Chris Christie is someone I can never quite pull the lever on for “Never Going to Be President”.  Oh, I can list the reasons he can’t.  And we can see the way his political virtue will prove to be a double edged sword, and what his downfall will be.  It’s always been a question of when that will happen, and if there would be enough of it to fall out before an election.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

And currently we see this classic image motif in the media.  The photograph of the politician.  Under Fire.  Close up at his press conference.  Lips tightly parsed.  In the middle of some serious shifting of speech.   This image is next to either a bullet point of various messages, a time line of events, or a pull quote.  And the pull quote that jumps out at me here is…

“Christie: ‘I Am Not A Bully”…

Memo to all politicians under fire: do not use this sentence construction.  You are evoking Richard Nixon.  You do not want to evoke Richard Nixon.  (Unless maybe you do?)

Leaf through the letters section of the major national papers.   Two classic tropes jump out… One:

The medium more interesting than the message.
Once again, a prominent political figure and his staff are undone by malfeasance revealed by email. It is unbelievable to me that in today’s sophisticated social media world, people still believe that they can safely communicate — especially when plotting mayhem — over the Internet. Perhaps the real scandal here is in the shared stupidity of the “Bridgegate” gang.

No, sorry.  Too clever by half.  The real scandal is the scandal.  If they were able to hide it better that would be a kind of “hm”.

And then there’s the “Equivalence” or “Realpolitik at work”:

Isn’t this the way of politics: reward friends and punish enemies? It’s old hat, whether it be a New Jersey governor or the president of the United States, who has been known to hand out plum ambassadorships and other goodies to top fund-raisers, while perhaps using the Internal Revenue Service as his bludgeon on political foes, as some Republican critics have charged. That’s how the world works. Are you shocked? Is anyone?

He hedges a bit here with the “IRS-gate”, perhaps not knowing if he should admit there was no there there.  The ambassadorships line is a little amusing.

Of course, the other two reasons Chris Christie might not be President — Henry Kissinger tried to push him to run in 2012, and since when is Henry Kissinger a King maker? … and … Republicans blame him for Obama winning because he was overly complimentary to him during Hurricane Sandy.

One text message sent to Wildstein on the day of the lane closures referenced mass school bus delays. “Is it wrong that I’m smiling?” the message read.
“No,” Wildstein wrote.
“I feel badly about the kids. I guess,” the person, who is unidentified, texted back.
Wildstein replied, “They are the children of Buono voters.”

Funny thing:  There weren’t all that many Buono voters.  Which is one of the ways this was an especially amazingly petty act.  (Not that a close race would make it psychologically more sensical.)  Then again… what the hell was Nixon doing with George McGovern with Watergate?

What went wrong in the Elizabeth Cheney for Senate campaign.

A strange request for Elizabeth Cheney to now take the Conservative Lead on Gay Marriage, and thus… ur… disassociate herself from Conservatism as it exists in the Wyoming Primary Candidacy she just attempted?

What does this mean?

It means about the only major Primary contest against an incumbent Republican Senator that’s bringing out some weird entertainment value is Steve Stockman taking on John Cornyn in Texas.  And here’s what we’re getting from that one.

“John Cornyn is using a shell group to spend amnesty cash to demonstrably lie about Steve Stockman,” said Ferguson. “It’s exactly the same thing they did to Ted Cruz.”

Item number five... PO Tour

Dateline Canton  In Canton, I twice accosted Lyndon LaRouche people outside of the post office after they shrieked some nonsense about Obama, and I told them they should be ashamed of themselves for having posters of the president doctored with a Hitler-like mustache. Freedom of speech is paramount—but so is human decency. Both times the young woman at the LaRouche table turned into a blubbering mess.

Interesting Question… Is there anything a hot woman can say that will make men not want to fuck her?  (If that’s too objectionable, go ahead and mentally prettify it in whatever way you want.)
“I don’t know why more people don’t listen to Lyndon LaRouche”

Free Republic discusses
LaRouche? Seriously? How can they spare time from pursuing the Queen of England’s drug racketeering?
I never knew that hatemonger was active outside the United States.

That review, which I just read, uncovered something I didn’t know “Spengler” aka David P. Goldman was at one time a Larouchie.

Larouche is another worshiper of the exponential growth equation…just another follower of the just think positive ignore negative algorithm.

The President is always simultaneously the most admired and hated man (so far all men) in America.  And the gallup poll shows us…

In a fill in the blank slotting, the previous administration of the other party retains a good deal of support.

And the previous administrations of the current party?  Apparently Bill Clinton doubles up Jimmy Carter.  Might not be enough numbers to dig into the demographics.  I assume the Carter supporters maybe weren’t around there, or maybe were around and ditto Clinton and whatever Republican support he’s getting in his two percent.

“Oh, I LOVE Tom Friedman.”

……………….

Say.  What’s 2008 Republican Presidential Candidate John Cox up to?

He wants the California legislator to have 12,000 elected officials.

Divided into different districts which vote on to the state house on different manners and…

Political pundits agree.  “Good way to get nothing done.”  Probably about Cox’s point.

John Cox is on his way to becoming the next Mike Gravel…

I’m always pretty nerdily fascinated by the quirks of the NFL playoff scenarios as the season gets to its end, where we get into the tie breaker scenarios and have teams needing this or that to happen to get in.  This year we have a bit of a doozy heading into this final week, with four teams vying for the sixth and final playoff spot in the AFC… and none of them in control of their own destiny.  (Unlike, say, the NFC where the New Orleans Saints would be in if they win or if they Arizona Cardinals lose.)

8-7 Miami Dolphins … play the 7-8 New York Jets
8-7 Baltimore Ravens … play the 10-5 Cincinnati Bengals
8-7 San Diego Chargers … play the 11-4 Kansas City Chiefs
7-8 Pittsburgh Steelers … play the 4-11 Cleveland Browns

The Dolphins, Ravens, and Steelers all play in the early game slot, and the Chargers play the late time slot — the league does a good time in rearranging the last week to assure as much possible meaning as they can get out of the match-ups, but here they’re stuck with a bit of a possible non-game matter.

The permutations go like this
If the Dolphins Win and the Ravens lose
OR if the Ravens Win and the Dolphins lose…
the winner is the 6th seed, and the Chargers / Chiefs game means nothing for the playoffs.

If the Dolphins and the Ravens both lose, and the Steelers win…
The Chargers / Chiefs game will decide whether the Chargers are in or the Steelers… the Chiefs would be playing for the Steelers playoff lives.
It should be noted that the Steelers playoff chances hinge on the fact that the Jets won last week, to set up a 5 team tie possibility.

And here’s where things get really nutty.
If the Dolphins and the Ravens both lose and the Steelers lose…
The Dolphins / Chiefs will determine if it’s the Chargers or the Ravens… the Chiefs would now be playing for the Ravens.
If the Dolphins and the Ravens both win…
The Chargers / Chiefs game will be a proxy where the Chargers are now playing for the Ravens and the Chiefs now playing for the Dolphins.

All very amusing.  I would have liked it if the Chargers / Chiefs were playing with the other games, so that the Ravens and Dolphins fans wouldn’t be sure who the hell they’re rooting for in that game, and cascade back and forth with how the teams’ fortunes go…

And it’s all a moot point probably.  The Kansas City Chiefs coach seems to be ready to play things conservatively, locked as they are in the 5th seed, so the game becomes a gimmie for the Chargers.  Sorry, Steelers fans.  And… either the Ravens or Dolphins… dunno.

Today in New York Times style section news items you cannot possibly relate to…

Today, the Dow is once again soaring. But on a more sober, post-financial-crisis Wall Street, bankers and clothiers said, the dress code for men has steered away from Gekko-style displays of conspicuous sartorial consumption.

Basically when the Dow soars, everything else better be soaring too in order for you to bring out the Big Suit.

“The power suit is over,” said Euan Rellie, a New York investment banker with deep ties to the style crowd (he is married to the fashion editor Lucy Sykes, the twin sister of Vogue’s Plum Sykes). “Less is more today. Finance is less brash, and so are its clothes.”

Skip a beat…

The Gekko look took another body blow during the financial crisis of 2008 and, several years later, from Occupy Wall Street, several bankers said. Suddenly, it seemed either tasteless or personally hazardous to walk around in an outfit that shouted “1 percent.” It is no wonder that Wall Street peacocks have learned to dial back on anything that smacks of capitalist dandyism.
“I haven’t worn a pocket square in years,” said one investment banker, 40, who spoke anonymously because of his employer’s policies against workers’ speaking with the news media. “After the financial crisis, the people who are really stylish want to tone it down. Even if they’re wearing the same suits, they wear simpler shirts, simpler ties. People are making adjustments. I’m not wearing a pocket square, another guy is not wearing French cuffs.”
This is not to say that style is dead on Wall Street. Quite the contrary: The shift has allowed a new generation of Wall Street men to explore new frontiers of patterns and cuts.

Who said the “Occupy Movement” didn’t accomplish anything?

In the end, the goal is a look that does not scream “banker,” but whispers it. “The proper tone today is an elegance that doesn’t try too hard,” Mr. Rellie said. “Wall Street doesn’t want to show off anymore, because no one is listening.”

Har de har har.

This is a story that comes off the heels of the latest Martin Scorsese’s film “The Wolf of Wall Street, which is reviewed with much fan fare and with curious questions on its meaning to the society.  Interesting note:

As my colleague Joe Nocera has recently pointed out, the misdeeds of Stratton Oakmont — a relatively straightforward pump-and-dump scam built on the temporarily inflated value of often worthless stocks — have little in common with the elaborate, as yet mostly unpunished, schemes that wrecked the economy a decade after Jordan Belfort’s downfall.

Hm.  Maybe it’s all of one scene?

Another fight in the culture wars — this one over Duck Dynasty being under the attack and oh must some people come out to defend the Duck Dynasty.  I see it being plastered all over at the Alex Jones websites with item after item of commentary on pc culture and the pc gay whatnot thought police on the case of Duck Dynasty.

And it’s not that I find some line of agreement with this argument and this parcel of the culture war.  I have simply become tired of this recurring story… where a figure from backwoods America has achieved some celebrity hood for some affirmation of eccentric or quirky Americana — and then just pull back the curtain and inevitably we discover illiberal and bigoted viewpoints expressed, such that a firestorm cracks open.  (See too Paula Deen.)  I don’t know how to parch the meaning behind your viewing of “Duck Dynasty” — except it is amusing to see his beard on full display all over the Alex Jones websites — and whatever elements you appreciate from it and whatever you throw asunder.

But herein lies the problem with Mr Alex Jones.  Plastering the case of Duck Dynasty all over as the toppermost point of interest (my guess is clickbait.)  For the sake of defending the espirit of the First Amendment…

… This is the source whose response to Piers Morgan’s advocacy for gun control was… through the employee of Kurt Nimmo — to petition the government to deport him.

Rinse repeat recycle.  See you with the same commentary at the next stupid culture war battle.

It has come to my attention that joseph n. divincenzo jr is in illuminati.  Or, someone typed that phrase into google and came to a page on this blog.  Not asking a question, or putting the name next to illuminati, but in sentence form … and with [sic].

Who, you might ask is Joseph N Divincenzo Jr?  Essex County Executive.  Here’s a story about him in the New York Times.   It is doubtless an important role for the Illuminati, and it takes a person o Divincenzo’s caliber to run this position of he Illuminati.

Maybe his opponent in the next campaign can make an issue of is Illuminati connections, but then again that may just prove to be an asset.  It is New Jersey, and all.