Open Thread - Friday April 10, 2017

Did you hear Hillary Clinton is running for president?

Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street backers: We get it

Hillary Clinton sounded like a woman on a mission after her long drive into the heartland: “There’s something wrong,” she told Iowans on Tuesday, when “hedge fund managers pay lower taxes than nurses or the truckers I saw on I-80 when I was driving here over the last two days.”

But back in Manhattan, the hedge fund managers who’ve long been part of her political and fundraising networks aren’t sweating the putdown and aren’t worrying about their take-home pay just yet.

It’s “just politics,” said one major Democratic donor on Wall Street, explaining that some of her Wall Street supporters doubt she would push hard for closing the carried interest loophole as president, a policy she promoted when she last ran in 2008.

Hillary’s Campaign Will Focus on Global Warming According to Her Campaign Chairman, a Major D.C. Lobbyist

Hillary’s husband backed NAFTA with her approval and he signed it into law in ’94. Hillary’s campaign manager, John Podesta, is a lobbyist in DC and members of his former firm, the Podesta Group, not only helped WRITE the TTIP, but they proudly advertise on their website that they can help Big Business firms PROFIT off of it.

Hillary Clinton Not Ready to Confront 'Billionaire Class,' Bernie Sanders Says

Hillary Clinton isn't ready to confront the nation's billionaires to address rising income inequality, said Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent deciding whether to challenge her for president in 2016.

“It's not what she says, it's what she does,” Sanders said in a meeting with Bloomberg reporters and editors Wednesday in Washington. He said he'll be making a decision “shortly” on whether to launch a presidential campaign.

Conservatives fuel the march to theocracy.

Bloomberg Politics National Poll Finds Deep Partisan Split on Israel and Iran

Israel has become a deeply partisan issue for ordinary Americans as well as for politicians in Washington, a shift that may represent a watershed moment in foreign policy and carry implications for domestic politics after decades of general bipartisan consensus.

Republicans by a ratio of more than 2-to-1 say the U.S. should support Israel even when its stances diverge with American interests, a new Bloomberg Politics poll finds. Democrats, by roughly the same ratio, say the opposite is true and that the U.S. must pursue its own interests over Israel's.

RELIGIOUS FANATICISM IS A HUGE FACTOR IN AMERICANS’ SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

Almost half of all Americans want to support Israel even if its interests diverge from the interests of their own country. Only a minority of Americans (47 percent) say that their country should pursue their own interests over supporting Israel’s when the two choices collide. It’s the ultimate violation of George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address warning that “nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded. … The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.”

Tennessee House votes Bible as official state book
(rejected by state Senate 4/16)

The Holy Bible is the official book of Tennessee in the view of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Despite questions of constitutionality, lawmakers beat back an attempt to make Andrew Jackson's Bible the official book and voted 55-38 in favor of Rep. Jerry Sexton's original bill.

"History's going to tell us where we stand on this. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to have the side that I'm on," said Sexton, R-Bean Station, after the vote.

Welcome to the free expression part of our program. Tell me, what is on your mind?

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Big Al's picture

Who'd a thunk.

I'm waiting for the time to go protest outside some churches and tell them they're all going to hell for voting for
Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush. That should get em.

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Big Al's picture

"Americans" this or "Americans" that, when in fact, at least half of Americans don't know whether
JFK was a President or slang for "just fucking kewl".
Maybe the poll results should say something like, "for those Americans that had even a clue of what we were talking about"

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NCTim's picture

My wife gets to hear me rant. Yesterday, the NC house voted to replace the the DC statue representing NC. The current statue is ex-Gov Charles Aycock. Aycock was a segregationist. They voted to replace the statue with a Billy Graham statue.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/arti...

This morning, I was ranting about Billy Graham being a hater and disingenuous. The wife came to his defense, unaware of his political machinations and his baggage. Sadly, my wife gives men of the clothe, the advantage of the doubt. I think most use religion to shield their immorality/lack of ethics.

http://gawker.com/5952856/billy-graham-bought-a-whole-page-in-the-wall-s...

http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2009/06/30/nixons-tapes-billy-graham-...

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

mimi's picture

in Germany during the Third Reich. That and other war experiences made my parents doubt a lot of the "ethics" they were preaching, but not living and my mother never was able to be a "woman of religious beliefs" (doesn't mean she didn't have some sort of faith) again. Too many, as you say, hiding their lack of ethics/morality behind their religion. I have to say that I feel that being the case very strongly in the US. But if challenged it's everywhere the same. A constant struggle to live up the moral principle the religions teach. Listening to the song "Army of God" (whose origins I don't know anything about) made me wonder ...
ah shucks, let's just have a little faith ...

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gulfgal98's picture

Does anyone else here find it weird that there is absolutely zilch over at the other place about the TPP?

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Big Al's picture

It's so obvious that they use the issues as tribal or team affairs where it's OK when their side does it,
but wrong when others do it. You see the same thing in sports, college and professional. Defend the team
at all cost, it doesn't matter what actions are taken. Typical human behavior.

The worst thing for this country will be Hillary Clinton as President. I think she would be worse than
Bush on a number of levels, from policies to actions to the continued neutering of the Dem party and the
self described progressives. I would say the left but hate to paint the left with the reputation of the partisan
progressive/conservative Dems.

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link

The open warring among Democrats over fast-track trade legislation, and the party’s broader existential crisis on free trade, grew more pronounced Thursday as senior lawmakers announced a breakthrough on the trade bill. Many Democrats still feel the burn, 20 years later, of lost manufacturing jobs from the North American Free Trade Agreement — pushed through by former President Bill Clinton — and they fear another Democratic president is on the verge of turning his back on working-class Americans by negotiating a trade deal that would send jobs overseas.
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gulfgal98's picture

Are the Democrats willing to take a strong stand against this deal and the totally undemocratic process behind it? My guess is no. It will all be kabuki all over again with the rolling villains and the others playing the good guys. But there are always just enough villains to make the votes go the right way. Simply put, there are very few truly good guys up there. The majority are totally corrupt and very few are willing to take a consistent stand on the side of the people. So they play act on the national stage with them switching between good cop and bad cop roles. When Schumer is playing good cop on this issue, my bullshit radar went off. The Democrats at the national level have shown themselves to be cowards of the greatest magnitude. It continues to affirm my complete and total loss of faith in our system of government. As a basically optimistic person, I never thought I could feel so pessimistic as I do now.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

smiley7's picture

Wow, we saw the sun this morning, briefly, cloudy again with more rain forecast. Hope you are having better weather for your renovation Tim. And damn, our General assembly surprises us everyday with their 'infinite wisdom;' Elmer Gantrys, everyone.

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NCTim's picture

It drizzled this AM. It is nice out now.

The legislature is rolling us backwards faster than we can keep up with. I have started having fantasies of knocking out Paul Stam.

The renovation is zooming along. Wednesday and Thursday, out with the old. Today the plumber and electrician did their thing. Monday the VIM system goes in.

http://www.vimproducts.com/

We are going to try to get out for some Cuegrass tomorrow.

http://www.cuegrass.com/

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

smiley7's picture

Enjoy the Cuegrass. MerleFest next week; my good friends all go, may have to miss this year, too much to do.

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

smiley7's picture

Will pass the news on, good. Going to work Floydfest this summer; looking way forward to a great experience with my friends. http://floydfest.com/

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at Cuegrass, sounds like a good time, Town Mountain is an awesome band. I feel a bluegrass EB set is in order for tomorrow, it's overdue.

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NCTim's picture

The Cue supplier is one of my very favorites.

I hope to be full of hush puppies and beer by this time tomorrow.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

link

Iraqi security forces fought Islamic State militants at the gates of the western city of Ramadi on Friday, and local authorities warned it was in danger of falling unless reinforcements arrived soon.
Police sources and provincial council members said the militants were no more than half a kilometer from the center of the capital of Anbar province, and many residents were rushing to leave, waving white flags.
"The situation in Anbar is critical," council member Sabah Karhout told Reuters. Two deputy governors of Anbar echoed his alarm and said the U.S.-led coalition was not conducting enough airstrikes to help save the city.

Ramadi has been in a tug of war with ISIS since January 2014. If it falls then Anbar will be totally under the control of ISIS, with the lone exception of al-Asad air base and nearby Haditha.

Meanwhile, this isn't the only setback in the War on Some Terror. In Yemen, our decision to go to war with the Houthis has allowed them to seize a massive weapons depot and now control the main oil-producing region of Yemen.

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