Who Was Obama Talking To Last Night?

Here's a nice take by Charles Pierce on the President's speech last night.  Basically, he points out that his carefully reasoned points were wasted on vast swaths of the country that seem to think Donald Trump or Ben Carson (or Rubio, Cruz, Bush, etc.) are perfectly respectable candidates for the highest office in the land.

As he noted:
He seemed to be talking to a country that would never fall for the snake-oil being peddled across the landscape by Donald Trump, to a country where the architects of the current disaster would be in jail, and not unveiling statues of themselves in the nation's Capitol, and to a country that knows something about history and the way the world actually operates.  I would like to live in that country some day.  (emphasis added)

What more can you say?

Do Not Get Arrested In Mississippi (Unless You Can Afford Your Own Lawyer)

Here's a fairly shocking interview with a judge in Mississippi who considers anyone under arrest to be "a criminal," and does not see a problem with extended incarceration before granting access to public defenders.

Perfect

This post on LGM, quoting Siva Vaidhyanathan, perfectly captures the feeling rational people had during the weeks and months after 9/11.  Neither the attacks themselves, nor the insanity afterwards, had to happen.  Ultimately, much of the blame has to go to the five Supreme Court justices who decided that Bush should be given the Presidency.
But of course, being right seems to be of little value these days.  The morally corrupt people whose ineptitude allowed 9/11 to happen and who spearheaded the remarkably disastrous responses are still given a featured role on cable news, while the few brave voices who questioned the insanity remain marginalized to this day.

Accessories After the Fact

Every time police kill someone in custody (usually a black male), the local Policemen's Benevolent Association or Fraternal Order of Police vigorously defends the cops in question.  From this I infer that cops are not interested in prosecuting murderers.

Good Advice

Conservatives went into a tizzy about the Rubio traffic ticket story, but this post points out the seriousness of the issue.  Apparently, traffic laws are for little people.

A Classic of Its Genre

In a horrifying article about the efforts of the Republican-controlled US Congress to limit scientific research in areas related to climate change, the Washington Post commits a great example of Broderific both-sides-do-it-ism, with a mention to alleged Democratic antiscience sentiment that cites, of all things, Politico.  Well done.

Line of the Day

From Roy Edroso, at the end of a post about the mainstreaming of paranoid conspiracy theories such as Jade Helm:

"This will be a difficult period in American history to describe to our descendants, if we have any."

Fifty Years Ago...

...Kurt Vonnegut nailed it:

"Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America.  Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created.  Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage.  And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enomously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed.  Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun."

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)

(h/t Avedon)

Time to Reevaluate My Apple Loyalty?

The only computers I have ever owned have been Macintoshes.  My family owns four iPhones and two iPads.  I rationalize this based on the satisfaction that I get using electronics that work the way they are supposed to, with pleasing, intuitive user interfaces.  Then there's the whole Steve Jobs cult of personality thing that I may be buying into subconsciously.

Anyway, Apple the corporation has some issues, such as its reliance on Chinese facilities employing questionable labour practices.  This latest story about excluding convicted felons from their worksites seems gratuitously harsh, and causes me to wonder if it's time to consider other products.

(h/t Erik Loomis at LGM)

"Lindsay Graham Should Run For President"

"The Republican senator from South Carolina may be the only politician who can stop global warming."

Oh Slate, never change.