Escape From Iowa

Iowa campaign coverage is always the worst. It seems to involve political journalists marveling at themselves for actually being in Iowa.

Personally nothing against Iowa. Think I was there once. It wasn't an alien planet.

Sunday Evening

Rock on.

RU BI O

The great mystery to me continues to be the weird belief by many - sincere, I think - that Rubio was going to win the primary and be the toughest dude for Democrats to beat in November. Have we watched the same politician? I try (and fail) to avoid the theater criticism coverage of politics, but I don't deny that the theater matters, and it especially matters to most of the people pushing Rubio. He comes across as a not very bright manchild with much less charisma than Potsie from Happy Days.

Trump'd

It was funny watching all of the very serious pundits be in denial about the Trump candidacy. Yes we're all familiar with the past history of Republican primaries, where every candidate seemed to get their turn being the "frontrunner." Basically, the one who Republicans thought was pissing off liberals the most that day would get a poll boost that would last for about a week and then McCain or Mittens would rise to the top. Fiorina did it this cycle with her baby-killing Democrats schtick, but that's all she had. She couldn't keep bringing it.

But Trump kept bringing it. And once he rose to the top, he stayed there. All of the many "ZOMG TRUMP SAID SOMETHING MEAN ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN HE'S DOOMED NOW" moments were hilarious.

I wouldn't have predicted Trump's success at the beginning, but after a few weeks of polls it was pretty clear that he had a good chance.

Sunday, Sunday

Great day for reading Part 2 of Tim Bousquet's Dead Wrong.  Pretty strong stuff, so you may want to wait until you've had your second cuppa. There's a whole world out there that most of us can hardly imagine. Sex and drugs, alas, no rock and roll.

Testing the waters

Bill Black and friends want to get a pledge from candidates to deal with the kind of control fraud that created the financial crisis - something a president can do without asking Congress' permission. Seems like a good idea.

Saturday Night

Heading to Iowa. Gonna win!

It's Out

Part 2 of Tim Bousquet's Dead Wrong. Fascinating description of how evidence for a criminal trial is gathered and how trials are conducted. Forget Law & Order, this is the real deal.

Now with corrected link.

Pool Boy And Paybook

Hardest working grifters in the Village.

Fraud

Really not sure how VW survives.

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen may buy back some diesel cars in the United States if it cannot make them compliant with air quality rules fast enough, a lawyer for the company says.

The statement, made during a court hearing by Robert Giuffra, a lawyer defending Volkswagen against class-action suits by owners of tainted diesel vehicles, was the clearest indication yet that the company, which is based in Wolfsburg, Germany, may not have the technology to bring emissions for some of the cars into line with regulations without hurting performance and fuel economy.

No Wine, No Lunch

I'm beginning to like this Hollande fellow.

French President François Hollande decided having wine with lunch is more important than breaking bread with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during an official visit to Paris.

Friday Night Thread

Bloggity Blog Blog Blog

I guess one thing about there being so many clowns in the clown car is that sometimes it's like... why bother? Yeah, yeah, Rick Santorum said something stupid and horrible again, but Rick Santorum who? I could write stuff about the Donald, but he's already on your teevee 38 hours per day. All the serious pundits are predicting that Rubiomentum, right after the Fiorinamentum and that Kasichmentum, or something.

Just a long silly primary season.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

America's Worst Humans

Rick Snyder.

That's Your Job, Professional Democrats

I've written about this before, but to me one of the weirdest things is when people in professional politics lash out at people who don't bother to vote. I mean, ok, it's one thing for the rest of us to say "vote, assholes!" but it isn't actually our job to get people to vote. People get paid immense amount of money to get people to the polls. Saying "people suck" or "liberals suck" or "young people suck" because they don't vote might make you feel better about your failure, but it's your failure. There are ways to get people out to vote. Promoting bland candidates who blur the differences instead of accentuating the distinctions doesn't work very well. Failing to nationalize congressional elections doesn't work very well. Republicans nationalize every election. Wonder why Dems don't vote in non-presidential years? Could be because you aren't telling them why they should vote. Kodos might be better than Kang, but you have to tell people why.

And On And On

There's no way this ends well. Yes maybe the tunnel will be completed, but people are going to be in court forever.

Gov. Jay Inslee said he is “extremely disappointed” with the tunnel contractor, and said at a Thursday news conference that he is deferring to state engineers as to when STP has earned the right to restart.

State engineers noticed after the sinkhole formed that additional voids existed, and STP didn’t have a clear plan to deal with them, according to Inslee.

Morning Thread

I think Cruz ought to be appointed Dog Catcher in Chief with the Mojave Desert his sole jurisdiction.

Thursday Night

Tomorrow is Disco.

Happy Hour

Enjoy.