No medium has ever survived the indifference of 25-year-olds.
— Social media observer Clay Shirky, asserting that in 50 years print editions of newspapers won’t exist. The reason, he says, is very simple, and very obvious: if you are 25 or younger, you’re probably already reading newspaper content on your computer screen.
Move over Dale Peterson, Florida is offering what could be the worst political ad ever. In fact, some on Twitter are calling it Florida’s Demon Sheep video. My state representative, who appears to be running unopposed for all intents and purposes, has posted this truly awful video to his YouTube channel. The spot appears to be done by his son, Scott. And if you somehow missed it in the course of the video, it’s about Mike Weinstein, Florida Dist. 19 Representative, a moderate Republican who bucked the GOP herd and voted against the impossibly bad education reform bill which Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed just before going rogue, i.e., No Party Affiliation. I don’t dislike Weinstein, but if I did, suffice it to say this video would not help me change my view.
From the excellent web series, Tea Party Jesus - Click the image to visit their site and see who is quoted here
You might think that in the fever swamps of Christian fundamentalism, a disaster as devastating as the BP spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be considered the devil’s handiwork.
Cindy JacobsWell, no. In the Christianist mucklands, there is no disaster, great or small, that can’t be blamed on liberals in general and Pres. Obama, specifically:
Cindy Jacobs, co-founder of the U.S. Reformation Prayer Network, told Charismamag.com that her network has been praying since the spill occurred in April: “Our prayer network all along the Gulf is fervently praying.”
In an earlier online message Jacobs wrote that she believed only God could stop the leak. “There is no help for this nation apart from God,” [Jacobs] wrote on June 3. “We must cry out for God to plug the oil well in the Gulf for He’s the only one that can do it! And He’ll only do it when the church cries out.”
…In the money graph of Charismamag.com’s piece — quite reminiscent of Jerry Falwell’s blaming the gays, the pro-choice community, ACLU and a host of other liberal entities for the 911 attack – the evangelical magazine reported that “Jacobs believes the oil spill is more than a natural disaster … but partly the result of greed, debauchery on the beaches, poor environmental stewardship and a lack of U.S. support for Israel … all issues her network has been repenting of since the leak began.”
“Whenever there’s violent weather or some things like this, you have to ask if it’s just a natural disaster or if you’re reaping something that’s been sown,” she said. “We feel this is a cumulative thing.”
If God views frat boys’ beer bongs as “debauchery,” perhaps He should lighten up — and only in Opposite World are liberals more guilty of greed, poor environmental stewardship and not supporting Israel, or even of debauchery on the beach, than Republicans.
Whitman at what she had billed as a news conference, reacting to reporters' outrage after learning she was reneging on her promise to take their questions She’s in ‘Deep, Deep Trouble,’ Says Brown
To win the Republican primary for California governor this year, former eBay exec Meg Whitman burned through at least $80 million of her own money. After a particularly nasty primary campaign against State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, however, voters were so turned off that turnout was only 25 percent — the lowest in 96 years — which meant that winning the nomination ended up costing Whitman $90 per vote.
Meanwhile, Jerry Brown, the state’s attorney general and former two-term governor, ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party, and spent next to nothing on his campaign.
In the month or so since the primary, Whitman has spent another $11 million, including $6 million on the sort of bloody buzz-saw negative advertising against Brown that is usually reserved for the final weeks of a campaign. And again, the Brown campaign has spent next to nothing on advertising (although a union group has anti-Whitman ads up).
So where does all that leave Whitman in the polls?
Six points behind, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men — I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge — but I ain’t available. I ain’t gay. Sorry.
As the 2008 presidential campaign wore on into the fall, and it was becoming clear that Sarah Palin was in way over her head, I remember thinking, “This woman is just George Bush in a skirt and mean-girl secretary glasses.” Like Bush, she was barely articulate when speaking without the aid of a teleprompter or briefing book. And like Bush, she wore her status as an ignoramus like a badge of honor. As most shallow people are, Bush and Palin were both vain and childish — both had zero tolerance fro criticism, for example.
Perhaps those of us who worry that America’s simpleton minority might rise up and put one of their own into the White House again can take comfort in these numbers. On the other hand, a lot can happen between now and November 2012.
As we’ve gotten to know Palin, we’ve learned that she and Bush are ideological twins. Both are, first and foremost, corporatists — everything for corporations; nothing for the “small people” — and they share a “bomb first, ask questions later, if ever” neo-con approach to foreign affairs.
And they are both congenital, pathological liars. Bush is, of course, the master, but to Palin’s credit, he’s about 20 years older than she is. For lists of Bush lies, see here, here and here — and for lists of Palin’s lies, see here, here and, from earlier this week, here.
But the most important similarity between Bush and Palin is that, for reasons that are oblique to normal people, the Republican base — now re-branded as tea baggers — simply adores them. The fact that they somehow foisted Bush into the big chair twice is sufficient cause for alarm that they could somehow do it again with Palin.
Keep in mind again … this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This was not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.
— Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, discussing the war in Afghanistan in a speech in Connecticut, ignoring the fact that the war actually began in 2001 on George W. Bush’s watch.
Every July Fourth holiday finds me holed up in my house, windows shut tight, blinds down and TV blaring as I try to keep three dogs from going into cardiac arrest as my neighborhood erupts with explosions, rockets and small-arms fire.
See, for some reason, people in Miami believe it’s a patriotic thing to walk outside and unload a clip heavenward. I guess they must have skipped physics class the day gravity was discussed. At least every other year in South Florida, some poor schmuck gets hit by a falling bullet while watching a fireworks show or walking the dog.
In my opinion, that’s a good reason to keep a roof and a ceiling between oneself and the sky on July 4.
Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario has created a litmus test —
Yield, and rename it Lake America, at Donald Trump’s behest,
Like Google and Apple, which already capitulated,
Changing the name just like Dear Leader stipulated,
But there’s one defiant holdout — the original mapping site, Mapquest.
“They’ve invested heavily in AI labs. They’ve invested heavily in data centers. So, the first family has a financial stake in this industry, and as a result, the president of the United States is compromised.”
— “Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on Monday said President Trump will likely not heed calls from technology leaders to implement guardrails on the development of artificial intelligence because of his family’s investments in the industry,” NewsNation reports.
“Young Americans today have never witnessed Congress authorize a war, they’ve never seen a U.S. administration balance its books, they’ve never watched a well-funded and empowered state department operate, and they see only mistrust between allies. They assume the situation is normal. It is not. … The real cost of forgetting the pre-9/11 world is not a country that has changed, but one that no longer knows it could be different.”
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state. They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”
— Jared Kushner, quoted by CBS News, on the lack of progress in Gaza.
Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.
“Iranian strikes have damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at bases across the Middle East, and caused about $184 million worth of damage at U.S. diplomatic facilities, according to a Pentagon watchdog report,” the Washington Post reports. “The inspector general’s report to Congress on Operation Epic Fury — the Trump administration’s name for the war with Iran — also details the extent of U.S. munitions shortages, in the first comprehensive public accounting of the war, which is now in its seventh month.”
Half (50%) of U.S. adults say they are either very concerned (23%) or somewhat concerned (27%) about the possibility that AI will cause the end of humanity, a new YouGov survey finds. Another 39% of Americans say they’re not very concerned (21%) or not at all concerned (17%) about an AI apocalypse, while 11% aren’t sure.
A majority of Americans ages 55 and up and a majority of Republicans of all ages support the use of Flock technologies in their communities, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from August 28 to 31. Split by age, party, education level and gender, no other demographic group had a majority of support for the cameras. Among age groups, younger Americans were the least likely to support Flock, with only 21% of respondents aged 18 to 34 in favor of the technology.
About one-third (31%) of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of how the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job, according to the latest Economist/YouGov Survey, while 53% disapprove. Almost all Democrats disapprove of the Supreme Court’s job handling (12% approve and 79% disapprove), while most Republicans approve (63% vs. 26%). Republicans who say they’re MAGA supporters overwhelmingly approve of the Supreme Court’s job handling (73% vs. 19%), while non-MAGA Republicans are more closely divided (49% vs. 36%).
