The Commentariat -- Feb. 29, 2016
Afternoon Update, Seventh-Grade Edition:
Eric Levitz of New York: "'He's always calling me "little Marco,"' Rubio said, while reading Trump's Twitter feed at a rally in Virgina on Sunday. 'I'll admit he's taller than me. He's like 6'2", which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's 5'2''. Have you seen his hands? And you know what they say about men with small hands?' Rubio's supporters, realizing that their presidential candidate had just suggested that the other presidential candidate has an unusually small penis, roared with approval."
Kevin Drum on Joe Scarborough's sudden about-face: "Scarborough has probably done more than any other single human being to help Trump get where he is. And he's only now noticing that Trump's bigoted rhetoric has turned out to be pretty popular among the Republican base?... Aside from a brief spat with Trump over his proposed ban on Muslims,* Scarborough has been practically a one-man super-PAC pushing Trump's candidacy." ...
... * Steve M.: And, no, Scarborough did not hang up on Trump for his anti-Muslim comments, as Scarborough claims in his WashPo op-ed, linked below. Rather, he went to commercial break because Joe felt Trump was being rude to Mika, who was asking the questions about Muslim bigotry. "... this is more about rescuing Scarborough's own reputation than it is about condemning Trump." Read the whole post.
*****
Following an Irish tradition going back to the sainted Patrick & the lovely St. Brigid, I feel obliged this Leap Year Day to propose marriage to my gentlemen readers. This tradition was supposed to "balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how leap day balances the calendar." As a feminist, I abhor a tradition that limits women to equal opportunity only one out of every 1,461 days. Am I 1/1,461st of a person? Maybe I'll propose tomorrow, too. And the next day & the next. ...
... AND speaking of equal opportunity ...
... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... more than 100 ... women have filed several supporting briefs in a major Supreme Court abortion case to be argued on Wednesday. The briefs tell the stories of women who say their abortions allowed them to control their bodies, plan for the future and welcome children into their lives when their careers were established and their personal lives were on solid ground. The briefs are aimed largely at Justice Kennedy, who holds the crucial vote in abortion cases. They use language and concepts from his four major gay rights decisions, notably his invocation of 'equal dignity' in June's ruling establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.... The briefs also seek to counteract what many women saw as a streak of uninformed paternalism in a 2007 majority opinion in which Justice Kennedy said many women regretted their decisions to have abortions and suffered from depression and plunging self-esteem as a consequence." ...
... Linda Greenhouse (pub. 2/27) on "abortion exceptionalism" & the Texas case to be argued this Wednesday in the Supreme Court. A 4-4 tie would leave Texas's restrictive law in place. Greenhouse urges the justices to consider the facts. CW: At least four of them likely will. That ain't enough. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Inequality, from Cradle to Grave. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: The Army still is not allowing members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots to be buried in Arlington Cemetery, reasoning that they were not technically part of the armed services. "... the WASPs wore uniforms, carried weapons, had access to classified information and saluted their superiors. Along with training men to fly bombers, the WASPs flew fighter planes from military bases to ports, where they were shipped to battle overseas. At least three dozen of them died or were killed while serving." Rep. Martha McSally (R-Az.), a fighter pilot herself, has introduced legislation to change that. The bill has more than 100 co-sponsors. "On Thursday, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs sent the bill to the House floor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "The AFL-CIO, the federation of unions representing nearly 10 million workers, is preparing plans for a 'super PAC' that would raise tens of millions of dollars and focus on grassroots efforts to mobilize voters."
Presidential Race
** Off with Their Heads. David Bernstein in Politico Magazine: "No matter what happens on Super Tuesday, it's clear who the real losers will be on election night: The Democratic and Republican parties. An election season that began as a presumptive showdown between two inevitable dynastic front-runners -- Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton -- has now devolved into an electoral dumpster fire. And it's time to name the culprit: The dynasties themselves.... If this cycle teaches us anything, it's that political dynasties are bad for parties the way monopolies are bad for business: They impede competition, and reward power rather than merit."
Paul Krugman: "We now have a pretty good idea who will be on the ballot in November: Hillary Clinton, almost surely (after the South Carolina blowout, prediction markets give her a 96 percent probability of securing her party's nomination), and Donald Trump, with high likelihood (currently 80 percent probability on the markets). But even if there's a stunning upset in what's left of the primaries, we already know very well what will be at stake -- namely, the fate of the planet."
Charles Pierce: "Anyone who thinks the Trump phenomenon is a sui generis explosion of eccentricity has forgotten the incredible collection of rodeo clowns over which Mitt Romney triumphed in 2012. Anyone who thinks He, Trump is unique in his rhetoric and his appeal never has read through Gingrich's old Thesaurus For Ratfckers that helped fuel his rise to the Speakership. And anyone who thinks Trump's brand of noisy, arrant bullshit is in anyway unique never has listened to a Cruz's stump speech...."
... Thanks to safari for the link.
Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The implosion over Donald Trump's candidacy that Republicans had hoped to avoid arrived so virulently this weekend that many party leaders vowed never to back the billionaire and openly questioned whether the GOP could come together this election year. A campaign full of racial overtones and petty, R-rated put-downs grew even uglier Sunday after Trump declined repeatedly in a CNN interview to repudiate the endorsement of him by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.... Marco Rubio, who has been savaging Trump as a 'con man' for three days, responded by saying that Trump's defiance made him 'unelectable.' The senator from Florida said at a rally in Northern Virginia, 'We cannot be the party that nominates someone who refuses to condemn white supremacists.'" ...
... The Grey Lady Is Shocked by Your Guttersniping. Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio, seeing his path to the Republican nomination grow narrower with each contest, has determined that the only way to beat Donald J. Trump is to fight like him: rough, dirty and mean. The acidity coming from Mr. Rubio these days, and the gleefully savage way Mr. Trump has responded, have sent an already surreal presidential campaign lurching into the gutter with taunts over perspiration, urination and self-tanner." ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "If Rubio wants to learn the proper way to insult Trump, he should study Obama. In the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, where Trump was in the audience, Obama made the businessman squirm by mocking his birtherism and the absurd notion that being on Celebrity Apprentice was fit preparation for the presidency. Obama's belittling was carried off with a cold hauteur. He attacked from above.... Rubio, by contrast, has been meeting Trump at his own level, like the proverbial man getting into the sty to wrestle with the pig." With video. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "It is possible that Rubio's mockery will finally bring down Trump. But even if so, Rubio's popularity might come down along with him. In that case, the conflict will redound to the benefit of the candidate who is currently running the now-discarded Rubio game plan: John Kasich. The Ohio governor is using versions of the old, well-received Rubio message about refusing to attack fellow Republicans and bringing people together." ...
... Leslie Savan of the Nation: "... as far as stopping Trump's coronation is concerned, as pundits have been declaring all morning, [Rubio's attack on Trump] 'was too little, too late. 'But it's not too late for Hillary. Rubio's jabs were just the sort of GOP-on-GOP violence she'll need to make her negative ads and social media credible. It could operate much in the same way that Newt Gingrich's attacks on Mitt Romney's business practices let Obama bleed him out in 2012." ...
... "Desperate Measures." Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The specter of Donald Trump as an elected nominee for president pushed his Republican opponents to desperate measures on Sunday, two days before a dozen states could vote to give the billionaire a huge lead in the 2016 contest. Marco Rubio predicted he could win the nomination without winning a state, while Ted Cruz raised allegations that Trump once contracted a mafia-owned company.... He ... speculated that Trump has refused to release his tax returns because he wants to hide 'business dealings with the mob, with the mafia'."
... Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump repeatedly tells Jake Tapper of CNN that he "knows nothing" about David Duke & white supremacist groups who have endorsed or supported his candidacy. "Possibly Trump is making a clever historical reference that he will later explain when he reveals that his entire political profile from 2011 through 2016 was a form of guerrilla theater designed to smoke out the widespread appeal of Republican racism. Or else, more likely, he is even stupider than anybody previously believed." Thanks to MAG for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... This in turn upsets Donald's BFF Joe Scarborough, causing him to write in the Washington Post that Trump has "feigned ignorance" of the KKK & Duke, which was "even more disturbing" (than something else Joe doesn't specify). "... why would Trump pretend to be so ignorant of American history that he refused to pass judgment on the Ku Klux Klan before receiving additional information?... Why would the same man who claims to have 'the world's greatest memory' say 'I don't know anything about David Duke' just two days after he condemned the former Klansman in a nationally televised press conference?... Sunday's distressing performance is just the latest in a string of incidents that suggest to critics that Donald Trump is using bigotry to fuel his controversial campaign." CW: There goes the vice presidency, Joe. ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump's failure to explicitly disavow the Ku Klux Klan and former Grand Wizard David Duke is 'disqualifying,' Joe Scarborough declared on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Monday.... Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski, who have been accused of cozying up to Trump, were adamant in their disgust for the candidate throughout the first hour of the show." ...
... Josh Israel of Think Progress: Against all evidence to the contrary, this morning on NBC's "Today" show, Trump blamed his failure to renounce David Duke & the Klan on a "lousy earpiece." CW: Just to be clear, that was earpiece, not hairpiece. ...
... UPDATE: Eric Levitz of New York: "Sure, the Donald did repeat the proper nouns in Tapper's question -- 'David Duke,' 'white supremacists' -- verbatim, several times in the course of the interview. But that doesn't mean he heard those words as words. The static in Trump's earpiece must have reduced those phrases to a collection of vowel and consonant sounds that the mogul was capable of regurgitating phonetically, even as he was incapable of recognizing them as spoken English." ...
... CW: This is in line with Trump's excuse for re-tweeting a Benito Mussolini saying.
... Rachel Maddow, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Now that the KKK and the white nationalists feel that the Republican Party has finally given them a candidate they can believe in, who will disabuse them of that notion?" ...
.. NOT Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Who Has Taken a Front Seat on the Racist Express. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Sen. Jeff Sessions on Sunday became the first sitting senator to endorse Donald Trump, declaring his support for the Republican front-runner during a rally at a football stadium here." With video. ...
... In case you've forgotten Sessions' history of overt racism, Scott Lemieux provides a few reminders.
... Pity Poor Ted. Jose DelReal & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Sessions' "endorsement represents a major blow to Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.).... Cruz has touted his strict positions on border security and deportation, leaning on his strident commitment to conservative ideology as a key rationale for his candidacy. In the run-up to the March 1 Super Tuesday primary elections, Cruz has tried to undermine Trump's conservative bona fides on immigration reform, characterizing his plan as 'amnesty.'" ...
... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Republican senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska has announced that he would not support Donald Trump if the current frontrunner became the GOP nominee.... Sasse wrote on Facebook: 'I cannot support Donald Trump . . . My current answer for who I would support in a hypothetical matchup between Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton is: neither of them. I sincerely hope we select one of the other GOP candidates, but if Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option.'" Sasse is a Tea party guy.
... There Will Be Chaos. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and decides to make good on certain campaign pledges. Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, made the provocative statement on Friday during an appearance on HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' Trump, fresh off a string of primary victories, has yet to secure his party's nomination, but Hayden said the candidate's rhetoric already raises troubling questions.... During his appearance on 'Real Time,' Hayden cited Trump's pledge to kill family members as being among his most troubling campaign statements." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Chuck Todd & Shawna Thomas of NBC News: "Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard who had an official role with Gov. Chris Christie's now-suspended presidential campaign, called his endorsement of Trump, 'an astonishing display of political opportunism.... Trump would take America on a dangerous journey. Christie knows all that and indicated as much many times publicly,' Whitman wrote in a statement." ...
... ** Brian Beutler: "If this represents an enduring schism -- if the ranks of resolute anti-Trump conservatives grows to include influential Republicans who had previously pledged to support the winner of the primary unconditionally -- the significance will be hard to overstate. By closing in on the nomination, Trump is pitting conservatives' commitments to party and movement against one another.... If ... the party's leaders abandon Trump after promising otherwise, they would turn millions of people against the GOP enduringly. The damage to the Republican Party as an institution would be profound, perhaps fatal."
"Don't Interrupt Me." David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Fox News host Chris Wallace smacked down Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Sunday after the GOP hopeful suggested that tough questions about dirty election tricks meant that the anchor was working for Donald Trump's campaign." ...
News Lede
Washington Post: "George Kennedy, the burly character actor who won an Academy Award as a chain-gang leader in 'Cool Hand Luke,' threatened Audrey Hepburn as a hook-armed villain in 'Charade' and was a crusty mainstay of 1970s disaster films before veering into satire as a clueless policeman in the 'Naked Gun' film series, died Feb. 28 at a nursing home in Middleton, Idaho. He was 91."
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Reader Comments (15)
John Oliver tore Donald Drumpf a new asshole last night on his show. Since Drumpf is so concerned about his brand and image, this could provoke a pretty good reaction, countered undoubtedly with more ridicule.
I'm surprised Rubes and Cruz haven't trotted out some one-liners about Drumpf's supposed weenie little fingers. Most average Joes invest in over-sized trucks or long guns to compensate for their small penis complex. Drumpf buys the tallest building in the city and takes over the top floor. Could well-placed little hand jokes bring down the Drumpf? Not likely, but it'd bring out his nasty side while under the spotlight.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-oliver-donald-trump-presidential-campaign
It was almost painful to watch the video above––poor, misunderstood Ted Cruz––him gets caught and him don't like it one itty bitty bit.
Last night I skipped the red carpet hoopla which I find–––well, never mind––and listened to a Q.&A with Brian's interview with Thomas Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste (he's been at the helm since 1986––before that Alan Keyes served as president and if I had known that I would have listened with different ears). I imagine many of you know about this group, but I was ignorant of it. Schatz presented a government whose waste and abuse knows no boundaries––mentioned Jeff Flake and John McCain chief supporters of trying to rid government of all these superfluous agencies that spend our money on really stupid things like studying the sex life of the screw worm fly (I wasn't even aware there were such sexy flies). Bottom line––the guy talked a good game, but I smelled something fishy so this morning did some research. I know this isn't as thrilling as the Oscars, but I've learned something new and maybe some of you will too.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_Against_Government_Waste
David Duke? If Hitler were still alive and in a US prison and supported Trump, Donald would announce that on his first day as POTUS he would set him free. Yes, virtually all politicians are to some extent narcissists but Trump is special. There is in his mind literally nothing of consequence or importance than himself.
And now we get to watch Trumps two competitors desperately trying to be as disgusting as Trump. Welcome to America!!!!
Just for the record, the screw worm fly causes serious damage to living tissue, including humans. Damage to commercial animals used to be a serious costly problem. But US scientists studying the sex life figured out a way to get rid of them. Shame on US.
Seconding Marvin here, that Screw Worm program is effective, cost effective, and important to the health of people and animals in the Western Hemisphere (and beyond). It is the kind of thing the government should be doing. Who else would do it? Nevada ranchers?
Yes. Relationships. How interesting what Drumpf learned from one named Cohn! I watched the John Oliver video earlier this morning over my first cup of coffee...and starting remembering times back in NYC during the seventies and eighties, and piecing together some disparate observations culminated from a mid-morning Google search. Yes, it was as I remembered and much MORE. The 'connected' guys...Trump, Roy Cohn (deceased), Steinbrenner (deceased), Fugazy (deceased), et al... The articles, the names are all out there. Has anyone, except for political junkies and certain journalists really been paying attention?
Donald Trump learned his aggressive legal style from 'the king of intimidation,' Roy Cohn "
Let's look at when Cohn became Trump’s lawyer. And Trump thought highly of his Better Call Roy " controversial tactics. (Apologies to "Better Call Saul")
“If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get Roy,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. “People will drop a suit just by getting a letter with Roy’s name at the bottom.”
On women and relationships: past connections "
There was a brief period...a sort of rehabiltation of Roy Cohn. Remember the softball Barbara Walters' interview? There's so much out there...why isn't anyone listening?
And, how funny it is, what goes around...keeps coming around, as many of us look at Trump's opponent, Ted Cruz—liking him to Joe McCarthy! Roy Cohn's initial mentor.
A moment in time I will never forget, my introduction by another guest to Cohn wearing a colorful sweater at a Park Avenue cocktail party. Following the whispered flurry of, "did you see who is here..." then observing him seated on a long sofa next to George Steinbrenner—both ignored by the rest of the room for much of the evening.
Too bad, Drumpf is getting harder to ignore.
The nightmare quality of this election year certainly has much to do with the pathetic quality of most of the candidates. Thin resume, loud voice would describe most of them.
And always in the background are these haunting questions the nation is reluctant to examine too closely, let alone answer. Is this the best an enterprising nation of 310 million people can do? One would think not, and yet these are the faces our political process has put forward, a gallery that seems to me less impressive every election cycle.
So why do our politics weed out the socially committed and the creative and leave us with a Trump and a recycled Clinton?
The partial answer is the same I've long applied when considering any position of power like policemen or military officers, the paradox that the position, because it is powerful, attracts those who need most to feel powerful, that is people with a severe ego problem and hence precisely the wrong sort for the job.
Past candidates might just have been better at hiding their egomania, or maybe more of them really did give a hoot about someone other than themselves, sincerely motivated by public rather than private service. Or does the charge of naked egomania apply only to the Selfish Party? Mostly but not all, I think.
But there's much more to the puzzle that is related to another more disturbing question: How can these obvious empty heads and suits (yeah, I know, some do fill their suits and more) possibly rouse tens of thousands of supporters? On this site repeatedly asked and answered to grim effect.
So, offended by so much of the present campaign season, I take temporary refuge in speculation about previous elections. Who would I have supported in 1826, say? Would I have been a Jackson or an Adams man? Would my support for one man one vote democracy have led me to support the rude war hero from Tennessee? Or would my liking for letters and respect for good manners have moved me in the more genteel Adam's direction?
Might has well think about might have's as an alternative to the present both because its's more pleasant and because the present requires no thought. My choices today are currently limited to two, and inevitably a reluctant but certain one. Nothing to it. Done.
And Marie, I'm flattered by the offer but am long since taken, even my 1/4 Irish part. Today all my parts, the Irish and the German, are awaiting the birth of another grandchild. If he is born today, my son threatens to name him "Leap."
@Ken Winkes: Okay, Ken, one down, thousands to go. Regards to your wife. Maybe your son & his wife should consider giving the kid the middle name "Frog." "Leap Frog Winkes" is a helluva a handle.
Marie
P.S. Here's a piece on the trials of Leap Day babies. I'm sure there are more like it. Giving the kid a funny name probably won't make matters better.
Thanks to Marvin and Patrick for the skinny on the Screw Worm Fly––too bad Brian Lamb hadn't had that information so he could tell Mr. Government- waste- fraud- and abuse he was full of it.
and I love Leap Frog Winkes as a "helluva of a handle"––kid might turn out to be a marathon runner.
Marie,
Thank you kindly for the offer but since I am already conjoined I have to respectfully decline. Were I to accept, however, it would be, as Groucho Marx once cheerfully admitted, big 'a me.
Leap Frog Winkes!
An instant classic. Surely the kid would have to become a star. The name is redolent of great baseball nicknames of the past, Three Finger Brown, Big Train, Poosh 'em Up Tony, the Flying Dutchman, the Little Professor, the Fordham Flash, Smoky Joe Wood.
Cooperstown awaits!
I would have said it sounds like the name of a character from a Twain story, or maybe a funky underworld type out of Elmore Leonard, but the baseball nicknames came to me right off the...er....well, you get the idea.
When my son was born we were looking for a less common Celtic name. I was hooked on Maddog for a while (pronounced mah-doegh) until my wife convinced me that he'd be forever known as Mad Dog. So hey, he could have become a wrestler, or maybe a Republican candidate for president.
My brother once gave me a book of odd names, the funniest of which was a hellfire and brimstoner from some old Puritan New England sect: Flee From Fornication. Obviously, his parents did not take heed.
Which brings us back to Republican candidates and their Daily Dick Jokes: the maturity level of sixth grade boys who give each other wedgies. No wait, not even that cultured. I had fifth grade classmates who used to light their farts on fire who were more urbane than these goobers.
The Golden Age of Calypso and the Continually Burgeoning Age of Income Inequality.
Lest we get too far off base watching in dismay as Republicans compare penis sizes (at one point such a description of Republican campaigning would have been considered a gross exaggeration--accent on gross--but to our collective shame, no longer), leave us not forget one of the great issues of the day. No, not who does Donald's hair (some demented taxidermist, no doubt), but the problem Bernie Sanders, and somewhat reluctantly, Hillary Clinton, have been hammering on: income inequality.
Many years ago, a guitarist friend of mine introduced me to recordings from the Golden Age of Calypso. One of the mainstays of that era (the mid to late 30's) was a musician from Trinidad named Neville Marcano, popularly known as Growling Tiger. The Tiger's themes were unusually political as were those of other members of the Golden Age group. The song "FDR in Trinidad", by Calypso star Attila the Hun, recalled with fondness the visit of an American president. The lyrics indicate a fairly comprehensive appreciation for the state of the political world at large, noting that
"Now we understand that the president had just been
on a visit to Brazil and the Argentine
Mr. Cordell Hull in attendance
they took part in a peace conference
To stop war and atrocity
and make the world safe for democracy
The greatest event in the century
in the interest of suffering humanity"
Not exactly Carnival stuff.
Growling Tiger's masterpiece is the song "Money is King". In it, he offers a side by side comparison of what it's like be a rich man:
"A man with money walks into a store
The boss will shake his hand at the door
Call ten clerks to write down everything
Suits, hats, whiskey, even diamond rings
Take them to your home on a motorbike
You can pay the bills whenever you like
And not a soul will ask you a thing
They know very well that money is king"
and a poor man:
"A dog can walk about and take up bone
Foul head, stale bread, fish-tail and pone
If it's a good breed and not too wild
Someone will take it and mind as a child
But when a hungry man goes out to beg
They will set a bulldog behind his leg
Twenty policemen will arrest him too
So you see when a dog is better than you"
(Complete lyrics)
This difference was certainly much in evidence when I learned the song many years ago but it's much, much worse now.
The problem of income inequality so sharply outlined by Growling Tiger on the island of Trinidad in 1937 is still with us. And then some. And the current crop of fourth graders looking to be president of Confederacy are all lining up to make sure it gets worse yet.
Money is still king. Little Johnny and the Dwarfs know that. And if you don't have it, dog is better than you.
Thanks for the naming suggestion, Marie.
I don't know if the parents would be tempted, but there is precedent in my son's family for taking a flyer on naming. Their first child's middle name is Elwha, after the river valley above which he was likely conceived, preceded by an isolated G. which appears following his first moniker. In deference to what I imagine would be the family's wishes, I will not explain that lonely G. In his later years that will be the young man's burden.
Having heard nothing yet today of anything popping, the leap window is closing rapidly even here on the Left Coast, so it would appear--I'll not leap to say it--our naming discussion will remain theoretical.
Liked the link, too. Thanks for that, too. The smiles you kindly provide are always appreciated.
The screw work science brings back memories of Dingle's Golden Fleece Award, for which he would read titles of grants or grant supported papers that might seem frivolous to the lay (non-scientist) reader, but a read of the publicly available abstract by anyone with an education would reveal the plausible rationale behind the title. Lamar Smith is pulling the same stunt today, albeit with the agenda of gutting the evil gubmunt of science, especially climate change and evolutionary biology, that he and the gang would like to bury. He highlights NSF grant titles that include a musical on climate change and a video game - "Prom Night Memories" for ridicule. The musical is a creative production to explain the science of climatology to young folks, and Prom Night is a vehicle for development of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, which often rely on game theory. But ridicule before the naive is a powerful tool against us leftie scientists, as I'm sure the clown car candidates surely know.
Apropos the AFL/CIO initiative, the only real hope for meaningful progress: they, and WE, might profit from this advice. The original version is here.
Sorry, make that "screw worm."
Ak, thanks for the "Money is King" piece; father of rap Gil Scott-Heron picked up the torch a quarter century later. His Whitey on the Moon is a classic on an album of classics.