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While members of Washington and Wall Street elites transfer the accumulated wealth of 200 years to themselves, the desperation in the rest of America becomes palpable. And today it hangs in the air like the smoke billowing from the Echelon Building here in Austin, into which Joseph Andrew Stack crashed a Piper Cherokee PA-28. |
Stack's chief complaint was the American tax code, the right's go-to instrument of class warfare in America since Ronald Reagan's presidency. This warfare accelerated during Bush's tenure, as David Cay Johnston writes: "The effective income tax rate [of the top 400 family earners] fell to 16.62%, down more than half a percentage point from 17.17% in 2006, the new data show. That rate is lower than the typical effective income tax rate paid by Americans with incomes in the low six figures, which is what each |
taxpayer in the top group earned in the first three hours of 2007." |
And now, instead of condemning the violence and loss of innocent life, as every citizen of the United States should do, many on the right are lionising Joseph Andrew Stack. While Massachusetts' newest Senator stopped short of praising Stack, he hardly condemned the violence. The right wing is riding the populist tiger. |
willing |
"Every Americans has the right to disagree with the president of the United States and to express publicly that disagreement. But the president of the United States has a right to communicate directly with the people who elected him, and the people of the country have the right to make up their own minds and form their own opinions about a presidential address without having the president's words and thoughts characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics even before they can even be digested" by |
"this little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant rebuttal to every presidential address, but more importantly wield a free hand in selecting, presenting and interpreting the great issues of our nation." They became, "in effect, the presiding judge in a national trial by jury. |
"... What do Americans know of the men who wield this power?... Little, other than that they reflect an urbane and assured presence, seemingly well-informed on every important matter... To a man, these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City... Both communities bask in their own provincialism, their own parochialism... They talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared |
viewpoint." That viewpoint, what was more, did "not represent the view of America. That is why such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the president's address-- and how the networks reviewed it. |
"The American people would rightly not tolerate this kind of concentration of power in government. Is it not fair and relevant to question its concentration in the hands of a tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government?" |
There are points being made by the Tea Party Movement that sound very attractive. It even makes some naive and disappointed Democrats think there could be common ground with them. And some of theTea Partiers-- high school kids who are attracted to the stated ideals-- are all about the refreshing idealism. But, as I've said before, when you scratch beneath the surface of the actual teabaggers you find one of two strains: the virulent racists and Know Nothing xenophobes or the partisan Republicans with the |
same old anti-working family agenda.I have no way of knowing if Joseph Stack ever went to a teababagger gathering or if he was a follower of Glenn Beck's, Rick Perry's, Ayn Rand's, or Michael Savage's. And no one at CPAC has been spotted wearing "Free Joseph Stack T-Shirts"... yet (not even Scott Brown, who dismissed the tragedy by saying that the people who voted for him feel the same way about paying taxes. I bet they do; most of them are thoroughly brainwashed by right-wing propagandists like Rush |
Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and the rest of the anti-tax/anti-government choir singing nightly for their suppers for the 500 families who own most of America and don't want to share it with anyone else.John Aravosis did use a screenshot to capture a Facebook page by far right fanatics lionizing the latest in a string of domestic terrorists from the fringes of the Republican Party. Teabaggery at its essence:The mainstream media may have decided to not call flying a plane into a government |
office building "terrorism" since there were no Muslims involved, but as domestic terrorism/right-wing fanaticism expert Dave Neiwert explained at Crook and Liars yesterday, Joseph Stack was another violence-prone malcontent encouraged by right wing propaganda to act out Republican social nihilism that is just a few steps beyond standard operating procedures of your Mitch McConnells, Jim DeMints, Virginia Foxxes and Michele Bachmenn. Digby summed it up nicely: "Nobody should be surprised that the right wing |
doesn't see anything wrong with nice white, anti-government lunatics try to kill people, that's for sure. Their leaders certainly aren't. And Sean Paul Kelley took on the task of explaining it to our friends in Engalnd with a column at the Guardian There's a national mood-- an insanity that's overtaken a third of the country-- brought about by Obama's election. The far right has gone loco and the teabagger "movement" is one manifestation of that. Anti-social propagandists and nihilists made it clear from |
the very beginning that they areEAGER to see America fail rather than see Obama succeed. And that trail of treachery leads from your Michael Savages, Glenn Becks, and Rush Limbaughs right up to partisan hacks and demented ideologues like Jim DeMint (R-SC), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Let me offer you something I'm lifting out of Rick Perlstein's marvelous most recent book . While you're reading it, try to imagine who it's directed at and who spoke it-- and who wrote |
it for the speaker: No, that was not Van Jones calling for an investigation of Clear Channel, Murdoch, Cheney, Limbaugh and O'Reilly. It was Vice President Spiro Agnew before he resigned in disgrace after being caught pocketing bribes from wealthy interests, reading a speech written for him by President Richard Nixon before he resigned after being caught subverting American democracy, calling for populist censorship against... Averell Harriman and David Brinkley. |
Labels: David Neiwert, domestic terrorism, media, Rick Perlstein, Spiro Agnew, teabaggers |
Pete Hegseth invited me as Convention of States President onto the set of Fox & Friends for my reaction to Hillary Clinton’s slanderous remarks against Convention of States. In case you missed it, while on her “What Happened” book tour, she alleged that through gerrymandering, Republicans plan to elect Republican governors, and call a constitutional convention. Clinton suggests that supporters of the Convention of State Project advocates for limits on the First Amendment, no limits on the Second Amendment, |
as well as limits on criminal justice. |
As I wrote on The Hill, Clinton — though she’s an attorney — gets this all wrong. And she knows it: |
Hillary Clinton’s criticism are misleading. Convention of States Project (COS Project) is not advocating for a constitutional convention. The COS Project advocates for an amending Convention of States by invoking Article V of the U.S. Constitution. A constitutional convention and a Convention of States are two different things. In a constitutional convention, the delegates would get out a blank sheet of paper and start all over. In America, we have a strong, robust Constitution that has served us well. The |
Founders realized that there may come a time when the Constitution may need to tweaked or amended. The Founders realized that there may come a time when Congress could become corrupt and unreliable and unable to make necessary changes. So, they gave us another way of proposing amendments — one that does not require the permission of Congress or the president. Thus, two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a Convention of States to propose amendments to the Constitution. |
Hegseth asked me about her misleading comments over the weekend. Here’s what I said: |
I get why Clinton is worried. Over 2.2 million people support our effort, 12 states have passed the application (on our way to the required 34), and we’re well on our way to holding the first Convention of States. |
As I said, you can a lot about people by their enemies. As Hegseth said, “If Hillary Clinton thinks you’re a threat, you’re a good guy to me.” |
Image Credit: Fox and Friends Screen Cap |
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has named Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate. Kaine was governor of Virginia from January 2006 to January 2010. I assessed Kaine on Cato’s fiscal report card in 2008, and he received a low grade of “D.” |
I found: |
Governor Kaine has campaigned vigorously to raise taxes and fees to fund higher transportation spending. In 2007, Kaine helped pass a large revenue package that included tax and fee increases, higher penalties for driving infractions, and the creation of regional taxing authorities within Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the unelected tax authorities, and citizens hated the new driver penalties so much that they were repealed. Kaine supported a few tax cuts in 2007, including an increase in |
the bottom threshold of the individual income tax and a repeal of the estate tax. But in 2008, he is promoting an even bigger transportation plan that would increase taxes and fees by $1.1 billion annually, and he is advocating higher state borrowing to fund education and transportation. On spending, Kaine promoted a big increase in his first budget, but has favored greater restraint since then. |
In Kaine’s first year, general fund spending jumped a remarkable 17 percent. But spending was flat the second year, and then declined 14 percent during Kaine’s final two years as the economy entered recession. Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Bart Hinkle gives Kaine credit for the spending cuts, but notes, “it’s clear that Kaine would much rather have preferred to balance the state budget by raising taxes.” |
That was probably true of many governors at the time facing declining revenues from the sour economy. But thanks to balanced budget requirements, general fund spending across the 50 states was cut 9 percent those two years that Kaine was cutting. |
Politifact says that Kaine tried unsuccessfully to raise taxes by $4 billion, which is a lot of money for a mid-sized state. Researching Kaine two and half years into his term, I included net proposed tax increases of $1.1 billion in my report. I included only one of his proposed transportation funding packages because I didn’t want to double count. Politifact may have included multiple transportation packages in its tally. Also, my report did not cover Kaine’s $1.9 billion proposed income tax increase in |
2009, which the Washington Post discusses here. |
Hinkle calls Kaine an “affable ideologue.” That’s a good description of Trump running mate Mike Pence as well, whose fiscal ideology of spending restraint and tax cutting earned him an “A” from Cato. |
The NFL world revolved around Indianapolis this past five days as the annual Scouting Combine was held at Lucas Oil Arena. |
While NFL teams got looks at draft prospects doing drills, the combine also allows teams to meet with players and even agents of current players. Each team gets a select number of meetings with the future rookies, so when you hear of players meeting with teams, it’s a pretty big deal. |
The Chicago Bears have many needs on both sides of the ball as they attempt to address them during free agency and through the draft. While in Indianapolis, the front office and scouts met with XX players getting a feel for them before potentially drafting them. |
Here is a full list of players the Bears met with in Indianapolis: |
Christian Hackenberg |
The former Penn State quarterback is an interesting one to watch come draft day. As a freshman, it looked as if Hackenberg was destined to become the No. 1 overall pick. But as the years went bay, his value seemed to decrease. |
At the combine, Hackenberg didn’t help his cause. If he’s there when the Bears pick in the fourth or fifth round, they could be tempted to take him. |
"What you're seeing on the field is what you see on tape." — @MovetheSticks on Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg's inaccuracy issues. — CollegeFootball 24/7 (@NFLDraft) February 27, 2016 |
Kevin Hogan |
Hogan was great at Stanford, playing in a Pro-style offense and replacing Andrew Luck. He’s also an interesting option in the middle rounds for a team looking for a future quarterback. |
Jacoby Brissett |
Brissett is a candidate for a third day flier in the sixth or seventh rounds if the Bears choose to do that. The former Florida quarterback transferred to North Carolina State and played better, however there are still holes in his game. |
Cody Kessler |
Kessler didn’t have a terrible combine showing but he still doesn’t look like an NFL-ready quarterback. The best case scenario is another camp body and him fighting for a roster spot. |
Brandon Allen |
Allen played in a run-heavy SEC offense at Arkansas so he really had to have a great combine to improve his stock. The former Razorbacks quarterback projects to be a seventh round pick. |
Ezekiel Elliott |
With the departure of running back Matt Forte, the Bears could be looking to replace him through the draft. The Bears have too many defensive holes at No. 11 to draft Elliott but if he’s there, which he should be, don’t be completely shocked if Pace pulls the trigger. |
Ezekiel Elliot Second Run #4.48 pic.twitter.com/GGRHdW1nW4 — DMV Football Fan (@DMVDallasCowboy) February 26, 2016 |
Paul Perkins |
The shifty back out of UCLA is an interesting option for the Bears on the second day of the draft. Perkins led the Pac-12 in rushing in 2014 and could be a nice spell back. He met with running backs coach Stan Drayton at the combine. |
Dan Vitale |
The Bears also spoke with local talent Dan Vitate who planed his college football at Northwestern. Vitale is projected as a sixth or seventh round pick in the draft. |
Hunter Henry |
TE Gauntlet Drill Hand Times: |
Hunter Henry- 7.38 |
Temarrick Hemingway- 7.47 |
Beau Sandland- 7.53 |
Bryce Williams- 7.60 |
Austin Hooper- 7.62 — Shawn Spencer (@Spencer_NFL) February 27, 2016 |
Another potential pick on offense could come in the form of tight end for the Bears. With Zach Miller testing free agency and Martellus Bennett’s future in doubt, the Bears could turn to this year’s draft. They met with Hunter Henry, regarded as the best tight end in the draft, earlier in the week. |
Online ad campaigns created by academics in Britain and the US have targeted millions of people based on psychological traits perceived from a single “like” on Facebook – demonstrating, they say, the effect of “mass psychological persuasion”. |
More than 3.5 million people, mostly women in the UK aged 18-40, were shown online adverts tailored to their personality type after researchers found that specific Facebook likes reflected different psychological characteristics. |
The bespoke campaigns boosted clicks on ads for beauty products and gaming apps by up to 40% and sales by as much as 50% compared with untargeted adverts, according to the researchers, who did not benefit financially from the campaigns. |
The work, carried out for unnamed companies, was designed to reveal how even the smallest expressions of preference online can be used to influence people’s behaviour. |
“We wanted to provide some scientific evidence that psychological targeting works, to show policymakers that it works, to show people on the street that it works, and say this is what we can do simply by looking at your Facebook likes. This is the way we can influence behaviour,” said Sandra Matz, a computational social scientist at Columbia Business School in New York City. |
“We used one single Facebook like per person to decide whether they were introverted or extroverted, and that was the minimum amount of information we can possibly use to make inferences about people’s personalities. And yet we still see these effects on how often people click on ads and how often people buy something,” she added. |
Ex-Facebook president Sean Parker: site made to exploit human 'vulnerability' Read more |
The work has raised concerns among some in academia. Gillian Bolsover, who studies online manipulation of political opinion at the Oxford Internet Institute, said she was concerned about whose hands publicity of the research might play into. |
“Does coverage of the work primarily serve as an advert to the companies that might do these things? Or does it serve to inform the public about something going on in our society that we might not be happy with and want do something about?” she said. |
“If people are worried about the way technology is going, there are lots of little actions they can take to reduce the amount of data that is collected about them and to avoid supporting the practices and companies that they might feel are detrimental to society.” |
Matz teamed up with researchers at the University of Cambridge who had previously created a database of millions of personality profiles of anonymous Facebook users and items they had liked. The data reveals how, on average, specific likes reflect certain personality types. For example, a like on Lady Gaga’s Facebook page is broadly the mark of an extrovert, while a like on Stargate’s page flags users who are more likely to be introverts. |
The researchers then used graphics designers to create adverts aimed at either extroverts or introverts. They showed these via Facebook’s advertising platform to people who had liked a single item identifying them as one personality type or the other. |
The first field experiment targeted more than 3 million UK women aged 18-40 with adverts for an online beauty retailer. More than 10,000 women clicked on the ads, leading to 390 purchases. Matching the ads to people’s personalities led to 54% more sales than mismatching them. Two further campaigns for a crossword app and a shooting game had similar results, the researchers report in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
'Way too little, way too late': Facebook's factcheckers say effort is failing Read more |
“I was surprised that we got the effect with so little information,” said Matz. “We don’t know that much about people, and yet it still has a pretty big effect. You can imagine if you were using the full Facebook profile to make individual level predictions about people’s personalities, the effects would be even bigger.” |
Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. |
Matz believes that such mass persuasion could be put to great use – for example, by helping people to save, get a pension, or lead more healthy lives. But it could also be misused, she said. “It has the potential for abuse where you exploit weaknesses in a person’s character to make them do things they don’t want to do. We want policymakers to focus on the positive uses. If you just shut down this technology, you would lose so much potential for helping people.” |
But the approach is controversial. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating whether voters were unfairly influenced online by political campaigners in the run-up to the EU referendum in 2016. The ICO’s report is expected before the end of the year. |
“In a sense, it’s a natural extension of capitalism as it moves online. Of course corporations will do this,” said Bolsover. “But the increased use of corporate advertising techniques in the political system is something I think we should be worried about on a broader level.” |
“Political campaigns [are] probably somewhere you don’t want it to be used,” said Matz. “We want to open it up for public discussion so people can have an informed discussion about what we want to do with our technology.” |
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First of all, the general opinion seems to be that unless there's a pressing reason (like you're sucking off total strangers on a crowded train) it's preferable if you're naked. Particularly if you've got nice tits (and let's face it, boys are less fussy about the tits they can get in their bedroom than they are about the ones in porn), topless is almost a minimum requirement. There are a couple of advantages to being naked when you're giving a blowjob. Firstly, it's easier to clean up -- just rub anything |
that lands on you into your skin. Sure, you'll never get a nice Monica Lewinski-style souvenir, but at the same time you'll save money on dry cleaning. Secondly, it means easy access so you or he can play with your bits and pieces -- you'll both love it, more on this later.Now, obviously getting naked before giving head will decrease the spontaneity a bit. Spontaneity is something a lot of guys like, and I think there are a few reasons. Firstly, the idea that you can't wait to drink the cum straight out of |
him will probably drive your man wild. I remember watching in awe as my best friend dropped to her knees at a music festival once, her man loved it so much she only just got her mouth around his dick in time to swallow his load. I think a spontaneous blowjob also has a subtle psychological effect. If you randomly whip out his cock and suck him off, it will seem more likely to him that you'll do it again some time.So to put a bit of that spontaneity back in, you could try a couple of things that work for me. |
Obviously, you could take advantage of already being naked, if you're changing clothes or having a shower. Another thing I've found drives most men wild is to drop to your knees, start sucking on their cock, and then tear your clothes off. Finally, you could do a little bit of planning and be wearing something that will come off quickly and easily as you move toward his big, throbbing member. You could, of course, suck him off fully clothed every once in a while, some guys love it like that, some like to |
have a view.A very important facet of your blowjob is what I will, for want of a better word, call presentation. I've found that there's not much turns a man on more than the idea that you can't resist sucking on his dick. Paradoxically, a bit of teasing is also a big help, particularly if you're trying to make and impression. The old sucking on a prop trick is clichéd because it works -- don't be scared to use it. If there's nothing suitable readily available, suck on your finger. This is extremely |
effective if you do it in public. Just keep your eyes locked on his, so he knows the prop is standing in for his dick, not someone else's.In a similar vein, give him a big sloppy kiss and pretend his tongue is his dick. Suck it into your mouth and run your tongue over it. Some guys like this more than others.Once you get him alone with plenty of time, give him a show. You or he can take your clothes off, but if you want him to do it you might need to get it started to give him the idea -- men can be a bit |
slow sometimes! If you're a confident girl, give him a bit of a striptease, with or without music, finish up with a few sexy poses, then get out his dick and chow down. If you're a bit less outgoing, or you're shy, take your own clothes off, but do it slowly. One thing that used to help me was imagining your hands belong to someone else. Move a slowly as you can, turning occasionally. Caress your own skin like a lover should. A big teasing tip: remove your underwear with your back to him, but turn between |
bra and panties so he gets a look at your tits. Pinch your nipples a bit for him, I've never met a man that didn't work on. If you're insecure about your body, do all this with the lights low; guys have a pretty good imagination, so chances are he'll remember you looking sexier than you think.So now we're at the stage where you're naked and he's starting to go crazy with lust. You need to get over there and start sucking, and you can just do that directly if you want. This works well in terms of making him |
feel irresistible. I would recommend saying something like, "Get that big dick out, honey, I want to suck you dry," as you advance on him. Try to time it so your knees hit the floor as his cock pops out of his pants, that way it's more like a porn movie, and he'll love it.To keep things in your control, you need to keep him mesmerised, so I'd recommend slow and sexy movements. If he's standing I like to walk over to him, swaying my hips, and grab his belt. Pull him up against you, press your tits into his |
chest, and kiss him as you undo his pants. Get down on your knees as you push his undies down; kiss down his body if you want, I would recommend looking into his eyes.If he's sitting I like to crawl over to him. If he's on a chair I crawl all the way, but if he's on a bed I'll walk to the bed then crawl up to him. As you crawl, arch your back downward like a cat stretching. Try brushing your nipples on the floor. This leaves your ass sticking up in the air, and the crawling motion will make it sway |
enticingly. When you reach him, stop at his dick, give him a lustful look and start getting into his pants.This is the point at which you either whip him out and get going, or you turn the teasing up to eleven. I have driven guys wild by starting to blow them through their underwear (this works better with stretchy skin-tight undies than with loose silk boxers). Try giving him the impression that as much as you're teasing him, the self-denial is twice as bad for you. A girlfriend of mine likes to savour the |