6 thoughts on “No, he’s not stable”


  1. The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit

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    When the Defense Department flunked its first-ever fiscal review, one of our government’s greatest mysteries was exposed: Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go?
    By MATT TAIBBI

    Despite being the taxpayers’ greatest investment — more than $700 billion a year — the Department of Defense has remained an organizational black box throughout its history. It’s repelled generations of official inquiries, the latest being an audit three decades in the making, mainly by scrambling its accounting into such a mess that it may never be untangled.
    Ahead of misappropriation, fraud, theft, overruns, contracting corruption and other abuses that are almost certainly still going on, the Pentagon’s first problem is its books. It’s the world’s largest producer of wrong numbers, an ingenious bureaucratic defense system that hides all the other rats’ nests underneath. Meet the Gordian knot of legend, brought to life in modern America.

    Read whole article

  2. Opinions
    Who is Joe Biden’s base, really?
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    Former vice president Joe Biden speaks to members of the media after addressing an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers conference in Washington on Friday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)

    Biden’s support looks a bit like his home state of Delaware — which suggests that he might have a reasonably broad appeal within the party. Delaware is a blue state, with a solid number of moderates in the electorate. It’s a mostly white state, but there’s a significant constituency of black voters: 22.8 percent, which is similar to Virginia and North Carolina. It’s just a bit older than most other states. The national party also contains a solid number of older voters, black voters and self-described moderates. Capturing parts of that Delaware demographic has likely helped Biden get to about 30 percent support in the national primary polls.

    Read whole article (pdf)

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  3. ‘Pete! Pete! Pete!’ Buttigieg fever hits New Hampshire – can he keep up the pace?
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    In Manchester and Concord the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, shone again as a persuasive centrist in a party moving left

    If this weekend was anything to go by, Pete Buttigieg might be the hottest ticket in the Democratic party right now.

    Shortest Way Home review: Pete Buttigieg as president in waiting
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    The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held rallies in New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday and amid talk of job growth, healthcare and military service one thing was clear: if you want to see Buttigieg, get there early.

    On Friday night Buttigieg – his campaign T-shirts bear the phonetic spelling “Boot-edge-edge” – had been due to hold a rally at a brewery in Manchester. Because of demand, he switched venues at the last minute to the Currier Museum of Art. That quickly sold out too, leaving 200 people standing outside at 7.30pm.

    They got to see their man. Buttigieg emerged in the drizzle, to lusty chants of “Pete! Pete! Pete!” He’d even prepared a joke.

    “I hear the way you ingratiate yourself to voters is to stand on things,” he said as he clambered on to a bench. It was a reference to the folksy, table-hopping style of his Texan rival Beto O’Rourke. As a gag it would have been more impressive if Buttigieg hadn’t repeated it inside the museum 10 minutes later and at a bookstore the next day.

    Read more

  4. Opinion
    Here Be Mother of Dragons
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    Emilia Clarke has conquered her health issues. Now will Daenerys conquer the Seven Kingdoms?

    Thrillingly, women at the top in 2019 have thrown off hidebound expectations about emulating the male model, in how they look (see Nancy Pelosi, who has slain a few dragons in her time, armored in a fiery orange coat to joust with President Trump), how they communicate (see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lancing hordes of Twitter trolls) and how they govern (New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern entwining empathy, as she wore a head scarf after the mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques, and muscle, as she announced plans six days after the tragedy to ban semiautomatic rifles).

    Read whole article (pdf)

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  5. Opinion
    It’s Your iPhone. Why Can’t You Fix It Yourself?
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    When the tools of modern life stop working, people should be able to shop for the best price on repairs.

    A giant John Deere tractor and a pocket-size Apple iPhone have something important in common: The cost of repairing either one is too high.

    The two companies, and many of their peers, use a variety of aggressive tactics, including electronic locks and restrictive warranties, to push customers with broken equipment to seek help from their authorized repair facilities — or to give up and buy a replacement.

    This is unfair to consumers who might be able to obtain, or perform, lower-priced repairs. It’s unfair to independent businesses that might do the work. And it’s bad for the environment, because the high cost of repairs leads people to toss devices that might have been fixed.

    Late last month, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, proposed a national right-to-repair law for farm equipment. The idea is based on a 2012 Massachusetts law that requires carmakers to provide the information necessary to perform repairs and to sell any special tools needed to do the work. The law also phased in a requirement that new cars be compatible with generic diagnostic tools.

    Ms. Warren has the right idea, but she did not go far enough. The owners of consumer electronic products deserve the same protection as farmers.

    Read whole article (pdf)

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  6. Trump whiplash syndrome

    One moment he’s closing the Mexican border, the next he’s waiting a year and may first put tariffs on cars breaking his much touted USMCA trade deal.

    One moment he says the GOP is repealing and replacing Obamacare, the next he declares it won’t happen until after the election and you can’t see the plan.

    One moment he’s endorsing the public release of the Mueller report, the next he’s spouting reasons not to release it.

    One moment he wants to cut funding for the Special Olympics, the next he’s blaming his staff for a dumb idea.

    One moment he brags about his wealth, the next he claims he still can’t show his taxes.

    One moment he’s bragging about his intelligence but has forbidden his schools from releasing his transcripts.

    He overstates the amount of aid to Puerto Rico by 700%

    He says Republicans need to be paranoid about voter fraud

    He calls AOC (D-NY) a 29 y/o bartender, demeaning that profession

    Calls Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador three “Mexican countries”, then he cuts aid to them insuring there will be even more migrations

    Repeatedly says his father was born in a mystical town in Germany when his father was born in the Bronx.

    Trump, not a stable anything other than a liar and definitely not a genius.

    h/t Dana Millbank @WaPo

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