QOTD: Useless Air Strikes

Kevin Drum:

But guess what? The Iraqi army is still incompetent. America's allies still have their own agendas and don't care about ours. Air campaigns still aren't enough on their own to stop a concerted ground attack. This is the way things are. There are no magic wands. If you want quick results against ISIS, then speak up and tell us you want to send in 100,000 troops. If you're not willing to do that, then you have to accept that lots of innocent people are going to die without the United States being able to offer much help. Make your choice now.

Advice for Alison From Somebody Who Knows Coal Far Better Than She Ever Will

Run on progressive solutions to economic problems, and stop running away from the Democratic Party.

George Zornick at The Nation:

The midterm elections are twenty-seven days away, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has been keeping a relentless road schedule campaigning for Democratic candidates. One thing he’d like to see more of: talk about basic economic fairness issues.

“I think more populism, or more focus on the economic issues, would be helpful,” he told a small group of reporters at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC. “I think it would help drive turnout as well. I think the candidates that focus only on negative things, doing everything negative, have a real danger of having their base go flat.”

Trumka said that in talking to workers on the campaign trail, he frequently confronts a problem that has bedeviled Democrats in many past midterms: apathy. Union members wonder why it matters if they vote.

“They say that at the plant gate, at doors, on the telephone,” Trumka said. “I try to explain to them that the economy is not like the weather. Those that are in power, and those that want to be in power, want us to believe the economy is like the weather—there’s nothing you can do about it, so don’t bother. But the economy…it’s nothing but a bunch of rules. And those rules decide the winners and losers, and those rules are made by the men and women we elect. That’s why this election is important.”

"What I Want People in America to Understand About Ebola Is That It Is Not a Threat to Them"

A must-read from Rebekah Schultz, via TPM, writing directly from Liberia, the heart of the epidemic in Africa:

What I want people in America to understand is that Ebola is not a threat to them because America has hospitals. It has doctors. Americans aren’t asked to take their sick loved ones back to the rented room they share with five other people. They have more than plastic shopping bags to protect their hands from contamination.

Read the whole amazing thing.

It Works

ummagumma.co:

merica | 2 notes

Grimes Hands Mitch A Double-Digit Victory

As all 679,370 Kentucky Democratic voters who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 shake their heads and make plans to stay the fuck home on Nov. 4.

Congrats, Alison: You just made the single stupidest political move of the 2014 cycle.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes has refused seven times in the past seven days to say whether or not she voted for President Barack Obama for president.

Grimes was asked three times by a Herald-Leader reporter after an event on Oct. 2 if she voted for Obama, ignoring the question and turning her back on the reporter asking it.

On Thursday, Grimes refused four times to tell The Courier-Journal's editorial board if she voted for Obama.

"You know, this election, it isn't about the president," Grimes said when first asked if she voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

After being asked the third time, Grimes responded: "I was actually a delegate for Hillary Clinton, and I think that Kentuckians know I'm a Clinton Democrat through and through. I respect the sanctity of the ballot box, and I know that the members of this editorial board do as well."

Yeah, why would you ever want to claim support for the President who brought affordable health care to hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians?

Why Conservatives Hate History

The facts destroy their mythology, that's why.

Sean McElwee at Salon:

American’s right wing, you see, is terrified of history because it is always sentimentalizing it. Many of its arguments rely on a feeling of nostalgia for “good old days,” that appeals almost exclusively to aging whites. That means that a more accurate history, one that considers groups that are traditionally marginalized — women, people of color, Native Americans, immigrants and the poor — don’t necessarily sit that well. Their stories, the stories of the downtrodden, crush the false narrative that many conservatives like to imagine — that of a idyllic past marred by the New Deal, women’s liberation and civil rights.

In Denver, a school board recently tried to limit the historical curriculum to only events that would, “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights.” Needless to say, much of American history — the Great Depression, the Trail of Tears and the internment of Japanese-Americans — would, under those parameters, need to obfuscated. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has issued a statement calling the new Advanced Placement U.S. History standards ”radically revisionist.” But conservatives may want to take the plank out of their own eye before examining the speck in their neighbors. Here are the most important distortions of history the right has promoted recently.

SNIP

There was a time when conservatism was a philosophy concerned primarily with wrestling with and understanding tradition and the limits of human reason and ability. However, these days conservatism is reactionary — it has been imbued with racism, conspiratorial thinking and a hyper-individualistic capitalism. Instead of questioning the limits of reason, it has jettisoned it. In its place remains free market dogma, bad Biblical interpretation and a sentimentalized past. In place of reason and argument, most conservatives rely on fantasy and reminiscence. Allowing conservatives to redefine the past will be incredibly harmful.

Austerity Spreads Ebola

Just another way that repugs and their conservatard budget cuts literally kill people.

Steve M:

According to The Guardian, some Spanish health care workers warned at the time of an earlier repatriation of an infected missionary that Spain might not be ready for Ebola because of austerity-linked health-care cutbacks:

In August, 75-year-old Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares died in Madrid after being repatriated from Liberia five days earlier. He was the first patient in the current, fast-spreading outbreak to be evacuated to Europe for treatment.

Pajares' repatriation to Madrid prompted concern among health professionals who said that Spanish hospitals were not adequately equipped to handle the Ebola outbreak. Amyts, a trade union that represents physicians, called the repatriation risky, and its president, Daniel Bernabeu, asked Spanish news agency Efe if "anyone could guarantee 100% that the virus wouldn’t escape".

The Rational Continent

ummagumma.co:

Flintstone Truthers Still Demanding KY Taxpayers Subsidize Discrimination

The surprise here is not that the creation museum assholes are violating the law - given that the Supreme Court has ruled that freakazoids are above the law, they'll probably get away with it - but that Kentucky officials are actually calling them on it.

Linda Blackford at the Herald:

A controversial plan to award $18 million in state tax incentives to a religious-themed amusement park in Grant County that plans to feature a life-size Noah's Ark could be in jeopardy because of potential hiring discrimination.

In a series of letters with Ark Encounter LLC, Kentucky's top tourism official said the preliminary tax credits are stalled because of language in the park's job application that requires "salvation testimony" and a "Creation belief statement."

SNIP

The state was notified of the posting by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

And you should be giving money to Americans United right now, because they're the only ones keeping both eyes on the arkpark motherfuckers.

"The commonwealth does not provide incentives to any company that discriminates on the basis of religion, and we will not make any exception for Ark Encounter LLC," Stewart wrote.

The over-under on the number of Kentucky General Assembly candidates who will be condemning that policy in loud voices between now and November 4 is all of them.

Supreme Court: Only Corporations Have Religious Freedom That Trump the Establishment Clause

Individuals who flout the separation of church and state, however, are shit out of luck.

TPM:

The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of an Ohio public school science teacher who was fired for promoting the theory of creationism and refusing to remove religious materials from his classroom.

The justices on Monday let stand an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that found the Mount Vernon school district had grounds to fire John Freshwater in 2011 for insubordination for keeping religious books and a poster of a praying president.

The state court said the district infringed on Freshwater's First Amendment rights by ordering him to remove his personal Bible from his desk, but found he was insubordinate for keeping the other items.

Freshwater's attorney had argued that the firing violated the teacher's free speech rights.

Google Back Away From Evil; Gives Security Guards Real Jobs

No, Labor ain't dead yet.

Lauren C. Williams at Think Progress:

Google plans to bring on hundreds of security guards as own employees in a move that could help level the tech industry’s growing income disparity woes in Silicon Valley.

Instead of using third-party contracting services, Google will hire more than 200 security guards and give them the same benefits and perks as other Google employees, including retirement benefits, health insurance and parental leave, The Wall Street Journal reported. Google will continue using current security contractor, Security Industry Specialists, Inc., as the company transitions into building its in-house security force.
The landmark move follows several wage disputes in Silicon Valley, most notably among the tech industry’s invisible workforce — the cooks, janitors and security officers who help keep the businesses humming.

Many tech companies, including Apple, use contracting companies that provide security and cleaning services that don’t pay workers enough to live in surrounding area — even though they make up a sizable chunk of the workforce. There are upwards of 3,000 security guards working in Silicon Valley who make around $14 an hour on average.

But a family of four with two working adults needs to make at self-sufficiency standard of about $19 per hour. Additionally, those low-wage service workers are predominantly people of color, with Asian or Pacific Islanders and Latinos making up almost 60 percent of the workforce and African Americans comprising another 13 percent. Only 26 percent are white.

Religiousness by County

Hmm.  Eastern Kentucky appears to be less religious than the rest of the state, which is exactly the opposite of the conventional wisdom.  I guess if you've got a handful of snake handlers, that's enough to give you a reputation for general stupidity.

ummagumma.co:


(Source: iamnineonefour)

Shame on Berea

Of all the small towns in Kentucky, the one with the history of defiant diversity, educating African-Americans against the law before the Civil War, the one with the national reputation for creativity and open-arms welcome to all, the one you would think would be eager to add LGBT residents to its non-discrimination law is Berea.

But no.  And good grief, the bullshit and lies.

Karla Ward at the Herald:

The Berea City Council on Tuesday rejected an ordinance that would have prohibited discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender people in housing, employment and public accommodation.The measure failed on a vote of 5 to 3.

"I am absolutely for fairness and equality for all people, but I cannot support this ordinance," Councilwoman Violet Farmer said before the vote.

She said she feared expensive legal battles and situations in which "the city would be pitted against local businesses or individuals," and she questioned the need for "another protected class."

SNIP

Councilwoman Diane Kerby, however, later said that "just because it's divisive doesn't mean we shouldn't bring it up."

"If there are any of us who do not have equal rights, that affects all of us," she said. "We're talking about basic human rights ... the right to earn a living and the right to have a place to live."

The council chambers at the Police and Municipal Building were filled to standing room only, and scores more filled a former service station next door to watch the deliberations via television.

SNIP

"I really hope we can find a way to move on together, if the town is as special as we say we are," Councilman Virgil Burnside, who supported the ordinance, said after the vote was taken.

If the measure had passed, Berea would have been the eighth Kentucky city to adopt a fairness ordinance, joining Danville, Frankfort, Lexington, Louisville, Morehead, Covington and Vicco, in Perry County.

When Reality Proves You a Liar, Lie About Reality

Liberals suffer from the curse of honesty.  We just can't get away with the blatant lies that repugs and conservatards spew so blithely and effectively.  Maybe we just respect reality too much.

David Atkins at Hullabaloo:

Conservatives have the problem that reality continues to be punishing to their worldview. Abstinence education doesn’t prevent teen pregnancy; tax cuts don’t generate revenue; climate change is real; supply-side economics doesn’t create sustainable growth; etc.

Their usual answer to be battered by the way the world actually works, is to spend oodles of money telling voters convenient fantasies. Dynamic scoring is just another way of inserting their self-serving and misguided wishful thinking into the reality-based budget system.

Priorities

From Firedoglake:

- Juan Cole: “Congress Cut $8.7 Billion in Food Stamps in Same Year We’ll Spend $22 Billion to Fight Islamic State”

Tax the RIch Out of Existence

They know exactly what's happening, and every minute that goes by without us attacking them with torches and pitchforks just makes them richer and safer.

Digby:

That's from a week-long series at Mother Jones about the effects of income inequality.  

I thought this one was particularly interesting:

That proverbial rising tide is really a giant wave. The wealthy are comfortably riding it on their multi-million dollar yachts while the rest of us are strapped to the keel. Sure, you could say we rise with that wave too but we're still under the water.

Mothers

ummagumma.co:

Turnout, Turnout, TURNOUT

Yeah yeah, Alison's up by two points. You know what I don't see?  I don't see my local Democratic Party knocking on my door to make sure that I am going to acquire the Level-5 Hazmat suit necessary for me to vote for that repug-lite DINO in four weeks.

Not one sniff of an effort to turn out Democratic voters. Gigantic cards every day from the Turtle, but nothing from the Big Dog's Best Girl.

This isn't a U.S. Senate campaign; it's a bad joke.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky House is on the verge of falling to the repugs. That will be a catastrophe.

And when repug Jaime Comer wins the gubernatorial election next year - or rather, when Jack Loser Conway throws away another election any Democratic candidate could win - we will be completely fucked.

Exceptionally Exploitative

As the survivor of a southern public school system whose idea of teaching the Civil War War of Northern Aggression was repeated showings of "Gone With the Wind," a movie I have ever since hated with the heat of a thousand supernovas, let me just say that anyone who thinks this country ended slavery "voluntarily" is not only wrong, not only not fit to sit on a public school board, but should be stripped of her rights to vote, drive, and speak to actual human beings.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money:

In the recent battles over the new AP U.S. History standards, standards that center nothing more than the standard narrative of most American historians in 2014, one of the right-wing critiques is that they don’t celebrate American exceptionalism, while instead instilling in our young people that they should question authority (the horror!). Among the many problems with these assertions is that the idea of American exceptionalism in service of whatever right-wing agenda is currently popular means forgetting the many ways that exceptionalism has operated in the past. Kevin Levin:

Part of the criticism of the revised AP US History curriculum revolves around the assumption that it undercuts and even contradicts a narrative of America’s Exceptionalism. I don’t believe it does and I base such a conclusion on the fact that I’ve read through it. More accurately, it doesn’t say anything one way or the other. I suspect that the vast majority of critics have yet to read it through.

What I’ve never understood, however, is if some people expect me to teach American history through such a lens, whose understanding of the concept should I teach?

Baptist’s slaveowners fully embraced capitalism. Despite the Panic of 1837 slavery resulted in enormous profits throughout the first half of the nineteenth century and helped to push the nation west on its course of “Manifest Destiny.” Americans celebrated this expansion and the wealth created as a sign of its exceptionalism. I suspect that this is one of the reasons why there is such a need to argue that American slavery was not profitable and that it was on the decline by the eve of the Civil War. Better to see it as positioned in sharp opposition from the kind of post-Civil War capitalist surge than as the engine that pushed it forward. We should ignore the fact that it was John Calhoun’s theory of “Due Process” that was later embraced by pro-big-business legal thinkers during the Industrial Revolution.

No, no, stop with that version of American exceptionalism. We just need to teach that America is awesome. Enough said.

Morals

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