Last Call For Rand On Third Baseless

The GOP plan to win in 2016, specifically Rand Paul's plan to win in 2016, is to somehow split the black vote by running issues that "appeal" to us.

Personally, I think Rand's been in the Maui Wowie again.

Sen. Rand Paul tells POLITICO that the Republican presidential candidate in 2016 could capture one-third or more of the African-American vote by pushing criminal-justice reform, school choice and economic empowerment. 

“If Republicans have a clue and do this and go out and ask every African-American for their vote, I think we can transform an election in one cycle,” the Kentucky Republican said in a phone interview Thursday as he was driven through New Hampshire in a rental car.

He's high.  Rand Paul, you are high as a kite in a Kansas tornado.

First of all, "school choice" is a terrible idea, because it's really "take money from public schools and give them to for-profit charter schools that fail."  The good schools don't have enough room for all the students who want to get into them, and those students still have to go to school somewhere. Where they end up going are the same crumbling, failing schools that they're trying to escape from, and that suburban and exurban taxpayers want to abandon totally since their kids aren't stuck there. See Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia schools, and to a lesser extent, John Kasich's charter school scheme here in Ohio, and Rick Scott's charter school scheme in Florida and Bobby Jindal's mess in Louisiana.

Second, Republicans aren't interested in criminal justice reform.  At all.  Rand Paul might be, but fixes to our overloaded criminal justice system are worthless without the major kind of infrastructure and job improvements that predominately black neighborhoods need, and again, that Republican taxpayers don't give a damn about.  It's one thing to reduce or get rid of mandatory sentencing, but entirely another to provide quality public defenders, clean and safe courtrooms that aren't backlogged for years, and not to use fines and court fees from people as a revenue stream for county and city funding.

Third, if anything the phrase "economic empowerment" means Republicans like Rand Paul want to cut food stamps, social services, Obamacare and Medicaid expansion, schools, and infrastructure spending in urban neighborhoods, not improve them.  Let's not forget this means "you're on your own to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps."

Finally, Rand Paul is stupid enough to think that decades of mistrust black voters have towards Republicans will be eliminated in the next two years, while the party is still actively engaging in "Southern Strategy" attacks involving President Obama and openly moving to disenfranchise black voters through voter ID laws in multiple red states?  And hey, let's not forget Rand Paul's own personal record on civil rights and voting right that both are unnecessary in today's age, and the fact that the GOP is sworn to get rid of legislation protecting them.  Republicans don't want a third of the black vote. They want to eliminate the black vote.

It's not just fantasy, but idiotic foolishness to take Rand Paul at his word on this.  Most of all, he seems to think black voters are stupid, and that's the most insulting part of all this.

Republicans will be lucky to get 3.3% of the black vote in 2016, not 33%.

Doctor, Doctor, Can't You See You're Lying, Lying

And once again GOP Sen. Rand Paul proves to be a massive embarrassment for Kentucky, the US Senate, and America with his flat out lies about Ebola to CNN.

Sen. Rand Paul said Ebola is "not like AIDS," offering what he says is a stark contrast from the White House's message on the disease. 

"[The Obama administration] has downplayed how transmissible it is," Paul said in an interview with CNN on Thursday morning. "They say it's the exchange of bodily of fluids. Which makes people think, 'Oh, it's like AIDS. It's very difficult to catch.'" 

"If someone has Ebola at a cocktail party they're contagious and you can catch it from them," Paul continued. "[The administration] should be honest about that."

Except being exposed to bodily fluids is exactly how Ebola spreads.  Just standing near a person at a cocktail party doesn't spread Ebola and Rand Paul knows this, but his obnoxious hair-splitting is actually dangerous and stupid fearmongering.

"They say all it takes is direct contact to get this," he said. "If you listen carefully, they say being three feet from someone is direct contact. That's not what most Americans think is direct contact. 

"You start to wonder about a basic level of competence," he said.

Yes, it makes me question your competence, Senator.  You represent me, ostensibly.  And you should know better.

How Ebola spreads:



Are we clear?  Unless that person at the cocktail party is ill and bleeding and vomiting on you, or you're sharing a used needle with them, you're not getting Ebola.

Now stop lying to the American people, you ass, because that's what you're doing here.

The Distinct Sound Of A Panic Button Being Smashed

Remember, there's no concerted effort to panic people using cheap and stupid Ebola scare tactics in the media, thus causing low turnout for the November elections in order to favor Republicans.  Why would anyone believe that's the case?

There could be as many as two dozen people in the U.S. infected with Ebola by the end of the month, according to researchers tracking the virus with a computer model. 

The actual number probably will be far smaller and limited to a couple of airline passengers who enter the country already infected without showing symptoms, and the health workers who care for them, said Alessandro Vespignani, a Northeastern University professor who runs computer simulations of infectious disease outbreaks. The two newly infected nurses in Dallas don’t change the numbers because they were identified quickly and it’s unlikely they infected other people, he said. 

The projections only run through October because it’s too difficult to model what will occur if the pace of the outbreak changes in West Africa, where more than 8,900 people have been infected and 4,500 have died, he said. If the outbreak isn’t contained, the numbers may rise significantly. 

Yeah, nothing like a using a sensational headline like

U.S. Ebola Cases May Exceed Two Dozen by November, Researchers Say

And then spending the rest of the article to walk it back.  Good job, Bloomberg News!

“We have a worst-case scenario, and you don’t even want to know,” Vespignani said. “We could have widespread epidemics in other countries, maybe the Far East. That would be like a bad science fiction movie.” 

The worst case would occur if Ebola acquires pandemic status and is no longer contained in West Africa, he said. It would be a catastrophic event, one Vespignani said he is confident won’t happen. 

“Let’s be rational for the next couple of months,” he said. “We aren’t going to have an invasion of cases. After November, we need to reassess the situation and see what is the progress of containment in West Africa.”

There's a worst-case, but it's not here in the US.  Africa needs help, which is coming in the form of US personnel and supplies.  But who cares?  EBOLA EBOLA EBOLA STAY HOME DON'T GO OUTSIDE.  Hell, we're pissing ourselves over 3 cases.

"And especially don't go vote" is the underlying implication.  Scary crowds of people there.  Maybe somebody's infected, you don't know.  If you wanted to wreck November turnout and then holiday shopping, this is the way to do it.

Right?

StupidiNews!

• US airstrikes in Kobani have dislodged ISIS fighters in the Syrian border town near Turkey, allowing Kurdish fighters to take territory.
• Vice-President Joe Biden's youngest son, Hunter Biden, has been discharged from the Naval Reserve after testing positive for cocaine use.
• President Obama says he is open to the idea of an "Ebola czar" to help coordinate the response of multiple US agencies to the disease, but does not support a travel ban from West Africa.
• London police say they are conducting a number of domestic counter-terror operations against militants inspired by ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq.
• Apple has announced its next generation of iPad and iPad Mini tablets, supporting many of the same features introduced earlier this summer with the iPhone 6.