Hopeful and warning signs from Alabama

As I said, it is unwise to draw sweeping conclusions from the shocking win by Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the senate race in the deep red state of Alabama. It may well be that that election was sui generis because of the extreme views of Moore and the sexual abuse allegations against him and the revelations of his creepy obsession with teenage girls..
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Hey, maybe Trump will nominate me for a federal judgeship

After seeing this video of one of Donald Trump’s nominations for a lifetime position as a federal judge in the US District Court, I feel that I am just as qualified as him. He failed to satisfactorily answer a single question of law posed to him by Republican senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Trump has been nominating extreme ideologues to the federal bench, many of whom have been deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association. The sad thing is that the Republican senators have confirmed many of them.
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Using ‘lulz’ to recruit white nationalists and neo-Nazis

That we are witnessing a resurgence of white nationalist and neo-Nazi sentiment is indisputable. A noticeable feature is that while in the past members of these groups were distinctive because they were heavily tattooed, skinheads , and wore leather jackets and all the other accoutrements that signified that they were tough and not to be messed with, the current members forego all that and look like regular college students or young executives, as I wrote in my earlier post That nice young neo-Nazi next door. This change has not been achieved by the former group removing their tattoos, growing their hair, and buying a new wardrobe. Instead we are seeing a new kind of member.
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Fifth anniversary of Sandy Hook massacre

Susie Madrak has compiled a photo montage of the six teachers and twenty first-grade children who were murdered at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT on this day five years ago

But after the massacre, more laws were passed around the nation weakening gun control (37) than strengthening it (14).

You have to wonder, if such a grotesque event did not lead to any form of reasonable gun control, what hope is there?

And now for some political soap opera

Oh boy, this is going to be good.

Roy Moore has issued a fiery video statement explaining why he has not conceded the race. He says that all the provisional and military ballots have not been counted yet and that the secretary of state (a Moore supporter) has not certified the result. He seems to think that his god will carry out a miracle on his behalf. But it seems likely that the secretary will certify the result soon and then I am not sure what Moore will do.
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Roy Moore is waiting for God(ot)

Roy Moore still hasn’t conceded that he has lost the Alabama senate race, even though the margin of defeat was 1.5%, well above the 0.5% threshold that triggers automatic recounts and that the Alabama secretary of state John Merrill, a Moore supporter, said that he thought it highly unlikely that a recount would change anything. Then Merrill incorrectly said that Moore could ask for a recount if he was willing to pay for it but legal experts say that Alabama law has that provision only for elections to state offices, not federal ones.
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