"It’s like paying a squeegee-wielding panhandler not to touch your car." https://t.co/iHaTgQO06q
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 13, 2017
Most squeegee-wielding panhandlers don't have access to the nuclear codes. https://t.co/aJJt7N4Yjo
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 13, 2017
Couple a’ Trump’s former gunsels are hustling big businessmen for ‘protection’, and the NYTimes explains how This Is Fine:
… For a fee, Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s pugilistic former campaign manager, and Barry Bennett, a former Trump senior adviser, will protect you from “tweet risk” — what happens to the stock price and reputation of your company when the president tells his 26 million Twitter followers that you’re killing factory jobs or refusing to sell Ivanka Trump handbags.
“If he’s gonna come after you, there’s nothing we can do to stop it,” Mr. Bennett said of Avenue Strategies, the firm he and Mr. Lewandowski opened in offices overlooking Mr. Trump’s White House bedroom window. “But if you want to figure out how to win in this environment, we can help you.
“We’re your sherpa through turbulent times.”…
So far, the administration “hasn’t done much beyond “a few executive orders,” Mr. Bennett says. So he and Mr. Lewandowski are pressing American companies to “call Jared Kushner and tell him you’re gonna build a new factory,” or invite Mr. Trump to “fly somewhere, cut a ribbon, and high-five 200 employees.”…
Avenue Strategies opened on Dec. 21, the day after Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s senior counselor, said, “Draining the swamp is not just about lobbying and politicians. It’s also about consultants.” Since then, Trump-related advisers, lawyers, or former campaign hands have opened or joined a host of lobbying and consulting businesses.
The two men say they’re not swamp creatures, because they are not just helping their clients; they are helping Mr. Trump. The firm even operates a fledgling super PAC to help Mr. Trump win re-election. Fired from the campaign and denied a plum job in the administration, Mr. Lewandowski still reveres Mr. Trump and glides past his rival Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, to visit Mr. Trump in the Oval Office. Mr. Lewandowski, who declined to be interviewed, has called any suggestion that he’s cashing in “absolutely disgusting.”…
The Avenue Strategies partners met two decades ago in Ohio: Mr. Lewandowski worked for Representative Bob Ney, and Mr. Bennett for Representative Frank Cremeans. (Mr. Ney was jailed in 2007 on federal corruption charges for his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.) Avenue Strategies’ clients often insist on nondisclosure agreements, but Mr. Bennett says most are “Fortune 100 companies.” Two that he can name are both from Ohio: Scott’s Miracle Gro and Community Choice Financial, a payday lender. Their firm is also finalizing a deal to represent the governor of debt-plagued Puerto Rico in talks with its Wall Street creditors…
"Lewandowski, who declined to be interviewed, has called any suggestion he’s cashing in 'absolutely disgusting' ” https://t.co/bqGaaPXKCY
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 13, 2017
He is right. It is true, and it is absolutely disgusting! https://t.co/odMnuodN9V
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) March 13, 2017
aimai
Wow. that’s all I have to say.
prob50
Every day “shamelessness” gets taken to a new level.
sdhays
This makes me think that they don’t know what swamp creatures are…
gene108
I wonder how much of a cut Trump gets from this protection racket?
rikyrah
The Art of the Steal: How the GOP Hired a Con Artist to Steal Our Election and Obamacare https://t.co/wW0ViZsQT0 via @docrocktex26
— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) March 12, 2017
zhena gogolia
I saw that article and just thought, no my blood pressure can’t take it.
NorthLeft12
I don’t believe anyone is suggesting that he is cashing in, they are flat out saying he is. I wonder how much of a kickback that Deadbeat Donald and his odious family are getting from this douchebag?
Gin & Tonic
All I wish for Lewandowski is a lingering, painful, incurable terminal disease.
Nicole
But her emails.
amk
All that emolument clause, the conflict of interest, the lawsuit – they all sound cute, don’t they now?
Ghost of Joe Liebling's Dog
So, making the world safe for payday loans and liquid fertilizer.
Sounds like they’ll fit right in — in fact, like Lewandowski never left.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Don’t stop there. He’s stealing our income, our voting rights, etc. I can’t think of a thing he isn’t planning on stealing from us.
Epicurus
Just when you think this gang can’t be any more corrupt…
Yarrow
Wow. Every day a new low.
This, though:
LOLOLOLOLOL. Way to throw Trump under the bus. Do-nothing president.
JMG
Sooner or later, probably sooner, these chaps will run into a business CEO who is wearing a wire.
debbie
And this is the country Trump wants: Columbus will have to pay 50% more for recycling because there was only one company bidding on the contract.
No other companies would even put in a bid. My guess is there was some kind of shenanigans, Soprano-style.
aimai
I presume DT doesn’t exactly get a cut directly from Lewandowski, but that their meetings are more like a grifter-hobbyists get together where they compare notes on how much they have taken the other suckers for.
Kathleen
@Gin & Tonic: Would you think I was awful person if I added “reduced to begging on street corners while languishing in a pool of his own drool and pee”? Which is fate I wish for every Rethug pol and Media Nazi Fluffer.
Ruckus
@Epicurus:
I’ve never thought there isn’t a level they will stoop to. Or crawl down to, or slither under or……,
They sully the good name of cockroaches, rats and bubonic plague.
Raven
@debbie: they stole his life but they could not steal his pride
debbie
@Raven:
What’s pride gonna buy you?
Ruckus
@Kathleen:
And while he’s standing on that street corner, he gets run over by a semi truck. Which doesn’t kill him but because he doesn’t have health insurance anymore, being a drooling pee covered pile of shit, he gets the minimal assistance and has to keep living in pain and begging for food, which no one gives him.
Thru the Looking Glass...
Shorter Lewandowski:
And why in God’s name did the writer have to put this detail in the article?
Now I’m not gonna sleep well tonight…
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Ruckus: A little more information here… which cabinet official are you talking about?
The Moar You Know
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Probably a nightly reenactment of that scene from Star Wars where you Vader getting his helmet put on from the back.
mapaghimagsik
And the show has hit a new low. Good gravy. I hope Trumpkins are proud. At this point, I wish cancer was selective.
A Ghost to Most
From today’s Cleeks Law file:
rawstory
tobie
@JMG:
Maybe that’s why the administration fired all the AGs. Emoluments clause, ethics laws, nepotism laws…none of this seems to matter anymore. The truly frightening thing about Trump and the GOP is that they’ve exposed how weak institutions in this country are. Who is there to enforce the law these days?
amk
@mapaghimagsik: not so fast.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@The Moar You Know: All I can is that one statement just threw years of therapy on my part out the window… talk about wasted dollars…
amk
JMG
@A Ghost to Most: It’s amazing how many of the infinite number of stories about Trump voters use their own words to reveal them as morons and/or total jerks.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@mapaghimagsik:
And vindictive… don’t forget vindictive…
NotMax
Guiling for Dollars.
ThresherK
Unlike in the Monty Python skit, we’ve finally discovered something that Trumpians are actually competent at. It would figure that success is corruption and extortion.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@amk:
i have to wonder… does this mean Satan will be joining the Admin as a cabinet official soon?
Secretary of Distress & Payback?
Keith P.
@amk: I hate to do the “If this was Hillary…” thing, but seriously, given how crazy Watergate got, imagine how much worse the GOP would have been if Watergate has a ‘666’ address?
bemused
@A Ghost to Most:
Head hits desk. Trump voter, this is a really lousy analogy unless your wife is also emptying your bank account and trying to kill you.
AliceBlue
@tobie:
Exactly. I was thinking the same thing a few days ago–it’s been a shock to realize how fragile the institutions propping up our democracy are. I feel like crying every damn day (and sometimes I do).
NotMax
@amk
The sumptuous buffet of canned La Choy chow mein and a few stale fortune cookies will win him over…
ThresherK
@NotMax: From downstairs thread, a snippet of a movie that the intertubes has resurrected, Little Nemo, c. 1989.
This internet thing does have its uses.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Keith P.: I can only begin to imagine what Republicans would have said and done if Michelle had chosen to stay in Chicago and not lived in the WH w/ the POTUS and he had decided to go to the Far Western WH in Hawaii to ‘do business’ every weekend?
Didn’t Trump make some sort of derogatory comment/s about Oabama playing golf all the time and promise ‘us’ that we’d never catch HIM doing that on the job, nosiree! Or something to that effect?
NotMax
@amk
On top of the loan finagling, also giving Kushner what is essentially $400 million in key money
gvg
NYT story announces mission for Boaty McBoatface. British officials decided to give the name to an unmanned deep water explorer drone. they hope it will be the first to do the entire arctic under the ice. They are trying to appease the internet voters. I wonder if anyone will ever use a poll to name something again. I remember the intense lobbying to get our government to name the first shuttle enterprise. The problem was the Enterprise is a real active Navy ship. We have had one since the revolution, and that was actually why the Star Trek writers chose that name. the Navy didn’t want to have 2 ships with the same name, but Congress gave in. I always thought that was cool, but I never thought of something like Boaty. People said the British admiralty should have known better, but I wouldn’t have.
NotMax
@ThresherK
Actually own it on VHS.
Vaguely seem to recall a Little Nemo video game as well.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@NotMax:
Not unlike the deal Trump got for that mansion in Florida he sold to Dmitry Rybolovlev at such a nice mark up…
Jesus, they don’t even make a PRETENSE of trying to hide it anymore…
Villago Delenda Est
Every last one of these motherfuckers needs to be in prison.
The Thin Black Duke
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Yeah, but at least that bitch Hillary ain’t president, right? (God, it hurt typing that.)
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Villago Delenda Est: I agree completely… if ‘we’ do manage to get control of the country back from this crowd, I will be truly disappointed if 20 or 30 or 40 of these farkers don’t do some serious time in the end… none of this ‘pardoning for the the good of the country’ crap, or our ‘long national nightmare is over’ BS…
gene108
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
There are advantages, when billionaires spend decades taking over the media, in order to support far right politics and you align your party with their world view.
Given the institutional power Republicans have, and have built for themselves over the decades, I am surprised Democrats are even competitive in any elections.
Yarrow
@gvg:
I just love the name Boaty McBoatface. When I saw on the BBC yesterday that they gave it a mission I just cracked up. It’s such a great name.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@The Thin Black Duke: Yeah, but at least you made me laugh… and even that hurts a little…
ThresherK
@NotMax: Why am I not surprised you own it?
Phylllis
@debbie: Sounds similar to what happened here with Waste Management. The city went out for bids, with the intent to get out from under WM because their service had deteriorated. Went with a local guy with brand-new trucks and dumpsters. Within 2-3 months, WM bought that guy out. Now we’re back to Waste Management for another four years.
MattF
These days, the word ‘gunsel’ comes from recollections of lines from The Maltese Falcon and means, approximately, ‘little thug’. But one of the original meanings was a euphemism for ‘catamite’, as they say. So, be cautious who you call what.
@Thru the Looking Glass…: FWIW, 666 Fifth Ave. is a relatively old office building, from back in the days when Fifth Ave. had bookstores and libraries. IOW, not like the current monstrosities. It has an IND subway station in the lower levels, so back when I was a growing boy from Queens, I used to go through it on the way to various Manhattan entertainments.
Yarrow
@A Ghost to Most:
It would be interesting to ask these voters if there is something Trump and his administration could do that would cause them to decide they don’t support him anymore.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@gene108:
It seems we’re right on that brink, or precipice, right now… of becoming permanently, irrevocably irrelevant in the political process… sad and scary… I’m such a pure-bred WASP it’s kind of embarrassing… if I wanted to put on a suit and necktie and go mingle w/ that crowd, they’d love… but I’d hate myself ’cause I CAN’T STAND THEM…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@amk:
Kushner’s got little to fear from the DOJ for now. The New York tax authorities and NYAG, on the other hand, present threats. And if we get a Gillibrand-Franken admin in 2020, he’s going to prison, as are Trump, his sons, Bannon, Lewandowski, Manafort, Tillerson, and a whole host of cabinet and congressional cronies.
It is Teapot Dome on steroids.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Yarrow: Something involving a dead woman or a live boy?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gin & Tonic:
Karma could go all Lee Atwater on him. I didn’t shed a tear for which the manner that asshole died either.
Aleta
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
I think it means the Kushners are his tenants now.
mapaghimagsik
@amk:
Yeah, I read that one too. The new lows just keep getting lower.
Corner Stone
@bemused:
Well, to be fair, he did say she was his *wife*.
Kay
It’s amazing how fast it has slid to the bottom ethics-wise I thought it would take longer than this.
This is just the beginning. Wait until the crony contracting starts- defense, for-profit education, privatization opportunities, and that’s before Trump invades a country, which he will do. He’s already ramping up war efforts.
It’s harder to build something than destroy something. I should have anticipated it would go quickly.
“Norms” are fragile things. This sleazy family managed to destroy them in 2 months.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
And by that I assume you mean because that admin would hire professional and competent people at the DoJ who would in turn employ competent investigators and staff that would build a solid and prosecutable case against most or all of them.
The Moar You Know
@gvg: Here’s the problem: when the entry fee is zero, and ease of entry infinite, everyone votes. And you end up with “Boaty McBoatface”.
Make the price of entry a minimal (at the time) fifteen-cent stamp and fifteen minutes of time writing out a postcard, and you end up with “Enterprise” or something similar, because the “zero-thought/zero-impulse control” crowd gets weeded out.
The principle is easily extended to the entire internet. Wanna make comments sections civil, thoughtful, useful? Buck per post.
Corner Stone
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Either a very poorly fitting suit (virtually all of them) or don’t comb your hair or bathe for a week and then throw a blazer on you found in a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant. I mean, have you *seen* Bannon at all?
Kay
Lewandowski immediately moved to DC and started a company to cash in. All the Trumpsters will leave rich.
I don’t know why CNN is complaining. Has any group of people benefited more from the Trump Family sleaze than cable tv employees? They’re the big winners in this.
It is gross though. It’s stomach turning how greedy and eager the Trumps are to fleece the rubes. Yuck. Sleazy people ate sleazy people no matter how much money they have.
Roger Moore
@ThresherK:
Yes, but have they started to use sarcasm, dramatic irony, metaphor, pathos, puns, parody, litotes, and satire?
SFAW
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
All of them, Katie?
Spanky
Well, the power’s back on. The tail end of the storm here in Southern Maryland brought winds, and that’s what did us in. Only out for about 90 mins, luckily. SMECO does a pretty good job keeping us connected.
Soapstone wood stove has just started really throwing the heat, too. I’ll keep it running all day, ’cause it’s a good day for it, and you never know….
BTW, rainy, windy, and about 30 degrees.
rikyrah
Remember those Medicare ‘cuts’ Republicans deemed outrageous?
03/14/17 09:28 AM
By Steve Benen
Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention in 2012, when the Wisconsin congressman was his party’s vice presidential nominee, was one of the most dishonest displays of political rhetoric I’ve ever seen. Nearly five years later, however, one portion of that speech seems newly relevant
Even at the time, Ryan’s rhetoric was ridiculous. Not only did the Affordable Care Act strengthen Medicare without undermining benefits, but listening to far-right Republicans who are desperate to privatize Medicare pretend that they’re somehow the system’s champions was a bit much.
But Ryan wasn’t alone. Republicans, well aware of Medicare’s broad national popularity, invested heavily in attack ads, accusing Democrats of “slashing” Medicare when the Affordable Care Act became law. “Let’s save Medicare,” the NRCC said in an attack ad during the 2012 cycle. Similar GOP ads ran in 2010 and 2014.
Whatever happened to those Medicare “cuts”? Well, it’s a funny story.
After Paul Ryan vowed to reverse the policy, he ended up including the same Medicare savings in his budget plan. As Josh Barro explained the other day, the House Speaker has now also included the same policy in his health care reform plan.
Yesterday, the story got just a little worse: according to the Congressional Budget Office’s report, the Republicans American Health Care Act cuts the deficit, but only because it keeps those Medicare “cuts” Paul Ryan and others pretended to find outrageous.
Spanky
@bemused: To be honest, if my spouse was a Trump voter I might be inclined towards both of those things.
SFAW
@Roger Moore:
Worng thugs.
At least the Vercotti brothers won’t nail one’s head to the floor.
mapaghimagsik
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Yes. And vindictive. And just.
I ask for too much.
Corner Stone
Ali Velshi spitting fire on MSNBC re: Health Care and Myths.
Kay
Gross. It’s every day. It would be a full time job just to count the ways they’re personally benefiting.
This is the new low standard. There is literally no way for any President to go lower than this ethically. It will collapse into a giant heap of self-dealing and corruption. They flaunt this in Trump’s family. A complete lack of ethics and restraint is admired.
bemused
@Spanky:
Me too although I probably would have noticed from the get-go he was an idiot asshole and dumped him before reaching the altar or shortly after. Even at 22, I had enough spidey sense to detect a rightwing loser.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Speaking of greedy. How pathetic do you have to be to not even honor the statement you would donate your Presidential salary? It’s $400K for the entire year! You’re telling me a billionaire can’t get by without the monthly $33K cash flow?
bystander
Kushner is the son of a tax cheat felon. Why wouldn’t he show Dad how it’s done bigly? First the shiksa, now the comeuppance.
Jeff Sessions? From a long line of people proud of enslaving others and committing treason. He’s just carrying on a family tradition.
Seth Owen
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Which is why people are worried. These crooks can’t afford to ever lose another election. Even 2018 and a Democratic House or Senate with subpoenas would be enough to start packing the jails.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
1) Say nice things about that blackity-black black Usurper
2) Say nice things about History’s Greatest (Female) Monster
3) Enact some policy to help poor people OR
3A) Enact some policy which does not actively fuck over poor people
4) Enact some policy to help the browns
5) Say that Rethuglican DeathCare doesn’t help the people who need it most, and should be thrown out.
usw.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
Oh good, gotta check out video later.
randy khan
The idea that Lewandowski has easy access to the Oval Office would tell you an awful lot about the Administration if it wasn’t something that everyone knew already.
I like (in the sense that it feels accurate) the comment above about how they’re probably just trading stories about the grift, not actually doing any business, when Lewandowski visits.
bystander
@Corner Stone: I would rather he foot the bill for Uday and Qusay’s international security detail than donate his paltry salary.
Kay
What if everyone behaved like Donald Trump, his family, and his low quality hires?
What if everyone insisted no ethical standards applied to them because they are special?
The country would grind to a halt. It would be all one group of people ripping off another and then various regulatory agencies and police agencies chasing all of us around. The only reason people like the Trumps CAN operate like this is because most people behave better than they do. A world full of people like this would be a nightmare.
Spanky
@bemused: Me too, frankly. I had a couple of short-lived dates back during Iran-Contra when the conversation turned to politics.
Nowadays I have to peel my wife off the ceiling when she listens to the news because she’s worse about it than I am.
Corner Stone
@bystander: He not be doing neither!
amk
winning bigly.
randy khan
@Corner Stone:
Oh, come on - he's going to do it at the end of the year. That's what Sean Spicer says, and you know he's always right.amk
IRS, FBI, CIA, JD, AG – All paper tigers.
trollhattan
@Aleta:
Trump would invite Satan to a shItty dinner, dangle a job then blow him off. PSYCH! Bannon would laugh and say, “Nice job boss, you really nailed that prissy little bitch.” (See Romney, Willard)
p.a.
It’s a difference in degree but not in kind from SOP for a long time now. There is a swamp. It does need draining. It’s just that King Muck and his toads just got elected, so SOP is now in-your-face.
(An unfair smear on amphibians.)
lgerard
that made me laugh out loud
gene108
@Corner Stone:
You accumulate more money than you, your kids, grandkids and their grandkids can spend in a lifetime and not try to grab every penny that is not nailed down.
And Trump isn’t nearly as classy as other real billionaires, who sometimes donate money to charities. With Trump, it is all about him.
trollhattan
@p.a.:
Swamp now threatening to overflow its banks. Release the gators!
p.a.
@Kay: No. It would trundle along. With occasional collapses, and rebounds to a lower than previous level. Any number of kleptocracies as examples, possibly including us 2001-2009.
Yarrow
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Doubt it. As Trump said, he could shoot someone and his voters would still love him.
p.a.
@lgerard: His friend Vlad has mad dealz on fighters!
gene108
@Kay:
In a truly corrupt, every man, woman and child for themselves, society police and regulatory agencies would be leading the charge to smash and grab anything that is not nailed down.
There would be no checks.
zhena gogolia
OT, mailbox destroyed by first plows that came through. Let’s see what the rest of the day holds. #springbreakCTstyle.
bemused
@Spanky:
Peeling myself off the ceiling is exactly how I feel every day.
The other day I realized that when friends and I are talking about the daily horrors, we usually end up talking down whoever is the most fragile and freaked out at the time.
p.a.
@zhena gogolia: snow thread dead, just got in from shovel event #1: be careful, it’s heavy. Great snowman snow for the kids.
ETA: rain/snow line now at S New England coast.
gene108
@trollhattan:
Satan’s a foreigner. Miller would call ICE to have him hauled away to a detention center, before unceremoniously kicking him out of the country.
Jesus would have the same problem, were he to come here.
zhena gogolia
@p.a.:
My husband won’t let me touch a shovel. But I’ll tell him! Our driveway plow guy has already been here once, he’s a champ. It sounds like freezing rain right now, although still looks like snow.
Kathleen
@Ruckus: Your depiction is my new happy place.
Yarrow
@SFAW:
I doubt any of this would work.
He’s already done 1 – said nice things about Obama and how Obama likes him and so forth. No one cared. Not sure about Hillary, but he’s pretty much quit talking about her. She was a stage prop.
If he did 3-4, he’d couch it in a way of “helping people,” the useless media would be all over it and everyone would love him for it.
Ditto 5 – if he countered the Republican health plan, they’d brand him a “maverick” (sorry, John McCain) and talk about how he’s “keeping his campaign promise that the plan has to help everyone.” His fans would increase their adoration of him.
So…back to my original question. What could he do that would make his fans not support him anymore?
Corner Stone
I wonder how long it will be before ICE deports Ali Velshi. He is busting all kinds of GOP hacks.
p.a.
@zhena gogolia: yep. with the wind it’s stinger snow.
Immanentize
@JMG:
This is how it always goes — the CEOs think that there is too much regulation and that they should be able to bribe and cheat like foreign competitors. Then, when they are allowed to, they remember how friggin’ expensive it is to run a business in that world where all of a sudden the bribery competition is not from China, it is from their competitor in California and the graft price keeps mushrooming. Then they remember why they pushed for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act lo those many years ago….
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108: “I’d give it all up…for just a little bit more” – C. Montgomery Burns.
Immanentize
@p.a.: It is snowing like crazy now north of Boston. Heavy and sticking to the trees. Very pretty.
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108: We’ll long for the process of civil forfeiture.
p.a.
@Immanentize: the one last here week was gorgeous. Light but sticky, not enough to break anything, and it stuck more on the branch/twig ends than the main branches. Every deciduous tree looked like cherry trees in bloom. Cherry blossoms are white, aren’t they?
aimai
@Corner Stone: I think the point of that remark was not that he hates his wife, but that the GOP is like his wife: he’s married to it and he can’t change that. He will never divorce the GOP no matter what.
Yarrow
@amk:
Speaking of people canceling trips to the US, I heard a piece on the radio yesterday where they interviewed the head of the US Travel Association. It was a whole piece on the travel ban and how it affects the US travel industry.
He said it definitely had a negative effect, which is what I’ve been saying. Travel jobs are real jobs, no matter what Trump and the Republicans think. They also said the strong US dollar is also affecting travel to the US. But he talked about how travel was already down since the inauguration, the travel ban having a definite negative effect and how NYC has estimated international visitors to the city to be down by quite a bit this year. He talked about how after 9/11 travel to the US dropped way off and we have only just recovered from that slump and now this ban has knocked it back down again.
It was an interesting show. Here’s a link if anyone want to listen.
tobie
@Immanentize: Let’s hope democratic state AGs and state statutes are up to the task because there’s no way in hell Jeff Session’s Justice Department will investigate violations of federal statutes committed by Republicans.
Sorry to be such a downer. As I posted earlier, I just feel like are institutions have proven to be pretty weak, and we’re relying on cable journalists to expose the current administration’s malfeasance, and there’s no guarantee that this will generate outrage in the public and that the corporate media won’t turn on us if it becomes more lucrative to support Trump and the GOP. Some crisis like Katrina could of course change things. Republicans love to present themselves as some version of a lean, mean, capitalist machine and crises always end up revealing them for what they are: frauds and cheats.
Kay
@gene108:
The only reason it functions at all is MOST people follow the rules. There aren’t enough police and prisons to hold everyone if everyone behaved like these people. Paying taxes is the best example. If we were all Trumps there would be half a million IRS enforcement agents. We’d spend more on enforcement than we collect.
It relies on consent. Imagine if everyone made every contractor sue to get paid. Commerce would grind to a fucking halt.
The special snow flakes can operate like this only because most people are better than that.
p.a.
Was talking to the operator of a (mostly Celtic) music venue, and according to him the visa process has always been borderline incompetent, now with evil added to the mix.
Immanentize
@tobie: State statutes really cannot touch the business bribery world — as it is not intra-state. Perhaps the New York AG can prosecute New York corp/s that are traded ion the NYSE, but that’s about it for States. Otherwise, it is up to civil lawsuits and international organizations. Luckily, the US pushed for an international Anti-Bribery Treaty which has been adopted by many countries — because bribery is stupid expensive! (besides corrupt).
But this Kushner thing just beats all. How are we going to get out from this? Is there an anti-corruption platform that will excite voters? I don’t see it until there is a lot more death from corruption (like buildings falling down from fraudulent practices killing people or water poisoned, etc.)
Yarrow
Happened to catch a few minutes of the Today Show today. The had a segment on how Customs and Border Patrol agents can demand your cellphone from you at the border, even if you are a US Citizen, and take it away and clone the whole thing. Most of the people whose phones have been taken were Muslims (of course) and they even tackled one guy when he wouldn’t hand over his phone.
Apparently Sen. Ron Wyden is going to propose a bill requiring CBP to get a warrant to search phones.
Doubt it’ll pass but at least the issue is getting attention. I found it interesting its bubbled up enough that NBC News did a story on it.
Kay
@tobie:
Agreed. If Donald Trump can lay them low in 2 months there was some profound structural weakness we didn’t see or admit seeing. Flimsy. Not at all resilient.
Immanentize
@tobie: Institutions are extremely weak. They are supposed to be conflicted and counter-balancing. But they are amazingly resilient. I am a total optimist, and I firmly believe that it will take some time and a whole lot of hell, but we will correct.
tobie
@Immanentize: I dunno how outraged people get about Trump & Co using the office of the President for ‘personal gain at the public’s expense.’ If the economy goes south, you could see an anti-corruption platform gain traction. Remember, no one was angry at the banks until the mortgage crisis happened.
Immanentize
@Kay: Ha — see my comment above. I think they are weak, but resilient and self-preserving. I think our courts are the best example. Weak as all get out, but over time, they prevail. In part because of common agreement, but also in part because they are so structurally integrated. Like I said, I am an optimist — I see Trump as a very virulent strain of flu. Many may die, but society will not collapse. Now, I could be wrong, but I would rather believe that we will prevail.
Kay
the attorney general perjured himself and nothing happened and before that the FBI director interfered in an election and nothing happened. This is since August. Imagine a year from now. 4 years from now
This gets much, much worse. batten down the hatches – the whole thing could collapse.
tobie
@Kay: Oh crap…I wrote “are institutions” instead of “our institutions.” Grammar aficionados, apologies! Even my spelling is slipping in this new era.
Immanentize
@Kay: But it took years to clean out the crap from Nixon. I used to think Ford’s pardon was the right thing at the time. Now, I think it was the wrong thing for all times.
Yarrow
@Kay: A big problem is that Congress has pretty much given up its responsibilities. There are three branches of government. Like a three legged stool, if one leg comes off, the stool will topple over. The government is similar in that way. If Congress, one of the three branches, won’t do its job then the government won’t hold.
And this isn’t new. Congress has the power to declare war. How many “wars” have we had that have been undeclared? They have abdicated that responsibility going back decades. They could say no to the Executive, but they don’t and the Executive has become more powerful.
If this Trump mess somehow leads to Congress stepping back up and doing their fucking jobs, then maybe good could come from it. It’ll be down the road, though, and people will get hurt in the meantime.
SiubhanDuinne
@p.a.:
Pérez Prado says no.
tobie
@Immanentize: @Immanentize: I’m a glass-half-empty kind of person, but I appreciate and admire your optimism and will keep it in mind when pessimism gets the better of me.
A propos doom-and-gloomers: Where is Nouriel Robini these days? He is incomparable when it comes to economic end day predictions. They’re so dark as to become funny.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I think of courts as a last resort. I think our reliance on courts is itself an indication of how weak all the other institutions are
You shouldn’t be relying on the safety cord. One functioning system is not a good place to be. When they go (and they will- they weren’t meant to function alone) we are SOL.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
Boy, there’s no pleasing some people.
Immanentize
@Kay: Re: the “Justice” Department and the Pixie Racist — I think most people know that he is a lying little shit and that now what DOJ says in court will be treated with great suspicion…. Look at the Texas San Antonio redistricting case.
BTW, Judge Jerry Smith (the dissenter) is an asshole of the first order. I had an infamous run in with him in a death penalty case once…. And Orldando Garcia, who I knew pretty well when I lived in Texas, is really a very conservative, republican fellow.
Immanentize
@Kay: I agree, but I am hoping that before they go, the Congress will be improved. Also too, state governments will re-balance.
Applejinx
@MattF:
Well, fuck me.
Y’all just lost ‘Wilmer’ privileges. Why did I assume you weren’t being as horrible as possible, those of you who were up to that? ffs. Enjoy the cheerful inquiry, “OH, isn’t that your little private name for ‘X’, chosen because apparently you’re homophobes as well as corporate hacks?”
I guess this is who a lot of you folks are, after all. Yikes. I’m beginning to wonder if that story claiming Democrats remain less popular than Trump and Pence, is not as full of crap as I thought it might be.
Kay
@Immanentize:
Also, state courts are in terrible shape. The Ohio Supreme Court is generally considered in much worse shape than it was even a decade ago. Most of their decisions track their donors interests.
So what we’re relying on are FEDERAL courts. This reed gets slimmer and slimmer the longer we cling to it :)
Kay
@Immanentize:
I used to write about voting rights here and inevitably someone would say “where are the courts?” (meaning federal courts). They’re there but that’s not enough! Not NEARLY enough. Like, bare bones, rock bottom protection.
We weren’t supposed to be leaning on one court system for everything! :)
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
If they so choose to be. What is NOT happening now in Congress
IS.A.CHOICE.
SgrAstar
@The Moar You Know:
But a lot of us *like* Boaty McBoatface. It’s funny, even charming. Too bad the drone sub doesn’t have a face painted on.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: It is a choice. T is not an aberration but the logical conclusion of all the racism that we saw during the O years.
Yarrow
@SgrAstar: I ADORE Boaty McBoatface. It’s the best name. Charming. Sweet. Hilarious I’m so glad they found a way to use it for the Little Submarine That Could.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: You are so right. And the Republicans in Congress could stop this stuff if they wanted to. They don’t want to.
Another Scott
(sigh)
Another company to maybe put on The List, I guess. :-/
Maybe GrabYourWallet.org should branch out to include companies like this?
I’m not saying they should go on The List just yet, but it certainly looks bad to these eyes.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
There Is No Grand Strategy to Repeal Obamacare
by Nancy LeTourneau
March 14, 2017 9:23 AM
Late yesterday afternoon the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their report on the projected effects of the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. The top line news was startling: 24 million people would lose their health insurance by 2026. Most notably, the people who would be disproportionately impacted would be those who are older and/or poorer.
I’d like to highlight what we’ve seen from conservatives/Republicans/the White House since then. If anyone can see a grand strategy here, I’d like to hear about it.
HHS Sec. Tom Price and OMB Director Mulvaney said you can’t believe what the CBO says.
Speaker Paul Ryan praised the CBO report.
The White House produced a report that was even worse than CBO’s – suggesting that 26 million people would lose coverage.
Someone leaked the WH report to Politico.
Breitbart validated the CBO report by broadcasting the news that Paul Ryan’s plan would result in 24 million people losing their health insurance.
Almost simultaneously, Breibart released a tape from last October in which Ryan said he was abandoning Trump forever and wouldn’t support him.
Trump is telling conservative Republicans that he’ll work with them to make the bill even worse by speeding up the changes to Medicaid and basically saying, “who cares if that makes it less likely to pass the Senate, we’ll deal with that later.”
Let’s note one thing right away. The plan to rally right-wing media around the idea that the CBO report cannot be trusted has completely gone off the rails. When everyone from Ryan to Breitbart to the released White House report are validating it, that simply isn’t going to fly.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
They — or rather, the Republicans — just have a different view from you of what the word “responsibilities” means/entails. Their “responsibility” is to clear the path for the rich/powerful to do whatever the fuck they want without fear of government “interference.” Taxes, public health/safety regulations and laws, non-discriminatory practices, financial oversight — those are just some of the things which impede the ability of the “job creators” to make America the Paradise it used to be, before all those icky minorities, poor people, non-Christians, gays, disabled, and SJWs started fucking it up for the Captains of Industry. [Note: Although “SJW” is sometimes used in a derogatory/snarky sense, that is not the case here.]
rikyrah
As health care debate intensifies, GOP takes aim at empiricism
03/14/17 10:15 AM—UPDATED 03/14/17 10:59 AM
By Steve Benen
The Republican campaign against the Congressional Budget Office, an office headed by a Republican, has been ongoing for months, and the ferocity of the criticism intensified last night in response to the CBO’s score of the American Health Care Act (“Trumpcare”). It’s worth pausing, however, to note something important about Congress’ official scorekeepers:
The CBO is not perfect. It’s run by people relying on the best information availabile, which officials use to make estimates shaped by models. Sometimes those projections are excellent, sometimes they’re close, sometimes they’re wrong. Far-right Republicans are going after the CBO now, but there have been all kinds of instances in recent years in which these same partisans – including Donald Trump – accepted CBO data as gospel when it suited their purposes.
The problem with the ongoing attacks is not that the CBO should be shielded from any and all criticism; the problem is that Republicans are trying to delegitimize any neutral source of independent information. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent put it this way yesterday:
tobie
@Kay: One of Bannon’s goals is to weaken existing institutions. He said so at CPAC. Will the Departments of State, Justice, Education hold up with T’s woefully inadequate picks? Will we be able to repair the damage he will do to the EPA? Where best to put our resources right now? The Dem Party in my red county is not very organized or savvy but they’re holding more meetings now, and that is a good thing. People don’t want or realize they can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. This is one of the more encouraging things I’ve seen since January.
rikyrah
On health care, Republicans find themselves lost without a map
03/14/17 11:11 AM—UPDATED 03/14/17 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Imagine being a House Republican right now. You hate the Affordable Care Act – at least, that’s what you’ve told your constituents – and you’re inclined to stick with your party leadership, but you’ve also seen a striking rise in progressive activism in your district. You’re probably a little more concerned about next year’s campaign cycle than you might otherwise would be.
And then the Congressional Budget Office releases a devastating report that says your party’s health care plan would push tens of millions of Americans into the ranks of the uninsured.
Given these circumstances, how inclined would you be to follow House Speaker Paul Ryan’s lead and vote for the American Health Care Act (“Trumpcare”)?
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a critic of the House GOP legislation, had an interesting conversation with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos over the weekend. This exchange, in particular, stood out for me:
J R in WV
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I do, shed a tear. Because Lee is dead now. He should still be alive, receiving chemo and radiation on a weekly basis. In a big ward with all the other Republican party bosses. On a diet of boiled broccoli, brussel sprouts and rice pudding in the prison ward of a huge public hospital in Chicago. That’s a great lifestyle, if your insurance will cover it forever.
hovercraft
@Ruckus:
This.
Yet still, as non existent as my expectations are, they keep proving to be able to plumb new never imagined depths. I guess I lack the imagination to anticipate the myriad new lows they can sink to. I must say they are a very talented bunch in this regard.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: I am fucking tired of hearing about this person and the way he is being built up as some kind of a malevolent superman.
Corner Stone
@SgrAstar: I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with naming a research vessel Boaty McBoatface. Why not tie in some very serious research into the public, and hopefully children, with a punny name? Think of the adventures stout hearted Boaty McBoatface could have!
A kind of marine based Thomas the Train, if you will.
Villago Delenda Est
@Applejinx: You need to find a grenade to gargle.
p.a.
@rikyrah: They’ve just opened a new front against empiricism. It’s been in their crosshairs for decades. And we all know reality always wins.
schrodingers_cat
@Villago Delenda Est: Your kittehs are full of win and awesome!
Taylor
@Kay:
I can only think of one interpretation for “collapse.”
it starts with trusting to generals to protect us from apocalyptic decisions.
FlyingToaster
@Applejinx: Yeesh. Lighten up, Francis.
All of us are too young to be familiar with anything but the “young hired gun” definition for gunsel. I certainly never got the subtext you cite from the Maltese Falcon, even when I was watching it for film class. Neither did the instructor, and he was old enough.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@A Ghost to Most:
That’s quite a big step from “it’s all false news”
So two months. Tick tock Donny.
J R in WV
@Kay:
Fixed that for you. Cause there won’t be “regulatory agencies and police” to chase us.
jeffreyw
Don’t come into my house with feet muddy from digging up my yard!
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know:
Villago Delenda Est
@SFAW: In short, feudalism.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
sounds like somebody who loves her job and is confident about the future
Corner Stone
@jeffreyw: Geez, don’t you have a washtub somewhere by now?
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: I was hoping no one would respond but that’s a pretty good one.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: And currently eating their fourth breakfast of the morning!
SFAW
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oh, come on. Applejinx is right. The pervasive homophobia on this site is appalling (or refreshing if you’re a Rethug). I mean look it how often The Gays on this site get made fun of, or insulated, or called “fag,” or are threatened because of their sexuality. And if one is trans, it’s even worse — just look at the vile stuff said toward “celticdragonchick” the other day; all that pseudo-supportive stuff, making it LOOK LIKE they were being accepting and supportive, but if you read the minds of the commenters, you’d KNOW they didn’t mean it.
And besides, re: the grenade thing: are YOU going to clean up the mess? I sure as hell ain’t.
On the other hand, it’s nice to see that Applejinx has fully adopted the Rethug ethos of “making shit up in order to trash the people you hate.” Makes it easier to ignore.
bystander
@FlyingToaster: Now that you know, it’s worth watching again for the scenes featuring Elijah Cook, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. (It’s like knowing that Wyler directed Stephen Boyd to play Messala as in love with Ben Hur, but they chose not to tell Charlton Heston.)
Applejinx
@FlyingToaster: Yeah I know I know. I even used that suggested word myself because I was being polite and going along. Now I have a better idea of what I was going along with, that’s all. Jesus Christ, I get tarred and feathered for going ‘I don’t trust Hillary but if we’re lucky she’ll do good things out of self-interest as it’s clearly time for change’, but my Senator from my home state is Sidney Greenstreet’s murderous catamite fuckboy? Uh nope. I wasn’t quite up to speed on WHICH character out of old movies was being used there, and I sure haven’t watched the Maltese Falcon for film class. I’m too poor for film class :)
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lisa needs to learn the same lesson Donald has never learned: Respect is earned, not given away.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Following Ryan is not going to be fun or easy, yesterday this happened in Nebraska.
Thank you Nebraska, these critters must be reminded that they can’t hide from us.
FlyingToaster
@SFAW:
Hey, since when did this blog come with telepathy? I already have the laptop camera turned off and taped over, what the fuck do I have to do to turn of the telepathic pickup?
SFAW
@jeffreyw:
That doggie looks like it’s waiting for the Cone of Shame.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t believe he’s an Evil Genius either. The problem is that we have a compliant Congress and a compliant Justice Department that makes holding these guys accountable for either deliberate acts or general incompetence very difficult. The only thing I think I can do right now as a citizen is to try to make sure that better legislators get elected in 2018. Planned Parenthood, CASA and other organizations of course need help, too. Really the only question for me is what to do with the few resources I have.
SFAW
@FlyingToaster:
It’s part of the Prime upgrade/subscription. For yours, just send me some money, and I’ll set you right up.
FlyingToaster
@Applejinx: Film class was in public high school. English Department; we had 4 single-semester classes you could take after you’d completed 10th grade English. I took Film and Short Stories. And that was in a crap-ass high school in Missouri in the ’70s.
You’re not too poor. Too paranoid, maybe (or, maybe not), but not too poor.
ETA: semester to single-semester
Jim, Foolish Literalist
it was one thing to watch the flabby, never-served fart right like Gingrich and Limbaugh and Cheney neuter people like Poppy, McCain, Powell and Dole. I never thought Mattis would have his balls delivered to the Trump White House
Today’s withdrawal is Ann Patterson, whom former Obama people describe as brilliant and a certified badass. A couple weeks ago it was Michelle Floury, runner up to Ash Carter and a good shot to have been the first female SecDef in an HRC administration
SFAW
@SFAW:
“Insulated”? What a fucking maroon.
Insulted.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft:
There has got to be, and I mean got to be, a joke somewhere that starts, “Hey, you know how you get 800 Nebraskans in a room?”
Corner Stone
@SFAW: I was insulted when you said we should insulate them from insulting comments.
J R in WV
@Applejinx:
So, like Milo, you’re in favor of old hoodlums keeping a catamite on hand? A young boy to keep him serviced? How much older and younger are you good with?
There isn’t any homophobia going on there, there’s disgust with an older person exploiting a young person. Fuck you Assholejinx, you sucked when you first showed up, and you get worse every month. Go service an old Marxist some more!
amk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Guess poof goes mad dog’s dream of another ME war.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@jeffreyw: LOL. Is that Katie? Properly chastened now, clearly.
NeenerNeener
@Yarrow: If Trump changed parties and became a Democrat next week his base would abandon him in droves. Remember, it’s ONLY ok if you’re a Republican.
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
There is. I don’t remember much of the middle part, but the punchline is “The Aristocrats!”
sherparick
@gene108: Good question. Note the pro-Trump Super PAC they also created. Between the golf courses around the world signing up memberships, the hotels, the branding and trade mark rights that China has granted him, all the events businesses and Governments are directing to his hotels, resorts, and golf courses, it appears that millions are pouring in every week to Trump and his family. This is a man who famously said “If you are nice to me, I am nice to you.” (Notice how soft the rhetoric has gotten on China these last 40 days, in spite of Bannon’s belief that a Chinese-American war is inevitable. For Trump at least money outweighs ideology. It is basically why he wants all foreign contacts to come through the White House.
hovercraft
@FlyingToaster:
Well we all know that the word ni**er is derived from the word negro, which means black, so when someone calls me ni**er they are not being racist, they are merely describing me. Right?
This makes as much sense as the gobbledegook you just responded to. Just because something once referred to something sinister or innocent, does not make it’s current use good or bad. It’s all about context and intent. An English person talking about a fag is different from one of us using that word.
ruckus
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
All of them, Katie, every last fucking one.
Another Scott
In other news, Erdogan blames the Netherlands for the Srebrenica massacre.
The video clip shows the Turkey Parliament smirking and clapping while he’s saying these vile things.
The man is deranged, he’s turning Turkey into a dictatorship, and all the signs (so far) are that he’s going to have even more power after the April changes to the Constitution (locking up critics and controlling the press helps him, of course).
This behavior is extremely dangerous. And of course, Donnie and his minions and his empty State Department are at best ignoring it.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
boatboy_srq
So we’ve gone from the Mayberry Machiavellis to the Manhattan Mafiosi? Or is it the Paramus Protection-Racketeers?
Applejinx
@FlyingToaster: If I was really paranoid I’d know that Whig here chose the Wilmer tag personally, in full knowledge he was accusing my Senator of taking it up the butt from the biggest villain ever just to get a chance to kill innocent people for fun… because Whig, of course, in his trolling activities, is actually a Russian agent whose only goal is to split the progressive left from the corporate Democrat neoliberals. Not because he has any special hate for either progressive left or Dem neoliberals, just because it’s what ya do!
XD
I’ve always absolutely resented the characterization that my Senator’s only purpose was to break the Democrats. At least now we have Republicans taking on the brunt of protecting and enabling vicious payday lenders, as they should, being Republicans! That should never have been a Democrat thing, even for ‘Florida Democrat’.
I still don’t know if you’re breaking yourselves beyond the point of being salvageable, but man, some of you folks are petty and mean.
Kay
I always liked that about Bernie Sanders and I still do. His extreme predictions. He forgets to breathe when he’s all worked up too. I GUARANTEE you he is light-headed after a cable appearance. I see all the symptoms of worked-up-et-ness in him :)
hovercraft
@FlyingToaster:
You can’t turn it off, haven’t you been reading the comments? BJ is a community all about group think, it’s true, dissent is frowned upon here and we all think alike.
It’s something in the terms and conditions fine print, together forever!
TenguPhule
@AliceBlue: As I said before. The Republic is Dead. The Empire is here. And voting is not going to fix anything, not this time.
Blood, Fire, Death and Tears. That is the future.
Applejinx
@Kay: Got to admit it’s good messaging. That is hardly an extreme prediction. Hell, he could say thousands of loyal Republicans will die! and be just as perfectly accurate. Pity he didn’t.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft: You were just saying something about gobbledegook?
TenguPhule
@gene108:
This is Trump’s goal. Survival of the Richest.
He and his fellow RPugs must not be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their corruption. They need to be strangled with it.
different-church-lady
@Applejinx: the only thing your accusation is missing is some sort of evidence that such is why “Wilmer” was chosen.
As to the necessity for a code name, well, I think you have demonstrated that concisely.
RinaX
God, I just listened to some warbling old white fuck on HLN, and now I’m in a horrible mood. He, of course, voted for Trump, yet is “concerned” about what the Republicans are proposing. However, he did finally spit out his real issue, which was that “people” who hadn’t paid as much as he had might get some benefit, and above all that could not happen. He also admitted that it didn’t appear that the bill would really affect him, and he guesses that people might just have to make sacrifices. People who weren’t him. He doesn’t get that this is just the first salvo. His precious Medicare will get it when they attempt tax reform.
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule:
Ahh, the talented, if lesser well known R&B and funk band from the 70’s.
JPL
@jeffreyw: Sweet pup!
NorthLeft12
@JMG:
And then Deadbeat Donald and the rest of the GOP will throw a hissy fit about invasion of privacy and how this was entrapment, government interference in a confidential business agreement, and how Obama did much worse, ……ad nauseum.
catclub
@amk: I thought that was a much more important story than the Lewandowski one.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: true story: they were going to call themselves “Nasty Brutish and Short” but the record company didn’t like it.
different-church-lady
My god… This is PERFECT SNOWBALL SNOW!!!
sukabi
@JMG: let’s hope its sooner.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Corner Stone:
The Four Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse?
ruckus
@Immanentize:
Nixon’s pardon was and remains one of the lowest points in our history. It paved the road to where we have an incompetent grifter in charge. That may have been nearly impossible if he hadn’t been.
Fair Economist
@Kay:
It’s not extreme at all. It’s an underestimate. Based on drops in mortality in Massachusetts and in states implementing the Medicaid expansion. the Republican plan will kill something like 24,000 per year http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/14/14921962/ahca-mortality-gun-homicides , so well over 100,000 over the next 10 years, probably close to 200,000 (there are some implementation delays that will save some lives). A little hyperventilation is in order.
Applejinx
@different-church-lady:
I intend to. I was fine with it when I didn’t know all the implications but that’s just too clever by half and jokes around about accusations directed at my Senator which aren’t really jokes, coming from some people. It’s like people around here snarking about ‘economic insecurity’ as some big joke while I starve and see no future. Not like I don’t work. I’m fine with some people here apparently hating me in all sincerity, just understand that I too am a demographic, and I hate you back… and you had my vote. Just as any progressive with a brain and eyes to see what’s happened to this country will need YOUR vote.
It’s really not a joke that Putin’s crew actively tries to drive all the wedges ever, indiscriminately. Watch ‘Hypernormalization’. That is standard operating procedure. You might have to sit through some unpleasant evidence of neoliberals being neoliberals, but the important part is the larger story, and the way Putin’s folks know to just put up smokescreens and chaos. We’re soaking in that now.
Baud
@hovercraft:
I agree.
Aleta
@amk:
-The Hill
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
My point exactly ;-)
I made as much sense as he/she did.
Aleta
A group of church volunteers from Hamilton heading south to do relief work were denied entry to the U.S. for fear they would take American construction jobs, said a spokesperson for the church.
Erik Hoeksema, the church’s outreach director who was travelling with the group, said they intended to spend March break cleaning up and rehabilitating neighbourhoods affected by Hurricane Sandy.
U.S. border law says Canadians do not require a visa to enter the country for volunteer work, as long as they can provide proof that their work will not be compensated.
Hoeksema says the group was told they had failed to have a letter sent from the host church “paroling” them into the country.
Hoeksema said the border patrol officer, who treated them cordially, told the group he would grant an exception and let them through if the host church managed to fax or email a letter right away.
When the first letter was deemed “not specific enough” by a border patrol officer, Hoeksema said he texted Kaper-Dale to send another, being careful not to make any specific reference to construction.
“In general, mission teams do team-building, tour mercy ministries of the church (food pantries, re-entry programs, thrift shops, etc) and assist with neighbourhood cleanup projects,” said the second letter.
It was this last part that was interpreted as “work for hire,” says Hoeksema. Officers denied them entry after they had been stopped for more than two hours.
‘If you can’t get a church van with 12 white folks through (the border), how much worse is it for any person of colour?’
– Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park, New Jersey
From CBC
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Actually one of the reasons I try very hard to ignore your endless ramblings is I figure there’s a 50/50 shot that they result from real issues and not just some kind of trolly performance art.
I think that’s very charitable of me.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Applejinx:
I’m straight but a supporter of the LGBTQ community; I suspect most everyone here would claim to be as well.
Nonetheless, I DO think sometimes language and humor can reveal a latent strain of something less than enlightened or progressive thought, or at the very least, I can understand why members of the LGBTQ community might think so.
Maybe it’s a straight-cis privilege thing.
different-church-lady
@Applejinx: and that’s another of your charming traits: the way you take everything personally.
sherparick
@Another Scott: Well, with our President, we are not to far away from similar scenes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Applejinx: Do you know why your Senator gets beat up so much? Because he talks the talk, but he hasn’t the slightest clue how to walk the walk.
That’s why.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, I think it started long before Obama took office. This has been building since the (so-called) permissive 1960s. Trump is the result of more than 40 years’ repressed resentment and anger. Had Bush Jr. focused more on “the little guy” like he said he would instead of invading Iraq, Trump would still be a clown on The Apprentice and nothing more.
gbbalto
@Applejinx: And you jump quickly to the most unseemly and unlikely conclusions. Your theory doesn’t make sense – why would an old guy be tagged as a catamite? Someone on here knows where the nickname came from – it’s been explained but i forget. Someone explain, please
different-church-lady
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Well, it is true that the best way to create progressive cred is to earnestly eradicate all efforts at myrth from the world.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@bystander:
I noticed a certain homoerotic tension between Wilmer and his boss. Been decades since I read the book, but it was in the movie.
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
The “explanation” was given a few days ago, don’t recall which thread, a link was given to the original discussion wherein “Wilmer” was proposed. As I recall (from reading that original discussion), “Wilmer” was the third or fourth name proposed, and the suggested names were all minor, slightly weird characters from various iconic movies or books. Elisha Cook’s “Wilmer” was Greenstreet’s gunsel (in the “hired gun” sense — and frankly, until today, I had never heard “gunsel” used in any other way than as a reference to a hired gun), and that inclusion made a lot more sense in the hired-gun context than in the “catamite” context.
But, I guess when some people have their “You all suck” setting (almost) perpetually turned up to 11, it’s not hard to ascribe the worst possible meaning and motives to any situation regarding people one hates.
sherparick
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Are we talking about the use of the word “gunsel?” It may have had a double meaning in 1941 when the “Maltese Falcon” was made, but the context of the movie was when Sam Spade took away Wilmer Cook’s guns, he was a “gunman” and ever since most people think of the term for “hired thug” or “gun man.” I hate to feed trolls going off topic on this thread.
jeffreyw
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: That’s Gabe, the new boy.
J R in WV
@FlyingToaster:
what the fuck do I have to do to turn of the telepathic pickup?
You have to unplug the framastatz from the gogleator-drive. That’ll do it for ya!
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
What Baud said.
Villago Delenda Est
@J R in WV: It’s the flux capacitor. Something to do with that.
FlyingToaster
@different-church-lady: Really?
It’s snowing sideways, sticking to every upright, and turns into something that would give me a concussion if you compress it in your hand.
That’s perfect??? Instead of, maybe, a class C felony?
Maybe here at the bottom of the hill it’s nastier.
different-church-lady
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I think I was fifteen when I first saw it , and it was blazingly obvious what the filmmakers were hinting at the moment Bogart slapped Peter Lorrie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: This. Or these.
ETA: My recollection was that there’s a famous line in which Bogart calls Wilmer stupid, but I can’t remember it and imdb doesn’t list it as a quotable line.
prob50
Yes, and it’s also a proven fact that our dogs not only look like, they think like us.
Cats, well, not so much. Turns out they really don’t give a fuck what we think, as long as they get what they want. And they’re much prettier, too.
Proven facts.
gbbalto
@SiubhanDuinne: Ditto
FlyingToaster
@Villago Delenda Est: Flux capacitors do not have either USB or Lightning ports. And they aren’t equipped with Bluetooth. Ergo, they won’t connect to either my laptop or my tablet.
Try again.
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster: local conditions? Here it’s wet but soft, makes a thump but still disinterates on impact.
debbie
I’m roaming through Twitter and every picture I see of Trump in the Oval Office has him sitting at a desk, never with anything more than a small pile of papers directly in front of him. Does anyone with a better memory than mine remember whether previous Presidents’ desks were this clean and barren of work??
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@different-church-lady:
I just don’t want to sound like so many conservatives who say something racist or sexist and then claim it was just a little joke. It may not seem fair, but the privileged group doesn’t get to say what non-members are supposed to find funny or acceptable.
FlyingToaster
@different-church-lady: I’ll take WarriorGirl outside and let her try throwing one at me. If I don’t get back to you, the sirens will be the bambulance taking me to Mount Auburn.
SFAW
@Applejinx:
You really have no fucking clue sometimes. Do you have any understanding that the “economic insecurity” snark is aimed at the Shitgibbonistas, and their enablers in the media, who were using that term as a cover for their racism/misogyny (among other things)?
Or are you trying to tell us that you actually ARE a racist/misogynist, and you resent the “economic insecurity” snark because you’re an economically insecure racist/misogynist?
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yet another reason why I love you.
FlyingToaster
Owwww!
It both hurts like hell (she got me in the nose) and broke apart on impact.
Owwww!
WarriorGirl says “YAY! Awesome! I want to do that again!”
Me: “Get back to homework!”
NorthLeft12
@Yarrow: I know more than a few Canadians who don’t go to the States [Michigan here] anymore due to the perceived attitude of border guards. Although, I do know of many who cross the border regularly and report no issues with intrusive, political questioning, or demands for passwords, etc. Of course these are all white men and women.
A Windsor school board temporarily cancelled all field trips to the US due to fears that some students or teachers might not be allowed entry due to their origin and appearance. There was a bit of controversy around that, but it seemed a reasonable precaution based on the uncertainty at the time. They were planning on reviewing that policy in March. I heard this morning that the Girl Guides have suspended all trips to the US citing the same fear. They emphasized in their statement that the GG are all about inclusivity and diversity. Good for them!
SFAW
@FlyingToaster:
Hospital, I hope. The Cemetery would be a bit of a bummer.
different-church-lady
@West of the Rockies (been a while): and the “non-members” (as you so charmingly put it) don’t get to define every utterance as delberate attempt at offense.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne: I disagree. Baud is not familiar with all internet traditions.
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster: [DELETES BROWSER HISTORY BEFORE COPS ARRIVE]
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady: Trump branded Toilet paper?
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster: Like I said: PERFECT!
jeffreyw
@Corner Stone:
And break with tradition? I don’t think so, pal.
Also, too: http://i.imgur.com/j1TIbTp.jpg
:
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ha! Getting a bit touchy… Just wait till she gets the
treatment at a town hall….something these repubs have forgotten 1) they work for us and 2) respect is an earned commodity…and they haven’t done either for a very long time.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I joined the discussion late. I’ve heard the Wilmer reference here for weeks but don’t know who it even refers to. If it’s a jab at homosexuals, or if they perceive it to be, maybe we should ditch it.
Where I live we have a coniferous tree frequently referred to as a “digger pine.” I assumed it had something to do with its root system. Instead, the term is deeply rooted in anti-Native American sentiment. Now that I know, I call them gray pines.
Maybe, however, I’m missing all sorts of context on this Wilmer thing, so I’ll just pipe down.
different-church-lady
I am beginning to suspect everyone on Ballon Juice lives either within 10 miles of Harvard Square or in Canada.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This copy of the script (161 page .pdf) has the word “stupid” in it in 3 places. none of them said by Spade.
I haven’t searched it any more than that.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
sukabi
@different-church-lady: not everyone….
J R in WV
@Applejinx:
The only people here more “petty and mean” than you are the paid russian trolls. You’re a volunteer Russian troll, doing it for free, worth every penny.
Corner Stone
@FlyingToaster: There wasn’t an inanimate object around to test one on, like a tree or shed wall?
different-church-lady
@sukabi: so you’re 15 miles out?
lgerard
@Aleta:
I doubt that there is a more scandal ridden scamfest then the EB-5 visa program
Perfect for trumps!
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule: BURN THE HERETIC!
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
?
gvg
@Applejinx: OK just shut up. You are acting paranoid and insulting for no reason.
Someone here told all the rest of us about an old no longer used meaning of a phrase. People here like hearing about words past but it doesn’t change the fact that the meaning has already changed as words do over time. We did not choose the name Wilber because of that old meaning. Only one person knew that old meaning and they told it to us because they knew we didn’t know it and it would surprise us. The rest of us never even thought back to the source of the Wilbur substitution, only you the obsessed overly sensitive child would even made that illogical leap. Its illogical because of the time. Not everything has to do with Wilbur nor your feelings.
Look at what you have done, insulting a bunch of people who have by their actions and words shown for years that they are not homophobic. You are not being fair and it’s tiresome. don’t try to hide behind Wilmer’s reputation either. He didn’t insult us all now, you did. Now I have insulted you because I think your behavior is not all right. You need to keep better control of yourself.
different-church-lady
I’m going to go make espresso now, and hope I’m not unkowingly doing something homophobic or insulting to the junior senator from Vermont.
FlyingToaster
@SFAW: Definitely. Though from Watertown you’re pretty much passing the cemetary en route, no matter which way you go.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Why do you hate the Inuit?
J R in WV
@Baud:
Of course you do. We all agree here, all the time.
Except for the paranoid trools, who never agree.
And the rabid jackals, who agree that no one is right, everyone is all wrong. The question is who are the jackals and who are the trools.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone: That’s “Burn the heathen!” /Pedant
different-church-lady
@Baud: that was a typo: I meant to say “make Esperanto.”
TenguPhule
@J R in WV: You forgot Candlejac–
FlyingToaster
@different-church-lady:
@Corner Stone:
Perfect for, again, a class C felony.
No, for the record, if you want WarriorGirl to perform the experiment, you’ll have to volunteer to be the target.
Also, when I’d flung the compressed snow from my shovel at a pot, it just stuck to the pot. So I needed someone with mittens, aka the nine-year-old empiricist.
SFAW
@Corner Stone:
FlyingToaster is not the most agile person around, but I know what you mean.
Applejinx
@gvg:
Because I’m sooooo off the hook o_O
You sound like Breitbart going ‘BEHAAAVE YOURSELF!’. Didn’t end well for him. On the other hand his corpse rules the White House so maybe you’re on to something?
sukabi
@different-church-lady: probably 3015 miles out
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
You’re forgetting BillinGlendaleMA. That’s way further out.
J R in WV
@FlyingToaster:
Yeah, the flux capacitor is to power the DeLorean Stereo and Time Travel devices.
My laptop isn’t big enough for a flux capacitor. Dammit! Shoulda got a big box computer!!!
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster: that’s the perfect age to be an empiricist; she hasn’t been taught as many wrong things yet.
different-church-lady
@sukabi: so like I said, Canada.
SFAW
@FlyingToaster:
Have the driver swing by Eastern Lamejun on the way. Just make sure you get enough for everyone in class.
ETA: You could always take Arsenal to the Mighty Chuck, that would avoid the Cemetery.
J R in WV
@SFAW:
“Hospital, I hope. The Cemetery would be a bit of a bummer.”
Cut out all of the middlemen, save lots of money!!
Trumpian genius!!
Lizzy L
OT, but in case I disappear for a while, here’s why: My 13 1/2 y.o. dog, Theo, is not doing so well. He’s an amber mutt, about 60% Belgian shepherd, aka Malinois. I’ve had him since he was 4 months old. He pretty much stopped eating Sunday, so he had a bunch of blood tests yesterday, and my vet called this morning. There’s something wrong with his liver; it’s very inflamed. Could be an infection. Could be cancer.
The vet prescribed 3 drugs: prednisone for inflammation, an antibiotic to take care of an infection if there is one, and an appetite stimulant. If he starts to feel better, then great. If not, then it’s cancer, and it won’t be very long before he starts to feel terrible, and I won’t let that happen.
He’s an old dog and he’s had a good life. But I really hope we get a little more happy time together.
FlyingToaster
@SFAW: Arthritis and sciatica. And having been a 46-year-old primipara. And, honestly, being a scientist means that you do the experiment using relevant laboratory setup, so if we want to know how it feels to be hit with the snowball made of this stuff, someone has to feel it. In this case, me.
Now she’s outside, and keeps poking her head inside to convince HerrDoktor to go out with her.
FlyingToaster
@SFAW: They’re closed ?. So is Arax. So is pretty much everything in Coolidge Square or Lower Belmont Street. The 71 and 73 are running, but probably with CNG busses instead of trolleys.
At my end, Russo’s is closed. The Dunks on Main is likely open (not that I’m going to check). That’s about it.
FlyingToaster
@SFAW: And drive by BB&N? Only on Tuesday afternoons (en route to WarriorGirl’s swim class in Cambridge).
Actually, I wouln’t recommend the river roads right now; that’s DCR who’s plowing, and they’re not the most diligent. I’ll stick with Mt. Auburn, once I circumnavigate the Squayah.
Brachiator
Hmmm. I’m beginning to suspect that it’s cold back East.
Everyone take care.
sukabi
@different-church-lady: no about 240 miles south and 3000 miles west
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Lizzy L: My thoughts are with you.
SFAW
@FlyingToaster:
That sucks. Sorry for the poor attempt at a joke.
But, for what it’s worth: very few scientists in this world use themselves as guinea pigs, just to “know how it feels.” Which is not unlike why you always mount a scratch monkey.
SFAW
@FlyingToaster:
They’re still open in Belmont, I think. But, not the same as Watertown.
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster:
[waves]
different-church-lady
@SFAW: Having lived in both I can testify to this fact.
Aleta
my body’s ballot
i cast it every day
i ’m just trying to keep some of my demons at bay
cause I am in the midst of a culture war
i am in the midst of a culture war
The Mammals “Culture War”
“My Baby Drinks Water” by Ruth Ungar
Aleta
@lgerard: Yeah that whole Vt hotel scandal
different-church-lady
I just attempted to make one of those leaf patterns out of steamed milk on top of my latte.
I failed miserably.
I am now worried that I have accidentally insulted a group of people who are more dexterous with their left hand than their right.
FlyingToaster
@SFAW: I wasn’t offended. I’ve never been that fast (childhood asthma), and in water gun or Nerf Rebelle encounters, I rely upon old age and treachery to beat WarriorGirl’s youth and skill.
Which means that she’s learned treachery already and is a formidable opponent for her class to take on.
Eastern Lamejun is closed today because the governor declared a state of emergency to keep Massholes off the roads. Almost every small business closed until the regular shift for tomorrow’s prep comes on (bakers at midnight, right?).
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Probably insulated Canadians.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: Yeah but the last 8 years bought it out into the open.
schrodingers_cat
@FlyingToaster: I had pretty severe childhood asthma too. Who knew Balloon Juice is full of nerdy Masshole jackals who were sickly when they were children.
different-church-lady
@Baud: It’s impossible to insult Canadians. You know why? The have a better sense if humor than any other nationality.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: And we all live in the part of Watertown that might as well be Waltham.
J R in WV
@Lizzy L:
Sorry to hear about your fuzzy baby. He sounds like a wonderful companion.
Hope he improves rapidly on the treatment.
Gravenstone
@NotMax:
Both of my stepfather’s parents retired from La Choy in the 70’s. As a result, I had far more of that shit as a kid growing up than should ever be allowed, let alone contemplated.
FlyingToaster
@schrodingers_cat: Bemis. The estate straddling the Watertown/Waltham line is Gore Place, easy walking distance from us all.
We just went out and cleared off the cars (HerrDoktor is shoveling out behind my car), but we’re not shovelling the plowcap until midnight.
schrodingers_cat
@FlyingToaster: @different-church-lady: I am not in Watertown, I am in Snowtown.
StringOnAStick
@Lizzy L: I hope you have some more good time together with your wonderful companion.
Origuy
@Yarrow: When Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games a few years ago, they had a contest to name the mascot. Someone suggested an name that may be the root of all of this. Being Glasgow, it was Stabby McFuckface.
Corner Stone
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Their most successful ongoing tour. They are going to all the biggest, classiest venues believe me. They are going to smash all attendance records, bigly.
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster: a.k.a. “The floodplain of the Charlse River.” Some sad day the property owners down there are going to find that out the hard way.
Be careful about the timimg on the snowcap, as temps will be dipping below freezing at some point. Don’t want that thing to be a solid mass before you get to it.
FlyingToaster
@schrodingers_cat: Not for long… the rain/snow line seems to be about Quincy…
FlyingToaster
@different-church-lady: I was here for the last flood in ’09 — Riverfront Lofts and Riverbend on the Charles would have been well under water. Pleasant Street was shut (and mostly underwater) between Myrtle and Rosedale.
Everything below Acton Street is on borrowed time if the Greenland ice slides into the Atlantic… and bye-bye to Watertown Square. And Harvard Square, and Kenmore Square, and frankly most of Boston.
ruckus
@Lizzy L:
My spianel had the same symptoms and it turned out he had eaten something when were out on a walk one evening. Basically the same treatment and he was back to his old self in a couple of days. Good luck with the pup.
different-church-lady
@FlyingToaster: But I will have waterfront property overlooking Charles Bay! [nods smugly]
Aleta
@different-church-lady: They have preventative care for surliness.
ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
Depending on your approximate age you probably know a lot of people who were sickly as a kid. Born before vacinations most people of my age ended up having had relatively sickly childhoods
Aleta
@Lizzy L: Hope he gets well soon.
SFAW
@FlyingToaster:
Wow, just like old times. I used to live near the Rosary Academy (which was turned into condos awhile back), walk down Lexington to Glenda’s for paella. And when I worked in Newton (a few years later), we’d sometimes go to Tom’s Busy Bee pub (may it RIP) for lunch.
schrodingers_cat
@ruckus: I was born in the 70s. So a spring chicken among Juicers?
stinger
@Lizzy L: Best wishes.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
I believe the accepted term is “young whippersnapper.”
Anne Laurie
@MattF:
I know the original meaning of the word ‘gunsel’; I use it for its history.
MattF
@Anne Laurie: Pleased to hear that.
Villago Delenda Est
@FlyingToaster: Foiled by 80’s technology, again.
Got parallel port?
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
Seems to be a wide range of ages here. I can see that someone born in the 70s would/could have had an entirely different childhood, sickly wise. Could be worse as well but the averages would be a lot different. Because besides the illnesses that a kid could escape by then there is the sometimes follow ups to some of those diseases. Measles for example can and did for many bring on encephalitis. It may or may not cause you problems later in life but then what about chickenpox, which hangs around and can come back as shingles. That is rather less than fun.
Tehanu
@Lizzy L:
Sorry about Theo. But maybe it won’t be as serious as it sounds – I certainly hope so. Good luck.