforward question, but to Sarah Palin it is an opportunity to open her mouth and let the crazy fly:

““I am so glad that Mr. Trump has seen the light and understands the sanctity of innocent life and how a baby in the womb should be most protected,” she began. 

“What has been kind of sad about this situation though, politically speaking, are there are groups that are pro-life and they say they want to bring more people into the fold.” 

“They’re giving Trump a hard time for his past views on abortion where they’re celebrating others, like, I was going through a list,” Palin said. “Like Justin Bieber and — ” 

“Justin Bieber?” Tapper replied. 

“Yeah, he’s made statements, understanding the sanctity of life, but in the past said it was no big deal to him. He’s just one example.”

So at this point the best tactic is to simply close your eyes and rub your temples until the pain subsides. Trust me, I've been doing this awhile now.

Of course there is no real way to logically explain what Palin is trying to say here, but I think it has something to do with a Rolling Stone article in which Bieber said the following: 

"I really don't believe in abortion," Bieber says. "It's like killing a baby." How about in cases of rape? "Um. Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that." 

So I'm not sure if Palin is suggesting that Donald Trump would also deny access to abortions for women who had been raped, or if that is simply her point of view.

Either way she certainly made Jake Tapper regret sitting down for this interview.

African American journalist writes about the battle which defines the Presidency of Barack Obama.

Everything I do, I do for you.

Here is just a sampling of this amazing article written by Los Angeles journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan:

From the instant he became president, Obama has been a black cultural touchstone like nothing I’ve seen before. His presence has changed everything, realigned our thoughts and arguments about ourselves and our progress and our country, affirming some things and disproving others. As so many people have said to me, his symbolism has been the most influential thing about him. It’s also been the most controversial. As president, he is a black man waging a battle against the racist tendencies of the very system he was elected to lead, fighting daily to effect ideals of unity and common good that were never meant for black people at all. This is the spectacle that black folks have followed anxiously, more so than his policies, many of which have been shaped — not in a good way — by his failure to effect those ideals. The failures, the over-compromises, are Obama’s acknowledgment of defeat; that includes his almost total silence on the subject of blackness itself, which for black folks feels like the worst defeat of all. And yet we watch Obama struggle and sympathize with him, with his thwarted ambitions and his failures, because to be what he’s trying to be — black, idealistic and president — is nothing less than superhuman.
.....

This is the battle royale we have been watching, with Barack our accidental folk-hero protagonist fighting an enemy far bigger and more insidious than anything faced by folk heroes such as John Henry, Joe Louis, or Malcolm X. Those men were pitted against a machine, against white men in a boxing ring, against the self-doubt of black people. But Barack is pitted against America itself. America and its entire monstrous history of racism that has been roused anew because he has dared to try and show the country something, dared to be black and chiefly idealistic rather than black and chiefly critical, imploring or righteously angry. For this sin of initiative and imagination he is still being punished, and we are still watching the battle unfold (years later he is still standing tall, but he seems to be losing by degrees, sinking into the ground by quarter inches) in a kind of collective agony and fury that will take many more years to put into words. So much is at stake: If Obama loses his idealism, loses what he began this whole enterprise with, then blacks will have lost, too, even those of us who never believed in the enterprise of One America in the first place. The question about what would happen if there was ever a black president is no longer rhetorical. It is being answered.

As I read this I had two thoughts.

First that as a white man, especially one who grew up in Alaska, I will never be able to fully appreciate what it must be like to deal with the things that President Obama has to deal with every day.

My second thought was that I was ashamed of the country that the election of Barack Obama revealed us to be.

It was so much easier to deny our inherent racism until we were confronted with it everyday as we have been since 2008.

All I can hope is that once President Obama leaves office that people will really start to see just how important, historic, and competent his presidency truly was, once distance and time make it clearer for us to see.

I also hope that whenever we get ready to elect the next black president, or first Hispanic president, or gay president, or Asian president, or even woman president, that the path Barack Obama blazed with his two bloody hands will make it that much easier for them to do their jobs.

New book called "The American President" on Ronald Reagan: "No one had ever entered the White House so grossly ill informed."

Courtesy of Salon:

In all fields of public affairs—from diplomacy to the economy—the president stunned Washington policymakers by how little basic information he commanded. His mind, said the well-disposed Peggy Noonan, was “barren terrain.” Speaking of one far-ranging discussion on the MX missile, the Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton, an authority on national defense, reported, “Reagan’s only contribution throughout the entire hour and a half was to interrupt somewhere at midpoint to tell us he’d watched a movie the night before, and he gave us the plot from War Games.” The president “cut ribbons and made speeches. He did these things beautifully,” Congressman Jim Wright of Texas acknowledged. “But he never knew frijoles from pralines about the substantive facts of issues.” Some thought him to be not only ignorant but, in the word of a former CIA director, “stupid.” Clark Clifford called the president an “amiable dunce,” and the usually restrained columnist David Broder wrote, “The task of watering the arid desert between Reagan’s ears is a challenging one for his aides.” 

No Democratic adversary would ever constitute as great a peril to the president’s political future, his advisers concluded, as Reagan did himself. Therefore, they protected him by severely restricting situations where he might blurt out a fantasy. His staff, one study reported, wrapped him “in excelsior,” while “keeping the press at shouting distance or beyond.” In his first year as president, he held only six news conferences—fewest ever in the modern era. Aides also prepared scores of cue cards, so that he would know how to greet visitors and respond to interviewers. His secretary of the treasury and later chief of staff said of the president: “Every moment of every public appearance was scheduled, every word scripted, every place where Reagan was expected to stand was chalked with toe marks.” Those manipulations, he added, seemed customary to Reagan, for “he had been learning his lines, composing his facial expressions, hitting his toe marks for half a century.” Each night, before turning in, he took comfort in a shooting schedule for the next day’s television- focused events that was laid out for him at his bedside, just as it had been in Hollywood. 

His White House staff found it difficult, often impossible, to get him to stir himself to follow even this rudimentary routine. When he was expected to read briefing papers, he lazed on a couch watching old movies. On the day before a summit meeting with world leaders about the future of the economy, he was given a briefing book. The next morning, his chief of staff asked him why he had not even opened it. “Well, Jim,” the president explained, “The Sound of Music was on last night.”

The rest of the Salon article is just as damning as the excerpt up above and of course it simply reinforces what most of us who lived through the Reagan presidency already know to be true.

In fact Reagan was essentially the perfect Republican president. An empty vessel that the conservative puppet masters could use to put forth their message, and implement their policies, in the most amiable way possible.

After all even Ronald Reagan's detractors were often charmed by the man.

And if you think about it the GOP has been looking for a similar standard bearer ever since.

We all know that George W. Bush was at least as ignorant and easily manipulated as Reagan, and I have little doubt that Mitt Romney seemed to them the perfect mannequin to voice the policies that were fed to him by the real power behind the office.

I would think that John McCain would be less likely to play ball, but then they had Sarah Palin waiting in the wings didn't they?

Anybody else just get a cold chill run up their back?

Colorado Springs police say they are not going to release motive for the Planned Parenthood shooting. WTF?

Courtesy of Salon: 

Colorado Springs police say they will not disclose why a gunman opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic, killing three people. 

Police say in a statement Sunday that they are sealing the warrants related to the case against 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear. They say they are not providing information on the weapon used in Friday’s shooting, a timeline of events or a motive of the suspect. 

That will continue to stoke speculation about what led to the shooting that killed a police officer and two other people. Dear is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon.

Okay not to be too conspiratorial here but for what reason could a police department have for not releasing this kind of evidence to the media?

I mean usually by this time there have already been a number of police statements as to the motive, condition, and attitude of the defendant. Yet in this case mums the word?

Could it be due to the fact that Colorado Springs is a conservative community, and that many of its residents are deeply religious, that is keeping the police from releasing information which might indicate that Mr. Dear is a fundamentalist with opinions about abortion that were tempered in the fires of religious rhetoric?

That is certainly what the evidence is starting to suggest:

A username apparently connected to Robert Lewis Dear, who is accused of fatally shooting three people, may shed light on the dark side of a man who was a mystery to many until he allegedly opened fire in the Colorado Springs clinic. 

The user posted a series of paranoid, Biblical rants on the message boards for Cannabis.com nearly a decade ago. 

“aids , hurricanes, we are in the end times,” one post from December 2005 read. 

“accept the LORD JESUS while you can.” 

Another post weeks later declared: “A FOOL HATH SAID IN HIS HEART THERE IS NO GOD,” adding: “PROVERBS.” 

Yet another said: “god made us so he can kill who he wants...the lord giveth the lord taketh away blessed be the name of the LORD.”

It is still too early to jump to conclusions, but that is why it would be very helpful for the police to cooperate with the press and let the public know just who this guy is, and what motivated him to murder three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic.

However it is clear that anti-abortionists are already getting their talking points prepared for if, and when, it turns out this guy was motivated by their rhetoric.

Last night Nancy French, hiding within her faux Bristol Palin camouflage, had this to say about the killings:

I join with the rest of America in grieving over this senseless violence and am deeply saddened that three more souls were added to the countless others who’ve lost their lives at that location.

Which is almost verbatim what Mike Huckabee is also saying:

“There’s no excuse for killing other people, whether it’s inside ... Planned Parenthood clinics, where many millions of babies die, or whether it’s people attacking Planned Parenthood,” Huckabee said.

Of course their argument is at least somewhat more coherent than the one made by Ted Cruz: 

When a reporter reminded the Texas senator that the suspect allegedly made a comment about “baby parts” while being arrested, Cruz countered, “It’s also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that’s what he is.”

WTF?

So you see even if Mr. Dear was motivated by those doctored videos, or anti-abortion rantings (Which the conservatives want to point out is NOT proven yet!), it is really no big deal because thousands of potential human beings are killed at that location all of the time. And besides that he is probably a transgendered Democrat who is voting for Hillary, so what's all the fuss?

Of course if the Colorado Springs police would disclose more information we might be able to clear all of this up. But it does not appear they are going to do that anytime soon. 

Well inviting Donald Trump to do that interview finally got Sarah Palin the attention that she so craves. It wasn't good attention, but it WAS attention.

Okay well as you know I sat through this entire thing last night and live blogged until my eyes started to bleed.

So I think all of you know what I thought. (Oh yeah, you know.)

However I thought you might enjoy hearing what others thought.

Salon had this to say: 

On Friday’s episode of a program whose title isn’t the least bit ironic, “On Point with Sarah Palin,” the former Alaskan governor and failed vice presidential candidate conducted an interview with Donald Trump in which the pair of strong American patriots did little more than whine about the unfairness of it all.

Gawker titled their coverage as "Loser Interviews Hater" which should give you some impression of their opinion. Here's my favorite line from the article: 

In one of the most simultaneously bleak and fawning ten minutes of television I have ever seen, former candidate for Vice President of the United States and current off-brand Fox News (OAN) personality Sarah Palin interviewed everyone’s favorite screaming steamed carrot, Donald Trump.

it really does not get much better than that does it?

NBC News characterized the interview as "lobbing softballs," while Rolling Stone called out Palin for "gushing." (Yeah, I'll bet she was!)

The Daily Beast lobbed perhaps one of the worst insults of all: 

On her fledgling, and embarrassingly low-tech, network, Sarah Palin interviewed Donald Trump, and managed a feat no journalist has yet. She made it boring.

Boring? Oh yeah, that's gonna leave a mark. 

All in all everybody was either underwhelmed or overcome with nausea. (That last one was my camp.)

However perhaps the worst blow of all is that over at the Sea O'Pea, as of this post, there are only two comments under the Trump interview.

Ouch!