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Friday, October 02, 2015
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Thursday, October 01, 2015
Where's Berno?
Yesterday, MSNBC reported that Bernie Sanders had stunned the political world by reaching one million individual donors before anyone had since Abraham Lincoln did it in 1863.
A couple of weeks before they had released their latest poll on the 2016 race in which they polled voters on how the Democrats stood up in head to head battles. They measured the Democratic candidates against Trump, Rubio, Bush & Cruz.
Except, the Democrats they measured were Clinton and Biden. Although the same poll took the temperature of voters feelings towards Sanders, he wasn't treated as a candidate in the poll.
This anti-Sanders media bias has been noted before, and I find it hard to explain. Clearly, the decision makers are either not journalists or are not making decisions like journalists.
Then I thought, well, maybe it's just me. So this morning I took a look at the MSNBC website and did some searches. I looked for stories airing on some of their top political shows -- Chris Hayes, Chris Matthews, Morning Joe, Larry O'Donnell, and Rachel Maddow from 9/1 to 10/1 & mentioning Trump, Clinton, or Sanders.
I was astounded. While the results are not overly carefully vetted, what I did was try to eliminate general campaign stories or stories from the perspective of one candidate (commonly, how Hillary is handling/reacting/dealing with Trump or Sanders), and tried to count only the stories that effectively focused on the substantive message of one candidate.
In the month of September, here's the total tally of pieces that focused on the substance of particular candidates:
SANDERS -- 5 to 11 (most did not focus on him)
CLINTON -- 75
TRUMP -- 143
I looked at MSNBC because of the progressive bent of the hosts. I would have thought Rachel Maddow would have had a higher percentage of Bernie spots. But she only did 4 spots on Bernie in September. Compared to 15 for Hillary and 35 on Trump.
Chris Matthews, zero spots that focused on Benie, nine on Hillary, and 30 on Trump.
Morning Joe gave Bernie 6 spots, the most of any of them. But he gave 29 to Hillary and an astounding 42 to Trump.
Bernie is polling about twice Trump's numbers -- and that's with about 30% of the respondents not knowing who he is -- but he's getting about 8% of the coverage of Trump. If MSNBC and the others did their jobs right, more people might know Bernie better.
This bias is disturbing and I find it hard to understand. Some may say its for ratings, others for political reasons. I think its a little of both. For the most part, MSNBC seems to like playing nice with the Democratic establishment. That translates into promoting Trump, who has really hurt the image of the Republican Party, and Hillary. Morning Joe's love affair with Trump is simply ratings bait.
We're letting the newsmedia control the debate and pick the candidates.
MSNBC has routinely given Trump gavel-to-gavel coverage of his rallies and speeches. Hillary interviews have been heavily promoted up and down the schedule. But the guy who is doing amazing grassroots things, drawing the biggest crows, and challenging one of the most secure sure-thing nominations we've seen recently, is all but ignored. It really is shameful.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Huck n Jim be back
Rejoice, Rejoice.
Huck and Jim be back blogging.
If you don't know Huck and Jim, well you just be ig'grant.
Years ago, Huck 'n Jim preclaimed the Republican marriage with the Tea Party signaled the death of the Grand Old Party. It was recallin' that and watchin the Summer of Trump that got me typin fingers all itchy again to come back affer all dem years. And it turns out, same was wise Huck and Jim.
Your all better off spending a minute over there than five here. So goes and checks him out, I'll be here later.
The Pope's Still Catholic
Well, the Pope's plane lifted off and I swear one of the networks followed the flight on LIVE! TV in order to document the dumping of the toilets over the Atlantic.
Okay, maybe I imagined that.
But what I didn't imagine was the fawning and excessive coverage of the guy's visit. This is one of the few instances (well, I can't think of any other, so let's say the only instance) where FOX got it right. Looking to listen for news playing in the background while cleaning or cooking, I actually had to tune to FOX News during the Pope's visit.
The guy gave three major speeches, with maybe seven to ten quotable sentences in each. The head of Russia was here this week and we didn't see as much as two minutes of his UN speech; yet these same "journalists" decided that we needed to spend entire afternoons watching an old guy in a white dress shake hands, kiss babies, and implore the sick and infirm to pray for HIM.
Wait. Really!? For HIM? He's got the top job in his profession, retirement security, 70 million people who believe he's infallible, and all the babes he wants (maybe not that), yet he's telling kids in wheelchairs that HE'S the one who needs divine intervention!? Guy needs some perspective.
The bad choice of wall to wall coverage aside, its the fawning, particularly from the liberals (sorry, progressives), that I don't get. Let's put aside, and not mention again, that this is a well educated, apparently intelligent guy who believes in an omniscient invisible man in the sky directing traffic.
Sure, the Pope made some nice points lecturing our Congress, President, and all of us, on how to behave in a civilized society which pretends to be majority christian.
But what is liberal about this guy? (Here's where FOX got it wrong, as per usu.) That he accepts climate change and environmental stewardship? The entire world accepts climate change, except for us, and environmental stewardship has been a catholic doctrine as long as I can recall (and I was raised catholic in the 50s & 60s).
Speaking of doctrine, can you, can anyone, identify ANY significant catholic doctrine this guy has changed? You cannot because he has not changed anything.
This Pope is, believe it or not, like it or not, a doctrinally conservative catholic. So, while he says and does Jesus-like things, that's only remarkable for the contrast with so many of his predecessors and his subordinates who shun Jesus-like statements of forgiveness and tolerance, and when was the last time you saw a Bishop in poverty?
But the doctrine?
This is a Pope who railed against marriage equality as “a destructive pretension against the plan of God” , a Pope who at best failed to make the same kind of public lecturing truth to power appeals when leftist clergy lives were at stake (and at worst was a collaborator), and a Pope who enthusiastically backs catholic doctrine on abortion, the insane anti-scientific life at conception claims, the opposition to ordination of women, and of course, the war on gays. Publically saying "who am I to judge" gay catholics, while sending letters opposing legislation to equalize their civil rights as the work of the devil, is what most people (outside the fawning American press and public) would call hypocritical.
This Pope is Catholic, in every sad sense of the word. I'm happy to have my news back.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Tips for the Republicans
Abortion is here to stay.
Obamacare is here to stay.
Same Sex Marriage is here to stay.
There's nothing you can do about it (and you know it).
Want to start winning and actually participating in the political dialogue again?
Forget the things you know you can't change.
Ignore the people in your party who want you to center your policies, your campaigns, your candidates on the things you know you can't change.
Run serious candidates who want to talk seriously about the serious issues we're facing.
You'll be amazed how the talk of Clown Cars goes away and people start taking you seriously again.
You're welcome.
QUICK! While they're not looking . . .
Thanks to the House for all this Planned Parenthood nonsense.....gives us a chance to round up all the guns while the wingnutz are distracted!
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Okay, Can We All Move On Now?
I said it a month ago, and again a week ago -- Trump will not win a single primary and by St Patrick's Day he will be a distant amusing memory.
I was wrong.
He may be a memory by Martin Luther King Day.
Does this really need analysis? He is an empty suit in the political arena. In a field of 16 he picked up 25% support, give or take. When there are four, maybe five, serious candidates in the race, it was kind of easy for a guy with 100% name recognition, specializing in bombast and pandering to the low-brow crowd, to get the attention of every fourth voter early on.
Now all that is over. He's hit his zenith and, simultaneously, brought the Republican's 2016 cycle to its nadir.
Now. Can we please move on from this distraction and start dealing with the substantial weaknesses of the serious candidates?
How Democratic Votes are Diluted in Pennsylvania
The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly is battling the newly-elected Governor over, well, just about everything.
This is a Governor elected by about ten points, which is the generally accepted definition of a landslide.
But, we hear from an echoey chamber -- the Republicans gained seats in the General Assembly in that same election, so the new Governor should defer to the will of the voters.
Yeah. But not quite.
Pennsylvania is so Gerrymandered that last year the Republican State Senate candidates received about 53% of the vote statewide. Yet they won nearly 83% of the contested seats. That's right -- they walked away with almost 1/3 more of the available seats than they should have in a balanced district setup.
On the House side, where the districts are smaller and hence harder to Gerrymander, they still managed to overcompensate. In State House elections in which Republicans did not run unopposed, they received just over 52% of the vote statewide. Yet, they were awarded with nearly 70% of the contested seats.
Essentially, the Republicans had a bout a 4-point margin over the Democrats in the GA elections. Not a serious foundation to build a case against the policies of a Governor who won in a landslide.
Methodology -- I looked at all contested 2014 GA races which had a nominated D & nominated R running. I ignored write-in races. I rounded all candidate totals to the nearest 100 votes -- eg. 15,453 votes became 15,500 votes. I then totaled the votes received by R & D candidates and compared the total statewide percent vote received by Rs & Ds with the percent of seats won by each party. I ignored third-party candidates.
Here are the raw numbers.
Senate - 16 seats
13 (82%) won by Rs with 609,200 total votes (53.6%)
3 (18%) won by Ds with 527,000 total votes (46.4%)
House - 83 seats
56 (67.5%) won by Rs with 844,400 total votes (52.7%)
27 (32.5%) won by Ds with 757,700 total votes (47.3%)
This kind of result is, by the way, why the move is on to award electoral college votes by district.
By Gerrymandered district.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
If Trump Wrote the Gettysburg Address
Wow, lookit this turnout! It’s something isn’t it?
I tell you everywhere I go the crowds are getting bigger and bigger – thank-you, thank-you!
But yet you read some of them Democrat papers and they make it sound like McClelland is surging and they're going to sweep in and end the war -- they're just gonna give up and give in folks (boos from the crowd), then they're gonna reverse the Emancipation Proclamation and go back to the status quo "antebellum" -- that's what they say. What kind of word is that anyway?!
And their leader -- that McClelland, what an idiot. I fired the guy and there was a good reason for it. I know what I am doing. What a dope.
The Democrats got their hands full with that Copperheads crowd too, lemme tell you. I say let them go at one another – that party is falling apart with those Jefferson strict construction Copperheads and the War democrats. Lemme tell ya, though, the army LOVES ME!!
They loved it when I told McClelland YOU’RE FIRED! They loved it when I freed the slaves!
SO now the army, they all love Lincoln.
Speaking of the army, isn’t what they did here terrific?
But hey, before I get started n that -- them Copperheads – you know where they get most of their support — yeah, down here, he’s got it (pointing at some guy, maybe)– FROM IMMIGRANTS, all those Germans and Irish that came over on them boats. And you know most of them are Papists – Catholics.
Now I love my Bible as much as the next guy, its my favorite book. But those leaders in Germany and in the, waddyacallit, Irish, they know what they’re doing. It’s really the Brits you know behind this – their not sending us their best and brightest you know. They’re getting rid of their troublemakers and if it keeps going like this we’re all going to be speaking German. So we gotta put a stop to this stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Germans and the Irish people – I’m sure they’re mostly good people and I have hundreds – or thousands of them working for me in the army. And they love me too – the whole army does. So now we gotta go face a failed, fired general that the Democrats are running against me – can you believe they went with that guy. What a LOO-ZER!
You know who aren’t losers – all the brave guys in these graves around here.
You know, it really hasn’t been all that long since this great country was formed – 4 score something – but you know, we’re gonna finish this job and make it great again. And you know this country was made great by liberty and equal men all created.
Now we have this terrible terrible war thing going on and I am here to tell you, this country can’t take a lot more of this. It's a test for us, and we're gonna pass that test so big it'll make your head spin. We living gotta finish what these dead guys started doing for us.I know the war hasn’t been going so great all the time, but we got new generals in there and the way I’m gonna lead them, we’re gonna have so many victories, your’re gonna get tired of victories. No, you won’t, I know.
You know what they did here was pretty terrific. I mean it was amazing what they did here and that’s why we’re here today. We should be and I’m gonna make this war great for us again .
We really can’t make this place any greater than it is because what they did was pretty great, it was unbelievable, unbelievable all right. No one cares what everyone here said today, the important thing is that we get this stuff they did here and we keep it going and we’ve got some terrific plans and strategies – they are going to blow you away, believe me!
So we’re going to take their unfinished work and finish it off with some really really good ideas that we’re going to be releasing over the next month or so, don’t you worry about that.
And then after that this country is gonna be great again!
h/t picture thanks to Chad Merda
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