monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Montana's Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday signed an executive order mandating that internet service providers with state government contracts to adhere net neutrality principles.

Why it matters: Bullock is the first governor in the country to make such a move a month after the FCC rolled back net neutrality rules.
The details: Under the order, a company that has a telecom contract with the state must not block or throttle lawful web content, nor "interfere with users’ ability to select, access, and use broadband internet access service," per a statement from Bullock's office. These practices were prohibited under the net neutrality order the FCC overturned last December.

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

There's something to be said for someone who recognizes when they've been shut down.

I mean, you simply bluntly told me that I'm wrong. You, being the ultimate decider of all things, are infallible and cannot be argued with.

The sky across large parts of England has turned an eerie colour today.

Dubbed the 'hurricane sun', the bizarre glow has been caused by the tail-end of Hurricane Ophelia.

People in the south west and on the south coast reported seeing a blood red sky this morning.

Later on, the weird weather phenomenon spread further north towards Manchester and Liverpool, and across towards London. The colour of the sky gradually changed to orange and then yellow by mid-afternoon.

8.2 earthquake off the coast of Alaska.

“Neoliberalism” came into its current usage on the American left through a much messier past than is usually acknowledged. Its whirlwind growth threatens to obscure a set of already existing terms whose analytical and political bite is sharper than the cloud of meanings “neoliberalism” embraces. At a time when social realism in language is needed as never before, “neoliberalism” poses severe disadvantages were progressives to try to use it in the political sphere. Neoliberalism’s advantage is its verbal and conceptual bigness.

But the problem with neoliberalism is neither that it has no meaning nor that it has an infinite number of them. It is that the term has been applied to four distinctly different phenomena. “Neoliberalism” stands, first, for the late capitalist economy of our times; second, for a strand of ideas; third, for a globally circulating bundle of policy measures; and fourth, for the hegemonic force of the culture that surrounds and entraps us. These four neoliberalisms are intricately related, of course. But the very act of bundling them together, tucking their differences, loose ends, and a clear sense of their actually existing relations under the fabric of a single word, may, perversely, obscure what we need to see most clearly.

Actually, it wasn't so far back that you and your sycophant cronies denied it even existed, so pull your head in, Tonto.

Has America become a “Trumpocracy,” and is what we’re watching a tragedy or a farce? Ross Douthat, a Times Op-Ed columnist, and David Frum, a senior editor at The Atlantic and the author of “Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic,” debated these questions in an online discussion.

We may have found the one poll question that communicates just how much of the Republican Party base is fully committed to President Trump.

In response to growing questions about his mental fitness, Trump tweeted a few weeks back that he wasn't just stable, but in fact a “very stable genius.” Polling since then has asked whether people feel Trump is indeed stable, but the new Washington Post-ABC News poll goes one step further and also asks whether Trump is a genius. ... ... ...



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Indeed this appears to have been a serious misjudgment on their parts, one which may seriously limit their obstructive actions going forward.

This may be another example of the bad effects of the denial and outrage that still appears to grip Democrats following the last election.

We have seen approved Congressional budgets for our government only once in the last ten years, and the Democrats in the Senate are forcing a continuation of that very bad practice.

In any event it will be interesting to see Schumer's next moves.

Trump thanks 'Crazy Jim Acosta' after tweet that Schumer 'caved'

“Even Crazy Jim Acosta of Fake News CNN agrees: ‘Trump World and WH sources dancing in end zone: Trump wins again…Schumer and Dems caved…gambled and lost.’ Thank you for your honesty Jim!” the president tweeted.