HUD, which still exists for now, says it will help

Ordinarily this would be a rote declaration from the HUD secretary in this situation, but nowadays you really can't count on anything so it's worth noting.

12:25 p.m.: HUD confirms it will help with Harvey aid

Homeowners and low-income renters forced from homes by the pounding storms or flooding will have assistance available via the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"Today, our thoughts and prayers are with those who are beginning the process of recovering from Hurricane Harvey," said HUD Secretary Ben Carson, in a release. "As FEMA begins to assess the damage and respond to the immediate needs of residents, HUD will be there to offer assistance and support the longer-term housing recovery efforts."

HUD is where the CDBG money is... for now. 

The most high profile post-K HUD project, Road Home, ended up costing about $13 billion and dispersed grants to 130,000 homeowners. It did this at a maddeningly slow pace and via an absurd and torturous process mostly to satisfy and idiotic political prejudice against helping people who might not "deserve" help.  I'm sure Ben Carson will get all that straightened out, though.

A big bathtub

$40 billion or thereabouts. At least, that was the estimate before the actual impact was known. Right now Houston is flooding. So that can't be good.

Very concerning that less than 1/6 of homes in Harris County have NFIP insurance. Sadly, a big portion of losses won't be insured. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/TTiSBOSb7C

— Steve Bowen (@SteveBowenWx) August 27, 2017

As we know all too well in New Orleans, when there's a lot of flood damage and insufficient flood insurance, the difference is mostly made up through HUD's Community Development Block Grants program. Louisiana's infamously administrated Road Home program was funded by CDBG, for example.

Presently, HUD is guided by the gifted hands of Ben Carson and, I guess, his wife.

At the Metropolitan Club, George W. Bush’s second secretary, Alphonso Jackson, warned Carson against cutting further into HUD’s manpower. (Many regional offices have shuttered in recent years.) Carla Hills, who ran the department under President Ford, put in a plug for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, noting that Ford had created it in 1974 precisely in order to give local governments more leeway over how to spend federal assistance.

The tone was collegial, built on the hopeful assumption that Carson wanted to do right by the department. “We were trying to be supportive,” Henry Cisneros, from the Clinton administration, told me. But it was hard for the ex-secretaries to get a read on Carson’s plans, not least because the whisper-voiced retired pediatric neurosurgeon was being overshadowed by an eighth person at the table: his wife, Candy. An energetic former real-estate agent who is an accomplished violinist and has co-authored four books with her husband, she had been spending far more time inside the department’s headquarters at L’Enfant Plaza than anyone could recall a secretary’s spouse doing in the past, only one of many oddities that HUD employees were encountering in the Trump era. She’d even taken the mic before Carson made his introductory speech to the department. “We’re really excited about working with — ” She broke off, as if detecting the puzzlement of the audience. “Well, he’s really.”

The story of the Trump administration has been dominated by the Russia investigations, the Obamacare-repeal morass, and cataclysmic internecine warfare. But there is a whole other side to Trump’s takeover of Washington: What happens to the government itself, and all it is tasked with doing, when it is placed under the command of the Chaos President? HUD has emerged as the perfect distillation of the right’s antipathy to governing. If the great radical-conservative dream was, in Grover Norquist’s famous words, to “drown government in a bathtub,” then this was what the final gasps of one department might look like.

Maybe Houston is the bathtub.  

This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced. Follow orders from officials to ensure safety. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/IjpWLey1h8

— NWS (@NWS) August 27, 2017

And Trump's budget proposes we drown the CDBG program.

Slow and store

Looks like there's a problem with the money pump.

In its most recent financial tracking report from June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development labeled the city of New Orleans a “slow spender” because it had yet to tap into the National Disaster Resilience Grant – an award the city won in January 2016 following a ballyhooed national competition.

More than $100 million of the $141 million New Orleans received is supposed to go to eight so-called urban water – or green infrastructure – projects across the Gentilly section of the city. Some add retention ponds to parks, water-absorbing landscaping and sunken-garden neutral grounds similar to those seen on Canal Boulevard in Lakeview.

The "green infrastructure" in question here is a number of projects in the city's Urban Water Plan which you can check out here. Interestingly these projects are based on the "slow and store" concept of water management which also turns out to be what's happening with the grant money.  Although, the reasons for this seem pretty understandable.

Hebert said it took a year to get a final agreement to use the HUD money. It was finally signed on former President Barack Obama’s last full day in office, Jan. 19. Then, Hebert said, the city was afraid to start spending its own money to get reimbursed by the feds because President Donald Trump announced plans to defund some HUD programs.

Hebert said the city didn’t feel comfortable spending any of the HUD money until the Trump administration gave final approval to the plan in June.

“We didn't want to encumber city funds before we got that document because we did not know what the Trump administration was going to do at HUD,” Hebert said.

That's a pretty reasonable approach given that the Trump Administration recently threatened to claw back $2 billion designated for street repairs.  But since it doesn't look like there's much of a federal infrastructure plan forthcoming any time soon, we might as well get on with things around here.

Anyway there's a fair amount of talk about this and other drainage issues in the new one of these.

HANO's waiting list is the new normal

This article does a good job of demonstrating that the policy is deliberately creating the problem it has set out to create. More people desperate for less housing is what "the market" wants. The "public-private partnership model" is all about getting that done.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans's first experience with the public-private partnership model came when HRI converted the St. Thomas housing development into the River Garden neighborhood in 2004, anchored by the city’s first Wal-Mart.

HANO then began regularly leasing its complexes to private developers under a plan that was speeded up following Katrina, when many hundreds of units were flooded and otherwise damaged.

After Katrina, HANO demolished its Big Four projects — C.J. Peete, St. Bernard, Lafitte and B.W. Cooper, which accounted for about 60 percent of public housing in the city — in order to make way for new housing models. In some cases, by 2015, fewer than half the new units had rents comparable to those in public housing. Some were market-rate, and others were in-between.

As subsidized units declined, the number of housing vouchers for privately owned apartments rose — as did the waiting list for people waiting to get them.

There are 24,207 families on the local waiting list to receive vouchers, according to Andreanecia Morris, executive director of HousingNOLA. She said the problem could get worse under the budget proposed by President Donald Trump.

HANO, she said, would be severely impacted by a proposed 68 percent cut in public housing repair funds, a $300 million cut to the Housing Choice Voucher program and elimination of Community Development Block Grant funding.

And, of course, Ben Carson is here to tell us this is pretty much "Mission Accomplished."

Carson said that "lessons have been learned" about some of the developments built after Katrina, in that "early on, some of the contracts did not involve setting aside enough units as affordable units."

He also said that while "there's a lot of anxieties about budgets," he is working to make HUD "extremely efficient" with the funds now in place and to run things on "business principles" rather than "bureaucratic principles."

One way to do that, he said, is to continue to develop smart public-private partnerships when designing new housing models meant to incorporate low-income tenants.

Just so we're clear on what this means. When we hear municipal candidates talk this fall about affordable housing strategies based on pub-private-partnerships and set-aside requirements from luxury developments, it's worth remembering this is already the official Trump Administration policy. 

Better get it while you can

The lame duck congress is poised to allocate more flood relief funding for Louisiana this week.

Louisiana is in line to get more than $1 billion in additional aid for recovery from historic flooding this year, thanks to a stop-gap spending measure awaiting approval by Congress this week.

The legislation that the flood aid is tucked into, formally known as a continuing resolution, must be approved by Friday to prevent a government shutdown. It would fund the federal government through April 28.

Specific details on the funding plan were expected to be released late Tuesday night, but U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Baton Rouge Republican who has been advocating for flood relief, said it will include some $1.2 billion in semi-flexible grant funds used to aid recovery efforts, with additional funds possible for further infrastructure efforts.

"This is an important next step and the entire delegation will continue to press for more funding to make sure that every Louisianan has what they need to get their lives back on track," Cassidy said Tuesday afternoon. "Louisiana will continue to recover and rebuild.”

A billion dollars sounds like a lot. But it's still significantly less than what is being sought... which is itself less that what is likely to be needed. 

The White House had asked Congress to sign off on a $3.15 billion disaster aid package for Louisiana and states affected by Hurricane Matthew by the end of the year.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has made several trips to Washington in recent weeks to lobby for flood aid, had requested nearly $4 billion in additional funding for Louisiana alone. The governor's office could not comment on the additional aid from Congress on Tuesday because the final text of the legislation had not been released.

Officials have estimated that the state suffered as much as $8.7 billion in damage from floods, and FEMA has estimated nearly 188,000 structures, mostly homes, were flooded in August alone.

Earlier this year we did some back-of-the napkin figuring and guessed that, if we're looking for a recovery package comparable to what was available per affected home after Katrina, we probably should be asking for at least $6 billion. As for the recovery plan itself, well, we had some suggestions about that too.  Let's refer back quickly to Item One on our outline.

One:  Mitch Landrieu told us the key to rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina was that we not just build everything back the way it was, but instead, build "the city we've always wanted to be."   So here is how you do that. First, look around and see if you have any land that might be made for valuable for development if you can move the poor people living there off of it.  Next, move those poor people out of the way.  Like Pres says, they're a "drag on the economy. We've talked many times about how this strategy took off in New Orleans. Make it work for you too.

Because it looks like Garret Graves is already applying this lesson. 

Graves has also questioned the need for HUD requirements that prioritize low- and moderate-income families, as well as other disadvantaged communities.

"It’s important to remember that the flood waters did not impact people along lines of race, ethnicity or socioeconomics – it inundated all its victims," he said. "We have to ensure recovery investments are made objectively, with the full scope of needs in view."

Anyway, whatever they're planning, it's best if they get as much money as they can now.  Next year they're going to dealing with a new President who has seen fit to put Ben Carson in charge of HUD which means the process could get, well, a little weird.  Also we're likely to be represented by Senator Kennedy whose campaign theme this year is a repeating mantra about "spending problems" and "too many people getting handouts."  Donald Trump will be in Baton Rouge this week stumping for Kennedy.  Maybe someone should ask him about this.

Lucifer's cameo

Protestor lit flag on fire, then lit himself on fire, catching others on fire. Flames extinguished by firefighters. No serious injuries.

— Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) July 20, 2016

Tuesday night at the Trump Show wasn't quite as fun as Monday night.  Ben Carson said some very Ben Carson things.

Ben Carson got a prime speaking slot at the convention on Tuesday evening, and he took a different approach at questioning Mrs. Clinton’s integrity. Digging into her college thesis about Saul Alinksy, the left-wing community organizer and radical, Mr. Carson suggested that Mrs. Clinton admired him. Then he pointed out that Mr. Alinsky had acknowledged Lucifer on the dedication page of one of his books, suggesting that such an association was somehow damning for Mrs. Clinton.

“Are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model someone who acknowledges Lucifer?” Mr. Carson asked. “Think about that.”

Don't think too hard about it.  Carson also said last night that you have a brain but you only have one and you wouldn't want to hurt it. Anyway Lucifer is probably on Hillary's VP short list already. It says here she's looking for someone with national security bona fides.

Also on Tuesday, Chris Christie held some kind of mock trial of Hillary Clinton empaneling the delegates as his jury. Here's what that looked like, in case you missed it.



The highlight was supposed to be the Trump children delivering frightening quasi-fascist addresses.  And, sure, they did that. But it still wasn't as compelling as the central mystery of this convention. That mystery being, is this all some kind of joke or what? Tuesday's evidence is as follows.

1) A Nevada delegate was suspiciously bad at being from Nevada.

The Nevada Republican Party chair proudly proclaimed his state pride by misidentifying its capital city in front of thousands of attendees while casting the state's votes for the GOP nominee at the convention.

"We're very proud of our nation," Michael McDonald said. "From the great shores of Lake Tahoe to the most entertaining capital city, Las Vegas, Nevada, this time, what's said in Las Vegas will not stay in Las Vegas!"

2) They switched Chis Coxes on us. 

Tuesday evening, chief NRA lobbyist Chris Cox appeared at the Republican National Convention to speak about guns, guns and guns, which was kind of strange, really, given the night’s official theme was “Make America Work Again.”

A paper schedule handed out by the party Tuesday morning may offer some insight: It, like the convention’s official app, lists an entirely different Chris Cox, the former congressman who once chaired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

3) For the second night in a row, they RickRolled everyone again.



I'd say heads exploded but the arena, as has often been the case this week, was practically empty at that point.

Electionball Day!

In Nevada, the polls are super tight. So the Democratic caucus result there is anybody's guess. And likely it will continue to be for weeks afterward.

In the hours before Saturday’s Democratic caucuses, supporters of US Senator Bernie Sanders circulated messages asking each other to record caucus proceedings whenever possible. The Nevada Democratic Party also sent a letter to the campaigns, urging them not to spread misinformation about how the caucuses and delegate allocation works.

Also on Friday, the Nevada Secretary of State, Barbara Cegavske, expressed “concern” over Republicans who may attempt to participate in the Democratic caucuses by changing party affiliation. In theory, a Republican can register and caucus as a Democrat on Saturday, and the state’s system would not update before the person could participate GOP caucuses on Tuesday.

“It is a concern that a registered voter in Nevada might participate in both caucuses,” she said in a statement, adding dual caucus participants “may be subject” to a ban from participating in the next presidential nominating contest.

Finally, in the rare case of a tied caucus, Nevada Democrats have directed organizers to determine a winner by high-card draw.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, the Christopher Guest movie that is the Republican Primary continues to delight audiences. 

Two grown men running for president met in a storage closet last night.

The meeting, called by Ted Cruz in an attempt to mend fences with Ben Carson ahead of the South Carolina primary, was held on Thursday night before the Conservative Review convention. The two huddled in the unusual venue for nearly 20 to 25 minutes, as Carson’s Secret Service detail stood outside, according to a Republican operative who witnessed the strange scene.

Carson, whose campaign has spent the weeks after Iowa blasting Cruz for lying to voters in the Hawkeye State, agreed to meet him for five minutes, according to a source close to Carson’s campaign, to try to put to bed the issue of his dirty campaign tricks in Iowa, during which Cruz’s campaign told caucus-goers that Carson had dropped out of the race.

Carson’s campaign confirmed the meeting—which was was supposed to be short and off-the-record—and blamed the Cruz campaign for leaking the fact that it occurred in an attempt to rectify his public image.

 Also, this is South Carolina so naturally these this sort of thing is going to happen. 

Just hours before Republican voters were expected to head to the polls in South Carolina, Courageous Conservative Political Action Committee, a pro-Cruz group, was robo-calling voters and warning them that Donald Trump was an advocate for gay rights and would force "people to bake cakes and photograph gay weddings," BuzzFeed reported Friday night.

Not to mention, this sort of thing.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday spread an apparent hoax about Muslims being executed with bullets “dipped in pig’s blood.”

The real estate mogul told supporters at a rally in Charleston, S.C., about US General John Pershing executing dozens of Muslim prisoners in the Philippines in the early 20th century.

“He took 50 bullets and he dipped them in pig’s blood,” Trump said. “And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the fifty people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, ‘You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.’ And for 25 years there wasn’t a problem.”

The story appears to a false, according to Snopes.com.

And those are the two guys who seem to leading nationally.

Meanwhile, Louisiana is about to join the fun. Both party primaries are scheduled for March 5 which means Early Voting opens today. You can find your Early Voting locations at the Sec. of State's website.

Update: Meant to include Oyster's latest on the Republican primary.  

Donald Trump has dominated the Republican race for the presidency for eight months straight. He's on the brink of winning the South Carolina primary after a debate where he frolicked in the taboo. 9/11 occurred on Dubya's watch. Planned Parenthood provides some 'wonderful' services. The Iraq War was a disaster. However factual, these are verboten topics in GOPworld. To flout the party line on any of them would spell doom for a traditional candidate.

Yet Trump— who enjoyed a big lead in the polls and had every conventional reason to take it easy during the debate— went out of his way to trample on GOP articles of faith.* And he did so looking very orange and angry. Yet it appears his apostasy won't hurt him. Why? How?

Go read the rest.  

Rabid Dogs

Republican Presidential contender Ben Carson, who thinks the Pyramids are grain silos, who doesn't quite know where states are, who is said to be "struggling to grasp foreign policy" and who, despite having been a medical professional, doesn't understand a whole lot about science or the history of science, made some news today by comparing humans displaced by a terrorist pseudo-state to "rabid dogs."

Discussing the Syrian refugee crisis, Carson said the United States must balance security needs against humanitarian impulses.

“For instance, if there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably going to put your children out of the way,” Carson said. “It doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re putting your intellect into motion.”

Okay well at least he said he doesn't hate all of the "dogs." So that's something. 

Can't leave these people alone for even a day (links and stuff)

On Tuesday night, the Republican Presidential Candidates tried to murder me. They did this by having a debate on TV again.  Usually this isn't particularly life-threatening, in and of itself.  It can be if  you consider the part where one of the participants actually becomes President and inevitably makes decisions that end up killing all sorts of people. But leaving that aside, the debates don't usually hurt people.  This one did, though.

The details of just what happened are a little hazy even now.  Here's what I think I heard.  I remember Ben Carson telling us that before 1913, everyone used to live in pyramids which is why we don't need a minimum wage anymore.  And I think Marco Rubio said he wanted to send philosophy majors to metal shop reeducation camps, or something.  This represents a significant pay cut but is probably necessary so that we'll have enough people to work on Donald Trump's wall which, now, will stretch all the way from Laredo to Jerusalem. Jeb wants to "re-think" pretty much the entire US economy. Rand Paul said he can balance the budget using a take a penny, leave a penny jar. And Ted Cruz wants to do it by shutting down both of the Departments of Commerce. Carly said, "we just don't know.." about a bunch of stuff that is actually easily looked up. But she does know "what's in the secret sauce."

All of that is pretty much par for the course for these guys. At least, a seasoned veteran of these events should be able to swallow it without much difficulty. So.. and again.. this is where it gets foggy.. I think it was when the FOX Biz moderators told us to follow along by typing a hashtag into Facebook that my involuntary guffaw caused a large unchewed piece of General Tso chicken to get lodged in my esophagus.

Obviously, it's embarrassing for any adult to cope with something as simple as not having properly chewed his food.  So it was only after another hour and a half of unsuccessful gulping and gagging that Menckles finally forced us to the emergency room.  The debate was still happening so this might have been about the same time the candidates were agreeing that affordable health care was ruining America.  Anyway, it had to be done.

When this happens to a person, there are two steps to the ER treatment.  First they try to relax you into swallowing with Glucagon and Valium.  When that doesn't work, they wheel you upstairs and dislodge the obstruction by knocking you out and shoving a big long selfie stick down your gullet. And this is the story of how, because I started the night laughing at some Republicans but ended up having medical care literally rammed down my throat.  Must be a lesson in there somewhere.

Anyway, there were drugs involved so the next 24 hours are a bit blurry to me.  I did continue to use the internet during this time so there were links bookmarked.  They don't present a pretty picture of what the world was like while I was away, though.

For instance, here's a NOLA.com report on the family responsible for running the Bourbon Street strip clubs recently shut down by the State Police.

As a result of "Operation Trick or Treat," Hebert temporarily suspended alcohol permits of nine establishments, including Lipstixxx, Centerfolds and Scores. Those three clubs were cited with a combined 14 counts of prostitution, eight drug-related violations, and 10 counts of lewd and improper acts, ATC said.

Temptations, another Olano club, was cited with three counts of prostitution, one drug violation and two lewd acts, ATC said. One of the citations for prostitution concerned an incident on Nov. 6, about a week and a half after the initial violations were announced.

At an administrative hearing Monday (Nov. 9), the Olanos' attorney, Carolyn Gill-Jefferson, said the clubs fired every employee named in the investigation and proposed additional measures that would allow the clubs to remain open. Those proposals included hiring an independent security firm for each of the cited clubs, and reporting to ATC any illegal activity the firms find. She said Centerfolds closed permanently the same day its license was suspended, though a manager for the clubs said that was a business decision.

Upon having been "shocked" to learn of the drugs and hookers being sold through their establishments, the owners fired a bunch of people. Who knows what happens to the newly unemployed. The Family will be ok, though. It's not the first time and after this timeout is over they'll get to keep using everybody this way.  It's really no different from the way the Brennans do business. Only the product is different.. slightly.

Here is Chris Christie saying that the (relatively mild) campus unrest in the news lately is happening because of "lawlessness" perpetuated by President Obama.

Christie was asked about protests against perceived racism at the University of Missouri and Yale University, and he blamed President Barack Obama for encouraging students to undermine civic order.

“I think part of this is a product of the president’s own unwillingness and inability to bring people together,” Christie said at a campaign event in Iowa.

“When people think justice is not applied evenly and fairly, they take matters into their own hands,” Christie said. “The lawlessness that the president has allowed to exist in this country just absolutely strips people of hope. Our administration would stand for the idea that justice is not just a word, but it’s a way of life. Laws will be applied evenly, fairly, and without bias to everyone.”

The GOP candidate earlier in the day blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for what he and other conservatives say is a growing trend of anti-police violence — although violence against police is at a 45-year low.

Whichever Republican becomes the nominee is going to run heavily on white resentment against the Black Lives Matter movement.  Christie lays it on a little more heavily than some of the other candidates do. But regardless of the candidate, "law and order" is going to be a key message.

Here is a  Barbie doll that spies on your kids.

Using Hello Barbie involves recording voice data (see the privacy policy here) and requires parental consent. However, Mattel states that "parents and guardians are in control of their child's data and can manage this data through the ToyTalk account." The company also states that the recordings are protected under the "Children's Online Privacy Protection Act," and recordings containing personal information will be deleted once they "become aware of it."

Still, the potential for misuse of this private data is a legitimate concern. "Obviously it is a security and privacy nightmare," said Roman Yampolskiy, director of the Cybersecurity Lab at the University of Louisville. "[The] company [is] collecting data from kids—hackers [could be] getting access to private info."

However, like Turkle, Yampolskiy is "more concerned about social development of the children interacting with it."

"We are basically running an experiment on our kids and have no idea if it will make them socially awkward, incapable of understanding body language, tone of voice and properly empathize with others," he said.

Meanwhile we're also running a similar experiment on everybody.

Everybody knows Facebook is creepy. Nonetheless, all this time it never occurred to me to delete my account until it began doing this: Trying to act like a person. Pretending we are on a first-name basis.

We often imagine the inevitable future tech dystopia will be cold, populations marching under the eye of sterile robot overlords, our speech monitored and scrubbed of sentiment and intonation. 

Increasingly, though, it seems like we’re hurtling toward the opposite: A singularity of smarm, where performative — maybe even excessive — intimacy is the order of the day.

It's not just that "smarm" and affected intimacy is everywhere and annoying, it's becoming something of a professional prerequisite.

Pretending at closeness is really the only way forward for anyone who wants to make money on the internet. As such, watch as organizations pretend, with increasing intensity, that they are individuals. Start counting how many times platforms, services and websites entreat you in human voices, with awkward humor, for money. Watch as the things we expect to be invisible, utilitarian, start oozing emojis and winky-smileys. Even Silicon Valley, global epicenter of whitewashed empathy voids and 1-percenter sci-fi wank fantasies, is going to pretend it cares about you. Especially Silicon Valley. Ugh.

Your inbox is going to fill up with requests for professional favors from strangers who tell you they love you. They are not remotely your peers, but they’ll expect you to work for them anyway for exposure, for credit, for kudos, for ‘the community’. They add emojis for effect, too. Your feelings are now professional currency.

Remember that mass freak-out last week when Twitter changed "stars" to "hearts"?  That's just another expression of this brand of language pollution.  It's a result of our allowing the relentless "positivity" of corporate branding to infiltrate both our personal space to a frightening degree, but also to corrupt our civic spaces which, on the internet, are becoming fewer and more isolated.

As well as providing an online space for socialising and discussion, Twitter plays an important role in the working lives of many – particularly journalists. Its ubiquity makes it a valuable space to find sources, get story ideas and break news. In fact, many news publications regularly publish stories consisting entirely of Tweets.

Activists and campaigners have used Twitter to bring important issues into the public sphere and force them to be taken seriously by both the media and politicians. #BlackLivesMatter is a powerful example of a Twitter hashtag that transformed into a movement for civil rights and racial justice.

Trying to revert this apparatus into a “regular” social media network, with all the gimmicks and shovelware that comes with that, fails to acknowledge that Twitter just can’t make money from its core purpose. That should be proof enough that casual social interaction and its ability to shape news and current affairs are anathema to the desire for profit.

The internet is a powerful communications tool. But as it becomes tailored more and more finely to serve commerce, it becomes less and less useful to the preservation of democracy. Somebody should do something about that. No one will.

Let's see.. what else happened...

Oh yes well we're still trying to make a Governor.  It's gonna cost a lot of money to do that.

Contributions are pouring into Democrat John Bel Edwards campaign for governor.

Edwards reported raising more than $750,000 between Sunday and Monday.

The contributions are detailed in a 31-page “special report” filed with state campaign finance offices.

You can see Edwards's dramatic boost in fundraising post-primary represented graphically here.  Still, Vitter did get the LABI endorsement. (Surprising, only in that LABI officially made one at all.) He's also still pulling in that sweet, sweet, sinkhole money.

On the day of the Oct. 24 primary, five companies that share an address with Houston-based Texas Brine gave $25,000 to Republican David Vitter’s campaign for governor.

None of the donations came directly from Texas Brine, the company widely blamed for the 31-acre Bayou Corne sinkhole, but all are affiliated with the company that has been fighting a class action lawsuit in Assumption Parish.

According to this UNO Poll, Edwards looks like he's in pretty good shape over all.  But that result is probably overstated. There's a week left to play and we're still not sure who the "likely voters" really are in this one.  Meanwhile, you can still early vote until Saturday. Here's a look at how the early voting had been going as of yesterday.

And I think that brings us more or less up to date. How is your week going so far? 

The sociopathy primary

You know, when Ben Carson confirmed to the world that he does not, in fact, experience human emotional responses, it really didn't surprise any of us.

Mr. Carson is also not willing to give any ground on gun rights. In a question and answer session on Facebook this week, he explained that two of his cousins were killed in the streets and that as a doctor he has had to remove many bullets from bodies. Despite the breathtaking nature of such violence, he said, curbing the right to bear arms is not a real solution.

“I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away,” Mr. Carson wrote.

We've come to expect this kind of sociopathy from our Presidential front-runners. It seems increasingly like a prerequisite for office. My only concern now is that by desensitizing us all to the horror of their stunted behavior that they might also be infecting us with it.

Anyway, what we probably should have expected as soon as we learned about Carson's sickness this morning, was that Bobby Jindal would immediately try to match it.

In a lengthy blog post published on his presidential campaign website Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) claimed the father of Oregon gunman Chris Harper Mercer was a "complete failure" and demanded that he apologize for the shooting.

In the blog post -- titled "We fill Our Culture With Garbage, And We Reap The Result" -- Jindal blamed the prevalence of mass shootings in America on "deep and serious cultural decay in our society," jumping from a condemnation of violence in media and a reference to abortion to a discussion of the reported absence of the father of the Harper Mercer in the young man's life.

"This killer’s father is now lecturing us on the need for gun control and he says he has no idea how or where his son got the guns," Jindal wrote. "Of course he doesn’t know. You know why he doesn’t know? Because he is not, and has never been in his son’s life. He’s a complete failure as a father, he should be embarrassed to even show his face in public. He’s the problem here."

Jeb will not be the nominee

This is a pretty good look at Trumpmania right here.

A new PPP polls shows Trump, not surprisingly, at the head of the GOP pack. But when PPP created head to head match ups with the other contenders, Carson, Fiorina, Rubio and Walker all beat Trump and in most cases handily. Except Jeb. Trump beat Jeb.

Trump will not be the nominee. He's a placeholder for whichever candidate finally locks down the non-Trump Anybody But Jeb vote.  Because that's really what this is all about. And it could be pretty much any of those other jokers.. although it won't be Carson and it probably won't be Carly. 

What else they got?

If there was a winner of the kids table debate on Wednesday night it looks like it was Bobby Jindal. He has a 56/19 favorability rating, which makes him the 5th most popular of the GOP contenders in the state. And his 4% standing at least puts him in the top 10 in Iowa and ahead of main stagers Kasich and Christie. We'll see whether this boost for him is a broader thing or just Iowa.

Bandwidth

Monday night tens of people tuned in to CSPAN to see the Republican Presidential candidates play an exhibition warm-up forum prior to Thursday night's prime time debates. Fans were disappointed to learn that Donald Trump would not be there. But, because this was a pre-season game, it only makes sense that team GOP rested their starter in order to avoid injuries.

Much like an NFL exhibition, this event did not challenge any of the candidates with direct regular season competition as much as it provided a controlled environment for individual evaluation.  Hard core fans will probably want to watch the game film here. But keep in mind, this was also muck like an NFL exhibition in that it's very difficult to say what, if anything, of value was learned.

Each candidate was given about a minute or two on stage to answer what appeared to be pre-arranged questions suited to his or her favorite talking points. After all 14 participants had rotated in, they were called back for a second, very similar, round but with 30 seconds added for "closing statements."

This was a heavily scripted performance of each candidate's standard stump schtick.  But it's worth at least observing how well they pull that off on stage. So, there were a few notes worth scribbling down, or tweeting out, or whatever I did. Here are those.

Given that the substance is staged boilerplate, I guess the thing we're looking for first here is style points. Sadly, everyone was pretty bland. The only candidates who distinguished themselves did so in the negative sense.

For example, Lindsey Graham's description of his trade policy, "Clinched fist or open hand. You choose," sounded weird the first time he said it. By the third repetition it started to sound almost dirty. Rick Perry didn't forget any list items or anything. But he did squirm in his chair a lot and generally look goofy. Ben Carson seems half asleep when he speaks and holds his "Gifted Hands" awkwardly. Ted Cruz was tangibly creepy but that's nothing new.

The most disappointing presentation by far was from presumed contender Marco Rubio who just isn't very good at talking. Rubio, like the two other Senators who participated, was beamed in via satellite link but was the only one of the three who couldn't figure out that he needed to wait on the delay to avoid talking over the host.  He also stumbled over his own words a few times and looked very much like he needed a glass of water.. which is kind of a problem when people are specifically watching for that.
 
Almost all of the candidates wanted to talk about "border security." Rick Perry began by saying he once "looked the President in the eye" and told him that Texas would secure the border if the feds would not. And then, according to Perry, Texas went ahead and did that so I don't really know what he's complaining about now.

Other Republicans talked more effectively about "border security" in relation to the version of economic populism many of them will try to sell this year.  John Kasich, Rick Santorum, and Lindsey Graham all talked about the effects of immigration on wages in the US.  Although they also spoke in favor of "guestworker" programs which apparently don't hurt anybody. (oops!) It's interesting also that all of these "free traders" have spent their careers supporting agreements like NAFTA, and now the TPP and TTIP which demolish fair labor and environmental standards across international borders but have no shame in demagoguing against their deleterious effects.

But hypocrisy is a given on the campaign trail.  This is how Chris Christie can declare, "The war on drugs has been a failure" the same week that he also said this.

"If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it," Christie, a Republican presidential candidate, said during a town-hall event in the early voting state of New Hampshire, according to Bloomberg.

“As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws,” he added.

Christie, who has long opposed recreational marijuana and said early this month that he has never tried pot, has stated that unlike President Obama he would not selectively choose which federal laws to enforce.

It's also how  Ted Cruz can, with a straight face, rail against "career politicians in bed with special interests" while this is going on.

Senator Ted Cruz’s standing in many national polls may be middling, but Friday brought fresh evidence as to why he should not be underestimated: The Texas Republican is a magnet for big donors.

How big? Toby Neugebauer, an energy investor, donated $10 million to Keep the Promise II, a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Cruz.

The donation represents one of the largest amounts given by a single donor to a Super PAC so far this campaign cycle and demonstrates the potential influence that individuals can have upon a presidential election and with a senior lawmaker.

Mr. Neugebauer, the son of Representative Randy Neugebauer, Republican of Texas, is the co-founder of Quantum Energy Partners and has been an active investor in the oil and gas sectors, overseeing billions of dollars of assets.

There were other knee-slappers.

"Libertarian" Rand Paul seemed pretty adamant that the government has a right to summarily execute you as long as it says you are a "terrorist."

Scott Walker says it's important that climate change policy is "balanced" against the needs of industry which seems like a totally legitimate way to go about things given the circumstances.

George Pataki is also running for President.

Of course our friend Bobby Jindal was there too.  He comported himself pretty well, in fact. This was not a repeat of his infamous State of the Union response which I think we should all just stop talking about now.  Bobby has improved his presentation at least to a level where it is no longer laughable.

I'm less impressed with his improvement than Oyster seems to be, though. Jindal will always come off as a nerd and a phony.  But we've elected nerds before. (Think George H. W. Bush) And certainly we've elected phonies. (Think every President ever.) So there's no reason to dismiss Bobby Jindal's campaign based on style. One poor impression he made on TV six years ago does not mean he isn't to be taken seriously now.

The things he says are ridiculous too but no more ridiculous than any of his opponents' offerings listed above. Monday night Jindal coolly recited some of the pet phrases he's been honing during his many trips to Iowa and New Hampshire.

"I'm tired of talkers. We need doers."

"We need to get off of the path towards socialism."

"American Dream" vs. "European Nightmare"

You may have heard these before.  Have you heard this new one yet, though?

“We need a doer, not a talker,” he said in his valedictory. “We can’t afford four more years of on-the-job training.”

And, he assured the audience, he has the “bandwidth” and “backbone” to get the job done.

“We’ve had seven years of a great talker,” he said. “Let’s elect a doer.

“Let us believe in America again.”

What on Earth could that "bandwidth" thing possibly mean, we asked Twitter. Twitter responded, convincingly enough.

@champsuperstar @skooks it means he can handle a lot of things at once. It's common lame business jargon.

— Larry (@LarryLarmeu) August 4, 2015

In other words, Bobby is going for that "Geek Appeal" again. 

But as long as Bobby is talking about his "bandwidth" maybe one or two local Iowa or New Hampshire reporters would like to take it as an opening to ask him why he has so much while his state has so little. 

Louisiana was set to receive an $80 million federal grant to expand broadband access in North and Central Louisiana. I know, for an absolute fact that, behind the scenes, Mary Landrieu’s staff worked diligently to ensure Louisiana had an opportunity, and I’m not at all surprised that Senator Landrieu has been so vocal about this issue. You see, last week, the Commerce Department rescinded the grant because Louisiana couldn’t get its act together. More specifically, Governor Jindal and his administration couldn’t get their acts together

Of course it won't make much difference.  Bobby will simply say that, because the $80 million in broadband access for the poor was coming from the federal government and not a private cable operator, that he was really giving us "freedom" instead of bandwidth and isn't that better anyway.  It won't hurt Bobby with Republicans to have to say that.

In fact, it will be right in step with Scott Walker's claim that "freedom" is better than a union job with full benefits or George Pataki's claim that "patient empowerment" is better than actual health care. This is the meat they're all serving this year. These are the lies you tell if you want to be the Republican nominee And Jindal tells them every bit as well as or better than the rest of them.   

Modern televangilism

Why are there so many Republican candidates?

So here's my question. You might disagree with my ranking, but probably not by a whole lot. There just aren't very many candidates who have a serious chance at winning the nomination. So why are so many running? When guys like Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul ran, I understood why. They just wanted a chance to present their views to a national audience. But that can't be what's motivating everyone on this list. So what is it? What is it that's somehow convinced so many obvious losers that they actually have a shot at becoming the next president of the United States?

Not that difficult to figure out. If you've got a shot at running a mass marketed "Please send me money"  business for a while that's pretty much what you do. It only lasts for a year or two but then there's the book deal and/or TV gig that comes out of it.