Always follow the money:
Never mind that it’s 92 degrees and nearing the end of the day: Jenny Beth Martin has started jogging between houses.
“I’ve gotta get my steps,” she calls back to the rented Suburban with the Florida license plates that has been shuttling her around with the air-
conditioning set to full blast.In from Georgia, Martin has been spending much of the past three weeks in the state, holding conferences, making fundraising calls, meeting with local chapters of the tea party, and yes, walking door-to-door to turn out the vote for conservative Senate hopeful Chris McDaniel. But unlike most volunteers here, as the head of the national Tea Party Patriots, a group she co-founded and helped bring to national prominence, she’s on track to make $450,000 this year doing all this, according to the latest Federal Election Commission reports and Internal Revenue Service filings. And to top that off, the group’s latest disclosures also note that she is allowed to travel first-class on any domestic flight she takes as president of the organization — although her lawyer says she doesn’t take advantage of the perk.
Here’s my favorite part of the story:
Before Martin was the president of the Tea Party Patriots, she was a software manager who quit her job to get fertility treatments and give birth to twins. The temp agency of her husband, Lee Martin, went belly-up, leaving the couple with a debt of more than $500,000 to the IRS. They filed for bankruptcy around the time of the Wall Street bailout.
“I was very frustrated by the TARP bill, because nobody bailed us out, and we weren’t looking for a bailout,” Martin says in a coffee shop outside of Jackson. It’s a message she uses often, saying that no one bailed out her husband’s company when it failed. As for being bailed out themselves, Martin has had to publicly contend with the fact that she and her husband filed for bankruptcy, a bailout of its own sort. Less well known is the fact that her husband accepted unemployment for a time, something else she has explained.
“I’ve never said that there should be no safety net,” she says. “That decision was more difficult for him than the decision not to stay in our house. . . . We were scraping by.”
Screws creditors out of a half a million (and that is a bailout, dear, you aren’t in the debtor prisons like Ted Cruz and others would love to have make a comeback), accepts public assistance, and now makes 500k a year to try to do everything she can to elect people who would eliminate the safety net for people who were in her exact same position a few years ago.
These people are sick and evil.
Pogonip
I have my pitchfork and a good supply of torches ready. Waiting for other citizens to get interested. A few hundred Juicers ain’t gonna cut it.
MattF
If Jenny gets a safety net that no one else gets, then she’s special. Because.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Pogonip: IIIRC, 954 names are recorded as official vainqueurs de la Bastille. Just sayin’.
Mnemosyne
It’s a disconnect I just don’t get. One of the other threads made me remember a conversation I had with my parents where they were decrying “Obamacare” but talking about the great cancer care a friend of my brother’s had gotten from Medicaid. Just a complete disconnect from How Things Actually Work.
Eric U.
this isn’t quite as bad as some examples of tea party hypocrisy, but it’s close
@Pogonip: it only took what, less than 50 young republicans to stop the recount in Florida?
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
OT, do you know anything about an “Echo Point” on the Wisconsin River that isn’t called that any more?
Bubblegum Tate
It’s the financial version of “the only moral abortion is my abortion.”
gogol's wife
@Eric U.:
plus 5 Supreme Court justices
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Their total workload was a bit smaller than the current days would be and I believe their weapons were about equal to those they were discussing the government makeup with. Just a couple of differences.
Tokyokie
@Mnemosyne: My Reagan-loving mother and stepfather hated all those socialist programs foisted on an unwilling public by various Democratic administrations, but boy howdy, they did love their Medicare coverage.
Mnemosyne
@Pogonip:
My asthma is probably too bad right now for torch-wielding (too much smoke) but I’m standing by to be a tricoteuse.
Pogonip
@Eric U.: I suggest we buy rifles for 50 tattooed black guys to open carry on the streets this bitch is canvassing.
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne: Oh, good. I was wondering if anyone would step up to be a tricoteuse. I’d be hopeless. I’m not at all crafty.
srv
What if the meteor doesn’t arrive until AFTER the Wingularity?
Life is damn cruel.
WereBear
I sometimes think they are ruthless about eliminating help… because that means there will be more for them. Because they are special that way.
Or they’re just stone stupid.
MattR
I’m just saying it should only exist for the right people. If you want a hint about who those people are, it rhymes with “right”
SiubhanDuinne
I looked her up on Wikipedia. Here are two (non-consecutive) items from the Wiki article:
I find that just hilarious.
Tokyokie
@MattR: Blight?
SatanicPanic
Sounds like a variation on Craig T Nelson’s- “I’ve been on foodstamps and welfare, did anyone help me out? No.”
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@gogol’s wife: The only Echo Point I know of on the Wisconsin is in the Dells (not the town, the actual Dells). It is the place where the famous Ducks go into the River.*
*The best man at my grandfather’s wedding was one of the first people to operate the old WWII surplus vehicles on the river. He later sold his operation to Tommy Bartlett.
scav
@Pogonip: No fear. There’s always room for more people to help winding the balls of all the yarn we’re going to need.
srv
From the article:
Gold, Jerry! Gold!
Just needs a “Keep Obama Out Of My Medicare” sticker on that wheelchair bumper.
ralphb
@Pogonip:
An added benefit of that would be sudden GOP interest in gun control, provided we could collect for enough rifles.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Privilege. It’s only a bailout if it benefits Those People. If it’s one of Us getting stuff, it’s something we deserve because we’ve worked hard our whole lives.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
I volunteer to be an ironic, latte-sipping hipster writing feuilletons. From my air-conditioned Prius, natch.
JPL
IOKIYR and white. just sayin
srv
@Pogonip: We need a Million Black Panthers March through the south.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: In my days as an SAT, etc. proctor, I would walk up and down the aisles crocheting. My fellow proctors nicknamed me Madame DeFarge. I’ll gladly join you on the battle lines, yarn and hook in hand.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): @gogol’s wife: Unless you were thinking of Echo Dells in Stevens Point. In which case, my dad’s great grandfather had a small saw mill just up river from it.
NotMax
OT:
Just a reminder that the rarely shown The Night They Raided Minsky’s is coming up at 9:45 p.m. Eastern today on TCM.
KG
@srv: well, for me, if you wear a confederate battle flag inspired anything, you are automatically fringe. but, then again, i’m a patriot and see the confederate stars and bars as a symbol of treason and racism.
@Roger Moore: well, when it is one of Us getting something, it’s ok because We’ve paid into the system all these years and where honest makers who just ran into some bad luck. It’s not like one of Us would be a moocher trying to game the system. Part of it is privilege, part of it is tribalism that they don’t realize they are engaging in, part of it is buying into stereotypes and anecdotes they’ve never bothered to find out if they’re true/widespread.
SatanicPanic
@Pogonip: People keep suggesting that sort of thing, but you know every last dude who tries that will end up dead or in jail. I mean, if you’re white, why not get an Obama T-Shirt and some skinny jeans, that will be scary enough for them.
Eric U.
as Atrios often points out, what she got is not as good as the secret welfare payments that the blahs in the inner cities get.
Morzer
@Pogonip:
I favor the idea of the Million Man* Minority Militia March.
*Person would rather spoil the alliteration, so….
Roger Moore
@KG:
Of course the buying into stereotypes is part of the tribalism. Tribalism predisposes them to believe bad things about Those People without evidence, and it means they probably don’t know enough people outside the tribe to form a realistic idea about what they’re like that’s independent of the stereotypes.
Roger Moore
@Morzer:
How about just leaving the “Man” out of it. The Million Minority Militia March is plenty alliterative enough.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Any relation to The Farmer In? [giggle]
/nothing left to lose wrt OO and song refs
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Hmmm . . . it doesn’t show up on googlemaps. Thank you!
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
No, Echo Point. Frank Lloyd Wright wanted to build a bridge there.
dmbeaster
@Mnemosyne:
Its not a disconnect. These are selfish pricks with zero sense of a social contract. So there is nothing wrong with both exploiting and seeking to destroy that system.
Morzer
@Roger Moore:
It makes it sound as if we have a million minorities, for starters. I am a believer in diversity, but even diversity ain’t that diverse. Plus, I like the resonance with the Million Man March.
gogol's wife
@NotMax:
But at 8:00 — Dance, Girl, Dance, with Maureen O’Hara and Lucille Ball in the burlesque (dir. Dorothy Arzner). It may be terrible, but how terrible can it be?
Morzer
@dmbeaster:
In sum: I am getting mine and then, fuck you, I am pulling the ladder up behind me.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne: @Pogonip:
My needles are especially pointy and ready for service!!
Alison
Bailouts for me but not for thee.
Their overarching philosophy, basically. See also: conservative women who get abortions.
WereBear
When I think of the oceans of cash that get thrown at jerks just to prop up narcissistic billionaires… I could cry.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@eemom: No, it originally comes from the French word dalles – meaning slab of rock. Looks like this from the river. Looks like this from the street. There is a reason it originally became a tourist mecca, but damned if we aren’t trying make people forget it.
Mustang Bobby
Jenny Beth sounds like she’s been playing the home version of the Sarah Palin game. Fun for the whole family!
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
It’s not one of Arzner’s greatest, but it’s not bad. Also features a young Lucille Ball, IIRC.
ETA: D’oh! You said that and I skimmed over it.
scav
@gogol’s wife: The USGNIS has an Echo Point in Washington county LINK
ETA But I can’t think why anyone would build a bridge there. They didn’t have any others in the database.
PurpleGirl
OT (read at a chat box at a kitten cam)
8.0 earthquake in Alaska, tsunami alert for the West Coast
KG
@Roger Moore: there’s probably some truth to that. i think the lack of exposure to others probably drives more of it than anything, but that’s just counting angels on a pinhead.
Roger Moore
@Morzer:
How about the Million Minority Militiaman March?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@gogol’s wife: Okay, then it is Echo Point at the Dells.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
Fun fact from the TCM article — Ball met Desi Arnaz while filming “Dance Girl Dance” (I won’t ruin the story of exactly how they met).
rikyrah
GRIFTERS…
the ENTIRE LOT of them
She wasn’t looking for a bailout, but then again, she got one..
IN BANKRUPTCY COURT
and, then, there’s the little matter of her husband getting UNEMPLOYMENT…
but, the REST of us are ‘moochers’.
The unmitigated GALL of these sociopaths.
MomSense
The [email protected]PurpleGirl:
YES!! That is my dad’s nickname for me as well. It all goes back to a particularly heated political discussion we had while I was knitting. I think the knitting speed increased with the tempers.
Morzer
@Roger Moore:
I am not really seeing a semantic difference here and I would prefer to keep the Million Man March echo. Make it the Minority Militia Million Man March, if you like.
NotMax
OT again:
Litlebritdifrnt
The sad part is that she is living large on the contributions of people who are barely surviving on social security payments and perhaps minimal pension payments. The majority of “tea party patriots” are seniors living on social security and medicaid, donating to the grifters in the hope that they will “take their country back”. From whom it is not sure, but all of the grifters are just getting rich on the backs of very poor people.
Citizen_X
Pardon my lack of business sense, but how does a two-person business end up half a million in debt to the IRS without there having been some non-payment of taxes over the last coupla years preceding?
Chopper
Well then shut the fuck up about it.
Russ
Who would have guessed that snake oil Dark would be a thing.
Tokyokie
@Citizen_X: They probably weren’t paying all the employer payroll taxes on the poor schmucks whose labor they were selling for a lot more than they were paying for it.
Jay in Oregon
If she doesn’t use that perk, then why does she get it? That’s like saying they’re going to pay her $700,000 a year in salary but she only takes $400,000 of it. You never write anything into a contract that you don’t expect to use at some point.
Julia Grey
And I bet at least a third of them WEREN’T actually there.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Tokyokie: Yep, that’s about the only way a company that is losing money can end up owing to the IRS.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Citizen_X: yeah that is what I thought. I am always surprised that the RWNJ radio stations air so many “tax forgiveness” adverts, “Sue owed the IRS $200,000 tax avoidance solutions settled her case for $1,500” so basically these grifters are shafting the IRS and getting their benefits for free. How does that sit with the “responsible” crowd?
shelley
Been a bit of a drought on TCM lately. Friday was another Pirate movie night. And last night was Godzilla and Mighty Joe Young. And tonight they’re burning off ‘Gypsy’ at 1 AM? Sigh.
Mike in NC
Toilet Paper Patriots is more like it.
Villago Delenda Est
These people are monsters who should be destroyed.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Julia Grey: Most scholars estimate that the number was just under a thousand. Of course, one third of them could have been different people than the people actually named.
@Villago Delenda Est: FWIW you are passive aggressively being accused of antisemitism down below.
Jay in Oregon
@Litlebritdifrnt:
That’s easy. They claim it’s “their” money, not the IRS’s. Taxation is theft, after all.
It was the same excuse Ayn Rand used for claiming Social Security. She paid into the system so she should get “her” money back out of it.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): and the sad part is that it is not their money that they are not paying, it is the employees, they withhold every paycheck and basically pocket the difference, if they then don’t send that money to the IRS they are simply stealing money out of each employees paycheck and sticking it into their own pocket. If they can then “negotiate” a settlement with the IRS does that mean they are required to pay their employee back for the money that they stole? Answer? No, they simply get to pocket the cash.
Elmo
@PurpleGirl:
No shit? I’m in anchorage, I didn’t feel a thing!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Litlebritdifrnt: so they stole the money, declared bankruptcy and now MY TAX DOLLARS will have to replace the money they stole ? The head of the Tea Baggers is a moocher and a Taker lying in a hammock I”m paying for!
I’m shocked!
jefft452
“Screws creditors out of a half a million (and that is a bailout, dear, you aren’t in the debtor prisons like Ted Cruz and others would love to have make a comeback), accepts public assistance, and now makes 500k a year to try to do everything she can to elect people who would eliminate the safety net for people who were in her exact same position a few years ago.”
White welfare bums, terrified that if anyone gets a hand UP it will cut into their hand OUT
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
Strictly IMHO, but there is nearly always something distant, even cold, about Ball’s turns on the big screen that gets in the way of appreciating her talents.
rikyrah
KAY,
speaking of GRIFTERS,
did you see this?
For-profit charter corporations now in full-blown panic mode over Detroit Free Press investigative reporting
By Eclectablog on June 23, 2014 in Education
As I wrote about this morning, Michigan’s largest for-profit charter school company, National Heritage Academies (NHA) responded to a blockbuster new investigative report being published at the Detroit Free Press this week by buying up all of the ad space on the front page of their website as well as the website of the Detroit News. It turns out that isn’t the only over-the-top response the charters have had. The Detroit Free Press clearly has them in full-out panic mode.
I have had reports of several candidates for the state legislature receiving the following email from the Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA), that attempts to refute the outstanding journalism by the Free Press. MAPSA is essentially the trade group for the for-profit education corporation industry.
http://www.eclectablog.com/2014/06/for-profit-charter-corporations-now-in-full-blown-panic-mode-over-detroit-free-press-investigative-reporting.html
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Yeah, I saw.
Gator90 has been schooled by you and Mnemo, but I chimed in as well. As I indicated, being Jewish isn’t their problem. Being neocons is, who would gladly send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in the sands so that Bibi and the Likud can continue to treat the Palestinians pretty much the same way that Jews were treated in Central Europe 80 years ago.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Litlebritdifrnt: @Litlebritdifrnt: The debt reductions negotiated by these guys are often accomplished by simply getting the IRS to accept the tax owed plus interest and then waive the penalties. They then take a third or what was saved as fee. A real, reputable law firm could do some similar for a lot less money. The settlement firms are preying on people. I once had a client, a truck driver, who ended up owing nearly $30K to the IRS because his company was shafting him by treating him as an independent contractor instead of an employee. The IRS slapped huge penalties on top of the tax, but I was able to get his penalties waived. We also went after the company for screwing him. End result: score one for the good guys.
RSR
Bullshit Mountain. H/t @atrios
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, I’m as shocked as Claude Rains was in Casablanca.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: My favorite story/urban legend about Lucille Ball: On the set of ILL, Vivian Vance: “I’d tell you to go fuck yourself, but I know Desi already told you that today”
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax: Wow, that’s rather amazing. Where the arrests took place. Good GOP/Bible Belt towns for the most part. Old Confederacy, to include Arizona, which fancied itself as a Confederate territory during the rebellion. Surprise, surprise surprise.
scav
@rikyrah: Interesting. I’m not exactly sure smearing one’s face with glitter and inches of eyeliner while marching through town with pom-poms and a hired brass band is the best manner to hide a bruise, however big.
Pogonip
@SatanicPanic: I’m too old and fat for skinny jeans, but I’ll get the shirt.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@scav: If you have a headache and you hit your toe with a hammer, you won’t notice the headache anymore.
@Pogonip: Everyone is too old and fat for skinny jeans.
Suffern ACE
@Elmo: it was near the Aleutian Islands.
Someday that Richter scale is going to be reworked into something that makes more sense.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Immediately eating a fire-ant and nettle sandwich would take your mind off the toe in turn.
shelley
I remember hearing that they really couldn’t stand each other. Kinda sad, playing best pals on a sitcom for years and years and having to do that much pretending.
Pogonip
@SatanicPanic: What if the 50 black guys march intermingled with 75 or so whites? There’d be enough of us that the cops would look pretty obvious trying to sort us by race.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Thank you, kind sir!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@scav: Yes, it’s turtles all the way down.
@gogol’s wife: You are welcome. I just needed FLW bit to figure it out. Echo Dells in Stevens Point is rather pretty though.
gogol's wife
@shelley:
But the Friday night pirate movie, “Against All Flags,” with Maureen O’Hara, Errol Flynn, Anthony Quinn, and Mildred Natwick, was a HOOT!
Pogonip
@Morzer: Plenty Patriotic People Perambulation?
scav
@Suffern ACE: I doubt a change in scale is going to change anything in that order of events. More information came in.
Villago Delenda Est
@Morzer: That’s Fat Tony’s position, Tom Tancredo’s position, Sheriff Joe’s position. Every last one of them come from an ethnic background that 70 years ago was barely above that of the African Americans in terms of respectability.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Hey, I’ll have you know that I was carded last week wearing my skinny jeans!
Pogonip
@shelley: According to a book I have about famous California nut cases (very thick book) Vivian Vance and William Frawley also hated each other, and almost everyone who knew Frawley couldn’t stand him.
Roger Moore
@KG:
It’s a syndrome, not a single thing. There’s a whole set of beliefs that feed each other, which is what makes the whole thing so pernicious. Distrust in The Other justifies refusing to get to know them, which allows negative stereotypes to persist, which reinforce the hatred and distrust that justify not getting to know them. It’s a really toxic mixture, and it’s very hard to break someone out of, short of forcing them to deal with the feared and hated other whether they want to or not.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@MomSense: I don’t get dogmatic about many things regarding fashion, but I will with this. Some women can manage the look; no man can – I don’t care how young and skinny he is.
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
That it was, that it was.
One suspects the sets were constructed of iron to resist being chewed to mush by Flynn.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Anyway, for those who haven’t seen it or don’t remember it, recommend Minsky’s again. Brit comedian Norman Wisdom’s performance is a jewel.
sinnedbackwards
@KG:
We used to sell a button that said “May you find many opportunities to collect on your insurance.”
When our slower lookers asked what it meant I always told them it was a curse.
Because it is.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Skinny jeans is not a great look on most guys I’ll give you that. It is better than the shorts suits and the too baggy exposing your back side pants but just barely.
My fashion mantra is what would Audrey wear?
Mnemosyne
@shelley:
IIRC, Ball and Vance didn’t hate each other, but Vance hated the character of Ethel. Don’t forget, Vance and Ball did three additional series after “I Love Lucy” and continued working together on other projects until Vance died of cancer in 1979.
Vance and Frawley really did hate each other, though. Vance was basically forced into playing older than she was on ILL because Frawley was so much older than she was (about 20 years’ difference, IIRC) and ended up hating both the character and Frawley because of it.
kc
“I meant there should be no safety net for OTHER PEOPLE. You know . . .the moochers.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kc: Good Tweety showed up tonight and asked a Tea Bagger what gov’t spending she would cut: Hang on to your hats- she would cut waste at the Pentagon (while increasing spending on our troops!) and the Dept of Education,
PurpleGirl
@Elmo: It was in the Aleutian Islands. A Canadian news source:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/23/alaska-earthquake-sparks-tsunami-warning/
From the map it looks the tsunami would mostly be in the Aleutians and not far south.
Morzer
@Villago Delenda Est:
Plus catholique que le pape is something that applies to all denominations, including three dollar bills like Fat Tony.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Saw that. Typical Republican. All talking points, no substance except for hurting the powerless.
Morzer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Did Tweety ask her to specify this waste which is to be cut?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Lucille Ball as the sexpot?
Baud
@Morzer:
He did. He was good in that particular instance.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Okay, one comment. Debts owed to the IRS for back taxes is not generally dischargeable in bankruptcy. You go through the whole process and usually come out still owing them. You can work out a deal with the IRS, as Omnes has described, but that isn’t part of bankruptcy. So while bankruptcy is a form of bailout, it likely didn’t have anything to do with the $500,000 owed to the IRS. That’s really a separate issue.
Ruckus
@Litlebritdifrnt:
That’s why they want smaller government. That way there’s no one to catch them being “responsible.”
lukeallen1
Yes the grift pays. Kind of like grifters who run political websites with a Newsmax headlines ad at the very top.
Pogonip
@Morzer: Well, they could stop using contractors, who are more expensive than SMs or Federal employees for the fucking obvious reason that a contractor needs to turn a profit! That ain’t rocket science!
You do need contractors for, e.g., rocket science, but having contractor janitors, contractor cafeterias, contractor maintenance, that sort of thing, makes no sense at all.
Mike in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Teabaggers strongly support increased spending on the Pentagon and NASA. Because something something American Exceptionalism. All other government spending automatically qualifies as waste, especially the hundreds of billions in handouts to Yugoslavia and North Korea!
Pogonip
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): That reminds me. Where’s Yutsano been lately?
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
You go into production with the sexpot you have, not the sexpot you wish you had.
Or something. :)
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: Good for you!
I don’t get all the skinny jeans hate. It does depend on how skinny the jeans and wearer are. As long as you don’t look like a stuffed sausage you are OK. Also too, pair the skinny jeans with a looser top and boots.
scav
@Pogonip: Be kind — let’s say it was all the discussions of jeans and sexpots, not defaults and IRS that brings Yutsy to mind, no?
David Koch
This is how the mob would “bust-out” the assets and credit line of a business in Goodfellas.
They’d order a bunch of merchandise on credit, resell it off the books and under the table to others, and then they would stiff their creditors by declaring bankruptcy. The only thing the baggers haven’t done (that we know of) is set the business on fire to collect the insurance.
Tokyokie
@Pogonip: I’ve read in several places that Frawley was a nasty-tempered, severe alcoholic. He was fired from My Three Sons because of his unreliability and ill temper, and Fred MacMurray brought in his old pal Bill Demarest, who was a much better comic actor.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: Good for you! I don’t get all the skinny jeans hate. It does depend on how skinny the jeans and wearer are. As long as you don’t look like a stuffed sausage you are OK. Also too, pair the skinny jeans with a looser top and boots.
“ETA: Delete if the original comment shows up.
Central Planning
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
QFT!
Baud
Whew
schrodinger's cat
OT: I just found out after watching the snooze hour, that a central NY district (Utica/Binghampton) has a primary between a TP candidate and the sitting Congress Republican Congress critter and the Dems aren’t even bothering to field a candidate. This is a district Romney won by around a 1% margin.
Morzer
@Baud:
How did she respond?
David Koch
@Baud:
Baud
@Morzer:
She stammered at first, but then remembered that she was supposed to mention Defense first, but then went on a long diatribe about cutting Education. Chris then asked her where she would cut defense, and she insisted she wouldn’t take it from the troops but would go after contractors.
Roger Moore
@Pogonip:
It makes some kind of sense, especially for lower-level employees. It’s expensive for the government to hire anyone because the government has to treat its employees like human beings: pay decent wages, offer benefits, etc. Contracting out lets them break those rules because it’s technically the contractor who’s mistreating the employees rather than the government itself.
Baud
@David Koch:
Haha. Weapons of mass confection.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I read this in the paper this morning. I, too, wanted to hit something when I read about how she got her bailout. But, hey, she’s entitled. She’s special. She’s white. Asshole…
redshirt
If I eat more than a slice of yellowcake I gain 3 pounds.
scav
@redshirt: and yet still the inspectors follow your every move and troops move in en masse.
schrodinger's cat
@redshirt: Do you also glow in the dark?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@efgoldman: Cold. That was cold.
redshirt
@scav: The UN paparazzi!
SiubhanDuinne
@gogol’s wife:
Oh gosh. Mildred Natwick may possibly be my favourite character actress of all time (pace Edna May Oliver, Thelma Ritter, Kathleen Freeman, et al), but for whatever lame reasons, I don’t think I have ever seen Against All Flags. Hard to believe with that cast. Will have to remedy soonest.
MaryRC
@@Mnemosyne: Another probably apocryphal story involves Vivian being contractually obligated to always weigh more than Lucy did. It seems unlikely — if Lucy put on 5 lbs, would Vivian have to put on 5 lbs too? But Vivian was made up to look less attractive than she really was and had to wear frumpy dresses and underclothes that were, reportedly, a couple of sizes two small for her (to achieve that lumpy look, I guess).
She did indeed hate Frawley and he hated her.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
IIRC, when Selznick was in a quandary over casting Scarlett O’Hara, one studio (RKO?) was determinedly pushing Lucille Ball for the role.
WereBear
@NotMax: I’ve been to Lucille Ball’s hometown. She tried to get out, broke her leg, retrained as a dancer, and got out again.
And I don’t blame her one little bit. It is the most singularly depressing location I have ever ever been.
SiubhanDuinne
@sinnedbackwards:
So completely O/T it should be in another country:
Your nym makes me think of Dennis G., and I just wonder what has ever happened to him. He’s still listed as a front-pager in the email contact list. He provided some wonderful posts about today’s GOP/Tea Party/conservative movement vis-à-vis the Confederacy. But I feel as though I haven’t seen him in a year or so.
Dengre, if you’re out there and just lurking, please wave. I hope you’re (he’s) writing a book or doing something grand that we will all rejoice in.
redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: In a threatening way, yes.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
An actress supremely skilled in her craft. Held her own (and then some) with Helen Hayes in The Snoop Sisters TV series.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Okay, that is just stupid. What the fuck is wrong with the DNC or DCCC or whatever the appropriate acronym is? Even when it is R+7, +10 or more, we should be running a Democrat in Every. Single. Congressional. District. In. The. Nation.
Goddammit.
mattH
Thanks for picking up the slack now that DougJ had to drop out John. Much appreciated.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Yes, that was a fun series. I think the first time I was aware of her was in The Trouble With Harry.
And she was refreshing in the otherwise fairly pedestrian Barefoot in the Park.
Belafon
If you can’t grift with the best of them, you don’t deserve a safety net.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
The cheaper movie tickets would be nice.
@efgoldman:
I took my son to a birthday party once and they gave him the first shot at the pinata. He hit it with the first swing and it ruined the whole thing. Fortunately the disappointment didn’t last long once they saw the all the candy and then some boys just stomped on the pinata to get out their aggression.
MaryRC
@SiubhanDuinne: Mildred Natwick was the best thing in Barefoot in the Park! I still remember the expression on her face when she appears after climbing up 5 flights of stairs or when she is offered a dubious-looking canape by Charles Boyer. In fact she may have been the only good thing about it. If you ever want to read a deliciously scathing put-down, look up Bosley Crowther’s review of Barefoot in the Park when it was released.
gene108
@Pogonip:
Who is going to hire the janitors, cafeteria workers, maintenance workers, etc.?
I’m being serious here.
Government procurement is fairly convoluted, with contractors who work on contracts with a fixed budget. The government budgets $100,000 for an HHS office building, in Philadelphia, to hire janitorial staff. Two janitors quit the contractor and one is let go for non-performance. As far as the HHS is concerned they have their $100,000 allocated for this service and it is up to the contractor to fill the position.
If this changed, where the HHS building had to replace the three positions, it’d create a new set of people to be employed by the government just to hire janitors (and other positions) outside of the current procurement folks.
I wish it’d be as simple as just cutting out contractors and direct hiring federal employees, but there are real logistical issues, with regards to how government procurement is done and how government procurement is staffed that would need to be addressed, before it could happen.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@gene108: We used to do it. Perhaps looking back at the old plans might help.
Jeffro
@Chopper: Right! Or perhaps ask her, “Now that you are doing so well, would you care to pay back those debts you were so cavalierly excused from back when you took your bailou…er…I mean, bankruptcy?”
pseudonymous in nc
The amount of money sloshing around for teabagger wingnut welfare — the grift that keeps giving — is ample proof that some people definitely aren’t “taxed enough already.”
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
It’s called Human Resources. Or, if you want to be old-fashioned, Personnel. You can go to USAJobs.gov and see how the hiring is done.
Mnemosyne
@MaryRC:
Apparently the “must weigh more” thing was something that Ball had written into a fake “contract” and gave to Vance as a gag gift at a holiday party.
schrodinger's cat
@SiubhanDuinne: I did a headdesk when I heard it. May be Mistermix can tell us the reason.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): That’s probably before the prevailing CW became; treat everything like a business (from schools to hospitals and everything in between) and only care about short term cost cutting and/or profit.
Mnemosyne
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s the way they do it at the Giant Evil Corporation: the custodial staff, commissary staff, groundskeepers, etc. are all contractors. The really weird part is that most of them have been doing the same job for years — they just switch from contract company to contract company when a new one is hired. So, for example, in the 8 years I’ve been in my current office, the lunch lady who rings me up has been an employee of at least three (3) different companies, but always working at the same place doing the same job. It’s weird.
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne: They have a cute name for it too, the theory of core competence. Stick to your core competence and farm out everything else and profits will follow.
legion
“I’ve never said that there should be no safety net,” she says.
I absolutely guarantee that is a lie.
Citizen Alan
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Actually, if they owed over $500,000, they probably had to do a Chapter 11, which would have allowed them to restructure the tax debt into something manageable.
dmbeaster
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Actually, income taxes are dischargeable in bankruptcy. The exact rules are complicated to summarize, but the two basic rules are the taxes were owed over three years prior to the bankruptcy filing and it has been two years since the returns for the taxes in question were filed. There can be additional complications to these rules, but taxes, penalties and interest that fit these rules are dischargeable. Deliberate tax fraud is not dischargeable.
lol
@SiubhanDuinne:
“Romney only won by 1%” is incredibly misleading because the Republican incumbent won in 2012 with 61% of the vote.
Are *you* willing to set aside your life for the better part of a year so you can be the punching bag who goes on to lose by over 20%? Does this seem like the kind of district that would be a good investment of the DCCC’s time and resources in a year like this?
NotMax
@lol
Not saying it is the case here, but tacit (and plausibly deniable) agreements between the major parties of the “we won’t run anyone in district X and you won’t run anyone in district Y” variety are not unheard of.
BubbaDave
@lol:
This. A political campaign is grueling; it’s expensive; it can be hard on your personal and professional relationships; you’re unlikely to win; and if you do win you’re qualified to serve as a minority backbencher in a dysfunctional legislature that’s directed by the forlorn hope of an oversized Oompa-loompa that someday he may find the mason jar in which the Koch brothers buried his testicles.
Frankly, it’s amazing we have any candidates at all outside of safe blue seats.
mattH
@Mnemosyne: With no benefits short of a check and maybe a few days off a year. Gotta love contracting.
Mnemosyne
@mattH:
IIRC, they are actual employees of the contracted company, not contractors of the contractor (so to speak). So they get medical/vacation/etc., but nothing near as good as they would get if they were employees of the Giant Evil Corporation.
Plus it’s the GEC’s stealth way to union-bust, since those types of jobs would normally be union jobs here in the City of Angels.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And mind numbingly dumb – there is no reason why her Tea Tard grift isn’t going to fail to some younger, prettier huckster and she will be needing that social safety net again.
liberal
@Pogonip:
It really doesn’t make sense for a lot of US Gov positions.
I worked for a contracting company for years. The company was fine, wasn’t corrupt, etc, but I was in essence really a federal employee. The contracting company was just a pass through. But of course that doesn’t come free; they have to take a cut, and having a duplicate HR records system is a waste (since due to economy of scale, adding employees to an already existing federal organization is probably very low).
Only good thing—and here I betray my leftist roots—is that it was easy to dump employees for nonperformance, which is important when some federal support staff would do about 45 min work in an 8 hour day.
Ed
@eemom: The cheese stands alone.