OPEN THREAD WEDNESDAY.

 It's open thread Wednesday, but I need your thoughts on a few things:

1. Is the president of the United States capable of empathizing with another human being?

2. Was Donald and his wife really plugging their own merchandise when they were supposed to be offering comfort and leadership to the people hurt by Hurricane Harvey?   

3. Is Ted Cruz such a disgusting human being that we actually like Chris Christie more than we do him?

4. Should LaDawn Jones be worried down in Georgia?

5. And finally, do you think this cartoon from Politico is insensitive?

Holla.  

Tuesday Afternoon Massacre.

 "Life Comeys at you fast".

OK, that was kind of corny, I saw it on twitter, and I thought I would share it nevertheless.

So Mr. Orange Hair fired James Comey, the man who Hillary Clinton believes cost her the election, and the one who is possibly holding some pretty explosive stuff on the White House.

Now let's put this Archibald Cox moment into perspective: Donald trump just fired the man who is over the agency that is charged with investigating him and his Russian pals. You can't make this stuff up, folks; it is happening in real time.

Now, to be clear, I am no fan of James Comey, but if trump believes for a moment that this firing ---and the timing of it--- does not stink to high heaven, he has another thing coming. Why wasn't Comey fired after trump took office? Why wait until now? Trump himself said earlier that he had confidence in Comey. So what changed?  

We all know where this is heading of course. Donald trump will now put his political appointees who owe him their jobs (Think Chris Christie or Rudy) to investigate him, and it will be a joke.

The question is now, of course, will republicans get on board and call for an independent investigation and a special counsel to look into this mess? Or will they circle the wagons and play politics to protect their guy like they have been doing for the past 100 days.

Still, I tried to warn you folks, this will not end well for Mr. Orange Hair and you trumpbots. And I believe that as the fire gets hotter, and as we get closer and closer to the truth; we will see more desperation from team trump.

"Dear Director Comey,

I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.

While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.

It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.

I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Donald J. Trump"

Dear President trump:

I sincerely wish that you would fire yourself.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that it is long overdue. 



*Pic from huffingtonpost.com








 

The confidence game begins.

It started already, folks. The trump con game is already in full effect.

President elect Orange Hair promised his rabid supporters on the campaign trail that he would repeal and destroy the ACA, but today he told the Wall Street Journal that there are parts of it that he will probably keep. 

Get used to it trumpsters, I suspect that after the first year under Führer trump you will be having buyer's remorse.

Let's face it, it already doesn't look like trump is being particularly loyal to some of his peeps. Poor Chris Christie must feel like the Theon Greyjoy  from Game Of Thrones. He thought that serving as trump's manservant and totally sucking up to him would at least get him a nice gig in his administration if he won. Well, he won, and what does trump do?

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is no longer running Donald Trump’s transition team, with Vice President-elect Mike Pence now responsible for the smooth transfer of power in the White House.

Christie will continue to serve as one of the chairs of the transition team, along with Rudy Giuliani and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, but he will not be the leading man." [Source]

Chris, you and the rest of trump's followers will soon see what hundreds of folks who did business with him in the past already know: That there is not an honest or loyal bone in that man's body.

Anyway, I read an article written by Charles Blow that is getting a lot of retweets on twitter that I felt I should share.

"Donald J. Trump is president-elect of the United States. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

Against all odds and against all forms of the establishment, he prevailed. He won, legitimately, including in many states that were thought to be safely blue. The pundits and the polls were wrong. There was more pent-up hunger for change — and also racial, ethnic and economic angst — than many models considered.

Mr. Trump will become this country’s 45th president. For me, it is a truly shocking fact, a bitter pill to swallow. I remain convinced that this is one of the worst possible people who could be elected president. I remain convinced that Trump has a fundamentally flawed character and is literally dangerous for world stability and injurious to America’s standing in that world.

There is so much that I can’t fully comprehend.

It is hard to know specifically how to position yourself in a country that can elect a man with such staggering ineptitude and open animus. It makes you doubt whatever faith you had in the country itself.

Also, let me be clear: Businessman Donald Trump was a bigot. Candidate Donald Trump was a bigot. Republican nominee Donald Trump was a bigot. And I can only assume that President Donald Trump will be a bigot.

It is absolutely possible that America didn’t elect him in spite of that, but because of it. Consider that for a second. Think about what that means. This is America right now: throwing its lot in with a man who named an alt-right sympathizer as his campaign chief.

How can I make sense of the fact that the president appeared in pornos?

How can I make sense of the fact that the man who will appoint the next attorney general has himself boasted of assaulting women? What will this president’s vaunted “law and order” program for “inner cities” look like in an age where minority communities are already leery of police aggression?

How do I make sense of the fact that a man who attacked a federal judge for his “Mexican heritage” will be the man who will nominate the next Supreme Court justice and scores of federal judges?

I can’t make it make sense because it doesn’t. I must sit with the absurdity of it.

I must settle this in myself in this way: I respect the presidency; I do not respect this president-elect. I cannot. Count me among the resistance.

I hope that there are areas where people in Washington can agree to actually advance America’s interests, but I’m doubtful. Trump has made multiple campaign promises, promises he will be obliged to keep, that would specifically do harm.

My thoughts are now with the immigrant families he has threatened to deport and the Muslims he has threatened to bar and the women he has demeaned and those he is accused of assaulting and the disabled whom he apparently has no problem mocking.

My thoughts are with the poor people afflicted by ill health who were finally able to receive medical insurance coverage, sometimes lifesaving coverage, and the fear they must feel now that there is a president committed to repealing and replacing it (with what, I don’t know), and who has a pliable Congress at his disposal." [Read more] 

Scary times.

Before I forget, Happy Veterans Day to all the Vets out there. Thank you for your service! (We still miss my wife's brother in law , who gave the ultimate sacrifice. )

It's a shame that you will be now led by a commander in chief who was too much of a coward to do what you so bravely did and continue to do. 

Missing Chris, and the Chinese strike back

         I wonder if all the people who took issue with president Obama missing Nancy Reagan's funeral have an issue with Chris Christie missing the funeral of that New Jersey state trooper who tragically lost his life, recently?

"New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is skipping the funeral of 31-year-old New Jersey State Trooper Sean Cullen, who was killed in the line duty after being accidentally hit by a motorist last Monday. The governor, who recently became a surrogate for Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, will instead be spending the day campaigning for Trump out-of-state. (Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno is scheduled to attend the funeral.)

Christie’s office and the Trump campaign did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.
"We are focused on honoring our fallen brother today, and quite frankly we did not expect someone who has consistently shown disdain for law enforcement to pay his respects to the Cullen & State Police family," Christopher Burgos, president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey, told The Daily Beast in a statement. "May Sean rest in peace. A wonderful family, tragic. [The governor's] decision making is predicated on selfish political opportunism, that much is clear." [Source]

Poor Chris Christie, and to think that just a few years ago he was the rising star in the republican party and was measuring the drapes at 1600 Pennsylvania, Avenue.

I tried not to write about you know who tonight, I really did. And believe me, it's hard, because there is so much that I could be writing about.  But one story in particular is so scary and funny at the same time that I feel compelled to post it.

"An editorial published Monday in the China government-controlled Global Times argues even if Donald Trump isn’t elected president, his ascendance has “opened a Pandora’s Box” for America by exposing both alarming fissures in U.S. society and some of the inherent risks in democracy in general.

“Mussolini and Hitler came to power through elections, a heavy lesson for Western democracy,” the editorial says. “Now, most analysts believe the US election system will stop Trump from being president eventually. The process will be scary but not dangerous.” That is to say, one supposes, we may come close to the edge of a Trump presidency but will not necessarily fall.

Trump’s rise was not anticipated by most analysts and observers. At the beginning of the election, Trump, a rich, narcissist and inflammatory candidate, was only treated as an underdog. His job was basically to act as a clown to attract more voters’ attention to the GOP. However, knocking down most other promising candidates, the clown is now the biggest dark horse.

[…] Big-mouthed, anti-traditional, abusively forthright, he is a perfect populist that could easily provoke the public. Despite candidates’ promises, Americans know elections cannot really change their lives. Then, why not support Trump and vent their spleen?

The rise of a racist in the US political arena worries the whole world. Usually, the tempo of the evolution of US politics can be predicted, while Trump’s ascent indicates all possibilities and unpredictability.

Washington Post‘s Simone Denyer noted that the editorial argues that the unpredictability of democracy is to blame for many of America’s ills, such as income and racial inequality. Denyer writes:

The inherent instability of the democratic system is classic Communist Party propaganda and an argument that resonates with many people here: Indeed, it is one of the pillars of the party’s legitimacy in many people’s eyes.

Democracy is a mess – just look at India – and sometimes violent – viz. the Arab Spring. China’s history before the Communist Party came to power was equally messy. Only strong, purposeful and benevolent one-party rule can guarantee stability.

Of course, there are a couple of glaring lacunae in that argument: The most obvious being the tyranny and mass insanity unleashed by Mao Zedong, who killed tens of millions of his own people, (as indeed Stalin did in the Soviet Union). But hey, that bit of history is officially glossed over here.

The paper may have a point in that the rise of Trump — as well as that of Bernie Sanders — is arguably a reaction to the capture of American politics by big business and lobbyists, and the failure of globalization to deliver economic benefits to the middle class.

But it also ignores the fact that democratic “reactions” can often offer a (long and winding) path to democratic solutions, while dictatorships almost always end in chaos." [Source]

That's right, the Chinese state controlled paper is running editorials about the dangers of having a democracy because of.....you guessed it, Donald trump.

I told you it was both funny and scary at the same time.

*Pic from slate.com

                       

 

 

Bye bye Chris and Carly.

 And then there was six. Goodbye Chris and Carly, we hardly knew ya.

Poor Chris Christie must be kicking himself for two things: Bridgegate and Donald Trump. Let's face it, Christie was trump before trump. He was that brash shoot from the hip straight talker who hated political correctness.

Carly was just a liar who thought that she would be the republican's version of Hillary. At times she seemed to know what she was talking about, and she actually did a good job at some of those earlier debates, but her blatant lying to score political points was a bit much, even for a politician in 2016.

So anyway, now it's on to South Carolina, and trump is clearly in the driver's seat. Fortunately for him,  there are still enough candidates in the race to make his 30% of the voters enough to give him enough delegates to leave Cleveland as the republican nominee. If he wins the plurality of the votes in all those winner take all states, he will be hard to stop. Chris and Carly can do the math, so they hit the road.

On the democratic side, last night Bernie beat Hillary like she stole his Larry David autographed baseball hat. It was ugly. If you are in Hilary's camp you have to be wondering how you are going to get all those young people to start voting for you. 

Hillary and her peeps couldn't wait to get out of New Hampshire and head to South Carolina. This is where she has her so called "fire wall" propped up with black support.

But not so fast. Bernie has made it known that he will be going after the black vote, and he met with Rev. Al today in Harlem to show his Negro cred.

"I've asked him very bluntly about Flint. I've asked him very bluntly about affirmative action," Sharpton said of the conversation. "I've asked him very bluntly about the issues of police brutality and police misconduct, things I want to hear."'

The meeting was arranged at Sanders’ request, according to The Washington Post."

OK then. I am not sure how many black votes this little trip to Sylvia's will get Bernie, but it's nice to see that he is reaching out. Although he might consider someone else from the black community to reach out to. I know that to white folks Al Sharpton is black America, but you have to believe me when I tell you that he is not.

"Observers said the meeting is Sharpton’s way of telling the Clinton camp it should not take his endorsement for granted.

Bronna-Helm said she supported Sanders over Clinton because of her husband’s harsh policies in the 1990s that led to a surge in people of color behind bars. Bill Clinton has since said the legislation that led to a surge in new prisons and tougher sentences was a mistake.

“Her husband's policies effected my community in a very negative way,” she said. “I think the Clintons have taken the African-American votes for granted.”'

Oh ohhh. This could be a long primary season on the democratic side as well.


*Pic from abc.net.au

"HAIL LEPAGE!"

      I saw Chris Christie making excuses for the racist knuckle -dragging governor from the state of Maine on television.

Christie actually had the audacity to declare that Governor Paul LePage is a "good man" who just said a bad thing. I am paraphrasing now, but basically he said that the governor apologized for it, and now it's time for us to all move on. 

Christie excused the man's racism and doltish behavior by saying that he was born poor and a had a very hard upbringing, as if that's an excuse. He wanted to know if we didn't all make statements like this from time to time.  

Sorry Chris, we can't move on; not just yet. The man is a governor and you are running to be president of the United States. Insulting an entire community with asinine stereotypes is not something you just apologize for (sort of) and  move on. (BTW, the real D-Money is white.) Sadly, if you are a bi-racial person living in the state of Maine, you are probably calling U-Haul as you read this. Your governor has just put a scarlet letter on you.

Chris Christie in his capacity as a presidential candidate, cannot just declare that it's alright to make such comments and that we should all move on from them. At some point Chris Christie has to cut his racist friend loose. He might not want to, but politics demands it. (I see you Rev. Wright.) 

I have to give it to the governor, though, he hit the holy racist grail with his comments: Black drug dealers sexually assaulting innocent white girls. Just wow!

Again, one of the sad aspects of this story, is that Chris Christie, a man who is trying to become the leader of the free world, found it necessary to defend this cretin. 

But we get it, Chris is trying hard to catch a man in the presidential primary who actually has white supremacist making robocalls for him.  Hey, it's tough keeping up with the racists these days. The bar has been set very high low.

But hey,  I am not alone with my outrage. 

"For anyone who truly loves Maine, it’s no longer just embarrassing to see this state’s once proud name reduced to so many national punch lines. It’s agonizing.

It’s also beyond counterproductive: The longer LePage portrays his state as a backwater of ignorance and intolerance, the less attractive Maine appears to the newcomers – of every age, religion and ethnicity – we so desperately need.

Instead, we get this endorsement from the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, described by the Southern Poverty Law center as one of the leading hate websites on the Internet: “Maine Governor Calls Out Black Drug-Dealers for Impregnating ‘Young White Girls’ … Excellent. Hail LePage!” [Source]

"Hail Christie, and Hail Trump.

*Pic from huffingtonpost.com

White lies matter.

 Chris Christie and his friends running for the republican nomination to be president are doing their best to pander to the angry white male vote.

It's actually kind of pathetic to watch. These seemingly smart people choosing to be on the wrong side of history.

Chris Christie, who would do best to take the NYT editorial board's advice, told the Black Lives Matter (BLM) folks not to call and ask him for a meeting.  This man is clearly a legend in his own mind. Why would the BLM people want to meet with him? What's he going to do? Give them tips on how to shut down a bridge?

Donald Trump declared that if he was the president of the University of  Missouri he would put all those ungrateful Negroes benefiting from the white man's education in their place. I was paraphrasing but that was the gist of it. He called the protesters "disgusting" and, in true Trump fashion, talked about himself in the third person while telling us all how tough he would be on them.

"'I think the two people that resigned are weak, ineffective people...... referring to University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, who both announced on Monday that they would step aside under pressure. "I think that when they resigned, they set something in motion that's gonna be a disaster for the next long period of time."'

Or, maybe just maybe racial relations will get better on college campuses across the country and we will become a better country as a result of it.

Of course, not to be outdone, Ben Carson (Mr. Black Lie himself)jumped into the fray. Ben, in order to impress all the right- wing voters in the republican primary, had to jig harder than anyone in the house ever jigged before. True to form he declared that as a country we are actually becoming too tolerant and the behavior of the protesters--- who are putting their safety and college careers on the line---- is "infantile".

This all fits into a narrative being pushed by the republican candidates: White people, you need to vote for me, because I am the only one who will stand up to this attack on our way of life.

Jamelle Bouie writing for Slate magazine wrote about this phenomenon at length.  And, as is often the case with Mr. Bouie, he was spot on.

"~~~GOP presidential contenders blaming Black Lives Matter for crime a desperate attempt to frighten white voters into supporting them.~~~ "....Long-term trends can obscure short-term variations,however,and there’s contested evidence that we’re in the middle of a violent crime spike,sparked by a so-called Ferguson effect where less aggressive policing—fueled by “Black Lives Matter” protests—encourages criminals.“Cities across the nation are seeing a startling rise in murders after years of declines,” [NYT] in a story on the rising murder rate in Milwaukee. Critics say this is overblown...Bruce Frederick—..at the Vera Institute of Justice—notes that of the 20 most populous U.S. cities for which there’s public data,only three experienced a “statistically reliable increase” in homicide rates. For the rest,“the observed increases could have occurred by chance alone.”If there is a new trend,we need more data.The same goes for the “Ferguson effect”;there’s no evidence that less policing has produced more violent crime...." But humans are built to see patterns in unrelated events,and the crime increase—plus a rash of high-profile shootings aimed at police officers—has brought new partisan attacks on Black Lives Matter,even while 2015 stands as an unusually safe year for police officers,so far.“In the last six years under President Obama,we’ve seen a rise in anti-police rhetoric,” wrote Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in an op-ed last week,citing “demonstrations and chants where people describe police as ‘pigs’ and call for them to be ‘fried like bacon.’” Walker was referring to a small group of protesters in Minnesota who by all accounts are unrepresentative of the larger movement.Still,their actions came in the wake of a brutal attack on a Texas police officer,Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth,who was shot 15 times at a gas station near Houston.And as such,it was fuel for Walker’s charge,as well as for claims from Fox News and other conservative outlets that Black Lives Matter is a “hate group.”...."

I don't think that Black Lives Matter is a "hate group". But I can think of another group that is very close to being one.

*Pic from blacklivesmatter.com












  

Finally, some right wing suggestions for immigration reform, and Jamycheal Mitchell's life mattered as well.

*I thought that immigration reform was a serious subject. If it is, why are some of the GOP candidates saying such crazy things?

Let's start with Scott Walker. This dude things that it might be cool to build a wall on the Canadian US border. You heard that right; a northern wall. 

"Republican presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said on Sunday that a wall along the border between the United States and Canada is a "legitimate issue" to consider.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that he would build a wall along the border between Mexico and the U.S. to curb illegal immigration — and has vowed that Mexico would foot the bill.

NBC's "Meet The Press" host Chuck Todd asked Walker on the Sunday program if he would consider building a wall along the country's northern border.

Walker said that some people along the campaign trail have raised the issue.

"They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at," Walker told Todd." [Source]

Sorry Scott, this issue is a loser for you. Did you forget that "Mexican is the new black?" Please take a closer look at the racial makeup of the folks up in Canada. They don't look anything like the Mexicans.

And then there is Chris Christie. His idea is just as outrageous. (Man Trump has these guys tripping over themselves to out crazy him.)

"Christie said Saturday that if elected president, he will track undocumented immigrants like FedEx packages.

"I'm going to have Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, come work for the government for three months. Just come for three months to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and show these people," the New Jersey governor said at a town hall event here.

Christie added that while FedEx can track boxes, the U.S. can't track undocumented immigrants.

"You go online and at any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is," he said. "Yet we let people come into this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them."

Christie added, "We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in and then when your time is up," he said. "However long your visa is, then we go get you and tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me, it's time to go.'" [Source]

Chris, I am going to use your own words on you: "Excuse me, it's time to go."

**Finally, if you were wondering why all the hue and cry about "black lives matter",  this story might help you to better understand.

"A young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, has been found dead in his jail cell after spending almost four months behind bars – without bail –  for stealing $5 worth of groceries.

Early Wednesday,  Jamycheal Mitchell, who had mental health problems, was discovered lying on the floor of his cell by guards. Prison officials say his death is not being treated as suspicious.

“As of right now it is deemed ‘natural causes’,” said Natasha Perry, the master jail officer at the Hampton Roads regional jail in Portsmouth. Yet Portsmouth police are looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of the 24-year-old.

On April 22nd, Mitchell was accused of stealing a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake worth a total of $5 from a 7-Eleven. His family reportedly believes he starved to death after refusing meals and medication at the jail, where he was being held on misdemeanor charges of petty larceny and trespassing.

“His body failed,” said Roxanne Adams, Mitchell’s. “It is extraordinary. The person I saw deceased was not even the same person.” Adams, who is a registered nurse, said Mitchell had practically no muscle mass left and had lost about 65lbs by the time of his death. [Source]

* Pic from theatlantic.com

**Pic from facebook

The Koch brothers should consider John Kasich, and an old interview with the Field Negro.

The Field Negro education series continues.

I read this very interesting article, recently.

"The St. Croix River War has exploded into open hostilities. Hide the hotdish, mother!

 

For a couple of years now, Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to run their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, has been embarrassed regularly by the economic performance of neighboring Minnesota, which is governed in a completely different fashion by a Democratic governor, Mark Dayton. So, on Thursday, as part of his campaign to sell himself as a possible president, which requires him to sell the rubes a State of Wisconsin wholly different from the actual one that he is selling off for parts, Walker dropped by Minnesota. A former mayor of Minneapolis was there to greet him.

In 2010, both Wisconsin and Minnesota faced similar budget woes and a worrisome economic future amid a national recession. Both are also Midwest states, deeply invested in manufacturing and agricultural economic drivers. The only difference was that Minnesotans elected DFL Gov. Mark Dayton to turn Minnesota around, while Wisconsinites chose Scott Walker to lead their state's recovery. Only one governor was successful.

Then he gets harsh.

In Minnesota, Dayton has moved forward Democratic policies like increasing the minimum wage, expanding Medicaid and investing in the middle class, and now we are seeing one of the most business-friendly states in the country. Just this year, Forbes ranked Minnesota as the ninth best state for business, seventh in economic climate and second in quality of life. In Wisconsin, Walker opposed a minimum-wage increase and equal-pay legislation, rejected federal funds to expand Medicaid, and attacked Wisconsin workers with right-to-work and anti-collective-​bargaining policies. As a result, the cost of doing business in Wisconsin is higher than the national average, and median household income is thousands less than in Minnesota. The facts are clear: Walker and the Republican trickle-down economic policies have made it practically impossible for Wisconsin to recover from the recession, and the state consistently sits at the bottom of the region in private-sector job growth.

The Minnesota-Wisconsin comparison has dogged Walker ever since the press and the general public first noticed it. (This is partly because Dayton, while a fine governor, has a very eccentric attitude toward tooting his own political horn -- to wit: he won't do it. Drives political people up the wall.) And, judging by what he said to his carefully screened audience in the Twin Cities -- once again, Scott Walker bravely faces down his political opponents by avoiding them -- it's starting to get under Walker's skin more than a little.

Walker's closed-door session with legislators — and later gatherings with top business leaders and a conservative group — come as he nears an announcement on a White House campaign after taking several preliminary steps toward a bid, including hiring staff and taking repeated trips to states with early primaries. He said a formal decision would come once Wisconsin lawmakers set a new budget, probably in early June..."You've had the advantage of other than a two-year period of having Republicans in charge of at least one part of government for some time. Before we came into office for many years, there was a Democrat governor, a Democrat assembly and a Democrat Senate," Walker said, noting the state's peak 9.2 percent unemployment rate before his election in 2010 and its 4.6 percent standing now. Nationally, the unemployment rate was above 9 percent throughout 2010 and has fallen to 5.5 percent now.

Wisconsin has trailed the national average in private-sector job growth since six months after Walker took office. He fell short of a signature campaign promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs, although 145,000 new positions appeared, and Wisconsin ranked 40th nationwide in private-sector job growth in the 12-month period ending in September. As he tours the country, Walker has boasted that new businesses are starting up in Wisconsin at a higher rate than the rest of the country and that income growth for residents exceeds the national average.

To which Dayton replied.

Dayton, a supporter of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, offered a polite "Welcome to Minnesota" to Walker and said he should come back as often as he likes. "I'm not going to engage in presidential politics at this point," Dayton said.

Like I said. The guy is a real fireworks display.

It is becoming part of the general campaign narrative that we have at least three potential Republican candidates -- Walker, Chris Christie, and the increasingly ludicrous "Bobby" Jindal -- who are running on their interpretations of how well they've done in office. All three currently have approval ratings in their own states that are headed toward the root cellar. All three of their states are a complete mess in one way or another. Yet all three of them are out there, pitching fantastical visions of states that have nothing to do with actual reality. It's campaign by karaoke.

Now, the idea that governors make the best presidents is largely shibboleth, as has been noted elsewhere. But, if the Republicans are looking for someone to make that case in actual reality, then John Kasich is their only choice. (I am not in any way endorsing this proposition, because Kasich is running his campaign based on The Worst Idea In American Politics.) He's relatively popular. When he tried to Walkerize his state workforce, the voters beat him over the head with a hammer and he backed off, and he hasn't tried again. He took the Affordable Care Act's FREE MONEY (!) He's got Green Room cred that the others -- except possibly Christie -- don't have. Unlike Christie, Walker, and Rick Perry, he's under neither indictment nor investigation, always a plus.

Economically, the man's ideas are from Jupiter, but that's to be expected. He is a Reagan cultist, after all, But, compared to, say, Jindal, whose state university is preparing for the possibility of bankruptcy, Kasich looks like Pericles. Yet, when it comes down to it, the basic problems for Kasich in a Republican primary process are that: A) he can't raise money, and B) he has made the barest modicum of sense on too many occasions. That bespeaks a deeper problem, I'd say." [Source]

And then there is Lady Hillary with all her...ahem, ahem, money problems.

2016 should be really interesting.

Finally, someone just sent me this interview I did with another blog a few years back.

Thought I would share.

"Interview With Wayne Bennett, Author of The Field Negro

       P   O   S   T   E   D       B   Y       A   L   B   E   R  T

Wayne Bennett’s blog, The Field Negro, explores race in America in an unexpected way. His writing mixes cultural polemics with humor to provoke conversation and insight about one of our country’s most fraught subjects. He’s always a good read. The following interview was conducted by e-mail …
1. You write a blog called “The Field Negro.” That’s a provocative name for a blog. Why did you choose it?

I chose it because of one of my favorite speeches of all time: The Malcolm X speech to the SNCC workers in Alabama in 1965. This is where he outlined the dichotomy between the house and field Negroes in America, and why, as a result, it is hard for black folks to unify around particular causes.

I wanted to identify with the field Negroes in my writing because that’s how I view myself in the ongoing debate. Someone who works hard and represents the masses.
Besides, I wanted a title that makes people uncomfortable.

2. Do you ever get called out for what you write on your blog? What’s the one thing that, in retrospect, you most regret having written? What was the post that generated the most controversy?

I get called out all the time. I get more nasty e-mails than you could ever imagine.
I rarely regret anything I write, but if you put a gun to my head I would have to say calling Condy Rice “the bad perm lady.” After the Don Imus incident where he called the Rutgers basketball players “nappy headed hoes” and I ripped him for it, I realized what a hypocrite I was, because I was in essence doing the same thing to Secretary Rice.

It’s hard to say which post generated the most controversy. I have had a few. My post about white people and their pets pissed off a lot of white folks. And my post about the 12% rule for black folks pissed off a lot of black people. I always get a lot of heat for supporting the Jewish people on various issues as well.

3. [The foundation I work at] administered a poll to [the members of a] giving circle …, and one of their questions was this:

In the long run, the most effective way to address a region’s racial inequities is to (choose only one):

1. engage the entire community in discussions about race and white privilege
2. address systemic issues (e.g., laws, policies, etc.) that lead to unequal outcomes
3. empower low-income communities politically (through voter registration drives, etc.)
4. bring more low-income people into the middle class through literacy and skills training, small business development programs, and improving public education
5. just wait another 50 years until younger, less bigoted generations assume positions of responsibility and power

How would you answer this question and why?

I love numbers 3 & 4. Education. Education. Education. It is the greatest equalizer in America. I would also push for more political involvement among underserved communities—if it’s one thing a politician fears is numbers at the ballot box—and financial education for poor people. It is very important that we learn how to save and manage our money.

4. As regards conversations (and actions) in the public sphere touching on matters of race and ethnicity, what trends have you seen over the past ten years?

It’s getting better, but folks in the majority are still afraid to talk openly about race and ethnicity. The mainstream media won’t touch it because they know that it makes most folks in America uncomfortable. The only time we talk about it (race) is when we have to. (See the Henry Louis Gates incident at Harvard which led to Obama’s “teachable moment.”) And when it infringes on the political debate such as the case with immigration reform.

5. What do you regard as the most definitive work (book or article) for anybody wishing to understand race in America?

Oh my, where do I start? There are so many great ones … I have a couple: Why Black People Tend To Shout by Ralph Wiley. The Racial Contract by Charles Mills. The Arrogance Of Race by George Fredrickson. The Mis-Education Of The Negro by [Carter G.] Woodson, and All God’s Children by Fox Butterfield. From the conservative side I would recommend Shelby Steele’s The Content Of Our Character. There are more, but those jump out at me.
Oh, and how could I forget? You have to read The Field Negro.

6. In your view, how important a force has Hip Hop been in bridging racial divides? What are the cultural and other forces that you believe have the most promise in helping to unite us?

Hip Hop, in a way, has helped to bridge the racial divide. Especially among young people. They are our future, and young white kids from the burbs are trying to relate to young black kids from urban areas. Which, to me, is a good thing. Music and the arts is probably the best way to bridge the racial divide without actually getting down and talking to each other. But this comes with a caveat from me. Unfortunately these kumbaya moments can be somewhat superficial. We still have to explore our differences and try to understand each other on a deeper level and in more meaningful ways to have true racial harmony in America.

7. What can we look for in The Field Negro in the coming months? What other blogs would you recommend to our [readers]?

I am just going to keep writing about what I see every day and how I feel regardless of who it offends. I hate to say it, but I really don't have time to read a lot of other blogs. Still, there are other bloggers who I admire. Rippa from the Intersection Of Madness & Reality comes to mind, and I love all the bloggers in the Afrosphere. They all work so hard and put so much energy into their blogs" [Source]

I don't think the blog responsible for this interview is with us anymore. Like so many others before them, I think that they fell victim to blog burnout.

Sadly, I am starting to relate.