In Politics, Status Quo Is God

Because Status Quo keeps those who make money in a place to keep making money.

Because politicians are too lazy and/or scared to do actual research to make necessary changes.

The ACA, aka Obamacare, is now status quo (as flawed as it is).

But it is Status Quo, Republicans can't really change or repeal it. And Democrats aren't lifting a finger to improve it.

Sure there are things like "voters" and "the will of the people," but those pale in comparison of Big Pharma, who is essentially accepting of this particular Status Quo. So much so they pretty much run the most Democratic, left-leaning state in the country.

Remember when the GOP promised their voters that they'd outlaw abortion every election cycle, yet could never push it through Congress?

Remember when Obama pushed for Single Payer as a candidate an was rewarded a Democrat-friendly Congress, only to essentially nationalize Mitt Romney's health care plan?

Status Quo is their God.

States With High War Casualties Tended to Lean Toward Donald Trump

The military is always an interesting demographic, particularly because it's changing. But also because those connected to the military (spouses, parents, children, friends) can be a good indicator of how people feel about things like war and global politics.

Well, after two Bush wars and at least seven extended conflicts with Obama (a combination of Bush's wars, drone-lead assaults and other skirmishes involving troops), these people seem to bet tired of the whole thing.

At least, that's how they may have voted.

The Intercept has a story that supports the theory that President Trump won over voters connected to military casualties. It should be noted that while Hillary Clinton was marginalizing Black Lives Matter and calling Bernie Sanders supporter sexists, Trump was promising factory workers that they would keep their jobs and war survivors that conflicts would end.

Now while the truth is ugly (namely that Clinton's disdain for those who opposed her was genuine while Trump's promises were empty) is does not negate the difference between the two: while false, Trump had a message that resonated. His slogan (Make American Great Again) was formatted for every audience he encountered, and while his actions may have made many mature and critical thinking minds cringe, his words gave a comfort to those who felt unrepresented.

The most stunning revelation of this story is that Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan -all states which could have swung in Clinton's favor and have drawn the ire of both her supporters and center-right Democrats- had relatively high casualty rates. If the Democrats had been more anti-war during Obama's term or if Clinton has spoken more clearly about how she intended to minimize losses, these states may have swung in the Democrat's favor.

A second revelation comes from the researchers behind the study: don't expect many in the mainstream to discuss these findings, because they have very connection to anyone who has experienced military casualty.

Around the Internets

1. Chelsea Manning.
2. One way to tackle AI in the workforce.
3. What did your last hospital bill look like?
4. On NFL and race.
5. The Anti-Vaccination Crowd and the Nation of Islam?
   

Does Race Factor Into Things Like How Children Are Perceived?

Yes; yes it does.

Blog Cleaning

Quick Programming Note: This blog will be undergoing some cleaning up. While I would like to say that this space hasn't changed in tone/perspective, it's been noticed that other spaces have been.

As far as content, expect the same sports/entertainment/politics/whatever you have become strangely dependent on.

On that note, one clarification: WTN does not view politics as sports. In sports, a team is supported even if the players and coaches and owners are crappy (performance-wise; if they're criminals or morally bankrupt than they seriously need to go). But in politics, a crappy politician is a crappy politician, regardless of their affiliation.

Spot The Thread.

• In Illinois, a black teen who was being beat up by some other teens on an off-duty officer's yard. As the beat-up teen was trying to recover, the officer pinned the teen down, and threatened his life.
• In Washington, DC, Park Police handcuffed three black teenagers who were selling water without a permit because of, "the safety of the officers and the individuals."
• In Florida, a local sheriff's officer told a young black male that he was going to jail for jaywalking and "resisting without violence." BTW, "resisting without violence" is real in Florida. 
• In Texas, a Grand Jury indicted an officer who shot a young white mother of two. The officer was investigating the stolen vehicle that matched the description of the vehicle that the young mother had recently purchased. 
  

For Trump, It Starts and Ends with Mexico

Grieving family members of an immigrant murderer? Deport them. That has been a stance President Trump has taken since almost before he gave serious thought to running for office, and these families are some of his most loyal supporters.

Sure his bans have be challenged (and are now going to Supreme Court) but he's stuck to his guns on this issue, and they will stick by him.

Unless, of course they live in Indianapolis:

A promise made before Christmas is fizzling before the Fourth of July.

In December, then-President-elect Trump told hundreds of workers at the Carrier manufacturing plant that he had worked out a deal to save their jobs.

But it's not working out that way. A steady downpour today did little to wash away the fact that the jobs of 600 union employees are going south.

[snip]

Blasting companies for moving American jobs abroad was a feature of the Trump campaign, and saving the Carrier jobs was touted as a sign of Mr. Trump's bargaining prowess.

"You're going to have a good Christmas," he said at the plant.
But the truth is that 400 of the 1,100 jobs Mr. Trump mentioned were white-collar positions that were never going away. 

And where are these jobs going? Mexico, of course.

Good to know that all of those "killers and rapists" Trump is kicking/keeping out will have jobs that Americans used to do.

Profiles In Cowardice: Senator Joe Manchin

Democrat Joe Manchin challenged the voters to primary him, and when they found a candidate Manchin posts about making a pledge to not campaign against incumbents.

Learn more about his opponent, Paula Jean Swearengin, here.

Around The Internets

1. The religious side of Donald Trump. 
2. The shady side of Bill Cosby. 
3. The unprofessional side of the police. 
4. The racist side of a Flint official.

Every First-Time President Is "New to the Job"

One of the more interesting things to come out of the Great Comey Distraction (and yes, it is a distraction) is the growing theme regarding President Trump (many) political failings: he is an extreme novice who needs to be reminded of how a President is supposed to conduct themselves.

Let's not even dwell too much that this argument would never have worked as a defense for President Clinton or President Obama when Republicans were attacking them, or that it wasn't one of the many, many justifications for President Bush's goofs.

No, let's instead delve a bit into the implications here, and for the sake of argument assume that factors such as race, gender and political affiliation are not relevant (even if they are in real life).

During the GOP primary, it was apparent that the GOP establishment did not want Donald Trump to be the nominee. The reasons boiled down to three general categories:

1. Those who saw him as a faux conservative;
2. Those who saw him as a hindrance to the party's agenda;
3. Those who did not like him.

In the end, none of those reasons were powerful enough to get the power players in the GOP to stymie trump's ascension (like say, what the Democrats did to Bernie Sanders in order to solidify Hillary Clinton's nomination). But once it was clear Trump was the nominee, the smart and professional thing to do would be to coalesce around the guy and make sure that he was polished enough to conduct himself properly. 

He did not have to be a player, but he needed to respect the game. 

Well, his First 100 Days showed the country otherwise. While many of his positions have been more in line with the GOP base, it's been his delivery that many have found to be unpalatable. Even Clinton, Bush and Obama had the wherefore-all to say, "This is for the American People" whenever they pushed for something that wasn't even in the Top Ten of "Things the American People Want."  By his actions, Trump is definitely leaning on the side of, "If you elected me, it was to make the decisions for you" and not, "You elected me to as a proxy and I will vote your way no matter what." 

My point here is that apparently at no time during all this -the travel ban, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the appointments of people woefully unqualified for the positions they were filling-  did the GOP establishment try to push hard to get Trump to at least smooth out his rough edges (presumably, that's the role for his wife and his daughter Ivanka). Up until the Comey testimony, they have been content with Trump running amok politically, settling for a compromise of contained chaos. 

But now? Now that a recently fired official from Trump's administration is in Congress saying, "Yo, dude was lying big time!" the defense is, "Well, you know Trump is still a rookie, right?" 

In other words, Republicans have been perfectly happy to have Trump stumble, bumble and fumble his way through his first term as long as it isn't being tied to the party.

Quote of the Day

Whatever you think, the fact is they built a legit dynasty: they started the best long-range shooter ever (Curry), one of the best scorers of his generation who can also defend (Klay), one of the most versatile in the league at his position (Green), and then brought off the bench one of the best on-ball defenders of his generation. That’s a dynasty! They won a title, won 73 games, came within a few plays of another title! So let’s see what they can do next year.
But then they add to it the … second-best player in the league? I don’t need to go into the technical details of what this does. We all see it: Curry’s resting, Klay has an off night, Draymond’s in foul trouble, Andre’s missing threes, doesn’t matter: Durant will clean up. The last two years, it mattered: a bad night from just one star opened the tiny window of opportunity for LBJ to do his superhuman shtick. But this year they just bring in a rested Durant—Durant!—and go on an 11-0 run in 90 seconds. Or bring in a rested Curry if Durant needs a rest. Or Klay. It doesn’t matter. There will always be someone. And this will happen as long as this team is together. There is simply no opportunity outside of a fluke for them to be beaten in a seven-game series.

"One-timerx2," about the legitimacy of the 2017 Golden State Warriors. 

Around the Internets

1. Roger Ailes was not a nice person. 
2. For all of their talk about "urban," you'd think they'd include more black people in urban planning.