Posts Tagged ‘Tom Steyer’
Friday, August 5th, 2016
Enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm! A lot of plane and weird news links this time around:
Aetna is losing $300 million a year on ObamaCare. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Air Force Declares F-35 ready for combat. (Hat tip: Borepatch, who is more than a little skeptical…)
Islamic State Sinai leader Abu Dua al-Ansari killed in Egyptian air strike.
Is there any greater bastion of 1%er elitism than New York Times wedding announcements?
How is it actually acceptable for an ostensibly liberal newspaper to conclude that wealthy, well-educated people’s lives are more interesting and worth more attention than non-wealthy, less-educated people? Everyone laughs about the Weddings section, even the Times itself. But joking aside, isn’t it morally indefensible to treat people as newsworthy in accordance with their elite social status… a paper run by liberals, who would profess themselves averse to inequality, openly treats most of the population as insignificant.
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Cahnman’s Musings has a really solid review of Jane Jacobs’ classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities and how central planning screwed everything up.
Clint Eastwood on various liberal whining over Trump: “Just fucking get over it.”
Frau Merkel ist nicht sehr beliebt.
Austin’s toy trains are a monument to government waste. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
What Pokémon Go Teaches Us About Capitalism.
#BlackLivesMatters is all in against Israel. So what do George Soros and Tom Steyer have against Israel? (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
“A point of view should be based on its own merit, not dismissed by a lazy appeal to privilege.”
Funny or die mostly does the latter. (Funny or Die still has 95 staffers? Really? It takes that many people to produce mediocre comedy?)
Things you never knew about the World’s Strongest Man competition.
“An Exciting History of Drywall.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Who would have won the battle between a Bismarck-class battleship and an Iowa class battleship? (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Butthurt level: Epic.
Airplane trick.
Feel good dog story of the day.
Behold the legendary crime spree of Dickface Johnson.
“Oh no! Not the bees!”
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, Abu Dua al-Ansari, Angela Merkel, Austin, Crime, Democrats, Egypt, Foreign Policy, Funny or Die, Germany, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Pokemon, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, The New York Times, Tom Steyer, weird news
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | No Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2016
I was busy buying books this weekend, so I couldn’t keep up with all the horrific police shootings. So that dominates the top of today’s LinkSwarm:
Remember that #BlackLivesMatter is being funded by liberal billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer.
“Creating hatred against white people and against police has been the major accomplishing of Black Lives Matter since its inception in 2014.”
To that end, Heather McDonald’s new book The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe looks like it could be interesting.
43% of America’s cop killers are black.
“Until blacks start changing these pathologies, the whole ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, with its insistence that everyone has to change except for blacks themselves is nothing more than Progressive kabuki theater aimed at diverting attention from the fact that Democrats are facilitating self-destructive behaviors in the black community and that blacks are using the Democrat propaganda machine as an excuse to avoid the terrible (but not insurmountable) challenges that really claim black lives.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
More on the same theme:
Who, exactly, is in charge of these cities and city agencies about which African Americans do have many legitimate complaints? Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago: Not exactly famous enclaves of conservative Republican political dominance. Because Dallas is in Texas, people sometimes forget that it is a city like any other American city, and Democrat-dominated. In Dallas, as in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Detroit, that Democrat domination is due in great part to a black Democratic voting bloc.
Eventually, someone is going to figure out that the black progressives protesting municipal arrangements in places such as Baltimore are protesting the municipal arrangements created by black progressives working for the interests of the Democratic party. Dallas’s racial politics aren’t as one-sided as Detroit’s, and neither are its party politics; it is Democratic, but not as lopsidedly Democratic as, say, Philadelphia. It even has had a Republican mayor (the office is technically nonpartisan) within living memory. No doubt somebody in Dallas already is trying to figure out a way to blame that mayor for the murder of those five police officers.
“Friends and family tell us that Alton Sterling was a great guy. That may well be the case, but he is also a convicted sex offender felon with a violent temper, who had six arrests for battery, two domestic violence charges, multiple illegal weapons charges, and who had fought with police over weapons before.”
The Curious Case of Philando Castile. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Majority of Americans disapprove of the decision not to charge Hillary Clinton over EmailGate. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Maybe that’s why Trump is up two points over Clinton in the latest Rasmussen poll. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Czech President calls for EU, NATO referendums.
Fascinating story on a history of the mob in Houston.
Mickey Kaus examines who Trump should pick as VP.
“Quantitative easing only works when you’re the only country doing it.”
“More than 100 Nobel laureates have a message for Greenpeace: Quit the G.M.O.-bashing.”
Mass-shootings have declined so much that the left has had to redefine what a “mass shooting” is.
Important safety tip: Don’t breast-feed your children while doing cocaine. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
12 die in Java gridlock during Ramadan.
Ted Cruz staffs up for a 2020 Presidential run.
Members of Donna ISD school board convicted of extortion. (Previously.)
SuperGenius tries to rob gas station, ends up shooting himself in the groin. I also wonder if he’s the towering intellect that managed to clip his own driver’s side mirror at the pump in the video…
There’s an anime series that follows the lives of teenage girls who are also assault rifles. Oh Japan, don’t ever change…
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, 2020 Election, 2020 Presidential Race, anime, Crime, Czech Republic, Dallas, Democrats, Donald Trump, Donna ISD, Economics, Elections, EmailGate, EU, George Soros, GMO, Heather McDonald, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Japan, Kevin D. Williamson, Media Watch, Mickey Kaus, NATO, Philando Castile, police, Ramadan, Republicans, Rio Grande Valley, Social Justice Warriors, Ted Cruz, Tom Steyer
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Media Watch, Military, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 17th, 2016
Today Kentucky and Oregon have Democratic Presidential primaries, make it possible that “inevitable” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton could suffer two more losses.
Here’s a roundup of Presidential race links:
“If Hillary does win, if after a string of state losses, after a blundering, scandal-plagued, email-tormented, Benghazi-haunted campaign she limps, staggeringly and breathlessly, across the finish line ahead, where, really, is she? Where’s her party? The Democrats are playing against the laws of cause and effect. Hillary’s campaign is dead, and she’s winning. Bernie’s is alive, and he’s losing.”
Hillary did much worse in West Virginia than she did in 2008:
On Tuesday, Clinton lost the West Virginia primary to 74-year-old socialist Bernie Sanders 51% to 36%.
That’s a stark contrast to 2008, when she trounced Barack Obama, 66.9% to 25.7% (John Edwards received 7.3%).
But perhaps what’s more shocking is the raw vote total.
In 2008, she received 240,890 votes. Yesterday, Clinton netted 84,176 votes, according to NBC — a 65% decline.
(Hat tip: Director Blue.)
If primary-to-general-election ratios hold, “we can plausibly estimate the number of votes for Donald Trump in November at 80 Million. Hillary plausibly tracks to 55 Million.”
Trump’s strength in Appalachia: “Of the 420 counties seen as sharing a culture that transcends state lines, Trump won all but 16, including a sweep of western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and the western uplands of Virginia with potentially profound ramifications for the general election.”
Hillary’s negatives continue to soar. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Why Trump can win. “Hillary Clinton also seems to quietly dislike (a) people, and (b) America, and you don’t need an advanced degree in election analytics to know this is not good.”
Ted Cruz is not interested in a Supreme Court seat. (Hat tip: Conservatives 4 Ted Cruz, which is still running.)
Looking for someone to vote for rather than against? Ace of Spades HQ offers up a list of Republican senators, representatives and governors who supported Cruz.
Burlington College closes due to huge debt incurred under leadership of Jane O’Meara Sanders, Bernie Sanders’ wife. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, who wasted millions to no effect in 2014, wants to do the same in 2016. Tiny problem: Lots of unions object to his job-killing green politics and refuse to pony up. (Hat tip: Powerline.)
Woman at the center of that “Trump is a jerk with women” story says that the New York Times reporters lied about what she said to make Trump look bad.
The Washington Post calls Hillary Clinton “Objectively offensive.” (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Clinton-supporting actor Wendell Pierce (Detective Bunk Moreland from The Wire) arrested for punching out a Bernie Sanders supporter. “There you go. Givin’ a fuck when it ain’t your turn to give a fuck.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags:Bernie Sanders, Burlington College, Crime, Democrats, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jane O’Meara Sanders, Kentucky, Media Watch, New York Times, Oregon, Ted Cruz, The Wire, Tom Steyer, Wendell Pierce, West Virginia
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Media Watch | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 25th, 2015
California has long had a tenuous grasp of what the rest of us regard as consensus reality. But two new pieces of legislation suggest they’ve gone off the deep end into full Victimhood Identity Politics land:
First, they decided that police shootings wouldn’t be subject to the grand jury process, because what’s a little things like two centuries of due process and the fifth amendment to the Constitution when there are policemen to be railroaded to satisfy black protesters?
They also decided to purge the words “illegal alien” from state statutes, because what’s mere law when there’s political correctness to be pandered to?
Of course, that’s not all that’s new on the Texas vs. California front:
“California taxpayers paid out big bucks to state workers in 2014. How much? More than the Gross Domestic Product of 100 countries, according to new data published by the State Controller’s office. In 2014, more than 650,000 state employees earned a total of $32 billion in wages and benefits.” It gets better: “Nine hundred sixty-nine state employees earned more than the President of the United States.” Added irony:
The lowest paid average workers represented agencies focused on the environment, women and people with disabilities. According to the state’s 2014 payroll data, the average salary for the 11 state employees at the California Commission on Disability Access was just $15,213 per year, slightly more than the $14,494 average salary paid to the four employees at the Commission on the Status of Women.
There is no California. Only Zuul…
Texas unemployment rate: 4.2%. California unemployment rate: 6.2%. (Hat tip: WILLism’s Twitter feed.)
Los Angeles’ new minimum wage has wrecked hotel employment. Or maybe just non-illegal alien employment… (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
Why Public Services in California Decline Even As Revenues Rise. “Until California’s leaders address the three elephants – retirement, healthcare and corrections costs — that are crowding out public services and causing unproductive tax and fee increases, citizens will continue to suffer and inequality will continue to grow.” (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
Chuck Devore on what makes Texas friendly to business: less red tape and lower taxes.
Voters to San Jose City Council: We want pension reform! San Jose City Council to voters: Get stuffed! (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
TV’s CHiPS never seemed to be involved in ethics scandals the way the current administration is, including no-bid contracts to European companies. (Bonus: it’s also suitable for Dwight’s Art Acevedo watch.)
California’s “Green Jobs Initiative” spent $297 million to create 1,700 jobs.
More on the same theme, and Tom Steyer wasting $29.6 million of his own money pushing it, from City Journal.
California’s SFX: from billion dollar company to bankruptcy.
Tags:Border Controls, Budget, California, Chuck DeVore, Crime, Democrats, environmentalism, fraud, minimum wage, pension crisis, Political Correctness, San Jose, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Tom Steyer, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Border Control, Budget, Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 5 Comments »
Monday, November 10th, 2014
A few more bits of 2014 election analysis:
Instapundit offers up six bills a Republican congress should pass. Can’t disagree with any of them.
How the Obama years have hollowed out the Democratic Party. “The more serious problem for Democrats is the drubbing they’ve taken in the states, the breeding ground for future national talent and for policy experimentation. Republicans have unified control—the governorship and the legislature—in 23 states.”
“The core tenets of the blue model as a basic governing philosophy are in much deeper trouble than many of the operatives and thinkers of the Democratic Party are prepared to admit.”
Wendy Davis was the face of the Democrat’s “War On Women” narrative, and she got slaughtered like a fat heifer.
Indeed, it’s been a rough week for all the Democrat’s “War on Women” mascots.
Democrats also got nothing from their incessant attacks on the Koch brothers. I just can’t imagine why their “your billionaires are evil but our billionaires are above reproach” strategy wasn’t a hit with voters…
Speaking of which: “There are many reasons to celebrate the Republican party surge in the US mid-term elections but for me they boil down to two words: ‘Tom’ and ‘Steyer.’”
And wondering on Twitter why there wasn’t a Tom Steyer Downfall parody, I found out there were two:
Tags:2014 Election, Democrats, Elections, Instapundit, Koch Brothers, Republicans, Texas, Tom Steyer, video, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | No Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2014
Enjoy these two moderately lengthy dissections of liberal failures to turn Texas blue:
First, here’s this Jay Root/Texas Tribune piece by way of the Washington Post on why Wendy Davis lost the election. The piece soft-peddles Davis’ incompetence as a campaigner, and fails to mention her comparative unpopularity with Hispanics and the overall failure of the Democratic Party’s “War on Women” campaign strategy, of which Davis was a central piece, but is otherwise reasonably accurate.
Second, here’s a piece on just how comprehensive Battleground Texas’ failure was. It also goes into down-ballot failures for Battleground Texas that I haven’t had time to look at yet:
In House District 23, which even Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri had described as “neck-and-neck,” Democrat Susan Criss lost to Republican Wayne Faircloth by nearly 10 points. Rodney Anderson, the Republican candidate, bested Democrat Susan Motley by more than 12 points in House District 105. And incumbent state Rep. Philip Cortez, D-San Antonio, was toppled by Republican Rick Galindo, who lost by nearly 6 points.
The piece also notes that, for all the money Battleground Texas put into the Wendy Davis campaign, she finished a whopping two points above Democratic Agriculture Commissioner nominee Jim Hogan, who didn’t campaign at all.
Hat tip: Erick Erickson, who notes “bring down a bunch of liberal yankees who hate the ROTC, traditional values, the Alamo, and Texas itself and you’re setting the stage for disaster.” Also “Battleground Texas claims they are not going away. Thank goodness. They should stick around and serve as a money sink for guys like Tom Steyer lest that money go to other states.”
Erickson touches on something I want to expand upon, namely the obvious distaste in-state liberal elites show for all manner of Texas traditions. Even when they embrace “moderate” positions on, say, gun control or energy regulation, they give off the reek of patronizing condescension. You always get the impression that these people would rather be living in New York City or San Francisco than anyplace in Texas. No matter how much they proclaim a love of football, cowboy boots or country music, they always give the impression of going through the motions as a sop for those gun-toting redneck freaks of JesusLand. (Bob Bullock was probably the last major Texas Democrat who seemed like he wasn’t faking it, and Ann Richards was the last one who was able to fake it convincingly.) Their real constituents are not Texans, but the left-wing politicians, trial lawyers, national media and urban elites who make up the liberal overclass.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Ann Richards, Battleground Texas, Bob Bullock, Jim Hogan, Texas, Tom Steyer, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 21st, 2014
Enjoy your complimentary Friday LinkSwarm, and be sure to tip your waitress!
Fourteen different ways you can you can avoid the ObamaCare tax.
Joaquin Castro to boycott Buc-ees? He should have almost as much luck in Texas boycotting air conditioning and football. Hey, when Castro can offer outstanding fudge and the largest, cleanest restrooms in the state, let me know…
Democratic Senators decide they’d like to avoid committing political suicide by voting for Obama’s gun-grabbing Surgeon general nominee.
Colorado Democratic Senator Mark Udall proves once again that taxes are for the little people.
Democrats recruit the perfect candidate for congress: an 86-year old ex-felon.
Rich liberal environmentalist Tom Steyer is 100% opposed to Keystone pipeline. Well, except when endangered Democratic Senators are involved.
What liberals are leaving out of their hagiography of Cesar Chavez: he opposed illegal aliens and would have hated amnesty.
Liberals hate the Koch brothers so much they freak out even when they’re donating money to a hospital.
How dare some racist Americans call some Muslims pedophiles just because they want to marry 8-year olds?
America could hurt Russia by lifting natural gas export restrictions.
Swell story of resurrecting a badly damaged B-2. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
It’s gotten to the point I can no longer tell liberal ranting from parody of same.
More Yelp hilarity for the Backstreet Pub and Grill owner who went out of his way to insult gun owners.
Supporting Neil Young and Scarlet Johansson against the Israel haters.
“Set in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into five factions that each represent a different virtue….” Yeah, that’s pretty much where I stopped reading.
Solider adopts dog. Dusty room ensues.
Tags:2014 Election, amnesty, B-2, Buc-ees, Cesar Chavez, Crime, Democrats, dogs, Elections, Energy Policy, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Illegal Aliens, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Joaquin Castro, Keystone Pipeline, Koch Brothers, Media Watch, Military, Neil Young, ObamaCare, Russia, Scarlet Johansson, Tom Steyer, Ukraine
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Texas, video | No Comments »