When you've lost Ben Stein, wait, we don't want him either.

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Wednesday March 02, 2016 · 6:38 PM PST

2016/03/02 · 18:38

According to this article at RawStory it appears that Trump is so bad he’s even lost noted a**hat Ben Stein.

Conservative economist Ben Stein revealed on Wednesday that he was considering voting for Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders because Donald Trump was going to “sink” the Republican Party.

“I went to law school with Ms. Clinton so I’ve always had a kind of fondness for her, she was always a very nice young woman,” Stein told CNN’s Carol Costello. “I admire the fact that Bernie Sanders has a single-payer national health plan.”

“When I worked for [President Richard Nixon] as a speechwriter, I wrote the message that sent up Mr. Nixon’s proposal for single-payer health plan,” he recalled. “But I would like to see it be a Republican, I’ve never voted for a Democrat. But Mr. Trump, I think, is dangerously misinformed. I like him, but he’s dangerously misinformed.”

I noticed Ben didn’t predict whom will be the Democratic nominee. It is interesting in how it shows the rats, so to speak, are already leaving the S.S. Republican before it’s had a chance to even clear the dock. Maybe Ben hopes his defection will push others to force Trump out of the race or he’s smart enough to see what’s coming in the fall and doesn’t want to be associated with it.

CORRECTION: Hillary does mention stopping the profit from student debt

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Tuesday March 01, 2016 · 11:01 AM PST

2016/03/01 · 11:01

UPDATE: I earlier posted this diary over concern that Hillary hadn’t made clear her opposition to the government profiting from student debt since it wasn’t mentioned in the op-ed she published today nor on her web page under student debt. It’s been pointed out to me that she did write about this point in a fact-sheet posted elsewhere on her site. She has come out against government profiting from student debt. I stand corrected.

What appears below is the original diary

Hillary Clinton has an Op-Ed on today’s Huffington-Post covering her plans to deal with the crushing student debt problem. She lists some ideas such as income based repayment plans and lower interest rates but nowhere does she mention the fact that government is profiting from this crisis.

She can’t be ignorant of the problem. Elizabeth Warren has highlighted this as far back as 2014:

This is obscene. The government should not be making $66 billion in profits off the backs of our students. [I]nstead of investing in our children and their futures, the government is squeezing profits out of our young people and adding to the mountain of debt they will spend their lives struggling to repay.

Bernie Sanders stance on this issue is clear from his web page:

STOP THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FROM MAKING A PROFIT ON STUDENT LOANS.

Over the next decade, it has been estimated that the federal government will make a profit of over $110 billion on student loan programs. This is morally wrong and it is bad economics. As President, Sen. Sanders will prevent the federal government from profiteering on the backs of college students and use this money instead to significantly lower student loan interest rates.

Checking Hillary’s campaign web page also shows no mention of this issue. So as it stand Bernie is the only Democratic candidate who clearly states that the government profiting off student debt is wrong.

Twitter going crazy over #WhichHillary

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Thursday February 25, 2016 · 3:53 PM PST

2016/02/25 · 15:53

The #WhichHillary has been trending all day and is now near the top. They are arriving faster than what can be read. A lot of mentions of the BLM protester and more meme photos than you can shake a stick at. You can check it out here

UPDATE: Wired: Twitter Attacks Clinton’s Record With #WhichHillary

Quinnipiac produced a Hillary Clinton word cloud

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Thursday February 25, 2016 · 12:42 PM PST

2016/02/25 · 12:42

Quinnipiac University Poll asked* in August of last year the open ended question of what is the first word that comes to mind when voters think of Hillary Clinton. They produced the following word cloud from those results. Those who still think Hillary is the best Democratic candidate should bear this image in mind.

Just in case anyone might think things for Hillary have improved since last August then check out this graph of her unfavorables/favorables.

*From August 20 - 25, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,563 registered voters nationwide

(HT to New Minas)

Say "Hello" to our new Robot Overlords (video)

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Wednesday February 24, 2016 · 5:04 PM PST

2016/02/24 · 17:04

This video is either technically amazing or amazingly creepy.

YouTube Video

A new version of Atlas, designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings. It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain and help with navigation. This version of Atlas is about 5' 9" tall (about a head shorter than the DRC Atlas) and weighs 180 lbs.

When he’s “tormenting” the robot with the hockey stick it somehow feels wrong. Weird.

At the end the robot is like, “Screw you guys, I’m outta here”.

Trump: Yes we really should worry

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Sunday February 21, 2016 · 3:33 PM PST

2016/02/21 · 15:33

In today’s Washing Post, Harvard University political theorist Danielle Allen writes an op-ed that begins with almost the exact same comment I made a in a diary a couple months ago:

Like any number of us raised in the late 20th century, I have spent my life perplexed about exactly how Hitler could have come to power in Germany. Watching Donald Trump’s rise, I now understand.

She isn’t calling Trump a Nazi but describing how any divided populace, such as ours currently is, can be exploited by a extreme opportunist. She explains that part of the problem is the “banality of evil” and how people will only be concerned with their small part of the mechanism while working for a murderous machine because they were “just doing their jobs”.

Part of the problem lies with the media being used as a free megaphone for Trump’s cruelty. Just because it says it doesn’t make it news. Let him spend his own money for this advertising.

Another problem is the current political landscape.

Trump is rising by taking advantage of a divided country. The truth is that the vast majority of voting Americans think that Trump is unacceptable as a presidential candidate, but we are split by strong partisan ideologies and cannot coordinate a solution to stop him.

Following this the author goes off the rails a bit by declaring that Hillary is too weak to possibly stop Trump. While not my preferred candidate I don’t buy that argument.

She finishes with a call for Republicans to stop Trump with what worries me most.

Donald Trump has no respect for the basic rights that are the foundation of constitutional democracy, nor for the requirements of decency necessary to sustain democratic citizenship. Nor can any democracy survive without an expectation that the people require reasonable arguments that bring the truth to light, and Trump has nothing but contempt for our intelligence.

In a perfect world Trump’s candidacy would never have proceeded this far. That things have gotten so out of whack that he has a real shot for gaining the Republican nomination should frighten us all.

UPDATE: Go to Google and type in "is ted cruz"

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Friday February 19, 2016 · 7:06 PM PST

2016/02/19 · 19:06

I knew there was something about him that wasn’t right. HT to Gizmodo.

UPDATE: Buy this T-Shirt and help fund abortion services

UPDATE: Following photo comparison from the Esquire article: “Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer? A Conversation “Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer? A Conversation with Very Sane Conspiracy Theorists.”

Ted Cruz makes it official. He agrees with the Bundy clan

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Friday February 19, 2016 · 5:04 PM PST

2016/02/19 · 17:04

Ted’s out with a new ad that’s ostensibly against Donald Trump but it sounds more like a wet kiss to the Bundy clan and it’s followers.

YouTube Video

85% of Nevada is owned and regulated by the federal government and Donald Trump wants to keep big government in charge. That’s ridiculous. You the people of Nevada should be in charge of your own land. If you trust me with your vote I will fight day and night to return full control Nevada’s lands to it’s rightful owners. It’s citizens. Count on it.

Since when does federal land in Nevada only belong to Nevadans? I thought it belongs to all U.S. citizens. Things like Death Valley and Lake Mead. And when he talks about rightful owners I’m betting that Native Americans aren’t in there anywhere.

What can’t be overlooked is how the ad went up so soon after the end of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff and subsequent arrest of the Bundy clan. This isn’t accidental. Cruz is sending out a dog whistle that’s clearer than a coyote’s howl on a quiet prairie night.

He’d previously stated during the 2014 standoff that “we have seen our liberty under assault” from a government “hell-bent on expanding its authority over every aspect of our lives” and that the standoff “is the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government on.” Now he’s agreeing with them that the land doesn’t belong to the government in the first place.

Not sure that going for the right wing militia vote is a winning strategy especially seeing how quickly the local residents turned against Malheur group.

And I’m not even going to get into the question of where some Canadian gets off tell us what to do with our land.

Charles Koch endorsing Bernie ? .... not really

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Friday February 19, 2016 · 9:53 AM PST

2016/02/19 · 09:53

If I was to selectively edit a few lines from Charles Koch's op-ed in todays Washington Post you might think that he’s Feelin’ The Bern.

The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.

I agree with him.

Our criminal justice system, which is in dire need of reform, is another issue where the senator shares some of my concerns. Families and entire communities are being ripped apart by laws that unjustly destroy the lives of low-level and nonviolent offenders.

I applaud the senator for giving a voice to many Americans struggling to get ahead in a system too often stacked in favor of the haves, ...

So just when it sounds like Bernie has captured the hearts of the ultra-rich, Charles drops the hammer.

At this point you may be asking yourself, “Is Charles Koch feeling the Bern?”

Hardly.

What follows is a the usual call that what we need for more freedom is less government.

… but I disagree with his desire to expand the federal government’s control over people’s lives. This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place.

Consider America’s War on Poverty. Since its launch under President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, we have spent roughly $22 trillion, yet our poverty rate remains at 14.8 percent.

Because if we hadn’t spent all that money on the poor they would have all been saved by the hand of the free market. He writes that it’s actual the government the keeps the poor down. No mention of the lack of jobs, unequal distribution of economic resources or mass income inequality. It’s really too much government.

I’m assuming Charles Koch is writing this to prove he’s just a reasonable misunderstood billionaire who can’t but help rubbing it in our faces.

That’s why Koch Industries opposes all forms of corporate welfare — even those that benefit us. (The government’s ethanol mandate is a good example. We oppose that mandate, even though we are the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the United States.)

Last time the Senate blocked the President's nominee, it was the Whigs

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Sunday February 14, 2016 · 10:28 AM PST

2016/02/14 · 10:28

In interesting look back at the historical record with this article at TalkingPointsMemo shows that the last time a president had his nominee blocked liked Mitchell McConnell is proposing was when the Whigs controlled the Senate.

The closest comparison to the wholesale rejection President Obama is about to face with his nominee is President John Tyler, who holds the unenviable record of having four of the five men he put forward fail to make it to the Court. The fight was part of a larger clash between Tyler and the Whig-controlled Senate, where Whig lawmakers hoped Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky would win the next presidential election in 1844.

Over the course of 15 months in 1844 and 1845, in an effort to fill two Supreme Court vacancies, Tyler submitted and resubmitted his nominees a total of nine times. Samuel Nelson was finally confirmed in the last weeks of Tyler's presidency. But the second vacancy wasn't filled until well after Tyler left office, with the confirmation of Robert Cooper Grier in 1846, more than two years after the seat was opened up by the death of Henry Baldwin. It seems unlikely the Scalia vacancy will break that record, assuming the Senate takes up a nomination in the months after the 2017 inauguration.

Considering the number of times I’ve read suggestions that unless the Republicans start to moderate their stance they will eventually be destined for the dustbin of history like the Whig Party this similarity might be downright prescient.

Cruz latest ad attacking Trump, "Parking Lot"

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Friday February 12, 2016 · 8:31 AM PST

2016/02/12 · 08:31

Take a minute break from the current lively intramural discussions and watch as Cruz tests out a campaign attack vector against Trump that might be useful later in the year.

YouTube Video

BREAKING: It's Over. Latest Oregon Standoff: 4 of 4 surrender

TrueBlueMountaineer

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Thursday February 11, 2016 · 11:37 AM PST

2016/02/11 · 11:37

UPDATE: David Fry surrendered peaceably to the FBI. Standoff is over.

The standoff continues with David Fry as the lone holdout. The current live feed is mostly him talking to Michele Fiore. The other three surrendered to the FBI at around 9:45 am PT.

Current updates with live feed from Oregon Live

UPDATE:

US Attorney for Dist. of Oregon releases statement on the end of #Oregonstandoff. https://t.co/c5cnU6jEIe #KOIN6News pic.twitter.com/6iTA4rpQn0
— Brent Weisberg (@BrentKOIN) February 11, 2016

This link leads to KOIN news page which has audio of the final surrender.

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