New Year’s Eve Reads

Halston, Bianca Jagger, Jack Haley Jr, his wife Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol at a New Year’s Eve party at Studio 54 in 1978.

Good Afternoon!!

Here we are on the last day of 2015. I’m going to make this a link dump, as JJ calls it, because I know it will be another quiet day and I once again overslept. I hope I can get myself back into a normal routine in 2016! So here are some stories I’ve been reading.

The National Memo: This Year In Crazy: 2015 Belonged To The Wingnuts.

As you may recall, this year kicked off with a big national conversation about the efficacy of vaccinations — setting the tone for a host of debates utterly untethered to reality, whether it was fraudulent anti-abortion videos meant to “expose” Planned Parenthood, or a U.S. senator using a single snowball to disprove 97 percent of peer-reviewed climate science.

We saw loony conspiracy theories that would be too unrealistic for an episode of 24 gaining currency with a surprising number of politicians, as when a handful of paranoid Texans thought that a military exercise was the opening salvo in a federal invasion. This delusion then gained traction and metastasized wildly in the patchwork of talk radio shows and fringe websites that have become the touchstone of our political discourse, until even Texas governor Greg Abbot and Ted Cruz voiced their concern.

The Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage was a landmark victory for civil rights, but it sent conservative Christians into an apocalyptic tizzy. Governors tried to pass legislation to legally discriminate against same-sex couples under the reprehensible camouflage of “religious liberty,” and one county clerk became a national martyr when she spent five nights in jail rather than let two men walk down the aisle.

When a racist terrorist shot up a black church with a gun,conservatives told us we could blame the attack on anything except racism and guns. Finally, we all just blamed a flag. Even so, down in Dixie and elsewhere, there were many who fought to fly it proudly — on the lawn of the South Carolina state house and over a grassy knoll in Texas just off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

It was hard to narrow it down, but based on your votes, we have assembled the top 5 crazies from this year’s archives.

Head over to the National Memo to read their top choices–it’s worth clicking the link just to see the illustration at the top of the article.

Here’s a WTF story for you from PC Magazine: Twitter Criticized For Hiring White Male as New Diversity Chief.

The microblogging service this week announced that Jeffrey Siminoff will join the company to lead global diversity and inclusion at Twitter. Siminoff has an impressive resume as Apple’s former Director of Worldwide Inclusion and Diversity, but there’s just one problem, according to critics: He’s a white male.

His appointment was criticized by diversity supporters such as Mark S. Luckie, who doesn’t seem to have a problem with Siminoff himself, but said it “makes no sense” to hire a white male for the role.

“Not saying a white guy can’t be head of diversity but for a company that hires a majority white guys it sends the wrong message,” Luckie wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “I’m sure he’s a great guy but you’ve set the company back instead of moving it forward”….

Twitter last year said its workforce is 70 percent male and 30 percent female. Fifty nine percent of its employees are white, while 29 percent are Asian. African-Americans, Latinos, and people of other ethnicities represent just a fraction of those numbers.

Why is Chris Cillizza writing for a major newspaper?

Washington Post: I said Hillary Clinton had the ‘Worst Year in Washington.’ Here’s why.

I write a weekly column awarding someone — usually a political figure — the “Worst Week in Washington.” It’s just what it sounds like. At the end of the year, I write one big piece about who had the “Worst Year in Washington.” President Obama won it in 2013 and 2014.  This year, I named co-winners: Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.

Outrage!

How could I compare Jeb(!) with Hillary, people screamed. One is barely relevant in the presidential race; the other is a clear front-runner for her party’s nomination. Naming Clinton as a co-winner was either evidence of my “both sides do it” obsession or the latest example of me being just plain dumb.

Roughly 1 billion people sent me this tweet from ESPN’s Nate Silver, which provided further proof of my (a) bias or (b) stupidity.

Hillary Clinton, whose chances of becoming the 45th president have risen from ~35% to ~55%, has probably had the best year in Washington.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 24, 2015

It’s possible, of course, that I am biased, dumb or maybe a little bit of both. But let me explain why I picked Clinton and why I stand by it.

You’re biased, stupid, ignorant, moronic, out-of-touch, and the ultimate Villager, Chris. Read Cillizza’s convoluted defense of his stupidity at the link.

This news just broke at Politico: Two of Carson’s top aides resign.

Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts both resigned, effective immediately, on Thursday. “Barry Bennett and I have resigned from the Carson campaign effective immediately,” Watts said in a statement. “We respect the candidate and we have enjoyed helping him go from far back in the field to top tier status.”

The announcement comes as Carson has struggled to halt a dramatic slide in his poll numbers as doubts arose about his grasp of foreign policy issues and the accuracy of his personal narrative.

TPM: Donald Trump Offers Passionate Defense Of Aerosol Hair Spray In South Carolina.

At the sold out campaign event in Hilton Head, South Carolina, Trump lobbed an attack at President Obama’s action on climate change, saying Obama still flies on “a very old Air Force One…spewing stuff” despite being concerned about his carbon footprint.

“You can’t use hair spray, because hair spray is going to affect the ozone,” the billionaire mogul told crowd.

He continued, pausing to pantomime spraying and styling his shag carpet-like hair: “I’m in my room, in New York City, and I want to put a little spray…but I hear they don’t want me to use hairspray, they want me to use the pump.”

The presidential candidate very much prefers aerosol hair spray to “the pump” version, which he said “comes out in big globs and it’s stuck in your hair and you say, ‘oh my god, I’ve gotta take a shower again because my hair’s all screwed up.’”

Trump also contended that using aerosol hair products in his “sealed” apartment can’t cause harm to the environment.

“I’m sitting in this concealed apartment, this concealed unit – you know, I really do live in a very nice apartment – but it’s sealed! It’s beautiful! I don’t think anything gets out,” he concluded.

Aerosol cans haven’t contained ozone-damaging chemicals since the late 1970s, when the Environmental Protection Agency imposed regulations on the products, but other chemicals in the cans do raise your carbon footprint “ever so slightly,” according to Scientific American. Trump has also railed against EPA water regulations for ruining his signature hairdo.

I have to wonder why all those gun-toting, manly white men who follow Trump don’t find him a little effeminate talking about his hairdo all the time.

In the same speech Trump babbled a lot of nonsense about how women supposedly don’t like Hillary Clinton. Politico:

The real estate mogul told the Hilton Head crowd that Clinton has been hitting him “really hard with the women card, OK? Really hard.”

“And I had to say, OK, that’s enough. That’s enough. And we did a strong number. She’s not going to win,” Trump said, reiterating that “I love” the concept of a female president, but it “can’t be her.” ….

Hillary Clinton is “horrible,” Trump continued. “But I’ll tell you who doesn’t like Hillary are women. Women don’t like Hillary. I see it all the time,” he proclaimed to cheers in the audience. (The latest national CNN poll found that 82 percent of female registered Democrats have a favorable opinion of Clinton, while 15 percent have an unfavorable view.)

The former secretary of state is “always so theatrical” when she criticizes him, Trump observed, mimicking Clinton for saying “Mr. Trump said this and that and this.”

“I shouldn’t do it. I just have to turn off the television sometimes. She just gives me a headache,” Trump said, before remarking, “Although last night I think I gave her a big headache.

Hillary would swat Trump like an annoying mosquito.

Washington Post: How Rubio helped his ex-con brother-in-law acquire a real estate license.

When Marco Rubio was majority whip of the Florida House of Representatives, he used his official position to urge state regulators to grant a real estate license to his brother-in-law, a convicted cocaine trafficker who had been released from prison 20 months earlier, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.

In July 2002, Rubio sent a letter on his official statehouse stationery to the Florida Division of Real Estate, recommending Orlando Cicilia “for licensure without reservation.” The letter, obtained by The Washington Post under the Florida Public Records Act, offers a glimpse of Rubio using his growing political power to assist his troubled brother-in-law and provides new insight into how the young lawmaker intertwined his personal and political lives.

Rubio did not disclose in the letter that Cicilia was married to his sister, Barbara, or that the former cocaine dealer was living at the time in the same West Miami home as Rubio’s parents. He wrote that he had known Cicilia “for over 25 years,” without elaborating.

I actually don’t have a problem with ex-cons getting jobs. I hear Obama is thinking of issuing an executive order to prevent employers from asking about criminal records. I don’t think this will hurt Rubio much.

More links:

New York Times: Donald Trump’s Strongest Supporters: A Certain Kind of Democrat. (Spoiler: they are people registered as Dems who call themselves Repubs and they are mostly in the South.)

Think Progress: Another Texas Republican Under Fire For Rape ‘Joke.’

Texas Observer: Jonathan Stickland’s Pot Antics are Comical. His Views on Rape are Terrifying.

ABC News: Man Charged With Arson in Houston Mosque Fire says he was a member of the congregation.

CNN: Donald Trump doesn’t understand what ‘sexism’ is.

Des Moines Register: Jeb Bush cancels Iowa TV buy, shifts money to ground game.

What stories are you following?

Extra Lazy Saturday Afternoon After Christmas

Good Afternoon!!

So . . . I was looking for stories to post about and . . . I fell asleep for a really long time.

Sigh . . .Could my fear of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee be doing this to me? And of course there’s the fear of Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee.

Then I’d have to read about Republicans attacking Sanders as a “commie” and “socialist,” and we could end up with a fascist, racist, clown as president of the U.S. Please tell me I’m imagining things. Tell me I’m in a nightmare I can wake up from.

Some GOP voters in New Hampshire are “terrified” of Trump as their nominee and they’re trying to figure out which of the clowns in the clown car they should vote for instead.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Raw Story: ‘I’m terrified he’s going to be our nominee’: New Hampshire GOP voters horrified by Trump popularity.

In recent weeks, [Chris] Christie has gained support in New Hampshire, the state where he has focused his campaign. Two recent polls have placed him in fourth place there, with 11 percent support — just behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rubio, who were between 12 percent and 14 percent in the polls. Donald Trump led, with 26 percent in one poll and 32 percent in another.

A number of voters at Christie’s events expressed worry over a Trump win.

“I’m terrified he’s going to be our nominee,” said Chris Freiberger, 58, of Manchester. “I think he’s a buffoon, I really do.”

Freiberger, a bank chief information officer, had narrowed his list to Christie, Rubio, and Cruz but feared he would confront a “lesser of two evils” decision between Trump and Clinton.

So there are people who see Chris Christie as a more reasonable alternative to Trump! This is the political world we are living in these days.

I missed this Trump attack on Hillary on Xmas eve. From the Hill:

Trump campaign: Hillary bullied women to hide Bill’s ‘sexist secrets.’

In an interview late Wednesday on CNN, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson unloaded on Clinton and her campaign, returning fire after Clinton condemned Trump’s “penchant for sexism.”

“What you have on Hillary Clinton’s side are a bunch of people, including women — liberal women — who want to run around talking about the war on women,” Pierson said. “They want to burn their bras and complain about equal pay and be treated as men, and the second they get criticized for anything they start acting like 9-year-old little girls.”

According to Pierson, her candidate’s use of the word “schlonged” to describe Clinton’s loss to Obama in 2008 wasn’t offensive.

“You know, no one really complained in 2011 when he used the exact same word to describe a woman winning an election cycle… and so all of a sudden it’s horrible,” Pierson said. “But Hillary Clinton has some nerve to talk about the war on women and the bigotry toward women when she has a serious problem in her husband.”

According to some polls, more than 40 percent of GOP voters support this garbage.

Also from The Hill, Brent Budowsky says Hillary is tough enough to beat the bully.

Beyond the issue of Trump’s destructive comments about Muslims, and his bizarre but revealing bromance with Putin, is how Clinton showed woman and others how to deal with bullies such as the real estate tycoon.

When the former first lady addressed herself to girls who have been bullied, as she did on Tuesday, she demonstrated a warmth, compassion and sensitivity that was worthy of a president as she advised them to stand up for their rights.

When Clinton addresses Trump, who provides the gold standard for low-end bullying in American public life, she provides the gold standard of toughness, firmness and resolve that is needed to lead the nation in a hard and tough world.

Trump has insulted, berated and demeaned women, repeatedly using terms such as fat slobs and bimbos. He even dished personal insults against the highly respected Fox News host Megyn Kelly, whom I strongly supported and applauded in a column earlier in the campaign. If Trump ever tried to make these statements about women in a presidential debate with Clinton standing across the stage, she would administer some serious schooling that he would remember for the rest of his life.

Actually, I think Bernie Sanders would be able to stand up to Trump too, but he would never be able to beat Trump in the Southern or many Western states. Back to Budowsky’s piece:

Trump may fool many Republican voters. He may fool many in the mainstream media who persist in claiming that his tactics are working, when a basic RealClearPolitics search tells the truth of the story, which is that Hillary Clinton might well administer serious punishment to Donald Trump and Republicans in a general election.

Bullies need to be put in their place, with the kind of strength, resolve and character that the former secretary of State has shown in the way she takes charge in the campaign against Trump. And Trump knows Clinton has gotten the better of him, which is why he is reduced to vulgar, sexist and offensive comments as she stands her ground.

Trump can cite his poll numbers all he wants, but it must drive him up a Christmas tree to know that the woman who would become the first female U.S. president will, according to polls, beat him to a pulp in the general election if the GOP is suicidal enough to nominate him.

This story is just plain weird. Could Bernie Sanders really believe this?

Tom Boggioni (T-Bogg) of Raw Story: Sanders campaign hints ‘hacker’ who accessed Clinton data may have been a DNC plant.

In an interview with Yahoo Politics, an adviser to the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders hinted that the data breach that resulted in the campaign losing access to the DNC servers may have been the result of a employee planted in the campaign by the DNC.

Following the controversy that saw Sanders staffers blocked from accessing some of their own voter data after it was revealed that proprietary information belonging to the Clinton campaign was being viewed, the Sanders campaign apologized and fired the “hacker,” national data director, Josh Uretsky.

However an unnamed adviser to the Vermont independent’s campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination is suggesting that Uretsky maybe have been a plant by both the DNC and the technology company that hosts the data.

“It’s not as if we conjured this guy Josh from thin air. This is an individual … who was recommended to us by the DNC and NGP VAN,” the adviser said.

Is Sanders buying into conspiracy theories now? I hope not. I can’t imagine the DNC would use such a roundabout technique to hurt Sanders when he is already far behind Clinton and she already has enough super delegates to beat him at the convention anyway.

Here’s the original story at Yahoo News: The Sanders campaign is taking its fight with the DNC to the next level.

The dustup over a data breach that briefly erupted in the Democratic presidential primary last week isn’t over as far as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his team are concerned.

In a conversation with Yahoo News, a top Sanders campaign adviser made a series of explosive allegations about how the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and a political technology company that works with the party handled the incident. According to the Sanders adviser, the DNC and NGP VAN, a firm that has a contract with the party organization to operate a voter file, have responded to the data breach by “leaking information” and “stonewalling an investigation” into the matter.

“We have demanded a full investigation from top to bottom,” the Sanders adviser said.

Sanders’ adviser noted that a lawsuit the campaign filed in federal court about the data breach last Friday, Dec. 18, is still ongoing, and described it as an attempt to get answers despite the party’s lack of cooperation.

Oh brother. All we need is an ugly battle within the Democratic Party.

There’s been another attack on a mosque, this time in Houston.

Houston Chronicle: Mosque catches fire in southwest Houston.

Smoke rising from across the parking lot of a southwest Houston strip center caught Abdul Hafiz’s attention as he sipped a cup of tea and chatted with friends at a restaurant Friday afternoon.

The source was the Savoy Mosque, where Hafiz had finished his afternoon prayer a bit earlier. Hafiz and a few other men rushed over to the mosque, banging on the glass door as thick, dark smoke billowed around them.

“Thank God there was no one inside,” Hafiz said.

It took about 80 firefighters to extinguish the two-alarm blaze that began around 2:45 p.m. at the small mosque, a storefront in the Savoy Plaza, near Wilcrest Drive and West Bellfort Avenue. Arson investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire.

Members of the mosque said images from several digital surveillance cameras in the worship center had been turned over to investigators. Although they hope it was not a case of arson, members said they were baffled about what might have caused the fire. It is only about three years old and well-maintained, they said.

KHOU reports that ATF Says Cause of fire at Houston mosque is suspicious.

An ATF spokesperson has confirmed the cause of a two-alarm fire at a southwest Houston mosque does appear to be suspicious, because the fire had multiple points of origin.

Investigators said they are looking through surveillance video to see if cameras captured a potential suspect.

Firefighters with the Houston Fire Department initially responded to the fire at the Masjid mosque Friday afternoon.

The fire was put out shortly after crews arrived on the scene and no injuries were reported.

There is no word on the amount of damage to the mosque, but officials said several other businesses in the shopping center were damaged by the heavy smoke.

Christmas Eve Reads

Mass. Ave, Arlington Center near my Dentist’s office.

Happy Christmas Eve to one and all!

I forgot today was Thursday–not a good start for the day. I’m feeling more discombobulated than usual this holiday season. I’m not a big fan of “the holidays;” I find this time of year very stressful. Sometimes I wish I could just hide in the house until it’s all over. In fact, I’ve been doing that as much as possible.

Yesterday I had to go to the dentist, which is on Massachusetts Avenue–the main drag that stretches from the Western suburbs all the way down through North Cambridge and Harvard Square into downtown Boston and beyond. I’ve put some photos of Mass. Ave.  in this post just for the hell of it. I’ve been so used to going to my cosmetic dentist long beach office that this visit was a little unsettling.

Anyway, Mass Ave. in my town–Arlington–was filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic yesterday. I can only imagine what it is like today. I had to sit in my car for a good 15 minutes before some kind soul finally let me out of my parking space; and then I sat in traffic, inching along until I could get to a side street to bypass all the cars and get to OttawaTintingZone.ca to maintain my car.

I was afraid to go to the supermarket, but I needed milk; so I went to the corner deli–on Mass. Ave in Arlington Heights, where I live. It was a battle to find a parking space and the store was crowded, of course. But I finally made it home.

Mass. Ave. Arlington Heights

I have to go over to my brother’s house in Cambridge for dinner tonight; and when I get back here, I’m going to stay inside till the whole commercialized mess. At least I don’t have to cook dinner for a bunch of people or spend a whole day with my vast extended family.

So I guess I sound like the Grinch–sorry. I wouldn’t even mind if people treated Christmas as a spiritual, family-centered occasion, but it seems to be all about buying things these days.

Of course there’s not a whole lot of exciting news today, but I have a few links for you to check out if you get some free time today.

USA Today: Severe storms, floods for Southeast as deadly storm rolls east.

A violent storm system blamed for at least seven deaths in the South from heavy rain, high winds and several tornadoes has weakened, but still threatens more severe weather Thursday — including possible twisters — from the mid-Atlantic to the Southeast and Gulf Coast.

Heavy rain is causing flash floods Thursday in portions of Georgia, including the Atlanta area. Flood watches have also been posted for portions of North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. This includes Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, four people died in Mississippi, 2 in Tennessee and 1 in Arkansas.

NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch until mid-morning for portions of Georgia and southeast Alabama.

The National Weather Service said isolated severe thunderstorms were also possible Thursday from parts of the Mid-Atlantic states southwestward to the central Gulf.

Thursday night, the danger area will include parts of the lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys to East Texas, according to the NWS.

Wednesday’s storm produced at least 15 tornadoes in six states, according to Dr. Greg Forbes of The Weather Channel, with most hitting northern Mississippi.

Mass. Ave. East Arlington

Stay safe if you live down that way!

On Tuesday, the U.S. blocked a British Muslim family from boarding a plane to Los Angeles. The Guardian reported:

A British Muslim family heading for Disneyland was barred from boarding a flight to Los Angeles by US authorities at London’s Gatwick airport amid concerns of an American overreaction to the perceived terrorist threat.

US Department of Homeland Security officials provided no explanation for why the country refused to allow the family of 11 to board the plane even though they had been granted travel authorization online ahead of their planned 15 December flight.

Senior politicians have been drawn into the case, warning that a growing number of British Muslims are being barred from the US without being told the reason for their exclusion.

“Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear UK Muslims are being ‘trumped’ – that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice,”Creasy writes in an article for the Guardian. She said she was in contact with at least one other constituent who had had a similar experience….

The family planned to visit cousins in southern California and go to Disneyland and Universal Studios, but they were turned away by US officials while at the departure lounge.

Mass. Ave. Harvard Square

It turns out the reason for this may have been a Facebook page posted by someone who previously lived at the family’s address. The Daily Mail:

Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, 41, his brother and their children, aged between eight and 19, said they were stopped at the departure gate at Gatwick airport and told their visas to the US had been revoked.

He claimed the family were barred from flying ‘because they are Muslim’.

However, it has since emerged that a Facebook page claiming links to radical Islamist groups was set up by someone who has lived at the family’s postal address, according to ITV News.

The account, which includes information suggesting it may have been published as a joke, was in the name of Hamza Hussain – a first name shared by Mr Mahmood’s 18-year-old son. It reportedly lists the job titles ‘supervisor at Taliban and leader at al-Qaeda’.

When asked about the account, Mr Mahmood believed hackers may have been to blame, adding: ‘That could be anything, maybe a mistake.’

He said: ‘It is not my son’s Facebook page. It has a similar name, but not the same as my son’s.

‘The page is also linked to our home address and that could be coincidence. I don’t know why it is linked there.

We’ll probably be learning more about this soon.

Mass. Ave. Downtown Boston

In immigration news, NPR reports: U.S. Planning Operation To Deport Central American Families.

The United States is planning an operation to deport recently-arrived Central American families who have ignored removal orders from immigration judges, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the plan.

The operation would at least in part affect Central Americans who fled violence in their home countries but were denied asylum in the United States.

Details of the operation were first reported by the Washington Post, which says that the raids could begin as early as January and will target the more than 100,000 families with both adults and children who have crossed the border illegally since last year.

In a statement, Gillian Christensen, press secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, did not dispute the Post‘s reporting. She said that as part of a new strategy announced in November 2014, ICE has prioritized its deportations to people who “pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security.”

That priority, Christensen added, includes recent border crossers.

“As Secretary Johnson has consistently said, our border is not open to illegal immigration, and if individuals come here illegally, do not qualify for asylum or other relief, and have final orders of removal, they will be sent back consistent with our laws and our values,” Christensen said.

Mass. Ave. in the South End

The administrators at Irving Middle School in Idaho don’t seem to have the Christmas spirit, but they may be buckling under to those who do. USA Today: School lunch lady feeds hungry kid, gets fired.

Dalene Bowden’s response when a 12-year-old at Idaho’s Irving Middle School told her she was hungry but didn’t have any money seemed like a no-brainer: The food service worker gave the girl a free hot meal.

In response, she received a letter of termination that called out her “theft of school district property and inaccurate transactions when ordering, receiving and serving food,” reports the Idaho State Journal.

Bowden says she offered to pay for the $1.70 lunch, but her supervisor wouldn’t accept her money. “I know I screwed up, but what are you supposed to do when the kid tells you that they’re hungry and they don’t have any money?” says Bowden, acknowledging she was once warned about giving a student a free cookie. “This is just breaking my heart.”

Now NBC News reports the school district on Wednesday night issued a press release saying that “in the spirit of the holidays,” it has extended “an opportunity for (Bowden) to return to employment.” The release suggested the termination wasn’t specifically because of the free meal (the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District “has not ever taken negative employment action against any food service worker due to a singular event of this nature”). But it cites state law as barring it from “commenting on the specifics regarding personnel matters.”

Of course the fight for the GOP nomination continues. A few links to read if you’re interested.

George Will is scared. If Trump wins the nomination, prepare for the end of the conservative party.

NY Daily News: Chris Christie, gunning for votes.

TPM: Carson Telegraphs Major Campaign Shake Up.

Politico: Rand Paul Won’t Do an Undercard Debate.

Matt Bai: Trump and the media, made for each other.

What else is happening?