StupidiNews!

• The only road to the distant town of Valdez, Alaska has been cut off by a series of avalanches, leaving the Richardson Highway from Anchorage closed for at least a week.
• New statistics on SNAP recipients finds that with recent cuts to the program, the working poor have now surpassed children as the program's largest recipient group.
• Thailand's Election Commission is urging a delay in next week's planned national voting as weekend clashes in Bangkok have left a protest leader dead.
• Canada's First Nations continue to protest use of natural resources on their land that PM Steven Harper wants to use to turn the country into an "energy superpower".
• Spainish-based Telefonica is looking into ways to use your neighbor's wi-fi bandwidth to bolster your own connection when they aren't putting it to use.

Last Call For The American Dream

Income mobility in the United States depends very, very much on where you live.  If you're poor in a state like Utah, you've got opportunities.  If you're poor in a state like South Carolina, you basically have no chance.  The results from a landmark study looking at where the best and worst metro areas to be poor in America shouldn't shock anyone.



It's no surprise then that the worst states to be poor in are the Carolinas and Georgia.  Your odds of moving up in the world when you're poor in those areas are 1 in 4, maybe 1 in 3 at best.  It's twice that in other parts of the country.  Salt Lake City is number one, and Charlotte is dead last (yes, even worse than Detroit.  So is Raleigh, Indy, and Atlanta.)

What do these areas with the least mobility have in common?  The Altlantic's Matthew O'Brien:

1. Race. The researchers found that the larger the black population, the lower the upward mobility. But this isn't actually a black-white issue. It's a rich-poor one. Low-income whites who live in areas with more black people also have a harder time moving up the income ladder. In other words, it's something about the places that black people live that hurts mobility. 

2. Segregation. Something like the poor being isolated—isolated from good jobs and good schools. See, the more black people a place has, the more divided it tends to be along racial and economic lines. The more divided it is, the more sprawl there is. And the more sprawl there is, the less higher-income people are willing to invest in things like public transit.  

That leaves the poor in the ghetto, with no way out for their American Dreams. They're stuck with bad schools, bad jobs, and bad commutes if they do manage to find better work. So it should be no surprise that the researchers found that racial segregation, income segregation, and sprawl are all strongly negatively correlated with upward mobility. But what might surprise is that it doesn't matter whether the rich cut themselves off from everybody else. What matters is whether the middle class cut themselves off from the poor. 

3. Social Capital. Living around the middle class doesn't just bring better jobs and schools (which help, but probably aren't enough). It brings better institutions too. Things like religious groups, civic groups, and any other kind of group that keeps people from bowling alone. All of these are strongly correlated with more mobility—which is why Utah, with its vast Mormon safety net and services, is one of the best places to be born poor. 

4. Inequality. The 1 percent are different from you and me—they have so much more money that they live in a different world. It's a world of $40,000 a year preschool, "nanny consultants," and an endless supply of private tutors. It keeps the children of the super-rich from falling too far, but it doesn't keep the poor from rising (at least into the top quintile). There just wasn't any correlation between the rise and rise of the 1 percent and upward mobility. In other words, it doesn't hurt your chances of making it into the top 80 to 99 percent if the super-rich get even richer. 

But inequality does matter within the bottom 99 percent. The bigger the gap between the poor and the merely rich (as opposed to the super-rich), the less mobility there is. It makes intuitive sense: it's easier to jump from the bottom near the top if you don't have to jump as far. The top 1 percent are just so high now that it doesn't matter how much higher they go; almost nobody can reach them. 

5. Family Structure. Forget race, forget jobs, forget schools, forget churches, forget neighborhoods, and forget the top 1—or maybe 10—percent. Nothing matters more for moving up than who raises you. Or, in econospeak, nothing correlates with upward mobility more than the number of single parents, divorcees, and married couples. The cliché is true: Kids do best in stable, two-parent homes.

It's a stark reminder that Oh, and locally, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis are all in the bottom 10 cities for mobility.  Ohio is nearly as bad as the Carolinas and Georgia.  If you're poor here, you're going to stay poor.   Why?  We refuse to invest in our cities, our infrastructure, and our people.  The Republican plan to fix all this?  Cut taxes on the rich and corporations, so there's even less revenue to invest, cut investment in schools, transportation and public safety, and inequality gets worse.  Meanwhile, the rich take their social capital and move to the exurbs, or as with Cincy, gentrified downtown areas and price out the poor.

There are developing nations with better income mobility than Charlotte.  Because America, right?

Hostage Crisis For All The Boys And Girls

Just a reminder that both Kentucky senators are dangerous idiots.  Mitch The Turtle on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: So are you saying right here, “We are going to attach something to the debt ceiling”? And if so, what? 

MCCONNELL: What I’m saying is we ought to attach something significant for the country to [President Obama's] request to increase the debt ceiling. That’s been the pattern for 50 years, going back to the Eisenhower administration. I think it’s the responsible thing to do for the country. [...] 

We’re never going to default — the Speaker and I have made that clear. We’ve never done that. But, it’s irresponsible not to use the discussion — the request of the President to raise the debt ceiling — to try to accomplish something for the country.

It's irresponsible to not hold the country's economy hostage to get what you want.  So please proceed, congressional Republicans, and remind America why you have a 19% approval rating.

The Kids Are Not Alright With Rand Paul

To recap the Rand Paul stance on government, kids, and poverty: government has no role in birth control or safe abortion services because they're both immoral and children must be brought into the world, but government should be used to punish women for having too many children.

During a Lexington luncheon Thursday, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul discussed the possibility of cutting government benefits for unwed mothers who have multiple children, though the potential Republican candidate for president in 2016 didn't directly endorse such a policy. 

During a question-and-answer period following his remarks at a Commerce Lexington luncheon, Paul responded to a question about workforce development by including a warning about unwed young mothers doomed to poverty.

Although he said the job of preventing unplanned or unwanted pregnancies should be left to communities and families, Paul left open the possibility of a role for government. 

"Maybe we have to say 'enough's enough, you shouldn't be having kids after a certain amount,'" Paul told the business group at one point. 

An aide to Paul declined to comment Thursday night when asked to clarify the senator's statements about unwed mothers. 

Paul told the audience that being "married with kids versus unmarried with kids is the difference between living in poverty and not."

So what glibertairans really can't stand is single motherhood.  It all comes down to punishing the sluts and whores who dare to have sex without being married.  Why?  They tend to vote Democrat, of course.

Besides, how does cutting off assistance for single mothers help get mothers and kids out of poverty, especially when Republicans refuse to acknowledge that government helping to provide birth control is cheaper than providing SNAP and other safety net programs, or the state taking the children and putting them in foster care?

Paul then "clarified" his answers earlier today:

"I mused about how you'd have a government policy, but I actually came down saying it would be very difficult to have a government policy," the potential 2016 presidential candidate said. 

"I mostly concluded by saying it's a community, it's a religious, it's a personal problem, but it is a problem," Paul said.

Government is hard.  Let God sort it out.

[UPDATE]  Steve M nails it:

The GOP has been telling us for years now that there's no racism in America anymore (except anti-white racism) and anyone who thinks otherwise is a dupe living on the "liberal plantation." You can see the success of that in the massive black vote Republicans are able to run up in every election. 

Since that talking point is working so well for Republicans, Rand Paul figures it'll work even better with The Ladiez.

There's no racism except for anti-white hatred, and there's no sexism except for misandry from feminazis.

You know, I don't see so much that women are downtrodden. I see women rising up and doing great things. In fact, I worry about our young men sometimes because I think the women really are out-competing the men in our world.

If you believe that the only victims in America are white men, Rand Paul's your candidate.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/01/24/3050274/rand-paul-discusses-cutting-government.html#storylink=cpy

Last Call For Love And No Marriage

It seems that Oklahoma lawmakers would rather burn down the chapel than let same-sex marriage happen in the state since a judge threw out the state's ban on same-sex marriage earlier this month, even if it means ending marriage in the state for everyone in an effort to get the state riled up enough to maybe, I dunno, lynch some LGBTQ folks or something.

State lawmakers are considering throwing out marriage in Oklahoma. 

The idea stems from a bill filed by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Edmond). Turner says it's an attempt to keep same-sex marriage illegal in Oklahoma while satisfying the U.S. Constitution. Critics are calling it a political stunt while supporters say it's what Oklahomans want. 

"[My constituents are] willing to have that discussion about whether marriage needs to be regulated by the state at all," Turner said. 

Other conservative lawmakers feel the same way, according to Turner. 

"Would it be realistic for the State of Oklahoma to say, ‘We're not going to do marriage period,'" asked News 9's Michael Konopasek. 

"That would definitely be a realistic opportunity, and it's something that would be part of the discussion," Turner answered. 

Such a discussion will be made possible by a current shell bill -- something that can be changed at almost any time to react to upcoming rulings on Oklahoma's same-sex marriage ban.

So if Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage is found to be unconstitutional, the state will simply refuse to recognize any and all marriages.  Because that's how much these Republican assholes hate anyone different from them.  If they can't have their way, then they have no problem using the power of government to make everyone suffer.

The Republican party cannot be excised from American history quickly enough.

The Paranoid Style Will Never End

We've gotten to the point now where the right-wing victimization complex has gotten so insane that the super-rich view themselves as actual Holocaust victims when they write letters to the WSJ, like venture capitalist Tom Perkins, who gives us this derangement:

From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent. There is outraged public reaction to the Google buses carrying technology workers from the city to the peninsula high-tech companies which employ them. We have outrage over the rising real-estate prices which these "techno geeks" can pay. We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a "snob" despite the millions she has spent on our city's homeless and mentally ill over the past decades. 

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendant "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?

"Will no one rid America of these troublesome ninety percent?"

Perkins isn't some crazy fringe nut, Kleiner Perkins, Caulfield & Byers is one of the country's largest Silicon Valley venture capital firms, the big money behind Spotify, Soundcloud, and yes, Facebook and Twitter.

And the fact that there's even a discussion of income inequality has the super-rich making comparisons to 1938 Germany.  We're all Nazis just for questioning our betters, and you'd better believe the right will take time out from their busy schedule of screaming about how Obama is destroying free speech to crush any mention of income inequality in America.

The victimization complex will never, ever end with these guys.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• An arrest has been made in the death of a South Carolina State University student killed Friday after an argument resulted in a deadly shooting.
• The US Olympic Committee is advising Team USA not to wear their Olympic team gear outside venues at the Sochi games next month, as it may make them targets for possible attacks.
• The Supreme Court has granted a stay of Obamacare contraception coverage mandates for a group of Catholic nuns while their case is awaiting a decision.
• A five-week cease fire in South Sudan is scheduled to begin today as several African nations are involved in ongoing peace talk efforts.
• At least 11 arrests have been made in connection with a website that solicited paid services to hack more than 6000 passwords for Google, Yahoo, and other sites.

Last Call For A Tragic End

Authorities in Maryland have found the body of 35-year-old Ryan Loskarn, the former social media aide to Tennessee GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander, who was charged with child pornography possession and distribution last month.

”At approximately 12pm yesterday, Carroll County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a private residence in the 6900 block of Kenmar Lane for a report of an unconscious male, believed to be deceased,” said a statement from Colonel Phil Kasten of the Carroll County Sheriff’s office. “Family members reported finding 35 year old Jesse Ryan Loskarn unresponsive in his basement where he’d been residing with family since this past December. The preliminary investigation indicates that Loskarn may have taken his own life, and his body has since been transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for Autopsy. The investigation continues….” 

Loskarn, who was awaiting the outcome of grand jury proceedings in his case, had been staying with his parents since being released on his own recognizance. He was scheduled to next appear in federal court on Feb. 10. Loskarn had been ordered not to use the Internet and was required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet. 

In a brief statement, Alexander said: “For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end.”

A pretty awful story here all around.  Loskarn was most likely in real trouble, using congressional resources in possible connection with the pornography, and the victimization of the children is of course the top priority.

Loskarn apparently decided this was the way he should face the music.

The Completely Paranoid And More Than A Bit Insane Style

The perpetual victimization machine of right wing politics is throwing a gasket this month, with Chris Christie's problems in New Jersey growing weekly, former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife now facing felony corruption charges, and conservative hack Dinesh D'Souza facing campaign finance violations.

The wingers are completely losing their minds.  Glenn Reynolds gets to write stuff like this in USA Today:

Spend a little while on Twitter or in Internet comment sections and you'll see a significant number of people who think that the NSA may have been relaying intelligence about the Mitt Romney campaign to Obama operatives, or that Chief Justice John Roberts' sudden about-face in the Obamacare case might have been driven by some sort of NSA-facilitated blackmail. 

A year ago, these kinds of comments would have been dismissable as paranoid conspiracy theory. But now, while I still don't think they're true, they're no longer obviously crazy. And that's Obama's legacy: a government that makes paranoid conspiracy theories seem possibly sane.

Of course, Glenn isn't saying Obama is coming for conservative white America with his army of Funktastic Blackity Black Thug Life Thugs, but you could be excused for believing it.  I mean, it's not like the FBI is going after Democrats or anything.  OH WAIT.

The federal criminal investigation into New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez is broader than previously known, NBC 4 New York has learned. 

The Department of Justice is investigating Menendez's efforts on behalf of two fugitive bankers from Ecuador, multiple current and former U.S, officials tell NBC 4 New York. The probe into Menendez’s dealing with the bankers comes as federal authorities are also investigating his relationship to a big campaign donor from Florida. 

The criminal investigation is focusing in part on the senator’s ties to William and Roberto Isaias and whether the senator crossed a line in trying to help the two brothers stay in the United States.

The Isaias brothers have been fugitives from their native Ecuador for more than a decade -- sentenced in absentia for embezzling millions as the bank they ran there was collapsing.

Can't wait for Reynolds to defend Sen. Menendez as another one of Obama's victims.  Of course, wingers, the "party of personal responsibility", see themselves as being victimized on a daily basis by mean old liberal fascists.  The end result?  Republicans, in a stunning and completely hypocritical reversal, are now against the NSA gathering information.

In a jarring break from the George W. Bush era, the Republican National Committee voted Friday to adopt a resolution demanding an investigation into the National Security Agency’s spy programs. 

According to the resolution, the NSA metadata program revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is deemed “an invasion into the personal lives of American citizens that violates the right of free speech and association afforded by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” In addition, “the mass collection and retention of personal data is in itself contrary to the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” 

Titled a “Resolution To Renounce The National Security Agency’s Surveillance Program,” it was passed by a voice vote as part of a package of RNC proposals. Not a single member rose to object or call for further debate, as occurred for other resolutions. 

Nevada Committeewoman Diana Orrock told msnbc over the phone that she introduced the resolution at the RNC’s summer meeting, but she wasn’t able to attract the necessary co-sponsors to advance it until now. The only major change she says she made to secure support was to drop the word “unconstitutional” from the title. 

“I have to thank Edward Snowden for bringing forth the blatant trampling of our First and Fourth Amendment rights in the guise of security,” she said. “Something had to be said. Something had to be done.”

So these programs were perfectly fine and 100% necessary when they were created by Republicans, but until Obama got re-elected and Chris Christie is now facing investigation and Benghazi and the IRS and Fast and Furious all fizzled out, Republicans need to change the subject again so they can have more hearings on how evil Obama is.  The victim complex never ends with these guys.

Obama Derangement Syndrome is now part of the GOP platform.  Oh, and they removed the word "unconstitutional" from the attack on Bush's programs because they would then have to seriously entertain impeachment, which they would lose on.

The best part is not only is Obama a master manipulator and super-intelligent arch villain, he's also apparently a totally boring, stupid, irrelevant non-entity at the same time.

Why, pretty soon these nutjobs will be trying to convince you Obama was born in Kenya or something.

Dinesh D'Indictment

I've talked about professional right-wing hack and "movie auteur" Dinesh D'Souza before (he's the clown behind the failed 2012 winger anti-Obama "documentary 2016: Obama's America) but it seems his political activities in 2012 got him in more than a bit of trouble as the Department of Justice rang him up on campaign finance violations today.

Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate. 

According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D'Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate's campaign. The candidate was not named in the indictment. 

Attempts to reach D'Souza and a lawyer representing him were unsuccessful. 

D'Souza was charged in the indictment with one count of making illegal contributions in the names of others, and one count of causing false statements to be made. 

Federal law in 2012 limited primary and general election campaign contributions to $2,500 each, for a total of $5,000, from any individual to any one candidate.

Supposedly, the candidate in question was New York Republican Wendy Long, who D'Souza donated to in 2012, only to have her get stomped by Kirsten Gillibrand's wildly successful re-election campaign.

FEC campaign finance records show Mr. D’Souza made two $2,500 contributions to long-shot Republican New York U.S. Senate candidate Wendy Long in March 2012—the maximum allowed. Mr. D’Souza’s wife at the time, Dixie D’Souza, also gave $5,000 that March, records show. The indictment says the candidate in question was unaware of Mr. D’Souza’s allegedly illicit activities. Ms. Long was handily defeated in the general election by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.

So not only did he apparently get caught, but it looks like he basically risked breaking the law backing a candidate that lost by 44 points.

But totally worth it, right?

StupidiNews!

• The FBI arrested five in connection with the infamous $8 million "GoodFellas" Lufthansa heist at JFK Airport in 1978, charging the men with racketeering and conspiracy counts.
• More than 30 elderly residents of a Quebec retirement home are unaccounted for and feared dead after a fire broke out and burned the entire building to the ground.
• Thailand's Constitutional Court could rule as early as today whether or not a planned February 2 election can be held as protesters promise to block polling places to stop it.
• CNN is the latest news organization to report its social media accounts were hacked and false news stories were propagated, involving China, US treasuries, and the Syrian Electronic Army.
• Google has taken out a patent to provide free taxi service to customers to retail stores in exchange for advertisements during the ride.

Last Call For The Paranoia Bubble

Just a reminder that in the FOX News/AM Talk Radio alternate reality, the real (and only) racism in America is against white people, the poor dears.  Raw Story:

A Christian radio host insisted last week that white people were no longer racist, and even if they were, it’s the fault of racist black people. 

Sandy Rios, of American Family Radio, was offended when a listener suggested she was racist toward black people, who she blamed for inciting white racism. 

“I think the racist garbage coming from the — uh, a lot of blacks right now who are just filled with bitterness and rage is just amazing to me,” Rios said. “It is racism, I am seeing it constantly here in D.C., you know, I think — and it’s causing white citizens to become more racist than they ever were.” 

She continued, referring to white people using the term for Germanic tribes that once dominated England and is now generally associated with British-American Protestants and white supremacists. 

“I think for the most part, the American Anglo-Saxon crew really has moved past racism, they did it quite a long time ago,” she said.

And Sandy's living proof of that, right?

To recap her worldview:

1. Black people are all angry bitter racists.
2. White people aren't racist at all.
3. ...Except for the white people who are.
4. But that's okay because it's caused by the fact that...
5. Black people are all angry bitter racists.

The fact I'm pointing this out is proof of this, right?

Jim DeMented's Job Review

Former senator Jim DeMint left Congress to run the Heritage Foundation in 2013 to give the organization the, ahem, credibility it needed to count as an outside Tea Party group rather than the DC insider think tank that it is, and a year later, it looks like the Powers That Be aren't super happy with the arrangement.

In its first year under former senator and tea party godfather Jim DeMint, there was a growing consensus -- and concern -- that the foundation once renowned for its intellectual rigor might now be more of a political advocacy outlet than a home for scholarly research, albeit of the conservative variety. 

Heritage saw a study on the supposed cost of immigration reform blasted by those within its own ideological sphere as methodologically shoddy. One of its authors was forced to resign after revelations of anti-immigrant views in his earlier work surfaced. Its Obamacare research has come under scrutiny for its inherent bias, as TPM has reported. 

Those unforced slip-ups, and its advocacy arm's growing reputation as a bully toward any kind of moderation, have started to call the foundation's reputation into question on Capitol Hill. Conservatives lamented to the New Republic that Heritage had become a political action group "with a research division," burning bridges with the House GOP, something totally foreign to "the gold standard of conservative, forward-looking thought" that it used to be. The foundation's $82 million budget was reportedly being scaled back, with more money flowing to the advocacy efforts that have so chafed Hill Republicans.

In other words, what passes for the "intellectually rigorous conservative community" is shocked -- shocked I tell you! -- to discover that one of the most virulent anti-science Senators in Republican history hasn't provided them with the gravitas they were looking for.  They're apparently even more shocked that DeMint is using academic research and the studies they produce in a fashion that would make cigarette companies blush with embarrassment, fitting data to ideological means and damn the results!

Further proof that "conservative think tank" may be the biggest oxymoron in Washington DC.

The Church Of The New Masters Of The Universe

The Church of the Invisible Hand Of The Free Market dictates that the most moral of us are the wealthiest, because hard work is rewarded.  So the 85 wealthiest people on earth are collectively better morally that the bottom 3.5 billion of the world's population because they are collectively as wealthy.

So rejoice, the Church says. These people are as Saints among you, if not Gods themselves.  You should emulate them in every way!

If you were disheartened by Oxfam's recent report that the 85 richest people in the world hold more wealth than the 3.5 billion poorest people, it's probably just because you lack the entrepreneurial spirit of Kevin O'Leary. 

O'Leary, the businessman and reality television star, reacted to the report with glee earlier this week on the eponymous Canadian talk show, "Lang and O'Leary Exchange." 

"It's fantastic and this is a great thing because it inspires everybody, gets them motivation to look up to the one percent and say, ‘I want to become one of those people, I’m going to fight hard to get up to the top,’” he said. “This is fantastic news and of course I applaud it. What can be wrong with this?"

Bow before your masters, lowly peons!  If you were worthy, you'd be as rich.  You're not, which means you're just too lazy.  Work harder!

The reaction from O'Leary's co-host, Amanda Lang, said it all. 

"Really?" she said. "So, someone living on a dollar a day in Africa is getting up in the morning and saying, ‘I’m going to be Bill Gates’?”

Why there's nothing at all stopping them from doing just that!  The only reason that person in Africa living on a dollar a day hasn't made as much as Bill Gates yet is because they are lazy and immoral, Q.E.D. and Amen!

[UPDATE] And a new Pew Research poll on income inequality bears out that -- surprise! -- most Republicans are members of the Church of the Invisible Hand, while a large majority of Democrats and a slight majority of Independent voters believe in societal advantages and disadvantages.

Republicans of course can't admit that there are structural economic barriers in place in America that have to do with class, gender, and race, otherwise they'd have to admit they're largely responsible for perpetuating them.

StupidiNews!

• Texas has executed a convicted Mexican national despite the protests of the Mexican government, who claimed the execution was a violation of international law.
• Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling by February 7th, or else the administration will have to resort to measures to pay the government's bills.
• Talks between Ukrainian opposition leaders and President Viktor Yanukovich have broken down in Kiev, with the city facing massive and violent protests.
• A California state Senate committee report revealed engineers knew of hundreds of cracks in Chinese manufactured parts for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, but were told to stay quiet.
• The Supreme Court's first major patent law decision of the year finds a unanimous ruling that the burden of proof for patent infringement rests on the patent holder.