Bad Night for Al Franken

Doug Jones has won the Alabama Senatorial race and Roy Moore will ride off into the sunset to trouble the Republican Party no more.  Al Franken had intentionally offered that vague non-resignation with the expectation that he could revoke it when Moore won the race.  Or maybe he would make his resignation contingent on Moore's not being seated in the Senate.  Whatever the case, Franken's last, best hope for remaining in the Senate just went down the drain.  What will the Senate Ethics Committee do now?

Sergeant Schultz-ism

Only days after Prime Minister Theresa May rebuked President Trump for retweeting videos of Muslims committing violent acts, a plot by British Muslims to assassinate her is foiled.  That's not uncomfortable timing.  Just days ago, she accused Britain First - the source of the tweets - of seeking to "divide communities in their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions."  Interesting.  Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman of north London and Mohammed Aqib Imran from Birmingham appear entirely willing to confirm the "hateful narrative."  To admit the truth that Islamic migrants are a serious danger is to also admit to a catastrophic failure in foresight and governance.  Much of Europe has adopted the philosophy of Sergeant Schultz of Hogan's Heroes: "I see nothing!  I hear nothing!  I know nothing!"  Willful ignorance despite an ever-growing list of Muslim terror plots and slaughtered Brits.

Lady Bird

Lady Bird is the story of a girl's senior year at a Catholic high school in 2002 and 2003.  Though her name is actually Christine, she introduces herself as Lady Bird.  This is a coming-of-age story that mostly focuses on the relationship with Lady Bird and her mother.

Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) is in full rebellion mode for most of the movie and usually playing the alpha male in her love life.  She courts the men who interest her and they are mostly indifferent lumps who don't protest at being her boyfriend.  Of course, perhaps she is finding men like her father who is also something of a lump.  At one point, Lady Bird's mother (Laurie Metcalf) starts explaining how her father is depressed and he is sitting silently in the room as this discussion takes place.  Even her brother Miguel - obviously adopted though that is never openly stated - works as a checker at a local grocery store despite having a mathematics degree from Berkley!  She lives in a world of passive or underachieving men.  She abandons her old clique - notably best friend Julie - and joins the 'popular' group.  She eventually regrets the move.  She also regrets surrendering her virginity to one of the lumps mere moments after the act.  She lies, cheats, and steals.  At her Catholic school, she laments that a pro-life speaker's mother didn't have the abortion and thus spare them from that school assembly.  Lady Bird offers nothing but contempt for her hometown, Sacramento.  Her fondest wish is to go to school on the East Coast.  By the end of the movie, she is attending college in NYC and realizes that she misses Sacramento.

 

This is obviously autobiographical for writer/director Greta Gerwig, who was born in Sacramento in 1983, attended a Catholic School, whose mother was a nurse, and attended college in New York.  Clearly some poetic license was included to spice up the story or maybe she squeezed several years worth of antics into a single year. 

 

Lady Bird herself is not a likeable character.  There is a combination of self-loathing and constant rebellion that makes it difficult to like her.  This speaks well of Ronan's ability to bring the character to life.  Her mother (Laurie Metcalf) is a far more sympathetic character.  Julie (Beanie Feldstein) is the only other character to be realized, a shy but talented girl that Lady Bird abandons for the popular kids only to reconsider later.

 

There are some SJW moments like Lady Bird's pro-abortion stance.  She sees a poster of Reagan at the house of her boyfriend's grandmother and he offers an embarrassed shrug.  Soon thereafter, we discover he is gay and is terrified of telling his Catholic, Republican family.  Another character is reading Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States, a book that looks only at the warts of American history and laments that socialists and communists were suppressed.

 

Skip this one.

To the Ethics Committee!

"As with all credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, I believe the Ethics Committee should review the matter."

Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader

 

In that case, let's elect Judge Roy Moore and send him directly to the Ethics Committee!  That will teach him!

Socialism Works!

 

iowahawkblog

Political Tidal Wave?

With yesterday's victories in New Jersey and Virginia, there are claims that the political tide has shifted and now Democrats will start retaking power.  That was surely the case when Republican Bob McDonald won the gubernatorial race in 2009 in the wake of President Obama's 2008 victory.  Same thing, different parties.  Right?  Not entirely.

Donald Trump lost Virginia in the 2016 election, receiving 44% of the votes.  Ed Gillespie did slightly better than Trump, gaining 45% of the votes.  Virginia voted Democratic last year and it voted Democratic this year.  It went from one Democratic governor to another, which should not be taken as a sign of big political shift.

Let's consider when Bob McDonnell beat Creigh Deeds in 2009.  Barack Obama had won Virginia in 2008 by a 52 to 46 margin over John McCain.  The governor was Tim Kaine, Hillary's future VP nominee.  Despite having voted by 6 points for the Democrat in 2008, the state elected the Republican by an 18 point margin, 59 to 41.  That is a massive shift.  Gillespie actually picked up slightly more support than Trump had (45 Gillepsie vs 44 Trump) while Deeds lost a huge swath of Obama voters (41 Deeds vs 52 Obama).  Yesterday's election was a status quo, not an earthquake like 2009.

Donald Trump lost New Jersey, receiving 41% of the votes.  Kim Guadagno won 42% of the votes in her failed run for governor.  Therefore, she too did slightly better than Trump himself.  However, this election switched the governor from Republican to Democrat, which makes it more significant than Virginia.  Hillary won New Jersey 55 to 41.  Phil Murphy won New Jersey 56 to 42.  Hardly a sea change.

 

Again, let's go back to 2009 race.  Obama trounced McCain, 57 to 42.  The following year, Republican Chris Christie beat the incumbent, Democrat Jon Corzine, 49 to 45.  Corzine lost 12 points from Obama's support.  That's a tidal wave.

 

In 2009, the Virginia and New Jersey races were dire warnings to the Democrats that they mostly ignored.  In 2017, these represent little to no change from 2016.

 

These numbers are actually cause for concern regarding Democrat chances next year.  If results just match the presidential election - as these two do - then the Republicans are going to get a much bigger majority in the Senate and hold the House.  Therefore, it is important for the Democrats to frame this status quo election as a momentum shift while the victory is fresh in the votes' minds.

Catalonian Independence

As a fan of federalism and local control, the idea of Catalonian independence sounds great.  The region has a its own language, Catalan, which I tried unsuccessfully to learn while in Barcelona.  All the signs are in both Spanish and Catalan.  With Spain having surrendered a large chunk of its sovereignty to the European Union, why can't Catalonia ditch the middleman in this arrangement and have its own representatives at the EU?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

This is foundational to the United States and who are we to oppose others making the same decision?  If a people declare the intention to dissolve the bonds, then those wishing the bonds to continue need to make the case.  A majority vote to leave - whether held legally or not - does not happen in the response to good government.  Of course, if Spain allows Catalonia to go, the Basque country is next.  Freedom and centralized authority do not mix.

 

If Catalonia secures independence, I recommend an immediate withdrawal from the EU.  Don't trade Madrid for Brussels.