Contemptor

One Of Us? Prince, Sports And The Enduring Underdog

Becky Sarwate1 Comment

Prince_at_Coachella

“In other words, Prince was really no different from my dad, utterly incapable of paying full attention to an activity when his team was in the mix. Except that Prince was leading a band, doing the splits and rocking a stadium while sneaking peeks at the score, whereas my father struggled to balance headphones with eating pizza. But somehow this notion of the fantastic, magical Prince as one of us only adds to his allure – and our collective grief at his loss. As GQ’s Jack Moore recently observed, ‘in typical Prince fashion, the very idea that a genius, other-dimensional being, Rock God could be obsessed with something as normal as basketball seems super weird. And cool.'”

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Mainstream Media, Voters And Money Unite In Presidential Election Fatigue

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tired-hillary

“Almost needless to say, the 2016 election cycle is an unusual exercise in taxing the limits of our collective attention span and patience with crazy behavior. It’s no surprise that certain members of the media are ready to move on with the general public. But when the money gets disenchanted? Well that’s newsworthy.”

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Modern Do-Nothing Congress: Long On Terrorism Accusations, Short on Action

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Do Nothing Congress

“I’ve been watching the brilliant CNN docuseries, Race for the White House. Episode 4, “Truman vs. Dewey,” is a fascinating piece that captures Truman’s unlikely, come-from-behind victory in 1948. One of the strategies that drove the Democrat’s late-breaking success was an active campaign against the Republican-led, 80th, “Do-Nothing Congress.”  At one train stop and stump speech after another, Truman reminded voters of the House and Senate’s general dereliction of duty – to great effect.

Here’s the irony. The “Do Nothing” crowd passed a total of 906 public bills. By comparison, the 113th Congress passed just 52 bills at the close of 2013. There are no typos here. Just sad evidence of the inaction we’ve learned to accept from our elected officials. What was odious in 1948 is still 94 percent better than what we have today.”

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Scalia’s Own Words Challenge Republican Intransigence On SCOTUS Nominee

Becky Sarwate1 Comment

Scalia

“If David Axelrod is to be believed, Scalia himself would recoil at the idea of a year-long SCOTUS vacancy. Appearing on CNN this week, the former Chief Strategist of President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns reminisced about a 2009 conversation he had with Scalia over the then-pending replacement of David Souter. Axelrod recalls Justice Scalia saying, ’I have no illusions that your man will nominate someone who shares my orientation…But I hope he sends us someone smart.’

I never believed it possible to agree with Antonin Scalia on anything, but it’s another 2016 first. Let’s have someone smart. Soon. Floating any other option is just stupid. More evidence for the rest of the planet that our great experiment in democracy has devolved into a stagnant sideshow mocking its own structure.”

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Can We Please Stop The Farcical ‘First In The Nation’ Iowa Caucuses Already?

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Iowa-caucuses

“What’s certainly clear is that the paradigm of presidential election pro forma is over. Donald Trump skipped the last debate before caucuses began, has spent very little money on his general campaign (the irony) and thumbs his nose at the establishment and its endorsements. And there’s also the small matter of his never having held a public office. Meanwhile over on the left, a guy who knows a thing or two about winning elections, Barack Obama, labeled Sanders’ campaign a “complete long shot” just a week ago. However, can a man that the National Journal recently dubbed “The Betty White of Politics,” really be considered a million-to-one? Poll numbers seem to disagree with the current President as well.

And since, for better or worse, the predictability of POTUS election cycles has gone the way the Edsel, maybe it’s long overdue that we revisit this entire caucus farce.”

Click here to read the full post at Contemptor.