Glibertarianism

Lying Until The Very End

by Zandar| November 2, 201511:29 am| 46 Comments

This post is in: Austerity Bombing, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Glibertarianism, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Republican Venality, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It), Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell

Tomorrow Kentuckians hit the polls to see whether or not Matt Bevin will kick 400,000 plus people off Medicaid.

Bevin has lied the entire campaign about wanting to get rid of Medicaid expansion. It’s right here in his “Bevin Blueprint” for Kentucky. right there at the top of page 10.

I mean, I don’t know what else you can say about it. He flat out says it “should be repealed”. There’s nothing in there about any transition, any help for the 450,000 added to Medicaid under the expansion and the thousands more getting insurance through Kynect, he just closes Kynect and puts Kentucky on the federal health insurance exchange. That’s his plan.

Nearly half a million people would lose their health insurance, point blank. It’s in Bevin’s own position paper, guys. It’s his stated policy, right there, verbatim.

Oh, and the rest of the Bevin Blueprint is a disaster: ending unions in the state, cutting thousands of state employee jobs, ending state pensions, shifting education dollars to private, charter and home schools and ending state education standards, and massive tax cuts for the rich and for businesses and expecting Laffer Curve unicorns to make up the lost revenue, just like in Kansas.

Oh, and he ends with refusing to enforce federal laws and regulations he doesn’t agree with. Nullification uber alles!

Time to vote, Kentuckians. You’ve got a choice to make: Conway, or this recipe for economic and austerity disaster that will burn the state to the ground.

But don’t take my word for it. Let John Oliver explain with the help of a pangolin.

Lying Until The Very EndPost + Comments (46)

Kynect Versus The Purple People Eaters

by Zandar| October 30, 201510:30 am| 34 Comments

This post is in: Austerity Bombing, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Glibertarianism, Local Races 2018 and earlier, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It), All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Speaking of state exchanges and the color purple (prose or otherwise) heading into the final weekend before Tuesday’s gubernatorial election here in Kentucky, just a gentle reminder of what’s at stake here should Republican Matt Bevin win over Democratic AG Jack Conway and Kynect and Medicaid expansion goes away for 450,000 Kentuckians.

Two years into Obamacare, clear regional patterns are emerging about who has health insurance in America and who still doesn’t.
The remaining uninsured are primarily in the South and the Southwest. They tend to be poor. They tend to live in Republican-leaning states. The rates of people without insurance in the Northeast and the upper Midwest have fallen into the single digits since the Affordable Care Act’s main provisions kicked in. But in many parts of the country, obtaining health insurance is still a problem for many Americans.
These trends emerged in an analysis we undertook with the help of two organizations that are closely monitoring the progress of the health law. Last year, we used similar data to show the the substantial effects Obamacare had on reducing the number of Americans without health insurance. This year, the same groups updated their estimates of where America’s uninsured live, and the change is a lot less drastic. States that were late to expand Medicaid, including Pennsylvania and Indiana, showed substantial reductions in their uninsured residents compared with last year. In other places, the changes have been more modest. In a few — like Mississippi — things appear to have gotten worse, with fewer people having health insurance this year than last.

A county-by-county map makes this even more clear:

Now that Indiana and Pennsylvania are on board with Medicaid expansion, it’s very clear that the red states in the South (and Missouri) that are under GOP rule are in real trouble. Arkansas is the lone holdout as GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson hasn’t been able to kill it yet after inheriting it from his Democratic predecessor.

But you’d better believe that Matt Bevin will put Kentucky back into the nearly solid purple of the South if he wins in a few days. He’s gone from wanting to scrap it totally to considering the same block grant expansion/private insurance hybrid mess that Hutchinson wants in Arkansas, but that would still kick hundreds of thousands of people off Medicaid onto private plans, and he still wants to scrap Kynect completely and force Kentucky to go to a federal exchange (again wasting millions of taxpayer dollars in the process) in order to get those plans, and at a far more expensive monthly premium level.

It’s a pretty clear choice on Tuesday, folks.

Kynect Versus The Purple People EatersPost + Comments (34)

Late Night Open Thread: Little Prince Rand Throws A Tantrum

by Anne Laurie| October 27, 201510:44 pm| 150 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Clown Shoes, Our Awesome Meritocracy

Rand Paul has finally found someone he wants to go to war with: @BuzzFeedAndrew! https://t.co/P1WWeEpvjU
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) October 27, 2015

Of course he’s not “important” — at this point Jim Gilmore has a better chance of becoming the Republican nominee than Rand Paul — but it’s always entertaining to watch Libertarians make fools of themselves, and Senator Rand is Prince Regent of the ~~Fools~~ Libertarians. From the Washington Post article:

… “That guy,” Paul said dismissively, referring to Kaczynski. “The only criticisms have come from some guy who’s a partisan. We discount partisans. However, there’s a ridiculous cottage industry out there of people who think they’re smarter than everyone else, and because certain quotes are disputed – well, yeah! If you want to say something’s not a Thomas Jefferson quote, you can get a whole book on whether it’s a quote or not.”
Kacynzski has challenged Paul’s research since 2013, when the senator began raising his profile as a Republican reformer. After the Buzzfeed reporter found language in one of Paul’s books (and several speeches) that mirrored language published by think tanks and Wikipedia, the senator’s staff started including citations in the printed versions of his remarks. That practice ceased after a while; Paul’s irritation did not…

Those who do not remember history are condemned to believe Rand Paul's version.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) October 27, 2015

But I suppose it’s a slippery slope from checking Founders’ quotes to denying that the Holocaust was caused by gun control
— David Frum (@davidfrum) October 27, 2015

Quick — Rand needs a distraction!

BREAKING: @RandPaul says he will filibuster the new debt ceiling bill: https://t.co/MyzTgMNbEy pic.twitter.com/40ZR2LzSxI
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 27, 2015

One note of caution on Rand Paul debt limit filibuster threat: he threatened the same in 2011. https://t.co/h8rpwQW8CO
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) October 27, 2015

Late Night Open Thread: Little Prince Rand Throws A TantrumPost + Comments (150)

Open Thread: Cream Rises (But So Does the Stuff at the Top of the Septic Tank)

by Anne Laurie| October 12, 201511:08 am| 72 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality

Sen. Rand Paul: we have a "tiny, impotent and inconsequential Congress … I'm embarrassed that I'm even a part of it."
— Katie Zezima (@katiezez) October 9, 2015

@katiezez @alexis_levinson And yet he fought to change election rules in Kentucky to make sure that was able to stay part of it :(
— jeffkatzshow (@jeffkatzshow) October 9, 2015

paid a quarter million dollars just to make sure he could keep being a part of it https://t.co/zjY0HC8yWx
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) October 9, 2015

Little Prince Rand, in his hunger for more glamorous pastures, has badly neglected his loyal local fiefdom. And his fellow petty-ante robber barons are getting irked, according to Politico:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Rand Paul is under increasing pressure from Republicans here and in Washington to pull the plug on his stagnant presidential campaign and instead recommit his resources to keeping his Senate seat in GOP hands.
D.C. Republicans think Paul’s poll numbers have flat-lined — and operatives worried about retaining control of the Senate are ready for him to start spending a lot more time in Kentucky and a lot less time in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“This presidential dream needs to come to an end,” said a national Republican strategist, granted anonymity to discuss Paul’s situation candidly. “Senate Republicans can’t afford to have a competitive race in Kentucky.”
Paul, however, is showing little sign of giving up. Even with poll numbers so low that he might not appear on the main stage for the third GOP debate and his fundraising slowing to a crawl, Paul has a message for those who say it’s time to suspend his run for the White House and focus on his Senate reelection: I can handle both.
“Who would say such a thing? Rebuke them!” Paul sarcastically told reporters after the event who asked about suggestions that he drop out and focus on his Senate reelection. “They don’t know anything about politics. They all write for a living.”
Asked directly if he was worried about his Senate seat, Paul was blunt: “No.”…
Republicans in D.C. aren’t yet panicking about losing Paul’s Senate seat — only about having to spend money to retain it in a year when they need that cash in at least a half-dozen other competitive states…
“Rand Paul’s presidential campaign is going down in flames, and his second-pick Senate bid will no doubt go the same way after he has gone to great lengths to assure Kentucky voters that he views his Senate seat as nothing more than a consolation prize,” DSCC spokeswoman Sadie Weiner said…

The other Repubs may think of Kentucky as his constituency, but Prince Rand is secure in his conviction that his real base is the virtual Galt’s Gulch built up by his father: the angry white mostly male proponents of unfettered capitalism, speech, and gun ownership. Of course, this loyal army never managed to capture the Oval Office for Dr. Ron, but this — they assure each other, and Rand agrees — is a new millenium, where Disruptors will finally reap their due in this Second Gilded Age.

As the saying goes: Jam yesterday, and jam tomorrow, but never jam today…

Open Thread: Cream Rises (But So Does the Stuff at the Top of the Septic Tank)Post + Comments (72)

Open Thread: They Bought You, They Own You

by Anne Laurie| September 30, 20154:52 pm| 98 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Excellent Links, Glibertarianism, Kochsuckers, Open Threads, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

Walker donors thought they knew better than his staff how to run a campaign. In retrospect, they were probably right. http://t.co/348dgZIL8k
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) September 29, 2015

It’s like borrowing money from your in-laws — once you’ve accepted their generosity, they feel compelled to give you advice on how you’re spending “their” hard-earned cash. The NYTimes chronicles the gradual breakdown of civilities, as “Big Donors Seek Larger Roles in Presidential Campaigns“:

… In an election cycle that is already on track to break spending records, and with few limits on contributions to “super PACs” and other outside groups, big donors have never been more important. No longer satisfied with sitting on the sidelines and writing big checks, many of them are eager to play larger roles in the campaigns.
They expect their views to be heard quickly and their concerns taken seriously, sometimes creating headaches and potential awkwardness for the campaigns and super PACs, which must tend to the contributors and their seemingly endless suggestions and questions.
On one hand, the campaigns and their affiliated groups rely on the financial support and appreciate the occasional insights that come from people who have been successful in other fields.
On the other hand, they find themselves devoting more and more time to stroking donors’ egos, weighing their ideas, and soothing supporters whose panicked phone calls can be prompted by anything from an alarming Twitter post to a small stumble on a morning show.
“Donors are demanding a lot these days, man, and they want answers and they want results, and a lot of them hit the panic button a lot,” said Theresa Kostrzewa, a Republican lobbyist and donor based in North Carolina, who is supporting former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. “This is a new day. Donors consider a contribution like, ‘Well, wait, I just invested in you. Now I need to have my say; you need to answer to me.’ ”
Referring to the maximum direct donation to a candidate that the Federal Election Commission allows, she described the sentiment as: “I gave $2,700. I’m entitled to 2,700 opinions.”…
show full post on front page

As handling concerns from contributors has become a crucial job for campaigns and super PACs, many have devoted at least one person, in part, to donor maintenance. Austin Barbour, a senior adviser to the super PAC that supported former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, said he would regularly receive a flurry of calls from worried donors — “What’s the plan? What are you putting on TV? Why are you doing that? Why are you not saying this?”

But Mr. Barbour, who is now joining Mr. Bush’s campaign, said he was happy to field the complaints: “If they wanted to talk to me for an hour, I’d talk to them for an hour,” he said. “They were the ones who were funding what we were doing, so goodness gracious, the least thing I could do is answer whatever questions they had.”…

One might suspect that the Grey Lady was less worried about “donor input” than about the fact that, in this fallen era, every jumped-up thousandaire feels entitled to copious face time with the candidate. It used to be that an elite coterie of Serious Money Men could handle such matters with discretion, in quiet rooms. In the good old days, you just needed to tongue-bath movers and shakers like… Charles Koch, as described in this long star-struck Forbes piece:

… Q. What are your goals in this election?
A: My view of the political realm, not just now but for many decades, is that the Democrats are taking us down the road to serfdom over the cliff at 100 miles an hour and the Republicans are going around 70 miles an hour. What I want is to reverse the trajectory of this country…

Q. So will this presidential election decide anything? It doesn’t sound like you’re enthusiastic about anybody.
A. My ideal candidates would be Calvin Coolidge or a William Gladstone. I mean, you look at what they did… Look what Calvin Coolidge did. He cut government expenditures in half. Cut tax rates by two- thirds, reduced the national debt by a third and cut unemployment from 12% to 2.4%. Now the only thing I hold against him is he didn’t run again so we got Herbert Hoover, who turned a recession into a great depression with his policies.

Q. You mentioned a white knight. What about Trump?
A. Yeah, I mean, he’s… I’m not the only one person who’s frustrated with what’s going on in both parties. But I would hope there would be somebody who would capture that frustration, and what’s behind that frustration, and do what Calvin Coolidge or William Gladstone did and change the trajectory of the country. Now it’s not likely, because I’ve got to go back to Calvin Coolidge to find somebody who did that. I’ve got to go back to Gladstone in 1846…

The tragedy is that, given his access to the very best health care, this bitter old man is liable to outlive us all, doing his best to destroy the whole planet as he goes.

Open Thread: They Bought You, They Own YouPost + Comments (98)

Saturday Morning Cartoons Open Thread: What Of Little Prince Rand?

by Anne Laurie| September 5, 20156:23 am| 207 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Assholes

His fellow GOP candidates have been busily insulting people of color, Spanish speakers, immigrants, gays, women, and atheists. Where’s an aspiring Leader of All Bigots going to attract a little media attention in such a throng?

Reports Julian Brave NoiseCat, at HuffPo:

GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul took to the airwaves Thursday to broadcast his theory that Native Americans “don’t do very well because of their lack of assimilation.”
The Kentucky senator’s comment followed an exchange with conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham about what she called “separatist” immigrant communities. Ingraham was incredulous that “the MSNBC crowd” supported Jeb Bush’s penchant for speaking Spanish at campaign events.
Asked whether he thought speaking Spanish was appropriate, Paul veered off to talk about the only people who never immigrated to this country: Native Americans.
“I think assimilation is an amazing thing,” Paul said. “A good example of how, even in our country, assimilation didn’t happen — and it has been a disaster for the people — has been the Native American population on the reservations. If they were assimilated, within a decade they’d probably be doing as well as the rest of us. But instead, seclusion and isolating them — we took their land, and then we put them all on small quadrants of land.”…

Of course, Rand Paul is probably grateful that he wasn’t getting much media attention in August, when three of his top associates were indicted for financial violations during Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign. (“Two of the indicted aides, Jesse Benton (who is married to Rand Paul’s niece) and John Tate, were running the main super-PAC supporting Rand Paul’s presidential campaign,” according to Russ Choma at Mother Jones). Or when, a week ago, “Federal prosecutors prevailed… in their yearlong fight to force Google Inc. to turn over the emails of an indicted Republican consultant with close ties to Ron and Rand Paul.” That “dispute… [had] gotten attention in libertarian and technology circles as a test of the government’s ability to broadly review email accounts during criminal investigations”, but Rand’s guys lost, and capital-L Libertarians don’t seem to have much time for losers.

And he didn’t help his status with the True Believers at Reason by sucking up to Kim Davis, presumably in an attempt to try and milk some hometown sympathy (or at least an attaboy from her Liberty Counsel puppeteers).

He’s been reduced to defending Donald Trump from Hugh Hewitt, which is an inversion of normal Paulite alignments that make him sound almost like a reasonable person.

Should’ve stayed fat & happy in your old man’s little fiefdom, Rand. That’s a lifetime gig with very nice bennies and no heavy lifting, exactly what you were born and bred for. Running pantsless onto the national stage screaming LOOOKIT MEEEE! just hasn’t been nearly as fun or profitable as you expected.

***********
Apart from waiting for the overburdened RNC to finish sweeping some of its minor ~~embarrassments~~ candidates under the rug (insert your own Trump/Rand hairpiece joke here), what’s on the agenda for the start of the big weekend?

Saturday Morning Cartoons Open Thread: What Of Little Prince Rand?Post + Comments (207)

Bevin Bets Big On Bigotry

by Zandar| September 2, 20151:39 pm| 62 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Gay Rights are Human Rights, Glibertarianism, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Republican Stupidity, Meth Laboratories of Democracy

While I certainly don’t foresee the 2016 Presidential contest being affected by this story, with two months to go before the election for governor here in Kentucky, Republican Matt Bevin has just thrown in his lot with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and the wrong side of history.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin rushed to defend Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis after she again refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday morning.
Bevin also scolded Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, for failing to stand by the religious liberties of county clerks who oppose the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
“Jack Conway has failed to do his job as attorney general by refusing to defend Kentucky’s marriage amendment, and he is failing to defend the religious freedom of our Kentucky clerks,” Bevin said in a statement.
The comments come amid an intense standoff at Davis’s office where a gay couple sought to obtain a marriage license after the High Court rejected her last-ditch effort for a stay Monday. After a heated exchange between Davis and the couple, their attorneys filed a motion to find Davis in contempt of courtfor refusing to issue them a marriage license.
In response, the Bevin campaign sought to tie Conway — who refused to appeal the initial federal ruling against the state’s same-sex marriage ban last year — to the controversy in a series of Tweets. Bevin’s campaign said the Democrat is refusing to defend the First Amendment rights of county clerks.
“As attorney general, it’s Jack Conway’s job to defend the Constitutional rights of all Kentuckians, including county clerks,” Bevin’s Twitter account said.

I swear, for a while there I was afraid Matt Bevin wasn’t this much of a moron. He might actually find a way to lose this thing now. If he had just said that this was a matter “for the courts” or “for the legislature” to deal with like Gov. Beshear said yesterday, he could have gotten away with it. It wouldn’t be up to Bevin anyway to impeach and remove Davis from her office, and he doesn’t make federal court decisions.

But by coming out squarely in the defense of an anti-gay bigot that’s clearly breaking the law, Bevin has nowhere to hide now. As Governor he’d be a national embarrassment to the Commonwealth (as it is we Kentuckians look like backwater hicks most of the time) but there’s a point where it’s too much, and Bevin has reached it. There’s a reason he was crushed by Mitch McConnell last year.

On the other hand if Jack Conway can’t find a way to bloody Bevin’s nose over this and severely damage Bevin’s campaign, then he’s too incompetent for the job in Frankfort anyway.

Bevin Bets Big On BigotryPost + Comments (62)

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

by John Cole| August 23, 20152:17 pm| 69 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Glibertarianism

Nothing to see here:

The Kentucky GOP’s central committee voted Saturday to adopt a presidential caucus system next year, clearing the way Republican Sen. Rand Paul to run for president and reelection at the same time.
Paul, who is in his first term, had pushed Kentucky Republicans to move from a primary to a caucus system as a way to get around a state law forbidding candidates from appearing twice on the same ballot. He has pledged to pick up the tab for holding the caucuses, which could run $500,000 or more.

Only a half a million- a pretty good bargain.

The Best Democracy Money Can BuyPost + Comments (69)

You’ll Have To Pry These Marriage Licenses Out Of My Cold, Dead Laser Printer

by Zandar| August 13, 201510:36 am| 155 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Gay Rights are Human Rights, Glibertarianism, Religious Nuts 2, Republican Venality, The Gay Enemy Within, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

Meanwhile, the saga of the quixotic enigma that is the Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk’s Office continues.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to resume issuing marriage licenses despite her religious objection to same-sex marriage, but Davis quickly filed an appeal and continued her refusal to issue licenses.
Davis will ask Bunning to stay his injunction while she appeals it to the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, said her attorney, Roger Gannam.
On Thursday morning, Rowan County Deputy Clerk Nathan Davis turned away David Moore and David Ermold, refusing to issue the men a marriage license.
“Kim Davis is resolute in vindicating her rights,” said Gannam, senior litigation counsel at Liberty Counsel, a religious advocacy group. “Fundamentally, we disagree with this order because the government should never be able to compel a person to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The martyr-splosion that the GOP wants here won’t happen until Davis is fired or otherwise removed from office, and the instant that happens, it’s PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS BY GAY LIONS or something, not to mention an immediate headache for AG Jack Conway, who is busy both A) suing the hell out of the EPA to show he’s tough on that Obama fella, and B) trying to actually save the state from Matt Bevin as governor.

Anyhow, something’s got to give here, the county hasn’t issued any marriage licenses since the SCOTUS ruling came down in June, so we’ll see what current Gov. Dinosaur Steve Beshear decides to do about it. I still stand by my prediction that this case is destined for SCOTUS somehow.

You’ll Have To Pry These Marriage Licenses Out Of My Cold, Dead Laser PrinterPost + Comments (155)

Texas, what a surprise:

by David Anderson| August 11, 20159:38 am| 51 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor, Glibertarianism, Kochsuckers, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It), All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Bring On The Meteor, hoocoodanode, Meth Laboratories of Democracy, Peak Wingnut Was a Lie!, Sociopaths

Color me completely unshocked from this report in the LA Times:

When the Affordable Care Act took effect in October 2013, there were 14 states in which more than 1 in 5 adults lacked health insurance; today only Texas remains, according to data released Monday….
Its uninsurance rate fell from 27% in 2013 to just under 21% in the first half of this year, making it the only state that has more than one-fifth of its residents uninsured.
By contrast, in Arkansas and Kentucky, both of which started above 20% uninsured, just 9% of adult residents lack insurance….
In addition to Texas, most of the states with the highest levels of adults lacking insurance are located in the South and interior West in states including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada.

So states that did not expand Medicaid and are engaged in massive resistance to assisting people getting subsidized private insurance are sucking goat balls.

They are sociopathic sadists without safewords.

Texas, what a surprise:Post + Comments (51)

Late Night Open Thread: Little Prince Rand in His Political Winter

by Anne Laurie| July 28, 201511:22 pm| 63 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Assholes

We're not far away from this http://t.co/BrmAK7E3yV pic.twitter.com/Vk4gLHKQNj
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) July 28, 2015

Dave Weigel and Ben Terris, in the Washington Post, say “‘The most interesting man in politics’ isn’t drawing much interest in New Hampshire“:

… “[It] depends on which polls you look at, you know,” Paul said when asked by the Boston Globe’s James Pindell about his sliding standing in the state. When asked about why he had fallen behind so many of his Republican opponents, Paul dodged.
“We actually have many polls where we actually lead Hillary Clinton,” he said. “So I think actually that some of our polling news is actually pretty good.”…
Last fall, Time magazine dubbed Paul “the most interesting man in politics.” But it has been a year since he led a national poll and months since he led in New Hampshire, a state where his father made strong stands in two presidential campaigns. According to the data firm Crimson Hexagon, roughly a third of all Republican-primary news articles in May were about Paul. In July, it’s been closer to 1 in 10.
Paul entered the presidential race on an unusually robust cloud of hype. When he is swarmed by autograph seekers, he is occasionally asked to sign the Time magazine cover. That cover appeared in October. This summer, the Wall Street Journal has dubbed him “no longer a first-tier candidate”; the Atlantic has politely described him as “struggling.”
The press sees a candidate slipping out of the conversation….

How bad are things for Rand? His top media consultant is lining up Plan B with the Kasich camp http://t.co/OlJDlJxP2x pic.twitter.com/R0dPcvNAqa
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) July 28, 2015

Politico‘s Alex Isenstadt, “Inside Rand Paul’s downward spiral“:

Rand Paul, once seen as a top-tier contender, finds his presidential hopes fading fast as he grapples with deep fundraising and organizational problems that have left his campaign badly hobbled.
Interviews with more than a dozen sources close to the Kentucky senator, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of an underfunded and understaffed campaign beaten down by low morale.
They described an operation that pitted a cerebral chief strategist against an intense campaign manager who once got into a physical altercation with the candidate’s bodyguard. And they portrayed an undisciplined politician who wasn’t willing to do what it took to win — a man who obsessed over trivial matters like flight times, peppered aides with demands for more time off from campaigning and once chose to go on a spring-break jaunt rather than woo a powerful donor…

I think we’ve all known middle managers who drove the entire division crazy by quibbling over every supply request and sending out blast emails about the shameful waste of copier paper. The inherent response of an “executive” who’s reached his Peter Principle level is an obsessive attention to those minutiae he can control…

show full post on front page

… They sketched a portrait of a candidate who, as he fell further behind in polls, no longer seemed able to break through. Paul, lionized as “the most interesting man in politics” in a Time magazine cover story last year, was supposed to reinvent the Republican Party with his message of free-market libertarianism, his vision of a restrained foreign policy and his outreach to minorities.
Instead, he has been overshadowed by louder voices like Donald Trump’s and better-funded figures like Jeb Bush. His theory of the 2016 primary — that Republican voters would reward a candidate who promised fresh ideas and an unconventional approach — has not been borne out in reality…
Those close to Paul say there’s a simple reason for his lack of success: He’s simply not willing to do the stroking and courting that powerful donors expect. He’s downright allergic, they say, to the idea of forging relationships with the goal of pumping people for dough. And while he’s had no shortage of opportunities to mix and mingle with some of the Republican Party’s wealthiest figures, Paul has expressed frustration that donors want so much face time…
Those tasked with crafting Paul’s schedule say the process is like playing a game of three-dimensional chess. Rather than letting his campaign team determine his travel schedule, as is customary for busy presidential candidates, Paul often demands sign-off on minute details, going so far as to request detailed lists of possible flight schedules and routes. Paul — who has complained that running for president is “not really a lot of fun” — can be prone to asking for time off the campaign trail and can be prickly about the most mundane commitments. Shortly before attending an event in Monterey, California, last month, he griped about having to do a photo line with supporters even though it had been on his schedule for weeks…

.@RandPaul's super PAC coalition seems to be powered by libertarians who are on the outs with the Kochs: @mkibbe, Ed Crane, Howie Rich.
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) July 27, 2015

He’s Prince Rand. Why does he have to waste his beautiful mind grin’n’gripping with every loser in Iowa, New Hampshire, and the floating press corps?

Said it before, will no doubt say it again: This is a man who mistook being the heir apparent to his old man’s fringe fiefdom for charisma.

@igorbobic Rand's main problem is that he doesn't exactly relish talking to real people either.
— Scott Conroy (@ScottFConroy) July 28, 2015

Late Night Open Thread: Little Prince Rand in His Political WinterPost + Comments (63)

The Lamborghini Of Douchebags

by Zandar| July 27, 20152:52 pm| 115 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism, The War On Women, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot

Robert Tracinski over at The Federalist gives the quintessential Glibertarian Douchebag argument on the edited videos attacking Planned Parenthood: If we frame everything using my “facts” then I win.

Of course, it’s easy to use “context” as an excuse to explain anything away. But it’s also easy to view the Planned Parenthood videos through the perspective of your pre-existing animus and seize on the worst possible interpretation of their words, or focus on the one sentence that justifies your hatred while ignoring those that might undermine your justification.

I have (somewhat ironically) a very Christian attitude about this: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. God forbid anyone should pore through any of my own conversations and read them the way people are reading the Planned Parenthood transcripts. So if someone were to ask me what I’m writing today, and I were to respond, “I don’t know, the Koch Brothers haven’t told me yet” (and I’m not saying this exchange has never occurred), I would hope people would understand it as a joke. But someone who wishes me ill would inevitably come along and seize on this as final proof that I’m in the pocket of Big Oil.

If we want to keep the moral high ground when the left pulls this sort of trick on us—and they will—then we need to make sure we’re being scrupulously fair, even to people we hate.

“Let’s have a fair and reasonable debate over subject X using the criteria of fair and reasonable that I get to define in advance” really is one of the oldest tricks in the book. In fact, it’s the entire shtick of The Federalist in general.

Tracinski says the abortion debate in general and Planned Parenthood debate in particular is getting reduced to “memes” by a cartoonish and juvenile smear attempt by the right, then equates that to Dubya’s “Mission Accomplished” speech on Iraq as somehow an equivalent move by the left.

What I’m afraid of is that this whole Planned Parenthood controversy is becoming memified, i.e., turned into a self-reinforcing meme.

I’m thinking of the way the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln was used against George W. Bush.
In context, it wasn’t President Bush’s expression of triumphalism; it was for the sailors and aviators on the aircraft carrier, who had in fact accomplished their mission. But it became a stand-in for a narrative about all the reasons lefties didn’t like Bush. Its original meaning disappeared, and the accuracy of that meaning no longer mattered. It became, not a real idea, but a meme, not an argument but a symbol for a collection of biases.

It’s a ridiculous comparison on its face and yet that’s the plan: define what “fair and reasonable” is through Both Sides Do It legerdemain, and then present your carefully defined argument as the only possible and acceptable course forward for any future discussions. He’s literally setting up an argument he can’t lose because he’s made the rules.

If that’s not Glibertarian Douchebaggery 101, I don’t know what is.

The Lamborghini Of DouchebagsPost + Comments (115)

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| July 21, 20152:06 am| 58 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Glibertarianism, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Security Theatre

In all seriousness, I assume he's going to demonstrate how he gets his hair like that. pic.twitter.com/iHYtqK0Xgf
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 21, 2015

.
Sure, like you could’ve resisted.

Guess Little Prince Rand is missing the attention of his Trump-curious bros. Because, seriously, from the Washington Post:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is working on legislation to allow soldiers to carry guns on military bases, and could introduce it as soon as this week. That could establish him as a leader among conservatives who say last week’s massacre at a Chattanooga, Tennessee recruiting station should change how the military looks at the issue…
Paul’s commitment to gun rights has a stronger pedigree than Trump’s. He is closely tied to the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that positions itself to the right of the NRA.
“I think guns are a great deterrent anyway,” Paul said on Monday. “I’ve also had bills, for a couple of years now, making it easier to arm pilots. “
In the wake of Chattanooga, Paul has also criticized immigration laws, asking whether they are letting anti-American elements into the country. “I’m very concerned about immigration to this country from countries that have hotbeds of jihadism and hotbeds of this Islamism,” he told Breitbart News reporter Matthew Boyle last week. Paul expanded on those comments Monday, recalling how he had wanted “Rubio’s legislation” – i.e., the stillborn 2013 immigration reform bill – to add screening for potential terrorists.
“We wrote a letter to Harry Reid, saying we should slow the bill down, and have a discussion about putting the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System in,” said Paul. “It gave extra scrutiny to countries that had radical elements that were professing a desire to harm Americans or America. I don’t think it has to say one religion or not, but I think you find out that most of the anti-American movements around the country do seem to be coming from predominately Islamic countries.”…

Guess it’s not pandering if he really believes that being scared of the correct “radical elements” is more important than eliminating redundant and worthless government paperwork, right, men?

Late Night Horrorshow Open ThreadPost + Comments (58)

Ayn Rand so far away

by DougJ| July 13, 20157:05 pm| 96 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism

What’s the deal with VICE? I’ve read a lot of internets about it, and I’ve learned that it’s worth over a billion dollars, but when I read articles from it, they all sound like dumber, douchier, more bro-tastic versions of stuff from Reason (example). That comparison may be unfair to Reason.

What makes the people who write for it think they’re so cool? I don’t understand it at all. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. Is there some large cohort of young Ayn Rand-loving VICE-reading idiots who keep the operation afloat or how does it sustain itself?

I ask all of this as someone who understands how the Daily Beast and Free Beacon exist.

Ayn Rand so far awayPost + Comments (96)

Open Thread: Little Prince Paul Seeks Support From Fellow Free-Thinkers

by Anne Laurie| June 30, 201510:12 pm| 166 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Glibertarianism, Post-racial America, Republican Venality, Assholes

Rand Paul takes a well-deserved rest from pretending he's not a Confederate http://t.co/lBVDTCqvpG
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) June 30, 2015

Cliven Bundy attending @RandPaul rally in Mesquite. After photo was taken Paul met privately with Bundy.#lvrj pic.twitter.com/bwIzhthec7
— Jeff scheid (@Jlscheid) June 30, 2015

Cliven Bundy: I met privately with Rand Paul for 45 minutes http://t.co/z8MU0hHzzg
— POLITICO (@politico) June 30, 2015

.@RandPaul "I would either sell or turn over all the land management to the state." in Mesquite. @BenBotkin1 #lvrj pic.twitter.com/7zGR2ZBAoP
— Jeff scheid (@Jlscheid) June 30, 2015

*bangs wooden spoon on pot and walks around kitchen* it's just a coiiiiiincidennnnnce http://t.co/YqqTgyg6fK https://t.co/00y32M7N4m
— Big Sexy Jeb! Lund (@Mobute) June 30, 2015

Can you imagine a Dem candidate sitting down to meet with a heavily armed nutjob who doesn't recognize the US gov? http://t.co/IfBQ9rVwcx
— Joshua Holland (@JoshuaHol) June 30, 2015

Sovereign citizen rebuttal: “Sure, you lie-brals say ‘feudalist’ like that was a bad thing!!!… ”

Open Thread: Little Prince Paul Seeks Support From Fellow Free-ThinkersPost + Comments (166)

Kropacetic on Late Night Open Thread: Flailing Luzer ‘Postpones’ Portsmouth Rally (Jul 11, 2020 @ 12:42am)

Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) on Late Night Open Thread: Flailing Luzer ‘Postpones’ Portsmouth Rally (Jul 11, 2020 @ 12:41am)

Ruckus on Roger Stone Sentence Commuted (Jul 11, 2020 @ 12:40am)

Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho on Of Course He Fucking Pardoned Stone (Jul 11, 2020 @ 12:39am)

Another Scott on Of Course He Fucking Pardoned Stone (Jul 11, 2020 @ 12:38am)

Shocking, but not surprising.

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

This is a big f—–g deal.

I personally stopped the public option…

Also, too.

Han shot first.

Good luck with your asparagus.

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Verified, but limited!

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Yes we did.

No one could have predicted…

Women: They Get Shit Done

The house always wins.

Too inconsequential to be sued

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

A snarling mass of vitriolic vicious jackals

Peak wingnut was a lie.

We Survived Breitbartpocalypse!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Wetsuit optional.