Month: April 2015

Tweet of the Day, I Didn’t Really Want To Get Into The Entire Hugos Thing edition.

I am a little biased on the subject, you see. I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s a reason why what looked like it might have been a reasonably good RPG writing career suddenly dried up at about the same time it became clear that I was one of those Republicans. I can’t actually prove anything, can’t even justify my speculations, but there it is. And so, objective I may not be on the topic of the possible politicization of geekery. Continue reading Tweet of the Day, I Didn’t Really Want To Get Into The Entire Hugos Thing edition.

Book of the Week: Great North Road.

I’m only about halfway through Peter F. Hamilton’s Great North Road, but it’s really good so far.  Peter Hamilton’s an interesting guy to read: I got started on him with his Night’s Dawn
series, which can be accurately described as A hard science fiction look at what would happen to an interstellar civilization if there was a mass escape of damned souls from Hell.  …I’m not particularly exaggerating, either. I don’t give advice on books based on the author’s ideology – I mean, I buy Charlie Stross in hardcover, don’t I? – but a British (probable) Euroskeptic who writes well is nothing to sneeze at, either.

And so, farewell to The Complete Paratime.

…I don’t get why Team Clinton is apparently on High Alert. I really don’t.

Seriously, why?

Most staffers hired for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have no idea when she’ll announce, according to a CNN report, but have been told that they must be ready to start their campaign roles at any moment — starting Monday.

Until then, they are working out of an office meant for her personal staff, according to the report. The campaign-in-waiting’s digital team has reportedly been operating out of the space’s kitchen.

What’s the point? The article notes that Hillary Clinton has rented some space, which means that she’ll have to announce within two weeks anyway (renting space for a campaign counts as ‘campaign activity’). I can understand not announcing ahead of time, but why not tell your staff?  Is she that scared of communications leaks?

…Hmm.

Attention, ALL 2016 Presidential campaigns. Please film ALL your candidate’s ‘private’ appearances.

Because Jeb Bush has precisely the right idea, here.

[Jeb] Bush’s team has been quietly taping his private appearances in hopes of pushing back on false narratives dished by donors to reporters and to have a record to disprove any misinformation wafting from closed-door events.

“We want to have a full record of his comments,” said Tim Miller, a senior adviser to Bush’s Right to Rise PAC and the expected communications director for his expected presidential campaign. “Full information awareness.”

As the article notes, the idea here is to cut down on the number of incidents in 2016 where the media gets to spin an event without fear of contradiction. As the article also notes, the other idea here is to train the candidate into never treating an event as being off the record.  That charming conceit is as dead as leaded gasoline.  The sooner we all accept that, the happier we’re all going to be.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I assume everyone understands that the Clinton campaign is too institutionally cowardly to set up something similar, right? – And that will cost them, at some point.  I say that, serene in the knowledge that they won’t listen to me.

The IRS delays yet another piece of Obamacare. Like they do.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

ObamaCare customers who received the wrong tax form from the federal government this spring will not face penalties if they miss the April 15 deadline, officials announced Friday.

Anyone who have not yet been sent corrected tax forms and are “unable to file an accurate tax return” now have until Oct. 15 to file — as long as they request an extension.

The government did not say how many people will be given extra time, though officials said in late March that 80,000 people were still waiting on their corrected tax forms. A total of 800,000 people had mailed the wrong forms.

Continue reading The IRS delays yet another piece of Obamacare. Like they do.

CNN: “Will Schumer bring on new Democratic era?”

I believe that the truism is If the title of your article is a question, then the answer is invariably ‘No.’ I actually resist this truism: I like to ask questions in titles, because the other use of that stylistic trick is to mildly unnerve the Other Side with a ominous question.  However, I think that the answer is in this case is still going to be ‘no:’

Sen. Harry’s Reid’s perfunctory announcement on Friday that he won’t seek re-election next year — leaving a vacancy for leadership of the Senate Democrats — was followed, hours later, by a matter-of-fact statement in an interview with The Washington Post:”I think Schumer should be able to succeed me.”

That would usher in a whirlwind of activity on Capitol Hill in the next year as New York’s senior senator prepares to seize the reins of power — and retool the party as a center-left powerhouse that can win and hold a majority in 2016 and beyond.

Continue reading CNN: “Will Schumer bring on new Democratic era?”

Turns out donors really do notice which party doesn’t cater to anti-Semites.

(H/T Hot Air Headlines) Want to see a little panic?  The New York Times will indulge you.  Well, maybe not indulge you… or, at least, it’s not really happy about the situation. The paper is a little freaked out by the whole thing, in fact:

Republicans currently in the Senate raised more money during the 2014 election cycle in direct, federally regulated campaign contributions from individuals and political action committees deemed pro-Israel than their Democratic counterparts, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics and analyzed for The New York Times by a second nonprofit, MapLight. The Republican advantage was the first in more than a decade.

The alliances in Congress that pro-Israel donors have built will certainly be tested as they lobby lawmakers to oppose the deal with Iran and perhaps even expand sanctions against the country, despite objections from the Obama administration.

Continue reading Turns out donors really do notice which party doesn’t cater to anti-Semites.

Tweet of the Day, Thus Ensuring That This Will Happen To Rolling Stone Again edition.

This was not smart.

Not really my problem, though.

Moe Lane