STrump*

From this NYT article: "Rather than be turned off by Mr. Trump’s flagrant, anger-based appeals along lines of race, gender, religion, national origin and especially transgender identity, many Americans found them bracing. Rather than be offended by his brazen lies and wild conspiracy theories, many found him authentic. Rather than dismiss him as a felon found by various courts to be a fraudster, cheater, sexual abuser and defamer, many embraced his assertion that he has been the victim of persecution."

*This is what I always say in my mind, it means Stupid Trump

rename blog?

Thinking about renaming this blog "one for you, one for me" - what a cop in NY said to me once when he pulled me over for rolling a stop sign. He wrote it up as a brake light out, and all I had to do was go to a police station to get it waved. He got to write it up for whatever quota he was trying to meet.

Gerrymandering and MD and O'Malley

O'Malley is a great case study. Supported (well through his actions) gerrymandering in MD. Now leading a group to oppose it and admitting his mistakes. http://marylandreporter.com/2017/01/29/omalley-now-supports-non-partisan-commissions-to-draw-congressional-districts-he-admits-gerrymandering/

haven't posted in a long time

life gets in the way I guess

Virginia and Gerrymandering

Ahh, and now it's happening to me. I move to a swing state and now the Republicans are trying to redistrict. Good discussion from Diane Rehm.

Delaware

Seriously, what is wrong with that state? How can traffic literally come to a standstill the second you cross that state line in either direction on 95?

New rest stop is nice though...

mosque

This debate is so silly. No reason not to build. I will probably contribute to building it, in fact.

The inability to distinguish Islamist terrorism from Islam, is sad. Exvery religion has extremists, and that definitely includes Christianity.

I hate the phrase "it's a slap in the face."

By the way, 2 blocks in Manhattan is a long distance.

David Brooks column

Last paragraph from his latest column (3/11/10):

In a sensible country, people would see Obama as a president trying to define a modern brand of moderate progressivism. In a sensible country, Obama would be able to clearly define this project without fear of offending the people he needs to get legislation passed. But we don’t live in that country. We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of their own sect. They come away with perceptions fundamentally at odds with reality, fundamentally misunderstanding the man in the Oval Office.