Day: May 22, 2015

Who Needs Political Reporters?

Buck Banks

The 2016 election may be the first one in which the political press is totally sidelined. Politicians now have a professional grasp of social media — Barack Obama just got his third Twitter account — and they don’t need media middlemen to communicate with voters. … What’s more, no journalist has the kind of celebrity and cultural credibility (as Tim Russert used to have) that once made interviews mandatory for aspiring presidents.

— Ryan Cooper, in the Week.

PensitoWire

Pensito Editors

Ted Cruz Would Be a ‘Watchman on the Wall’ in ‘Game of Thrones’

Buck Banks

The modern Democratic Party has become so radical, so extreme, that they have determined that their devotion to mandatory gay marriage in all 50 states trumps any allegiance to religious liberty under the First Amendment. We’ve got an obligation, as this conference recognizes, to be watchmen on the wall.

— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by Time.

Most Americans Express Disappointment in Republican Congress

Buck Banks

65%

Of Americans say congressional Republicans are not keeping the promises they made during the campaign, while just 23% say they are, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center. Nearly four in 10 (37%) say the new Congress has accomplished less than they expected, while 4% say it has accomplished more than expected. About half (53%) say its accomplishments are in line with what they expected.

Bush’s CIA Briefer: Cheney and Bush Lied about Iraq Nukes

Jon Ponder
Mike Morell, the CIA officer who briefed George W. Bush on intelligence, during his appearance on MSNBC's "Hardball"
Mike Morell, the CIA officer who briefed George W. Bush on intelligence, during his appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball”

Why did George Bush and Dick Cheney invade Iraq? Their foundational rationale for the invasion was to prevent Saddam Hussein from using nuclear weapons they claimed he had. Based on what we know now, of course, those claims were either lies or they were based on faulty intelligence. Republicans are desperate to assert it was the latter — that Bush and Cheney were merely incompetent and relied on bad data — because if the former were true, if Bush and Cheney knowing lied about their rationale for taking the country to war, they were guilty of a massive war crime and, by all rights, should be sitting the Hague today.

Earlier this week, Mike Morell, the CIA officer who served as George Bush’s chief intelligence briefer, confirmed that the claims by Bush, Cheney and others that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons were lies.

Video and transcript follow…

[…]

‘Mad Men’ Finale Affected the Stock Market

Buck Banks

0.15%

Amount the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell the day after the series finale of “Mad Men.” A study of 165 TV series finales shows that the wave of negative mood caused by the end of a popular and beloved show reduces the net demand for risky assets and decreases aggregate stock returns, says Gabriele M. Lepori of Copenhagen Business School. Specifically, if the number of viewers of a finale is 1 standard deviation above Lepori’s sample average, stock returns fall approximately 25 basis points the next day, all else constant. The finale of the drama “Mad Men” drew 3.3 million live and same-day viewers.