Stories to Watch: 12/12/13

Dem pollster Stan Greenberg says that the relentless attacks on Obamacare are a "trap" for the GOP in 2014. The problem is that it can't win them enough votes to gain any traction. "This issue is evenly divided," he says. "The idea that healthcare is their route to winning here, I think, will come out against them." All it will do is signal gridlock to the voters.


Meanwhile, Ezra Klein notes that the current Republican attacks on the healthcare law are jawdroppingly hypocritical.


Marco Rubio signed his family up for Obamacare, despite being one of the big "DEFUND OBAMACARE BEFORE AMERICA IS DESTROYED!" voices in the Senate. So more hypocrisy there.


Prosecutors let George Zimmerman walk again, because he's only shot a teenager dead and threatened his girlfriend with a shotgun. Really, what's the worst that could happen, right? If you want to commit violent crimes and get away with them, it really looks like Florida's the place for you. No wonder Dexter was set there.


Meanwhile, in people who aren't fucking stupid about guns news: gun safety groups take a page from the anti-apartheid movement as a new tactic to reduce the influence of the gun lobby: divestment. They obviously put profits above people, so hit them where they live -- cut off the money supply.


Global warming is messing with your bananas.


A supposedly centrist group called Third Way would like you to believe they're just a group of sensible, middle-of-the-road types who want to end partisan extremism. What they are is actually a front group for Wall Street and the 1%. Keep that in mind the next time some centrist group tries to tell you how reasonable they are -- there is no one who is without an ideology and people who want to "end partisanship" generally just want to cut off debate and shut somebody up. It's just concern-trolling. In Third Way's case, the somebodies they want to shut up are Sen. Elizabeth Warren and progressives, who want to rein in Wall Street.


Bots now account for 61% of all web traffic. Have I mentioned my Must-Read Superfeed Twitter-bot lately?


The House approves the budget compromise. Color me surprised. I guess the power of the Tea Party in Washington has been severely diminished.


Finally, conservative media has a fascination with made up narratives about Pres. Obama's interactions with attractive white women. Needless to say, this rings a racial stereotype bell -- and rings it so clearly it's impossible to believe it's not meant to.


[cartoon via USA Today]