The Commentariat -- Oct. 21, 2014
Internal links removed.
Frank Rich on "Why the Future We Imagined in 1964 Was Wrong in Pretty Much Every Way" -- Thanks to MAG for the link.
** Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker interviews President Obama on the subject of his judicial legacy. A consequential essay & a pleasure to read.
Jamie Dettmer of the Daily Beast: "While U.S. warplanes strike at the militants of the so-called Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, truckloads of U.S. and Western aid has been flowing into territory controlled by the jihadists.... The aid -- mainly food and medical equipment -- is meant for Syrians displaced from their hometowns, and for hungry civilians. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, European donors, and the United Nations. Whether it continues is now the subject of anguished debate among officials in Washington and European [sic.]. The fear is that stopping aid would hurt innocent civilians and would be used for propaganda purposes by the militants, who would likely blame the West for added hardship."
Alan Pyke of Think Progress: "Indiana will cut tens of thousands of its poorest people off of the food stamps roles beginning next spring, the state announced. Gov. Mike Pence (R) has decided to join seven other states in reinstating work requirements for food stamps despite being eligible for a federal waiver from those rules for the coming fiscal year.... Gov. John Kasich ...(R-Ohio) retained the SNAP work waivers for 16 of the state's 88 counties but reinstated work rules in the counties that house the majority of the state's minority population. Food stamps recipients in the counties that continue to enjoy waivers are 94 percent white...." Read the whole post. ...
... CW Note: Kasich has reinvented himself as a "compassionate conservati[ve], with strong religious overtones." Apparently strongly-religious conservatives have compassion only for white people. BTW, when Dan Balz of the Washington Post wrote about Kasich's compassionate conservatism, in a highly favorable article published last week, he neglected to mention anything about Kasich's racially-biased food-stamp move even though news of Kasich's controversial food-stamp maneuver -- which he pulled more than a year ago -- has been well-publicized & is the subject of a civil rights lawsuit. Kasich is a shoo-in for re-election in November. His Democratic challenger Ed Fitzgerald is the Worst Democratic Candidate Ever. ...
... Gaffe. Greg Sargent highlights Kasich's accidental endorsement of ObamaCare:
The opposition to it [ObamaCare] was really either political or ideological. I don't think that holds water against real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people's lives. -- Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio)...
... Sargent: "Now, perhaps recognizing how lethal this is to his hopes in upcoming GOP presidential primaries, Kasich has rushed to clean up the mess.... The truly revealing thing about Kasich's comments was ... that he admitted the law has made 'real improvements in people's lives.' And even in his effort to clean up his comments, he again implicitly admitted this to be the case, claiming he supports Obamacare's general goals but not the ACA itself."
Digby notes that Jim Crow will be returning to the Supreme Court this term, in the form of a challenge to the Fair Housing Act. There's a good chance Jim will win an important round in his never-ending quest to subjugate black Americans. ...
... ** Read Jamelle Bouie's full column on "the next assault on civil rights," which digby cites. Bouie really nails the conservative Supremes. ...
... CW: George W. Bush usually gets a pass on race -- including from me -- because he isn't a Jeff Sessions kind of racist. I believe Bush has actual black friends, not the Tom Corbett-Photoshopped kind. But Bush put two nasty boys on the Supreme Court -- and the same type of fellows on many lower-courts, too -- which, even as the ideological balance of the courts tip left, will put the stamp of racial discrimination on our judicial system for decades to come. Conservatism itself has turned out to be a petulant, subversive form of racism & promoter of economic inequality, whose "free-market values" are a pretense for prejudice & oppression. Conservatives may dress their shibboleth respectably, but it is wearing filthy underwear.
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Republican leaders, conceding the futility of a flight ban from Ebola-afflicted West Africa, are refining their response to the outbreak, pressing to suspend visas for travelers and create 'no boarding' lists." ...
... But What about Marco? Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) plans to introduce legislation banning travel between the U.S. and three West African countries hardest hit by the deadly Ebola virus, his office announced Monday." CW: If there's a bad idea out there, if there's a knee-jerk crazy reaction to a crisis, if there's a chance to knock the president, if there's an opportunity to capitalize on Americans' fears -- count on Marco to milk it for all it's worth. ...
... The Times' Weisman sort of implies Marco's folly is a feint: "In reality, Republicans are not planning a legislative response, at least for now, Republican leadership aides said Monday. They merely want their voices heard." ...
... Our elected Republican representatives explain why you should expect to contract Ebola. The already-disembodied guy warning of "liquified internal organs" is Rep. Mike Kelly (RTP-Pa.), & the zombie fella there is Rep. Blake "Pajama Boy" Farenthold (RTP-Texas):
Anna Palmer & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Federal law enforcement officials are taking an ISIL threat against Michele Bachmann so seriously that Capitol Police have given the Minnesota Republican her own security detail. An online threat against Bachmann emerged recently, according to multiple law enforcement officials...."
Reuters: "Monica Lewinsky, the one-time White House intern whose affair with Bill Clinton in the 1990s nearly brought down his presidency, has described herself as one of the first victims of cyberbullying and vowed to help others survive the 'shame game' of public humiliation. In a rare public appearance Lewinsky spoke at Forbes' inaugural 30 Under 30 summit in Philadelphia, saying her depiction in the media -- as a constant punchline for late-night comedians and fuel for internet gossip -- destroyed her sense of self." CW: Affair? I don't think the honor of giving the prez a few blow jobs constitutes an "affair."
Dana Milbank: On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases at the NIH, offered a big wet kiss to deficit hawks & contradicted his boss Francis Collins when he did. Fauci said, contra Collins, that if the NIH had all the funding it wanted they still might not have an Ebola vaccine today....
... CW: One would think these big shots, who may not be polished polticians, would at least know how to be a bit more diplomatic when they go on national teevee. It's not that Chuck Todd is a tough questioner who backed Fauci into a corner. ...
... Much of the right has claimed that the "real reason" the NIH hasn't worked harder on developing an Ebola vaccine is that it wastes your taxpayer dollars studying bike paths & other more frivolous concerns. But that's bull. A significant reason the NIH did not prioritize work on an Ebola vaccine is that until last month, Ebola was an illness mostly confined to West Africa. The representatives of the people would rather the NIH & other government-funded health agencies prioritize issues here at home. This is not necessarily foolish. However, this inward-looking orientation can sometimes have unintended consequences -- like a localized epidemic elsewhere spreading worldwide. As Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's thread, the spread of Ebola -- and the failure of the U.S. government to fully address it -- is a riff on the spread of AIDS, which also started on the African continent, probably in the 1960s.
CW: Should you be inclined to fault me for almost never watching the Sunday talk shows, I shall allow Charles Pierce to defend me. His report on this week's goings-on is all I need. Had I watched any of them, I would have smashed a perfectly good teevee.
November Elections
CW: The next couple of weeks will be gruesome for progressives. So I'll be ignoring some of the bad-news polls -- there will be plenty -- and concentrating on less depressing stuff.
Alex Roarty of the National Journal: "... in several key races, a national political climate driven by the president's unpopularity has been eclipsed locally by a less-Republican friendly attitude. It's turning once-predicable contests into some of the country's most competitive battles, and it's a key difference between this midterm election and many of its recent predecessors."
Michael Gerson of the Washington Post knocks his fellow Republicans' hubris: "Republicans are susceptible to the myth of the midterm mandate. Midterm elections generally express unhappiness, not aspiration. But some conservatives took the 2010 result as an ideological turning point. They concluded that Obama's 2008 victory was an anomaly -- that the country, deep down, was really on the Republican side. It was a false dawn.... At the presidential level, the GOP brand is offensive to many rising demographic groups. Republicans are often perceived as indifferent to working-class struggles (because they sometimes are). The GOP appeal seems designed for a vanishing electorate."
Florida. Mark Caputo of the Miami Herald: "Rick Scott ad: Obama backs Crist. Next Scott ad: water is wet."
Georgia. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: Former President George H. W. Bush, who supports David Perdue (R) in Georgia's Senate race, doesn't like this rebuttal ad by the former CEO of Bush's Points of Light Foundation, Michelle Nunn:
... CW: Ya know, Mr. President, if you're going to support a scummy candidate who runs scummy ads, you have to expect his opponent to push back with this perfectly respectable, respectful -- and truthful -- rebuttal.
** Iowa. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Iowa ... is undergoing an economic transformation that is challenging its rural character -- and, inevitably, its political order. As Iowans prepare to elect a new United States senator for the first time in three decades, the scale at which people and power have shifted from its rural towns to its urban areas is emerging as a potent but unpredictable undercurrent in the excruciatingly close race, offering opportunity and risk for both sides."
Maryland. Dana Milbank offers an explanation for why some people left an Obama rally while the President was still speaking: "This exodus wasn’t intended as a protest. Long lines for shuttles taking attendees to remote parking sites induced participants to leave early so they could beat the rush.... [But] Even among the faithful, Obama's magic can't match the urge to get a jump on traffic." This jibes with a remark made by one commenter to the OFA site who attended the rally. See yesterday's Commentariat for context.
** Massachusetts. Walter Robinson of the Boston Globe: "... Seth W. Moulton, the Democratic nominee for Congress in the Sixth Congressional District, a former Marine who saw fierce combat for months and months in Iraq..., chose not to publicly disclose that he was twice decorated for heroism until pressed by the Globe." ...
... "The Best Candidate Anywhere." Charles Pierce, who has known Walter Robinson for a long time: "... Moulton got on Robinson's radar because Moulton treated his service in Iraq very obliquely in his campaign. Because he [Robinson] had run down so many people who'd phonied up their war records, Robinson got intrigued, so he went to work combing through Moulton's service record.... What Robinson found was enough to warm even the most cynical heart. Including his own. Including mine." ...
... Here's Rachel Maddow on Robinson & Moulton:
South Carolina. Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill: "Rep. James Clyburn's (D-S.C.) Republican challenger [Anthony Culler] referred to same-sex couples as 'gremlins' and 'bullies' in a Facebook post urging supporters to oppose gay marriage at the polls this fall.... Culler ... wrote a Facebook post on Oct. 14 decrying same-sex marriage as 'a pestilence that has descended on our society, against our will, by those in the courts and government that do not value the traditional family. Same sex couples that seek to destroy our way of life and the institution of marriage are NOT cute and cuddly but rather (for those of you that are old enough to remember the movie), Gremlins that will only destroy our way of life...." ...
... CW: South Carolina's 6th Congressional district has a majority-black population. Luckily, Republicans were able to find a white guy who is a confirmed bigot to challenge Clyburn, a member of the House Democratic leadership.
Wisconsin. "Get a Real Job." Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: "Brad Schimel, the Republican candidate for Attorney General [of Wisconsin], told supporters at a Milwaukee County Republicans party that he's tired of the contentious statewide debate over the minimum wage. 'I want every one of our neighbors to have a job again, a well-paid job, so we don't have to argue about minimum wage for someone working at Burger King,' he said. 'Let's get them a real job.'"
Presidential Election
Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "In the November issue of Harper's magazine, Doug Henwood argues that Hillary Clinton, if elected president, would do little to assuage liberals' disappointment in President Barack Obama. This is how Henwood sums up the case for Hillary's candidacy in 2016: 'She has experience, she's a woman, and it's her turn.' But, he says, 'it's hard to find any political substance in her favor.'" Harper's has firewalled Henwood's piece, so Levine summarizes his arguments.
David Corn: "Rand Paul [is] the most interesting conspiracy theorist in Washington. Bilderbergers, the Iraq invasion, Alex Jones -- the GOP senator has routinely flirted with America's paranoid fringe." ...
... CW: Corn concentrates on Paul's conspiracy theories past. But we would be remiss in failing to include his Ebola truther movement connections. ...
... Brian Beutler: "Dr. Rand Paul Should Be Held Accountable for Whipping Up a Frenzy About 'Incredibly Contagious' Ebola."
Beyond the Beltway
Mike Cason of AL.com: "Mike Hubbard, speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and a powerful leader in the state Republican Party, has been indicted by a grand jury and charged with 23 counts, including using his office for personal gain and soliciting things of value. Late Monday afternoon, Hubbard reported to the Lee County Jail where he was booked.... According to the indictment, Hubbard solicited favors from some of Alabama's rich and powerful. They include former Alabama Governor Bob Riley.... Earlier this year, the [grand jury] investigation resulted in charges against two other [Republican] state lawmakers."
Home-Grown "Terrorists": Chris Hayes has a nice follow-up of the Pumpkin Festival riots in Keene, New Hampshire.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Ukrainian Army appears to have fired cluster munitions on several occasions into the heart of Donetsk, unleashing a weapon banned in much of the world into a rebel-held city with a peacetime population of more than one million, according to physical evidence and interviews with witnesses and victims."
Guardian: "The US State Department says Jeffrey Fowle, one of three Americans being held in North Korea, has been released. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Fowle was home Tuesday after negotiators left Pyongyang. She said the US is still trying to free two other Americans, Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae."
New York Times: "Oscar de la Renta, the doyen of American fashion, whose career began in the 1950s in Franco's Spain, sprawled across the better living rooms of Paris and New York, and who was the last survivor of that generation of bold, all-seeing tastemakers, died on Monday at his home in Kent, Conn. He was 82."
New York Times: "Oscar Pistorius, the South African track star once seen as an emblem of triumph over adversity, was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp." ...
... The Guardian is liveblogging the sentencing.
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Reader Comments (18)
Just in case you are wondering how the Republicans can so easily play the Ebola game, there was a decision by a town in NJ to ban for 21 days two students who recently arrived from Africa. Oh, the country is Rwanda in east Africa, about 2500 miles from the infected west countries.
The local paper also had two items about banning the non-existing flights from west Africa.
What a great––and I mean great––story about that wily reporter Walter Robinson uncovering Seth Mouton's REAL battle scars and honoring him as he should be honored. Here is a man–-Mouton–-who we could all jump fences for and what a kick it is to read this kind of positive story.
Going from that to Monica's complaints is a little like a deflated balloon––not much fresh air there and as much as I hate to use the word––slut, I think might just fit. She was, besides her presidential seduction, out to embellish her career and blackmail was something she got very good at.
A PewResearch poll asked the public about which medias they go to for information and which ones they don't "trust" for true information. Big surprise that Faux News is a magnet for modern Conservatives as they just can't get enough of the silky sweet and sour teat of the self-medication campaign, playing up their fears of tomorrow and fawns of yesteryears when colored folk just shined shoes and took their seats at the back of the bus. It just hurts so good.
Besides that, the poll reports that Conservatives distrust 24 of 36 news sources mentioned (must be all the librul lamestream media?) while Liberals trusted 24 of 36 news sources. And just to hammer it home, 88% of 'consistent conservatives' (the old white folk) trust Fox News. That's a remarkable number considering all of the information out there contradicting Fox's "news", but when you hate the media, hate the government, and live by your gun for fear of everyone, a bubble is a hard thing to pop.
Unfortunately for liberals, I didn't see RealityChex mentioned anyway in the report. What an informed electorate we would have (half of it anyway) if more followed the local motto of In Marie We Trust.
http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/
Frank Rich looks back 50 years: "The most explosive conflicts of 1964 remain entirely intact in America today: race, war, and the ideological battle over the role of government."
Interestingly, it would appear little progress has been made on many fronts ... "...eminently fixable American maladies identified in 1964 have been left to fester ever since—as exemplified by a subheadline beneath the Times banner announcing the Warren Commission Report: “Security Steps Taken by Secret Service Held Inadequate.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/frank-rich-1964-flaws-of-presentism.html
The more things change, the more they remain the same!
Or plus ça change and all that jazz!
My nine-month old granddaughter loves to play peek-a-boo. Her synapses and memory have not yet developed to the point where she realizes that my face is behind the handkerchief, even when she can't see it. Remove the handkerchief and, surprise, there's Poppa again! Great fun.
Last night as I watched the news, I had the impression that the release of the Dallas health providers from controlled observation, and the lack of new Ebola cases, signalled to the public that the U.S. has turned the corner on controlling Ebola. This despite the well-publicized analysis of CDC, WHO, MSF and other experts that as long as cases in W. Africa increase at a replication rate above 1.0, the probability of endemic Ebola, and global spread, remains almost certain. Which means that we need to pull out all the stops to stop the pandemic in W. Africa ASAP.
But I suspect that without the face of U.S. Ebola cases to look at, the U.S. public will not realize that there is a killer face behind the handkerchief. And our congress will start to chisel on the necessary investment in Africa. It's the way they do business, based on brains that are not yet fully developed.
Lewinski should not be dragged out again as a bluff smearing the Clinton dynasty with taunts of disgrace. She's a showroom slutbag who's got no draw, no appeal, no sales power & no staying power.
The Toobin article hits the mark, has substance and is enjoyable to boot. I was happily surprised that Obama had appointed so many judges that have been confirmed. It is an indication of the persistence and long picture thinking( see average age of appointed judges) that I admire in the President.
Love the "notorious R.B.G." handle that his is circulating.
I'm confused. "Mike Hubbard, speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives and a powerful leader in the state Republican Party, has been indicted by a grand jury and charged with 23 counts, including using his office for personal gain and soliciting things of value".
Being a politician in America is a crime?
Today's daily cartoon on the New Yorker web site is worth your trouble.
http://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/daily-cartoon-tuesday-october-21st?int-cid=mod-latest
Wisconsin AG candidate Schimel is climbing on board Scott Walker's bizarre argument that the minimum wage "doesn't serve a purpose" because real people --white, republican-voting adults--don't work in minimum wage paying jobs. Everyone should have a job that pays 2, 3, or 4 times the minimum wage``except that it's one's own fault for not getting such a job. Training and education budgets have been cut, employers aren't paying for training, but they still complain that they cannot find employees with the skills they need.
Some of my canvassing territory in Madison covers people who make pretty low wages, and I'm working to get their vote out for Mary Burke. She supports raising minimum wage to $10.10 in three steps.
And Susan Happ will make a much better AG than Brad Schimel, who will follow in the footsteps of JB Van Hollen, the worst in Wisconsin history. See my comment yesterday on Charles Pierce's post.
here's a story about Walker's view on jobs, the minimum wage, and the types of people who work for it:
http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-24175-walker-blames-victims-for-his-jobs-failure.html
By the Way, to all readers of my one-note comments about events in Wisconsin, thank you for paying attention. It's hard to get the true story out about what goes on here, and when people don't understand it, they tend to blame Wisconsin voters for the results of election, which is so wrong.We are fighting upill against a well-financed Koch-driven machine.
Excellent piece about Seth Moulton. Comparisons to George W. Bush and the million other war mongering conservative chicken hawks is unnecessary but I'll do it anyway.
The Decider, who sent Moulton and his comrades into a war he and Dick Cheney invented just so he could, among many other terrible reasons, try to rescue what was left of his manhood. When it was his turn to serve--in a war he supported, by the way--he served alright. He served himself booze, cocaine, and party time while he was AWOL.
Years later, this disgraceful deserter donned a flight suit so he could strut around play acting at being a real soldier as he declared the war over. Several years later, Seth Moulton was leading men into combat in that war the Decider declared finished. We're still in Iraq over a decade later. Many never came home, something that doesn't worry The Decider and never will.
Luckily Seth Moulton did come home. He appears to be everything Bush is not. Honest, brave, and humble. And he deserves all the praise that fakers like Bush demand for themselves.
I can't imagine that a guy like Moulton would be quick to pull the trigger on another war, to stand up like Republican chicken hawks and demand blood. He's seen it. He's been there. I sometimes think McCain is such a war monger because he didn't get to see much of his war. He disobeyed orders while hot-dogging and spent the rest of the war in confinement.
I doubt people like Moulton are anxious to send others into harm's way, especially for spite or personal aggrandizement.
Frank Rich's piece was quite a trip down memory lane. What a lot of research he put into it. I have added it to my reading list in order to remind me not to take all the pundits so seriously, and I'm afraid I will be subscribing to the NYT so I can waste a lot of time looking at old papers.
The Jamelle Bouie piece is worth keeping in mind as we move forward, er, ah, I mean, backward in this country as far as race is concerned.
John Roberts and the dwarfs have tapped into the pulsing vein of hatred and racism and have declared it inert. As far as Roberts is concerned, there is no racism anymore. Nada. So we don't need any of those protections put in place to try to adjust for the democratically disfiguring effects of such hatred.
Funny, plenty of white people agree. I mean, look at the president. Proof positive, right? Any black guy can be president or a rich CEO, black women can be anything, go anywhere, and still get all kinds of free shit handed to them. Fucking moochers.
They are just SO tired of everything those lazy blahs get....welfare for nothing, Caddies to drive around in, hammocks to laze in while poor white people have to work. We regularly see the horror of slavery now casually invoked by white people as if they were the ones in chains. Some notable conservative loudmouths have even gone so far as to lecture blacks that they should be grateful their ancestors were slaves, because, really, it wasn't that bad after all, now, was it? I mean, look at all that free food and housing those lazy moochers got.
Too many white people believe that they are, in fact, much greater victims of racial prejudice than blacks. In one survey, 11% of respondents declared, on a scale of 1 to 10 that racial animosity against whites deserved a 10. Only 2% believe that racism is that much of a problem for black Americans.
But it's interesting. If there's no racism anymore, why do so many African-Americans learn what they can and cannot do around white people? This list is in jest, but it's rooted in real experience. The fact that people like Bill O'Reilly refuse to admit the reality of white privilege doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
In fact, some polls suggest that more white people believe in ghosts than believe racism exists. It's not quite that simple, but you get the idea. One black woman decided to quit her job in the media rather than having to deal with white colleagues who feel that even though racism might not be totally dead, she could not have ever experienced it. And these are the sort of people who consider themselves "enlightened" about race.
So it's no wonder that Little Johnny and the Dwarfs, have a ready made cheering section for anything they want to do to drag the country back to pre-civil rights days..
Because racism doesn't exist anymore.
The Supreme Court says so.
Oh wait....this just in....
Trenton, NJ police say racism doesn't exist either. Only maybe it does. But either way, they're not taking any chances. You know how touchy those blah people can get.
So a couple of local artists got together and, with proper permission, paint a mural of Michael Brown, unarmed teenager who was shot down in Ferguson, MO and left lying in the street for four hours (because racism doesn't exist). Of course, he had to be shot. He was wearing baggy pants and, according to right-winger expert on young black kids, Ben Stein, whose sole experience of black kids is restricted to busboys in snazzy restaurants, Michael Brown's whole entire body was a deadly weapon. Even just looking at that poor police officer was an act of terrorism and overt murderous intent, or some shit like that.
Anyway, so these two guys in Trenton paint a mural, a picture of Brown with the phrase "Sagging pants is not probable cause"....humph. They must not have spoken to Ben Stein. He'll set them straight.
But the Trenton police feel that this sends the wrong message. Hmmm...what to do? Black neighborhood, painting doesn't demonstrate any violent imagery or call for violence against white people or police. What to do? I mean, it's clearly the wrong message. Right? If we allow pictures of black kids here and there, pretty soon, they might think we DON'T have the right to shoot them on sight.
Then it came to them. Get rid of it Paint over it. See? Gone. Problem solved!
'Cause eradicating a mural of a kid likely murdered by the police in Ferguson doesn't send the wrong message, right?
Just like the way the Supremes handle racism. Paint over it and pretend it doesn't exist.
Patrick,
I have to agree.
Good comment, well written.
Thanks.
MAG,
Plus ça change, indeed.
In fact, while reading through the Rich piece (and it is a rich piece), I noticed that Real World Lego Master Builder Robert Moses, refused to hire the Beatles for the '64 World's Fair, stating that he knew what "the kids" liked.
His solution? Guy Lombardo. "A favorite with many of the kids"...Oh...I can't even begin to tell you all the hours my buddies and I wasted listening to Guy Lombardo records...
Reminds me of another self-proclaimed master of the universe, Donald Trump (who wouldn't even merit inclusion in a list of Moses wannabes), who insisted that he had a deep knowledge of African-American culture, because of his great relationship with "the blacks".
Plus ça change
Aside from being a civil rights hating, kidnapping, supporter of campaign operatives who kick women to the ground and stomp on them, self-certified poker of sharp objects into eyes, ignorant fear mongerer, and friend to card carrying KKK lovers, Rand Paul is a fucking psycho. AND a douchebag. (Not like it's difficult to find douchebag psychos in the Republican Party though. You could toss a feather in the air and hit one.)
Whoever gives this nutbag the slightest credibility (lookin' at you Time Magazine and Politico, among many others) is either stupid or not paying attention.
This guy is a fucking weirdo who makes tinfoil hat wearing droolers look like candidates for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
And it shows you just how far off the grid the Republican Party has gone that a guy this whacko is considered presidential material. And not "presidential" like Rick Santorum or Bobby Jindal either.
But then you look at Ted Cruz. And Marco Rubio. And Scott Walker. And Rick Perry. And Paul Ryan.
And you fucking YEARN for a cuckoo like Barry Goldwater.
That's how god-awful bad it is.