Frank Rich on Carly Fiorina, Scott Walker and Trump......wonderful insight as always from the master of political analysis.....
Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: Carly Fiorina's rise, Scott Walker's fall, and Donald Trump being Donald Trump.
Carly Fiorina has risen faster than anyone in the Republican field since the last debate, while making a series of statements that have some commentators describing her "willful disregard ... or ignorance of reality." How do you explain her rise?
A willful disregard or ignorance of reality is hardly disqualifying in the GOP presidential sweepstakes! If nothing else, Fiorina’s fictional Planned Parenthood video suggests she might have more success cooking up gory B-movie scenarios in the San Fernando Valley than she had running Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley. In that real-life business horror story, Fiorina slashed 30,000 employees, not to mention shareholder value, while mismanaging what had been one of the most fabled corporations in American business.
A willful disregard or ignorance of reality is hardly disqualifying in the GOP presidential sweepstakes! If nothing else, Fiorina’s fictional Planned Parenthood video suggests she might have more success cooking up gory B-movie scenarios in the San Fernando Valley than she had running Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley. In that real-life business horror story, Fiorina slashed 30,000 employees, not to mention shareholder value, while mismanaging what had been one of the most fabled corporations in American business.
John Boehner has resigned, and as Paul Krugman notes this means trouble for us all, as the odds of the gub'ment being shut down is now much more likely because one of the crazies [probably Kevin McCarthy] will be Speaker.....
John Boehner was a terrible, very bad, no good speaker of the House. Under his leadership, Republicans pursued an unprecedented strategy of scorched-earth obstructionism, which did immense damage to the economy and undermined America’s credibility around the world.
Still, things could have been worse. And under his successor they almost surely will be worse. Bad as Mr. Boehner was, he was just a symptom of the underlying malady, the madness that has consumed his party.
For me, Mr. Boehner’s defining moment remains what he said and did as House minority leader in early 2009, when a newly inaugurated President Obama was trying to cope with the disastrous recession that began under his predecessor.
A really sad article from a VW diesel owner on how Volkswagen not only has screwed him and 11 million other diesel owners but has also broken his heart. He bought the car because it was a "green" thing to do - great gas mileage, and clean emissions.
But it's sad in other ways, because it's a blatant example of yet another giant corporation cheating and manipulating whatever systems we have left to bulk up their profits, at the expense of us all....and in this case at the expense of the planet. Eleven million VW diesels spewing 30 to 40 times the allowance of NO2 and other pollutants. For decades!
Folks - your motto going forward has to be - "trust, but verify"......especially in healthcare.....
THE day I went to pick up my new Volkswagen Jetta TDI in March 2009, the salesman had me sit in the driver’s seat while he introduced the car’s various features. The engine was softly idling, and as I reached to shut it off, he told me not to bother. The minimal amount of fuel this car burned — sipped, in the automotive argot — was its great selling point. That, and the almost complete removal of hazardous exhaust that had made earlier diesel vehicles notorious.
This was that new thing in the world, “clean diesel,” using ingenious German technology to keep nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions out of kids’ lungs, and low enough to meet even California’s stringent pollution standards. A committee of jurors, including the executive director of the Sierra Club and the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, had just called it the “Green Car of the Year.” A review in this newspaper described the Jetta TDI, persuasively, as “easy on money, fuel and the planet.”
A very good John Oliver look at the refugee crisis.....it's seventeen minutes, but worth the time as he has some great jokes in there.
If you have limited time watch the first three minutes to see how Fox News lies to and manipulates it's audience of stupids.....
John Oliver took on the heartbreaking stories of the Syrian refugee crisis Sunday night on Last Week Tonight.
Oliver began with an all out assault on Fox News for showing what they said was a new video online that “some” say makes people nervous about taking in refugees. The footage featured a packed public transit train with the crowd chanting “Allahu akbar” or “God is great” in Arabic. The caption reads below the video “Terrorists Inbound? Taking refugees could open door to jihadists.” The Fox News reporter said “those are reportedly Muslim refugees” and then goes on to say “to be clear, we’re not saying any of those people are terrorists or in any way affiliated with a terror group, but it does highlight just how many of these refugees who are fleeing violence in Iraq and Syria are Muslim.”
Fellow Floridians, or screwees we should say - a great article from Carl Hiaasen on how the $500 million initiative we all voted on [overwhelmingly] to buy Florida lands has not only not been spent, but squandered on other shit......
If this doesn't make you angry at their corruption and contempt for the voters, nothing will.......
Most embezzlers try to conceal their thefts, but not in Tallahassee. The looting of Florida’s Amendment One conservation funds took place in broad daylight, orchestrated by two poker-faced swindlers named Andy Gardiner and Steve Crisafulli.
Gardiner is president of the Senate. Crisafulli is speaker of the House. Remember their names, because they ripped you off big-time — and it will happen again next year, if they think they can get away with it.
More than 4 million Floridians voted last November to set aside 33 percent of the revenues from existing real-estate stamp taxes for buying conservation and recreation lands, and for the restoration of such areas already owned by the state.
The plan offered hope for the Everglades, the Indian River Lagoon and other places endangered by over-development and pollution.
Amendment One was approved by a landslide, an unprecedented mandate to protect what remains of Florida’s wetlands and wild places. And the Legislature, led by Gardiner and Crisafulli, responded with a bold statement of its own: Screw you, folks.
Gov. Rick Scott, of course, shoved his hands in his pockets and looked the other way.
How much did they steal? And where did it go?
Todays guy joke
A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk and if they have avocados, get 6.
A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.
The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?"
He replied, "They had avocados."
If you're a woman, I'm sure you're going back to read it again! Men will get it the first time.
My work is done here.
He replied, "They had avocados."
If you're a woman, I'm sure you're going back to read it again! Men will get it the first time.
My work is done here.
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