StupidiNews!

• Tokyo Electric Power Company officials are abandoning attempts to recover a robotic probe stranded inside one of the damaged Fukushima reactors that melted down four years ago.
• A US federal judge has sentenced four former Blackwater guards to lengthy prison sentences for their roles in the 2007 civilian massacre in Baghdad's Nisour Square.
• President Obama will meet today with new Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi at the White House to discuss aid, the Islamic State, Iran, and other issues.
• UK PM David Cameron is turning to a Margaret Thatcher-era policy of selling homes owned by local councils to prospective homeowners at a large discount ahead of next month's general elections.
• With the FCC officially publishing its rules for net neutrality on Monday, internet providers have immediately filed suit against the FCC and are demanding a permanent injunction stopping them.

Last Call For Solving Rubio's Cube

As Ed Kilgore points out, GOP Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is taking something of a chance running for the White House, as he can't run for Senate at the same time (and unlike Kentucky, the state GOP isn't going to change the rules for him.)  However, it may still work out for the guy.

The reason it might not be as risky as one might imagine is buried in an otherwise insufferably puffy Grunwald/Caputo piece at Politico: 

Rubio and his team do not like to talk about strategy, but in any case, the political calculus of giving up a Senate seat to seek the brass ring was not as painful as it sounds. Even if Rubio doesn’t win the nomination, he could well end up on the Republican ticket. Even if he ends up unemployed in 2017, he can run for governor in 2018 with a Republican-friendly mid-term electorate. 

So why not get the requisite training-wheels run for the top spot out of the way? If his campaign never really takes off, it will be attributed to Bush’s strength rather than Rubio’s weakness. And for a dark horse, he’s very well positioned, with surprisingly strong approval/disapproval ratios in the early states—a sign the “base” is ready to accept his backtracking on immigration reform—and the possibility of replacing either Bush—whose own numbers remain questionable—or Scott Walker—one big gaffe or indictment away from Palookaville—in the first tier of candidates.

On top of all that, he’s the candidate Republican Establishment elites are almost certain to drool over if Jebbie blows up or fades. He’s the symbol of change in the GOP, without really making many concessions that strain conservative orthodoxy. A relatively young guy with a Latino background who is (it appears) the closest thing to a Reformicon champion (though again, what Reform Conservatives offer is more an add-on to conservative fiscal policy making it even more fiscally irresponsible than any sea change), and also a favorite of Neocons, is going to get massive positive media attention if and when he becomes more viable.

In other words, should Jeb Bush crash and burn, Rubio is the establishment GOP's plan B.  That's not really a great fallback plan given Rubio's dismal polling numbers, but worst-case scenario Rubio succeeds Batboy as governor in the next midterm election, he figures.

Could be worse for him.  Marco will land on his feet after he lands on his face.

The Man Without Fear, The Show Without Peer

Absolutely devoured Marvel's Daredevil series on Netflix over the weekend, and I cannot recommend it enough as a complete redemption of the Ben Affleck/Jon Favreau 2003 film that all but wrecked the character and put Marvel in the dumpster in early 2003 (before X2 2 months later and Spider-Man 2 the next summer started the company's revival).  Is it any good?

Short answer: it's the best super hero show on TV right now, DC or Marvel (Sorry Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, and The Flash...) and it's worth a month of Netflix just to watch this.

Long answer, after the jump (mild spoilers ahead.)

The Running Woman

"Hillary Clinton running for president" is the least surprising headline of 2015 so far, but at least her announcement video is pretty well done and contains a couple of nice messages.




So a couple of same-sex couples in the video, and Hillary pledging to "get out there and earn your vote".  A far cry from 2008, and differences that move her campaign in the right direction.

Because earning my vote in the primaries is what she has to do.  If she is the nominee then I'll support her certainly.  The DNC convention in Cleveland is 14 months off however.  A lot could happen between now and then, and a lot needs to happen before I mark her square here in the primary.

We'll see.  As for now, she's in.

StupidiNews!

• 21-year-old golf phenom Jordan Spieth has finally claimed his green jacket from The Masters, setting new 36- and 54-hole record scores on the way to another record 28 birdies.
• Republican presidential candidates wasted no time in attacking Hillary Clinton within minutes of announcing her own candidacy for president on Sunday afternoon.
• Iran is calling for a new government in Yemen and implying it can assist in setting one up as Saudi airstrikes against Houthi rebels continues.
• A new Virginia Commonwealth University study finds that the higher your income, the healthier you are overall as incidences of diseases are less in those of incomes above $100,000.
• At least one of California's public utilities commissioners says that the Comcast/Time-Warner merger should be scrapped due to monopoly concerns in the state.

Last Call For Yes, It's About Race

The NY Times editorial board drops a brutal piece on the GOP's effort to try to bury President Obama's legacy under racist demonization.

It is a peculiar, but unmistakable, phenomenon: As Barack Obama’s presidency heads into its twilight, the rage of the Republican establishment toward him is growing louder, angrier and more destructive.

Republican lawmakers in Washington and around the country have been focused on blocking Mr. Obama’s agenda and denigrating him personally since the day he took office in 2009. But even against that backdrop, and even by the dismal standards of political discourse today, the tone of the current attacks is disturbing. So is their evident intent — to undermine not just Mr. Obama’s policies, but his very legitimacy as president.

It is a line of attack that echoes Republicans’ earlier questioning of Mr. Obama’s American citizenship. Those attacks were blatantly racist in their message — reminding people that Mr. Obama was black, suggesting he was African, and planting the equally false idea that he was secretly Muslim. The current offensive is slightly more subtle, but it is impossible to dismiss the notion that race plays a role in it.

And Republicans, those bastions of liberty and freedom, will certainly call for the destruction of the NY Times and the arrest or worse of its editorial board.

But it's about damned time that somebody with a press megaphone called Republicans out for their actions in 2015.  The country needs to be constantly reminded of this. And until voters choose to punish the GOP for this behavior, they will keep doing it with every Democrat they can find.

And It Happens Yet Again

Another black man running from the cops.

Another white cop shooting and killing him.

Another murder caught on tape.

Deputies wanted evidence on camera.

But when they recorded a sting against an alleged illegal weapons dealer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earlier this month, cameras also rolled as Eric Courtney Harris ran, and when he was fatally shot.

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office released the video on Friday. The shooting was an apparent accident, it has said.

The reserve deputy thought he had his Taser in hand, not his firearm, and shot Harris "inadvertently," according to the sheriff's office.

In the last minutes of the video, Harris, a convicted felon, lies on the pavement with police on top of him. An officer calls for a Taser. But in place of an electric clicking sound, a gunshot rings out.

Then a voice can be heard saying, "Oh! I shot him! I'm sorry!" Another officer screams out, "He shot him! He shot him!"

Harris, who is bleeding, calls out, too. He's losing his breath, he says. An officer yells back at him. "You f---ing ran! Shut the f--- up!" he yells. "F--- your breath."

The group of officers begin tugging Harris' hands behind his back as the video ends.

Another name on the list of the dead, Eric Harris. 

Another time where a black suspect ends up dead, without due process, without a court of law, but executed by police.

Another raft of excuses as why next time it won't happen.

Another time where the black community won't believe it.

And it will happen again, and again, and again.

Sunday Long Read: Do Work, Hil

Your Sunday long read this week is from NY Magazine's Jason Zengerle, as he reminds us that Hillary is going to have to work to win in 2016, and she's not very good at it.

For much of the Obama presidency, there has been a general sense of calm among Democrats about their chances to retain the White House. Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State was distinguished, if not especially consequential. Her favorability ratings hovered around all-time highs. It wasn’t just that her nomination seemed a foregone conclusion; given the dysfunction of the Republican Party and the demographic changes in the American electorate, the race seemed hers to lose. It was hard to find a Democratic operative not in fairly high spirits.

Then, over the past few weeks, the country watched as Clinton dealt with the fallout from the revelation that she used a personal email server while heading up the State Department. Her fiercest critics have charged that she employed the private email system to skirt government transparency laws and, in the process, endangered national security. Her supporters worry that, even if Clinton’s private email was legal and innocent, it was a self-inflicted error that has needlessly handed her enemies yet another cudgel to wield against her. But the glee and regret among Republicans and Democrats have been most pronounced over the disastrous press conference Clinton held at the United Nations to try to put the matter to rest, which served to remind them of something many had forgotten: what an abominable candidate she can be.

Standing in front of a tapestry replica of Picasso’s Guernica, she was testy, brittle, and, above all, unpersuasive — failing to demonstrate the most elementary political skills, much less those learned at Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie. “She read her prepared remarks like a high-school student,” marvels Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster who’s been a close observer of Clinton for more than two decades. “She looked down at her notes, then she looked up to the left, down at her notes, then up to the right. Almost the entire time, she avoided making eye contact with anyone.” A prominent Democratic operative is still horrified by the spectacle. “She came off as defensive and artificially put-off,” he says. Another Democratic operative says, “I’m a huge Hillary Clinton fan. I hope desperately she’s the next president of the United States, because I think she’d be a great president. But after that press conference, I do have major concerns about her ability as a campaigner and to get elected.”

The performance made a host of other recent Clinton missteps — seemingly minor at the time — suddenly loom larger in the minds of anxious Democrats. There was her strangely vapid Foggy Bottom memoir,Hard Choices, which racked up middling sales, and her obvious rust in the interviews she did to promote it. There was her continued buck-raking on the paid-speaking circuit, which seemed tone-deaf, if not downright greedy, for someone about to embark on a presidential campaign. And there was her hard-to-figure delay in assembling a staff for the campaign, so that, when news of the hidden emails broke, she had no infrastructure to defend her and instead had to rely on a hodgepodge of veteran freelancers like James Carville and Lanny Davis, whose reappearance made the latest Clinton scandal feel exhaustingly familiar. Democrats may be constitutionally prone to hysteria, but even so, the whiplash of these few weeks has been notable. Now, days before Clinton’s official announcement that she is, once again, in it to win it, some in her party are on edge.

Bill Clinton could run as a populist and pull it off.  Hillary is utterly terrible at it and it's how Barack Obama beat her in 2008.  So unless Hillary starts running the kind of campaign that people badly want Elizabeth Warren to run, she's in real trouble.  Yes, she has better people now (having ditched the odious and racist corporate scuzzbag Mark Penn as her 2008 manager), but she has to be a better candidate too, and so far she's nowhere near where she's going to have to be.

"Vote for me because I'm Hillary Clinton" failed in 2008, and it definitely won't work in the age of Snapchat.

Raul, Barack. Barack, Raul.

President Obama and Raul Castro met today in a moment guaranteed to make Republican heads implode.

President Obama met with Cuban leader Raul Castro on Saturday afternoon, in what Obama called a “historic meeting.” 

"We are now in a position to move on a path toward the future,” Obama told the Cuban leader at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, according to pool reports. 

"Over time, it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship between our two countries." 

He noted one of the first tasks the two countries will have to undertake is opening embassies in their respective capitals. 

Through an interpreter, Castro said he agrees with Obama on all points. He said the two leaders can disagree while remaining respectful. 

"We are willing to discuss everything but we need to be patient, very patient,” Castro said. "We might disagree on something today on which we could agree tomorrow."

I never thought I'd see this day.  Cuba and the Castros have been "The bad guys just off the coast of Florida" all my life. But change is coming.  Slowly.  But it's coming.

 

Saving Us From Ourselves

The FBI sure has this knack for allowing twenty-something losers to pretend to carry out terrorist fantasies, then catching them in the act for long, long prison sentences.

Booker was charged with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives), one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, the Justice Department said in a news release. 

Booker, of Topeka, was arrested at 9 a.m. local time without incident near Manhattan, Kansas, just east of Fort Riley. Prosecutors claim he was making final preparations for setting off a bomb as part of a suicide mission against U.S. military personnel, according to a criminal complaint. 

"I want to assure the public there was never any breach of Fort Riley Military Base, nor was the safety or the security of the base or its personnel ever at risk," FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Jackson said in a statement. 

Officials said they believe Booker has mental health problems, and he once claimed he was captured by the FBI because he "was with" al Qaeda. 

Booker tried a year ago to join the Army as part of his alleged plot to attack U.S. soldiers, officials said. About three weeks before he was to report for basic training, authorities say he posted a disturbing message on Facebook: "Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush!! I am so nervous. NOT because I'm scared to die but I am eager to meet my lord." 

Someone noticed the posting and the FBI was alerted. Prosecutors say he admitted writing it and told FBI agents that he enlisted in the Army so he could kill his fellow soldiers in a similar way as Maj. Nidal Hasan did at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. Booker allegedly told the agents that he had formulated several plans for waging violent jihad once he was in the Army. 

After the Army decided it had no use for Booker, the FBI sent undercover operatives to talk with him over the next several months, the complaint said. They say Booker told them he wanted to make a car bomb to engage in "violent jihad on behalf of (ISIS)."

The guy needed help and was not a material threat.  Instead the feds allowed him to indulge his twisted fantasy in order to what, put him in a cage for the next quarter of a century? Yeah, that seems like it's a worthy use of tax dollars.

Jesus.

Last Call For WIN THE EVENING

Just because you see something first doesn't mean A) that it's accurate or B) that it's worth writing about.  In the age of social media hoaxes and lightspeed satire, it pays to slow down.

So today, this happened: Bloomberg News fell for a fake news story originally posted at one of those awful sites that plays on confirmation bias to circulate seemingly genuine stories and generate clicks for them: RETRACTED: Nancy Reagan Gives Her Endorsement to … Hillary Clinton? - Bloomberg Politics.

There’s now a notice at the top of the article:

This story has been retracted. We fell for a hoax. Apologies.

And of course the offenders are once again the jokers at "National Report".

Suckers.

Why Slager Will Walk

Not even a week after Officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott eight times in the back, we find the campaign to make sure Slager is acquitted in the court of public opinion is on in earnest.

Saturday's traffic stop opens like so many others as Scott was stopped in a used Mercedes-Benz he had purchased days earlier, footage from the patrol car showed. At the outset, it's a strikingly benign encounter: The officer is seen walking toward the driver's window, requesting Scott's license and registration. Slager then returns to his cruiser. On the dash cam video, Slager never touches his gun during the stop. He also makes no unreasonable demands or threats. 

The video also shows Scott beginning to get out of the car, his right hand raised above his head. He then quickly gets back into the car and closes the door. After Slager goes back to his patrol car, minutes later, Scott jumps from his car and runs. Slager chases him. 

What's missing is what happens from the time the two men run out of the frame of dashboard video to the time picked up in a bystander's cellphone video a few hundred yards away. The cellphone footage starts with Scott getting to his feet and running away, then Slager firing eight shots at the man's back. 

"It is possible for something to happen in that gap to significantly raise the officer's perception of risk," Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and criminal law professor at the University of South Carolina. 

Scott was almost $7,500 behind in child support and had been in jail three times over the issue, but no bench warrants had been issued directing officers to bring him in. His family has said that he might have run because he was behind on payments again and didn't want to go back to jail. He last paid child support in 2012, court records show.

All Slager has to do in order to walk is testify that Scott tried to attack him during the period Scott ran from the traffic stop until the cell phone video opens, and that he feared for his life.

No jury will convict him. Not in the murder of a black man, because black men are vermin to be exterminated and shot in the back.  We don't count as human, you see.

Slager will lie, and he will walk.  And he'll quietly be hired back as a police officer somewhere.

And Walter Scott will be dead because he was black.

Cruz (Information) Control

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz is in the "evil liberal media is using my verbatim quotes against me, the bastards!" phase of the campaign, which should last right up until the point he pulls out next year.

In an interview with CNBC, GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz expressed anger towards the “left-wing editorial writers” who liked to call him out for making “non-factual statements.” 

Cruz, speaking to John Harwood during a ten-question interview, dismissed the tendency of people to do things like fact-check his claims supporting his argument that the IRS should be abolished:

HARWOOD: You’ve said a few things that don’t necessarily comport with the facts, like, “125,000 I.R.S. agents, send ‘em to the border.” They’ve only got 25,000 agents or something like. You’ve talked about the job-killing nature of Obamacare. We’re adding jobs at a very healthy clip right now. Why shouldn’t somebody listen to you and say, “The guy’ll just say anything – doesn’t have to be true”? 

CRUZ: There is a game that is played by left-wing editorial writers. It’s this new species of yellow journalism called PolitiFact. Colloquially I was referring to all the employees as agents. That particular stat is in a joke I used. So, they’re literally fact-checking a joke. I say that explicitly tongue in cheek.

Get it?  Any time Ted Cruz says something ridiculously non factual, it's stupid liberals fact-checking a joke and anyone who looks to fact-check his statements are "yellow journalists."

Dear political journalists: you are the enemy to any Republican.  They would see you destroyed as much as they would want to even look at you.  Why treat them as anything other than a cancer on our body politic?

StupidiNews!

• President Obama will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro today, the first time leaders of the two nations have met in more than 50 years.
• Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to formally announce her candidacy for the White House in 2016 as early as this weekend.
• At least 31 people were killed in a bus crash in Morocco when the bus caught on fire immediately after colliding with a truck.
• France is now getting more than 4,000 megawatts of power from solar in 2015, a new record for the country, as Europe moves towards more green energy sources.
• Online giant Amazon is taking services that sell fake 5-star reviews of products to court, suing a California man who runs a service to "boost product review scores".

Last Call For The Facepalm-etto State

South Carolina proving once again that if there's ever an instance where it can be more ass backward than North Carolina, then South Carolina will take that bet and run with it, this time with state Attorney General Alan Wilson doing the honors on fighting the horrible scourge of same-sex marriage.

Here’s the gist of South Carolina’s fascinatingly sexist argument. The state wants to prove that the 14th Amendment—which guarantees “equal protection of the laws” to every “person”—was not intended to displace state marriage laws. And what did those laws look like at the time? One major feature: In many states, married women were not permitted to own property or enter into contracts and had no legal existence apart from their husbands. According to South Carolina, the framers of the 14th Amendment explicitly preserved the rights of states to deprive married women of the ability to function independently from her husband. This right to deprive married women of basic liberties, South Carolina argues, is enshrined in the 10thAmendment and is not at all undercut by the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equality.

The crux of South Carolina’s brief, then, is this: If the 14th Amendment permits discrimination against married women, it surely also allows discrimination against gay people who wish to wed. In fact, according to South Carolina, the 14th Amendment forbids only racial discrimination, leaving states free to disadvantage women and gays in any way they wish.

Let's take a step back.

South Carolina's official position is that the 14th Amendment only applies to race, so women and LGBTQ Americans are not subject to being treated as human beings.  The Equal Protection clause does not apply to them in any way, because at the time the 14th Amendment was written, women had fewer rights then men did (like voting).

This is the argument the state is giving to the Supreme Court in order to stop same-sex marriage.

That's astounding.  It ignores a good 100 years plus of legal precedent, not to mention makes the argument that the 10th Amendment gives states the power to discriminate legally against women and gays and lesbians and a host of other people.  It's incompatible with our society as a whole and I can't even imagine Scalia buying this argument.

But that's where South Carolina is.