Open thread: White hoods, white men and intolerance

What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …

• White hoods, dunce caps and Paul Ryan, by Jon Perr


• Some country for rich old white men, by Dante Atkins


• Daily Kos Elections Senate Power Rankings, by Steve Singiser


• ‘Liberals are the intolerant ones,’ by Mark E Andersen


• Does your state get an ‘F’ for how it teaches the civil rights movement, by Denise Oliver Velez


• Thomas Perez: ‘Live in my world and you’ll see what a difference we can make,’ by Laura Clawson


• Democrats must run against Obamacare repeal. Not just for Obamacare. Against repeal, by Ian Reifowitz


• Charles Koch’s lament as the Harry Reid Kochtopia pushback begins, by Egberto Willies

Daily Kos

Open thread: White hoods, white men and intolerance

Midday open thread: Hate groups by geography, HTML as STD, submerged world cultural sites

• Today’s comic by Matt Bors is Crisis News:
  
  
  
  


• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook March 4:
  
  

  What Would Jesus Shoot? Kentucky Baptists giving away 25 guns to attract converts, by Lefty Coaster
  

  Apple Tells Limbaugh and His Ilk to Stick Their Money Where the Sun Don’t Shine, by ProgLegs

  
  

  MUST-SEE: Stephen Colbert debunks Obamacare horror stories with special guest, by BruinKid

  
  

  
  

• Hate groups thick in the South, but the largest numbers are in California:

Eleven Southern states are home to more than 500 groups that promote hate speech, according to a detailed breakdown by the Southern Poverty Law Center. But it’s California that is home to the largest number of organizations that preach hate, the center found.

The SPLC tracks 939 active groups that promote racial, ethnic or religious segregation or hate. The eight types of hate groups the center has identified include white nationalists, black separatists, neo-Confederates, Christian identity, skinheads, Ku Klux Klans and neo-Nazis, along with a handful of miscellaneous groups.

• What getting older will do to you:

At 42, I see movies differently than I did as a kid. Ferris Bueller is now the story of a hard-working principal just trying to do his job.
— @JElvisWeinstein

• Thank Warren Buffett for those exploding oil trains:

We’ve written a lot about the dangers of shipping extra-flammable oil in flimsy rail cars that are prone to puncture and explode. Turns out you can blame a fair bit of the problem on billionaire investor Warren Buffett. As the Sightline Institute’s blog reports, “Arguably, he is the single most important person in the world of oil-by-rail.”

It doesn’t take much scrutiny to see that oil trains get special treatment. After all, if a jet plane has a battery fire problem, regulators immediately pull it from service and will ground the entire fleet until the manufacturer makes modifications to reduce the risk of fire. If an auto regularly bursts into flame upon impact, the feds issue a recall and mandate retrofits for all the cars with the defect. Yet despite explosion after deadly explosion—and safety report after federal safety report—government regulators, at the urging of the industry groups that represent Buffett’s holdings, have allowed unsafe DOT-111s tank cars to haul crude oil and ethanol.

• 1 in 10 Americans think HTML is related to herpes:

A recent study found that many Americans are lost when it comes to tech-related terms, with 11% saying that they thought HTML — a language that is used to create websites — was a sexually transmitted disease. [...]

• 27% identified “gigabyte” as an insect commonly found in South America. A gigabyte is a measurement unit for the storage capacity of an electronic device. [...] • 23% thought an “MP3″ was a “Star Wars” robot. It is actually an audio file.
• 18% identified “Blu-ray” as a marine animal. It is a disc format typically used to store high-definition videos.

• Steve Stockman’s “uncampaign” ends in unelection:

The Stockman campaign defied convention, often spectacularly so. He made what the Dallas Morning News called a “rare public appearance” on January 14, and then he disappeared. He wasn’t seen for days, during which time he missed 17 consecutive votes and his House office refused to say where he was. Then his staff switched gears, revealing that he had been in Russia, Egypt, and Israel and chiding American reporters for not paying attention to a press conference he’d held overseas. He came back in time for the State of the Union, only to theatrically storm out midway through.

His campaign office was literally condemned. His staff, such as it was, refused to alert reporters to upcoming public events, which may have been because there weren’t any.

• Hundreds of world cultural sites headed for Davy Jones’s Locker:

According to a new analysis published in Environmental Research Letters, roughly 136 of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s 720 World Heritage Sites, including the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, the Tower of London, and much of Riga, Naples, Venice, and St. Petersburg, will be underwater within the next 2000 years. That’s assuming just a 3-degree Celsius temperature increase over that time period (a full list of the sites is available in the paper).

• $ 30 million worth of buried gold coins not a mint heist says agent for finders. Here is a comment from a mint representative saying the same. Here is a newspaper story about the robbery. Check out the date.

“We’ve got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we’d be going after it.” Richard Kelly, who wrote a book on the San Francisco Mint, sees a further issue with the dates of the uncovered coins—they’re stamped 1847 to 1894, and he thinks ones taken from the mint would be dated nearer to 1901.

“We assume from the times and all the records that they were new coins [taken]. Back then, once coins were printed they flew out of the mint.”

• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, it’s Joan McCarter day! Topics: Bachmann haz a sad about Jews; CIA watches their watchers; GunFAIL “Where Are They Now?”; AMA, minimum wage, immigration roundup; Reid vs Koch & Lindsey Graham’s Benghazi freakout.

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: Hate groups by geography, HTML as STD, submerged world cultural sites

Midday open thread: EPA rules on sulfur in gasoline, okaying guns in Indiana school parking lots

• Today’s comic by Tom Tomorrow is A job for IHOTFM-Man!
  
  
  
  


• Here is what you missed on Sunday:
  

  
  

  • Sociopathic stance on Obamacare would be fatal to GOP if successful, by Egberto Willies
  
  
  • The Oscars 2014, by Dr. RJ
  
  
  • Steampunk Planet, by DarkSyde
  
  
  • Books: McKibben’s ‘Oil and Honey’ and Benfield’s ‘People Habitat’, by Susan Gardner
  
  
  • Egads, it sure is terrible when SOMEONE ELSE starts wars with trumped-up excuses, by Kos
  
  
  • How Republicans will try to block new tests for fetal disorders, by Jon Perr
  
  
  • The Republican Party’s transparent agenda of class warfare, by Laurence Lewis
  
  
  • Economic conservatives take religious conservatives for suckers, by Ian Reifowitz
  
  
  • The surrender of the left? Activism and electoral politics, by Armando
  
  
  • Women’s History: Native Americans, by Denise Oliver Velez
  
  

  
  


• Sulfur reduction in gasoline another EPA rule for right-wingers to bellyache about:
  

  The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday released a rulemaking to lower the amount of sulfur in gasoline and significantly reduce air pollution from automobile emissions.
  

  According to EPA, the rule will slash atmospheric concentrations of smog and soot by requiring refiners to cut back on sulfur concentrations by more than 60 percent in gasoline blends. The standards also set limits on tailpipe emissions from automobiles.

  
  

  “These standards are a win for public health, a win for our environment, and a win for our pocketbooks,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. “We’re continuing to build on the Obama Administration’s broader clean fuels and vehicles efforts that cut carbon pollution, clean the air we breathe, and save families money at the pump.”

  
  

  
  


• 12 Years a Slave, the rest of the Oscars:
  

  “I’d like to thank this amazing story,” said Steve McQueen, the British-born filmmaker who grasped a prize that has eluded African-American directors and their movies since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave its first Oscars in 1929.
  

  “Everyone deserves not just to survive, but to live,” said Mr. McQueen, who dedicated the film to those who had endured slavery, both in the past and in the present.

  
  

  
  


• A corrected tweet and the tweet seen ’round the world breaks Obama’s record.


• How low can you go? Two arrested for armed robbery of woman in labor.


• Indiana poised to allow guns in school parking lots:
  

  Supporters of the measure say it would protect parents who inadvertently commit a felony by bringing their guns while picking up their children. Opponents worry easier access to guns could promote school shootings.

  
  


• Europe’s floods could quadruple by 2050:
  

  The UK has been hit hard by major flooding over the last few months, weather one Met Office scientist called the “most exceptional period of rainfall in 248 years.” Now, new research says extreme floods could become more common in Europe by 2050, causing the financial losses from these weather events to quadruple.
  

  The study, published Sunday in Nature Climate Change, found that instances of very extreme floods now occur around once every 50 years in Europe but could shorten to every 30 years by 2050, and that instances of extreme weather-related damage that now occur every 16 years could occur every 10. That means that Europe’s financial losses related to flooding, which now total about 4.9 billion euros a year, could increase almost 380 percent to 23.5 billion euros by 2050.

  
  

  
  


• Green Trans-Pacific Partnership? Hahahahahahaha:
  

  So in a hearing on Jan 28, Rep Mark Pocan (D-WI) asked Michael Froman—the US Trade Rep running the TPP show—about the environmental standards in TPP. Froman listed four areas in TPP that were “absolutely non-negotiable from a US standpoint,” including “tough new environmental standards.”
  

  When the meeting ended, Pocan asked “So does that mean that if we give you fast track, you won’t send us a deal that doesn’t have that stuff in it?’ At which point, we learned that the US Trade Rep uses a highly specialized meaning for the phrase “absolutely non-negotiable,” meaning “totally up for grabs,” because he immediately said, “I didn’t say that.”

  
  

  
  


• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up Ukraine stories, Forbes discovers corporate citizenship. “When May I Shoot a Student?” Douthat’s “surrender.” Was Christie supposed to “save” Ft. Lee? Bunnygirl60′s Obamacare small biz goldmine.
  

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: EPA rules on sulfur in gasoline, okaying guns in Indiana school parking lots

Midday open thread: Feds lackadaisical about oil-field safety, oldest Holocaust survivor dead at 110

• Today’s comic by Tom Tomorrow is The gun:
  
  
  
  


• What you missed on Sunday Kos …
  
  

  
  

  • Goldilocks Old Party: Making the laws just right, by Mark Sumner
  
  
  • Should it be unfettered capitalism for the masses or real free enterprise?, by Egberto Willies
  
  
  • Hillary Clinton and a left flank: How a Clinton presidency could redefine progressive governance, by Armando
  
  
  • Black History is American history: Books you should read, by Denise Oliver Velez
  
  
  • Race and murder in America from the time of Jefferson Davis to Jordan Davis, by Ian Reifowitz
  
  

  
  


• The disrespectful silence of Clarence Thomas: Not one question in eight years:
  

  As for Thomas, he is physically transformed from his infamous confirmation hearings, in 1991—a great deal grayer and heavier today, at the age of sixty-five. He also projects a different kind of silence than he did earlier in his tenure. In his first years on the Court, Thomas would rock forward, whisper comments about the lawyers to his neighbors Breyer and Kennedy, and generally look like he was acknowledging where he was. These days, Thomas only reclines; his leather chair is pitched so that he can stare at the ceiling, which he does at length. He strokes his chin. His eyelids look heavy. Every schoolteacher knows this look. It’s called “not paying attention.”

  
  


• Eric Cantor: cheerleader for perpetual war:
  

  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor gave a speech last week at the Virginia Military Institute that left little doubt about his foreign-policy agenda: more wars of choice.
  

  Rob Golan-Villela of The National Interest is right: “Cantor’s FP speech is basically a mashup of every hawkish cliche and bit of threat inflation you’ve ever heard.” Cantor gives no hint of having learned anything from the mistakes of the aughts, and taking his advice would come at great cost in American blood and treasure.

  
  

  
  


• Oldest known Holocaust survivor dies at 100: Alice Herz-Sommer, thought to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust, died in London on Sunday morning at the age of 110. A book of her memories, A Century of Wisdom, by Caroline Stoessinger, with a foreward by Vaclav Havel, was published in 2012. She was born in 1903 in Prague to a family of intellectuals and musicians. As a child, she spent weekends and holidays in the company of Franz Kafka, whom she knew as “Uncle Franz.” Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Freud and Rainer Maria Rilke were friends of her mother. In 1943, she and her family were transported to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt where her mother, husband and friends were murdered by the Nazis. After the war, she moved with her son to Israel. Golda Meir attended her house concerts, as did Arthur Rubinstein, Leonard Bernstein and Isaac Stern. As recently as two years ago, in her London home, she still practiced piano for hours every day.


• Wisconsin supreme court justices will decide on criminal probe of their own campaign donors:
  

  A criminal probe in Wisconsin targets several major spenders on state supreme court races. Yet the justices who benefited from that spending will likely get to decide whether this probe moves forward.
  

  Wisconsin prosecutors have been conducting a 2011-2012 campaign finance investigation targeting Republican candidates in the 2011 and 2012 recall elections and interest groups that spent money to support them. Though some targets of the investigation have not been publicly named, two business groups and a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker (R) have been named as targets.

  
  

  
  


• Houston Chronicle uncovers scandalous government inattention in oil-field safety:
  

  The boom that has brought prosperity to Texas has left a trail of death and devastation for many of the more than 100,000 workers in oil and gas exploration-related jobs. The death toll peaked at 65 in 2012—a 10-year high and 50 percent more than in 2011. Nationwide, 663 workers in oil field-related industries were reported killed in the drilling and fracking boom from 2007 to 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 40 percent died in Texas.[...]
  

  The federal government has failed for 22 years to implement safety standards and procedures for onshore oil and gas drilling, even as offshore accidents such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico prompted officials to improve already stringent regulations governing offshore drilling.

  
  

  
  

  Of those accidents the Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration did investigate, 78 percent were found to involve safety violations.



• Oldest French outpost in North America was in what is now Georgia, not Florida?
  

  In an announcement that could rewrite the book on early colonization of the New World, two researchers today said they have proposed a location for the oldest fortified settlement ever found in North America. Speaking at an international conference on France at Florida State University, the pair announced that they have proposed a new location for Fort Caroline, a long-sought fort built by the French in 1564.
  

  “This is the oldest fortified settlement in the present United States,” said Florida State University alumnus and historian Fletcher Crowe. “This fort is older than St. Augustine, considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in America. It’s older than the Lost Colony of Virginia by 21 years; older than the 1607 fort of Jamestown by 45 years; and predates the landing of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts in 1620 by 56 years.”

  
  

  
  

  Not everybody agrees. Especially the people, including other scholars, who say the fort was established at present-day Jacksonville, Florida.



• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up the weekend’s world events, health care pricing, the minimum wage fight, and different social media platforms affect news story reactions. Changes at Heritage. How procedure can drive politics.
  

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: Feds lackadaisical about oil-field safety, oldest Holocaust survivor dead at 110

Midday open thread: Bill tweet-teases Dubya, U.S. ivory sales banned

• Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is The dignity of work:
  
  
  
  


• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook Feb. 17:
  
  

  1 in 4 Americans don’t think Earth revolves around the Sun, by BruinKid
  

  A Common Thread Among Young-Earth Creationists, Gun Enthusiasts, Marriage Exclusivists, and the 1%, by GrafZeppelin127

  
  

  Winners of Prestigious Journalism Award Afraid to Travel to U.S. to Accept It, by David Harris Gershon

  
  

  
  

• The deadline to submit a proposal for a panel, training or Screening Series session for Netroots Nation 2014 is Wednesday (Feb. 19). The full guidelines and submission form are at www.netrootsnation.org/proposals. The conference is July 17-20 in Detroit.


• Big Dog gently needles Dubya: Late on Presidents Day, former President Bill Clinton teased his successor, George W. Bush, for not being on Twitter.

Happy #PresidentsDay – to #44 (@BarackObama), #43 (#HowAreYouNotOnTwitter?), #41 (@GeorgeHWBush), & #39. #PresidentialTweeters
— @billclinton

Among the thousands of retweeters was President Barack Obama.

• Disgraced former Congressman Mel Reynolds busted in Zimbabwe for pornography:

He brought several Zimbabwean models and other women to his hotel room where he took photographs and videos, the newspaper reported. [...]

Reynolds complained that he was not expecting such treatment when he had brought investors to the country, according to the newspaper. He said he had been to Zimbabwe 17 times and had called for U.S. sanctions to be dropped against President Robert Mugabe and his top associates.

This is the latest of several legal problems for Reynolds, an Illinois Democrat, who once was a Rhodes scholar. Reynolds resigned from his congressional seat in 1995 after he was convicted of 12 counts of statutory rape, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. While in prison he was also convicted of bank and campaign fraud. He was in jail until his sentence was commuted by President Bill Clinton in Jan. 2001.

• An untoppable obit for Bill Eves:

After his retirement he pursued some of his many hobbies including cooking, carpentry, gardening and sending daily joke emails to family and friends. Perhaps most important to Bill was educating people on the dangers of holding in your farts. Sadly, he was unable to attain his life-long goal of catching his beloved wife Judy “cutting the cheese” or “playing the bum trumpet”—which he likened to a mythical rarity like spotting Bigfoot or a unicorn. He also mastered the art of swearing while being splattered by grease cooking his famous wings. In fact, he wove tapestry of obscenities that still hangs over the Greater Kingston Area

• Can creationist junk bonds keep Ken Ham’s Noah’s Ark theme park afloat?


• Having been told FDR died Monday, people offer condolences on TV:

Jimmy Kimmel sent a crew to get reactions to the “news” that Franklin Delano Roosevelt died yesterday. Big surprise: plenty of people wanted to be on teevee despite having no idea what they were talking about.

• Obama administration will prohibit most ivory sales. The ban, which is part of a new National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking, is not as complete as at least one Congressman would like it to be, but it is a good deal stricter than before. The U.S. is the world’s second largest market for ivory:

This unprecedented action is in response to the escalating and highly organized wildlife trafficking crime that threatens the survival of the African elephant, rhinoceros and a host of other species around the world.

“We are seeing record high demand for wildlife products that is having a devastating impact, with species like elephants and rhinos facing the risk of significant decline or even extinction.” said [Secretary of Interior] Sally Jewell. “A commercial ban is a critical element in the President’s strategy to stop illegal wildlife trafficking and to shut down criminal markets that encourage poaching.”

• Arkansas open carry advocates feel sure a new law endorses their position, but law enforcement disagrees, which is clearly tyranny. Armando on Hillary Clinton and 2016; Obama attacked over expansion of executive power.
  

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: Bill tweet-teases Dubya, U.S. ivory sales banned

Tuesday Open Thread – February 11th

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Tuesday Open Thread – February 11th

Open thread for night owls: Pushing back on the absurdities of U.S. presidential campaigns

The editors of The Nation announce Project 45:

American presidential election campaigns are absurd. Absurdly expensive. Absurdly long. Absurdly structured. And absurdly narrow in the range of ideas and options offered to a nation with an absurdly low level of voter participation. If ever there was a time to rethink how this country chooses its chief executive, this is it. And we don’t mean that in some rhetorical sense. We mean that this is the time, right now—two years before the first caucuses and primaries, thirty-three months before the November 2016 election names the forty-fifth president—to get serious about the process. That’s why The Nation is launching what we call “Project 45,” an initiative that refuses to accept the assumption that the 2016 campaign has to be dictated by insiders. We will identify and promote the reforms (and reformers) that offer the promise of a more open, inclusive and democratic process. Why worry about 2016 now, when there are so many other pressing issues? Because the power brokers who profit from our system’s many imperfections are busy locking down the next election. The Republican National Committee voted in January to compress and control the schedule of caucuses and primaries that will choose the party’s 2016 nominee; this is one part of a broad strategy to limit debate and undermine the ability of grassroots candidates to build momentum. The party also hopes to move its convention from late summer to as early as June. RNC chair Reince Priebus says he’s implementing “reforms to put Republican voters, not the liberal media, in the driver’s seat,” but that’s just the party line for public consumption. The GOP establishment’s real goal is to strengthen the hand of big money, and to make it easier for an acceptable candidate to prevail in the primaries, secure the nomination and maximize post-convention fundraising. And don’t think Democratic Party insiders won’t feel pressure to mirror that top-down strategy, especially if they sense that their nominating process might evolve into anything other than what former Montana governor—and potential candidate—Brian Schweitzer warns could be a “coronation” of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In its January 27 cover story, Time asked, “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?” The magazine’s conclusion was that “her unseen candidacy dominates the political galaxy.” So it’s settled, right? Let’s hope not. First of all, Clinton has yet to toss her smartphone into the ring. Those who “know” that she will might want to check with former President Mario Cuomo. Besides, even the most ardent “Ready for Hillary” campaigners should recognize that her party, her country and even her candidacy are ill served if she has no real competition. If 2016 is the year Republican bosses will control and amplify their party’s message as never before, and Democrats prepare for a Clinton coronation, then fresh ideas will be marginalized. That increases the likelihood that the campaign will be a money-drenched exercise in broadcast and digital character assassination that discourages participation and frustrates change. Faced with this prospect, progressives must focus on 2016 now in order to expand the debate and make real the promise of democracy. […] To be clear: this is not a “stop Hillary” exercise. We recognize the former secretary of state’s strengths, along with her appeal to millions of Americans who know it is time for a woman president, including many individuals and groups at the base of the Democratic Party. We understand that keeping the presidency out of right-wing Republican hands has value—especially when the forty-fifth president’s appointments could address the many crises created by the pro-corporate activism of the Supreme Court’s current majority. These understandings cannot, however, become an excuse to close off debate and limit options. So we will engage with and examine potential contenders like Schweitzer and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, prospects like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and any others who might emerge. Through it all, we will encourage primary competition that brings new ideas and new approaches into the process. Once the nominees are chosen, we will pay attention to serious independent and third-party candidates, who in the best tradition of Progressive Bob La Follette, Socialist Norman Thomas and Ralph Nader, present radical ideas that will eventually be viewed as common sense. We’ll draw attention to ballot access and debate access fights, recognizing that voters deserve a broad discourse, and that front-runners become better contenders—and better presidents—when they’re forced to expand their frame of reference. […]

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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Operation Rescue Offers $ 10,000 Bounty for Doctors:

We saw how this strategy played out in Kansas, with tragic consequences. Operation Rescue collects “evidence” of wrongdoing by abortion providers. It then lobbies law enforcement to investigate the “evidence.” In the case of Dr. Tiller, the organization found its ally in Phill Kline, now under investigation for ethics violations, who spent years investigating and intimidating Dr. Tiller and his clinic. Dr. Tiller was tried and acquitted of all charges, but that didn’t stop Operation Rescue from continuing to claim that Dr. Tiller had performed illegal abortions. When the law fails to hold abortion providers accountable for performing a legal medical procedure, Operation Rescue supplies information to an extremist who appears willing to take the law into his own hands, as Scott Roeder did. In his murder trial, Dr. Tiller’s assassin, Scott Roeder, claimed that his decision to murder Dr. Tiller was, in part, a result of the unsuccessful prosecution of Dr. Tiller.

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Tweet of the Day:

In new image from Mars Curiosity, Earth is an evening star http://t.co/… http://t.co/…
— @pourmecoffee

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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up Sochi news, CBO fallout (including the Jonathans Corner on the subject), and the future of quant vs. gut journalism. Armando brings a roll of pennies to add 2 cents at a time for further CVS & CBO discussion. Another mention of Sochi’s hacking problems then brings us to a trademarked (not really) KITM storyline merging exercise: Organized Crime, Legitimate Business, or Rival Political Party? You Make the Call.

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High Impact Posts. Top Comments.

Daily Kos

Open thread for night owls: Pushing back on the absurdities of U.S. presidential campaigns

Monday Open Thread – February 3rd

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Monday Open Thread – February 3rd

The People"s Official Chris Christie Scandal Thread

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The People"s Official Chris Christie Scandal Thread

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

• Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Comic: Nation of moochers:
  
  
  
  


• Rep. Sean Maloney will marry his long-time partner:
  

  With their marriage, Maloney will become the second member of Congress to legally wed his same-sex partner while in office. Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, became the first to do so in 2012.
  

  Maloney and [Randy] Florke, who have three adopted children and live in Cold Spring, New York, got engaged on Christmas Day.

  
  

  Their youngest daughter, Essie, wrote a letter to Santa earlier that week, asking if he can “try making my wonderful fathers get married.”

  
  

  
  


• Markos abandons politics for a few moments to write about cyclist “Fast Freddie” Rodriguez.


• Jerkwad NY Post columnist calls Newtown “a little convenient massacre”:
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Fredric Dicker, widely regarded as one of the most influential media voices in New York state politics, made the comment on his radio show Monday. He was speaking about gun control legislation passed by the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo.
  

  “That was his anti-gun legislation, which he had promised not to do, but then he had a little convenient massacre that went on in Newtown, Conn., and all of a sudden there was an opportunity for him,” Dicker said.

  
  

  
  

  When the backlash struck, Dicker did not apologize or back down. The rival NY Daily News featured Dicker on its front page Tuesday.



• Men supposedly cured of HIV by bone marrow transplant relapse:
  

  These two men were both HIV positive and had lymphoma, a type of cancer. They both received bone marrow transplants. Post-transplant they continued on their antiretroviral medicine (used to combat HIV) while the donor bone marrow cells engrafted. Researchers found that all traces of HIV in the patients vanished.
  

  They were followed and, in time, both patients stopped their antiretrovirals. They remained HIV free—or so everyone thought, since their viral loads were undetectable and no trace of HIV was found in peripheral blood cells.

  
  

  Unfortunately, over time, both relapsed and tests showed HIV was again (still) present.

  
  

  
  


• DEA let tech-savvy drug cartel do what it pleased:
  

  Catapults. “Jalapeños.” Dune buggies. $ 1 million subs. Sophisticated drug tunnels. Firetruck-sized industrial pipeline drills. These are just a few of the ingenious ways that Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, arguably the world’s largest, most powerful and technologically advanced organized crime syndicate, has tried to perfect the fine art of smuggling drugs into America. And to think, the US’s premier drug enforcement arm gave the Sinaloa a pass to do so largely unhindered during the bloodiest stretch of Mexico’s drug war.
  

  That’s the thrust of a landmark investigation by El Universal, which found that authorities with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the broader Department of Justice struck a deal with the Sinaloa, in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels. Citing court documents and extensive interviews with both Mexican and US officials familiar with the matter, El Universal reports that the US-Sinaloa arrangement lasted from 2000 to 2012.

  
  

  
  


• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook Jan. 13:
  
  

  WV: Freedom Industries Has Ties to Koch Brothers, by dharmafarmer
  

  “Like a Book Burning” The Canadian government is closing scientific libraries and destroying docs, by Pakalolo

  
  

  Inhofe Admits He Only Denies Climate Science Because He Doesn’t Like the Solutions, by TheGreenMiles

  
  

  
  


• Picking up seashells down by the seashore is an environmental problem:
  

  It’s a normal part of summer vacation: head to the beach, pick up a few seashells and take them home as keepsakes. But multiply this innocent activity by millions of tourists and we might have a big problem, researchers warn in PLOS ONE. Skyrocketing numbers of beachcombers are pocketing seashells, and the environmental effects could range from increased erosion to fewer building materials for bird nests.

  
  


• House Republicans could rescue Iran diplomacy: In the Senate, a majority supports adding economic sanctions to those already imposed on Iran, something the Obama administration and the Iranian foreign minister say could wreck efforts to come to agreement on international controls on Iran’s nuclear program. Sixteen Democrats, led by Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey have signed onto the sanctions bill introduced in December. Forty-two Senate Republicans have joined. But
  

  Enter House Republicans. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that House GOP leaders are considering bringing the Senate bill to the House floor, a move that could inject a heavy dose of partisanship into what had been a bipartisan affair. If House Republicans take control of the legislation, Democrats may become more anxious about supporting it and less likely to buck the White House.
  

  “I’m hearing Cantor wants to take up the Menendez language,” confirmed one senior House Democratic aide. “Since the House has already passed a sanctions bill, it’s quite clear that this has turned into a completely political matter.”

  
  

  
  


• 
  
  
  

  On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the Chris Christie and WV stories aren’t dead yet. Greg Dworkin brought us a round-up of the headlines on Christie and the latest on Obamacare, which is still a thing! Plus: new gun outrage out of FL. A retired police captain shoots a fellow movie-goer for texting during the previews. We return to the WV story for more on just what this spilled chemical is, how dangerous we should consider it to be, and whether or not Koch Industries really is connected to the situation. And just how did a relatively small spill end up contaminating the drinking water of nine counties? The answer, at least in part is privatization.

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

• Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Comic: Nation of moochers:
  
  
  
  


• Rep. Sean Maloney will marry his long-time partner:
  

  With their marriage, Maloney will become the second member of Congress to legally wed his same-sex partner while in office. Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, became the first to do so in 2012.
  

  Maloney and [Randy] Florke, who have three adopted children and live in Cold Spring, New York, got engaged on Christmas Day.

  
  

  Their youngest daughter, Essie, wrote a letter to Santa earlier that week, asking if he can “try making my wonderful fathers get married.”

  
  

  
  


• Markos abandons politics for a few moments to write about cyclist “Fast Freddie” Rodriguez.


• Jerkwad NY Post columnist calls Newtown “a little convenient massacre”:
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Fredric Dicker, widely regarded as one of the most influential media voices in New York state politics, made the comment on his radio show Monday. He was speaking about gun control legislation passed by the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo.
  

  “That was his anti-gun legislation, which he had promised not to do, but then he had a little convenient massacre that went on in Newtown, Conn., and all of a sudden there was an opportunity for him,” Dicker said.

  
  

  
  

  When the backlash struck, Dicker did not apologize or back down. The rival NY Daily News featured Dicker on its front page Tuesday.



• Men supposedly cured of HIV by bone marrow transplant relapse:
  

  These two men were both HIV positive and had lymphoma, a type of cancer. They both received bone marrow transplants. Post-transplant they continued on their antiretroviral medicine (used to combat HIV) while the donor bone marrow cells engrafted. Researchers found that all traces of HIV in the patients vanished.
  

  They were followed and, in time, both patients stopped their antiretrovirals. They remained HIV free—or so everyone thought, since their viral loads were undetectable and no trace of HIV was found in peripheral blood cells.

  
  

  Unfortunately, over time, both relapsed and tests showed HIV was again (still) present.

  
  

  
  


• DEA let tech-savvy drug cartel do what it pleased:
  

  Catapults. “Jalapeños.” Dune buggies. $ 1 million subs. Sophisticated drug tunnels. Firetruck-sized industrial pipeline drills. These are just a few of the ingenious ways that Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, arguably the world’s largest, most powerful and technologically advanced organized crime syndicate, has tried to perfect the fine art of smuggling drugs into America. And to think, the US’s premier drug enforcement arm gave the Sinaloa a pass to do so largely unhindered during the bloodiest stretch of Mexico’s drug war.
  

  That’s the thrust of a landmark investigation by El Universal, which found that authorities with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the broader Department of Justice struck a deal with the Sinaloa, in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels. Citing court documents and extensive interviews with both Mexican and US officials familiar with the matter, El Universal reports that the US-Sinaloa arrangement lasted from 2000 to 2012.

  
  

  
  


• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook Jan. 13:
  
  

  WV: Freedom Industries Has Ties to Koch Brothers, by dharmafarmer
  

  “Like a Book Burning” The Canadian government is closing scientific libraries and destroying docs, by Pakalolo

  
  

  Inhofe Admits He Only Denies Climate Science Because He Doesn’t Like the Solutions, by TheGreenMiles

  
  

  
  


• Picking up seashells down by the seashore is an environmental problem:
  

  It’s a normal part of summer vacation: head to the beach, pick up a few seashells and take them home as keepsakes. But multiply this innocent activity by millions of tourists and we might have a big problem, researchers warn in PLOS ONE. Skyrocketing numbers of beachcombers are pocketing seashells, and the environmental effects could range from increased erosion to fewer building materials for bird nests.

  
  


• House Republicans could rescue Iran diplomacy: In the Senate, a majority supports adding economic sanctions to those already imposed on Iran, something the Obama administration and the Iranian foreign minister say could wreck efforts to come to agreement on international controls on Iran’s nuclear program. Sixteen Democrats, led by Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey have signed onto the sanctions bill introduced in December. Forty-two Senate Republicans have joined. But
  

  Enter House Republicans. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that House GOP leaders are considering bringing the Senate bill to the House floor, a move that could inject a heavy dose of partisanship into what had been a bipartisan affair. If House Republicans take control of the legislation, Democrats may become more anxious about supporting it and less likely to buck the White House.
  

  “I’m hearing Cantor wants to take up the Menendez language,” confirmed one senior House Democratic aide. “Since the House has already passed a sanctions bill, it’s quite clear that this has turned into a completely political matter.”

  
  

  
  


• 
  
  
  

  On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the Chris Christie and WV stories aren’t dead yet. Greg Dworkin brought us a round-up of the headlines on Christie and the latest on Obamacare, which is still a thing! Plus: new gun outrage out of FL. A retired police captain shoots a fellow movie-goer for texting during the previews. We return to the WV story for more on just what this spilled chemical is, how dangerous we should consider it to be, and whether or not Koch Industries really is connected to the situation. And just how did a relatively small spill end up contaminating the drinking water of nine counties? The answer, at least in part is privatization.

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

Open Thread

Snow sculpture!

Here in the midwest it promises to be (way, WAY) too cold to snow. How are you bracing for this week’s weather?

Open thread below…

Open Thread

Open Thread

Snow sculpture!

Here in the midwest it promises to be (way, WAY) too cold to snow. How are you bracing for this week’s weather?

Open thread below…

Open Thread

Open Thread: "Luke Russert" calls the Jimmy Dore Show

The fabulous podcast The Jimmy Dore Show gets a call from "Luke Russert" in October of 2012….

h/t Bruce T. This classic 2012 bit from The Jimmy Dore Show features a call-in from “Luke Russert,” played by Mike MacRae. Open thread below….

Open Thread: "Luke Russert" calls the Jimmy Dore Show

NFL Week 11 Open Thread

posted at 12:31 pm on November 17, 2013 by Jazz Shaw

Ed is still traveling the world and should have the European Union pretty much dismantled by the time you read this, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to turn over the controls and let him start doing the football picks again just yet. This week, the anticipated den of irrational picks for Jets victories may have to rear its ugly head. Gang Green is facing their AFC East rivals the Buffalo Bills in their ongoing bid for a wildcard ticket to the post season. (Did I really just type that? Allahpundit assured me they would finish pretty much dead last.) Well, even Dan Hanzus at NFL.com seems to think the Jets are going to the dance, so who am I to argue? Rex’s boys have several of their starters, including Tone Holmes back in the lineup this week, plus they just signed future Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed to the roster to strengthen their pass defense. The Jets have yet to win two games in a row this season, but they’ll have to figure out how if they want a shot at the post season, so I’ll take New York over the still weakened Bills in a bit of a romp, 31-17.

Last week, I went 5-2, showing up the boss and coming close to an A rating if it weren’t for Ed’s Steelers breaking my pick and beating the Bills. Can I show some consistency and keep on my winning ways? (all times ET):

• Lions at Steelers (1 pm, Fox) - It wouldn’t be Hot Air without a Steelers pick, so I’ll have to try. The Vegas line has the Lions as a two and a half point favorite, but the Steelers are at home and very likely playing for their lives every single week from here on out. I’m going to cut Ed a break and say that Pittsburgh takes it to keep hope alive in a pass heavy game, 27-20.


• Chargers at Dolphins (1 pm, Fox) – Everyone, including the oddsmakers, are expecting a narrow win for San Diego, particularly given all of the (ahem) drama going on this week with Miami’s locker room. But for some reason I think the Fins will leave all of that media feeding frenzy back in the locker room and get the job done. Miami in an upset over San Diego 31-21.


• 49ers at Saints (4:25 pm, Fox) - This may well be the game of the week to watch given what’s been going on with both teams. San Francisco is fresh off a really heartbreaking loss to the Panthers and probably very fired up. But the Saints have been one of the toughest teams to beat at home (unless you’re the Jets, of course) and the questions about their run defense seem a bit overblown. I’ll take New Orleans in a low scoring match, 21-17.


• Ravens at Bears (1 pm, CBS) -Baltimore stole a clutch victory last week over the Bengals which they desperately needed, and to keep the ball rolling they’ll have to do it again – this time on the road – against Chicago. Can they manage it? Not bloody likely in my opinion. I’ll take the Bears 27-21.


• Eagles at Barrycaders (1 pm, Fox) - This is always a fun game to watch, if only for the rivalry. Unfortunately, both teams have had a lot of problems. Fortunately for the Eagles, Nick Foles has performed so far above his initial stock value that it’s not funny and opened up new opportunities with receivers who didn’t get as much attention in the past. RGIII is not looking as bad as before, bit it won’t be enough to win this one. Philadelphia in a road win over Washington 34-24.


• Patriots at Panthers (MNF, 8:40 pm, ESPN) - This game may only be of real interest to AFC East addicts or the remaining Carolina faithful, but it’s on Monday night and there won’t be anything else to watch anyway. We Jets fans really need New England to lose a couple of games, but it seems like they keep squeaking out victories. This week, though… and maybe it’s just the whisky talking here.. I see the Panthers performing to the oddsmakers’ expectations and pulling off a victory at home. Carolina over New England 17-14.

Next week, Ed should be back and continue his string of Pittsburgh win predictions and failed attempts to foresee doom for the Jets. But it’s been fun doing this while he was gone. (And don’t forget to rub my 5-2 record in his nose when he returns.).

Related Posts:

Hot Air

NFL Week 11 Open Thread

A documentary on ultra poor, titled On a thread - SHIREE