Well, sorry, but Bob Corker just decided to say “no“.  What can you do?

Mr. Obama’s triumph in securing the deal — without the support of a single member of the party now in control of Congress — is refashioning the definition of victory for a waning presidency in the era of divided government.

This… may or may not be the case???  I don’t know… it does put a “what the heck?” thought as the (small) weekly Friday protest marches with the “No War On Iran” sign, even if the signs about Israel remain germane enough.  (The next step in Obama’s plan is to commit more money for Israel.)  Things are beyond partisan d and partisan r on both counts.

But I’m curious about the next statement.

While bipartisan victories tend to be those most celebrated outside of Washington, success by the president is now often measured more by the scope of the policy achieved than by any claim of sweeping consensus.

Bipartisan victories … most celebrated outside of Washington…

Hrm.  I suppose the trade agreement, which Obama won by going to Republican support against Democratic opposition was…
… celebrated?

Actually what you find is that bipartisan victories are most celebrated inside Washington… David Brooks will applaud.  A Gang of Seven will be heralded.  And you can sneer at the partisans.

John Kerry? He meets some guy with the Carlyle Group and… that’s enough to stick him in the current stock news freed about “furious searches” for some anti-Clinton anti-Sanders Democrat.  Sooo…  This sums it all up about right.

The New York Times reports today that “some” Democrats were “intrigued” by a meeting Kerry had with billionaire David Rubenstein recently, a person the Times describes as “the sort of Washington wise man Mr. Kerry might consult if he were mulling another run.”

That’s about the extent of the evidence presented that Kerry wants to be president, or that people would vote for him.

The Times cites “friends” saying he has no interest in another run. The Secretary of State and former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts has repeatedly said he has “zero” interest in a presidential campaign and that he has no inklings to get into the race.

No kidding?

And then there’s this obvious comment, as speculators speculate furiously…

Still, Mr. Biden, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Gore have lost presidential bids before and are hardly guaranteed party saviors — or more popular than Mrs. Clinton among important demographic groups like women, African-Americans and Hispanics.

There is that, isn’t there?
Oh, and … Joseph Biden… who … seems to be the only person not in the race who might end up in the race, and as always it is worth pondering his actual political history.  (Jim Webb’s history, sans the symbolic Confederate Flag concern, is better at the issues concerning “Black Lives Matter” than Biden’s history.)

Does the conversion of Stephen Colbert from “Stephen Colbert”, from a host in character to a host…

…represent that long since claimed and foretold “Death of Irony” that has been a staple theme of commentary since… who the Hell knows?

Hm.

Seems to be a “whack your hair” type barber.    Sure, there’s a lot of gender normativ-ism in this one, where the cuts are stuck in some 50s crewcut esque, but as the barbers claim… they’ve given them to women too, (as one barber there said “probably gay”).

Though she has other ideas, and doesn’t view the “many probably gay customers” line…

Marshall says she asked for a “No. 4 skin fade”– a style typically more popular with men – that transitions from long on top to shaved scalp on the sides. She says she stayed calm during a 15-minute go-nowhere conversation in which the barbers never asked for clarification about what she wanted and ended after she asked them if they understood the term “discrimination.’
Marshall said the barbers refused to cut her hair because she didn’t fit into their idea of what a man or a woman should look like.
In a past job, Marshall said she advocated for the homeless and disabled. In this case, she said she’s putting those skills to work for herself and others who bend gender norms.

That last line is where it gets “hardy har har”…

Marshall says she’s convinced the issue was about gender – how she looks — not her sexual orientation. By day’s end Friday, she said she’d really rather offer to teach the barbers in a daylong seminar on gender binary oppression than file a labor bureau complaint.

I’m thinking that if this customer gets her demand, and gets the haircut done in this style that this barber doesn’t bother with… fine, but then she must MUST MUST waive her right to complain about the outcome.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee are quite literally jockeying to make hay of … some judge who refuses to do her bureaucratic job.

Mississippi’s Democratic nominee for governor gets the front page (albeit under the fold) treatement in the New York Times…

The party that was once the alpha and omega of Southern politics is now having to explain that its headline candidate in Mississippi was elected on the following grounds: “He was the first name on the ballot, and he was a man,” said Jacqueline Amos, the executive field director for the state Democratic Party.

With added on, previously mentioned in this blog, points on how a surplus of Democratic voters not engaged in Democratic Party politics, wrought from the days of one party rule, brought this about, and keeps bringing this about in the Southern states.

What I find interesting in this story is this…

For Mississippi Democrats, who have to pick their battles, the focus this year has been on regaining control of the state’s House of Representatives. A curiosity candidate who kept a low profile would not complicate that, but to the exasperation of some party officials, Mr. Gray has been granting interviews to most any news outlet that tracks him down, from MSNBC to RoadKing, a magazine for professional truckers.

I’m a bit flummoxed by this notion.  Maybe there’s this idea that it highlights party dysfunction as they try to coordinate messaging, but the idea that he’s taking the opportunity of a surprise primary victory to, albeit feebly, campaign… campaign in the “Ordinary shy Joe” manner… take the 15 minutes of fame and grant the 15 minutes of fame allotment to curiosity-seekers looking at every angle of the story… and that this is problematic to a political party —

It’s not like he’s Donald Trump.

And he has that obvious angle of “touring and getting to know the state”…

His twitter page should be updated more frequently, though.

Rick Perry said it…

In an interview with Fox News, Perry was asked about speculation coming from Donald Trump that Perry would drop out of the race.
“A broken clock is right once a day,” Perry replied with a smile, before adding that he was still in the race.

Ha ha; let’s have a laugh at Rick Perry’s expense.  Of course, he could be more used to this clock…

… Someone needs to peer into Rick Perry’s office to see if he uses this unusual clock, or the more standard 12 hour type to see if this statement is, indeed, a gaffe.

In other “people running for president you’re not paying attention to because you’re being entertained by Trump, silently waiting and thinking “they do have to end up with Jeb or Rubio at the end, right?”… loving Sanders, and sighing as you wait for Hillary’s inevitable nomination”…

Scandal rocks Martin O’Malley campaign!  Furniture sold, bought, cheap… favors traded and…

Thanks to what looks like a generous interpretation of state rules, by some pliable state officials, Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat who left office in January, was allowed to purchase much of the governor’s mansion’s residential furniture — 54 pieces from the family’s bedrooms and living rooms — for the attractive price of $9,638; the original price of those items, billed to taxpayers, was $62,000.

Finally.  Scandal rocks someone in the Democratic field besides Hillary Clinton.

One question…

a new “Joke with the Pope” digital campaign, encouraging people to “donate” a joke to support one of three causes ahead of Pope Francis’ historic U.S. visit.

The campaign, which begins Sept. 8, is being launched by the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and precedes the release of its new mobile app, Missio. The mission societies work to spread the Catholic faith overseas, especially in poor and remote areas.

[…]

Through Oct. 2, people — anyone, not just Catholics — can submit a written joke or short video of themselves telling a joke on the Joke with the Pope website, jokewiththepope.org. They then can choose a cause their joke will support: helping children in need in Argentina, housing the homeless in Ethiopia or feeding the hungry in Kenya.

The organization will announce the funniest joke Oct. 5, bestowing the title of “honorary comedic adviser to the pope” on the winner and donating $10,000 to the cause chosen by the winner.

This is going to induce quite a few inappropriate jokes of one vintage or another… oh, raunchiness, bitter Catholic up-bringing crap, scandals about pedophilic priests…

They’re probably going to never see the light of day and be shuffled by Bill Murray into a “delete” bin.

But if they’re not… or even if they are… can there be, like, an alternate site that shows these rejected on sight jokes?