The Commentariat -- May 23, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a black Georgia death row inmate who claimed that prosecutors kept African Americans off the jury that convicted him of murdering an elderly white woman. The court ruled 7 to 1 that Georgia prosecutors had improperly considered race when selecting a jury to judge Timothy Tryone Foster. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone African American on the court, dissented, saying that the evidence that prosecutors acted improperly was not strong enough to overturn Foster's conviction." -- CW ...
Brief Return of Sanity. Richard Wolf in USA Today: "The Supreme Court gave a black death-row prisoner new life Monday by ruling that prosecutors unconstitutionally barred all potential black jurors from his trial nearly 30 years ago. The 7-1 verdict, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, reversed Georgia courts that had refused to consider claims of racial discrimination against Timothy Foster for the murder of an elderly white woman. The ruling is likely to fuel contentions from death penalty opponents that capital punishment is racially discriminatory." ...
... AND ...
... Lydia Wheeler on The Hill: "The Supreme Court dimissmed a GOP challenge Monday to a court remedy for an unconstitutional congressional redistricting plan in Virginia. A unanimous court held that Reps. Rob Wittman and other Republicans from Virginia, including Reps. Randy Forbes and David Brat, lacked standing to pursue the appeal because none of them could show they were injured by the new court-ordered race-neutral plan."
... Akhilleus: Bet you can't guess the lone dissenter in the first case. There'd have been two if you know who was still around. In the Virginia case, I'm surprised the standing argument worked, even though it's one of Roberts' favorite strategems for refusing to act on a claim. Brat and the other Virginia Confederates could sustain great injury now that their power grab has been found unconstitutional. They could be voted out of office in a truly democratic election. Jeez, Johnny, c'mon ...
Joe Heim & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A judge found police officer Edward M. Nero not guilty of all criminal charges in the case of Freddie Gray, whose death last year in police custody sparked riots and widespread anger in the city. The acquittal by Judge Barry G. Williams, announced Monday in a packed courtroom, is the first verdict reached in the Gray case. Nero is the second officer to face trial on charges related to Gray's arrest and subsequent death. The first officer's trial ended in a hung jury." -- CW
*****
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration announced Monday that the United States would fully lift a longstanding U.S. embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam, a decision that reflects growing concerns about China's military clout and illustrates the warming bilateral ties between the former enemy nations. President Obama unveiled the new arrangement at a news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang during the opening day of his first visit to the country. Obama emphasized that his decision reflected a maturing relationship and deepening cooperation on security and economic investment four decades after the end of the Vietnam War." -- CW ...
... Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama arrived in the steamy capital of Vietnam ahead of schedule on Sunday night to begin three days of meetings in hopes of luring yet another Southeast Asian country away from China's tight embrace." -- CW
Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "The leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, was killed by an American drone strike, the Afghan intelligence agency said on Sunday. Some Taliban commanders vehemently denied that Mullah Mansour was present in the area of the strike, which occurred on Saturday near the Afghan border in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, but a statement from the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, was unambiguous." -- CW ...
... Gardiner Harris: "Calling the death 'an important milestone,' President Obama said in a statement, released just as he was meeting with top officials in Vietnam, that the United States had 'removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces.'" -- CW
E.J. Dionne: "We'll hear lots in the coming months about the rise of 'populism.' But unless this talk is harnessed to policies that provide real help for real people, it will have all the depth of a splenetic, ill-considered tweet." -- CW
Presidential Race
I do not want Americans and, you know, good-thinking Republicans, as well as Democrats and independents, to start to believe that this is a normal candidacy. -- Hillary Clinton, regarding Donald Trump, Sunday on "Meet the Press" ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Continuing to treat a victory over Senator Bernie Sanders as a fait accompli, Hillary Clinton on Sunday questioned Donald J. Trump's business record and assailed his ideas, warning that the coming weeks represented a critical period in which, if left unchallenged, Mr. Trump could 'normalize himself' as he seeks to broaden his support. But Mr. Sanders pointed to polls showing Mrs. Clinton with dangerously high percentages of people who have unfavorable views of her and asked whether a choice between her and Mr. Trump in the fall would force voters to pick the 'lesser of two evils.'" -- CW
... CW: See also SNL's cold open, embedded yesterday. Really. ...
... Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "... Bernie Sanders said he believes front-runner Hillary Clinton could beat ... Donald Trump in November, but that his campaign brings more excitement that could help the Democratic Party gain control of the Senate. 'I'm not saying she cannot beat Donald Trump. I think she can. There's a good chance she can,' Sanders told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview Sunday on 'State of the Union.' 'I am the stronger candidate because we appeal to independents. People who are not in love with either the Democratic or Republican Party, often for very good reasons.'" -- CW ...
Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "The Clinton and Sanders camps are, in the usual schoolyard fashion, pointing fingers at each other. The truth is, both sides are to blame. But the onus is on Clinton, not Sanders, to turn down the temperature. If she intends to unify the party, now is the time to prove she can do it -- that's her burden as the frontrunner and likely nominee." CW: Shephard provides a good overview of the dynamics of the "disunity."
Remembrances of Clinton Past. Paul Krugman puts on rose-tinted glasses & recalls the economic boom that occurred during Bill Clinton's administration. "What was Mr. Clinton's role? Actually, it was fairly limited, since he didn't cause the technology takeoff. On the other hand, his policies obviously didn't get in the way of prosperity. And it's worth remembering that in 1993, when Mr. Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy, Republicans uniformly predicted disaster." ...
... CW: This is true enough, but it would be worth remarking on the deregulation policies Bill Clinton initiated, which didn't show their full, disastrous effects for nearly a decade. So is it wise to put Bill "in charge of revitalizing the economy," as Mrs. Bill has proposed? I don't think so. It's about time Hillary Clinton put Krugman on her payroll. ...
... Ben Casselman of 538 (May 20): "... the [Bill] Clinton boom, and even some specific Clinton policies, also helped sow the seeds for the far more severe Great Recession of the late 2000s. Mortgage-backed securities and subprime loans weren't invented in the 1990s, but they expanded greatly during the period, part of a broader 'financialization' of the U.S. economy that contributed directly to the severity of the Great Recession." CW: Read the whole post. Casselman & Krugman don't disagree, but Casselman provides a more balanced view of Bill's impact on the economy (not much).
... Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: Bill Clinton's appearance at a Billings, Montana, campaign event did not inspire the female voters in attendance to accept him as Hillary's "economy czar." -- CW
William Saletan of Slate, published in Business Insider: "Trump's collaborators, like the 20th-century politicians who collaborated in segregation, internment, and McCarthyism, don't want to face the full meaning of their complicity. But they ... must explain to the public, under scrutiny from the press, why they're willing to suspend the fundamental values of the United States. I've put together an indictment [of] 10 counts, each one specific to a transgression or a target group. These aren't just character flaws. They're insinuations, accusations, and threats that make Trump a menace to minorities and to the country as a whole." --safari
John Myers of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal lawsuit alleging widespread confusion over California's presidential primary rules asks that voter registration be extended past Monday's deadline until the day of the state's primary election on June 7.... At issue is whether voters understand the rules for the presidential primary, which differ from those governing other elections in California. Unlike statewide primaries -- where voters now choose any candidate, no matter the political party -- the presidential contests are controlled by the parties themselves. Democrats have opened up their primary between Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to voters that have no political affiliation, known in California as having 'no party preference.' But the lawsuit alleges elections officials in some of California's 58 counties aren't making that clear to these unaffiliated voters." One of the plaintiffs is a group supporting Sen. Sanders. -- CW
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump refuted ... Hillary Clinton by insisting that he was 'not advocating guns in classrooms,' but at the same time argued that 'teachers should have guns in classrooms.' On Sunday's edition of Fox & Friends, host Clayton Morris pointed out that Hillary Clinton had recently attacked Trump for his position that 'every school' in American should have guns in classroom. 'They're just words,' Trump scoffed in response." CW: And my words are always meaningless because everything I say is fake.
Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times: Donald Trump may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but Washington state's GOP convention awarded 40 out of 41 elected delegate slots to Ted Cruz." -- CW
Ed Kilgore: "Yes, it must be fun and ego-gratifying to be Donald J. Trump right now...Maybe so, but not for long. Throughout the pre-primary and primary phases of the GOP presidential-nominating process,Trump had a bunch of advantages he will soon lose...Perhaps Trump will be luckier and more skillful than I suspect in the very different context of a general election. But anyway you cut it, he's going to have a lot of white-knuckle moments from here on out. And it just isn't going to be as much fun." --safari
The War on Women, Ctd. Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "The future of the Supreme Court -- and reproductive freedom, it seems -- currently rests on the public spectacle of nothing happening. Decisions not happening aren't news...You know what's news? Donald Trump's shortlist of Supreme Court nominees. The list shows -- maybe even more effectively than the dissents in Hobby Lobby -- why women's reproductive freedom is in real peril, because it shows Trump's eagerness to seat justices who will do away with the right to choose." --safari
** Married to the Mob. David Cay Johnson in Politico Magazine: "I've covered Donald Trump off and on for 27 years, and in that time I've encountered multiple threads linking Trump to organized crime. Some of Trump's unsavory connections have been followed by investigators and substantiated in court; some haven't. And some of those links have continued until recent years, though when confronted with evidence of such associations, Trump has often claimed a faulty memory.... Trump's career has benefited from a decades-long and largely successful effort to limit and deflect law enforcement investigations into his dealings with top mobsters, organized crime associates, labor fixers, corrupt union leaders, con artists and even a one-time drug trafficker whom Trump retained as the head of his personal helicopter service." -- CW
Brian Beutler: "... to the extent that #NeverTrump captured the public imagination at all, it was thanks to a different, largely unspoken, but potentially profound reading of the term: the implicit acknowledgment that Hillary Clinton's candidacy isn't abnormal, reckless, or morally irresponsible in the way that Trump's is.... For the sizable faction of the conservative elite that recognizes Clinton is a conventional Democrat, and that the country can survive four or eight more years of Democratic rule, they owe it to the public to be crystal clear about the fact that Trump is a unique threat.... But as long they continue to approach the challenge in such a muddied, blinkered way, their efforts will be largely wasted." -- CW
Kristina Wong of the Hill: "... Marine Corps veteran [Alexander McCoy] is organizing a protest on Monday against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, demanding he apologize for overstating his donations to veterans groups. 'We just cracked $6 million, right?' Trump said at the end of [a January 2016 fundraising] event.... Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski now says, however, that the fundraiser netted about $4.5 million, and told the Post the shortfall was due to Trump's acquaintances pledging donations, but not following through.... Lewandowski later told CNN ... the $4.5 billion figure he had given the Post earlier was inaccurate. 'Donald has attempted to use the respect that American voters have for veterans to obscure the fact that he is completely unfit to be our commander in chief,' McCoy, 27, told The Hill." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Frankenstein Network. Simon Maloy of Salon: "It's official: Donald Trump has conquered Fox News. The last redoubt of resistance collapsed last week when Megyn Kelly, Trump's nemesis from the primary debates, served up a toothless, meatless primetime interview with Trump that served only to verify that the Murdoch network is now squarely behind the Republican presidential nominee.... Fox helped create his political career, then it tried to tear him down, and now that he's forced Fox News back into his corner it will go to the mat to try and lift him up to the presidency." -- CW
Tom Kludt of CNN Money: "Michelle Fields, the conservative reporter who had Donald Trump's campaign manager charged with battery..., is heading to the Huffington Post, where she will cover the 2016 campaign with a specific focus on Trump and the Republican Party." -- CW
Way Beyond the Beltway
Patrick Keefe has a long piece in the New Yorker on Hervé Falciani, the H.S.B.C. employee who stole data to expose much of the the Swiss bank's dirty business. "Clients were not only placing their fortunes in accounts that were 'undeclared' to tax authorities; H.S.B.C. bankers were actively assisting clients in hiding their money, by setting up shell companies and sham trusts in the British Virgin Islands and Panama.... like Edward Snowden, with whom he claims a strong affinity, Falciani was a systems guy." CW: Fascinating, in a made-for-Hollywood way.
Philip Oltermann & Kate Connolly of the Guardian: "Austria's political future is on a knife-edge, with the candidate bidding to be the European Union's first far-right president holding a wafer-thin lead over his rival. According to the public broadcaster ORF, Norbert Hofer of the rightwing populist Freedom party (FPÖ) was neck and neck on 50% with his rival Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Green party leader who is running as an independent." --safari...
...BUT Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "From Essex to Essen and from Athens to Aarhus, the scale of the vote for the far right will be seen as a death sentence for familiar post-war, centrist politics-as-usual." --safari
Trump's brethren. AFP in the Guardian: "The Philippines president-elect [Rodrigo Duterte] accused the Catholic church on Sunday of hypocrisy, saying the bishops who had condemned him during his campaign had been asking favours from the government.... About 80% of Filipinos belong to the Catholic church...'You sons of whores, aren't you ashamed? You ask so many favours, even from me,' he said, addressing Catholic bishops." --safari
Leon Neyfakh of Slate: "While academic fraud exists all over the world, the pervasiveness of the deception in Russia is unparalleled, as is the extent to which it is tolerated...It didn't used to be this way. Though it wasn't unheard of to find Communist Party bosses with ill-gotten diplomas in the Soviet era, academic fraud was not perpetrated as brazenly, or at such an enormous scale, until the 1990s." --safari...
...safari: I'm not sure which one is worse, Russians who falsify their intelligence, or Americans who openly shun it. In the article, the writer tries to give a comparison as if Paul Ryan plaigarized Paul Krugman. While that certainly would be a scandal, it'd never happen. Here in the US, American politicians have countless, well-positioned pseudo-academics and think tanks that'll produce whatever Paul Ryan wants to hear. Or, he'll just throw in some magic asterisks and earn praise for his "wonkiness". Choose your poison I guess.
News Lede
Washington Post: "A wave of bombings in Syria killed at least 65 people Monday in a coastal area where Russian troops are based, Syrian state media reported. The attacks struck at one of the key strongholds for President Bashar al-Assad outside Damascus and the hub for Russian military operations backing his government." -- CW
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Reader Comments (13)
Looks like the voters of Harney county were not impressed by the candidates who supported the Malhuer Wildlife Refuge occupation.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/05/harney_county_voters_oppose_candidates_for_occupation.html#incart_2box
Here's John Oliver regaling us with how our primary system is like a counterintuitive cluster fuck and needs desperately to be revised. He wants to set Feb.2 (Groundhog Day) of next year the day we start the process of redoing our crazy quilt system cuz it's really nuts to keep doing it this way over and over.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/john_oliver_the_primary_system_is_counterintuitive_broken_20160523
Sanders really said, ..."the lesser of two evils"? Really? Good lord, the man has lost his moorings. Read a headline somewhere that said Trump could actually win this election––with Bernie's help he may just do that.
I used to watch Saturday Night Live back in the Belushi days, but now I only get a glimpse from the video's put on here like the one yesterday featuring the Bernie/ Hillary sketch which I thought really well done. But it was the Maya Rudolph (who is so talented and versatile) playing Brazil's fallen President, Dilma Rousseff. Here is that solo performance I managed to find although the video itself is not that good––the actors are on opposite sides–-might be a rehearsal shoot. Anyway––I think this is terrific––Maya's "You are cute juicy baby" is pure delight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVCYNUK7mRk
––
Where are they now?
Lo those many days ago when the hustings were ablaze with the deathless words of noble Confederate candidates Marco Repeatio and Lyin' Ted Cruz, vying nobly for the noblest office in the noblest land ("Obama knows what he's doing; knows what he's doing; knows what he's doing..." and "We need 100 more like Jesse Helms in the senate!"--leaving aside the fact that if there were 100 Jesse Helmses in the senate there would be no room for a single Lyin' Ted), halcyon days they were my brothers and sisters, were they not? Ahh...but where now are these noble supplicants who plied voters with their wonderfully dry wit, high-minded prose, and virtuous political philosophies, beseeching them daily for a supportive result in the exercise of their sacred civic franchise?
Why, back doing what they've always done....
Doodly-squat.
Lyin' Ted is back in the senate doing what he's always done, running around with a "Kick Me" sign on his ass giving wedgies to the other senators. "No time for legislation, boys, but how 'bout me for president in 2020?"
And what of young Marco, the senator from Florida with the unfortunate drinking problem and perpetually unbalanced checking account?
Still doing IMPORTANT things as befits a man of his noble character and judicious temperament. He's on to very big and IMPORTANT stuff, is Senator Repeatio. But first a little background.
The National Statuary Hall in the US Capitol houses representations of some of the noblest figures in this noblest of countries, two from each of the noblest states (and a couple from each of the other states). All influential and significant personages from the nation's history. Daniel Webster from New Hampshire, Father Damien and the great ancestral king Kamehameha from Hawaii, Samuel Adams from Massachusetts, Governor Clinton from New York, Sequoyah from Oklahoma, Mother Joseph Pariseau from Washington state, and Helen Keller from Alabama. Florida, in the process of replacing the statue of a Confederate Civil War general would likely wish to select a notable representative of the state "...illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services..."
Thus it falls on Marco Repeatio, just off the campaign trail, hot on the hunt for the White House to proffer just such an illustrious name to measure up the great figures of American history. And he chooses....
Tim Tebow!
C'mon guys, cheers all around. Hip, hip, hoo-ray! Oh, wait. You've never heard of this guy? Well, Tim Tebow was highly Christianist football boy at the University of Florida. He won a major award. And when he scored touchdowns, he knelt and prayed to Jesus! Glory be! He marched gloriously into the National Football League where he.....sucked. Royally.
But no matter, is this not a significant figure on a par with the founding mothers and fathers? Is this not a personage of serious seriousness put forward by a seriously noble former extra serious candidate for the wicked serious presidency? Huh?
As the teacher said, don't tell me, show me. Don't tell me how qualified you are to be president, don't tell me what great, fabulous ideas you have, don't tell me what a superb moral and ethical figure you are, don't tell me what a deep thinker you are, show me.
Well, Cruz and Rubio are showing you now. They've always been showing you what they're all about.
Doodly-squat.
So where are these worthies now? Where they've always been. Sitting on the john squeezing out one good idea after another. Mining the mother lode of the Republican Party.
The Party that pushed out their latest great idea: Herr Drumpf.
Sometimes the obvious comes disguised an an insight. Or maybe a revelation to one is obvious to everyone else.
This morning's whatever:
An election year in which we have a woman running as a credible Presidential candidate reveals the limits of traditional patriarchy.
Many men who think they are and should be in charge of their families because the sense of power their position provides affirms their worth have always resented anyone or anything stronger than they.
That resentment extends to anything who has the power to tell them what to do. In our current social arrangements, because of our numbers and interconnections that thing is often the government, at any and all levels, the many entities that tell them which laws to obey and which taxes to pay, all thereby limiting both the perception and reality of male sway.
If, as I suspect, many American men feel they have been emasculated by forces they do not begin to understand, they are ready for a strong MAN to lead them, and their perception of the Trumpster and the image he projects fill the bill.
I would even go so far as to suggest that many of the "negatives" about HRC are simply about her gender, just as so many of the Obama "negatives" are reducible to his race.
That's why I believe (this morning anyway), that while the shape this race is taking has clear social and economic roots, it will also turn out to be largely about the psychology of gender.
And to the degree that might be true, I'm guessing the Trumpster will receive more votes than I want to think about that have nothing to do with the silly, uninformed and downright dangerous things that come out of his mouth.
As a California resident and voter, I would like to extend my thanks to Bernie supporters for the use of my taxpayer dollars to sue my state. While I have absolutely no problem with extending registration deadlines, this is not a new rule and it's not confusing to anyone who is moderately interested. Using a lawsuit in order to have more time to reach apathetic voters in a state that you have ignored until now is not the way to gain either my sympathy or my support.
Akhilleus,
Tim Tebow? Really? Precious, indeed.
This from the party that makes a living criticizing our education system, saying we have dumbed it down past the point of return?
It Marco was attempting to prove that point, he undoubtedly did.
Or just maybe it's not the system.
So Presidential of him.
Re: Bernie.
With each passing day, his hard won stature and respect are replaced by irritation and a growing sense that personal pique and enmity could be conferring upon us a president worse even than the last Confederate president, who was himself the worst in the nation's history. Bernie has made his mark. He's fought the noble fight. If he thinks whining and lawsuits and carrying on are going to convince super delegates that he is a judicious and responsible presidential candidate, he's been into some pretty excellent weed. And remarks like "lesser of two evils" are, for my money, beyond the pale.
WTF! Grow up.
Clinton needs to get this shit under control. And where is the ineffectual and effectively useless Debbie Wasserman Schultz in all this? What a freakin' nightmare. Democrats getting ready for their all too common circular firing squad. In a year when the Republican candidate has negatives not seen since Benedict Arnold, we're gonna make it a horse race, if it wasn't one already. And will be Bernie be waving a Trump flag at the paddock? He's already got it in his hands.
This is already beyond stupid.
Our city clerk notified all of us oldsters (over 60) that because of
what the Michigan legislature recently did (Gov. Snyder's team)
that there will be long lines come voting time from now on,
so we oldsters can now vote absentee ballots so we don't have to
wait in line until we expire.
Seems like he doesn't like the fact that some of us vote straight
party line. So from now on if there are 4 or 40 pages to the ballot,
it's gonna take a lot longer.
My first thought was that this isn't just going to affect us Dems.
but will also slow down the Republicans. Then my next thought
was----what if they just close down a lot of those voting places in
Democratic areas and see how long the lines can get before
closing time. Waiting for their next move and I bet I don't have
to wait long at all.
Forrest,
I bet your bet is a good bet. I bet.
Confederates give with one hand and take with the other, with both feet, and with mechanical arms that have been field tested by Heritage, AEI, Northrup Grumman, and Bill O'Reilly, who uses the robotic appendages for loofah manipulation and, er, self abuse (but only if the arms are equipped with a micro-surgical sized pincer).
Republicans will NEVER pass any rule or law that will create lines for their serfs, which means, I suppose, that election committees in Confederate controlled districts should rightly be called serf boards.
Ba-dum-bum. (I must have my leetle jokes now and then, yes? And take that, all you Hayek peons.)
Still and all, where the term "absentee ballot" is connected in any way with "Republican Party", the way to successful exercise of voting privilege will be paved smooth for anyone in the military or any Confederate, but any species of voter likely to decline the honor of comforting The Confederacy must needs fight through tangles of bureaucratic boscage that would thwart the most enterprising arboreal creatures in need of a meal to stay alive.
Good luck, brother.
Greetings, One & All.
I found the following to be of great interest & relevance.
For those who might also . . .
Ophelia
"Education, Beauty and Civility: Beyond the Absence of War"
Monday, 23 May 2016 / Truthout
By Max Eternity, Eternity Group | Op-Ed
<< It is not simply the absence of war that creates prosperity or the preservation of good things -- education and an enriched sense of civility does that, for which Merriam Webster offers a definition as a "refinement of thought, manners, or taste," and at Vocabulary.com, the chief definition states:
"Civilization is the opposite of barbarism and chaos. Civilization is an advanced stage of human society, where people live with a reasonable degree of organization and comfort and can think about things like art and education." >>
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/36138-education-beauty-and-civility-beyond-the-absence-of-war
Ken: I thought that the DNC put voters between a rock and a hard place in 2007 with the dilemma of choosing to vote for a black man or a white woman. I was right, what a rock Obama turned out to be! But which way would the electorate go? I have only lived in the South, and bet my husband that primary voters were still sufficiently racist that they would not select a black man. He was certain that misogyny would win the day. It remains a huge issue. I remember rallies with constant heckling of "Iron my shirts, lady" and so on. This election going to be very ugly on many fronts. The DNC continues its death wish with problematic candidates for another election that should have been a walk over - a woman or a (not really) socialist. Fire DWS! Universal registration and compulsory voting! (I know...)
I have been trying to post a link to and a comment on Dana Milbank's opinion piece in the WaPo. I'm trying this no-link comment to see if the link might be the problem.