Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Bark louder, little dog.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Come on, man.

So very ready.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Republicans in disarray!

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2014

Archives for 2014

The Bush Crime Family Is Never Going Away

by | 78 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Barring a moral awakening or some other improbable event, it looks like we’re gonna be forced to witness the Bush clan attempting to shoehorn yet another family member into the White House. Per CNN:

… The Des Moines Register reports Tuesday that GOP Iowans recently received mailers from the former Floridian governor that sounded more like a campaign pitch than a donation plea for his social fundraising group, Excellence in Education National…

In recent days speculation about a potential bid has increased following several comments made by his family members. On Sunday, both of Bush’s sons hinted that their father is seriously considering running. In an interview with the New York Times, Jeb Bush Jr. said that people and donors are “getting fired up” about the idea of his father running for president.

“I think it’s more than likely that…he’ll run. The family will be behind him 100 percent if he decides to do it,” George P. Bush, the governor’s youngest son, told Jon Karl on ABC’s “This Week.”

Jeb also, per the AP, criticized President Obama’s crisis management as “incompetent” and called his Middle East strategy “an unmitigated disaster”, because his target GOP voters have had six whole years to forget everything about the Dubya/Cheney administration.

So I’m happy to see that Mother Jones has published an early primer of “23 Reasons Why Jeb Bush Should Think Twice About Running for President“, including helpful links to some of the many shady characters in Jeb’s business background:

… The fraudster: In 1986, Camilo Padreda, who had been a counterintelligence officer for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s, hired Bush to find tenants for office buildings financed with US Department of Housing and Urban Development-backed loans. Bush took the gig, despite the fact that four years earlier Padreda had been indicted for embezzling $500,000 from a Texas savings and loan. Those charges were dropped, but in 1989 Padreda pleaded guilty to defrauding HUD of millions…

The international fugitive: In 1986, Miguel Recarey, who’d done 30 days in jail for income tax evasion in the 1970s, paid Bush $75,000 to help him find a new headquarters for his health care company. The company never moved, but while Bush’s father was serving as vice president, Bush lobbied the US Department of Health and Human Services to help Recarey access millions in Medicare funds…

The fortunate son: Cuban American real estate developer Armando Codina was the Florida chair of George H.W. Bush’s unsuccessful 1980 bid for the GOP presidential nomination. He loved the Bush family so much that when Jeb first moved to Miami in the early 1980s, he made Bush a partner in his real estate company and gave him 40 percent of the profits—even though Jeb had no real estate experience or money to invest. In 1985, Bush and Codina bought an office building partially financed by a savings and loan that later failed. The $4.56 million loan went into default, but federal regulators gave Bush and his partner a pass. Instead of foreclosing, they merely asked them to repay $500,000 of the loan. Taxpayers picked up the rest. In 1991, Bush and Codina sold the building for $8 million.

The shady company: In 2007, Bush joined the board of InnoVida, a building materials-manufacturing startup founded by a businessman whose previous company had gone bankrupt under suspicious circumstances. Bush and his fellow board members subsequently failed to notice that InnoVida officials had used forged documents to fake solvency, hidden the company’s financial problems, and misappropriated $40 million. The company’s Maserati-driving founder eventually went to jail for money laundering, and investors lost their shirts when the company went bankrupt in 2011. Last year, Bush agreed to repay the $270,000 he was paid by the company as a consultant to reimburse defrauded investors….

The Bush Crime Family Is <em>Never</em> Going AwayPost + Comments (78)

Your Failed Media in Action

by | 42 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Or should that read “inaction?” Here’s genuine asshole John Kasich with his opponent Ed Fitzgerald at a discussion with the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer in an endorsement interview, not only failing to answer why he thought it was ok to put a gag rule on rape crisis counselors despite the fact he allegedly supports choice in cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother, but simply ignoring Fitzgerald.

The editorial board was fine with his answer. They were so fine with the answer that they later removed the video from their website and this is but a clip posted to youtube.

Your Failed Media in ActionPost + Comments (42)

Charles Barkley Thinks Black People Are Crabs In A Barrel

by | 98 Comments

This post is in: 

Former NBA player Charles Barkley, never one to avoid sensitive topics with his signature tact, had some theories on why Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson wasn’t liked by some of his teammates because he wasn’t seen as “black enough”:

“There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don’t have success,” Barkley said. “It’s best to knock a successful black person down ’cause they’re intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they’re successful. It’s crabs in a barrel. … We’re the only ethnic group that says, ‘hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.’ “…”Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we’re never going to be successful not because of you white people but because of other black people,” Barkley said. “When you’re black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It’s a dirty, dark secret; I’m glad it’s coming out.”

So there you have it. The only reason black people don’t have more success is because of other black people. Also, everyone should pull their pants up. Sigh.

Team Blackness also finally delved into all this Ebola talk, and we did it with our very our Ratchet A** Scientist.

Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS

Charles Barkley Thinks Black People Are Crabs In A BarrelPost + Comments (98)

Annals of “If Anyone Was Offended” — Post-Racial America Edition

by | 74 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Update:  I’ve just done something I’ve never done before:  edit a couple of comments.  I don’t know if I’m old, or oversensitive, or too PC or whatever, but I can’t take certain words anymore — at least not outside of settings and meanings where there is clearly no other that will express something that needs to be said.  So I’ve edited, gently the use of the word we often represent here as Ni-Clang!

So — now you know.  I do read every last comment on any post I write, sometimes very long after the event, but every one.  It’s absolutely not my place to make any change in any of them — if you’re pissing on the campfire too often, I’d consider a ban, but I’ve never actually levied one.  And I’m surely not going to set up as the language police.  But I guess I do have trigger words.  Don’t try any word for “Jew” that starts with a “k”; don’t use the N-word just for fun and so on.  I am genuinely sorry if you think this is arbitrary, harsh, or overly sensitive.  But not sorry enough to restore the words that bugged me to the thread.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming:

———————————————

Via TPM I came across this repulsive story:

Officials have confirmed that an offensive Halloween display at a Fort Campbell residence has been removed.

A ClarksvilleNow.com reader sent a photo of the display, which shows what appears to be a black family hanging from a tree in a yard on Litwin St.

The child in the display has a knife in its back and one of the figures holds a sign that is not legible in the photo.

Officials at the base got in touch with the resident, and, as reported,

[Public Affairs spokesperson Brendalyn] Carpenter said it was her understanding that the display was not intended to be offensive, but authorities deemed it could be interpreted as such.

Zero_Hour-_the_Mareth_Offensive,_1943._Cameron_Highlanders_Art.IWMARTLD3398

Pretty on-target deeming there, I’d say.

The display itself is ne plus ultra of the insult here — but that “not intended to be offensive” is in some ways the longer knife.  That someone could  say that is at once a display of enormous contempt for those who know what that little tableau actually means, and, if it were in any way a sincere expression of someone’s regret, testimony to the “airborne toxic event” quality of 21st century racism.  How much awful stuff does one have to simply accept as the natural order of things to be unable to  see that putting up a lynching diorama in your front yard is the work of a thug, a vicious and actually threatening act.

Worst of all:  this is done in the context of Halloween, which means whoever did this was ok with a bunch of little kids — many of them (army base and all) African American — walking by.

But, of course, John Roberts with his co-conspirators have told us that race is no longer an issue in this country, and he is an honorable man. So are they all honorable men….

Image: Jack Chaddock,  Zero Hour- the Mareth Offensive, 1943. Cameron Highlanders, 1943.  I have to admit that I was at a loss as to how to illustrate this post.  What image captures without celebrating the wretchedness?  So I’ve opted for this:  how to be offensive intentionally.

Annals of “If Anyone Was Offended” — Post-Racial America EditionPost + Comments (74)

Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 68 Comments

This post is in: ,

This oldie but goody goes out to valued commenter Dance Around in Your Bones, who reminded me of it the other day:

GoPro update: I may have DaisyCam footage this evening to share. But maybe not.

Random question: I need a new roof. I’ve arranged three estimates. Is that enough? I don’t know anyone who has had a roof put on who is happy with the price or the construction process. We’re preparing to be hosed.

Open thread.

Wednesday Afternoon Open ThreadPost + Comments (68)

Republicans Are Bad For Your Health

by | 26 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

This is just a drive-by sidelight on Richard’s brief — but its worth taking a look at this explainer from the Upshot.

The good news:  Obamacare is doing what it set out to do.  Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz write that

The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas. The areas with the largest increases in the health insurance rate, for example, include rural Arkansas and Nevada; southern Texas; large swaths of New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia; and much of inland California and Oregon.

Each of these trends is going in the opposite direction of larger economic patterns. Young people have fared substantially worse in the job market than older people in recent years. Blacks and Hispanics have fared worse than whites and Asians. Rural areas have fallen further behind larger metropolitan areas.

Women are the one modest exception. They have benefited more from Obamacare than men, and they have received larger raises in recent years. But of course women still make considerably less money than men, so an economic benefit for women still pushes against inequality in many ways. [all links in the original]

Rembrandt_Christ_Healing_the_Sick

The bad news:  it sucks to be ruled by the Republican cabal.  Or rather, it’s great if your state government actually managed to get used to the idea of Free Money! (h/t the indispensable Charles Pierce):

Despite many Republican voters’ disdain for the Affordable Care Act, parts of the country that lean the most heavily Republican (according to 2012 presidential election results) showed significantly more insurance gains than places where voters lean strongly Democratic. That partly reflects underlying rates of insurance. In liberal places, like Massachusetts and Hawaii, previous state policies had made insurance coverage much more widespread, leaving less room for improvement. But the correlation also reflects trends in wealth and poverty. Many of the poorest and most rural states in the country tend to favor Republican politicians. Of course, the fact that Republican areas showed disproportionate insurance gains does not mean that only Republicans signed up; there are many Democrats living in even the most strongly Republican regions of the country.

But for the rest…

There are still a lot of uninsured people remaining, many in the places that had high uninsured rates last year.

Where would those folk live?  Check out the last map in the piece.  No one here will be surprised.

Image: Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ Preaching (Christ Healing the Sick — the hundred guilder print), 1646-50.

Republicans Are Bad For Your HealthPost + Comments (26)

Spare a copper for the poor

by | 28 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , , ,

We’ve talked about the Copper plans being proposed by Senator Begich (D-Alaska) and others earlier this year. The basic thrust of the policy is the following:

Right now, minimal essential coverage for people over the age of 29 and those not facing a hardship is a Bronze plan. That plan covers 60% of the average expected acturial cost. All Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum policyholders from a single company in a single state make up a unified risk pool. The metallic band plans are subsidized by tax credits. Minimal essential coverage for people 29 and younger is catastrophic coverage which covers less than 50% of the expected acturial cost. Catastrophic coverage has its own seperate risk pool and is non-subsidized.

The copper plan would be a redefinition of essential minimum coverage for most people from 60% actuarial value to 50%. This is a 16% decrease in expected coverage value, and it is getting insurance to the point where it is truly hit by the bus coverage. The 16% decrease in coverage will probably lead to an 18% to 20% decrease in premium pricing if the pricing differentials between the same insurer/same plan design Bronze-Silver-Gold-Platinum hold up. To get that decrease in actuarial value, the maximum out of pocket levels will increase from the current $6,350 to between $8,000 and $10,000.  It is a trade-off between lower guaranteed monthly payments and the possibility of much higher oh-shit payments. That is a legitimate trade-off for insurance.

Erik Loomis, at Lawyers Guns and Money,  in service of making the larger and correct point that there was never 51 votes in the 2009-2010 Senate as it was for high acturial coverage, low monthly premium insurance for all or at least all citizens and permanent aliens, points out the Copper plan as evidence that there is a significant caucus for making insurance worse.  However he makes a point that I think needs significant modification.

“a significant percentage of the Democratic caucus is looking to fix the ACA by making it a lot worse for poor people. “

We need to divide the analytical universe into three segments.  I think only one segment would be significantly worse off, one would be in a series of trade-offs in a larger option space, and the third would be untouched.

Let’s get to the easy one first.

show full post on front page

Spare a copper for the poorPost + Comments (28)