February 11, 2016

GOP Senator Says He Would Vote For Bernie Sanders Over Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz hasn’t made a lot of friends in the Republican Party, and that was even before he decided to run for president. It’s no secret that he has clashed with other members of the GOP, and has no problem doing things that hurt the party like helping to orchestrate the government shutdown back in 2013.



This move was potentially disastrous for Republicans, and it made Ted Cruz a lot of enemies within the Republican Party, especially in Congress. It is no surprise then that U.S. Sen. Richard Burr from North Carolina is reported to have told some supporters at a private event that he would vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Ted Cruz, a comment his campaign now vehemently denies.

The story said, “Cruz has become such a pariah that one of his colleagues, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, told supporters at a campaign fundraiser … that he would vote for liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders for president before Cruz, according to one person who attended the event.

“Burr did not appear to be joking, said the person, who demanded anonymity to discuss the private gathering,” the article stated.

http://modernliberals.com/gop-senator-says-he-would-vote-for-bernie-sanders-over-ted-cruz/

February 9, 2016

Happy Mardis Gras Today: Mardi Gras - Endymion 2016 50th Anniversary

2/6/2016 Krewe of Endymion

February 8, 2016

Musical Break-time: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 Mixed With Mambo No. 5

That's exactly what Japanese composer, conductor, and musician Akira Miyagawa shows in this blast-from-the-past video with a symphonic mashup of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Pérez Prado's Mambo No. 5.

Miyagawa has claimed awards in the past from the Yomiuri Theater Awards and the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater. His talents aren't confined to concert halls, however, as he made big waves with Ken Matsudaira's "Matsuken Samba", which found a lot of commercial success on Japanese music charts.

So with all that and his continuing popularity, we think it's pretty safe to say that he's lived up to the legacy of his father, who was the composer for the popular anime "Space Battleship Yamato." (宇宙戦艦ヤマト

February 3, 2016

Question Which Logical fallacy is this?

"Seriously? The article says of 1000 people asked if they would hurt a living creature liberals answer no not for up to a million dollars. I guess they didn't poll any liberals in Chicago. ..highest rate of senseless gun violence in the country. They kill for shoes or even less. Now WE can choose to make generalizations which continue the separation between people or big in to STOP PUTTING PEOPLE INTO CATEGORIES."

I was thinking stawman

January 29, 2016

Refuge Update 11:54am Jan 29 2016

January 29, 2016

The Trumph of the Will

(Posted in Primaries too. Cause I couldn't make up my mind where this went.)





I wanted to make a couple related observations about this Donald Trump debate drama.

First, an admission.

When I heard last night that Trump was pulling out of the Fox News GOP primary debate I was quite certain he had every intention of finally attending tomorrow night's event. The point was simply to engineer 48 hours of cable news drama, begging by Fox News, all topped off by Trump finally deigning to attend the event after all the other players had been sufficiently humiliated. But unless the man is managing a far better bluff than I can imagine, that is clearly not the case. It also seems clear it was never the case. I see no evidence that Trump fumbled this gambit or boxed himself into a non-attendance he didn't intend. Being a no show was the plan.


I can't say that I know how this is going to play out for him. But I thought this was an important moment to revisit an issue I've discussed in various posts going back over a dozen years. In the present context I would put it like this: Pundits and political obsessives tend to get distracted by process and policy literalism. But politics generally and especially intra-Republican political battles are really about demonstrating dominance - not policy mastery or polling leads but a series of symbols and actions that mark the dominating from the dominated.


I've seen various people say, 'Well this is awful for Trump. He's missing his opportunity to make his closing argument to Iowa caucusgoers!' But that's not getting what's happening. Maybe this will be a disaster for Trump. But it won't be because he missed out on 15 minutes of airtime.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-trumph-of-the-will

January 29, 2016

The Trumph of the Will

I wanted to make a couple related observations about this Donald Trump debate drama.

First, an admission.

When I heard last night that Trump was pulling out of the Fox News GOP primary debate I was quite certain he had every intention of finally attending tomorrow night's event. The point was simply to engineer 48 hours of cable news drama, begging by Fox News, all topped off by Trump finally deigning to attend the event after all the other players had been sufficiently humiliated. But unless the man is managing a far better bluff than I can imagine, that is clearly not the case. It also seems clear it was never the case. I see no evidence that Trump fumbled this gambit or boxed himself into a non-attendance he didn't intend. Being a no show was the plan.


I can't say that I know how this is going to play out for him. But I thought this was an important moment to revisit an issue I've discussed in various posts going back over a dozen years. In the present context I would put it like this: Pundits and political obsessives tend to get distracted by process and policy literalism. But politics generally and especially intra-Republican political battles are really about demonstrating dominance - not policy mastery or polling leads but a series of symbols and actions that mark the dominating from the dominated.


I've seen various people say, 'Well this is awful for Trump. He's missing his opportunity to make his closing argument to Iowa caucusgoers!' But that's not getting what's happening. Maybe this will be a disaster for Trump. But it won't be because he missed out on 15 minutes of airtime.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-trumph-of-the-will

January 28, 2016

2016 Previous Next U.S. NEWS ‘Affluenza’ teen Ethan Couch back in Texas after being deported from

"Hi America! I'm sure glad to be Back!"

The American teenager derided for a defense of “affluenza” in the killing four people while driving drunk arrived back in Texas on Thursday, where he faces detention, after being deported from Mexico.

Ethan Couch, 18, was seen with his hands behind his back being escorted by uniformed officers through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and had grown a beard.

He fled to Mexico with his mother in December after a video emerged on social media that likely showed him in violation of the probation deal reached in juvenile court that kept him out of prison for causing the deadly crash in 2013.

Couch will be placed in a juvenile detention center. He faces a detention hearing on either Friday or Monday, at which a judge will determine whether to transfer the case from the juvenile system to the adult system, said a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/mexico-says-affluenza-teen-ethan-couch-deported-en-route-to-dallas/

January 28, 2016

Defying his own son, Cliven Bundy rallies Oregon militants to ‘fight’ to the end

Cliven Bundy, father of militant leader Ammon Bundy, defied his own son on Thursday and called on armed occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to stay and fight.

Following a traffic stop that ended with the death of LaVoy Finicum and the arrests of Ammon Bundy and other anti-government militants, Ammon Bundy sent a message through his lawyer that it was time for the occupation to end.

“To those remaining at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here. Please stand down. Go home and hug your families,” Ammon Bundy advised in a statement. “This fight is ours for now in the courts. Please go home.”

Cliven Bundy, however, disagreed with his son, and called on the remaining militants to fight on.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/defying-his-own-son-cliven-bundy-rallies-oregon-militants-to-fight-to-the-end/

January 28, 2016

The Rise and Fall of a Fox News Fraud

Wayne Simmons used CIA credentials to get on TV and work with the Pentagon, but prosecutors say it was all a lie


By the time Wayne Simmons went on Fox News last March for what would end up being his final appearance, viewers knew what to expect. "This president clearly has absolutely no idea what he is talking about," Simmons said of President Obama's handling of ISIS. Simmons had made guest appearances on Fox more than a hundred times as a "former CIA operative," and certainly looked the part: white mustache, neck bulging out of his dress shirt, a handshake "so hard, he can crush you with it," as one Fox host put it. Beyond offering his expertise as an intelligence officer, he had become particularly adept at serving up hawkish red meat to the network's audience. "We could end this in a week," he went on, suggesting that the United States run "thousands of sorties" against ISIS. "They would all be dead."

Simmons was largely anonymous when he first appeared on Fox, in 2002, but he soon became a regular face on the network, alongside a cast of retired military officers who, like Simmons, had been recruited into the Pentagon's "military-analysts program." The initiative invited retired officers who had made names for themselves as television-news commentators to attend regular briefings from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and to make trips to Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. In 2009, The New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for its report on how the Pentagon used the analysts to build public support for the war in Iraq. The program disbanded, and many of those involved tried to distance themselves from it. But Simmons boasted of his connection as a way to bolster his bona fides, even mentioning it in his Amazon author biography. In 2012, Simmons co-wrote The Natanz Directive, a novel about a retired CIA agent called back for one last op. When the book was published, Rumsfeld contributed a blurb: "Wayne Simmons doesn't just write it. He's lived it."

But according to prosecutors, Simmons was living a lie. Last October, the government charged him with multiple counts of fraud, saying he had never worked for the CIA at all. Prosecutors alleged that Simmons used his supposed intelligence experience not only to secure time on Fox and an audience with Rumsfeld, but also to obtain work with defense contractors, including deployment to a military base in Afghanistan. He was also charged with bilking $125,000 from a woman, with whom prosecutors say he was romantically involved, in a real-estate investment that did not exist. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his trial is scheduled to begin February 23rd. If convicted, he will likely face several years in prison.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-fox-news-fraud-20160126#ixzz3yZBlnAZ4
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook