Showing posts with label Jeb Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeb Bush. Show all posts

Monday, July 15, 2019

Trent Lott, Donald Trump And The United States: 2002 To 2020

Trent Lott resigned as Senate Majority Leader for making a comment that was perceived as racist. It was not even explicitly racist. He simply praised a guy who was out and out racist. That is all. But such was the political culture that he resigned.

Today! The guy in the Oval Office can tell four Congresswomen to go back to their countries while having conducted impeachable actions, all in a dossier provided by a former FBI Director ..... This country is coming off its wheels.


Lott resigns as US senate majority leader | US news | The Guardian The US senate majority leader, Trent Lott, bowed to the politically inevitable today and resigned his post as US senate majority leader, two weeks after praising the segregationist 1948 presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond. Republicans, Democrats and many media outlets have been calling for Mr Lott's head since his comments at a 100th birthday party for Mr Thurmond. Yesterday the country's most prominent black Republican, Colin Powell, went on record as "deploring the sentiments" expressed by Mr Lott at the now infamous party. The president's brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, also signalled that he though Mr Lott should step down.

There was a time not long ago when Repulicans actually took a stand against racist comments.



'RACIST AND DISGUSTING': EX GOP CONGRESSMAN JUSTIN AMASH BLASTS TRUMP AFTER HE SAYS CONGRESSWOMEN SHOULD 'GO BACK' TO THEIR COUNTRIES
Trumpism is built on racism President Trump is a racist. This is the most important issue in the 2020 presidential campaign. Everything else is secondary....... This is not just a cosmetic political issue. Many of Trump's worst policies are arguably race-related: His administration's bids to undo the Affordable Care Act and scuttle the joint agreement halting Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon do not stem from any real ideological motivation on his part — instead, he seems motivated primarily to undo the most notable policy achievements of his predecessor. Former President Barack Obama, of course, was another black politician whose citizenship was called into question by Trump. Again: That is probably not a coincidence. ............ Prejudice spans the breadth of presidential policymaking under Trump. His policies on immigration are designed to appeal to conservatives who believe the "ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners" is a national emergency. His administration's positions on the Census citizenship question, voting rights, and police powers, likewise, appear to be aimed mostly at preserving white political power in this country. Even his well-documented misogyny finds its fullest flower when aimed at women of color....... Racism is the foundation upon which Trumpist governance and politics are built. ....... when the president tells a handful of non-white liberal women to go back to where they came from? Crickets. ....... Pelosi can aid the cause of unity by finally giving her blessing to an impeachment inquiry against the president. ... Attempting to impeach the president is the right thing to do — and that's the only sufficient reason to do it — but the effort might also help unite her fractious caucus. ...... Trump has harnessed overt racism to a degree unmatched by any national politician since George Wallace; there is little historical reason to believe the prejudice he has unleashed will subside unless it is directly confronted and roundly defeated.

Trump’s racist outburst was unbelievably vile — but why is anyone surprised?
Trump opens new attack on AOC's 'squad' as he blasts Tlaib for vowing AGAIN to 'impeach the motherf***er' – and claims far-left lawmakers made Israel 'feel abandoned'
Ocasio-Cortez Rips Trump’s Racist Attack: Our Power ‘Makes You Seethe’
Stephen King Has A Chilling Theory On What Comes Next For Trump Supporters King asked: “How long before Trump supporters realize that you don’t surround yourself with dirty guys unless you’re dirty yourself?” ...... “I might’ve said he had his head somewhere where a certain yoga position would be necessary to get it there,” King explained last year. “And that was it, man.”
Ocasio-Cortez versus Pelosi: It’s a long-term power struggle — not a ‘catfight’ Conditions in our so-called republic are terrible, but never so bad that the political and social crucible of the Trump era can’t make them worse........ “Concentration camps” is an entirely accurate description, by the way, but call them whatever you like: Freedom dispensaries, indoor picnic areas, beach volleyball camps without beaches (or volleyballs). They are just one more ingredient in our national shame, confusion and collective trauma, and perhaps that’s the really shocking part. The gradual revelation that our government is holding unknown numbers of human beings in shocking and inhumane conditions — living in stench and filth, sleeping on concrete floors, denied basic standards of health or hygiene — becomes just another outrage on a seemingly endless list, and has left most Americans numb. ...... In the manner of bigots, xenophobes and nativists throughout our history, the grandson of immigrants suggested these four women of color should “go back” to their home countries........ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s parents are from Puerto Rico, which is … OK, never mind........

the American-born ancestry of Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who is black, precedes Donald Trump’s (or mine, or that of most white Americans) by many generations.

..... the racism and sadism of his administration’s immigration policy — if to call it “policy” at all is not an insult to language ..... Chakrabarti is perceived by some observers as the Rasputin behind the Squad’s agenda, which sounds like a grossly sexist assumption in general, and outright ludicrous when applied to these four women. But that’s where we are. ......... Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, whose district adjoins Ocasio-Cortez’s. Meeks was recently “elected” to replace Crowley as Queens Democratic leader, in a rubber-stamp election held at a private meeting with roughly the same degree of transparency and democracy that attended local party elections in the Soviet Union. There were no other candidates....... If New York’s districts start to fall to left-wing insurgents, one by one, the nation will notice and the pattern will spread. If the pattern spreads, what is endangered is not just the power of certain individuals, but the entire theory of power that has driven the Democratic Party for generations. Those are literally the stakes.


AOC’s Chief of Change Chakrabarti is a new type on Capitol Hill: the movement chief of staff....... In my mind, an ideal situation is we have a president surrounded by a bunch of people who are constantly thinking how could we go bigger, bolder, faster, better on everything. … I don’t know if Inslee’s going to be president, but if he runs a really good campaign, maybe he ends up running a big agency. What’s the mind-set he’s going to bring to that agency?” ....... “The whole theory of change for the current Democratic Party is that to win this country we need to tack to the hypothetical middle. What I think that means is, you don’t take unnecessary risks, which translates to: You don’t really do anything. Whereas we’ve got a completely different theory of change, which is: You do the biggest, most badass thing you possibly can — and that’s going to excite people, and then they’re going to go vote. Because the reality is, our problem isn’t that more people are voting Republican than Democrat — our problem is most people who would vote Democrat aren’t voting.” ...... The son of immigrants from India, Chakrabarti grew up in Fort Worth. He graduated from Harvard with a computer science degree and went to work on the tech side of a hedge fund in Connecticut. After saving enough money to start his own company, he moved to San Francisco in 2009 and co-founded Mockingbird, a Web design tool. In 2011 he became one of the earliest employees of Stripe, the online payments platform. Chakrabarti and Ross Boucher, one of his colleagues on the Stripe product team, would work 70-hour weeks, eat dinner every night in the office, then go work out. ..... San Francisco was a shock ... it’s just huge amounts of wealth and some very rich people, and then just poverty and homelessness very visually and very viscerally ...... a learned cynicism, he thinks, of his generation having grown up watching wars, recession and bank bailouts. “We’ve only ever seen the establishment win,” he says. ...... Exley told me. “He was just a super-humble, super-level-headed guy. I always used to joke that he was the only emotionally healthy person in politics.” ....... formed a group called Brand New Congress with the mission to recruit hundreds of community leaders and working-class candidates to run on a vision of getting corporate money out of politics, tackling climate change, transforming the economy, providing health care for all, standing for racial justice and stemming mass incarceration. ....... “It was clear from the very beginning that the ship was moving with his guidance. … He was so focused that it naturally created a gravitational pull. … He was sort of relentless in that, and simultaneously just so pleasant, it was shocking. Almost not human. I used to say, ‘How do you stay so Zen?’ ” ...... many good people doing strong community work didn’t see the point of running for Congress. ...... “To boldly and decisively spur a people-led movement for social, racial, environmental and economic justice.” ....... voters really will turn out for bold ideas scaled big enough to tackle today’s crises of climate and inequality.



Lindsey Graham backs up Trump after his racist attacks on Dem women: ‘They hate our own country!’ “We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists,” he said. “They hate Israel, they hate our own country, they’re calling the guards along our border concentration camp guards… they’re anti-Semitic, they’re anti-America.”
Trump Doubles Down: ‘Sad’ That Dems Stick Up for People ‘Who Speak So Badly of Our Country’
Trump calls on minority congresswomen to apologize after he said they should 'go back' to their countries
Donald Trump's racist tweets show he doesn't understand America

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Republican Party: Abe To Dope

I don't know how else to put it, but succinctly: the end is near. The Donald reaching for the Republican nomination is a bull moving through the china shop. There is no telling how much damage he will do. To the Republican Party. I am predicting a total annihilation. America will still be a two party system, but the second party will no longer be the Republican Party. As to what will be the replacement, right now I have no clue. But politics abhors a vacuum. Tea Party?

What top company from 100 years ago is still the top company today? Companies are born and face death at a much faster pace, but political parties are no different. They are but conduits for people's democratic aspirations. They have a shelf life. The Republican Party's time has come.

Abraham Lincoln to Donald Trump has been a nice journey for you Republican Party although, I must say, what an anti-climax!


Hillary Has So Turned The Tables Upside Down
Hillary Looks Ready
Trump On The Wrong Continent?
Hillary Clinton And The Global Gender Basics

Sunday, July 26, 2015

If Donald Trump Runs As An Independent

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on Februar...
speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If he manages to lose the Republican nomination, and then decides to run as an Independent, The Donald is going to give Jeb Bush a run for his money. For the first time an Independent might collect more votes than a party candidate. The thing about running as an Independent is you don't have to be part of debates, you don't have to master the issues, you can just give speeches and make lightweight media appearances.

The Donald has been seen uncomfortable with question answer sessions. As in, why me?


The 4%

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on Februar...
speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
First Donald Trump started going after Mexicans (and never stopped). Then Jeb Bush said people should work longer hours if they want more money. Now Hillary said something about black guys in hoodies (like Mark Zuckerberg?) being scary.

This is not a good sign. The leading people running to be America's next President don't feel it is possible to take America back to a 4% growth rate. They are feeling the squeeze. The problem is nothing new. It all goes back to 2008.

Economists did not see the Great Recession coming. And once it hit, they did not have remedies. You can't keep at zero interest rates. Because if another recession hits, you have nothing left to throw at it.

My diagnosis back in 2008 was, just like the Great Depression added macroeconomics to the arsenal, before that there was only microeconomics, now was the time to add a new layer on the top, called globoeconomics. Did not happen.

A genuine world government is the only cure to Climate Change, and terrorism, the two big menaces most heads of state fumble around. Add to that poverty and disease. But that might also make way for the globoeconomics.

Here's just one symptom: money is not supposed to just sit around. It is supposed to get invested and give returns of 5-10%.

Tax havens: Super-rich 'hiding' at least $21tn
A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion (£13tn) hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study....... The figure is equivalent to the size of the US and Japanese economies combined....... his $21tn is actually a conservative figure and the true scale could be $32tn. A trillion is 1,000 billion. ....... His study deals only with financial wealth deposited in bank and investment accounts, and not other assets such as property and yachts. ..... the super-rich move money around the globe through an "industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries. ...... "The lost tax revenues implied by our estimates is huge. It is large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of many countries. ...... "From another angle, this study is really good news. The world has just located a huge pile of financial wealth that might be called upon to contribute to the solution of our most pressing global problems," he said. ......... the impact on the balance sheets of 139 developing countries of money held in tax havens that is put beyond the reach of local tax authorities. ....... since the 1970s, the richest citizens of these 139 countries had amassed $7.3tn to $9.3tn of "unrecorded offshore wealth" by 2010. ...... Private wealth held offshore represents "a huge black hole in the world economy," Mr Henry said. ....... Mr Whiting, though, urged caution. ...... if tax havens were stuffed with such sizeable amounts, "you would expect the havens to be more conspicuously wealthy than they are". ...... At the end of 2010, the 50 leading private banks alone collectively managed more than $12.1tn in cross-border invested assets for private clients ...... The three private banks handling the most assets offshore are UBS, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs ...... Less than 100,000 people worldwide own about $9.8tn of the wealth held offshore. ....... it was difficult to detail hidden assets in some individual countries, including the UK, because of restrictions on getting access to data. ..... A spokesman for the Treasury said great strides were being made in cracking down on people hiding assets......He said that in 2011-12 HM Revenue & Customs' High Net Worth Unit secured £200m in additional tax through its compliance work with the very wealthy........ He said that agreements reached with Liechtenstein and Switzerland will bring in £3bn and between £4bn and £7bn respectively.
Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals
The world's super-rich have taken advantage of lax tax rules to siphon off at least $21 trillion, and possibly as much as $32tn, from their home countries and hide it abroad – a sum larger than the entire American economy. ...... sifting through data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private sector analysts to construct an alarming picture that shows capital flooding out of countries across the world and disappearing into the cracks in the financial system. ...... Comedian Jimmy Carr became the public face of tax-dodging in the UK earlier this year when it emerged that he had made use of a Cayman Islands-based trust to slash his income tax bill. ...... Despite the professed determination of the G20 group of leading economies to tackle tax secrecy, investors in scores of countries – including the US and the UK – are still able to hide some or all of their assets from the taxman....... large investors usually hold in cash .... "Inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people. ...... for three decades extraordinary wealth has been cascading into the offshore accounts of a tiny number of super-rich." ...... 10 million individuals around the world hold assets offshore, according to Henry's analysis; but almost half of the minimum estimate of $21tn – $9.8tn – is owned by just 92,000 people. And that does not include the non-financial assets – art, yachts, mansions in Kensington – that many of the world's movers and shakers like to use as homes for their immense riches. ..... "If we could figure out how to tax all this offshore wealth without killing the proverbial golden goose, or at least entice its owners to reinvest it back home, this sector of the global underground is easily large enough to make a significant contribution to tax justice, investment and paying the costs of global problems like climate change" ........ estimates of the cumulative capital flight from more than 130 low- to middle-income countries over almost 40 years, and the returns their wealthy owners are likely to have made from them. ......

In many cases, , the total worth of these assets far exceeds the value of the overseas debts of the countries they came from.

...... The struggles of the authorities in Egypt to recover the vast sums hidden abroad by Hosni Mubarak, his family and other cronies during his many years in power have provided a striking recent example of the fact that kleptocratic rulers can use their time to amass immense fortunes while many of their citizens are trapped in poverty. ...... Oil-rich Nigeria has seen more than $300bn spirited away since 1970, for example, while Ivory Coast has lost $141bn. ...... Assuming that super-rich investors earn a relatively modest 3% a year on their $21tn, taxing that vast wall of money at 30% would generate a very useful $189bn a year – more than rich economies spend on aid to the rest of the world. ......... standard measures of inequality, which tend to rely on surveys of household income or wealth in individual countries, radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor. ...... both the very wealthy and the very poor tend to be excluded from mainstream calculations of inequality. ...... "There is rarely a household from the top 1% earners that participates in the survey. On the other side, the poor people either don't have addresses to be selected into the sample, or when selected they misquote their earnings – usually biasing them upwards." ...... Globalisation has exposed low-skilled workers to competition from cheap economies such as China, while the surging profitability of the financial services industry – and the spread of the big bonus culture before the credit crunch – led to what economists have called a "racing away" at the top of the income scale. ....... The surveys that are used to compile the Gini coefficient "simply don't touch the super-rich" ..... some experts believe the amount of assets being held offshore is so large that accounting for it fully would radically alter the balance of financial power between countries. .......... "the wealth held in tax havens is probably sufficiently substantial to turn Europe into a very large net creditor with respect to the rest of the world." ........ In other words, even a solution to the eurozone's seemingly endless sovereign debt crisis might be within reach – if only Europe's governments could get a grip on the wallets of their own wealthiest citizens.
IMF Report



Solar is almost there. I think we are at the cusp of solving the energy crisis. Which means, we should be able to bring forth another era of high growth rates across the world. But a new global layer in politics and economics has to be imagined for that to happen.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Bobby Jindal: The Record, The Prospects

English: Baton Rouge, LA, September 3, 2008 --...
English: Baton Rouge, LA, September 3, 2008 -- President George W. Bush and Governor Bobby Jindal greeting EOC employees, during disaster recovery efforts for Hurricane Gustav. Jacinta Quesada/FEMA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Louisiana is in a sorry shape. That sinks Bobby Jindal. Hillary is casting a really long shadow. That sinks Bobby Jindal. Jeb Bush is a Bush, but also was Governor. He was not stellar, but he was not all that bad. And he leads in the polls. That makes it hard for Bobby. Bobby does not have a program for the future. I am sure he has. But nothing has come out to grab the imagination yet. Yet another laundry list of conservative principles like tax cuts and bigger defense budgets are not a program. They are a regurgitation. That sinks Bobby Jindal. Maybe term limits are not such a good idea! The guy can't run for another term in Louisiana, and he might have lost if he had had the chance. It looks like a political dead end for him.

But speaking just of political tactics, one glaring detail I note is, the guy is too politically inflexible. He probably stands for a constitutional amendment at the federal level for balanced budgets. If such a thing had been in place before the 2008 recession, America would have had a decade long Depression on its hands, and then some. Bobby's utter inflexibility on raising taxes are the main reason why he is in such a bad shape politically. Principles should guide you. They should not dictate and limit your actions. You can be smart and belong to the Don't Confuse Me With Facts school of thought. Bobby is proof.

A plummeting popularity in your home state is perhaps a non starter for a presidential campaign. Louisiana's "structural budget imbalance" is the weight around Bobby's neck.

The only silver lining is, if you become the nominee and then lose to Hillary, you can't run again. But if you never win a primary, you might have the option to run again some other time.

He needs to lose, and then get into the US Senate. And he needs to become more of a sailor, less of a stopped clock. Heck, I am for tax cuts. But they need to make economic sense. I am for balanced budgets too. To me a smaller government is one that is too small to tell a woman what to do in her private life or with her private parts. There is a way to present conservative principles as a tool to create the industries of tomorrow. That presentation can be a winner.

One six year term in the US Senate would do him much good.

On social issues you have to be live and let live. This is America. This is a democracy, not a theocracy. This is not Iran.



Bobby Jindal Enters Presidential Race, Saying ‘It Is Time for a Doer’
Louisiana’s first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction but whose popularity plummeted as the state struggled with a $1.6 billion shortfall ..... He said that Louisiana cut the number of “government bureaucrats” by more than 30,000 positions, and that the state now had the highest population in its history, with more people moving to Louisiana than leaving it. ...... his approval numbers in the state have fallen sharply ...... poll found him sharing the bottom of a list of 16 candidates ...... “I don’t think anybody in Louisiana thinks he can win” ....... “What Jeb Bush is saying is that we need to hide our conservative ideals,” Mr. Jindal said. “But the truth is, if we go down that road again, we will lose again.” ..... he had a message and a path to victory, casting him as the youngest candidate with the longest résumé in a wide open Republican race. They said that in such a crowded field, all it takes to win Iowa, and alter the dynamics of the race, is 26,000 votes. ..... The state has the seventh-highest unemployment rate and the third-highest poverty rate in the country. In February, Moody’s Investors Service, the credit-rating agency, revised the state’s financial outlook from stable to negative, citing its structural budget imbalance. ....... he had the reputation of a kind of wonky boy genius. At age 24 in 1996, he was appointed secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals, the biggest department in state government, and he quickly went to work cutting jobs and slashing its budget. ...... attributed the budget shortfall, the state’s worst in decades, in part to the downturn in oil prices that hurt Louisiana and other energy-producing states and in part to the Jindal administration’s fiscal policies.
Bobby Jindal faces an uphill fight in the crowded 2016 field
Jindal is now polling toward the bottom of the field, registering at just 1% ..... Jindal's popularity in his own state has suffered -- a recent poll has his approval at 32% -- thanks to budget troubles and perhaps a preoccupation with playing to a national audience. His refusal to raise taxes to help balance the state's books has resulted in deep cuts to popular programs and areas of government spending such as health care and education. ...... "Half these people don't know who their own damn governor is, let alone the governor of Louisiana," Anderson said, referring to voters nationwide who aren't plugged into presidential politics as much as reporters and operatives. ....... Jindal was a political wunderkind when he first burst onto the scene helping shape health care policy. In 1996, at the age of just 24, Jindal was appointed as head of Louisiana's department of health policies.
Trump jokes about being behind Bush in New Hampshire poll
Bush earned 14% of the vote in the crowded GOP field, followed by Trump with 11%. ...... Trump, the billionaire with a penchant for bombastic rhetoric and unorthodox claims, is catching on with Republican voters early on in the cycle. ..... "I'm not thrilled, cause how could Bush be in first place?" Trump said. "This guy can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag!"
The Sophisticated Bigotry of Bobby Jindal
The Louisiana governor wants Christians to stand apart from secular society, but condemns Muslims who do the same. ....... he will likely campaign on two major themes. The first, which he outlined last February at the Reagan Library and last May at Liberty University, is that Christians are at war with a liberal elite that is trampling religious liberty and secularizing American culture. The second, which he laid out this month at London’s Henry Jackson Society, is that “non-assimilationist Muslims” are endangering America and Europe...... Unfortunately for Jindal, these two arguments contradict each other...... Jindal made little effort to define American or European culture except to associate it with “freedom.” So it’s hard to know exactly which aspects of it he believes Muslims refuse to embrace. But in his speeches last year on religion, Jindal discussed American culture at greater length. And his verdict was surprisingly harsh. “American culture,” he told students at Liberty University, “has in many ways become a secular culture.” Many churches, he declared, now espouse “views on sin [that] are in direct conflict with the culture.” In case students hadn’t gotten the message, Jindal repeated himself: “Our culture has taken a secular turn.” ........ People of faith, he argued, must recognize that they are fighting a “silent war” against the secular, liberal elite. And they must keep waging that war no matter how much of a cultural minority they become. “Our religious liberty,” he insisted, “must in no way ever be linked to the ever-changing opinions of the public. ...... let’s imagine a scenario. A devout Christian emigrates from Nigeria to a progressive American college town, where she takes up work as a pharmacist. She quickly finds herself at odds with the dominant culture around her. Co-workers mock her modest dress and her insistence on interrupting work to pray. When she calls homosexuality a sin, they denounce her as a bigot. Ultimately, her employer fires her for refusing to dispense contraception....... Based on his speeches at Liberty University and the Reagan Library, Jindal’s advice to this woman would be clear: Wage “silent war” against the culture that oppresses you, even if you’re a minority of one. If necessary, “establish a separate culture within” the dominant one so you can raise children who fear and obey God...... Now imagine that our devout Nigerian is a Muslim. Suddenly her resistance to the dominant culture makes her not a hero but a menace. ........ The only principle he's really defending is anti-Muslim bigotry. ........ At Liberty University, Jindal name-checked a broad array of believers, with one conspicuous absence: “For me, I am a Catholic Christian. My parents are Hindus. I am blessed to know Baptists, Jews, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and so many more in the rich tapestry of American faiths.” When he rehearsed the same litany at the Reagan Library, he left Muslims off the list again. Jindal has refused to retract his claim that certain European neighborhoods are “no-go” zones where non-Muslims are not allowed, even after Fox News apologized for propagating the same lie. And in his London speech, he asked “how many Muslims in this world agree with these radicals” who “do not believe in freedom or common decency?” Although “freedom” and “common decency” are vague terms, the vast majority of Muslims clearly oppose ISIS and Al Qaeda. But instead of citing such evidence, Jindal answered his question by declaring, “I have no idea.” Which is to say, he doesn’t want to have any idea because looking at the actual evidence might make it harder for him to smear Muslims as a whole......... In 2012, Herman Cain distinguished himself as the leading Islamophobe in the Republican presidential field. Jindal is now well-positioned to fill that role. The only difference is that Cain spoke like a pizza executive while Jindal speaks like a Rhodes Scholar. But strip away the fake sophistication and it’s bigotry just the same.
Bobby Jindal’s Science Problem
just about every challenge that America faces today has a scientific component, from revitalizing the economy to dealing with climate change to managing health care. ....... Leading candidates made it clear that they rejected climate science (Herman Cain and Rick Perry), thought that vaccines caused mental retardation (Michele Bachmann), and didn’t “believe” in evolution (a bunch of them, most prominently Rick Santorum). One candidate, John Huntsman, bravely tweeted, “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” To scientists, Huntsman’s candor was “right on!” To Republican primary voters, apparently he was crazy. ......... Jindal has an elite résumé. He was a biology major at my school, Brown University, and a Rhodes scholar. He knows the science, or at least he ought to. But in his rise to prominence in Louisiana, he made a bargain with the religious right and compromised science and science education for the children of his state. In fact, Jindal’s actions at one point persuaded leading scientific organizations, including the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, to cross New Orleans off their list of future meeting sites. ......... What did Jindal do to produce a hornet’s nest of “mad scientists,” as Times-Picayune writer James Gill described them? He signed into law, in Gill’s words, the “Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), which is named for what it is designed to destroy.” The act allows “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials” to be brought into classrooms to support the “open and objective discussion” of certain “scientific theories,” including, of course, evolution. As educators who have heard such coded language before quickly realized, the act was intended to promote creationism as science. In April, Kevin Carman, dean of the College of Science at Louisiana State University, testified before the Louisiana Senate’s Education Committee that two top scientists had rejected offers to come to LSU because of the LSEA, and the school may lose more scientists in the future. ....... And now Jindal is poised to spend millions of dollars of state money to support the teaching of creationism in private schools.
Bobby Jindal announces entry into 2016 presidential race
spending 45 percent of his days outside of Louisiana last year. And this year, some of Jindal's top state-government aides left to join his presidential "exploratory committee." ...... at this point, his chances of winning the GOP nomination seem extraordinarily low. ...... Just eight years ago, Jindal's future looked far brighter than it does now. ...... The former Rhodes Scholar and McKinsey consultant was elected governor at age 36, the first Indian American ever to govern a state. “The question is not whether he’ll be president,” Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said in 2008, “but when he’ll be president.” ...... a relentless focus on making government run faster, smarter and cleaner. ...... To address doubts among national conservatives, Jindal repeatedly embraced harder-line conservative positions -- both in terms of Louisiana's budget and in terms of social issues. But each time, he moved further away from the wonky, pragmatic persona that had made him famous in the first place. ......... By the end of this year's session, legislators were so unhappy with Jindal that they tried to stop paying for his security detail at presidential campaign events. ...... In his first year as governor, 77 percent of Louisianans thought he was doing a good job. By last month, the figure had fallen to 32 percent, an all-time low. ...... Aides think he’s an excellent retail politician, and that his up-from-the-bootstraps story will resonate in a contest with former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the heir to a presidential dynasty.
From Piyush to Bobby: How does Jindal feel about his family’s past?
When Bobby Jindal was elected the first Indian American governor in U.S. history, residents of his father’s village here set off firecrackers, passed out sweets and danced in the streets. Many had spent three days praying at a local temple for his victory........ “My dad was one of nine. He was the only one who got past fifth grade. Part of what drove his determination and success in life was his education. My parents put a strong emphasis on education, hard work, an unshakable faith. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your last name is. You can be anything in America.” ....... donors from Indian American groups fueled his first forays into politics. Yet many see him as a man who has spent a lifetime distancing himself from his Indian roots. ........ Bobby Jindal’s father, Amar .... Stairs led to the roof where Amar, a studious boy, built a small shed so he could study by lamplight, away from his boisterous family. ..... “Every time I saw him he was reading a book,” recalled a local Hindu priest, Sudama Ram Sharda, 84, who performed Amar’s marriage ceremony. “Either lying on the cot reading or in the shop.” ........ He walked five miles to school until fifth grade, when his father bought him a bike. Amar Jindal went on to become the only one of his siblings to attend college, according to his sister, Satya Bansal, 72, who still lives in the area. The other boys had some schooling, but the five sisters had none at all. “I wanted to go, but it was not my destiny,” Bansal said. ........ In Punjab’s capital city, Chandigarh, the aspiring engineer Amar fell in love with a classmate’s sister, Raj, a doctoral physics candidate. The two — both from the bania, or “trader” caste — married in 1969, a rare love marriage at a time when arranged unions were far more commonplace. ........ In 1971, they sold Raj’s wedding dowry and moved to the United States, where Raj had gotten a scholarship to Louisiana State University. About four months later, she gave birth to her first son. ........ Raj went to work for the state of Louisiana as a data processor while Amar worked as a civil engineer. ..... The Jindals were part of a small community of Indian families in Baton Rouge at the time, many who had come to Louisiana for university jobs. There was no temple then, and Bobby Jindal remembered that they gathered at someone’s home most Sundays for Hindu religious ceremonies known as pujas, with potluck curries afterward. ....... “My mom was fully committed to raising us as Americans,” Jindal said. “That was a conscious decision. We ate food that would be familiar to other families in south Louisiana. She wanted to raise us like other kids in the neighborhood.” ....... He hid his initial conversion from his devout Hindu parents, huddling in the closet to read the Bible by flashlight. ....... “At first they were angry about it,” Jindal recalled. “Then they wanted to understand: Was this a fad? Was it something I was serious about? Was I doing this for a girl? Why was I doing this? They questioned the motivation behind it. They asked me — and I thought it was reasonable — to read Indian books, Indian texts as well. It took time.” ........ When Jindal launched an ambitious campaign to become Louisiana’s governor in 2003, the Indian American community rallied behind him. ........... elected governor in 2007 and reelected in 2011 with two-thirds of the vote — in part by positioning himself as a buttoned-down bureaucrat who could clean up the state and by learning how to cultivate the “Bubbas for Bobby.” ...... He began wearing cowboy boots more often and got a hunting license. ..... As the years went by and Jindal’s political star rose, many in the Indian American community became disillusioned with their native son. ....... She said Indian dress was also discouraged for his 2008 inauguration. Jindal says that message did not come from his camp: “People were welcome to wear whatever they wanted.” ........ Discouraged by a lack of engagement, some of Jindal’s early donors have faded away, according to Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S. India Political Action Committee. Jindal’s top-contributors list now includes such recognizable names as cosmetics mogul Georgette Mosbacher........ Suresh C. Gupta, a Potomac, Md., doctor, gave a fundraiser for Jindal’s first gubernatorial bid. But he said Jindal has actively tried to disassociate himself from the Indian American community in recent years. ......... When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to the United States last September, a host of politicians attended his rally at Madison Square Garden. Jindal did not. When Jindal’s name was mentioned, he was booed by the crowd. ........ His parents remain proud of their heritage but still made the decision to raise their children as Americans, he said, and “there’s nothing contradictory about that.”
Why liberal racists are attacking Bobby Jindal
The reason Jindal has come in for such treatment is because he’s an eloquent advocate for integration and the promise of America. They’re not making fun of his background — they’re treating him like the Indian Clarence Thomas. ......... Jindal’s argument is clear: Your ethnic or religious heritage doesn’t make you any less fully American. You don’t need a qualifier just because your parents or grandparents were born elsewhere. This is America, after all. ...... race in America is far more complex than it once was. ....... Leftist school administrators will constantly remind kids with darker skin that they stand apart. ........ Even though Jindal was born in the United States, they won’t allow him to simply be “American.” They refuse to let him identify by his country of birth, instead forcing him to identify by the birth country of his parents. .... It’s bitter, and it’s bigoted, and it’s extraordinarily unseemly. But it’s also enlightening, telling us what leftists really think about the American melting pot: They don’t like it one bit.
Bobby Jindal, How Did You End Up Here?
Bobby Jindal was never supposed to wind up here. In 2008, some people called him the GOP Obama. His minority status as an Indian American, his wonkiness — he graduated Brown at age 20, then became a Rhodes Scholar — evoked the kind of technocratic wunderkind bridge-building that Obama had sought to accomplish from the left........ And then it all went to hell. ...... So there he was, on Wednesday, semi-officially announcing his candidacy via creepy hidden camera footage of him telling his kids that he was running for president. ...... The knock on Jindal — the fact that you will see repeated until he slinks back to Baton Rouge and starts cold-calling conservative think tanks for the best seven-figure sinecure — is that he famously declared after Romney's 2012 loss that the GOP needed to stop being "the stupid party," and has been going balls-to-the-wall stupid ever since. And while that's true, it overshadows the fact that Jindal's always veered between weird and wrong, when he isn't both........ Jindal inherited over $800 million in budget surplus and immediately spent it while taking a machete to the tax code and creating $800 million in tax cuts, mistakenly thinking that the good times of recovery investment and post-Katrina federal money would last forever. (He railed against the Obama stimulus dollars, then took them as quietly as possible.) Jindal punted billions in tax subsidies to business, then spent nearly every year of his governorship rigging a "neutral" budget by raiding rainy day funds and savings accounts, selling public assets and treating one-time credits as annual revenues — then rearranging the smoke and mirrors again the next year. (It's OK, only the universities were put on the chopping block.) Then he tried to abolish the corporate and income taxes. Facing a chasm in the budget of his own creation, Jindal cynically railed against "corporate welfare" while trying to use a possible rollback of his state's corporate giveaways as blackmail to force out-of-state corporations like IBM to respect homophobic "conscience" exemptions he favored......... and teach absolutely bugfuck facts like: man and dinosaurs were contemporaries, dragons might have existed, slavery and the KKK were usually good, the Great Depression is just liberal propaganda and gay people have no more rights than child molesters......... standard GOP bromides of freedom values entrepreneurship tradition liberty competition....... He went to England and tried to claim that Muslims had created "no-go" zones in England, which came as a surprise to English people, who live there....... He has a 28 percent approval rating in his own home state......... Iowa is strongly conservative and evangelical, and in spite of Bobby spending 12 months talking about the scourge of Islam and Big Brother coming to take everyone's Bibles away, he's polling at 1 percent in the state. This is his audience — this is who he's been talking to for the last year — and nobody cares. Bobby Jindal probably fucked up and installed his Iowa analytics team in a basement so he can't even plausibly claim to be polling above ground........ Far more plausibly, he's about to write a dead-end blog for the Heritage Foundation.
Bobby Jindal was supposed to be ‘the next Ronald Reagan.’ Here’s what went wrong.
Barack Obama had just been elected president. America was still swooning. And Jindal, who had been in office for less than a year at that point, was riding nearly as high as his Democratic counterpart from Chicago. ...... Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had recently referred to Jindal as “the most transformative young governor in America.” Radio host Rush Limbaugh had taken to calling him “the next Ronald Reagan.” GOP White House nominee John McCain had already eyed Jindal as a running mate, and earlier that month, Steve Schmidt, McCain’s chief strategist, had told the Washington Post that “the question is not whether he’ll be president, but when he’ll be president — because he will be elected someday.” ....... His timing couldn’t be worse. ..... To say that Jindal is “barely registering” in the latest 2016 polls would be an overstatement. According to RealClear Politics, he currently averages 0.8 percent support among Republican primary voters, placing him dead last among the 15 contenders ..... The most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal survey pegged Jindal’s support at zero percent. ...... In May, Jindal’s job-approval rating hit “an all-time low” of 31.8 percent ...... Even President Obama, who lost Louisiana by 17 percentage points in 2012, is more popular than Jindal in the Pelican State. As the Washington Post recently put it, “Bobby Jindal is at the nadir of his political career.” ...... Why hasn’t Jindal become the next Reagan — or, as my profile posited, “the GOP’s Obama”? ..... a story of real promise — promise that many in Louisiana say he has squandered.
Bobby Jindal wants to downplay his Indian heritage, but Twitter won't let him
Bobby Jindal said Wednesday that he was “done” with being seen as Indian-American...... He is a native-born American ...... Using the hashtags #Jindian and #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite, Twitter users, many from India, mocked Jindal’s words and his attempt to distance himself from his Indian heritage. Many found comedy fodder in the fact that while he goes by Bobby – a name he apparently took from the “The Brady Bunch” – his given name is Piyush, and that he converted from Hinduism to Christianity as a teenager. ...... highlighting the racial ironies of Jindal tweeting, “I’m tanned, rested, and ready for this fight.” ..... "The single most important moment in my life was the moment I found Jesus Christ – the moment Jesus Christ found me."
Bobby Jindal Really Pissed Off Indians And They Responded Perfectly On Twitter
'Not much Indian left' in Bobby Jindal: The Washington Post explores
The governor's office was unimpressed with the Post's many insinuations....... "For years, liberals have attacked Governor Jindal for not being brown or Indian enough for their liking," Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin told the Washington Examiner's media desk. "Liberals are fixated on race."......... "Governor Jindal is proud of his heritage. He believes we need to stop fixating on race and hyphenated Americans. We are all Americans," he said.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Bobby Jindal Does Not Offend Me

English: Baton Rouge, LA, September 3, 2008 --...
English: Baton Rouge, LA, September 3, 2008 -- President George W. Bush and Governor Bobby Jindal greeting EOC employees, during disaster recovery efforts for Hurricane Gustav. Jacinta Quesada/FEMA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
President George W. Bush (right) is greeted by...
President George W. Bush (right) is greeted by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (left) and his wife, Supriya Jolly Jindal (center), on his arrival to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport Monday, April 21, 2008, where President Bush will attend the 2008 North American Leaders’ Summit. White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, at campaign e...
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, at campaign event for presidential candidate John McCain in Kenner, Louisiana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Bobby and Gay Marriage
Bobby Jindal's Speech
Bobby Saying All The Right Things
Biden, Bobby
Bobby, The Biology Major
Bobby Jindal: Our Economy Is Strong
Bobby's Running Mates

Except on gay marriage. His stance on gay marriage to me is like he wants to snatch away voting rights from blacks. And for that one stand, I have to dismiss everything else he might stand for. And it is a political disagreement.

But I never thought any less of his Indian heritage just because he converted. There are plenty of Christians who are Indian citizens in India. You don't have to be Hindu to be Indian, in India. Why should the rules be any different in America, of all places?

It is a basic democratic ethos that other people might have different opinions. I am a progressive. Bobby is a conservative. And we both are just fine. But I must admit, Bobby has made me take a second look at some pretty hard core conservative positions. As in, really? You feel that way? That is your worldview? Really? I guess the conditioning being, in America, if you are brown like Bobby, you are very likely to be on the other side.

I have also been fascinated that Bobby is smart, and successful. I mean, Louisiana, of all places. The most famous politician out of that state used to be David Duke, I think, a flaming racist. How can Louisiana throw up someone of Bobby's looks? That is progressive progress.

When he says he is proud of his Indian heritage, but he wants Americans to be just Americans, how is that any different from progressives saying everyone in America should be treated as equals regardless of race? Race being the topic it is, sticky, it is not the kind of reactions that will surface, it is more that he even bothered talking about it.

My political perspective is, after getting hit by the truck called Donald Trump, a lot of Republicans might welcome that Bobby has now announced. Trump is the opposite of gravitas. Bobby is all wonky and stuff. That is a counterbalance.

But like I said, on Bobby I am a one issue dude. You are opposed to gay marriage? You are out. That is a civil rights issue. Too bad, because on many other issues, even when I might disagree, I think Bobby has some well thought out, well reasoned arguments that would make for good political ping pong.

Some Indians attacking Bobby sound like blacks who attacks blacks who read, as if reading is too white. What's white?

As for 2016, we have had a brown/black guy, now it is a woman's turn to step in. Hillary will out wonk Bobby, hands down. When I say Bobby is smart, it is a relative term. He is smart in a party of stupid.

An Indian origin person becoming a serious candidate for President Of The United States, that is a lot of pride for Indians in India. They will not care what Bobby says. He might get a lot of social media love from afar.

Bobby Jindal presidential bid sparks Twitter mockery

As for his chances, I don't know, it is tough. Hillary is going to beat whoever. But will Bobby make it to the ring? Right now the bet is on Jeb Bush, right? But I like how Bobby said, it is White House or bust. I like that attitude. Maybe he wants to run, and then go into the private sector. Or go into the US Senate later? Or maybe correct himself on gay marriage and run again later? I mean, he is young. He will still be young in 2024. One term in the US Senate might be a good preparation. I don't think anyone has been both Governor and Senator before running for president.

How is his record in Louisiana? I mean the economic record. How is the state faring?