when you can't say because you're not a scientist but you're pretty sure you have a refreshing glass of minority blood pic.twitter.com/KIC0oA9djS
— Big Sharia Jeb Malmö (@Mobute) March 16, 2017
Reminder: This is a ‘holiday’ invented for amateur drunks by professional grifters, and even among those classes it’s liable to lead to bad outcomes.
Two-and-a-half of my grandparents were Irish immigrants (Nana was conceived on the Ould Sod but born in NYC; her husband was supposedly the grandson of an Irishman who financed his emigration as a draft replacement during the Civil War), so don’t bother arguing with me on that.
***********
Apart from taking due precautions, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week?
.
@meghanarchy
Mulvaney: Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all!Also Mulvaney: Providing food to the Irish during famine would be inefficient
— ?Kevin Boueri? (@ChevreBoueri) March 16, 2017
The arsonists we elected as Fire Marshalls put forth a budget that is mostly matches and gasoline, funded by selling fire hydrants for scrap
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) March 16, 2017
How to understand CBO's 10% premium reduction #: under my plan the price of eggs goes down 10%, oh but instead of a dozen you now get eight.
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) March 14, 2017
I mean, the silver lining is that now a lot of people are learning about the government programs that touch their lives and communities
— Jeff Guo (@_jeffguo) March 16, 2017
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
MattF
Regular barflies know that St. Patrick’s day is when the amateurs come out to drink. Good day to stay home.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning. ???
satby
I’m 100% Irish descent and not a fan of how the holiday has been ruined by the binge drinkers. There’s more to the culture than shamrocks And drinking, and no self-respecting person should drink the green colored piss they pass off as beer.
trnc
Food for thought, delivered by Meals on Wheels – MOW is funded through block grant programs to the states. Bannon’s crew wants to cut it, saying it doesn’t achieve it’s results. Heritage says block grants are slush funds.
Republicans want to block grant Medicare.
See where this is going?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Since our chief diplomat is saying that the diplomacy that has avoided war on the Korean Peninsula for 20 years has failed and that more strident measures will be forthcoming, it looks like Trump will be sacrificing Seoul and the American garrisons in Korea in his attempt to be a unifying wartime president and to eliminate criticism.
Fuck him. I won’t fetishize the military in a bid to serve his incompetent whims.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
We’ve got some decent true Irish pubs here, and some decent Irish musical acts. I intend to partake in some fun.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Speaking of our Malignancy in Chief, Fallon showed this clip of Trump in Michigan yesterday. So much presidenting!
Tripod
Guinness was an Anglo-Irish concern and didn’t hire Catholics.
PaulW
There are two types of people in the world:
Those who are Irish and those who are designated drivers.
j/k
To my Irish ancestors – I think the Fosters on my mother’s grandmother’s side, and I think the Connellys on my father’s grandmother’s side – I raise a glass.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I’ll drink to that.
debbie
@MattF:
Oh, boy are you right. I lived in the neighborhood where the NYC St. Patrick’s Day parade ends. For the first few years, it was fun (and easy to get home no matter how drunk one became), but after a while, stepping over puddles of vomit, nightlong screaming and yelling disguised as merriment, and drunken cops climbing up and down fire escapes grew to be tiresome.
MJS
@Tripod: I’ve forgiven them.
MJS
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That’s the spirit.
Another Scott
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I “liked” how there was a report a couple of days ago about a “secret plan for Seal Team 6 to decapitate the NK leadership”. OOOooh. That would make a nice sequel to a recent movie that was well received in the North…
Wasn’t it Donnie that said that the US and Iraq was “stupid to announce” that the Mosul liberation was to start a certain month? I wonder what he thinks about speculating about illegal assassination squads?? Eh, who am i kidding…
:-/
Rex is a slimy liar, an incompetent as a public servant and a diplomat, who is just there to set up grifting opportunities and to turn out the lights when those “yoouge deals” are done.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
I saw an ad for a vegan beer festival somewhere here in Los Angeles to kick off the St Patrick’s Day weekend.
Also in California, St Patrick’s Day is the start of a holiday drinking season between now and Cinco de Mayo.
Tradition…. Tradition!
Kay
Wasn’t Trump’s Sec of State supposed to be one of the few Trump hires who isn’t a rude, arrogant asshole?
I really do think it’s notable how many of the people around Trump are just douchebags who behave badly. Not a coincidence! Bound to happen!
NorthLeft12
Unfortunately, ^^THIS^^. It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people can be about such stuff. You have to “rub their nose in it” before they make the connection that Grandma, their cousin with the challenged son, and the kind neighbor next door all get some kind of government support that make their life a lot less difficult.
But then I am brutally aware that a lot of these same people just don’t give a shyte, because “it’s not fair that I will never get that same support….wah wah wah whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh.
RM
One thing I’ll forever find funny is that my (Jewish) husband is way more into St Patrick’s Day than me, despite me being the one that was baptized Catholic (even though I no longer practice it.) It’s not about the alcohol. Neither of us drink much. He’s just really, really, really into corned beef. He bought two of them at the grocery store last night in preparation for today. One he’s making the normal way, the other he’s making into some reuben pie thing.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I saw that in the WAPo, though the ROK elections may change the calculus on that a bit. I take this saber rattling towards North Korea kind of personally since my wife has 3 brothers and one sister in and around Seoul.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tripod:
See? they aren’t all bad.
Calming Influence
PSA: Stay away from the green beer and the brown acid.
Baud
Dementia is a horrible thing (The Atlantic)
NorthLeft12
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It seems the vast majority of your fellow citizens have many other reasons to fetishize the military. Deadbeat Donald is just echoing their feelings about the military. It is crazy, delusional, and dangerous.
OzarkHillbilly
@RM: I always wait until the day after St Paddy’s day to load up on corned beef.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Smart.
rikyrah
@trnc:
Block grants are scams
rikyrah
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
North Korea is not my enemy.
rikyrah
@Kay:
He is the Secretary of Exxon.
Once you resolve yourself to this, everything falls into place
NorthLeft12
@Baud: Oh FFS!
Mr.Woodson needs some immediate assistance. How people like this, who actually dedicate their lives to helping people can be so blind as to have faith in any representative of the GOP regarding protection and support of the most vulnerable in your society is just beyond the pale. I mean WTF??!!
Mike E
@Tripod: kettles fired by burning all the popes in effigy
bystander
Last night Justin Trudeau attended the premiere of “Come from Away” on Broadway. Here’s speech to the audience last night.
Depressing that Canada has such a great leader, and we’re stuck with the worst POS possible.
Baud
@NorthLeft12: I hope I die before I get old.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I lurvs me some corned beef.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: Fun fact: you can buy corned beef 12 months out of the year.
Kay
@rikyrah:
What do you think the chances are that Trump starts a war? 80-90%?
All those idiots believing his “non interventionist” bullshit. Not one thing he says is true. Why would that be true?
Baud
@Kay: Once again, people believe the lies because they want to believe the lies.
OzarkHillbilly
@NorthLeft12: You can’t fix stupid.
amk
vietnam redux? korea redux? choices, choices.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Even funner fact: It’s *50% off* on march 18.
*even allowing for the annual 25% hike in corned beef prices, that’s a good deal.
Kay
@NorthLeft12:
I don’t know why he’s confused about this. Paul Ryan will say it’s up to charity and the private sector to protect the least of these. That’s boilerplate conservatism. I don’t know how people listen to conservatives for decades and yet never hear what they say.
Anne Laurie
@RM:
If it helps… corned beef & cabbage isn’t ‘authentically’ Irish; it’s a meal that Irish servant girls in cities like NY and Chicago learned to cook from the middle-class German-Americans who employed them. (And the German-Americans hired Irish emigrants because the “real” Americans, the Episcopalians and Calvinists, preferred native-born servants who weren’t “slovenly” and “prone to rebellion.”) What could be more authentically melting-pot All-American than that?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Remember Hillary was the hawk. She couldn’t wait to get into the Oval and start a war. Good times.
NotMax
Erin go bragh.
Dolt 45, go away.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: saw your bad news last night. Hope you have a full recovery!
Kay
@Baud:
Heritage wrote that budget. That Trump’s pushing some unique and fascinating “populist” agenda is another over-hyped fairy tale. Any random far Right Republican could have written that thing.
It’s weird that the Sec of State sees himself as some secretive lone ranger. WTF? No one can ask this guy a question?
We’re about to find out why overpaid corporate executives make lousy public servants. It’s the “servant” part they have trouble with.
Ian G.
@Kay:
To be fair, not all people believed the nonsense that Trump would cut back on foreign military adventures. Daniel Larison has been on Trump’s case from the beginning and has seemingly gotten more withering in his criticism in the last week or so. Without Larison, I’d barely know about the brutal campaign our “friend” Saudi Arabia is waging in Yemen.
raven
The lady in the black dress is Bridgette Downs Figg, the grandmother of my grandfather. He is the little boy with the baby on his lap. Bridgette came from County Clare by herself in 1854.
Baud
@Kay: I’m not surprised in the least. It was painfully obvious that the populism was window dressing. It’s quite amazing the mental knots people will tie to avoid supporting Democrats.
sherparick
Actuall@satby: The @debbie: I now go back 50 years of St. Patrick’s Day, and I can always remember a fair amount of vomit (some of which I contributed to in college years). I am a true merger of Green (Father’s side) and Orange (mother’s side) here in America. I don’t know about the holiday being created by professional grifters, but was definitely created American Fenians trying to raise money to blow up the British. http://inthepastlane.com/when-americans-saw-irish-immigrants-as-terrorists/ Makes especially interesting reading when thinking about the certain asshole Irish Americans by the name of Bannon, Hannity, and Mulvaney.
By the way, Mulvaney’s and Ryan’s current policy toward the down and out in America (e.g. the best way of reducing poverty in America is by creating circumstances where they will die off quickly!!), was pretty much the policy of British Government under Lord John Russell’s Government and Charles Trevelyan.
“In a letter to an Irish peer, Lord Monteagle of Brandon, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, he (Trevelyan) described the famine as an “effective mechanism for reducing surplus population” as well as “the judgement of God” and wrote that “The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.”” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Charles_Trevelyan,_1st_Baronet
I expect Ryan and Mulvaney could not say it better.
This type of attitude is not without cost. A bitterness remains and is passed on from generation to generation. Besides of course the thousands killed, Irish and British, in the recurring “Irish Troubles” since 1844-48 famine, thousands of Allied sailors, merchantmen, and soldiers died in the North Atlantic as the result Irish neutrality in WWII (because it is likely Ireland would have remained part of the United Kingdom if the the United Kingdom had considered its Irish catholic subjects worthy human beings deserving of dignity and aid during the famine years.)
The Trump administration is going to historically awful and do untold damage for to this country, may even destroy it as while as thousands, probably millions of lives (the killing and dying through war and intentional starvation is already increased in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Southern Sudan.)
laura
@rikyrah: Good morning and happy Friday.@satby: Thought about you all night and hope you are doing OK after an awful and sad day.
I’m planning to avoid downtown’s combo of St. Paddy’s & NCAA action & maximum enforcement/revenue generatin’
It’ll be a shortish work day and the non paid work portion will include yard tidying, cooking something scrummy possibly including a soup.
Gin & Tonic
@satby: Thanks. Today will be a day of visiting doctors. Didn’t get much sleep.
Kay
@Ian G.:
Trump “opposed” Iraq after the fact because Iraq ended up unpopular and he thinks it reeks of “loser”. I mean, this is what he says! He says the US will win wars “again”. To win a war you have to be in one.
They heard what they wanted to hear and what they wanted to hear was anything that put Clinton in a bad light.
Immanentize
March 17th is properly celebrated in Boston as Evacuation Day — the day that the British finally gave up the blockade and evacuated Boston Harbor. Or it means the day Bostonians evacuate green beer all over the streets and sidewalks. You choose.
satby
@laura: doing ok here. Hershey is willing and able to go out to potty. And poor Rosa, the house has been more peaceful and quiet. I’m going to miss her sweet side, but don’t miss the tension.
Did you see last night that Lizzy L’s dog Theo was doing better and still with her? That was a spot of happy news!
Hal
Ohhhhh kay
Richard Grant
Q.: What’s the difference between Trump University and the Trump budget?
A.: One is Trump U and the other is Trump You.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: so sorry! I’m hoping the result Mary G had with her ankle is what happens with your arm. Get some rest and keep us posted.
rikyrah
@Kay:
He will start a war. I have no doubt
Gin & Tonic
@satby: Missed some updates. Did you have to put that aggressive dog down?
Baud
@Hal: I love the helplessness. Speaking out against Paul Ryan simply isn’t an option.
Gin & Tonic
@satby: One of life’s minor annoyances, of which I will see more. Get a late-night prescrip for badly-needed pain med. Get home and realize it’s in a child-proof bottle. Try opening one of those using only one hand.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: @Gin & Tonic: Ok…. What’s up with you guys?
Kay
This will be news to the people Trump hired, because…they’re assholes. The “human contact” thing wouldn’t occur to them although IT IS THE POINT of Meals on Wheels. That you VISIT. I feel like everyone knows this except for the low quality Trump hires. They need a study! They don’t see any value in dropping in on old people.
They’re not even people of average niceness or decency. WAY below – like bottom 10%.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: sadly, overnight in the pound she aggravated one of her injuries that hadn’t seemed so serious and lost a great deal of blood before the staff got there that morning. She was going into shock when I got there; they broke protocol and let me be with her in the cage as they euthanized her. So I got to tell her she was loved and hold her. It’s for the best in the end, but still sad. She just wanted to be loved.
Lillian Barron
@Kay: @Baud: As I have been saying for a while nowadays, the nuclear grade stupid is at epidemic levels in this country. WTever-lovin’F? Ppl are going to be dying from this administration’s acts. I encourage them to do it in front of the WH whenever possible. Like the Monks who set themselves on fire during Vietnam. Arthur Miller was right (shocker)! “Attention must be paid.”
germy
As a child I was taught St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Then when I was an adult someone told me he actually drove the Pagans out of Ireland.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: I broke my arm pretty badly yesterday. Spent much of the day in ER. Heading out for doctor visits now to see if/when surgery is indicated.
Gin & Tonic
@satby: I’m very sorry.
Baud
@germy:
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: A 24 oz framing hammer will do the job, says the voice of experience.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
That sucks, I hope everything works out well, I guess I hope surgery is not needed (but I guess it also depends on which path leads to faster/better recovery).
But if you end up having surgery, see if they’ll let you post here when you’re in the PACU — it should be good fun (for us) if you’re still semi-doped-up.
germy
Erik Loomis:
mainmata
All four of my grandparents came from Ireland (Cork, Tipperary, Kilarney and Leitrim) and ended up in Boston before living in other parts of MA. Erin go Bragh!
FlipYrWhig
@Kay:
He opposed how it was waged, not the idea behind it. He opposed it because he thinks they fought it like pussies. That’s all it’s ever been, and it’s been clear as day from the moment he started talking about it. And Chris Matthews and the isolationist left(?) latched onto his bullshit and rode it all the way down like Slim Pickens.
satby
Five years ago today I spent St.Patrick’s Day in Galway, Ireland. Revelry for sure, and parades, but no green beer and no loutish behavior; but then I’m an early to bed type so probably missed some shenanigans.
pk
Winston Churchill did the same thing in India during the Bengal famine(3 million deaths). India’s grains were exported to help the war effort instead of helping it’s starving people. Churchill famously called Indians “a beastly people with a beastly religion”. This was written about in a book “Churchill’s secret war”. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/churchills-secret-war-by-madhusree-mukerjee-2068698.html
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Damn.
Kay
I don’t celebrate St Patrick’s Day because I’m not that fun. I will wear green though just because I don’t want to hear about how I’m not wearing green, and I like green.
My son complains about it because he lives in Chicago in what sounds like a popular St Patrick’s Day neighborhood and he’s not at all fun :)
Don’t stand under his window and yell if you’re drunk. He’ll glare silently at you from behind a wall.
SFAW
@RM:
The only reason to buy so much corned beef is to be able to make a tonne of corned beef hash. Corned beef and cabbage a/k/a “New England Boiled Dinner”? Who cares?
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: I got my fingers crossed. Take care.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Another Scott:
That’s not the point, What Trump wants is the rumor the Brenbart like websites will turn into Alternative Facts for the base. Remember Trump is a lazy con man. Soon we will hear the blue hairs going on about how Trump had North Korean leaders assassinated and why won’t the press report about this?
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Ouch. Glad you are well enough to comment.
SFAW
@satby:
The Shenanigans were out partying with the O’Learys and the Flanagans, so that’s not a surprise.
Alce_e_ardilla
@Anne Laurie: Otherwise we would be eating mutton with boiled potatoes.
Betty Cracker
I’m an American mutt, a mix of several ethnicities, but my last name (which is not actually “Cracker”) is identifiably Irish. The people who make the biggest deal about that are my Polish-American in-laws, who always call to wish me a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and express surprise (even though I’ve been in the family for 20 years) that I’m not doing something special to mark the occasion.
I used to make corned beef and cabbage every year, but I don’t anymore because no one else likes it. I miss the homemade hash I made of the leftovers, but no one else does. I’ll probably have a black-and-tan this evening and call it a day.
But, I did curse Trump on Twitter in Gaelic this morning in response to his St. P tweet, so there’s that: téigh go dtí ifreann! I’ve done my bit.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
Sorry to hear about your arm. I hope you get some relief!
@satby:
So sorry about your pup. Be gentle with yourself.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@satby: Spent most of a week in Galway last summer. Irish people kept telling me if I ever got to Ireland, to get out of Dublin and go to Galway and I have to say it was a pretty wonderful place. Great walking district. Lots of great street music and pub music, and the early pub sessions are full of families and a non-drinking crowd. It poured all week,but that just made that first cup of tea/Irish coffee all the better.
SFAW
@satby:
Sorry to hear about your doggie. Be well, take care.
MattF
@Kay: Also, ‘mental health’ isn’t a priority for the Trump party.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Well right now the tough talk is just deploying some ABM batteries to Japan and South Korea. I think it’s more like Trump realizes the Trumpcare failure makes him look week and the Blue Hairs only respect bullys so Trump trying to slap North Korea again to get them back.
efgoldman
@Another Scott:
I think that’s mostly true, but as the guy who ran the world’s biggest and most profitable oil company, shouldn’t he know that most times it’s best to shut the fuck up!?!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Clarifications: “non-drinking crowd” is a relative thing, I’m contrasting with mobs of loud 20-somethings you get in the late crowd. Not my thing, never really was.
And by “poured” I meant rain, if that was unclear.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: 3 words: Corned beef sandwiches.
Woodrowfan
in other words, he ran a place that practically printed money. Hard not to succeed
Woodrowfan
corned beef and cabbage is disgusting beyond words. gag. I’d sooner eat ketchup on a cheap hot dog.
efgoldman
@OzarkHillbilly:
i love a good, lean, deli corned beef sammich; also enjoy hash. But the smell of a “boiled dinner” cooking curdles my brain and deranges my stomach. Urgh, can’t stand it
satby
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: pubs are family places in Ireland. So the drinking, at least in the early evening, is balanced by food and children about.
sherparick
@raven: Yesterday, the Irish PM, Enda Kenny, decided to use the occasion to send a little message to President Small Fingers that in the eyes of the Irish, he was making America small and mean. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/us/politics/irish-st-patricks-enda-kenny-trump.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Feurope
germy
I'm glad the grownups are finally back in charge, after eight years of childish democrat rule.OzarkHillbilly
@MattF: Every time Trump opens his mouth proves that fact.
satby
Here you go to get you in the mood today.</
Link fail, here it is naked: https://youtu.be/u7pDiO52xSs
Patricia Kayden
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Trump starting an unnecessary war with North Korea would be neither unifying nor a way to stop criticism. He’s a proven Liar so any claim that it is necessary to strike North Korea would be met with derision and disbelief. If any U.S. servicemen/women die during this trumped up war, his already high unfavorability rating will spike upwards. Hopefully someone sensible is telling him all of this so this doesn’t happen.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Not so sure, insofar as they threaten vital economic relationships with regard to two genuinely important trading, security and financial partners which are important components to American “soft power”.
Betty Cracker
@satby: Poor baby. So sorry to hear that. :(
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, if that’s what floats the boat of those who live in Hillbillystan, I won’t argue with your (apparent lack of) taste. Do you have yours with extra cabbage?
Patricia Kayden
@germy: So Spicey is going to continue to demean President Obama by making outrageous claims that he was involved in spying on Trump’s campaign? This is going to be a regular thing now? When does the media stop attending these press conferences where all Spicey does is lie to their faces?
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Never?
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: I like corned beef in all it’s incarnations, but to each their own. I am also known for eating anything that is put in front of me. Finicky, I am not.
germy
@Patricia Kayden: The media won’t stop attending. They helped make this mess (“her emailz!”) so let them wallow in it.
raven
@sherparick: good
Patricia Kayden
@satby: ((satby)). Sorry to hear this.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
I remember the All In The Family episode where someone offers Archie Bunker a beef tongue sandwich. “I’m not eating anything that came out of an animal’s mouth!” he yells. “Edith, go fix me some eggs!”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@efgoldman:
The whole thing about North Korea is the level of support the regime gets from constant hysteria about external threats. All it takes – literally – for diplomacy to work there is to tamp down the stupid talk.
amk
the typical lying bully of a cowardly pos backs down when he is smacked down.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Nice!! Lovely photo.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden:
When tens of thousands of US servicemen and women’s bodies begin to pile up on day 3 of this trumped up war…
FTFY, you’ll get my bill in the mail.
schrodingers_cat
@pk: Fuck Churchill and that entire gang of genocidal murdering bastards.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: He wants to start a war with Iran.
Humboldtblue
Here’s a recipe for a dry brine corned beef that looks like it may have some potential
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: No, extra horseradish counts is the only vegetable component. Sometimes mustard.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Even tire rims and anthrax?
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s news. That’s their job. Don’t you appreciate hearing what is the latest lie the Trump admin is pushing?
Joe Falco
Rome, Georgia is having a Ginger Pride Day and march. The poster for the event is a group comic book drawing of the Avengers with the headline “GINGERS ASSEMBLE!”
Barbara
@satby: I am sorry too. One of the few things that can make me cry any time is the memory of holding my dog in my arms for his last few minutes of life. Because it’s so hard is one of the many ways we know you loved her.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Heh.
@SFAW: They’ve never been put in front of me. If they ever are I may be faced with a difficult decision.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: {{{ }}} you are a good soul.
raven
@Joe Falco: This is a vid from the 2015 parade The statue the are playing on is the Capitoline Wolf
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t know what he wants, other than to fck me and mine right up the ass with a rusty farm implement. A war with either N Korea or Iran would be disastrous, not just for us, but for the world.
rikyrah
Trump may have blurted out classified information
03/16/17 12:54 PM—UPDATED 03/16/17 01:17 PM
By Steve Benen
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson asked Donald Trump last night about his wiretap conspiracy theory, which his Republican allies are quickly running away from, and the host specifically pressed the president on a specific point: “Every intelligence agency reports to you. Why not immediately go to them and gather evidence to support that?”
Trump responded, “Because I don’t want to do anything that’s going to violate any strength of an agency. We have enough problems.”
I honestly haven’t the foggiest idea what this was supposed to mean. The president, for whatever reason, came to believe he was the target of illegal surveillance, and he could’ve asked officials in his administration to provide him with information about his concerns. He didn’t, however, because it would’ve “violated” the “strength” of an intelligence agency? Since when do factual questions from a president to intelligence professionals undermine government agencies?
Trump quickly added:
…………………………
At the time, however, the agency wouldn’t even confirm the authenticity of the materials, and a CIA spokesperson told reporters, “We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents.”
All of which suggests Trump, responding to a question he was not asked, may have blurted out something important on national television. Indeed, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, noted in a statement, “In his effort to once again blame Obama, the president appears to have discussed something that, if true and accurate, would otherwise be considered classified information.”
OzarkHillbilly
Speaking personally, I offer up this hypothetical. On your left you have a baby. On your right you have a vial with an embryo in it. At the end of 60 seconds, one of them will be randomly crushed unless you make a choice of which to save. So which is it?
-Kevin Drum
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: He wants a bigger war than Iraq, Iran is bigger. 3 of his cabinet secretaries are generals. He wants to show everyone how tough he is.
rikyrah
A painful lesson as Donald Trump’s words are put into action
03/17/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
The New York Times’ David Brooks suggested today he’s a little surprised by Donald Trump’s White House agenda. “The Trump health care and budget plans will be harsh on the poor, which we expected,” the center-right columnist wrote. “But they’ll also be harsh on the working class, which we didn’t.”
Let’s not be too cavalier about using the word “we.” Some of us predicted precisely what we’re seeing from the Republican president.
……………………………….
For those who took Trump’s rhetoric at face value, and believed that he sincerely intended to be a populist champion of working people, I imagine the reality of the president’s agenda must be quite jarring. The “forgotten men and women” of the United States – the struggling people who have not “shared” in the nation’s wealth – would be punished severely by this White House agenda.
The Washington Post reported yesterday:
…………………
Those who believed the president when he said, “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer” may have missed the fine print: under Trump, you’re on your own.
rikyrah
Questions surrounding Trump’s wiretap conspiracy theory grow louder
03/17/17 08:45 AM
By Steve Benen
There are two broad angles to Donald Trump’s allegations that Barack Obama illegally wiretapped Trump Tower before the election. Let’s take them one at a time.
The first is that pretty much everyone has concluded that the Republican president was lying. The top two members of the House Intelligence Committee looked into the allegations and said there’s no evidence to support Trump’s claims, and yesterday, top two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said they too looked into the allegations and reached the same conclusion. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) conceded this week, “No such wiretap existed.”
The Trump White House, true to form, remains defiant.
Kay
@MattF:
I feel like we make this too “smart” though and then say they’re not “smart”. This isn’t wholly about “smart”. It’s about ordinarily decent. I’m not demanding intellect. I’m demanding enough of an ordinary human being to “get” immediately that Meals on Wheels is partly about checking in on vulnerable people. That’s why we don’t send UPS.
It’s a lack in these people and it has nothing to do with “smart”. Missing some essential, ordinary things.
He needs a study to see that? Why?
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Steve King: “What color is the baby?”
rikyrah
Trump’s budget director develops the wrong kind of reputation
03/17/17 09:20 AM—UPDATED 03/17/17 09:29 AM
By Steve Benen
When Mick Mulvaney was a member of Congress, the South Carolina Republican, a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, developed a reputation for almost comical radicalism. Now he’s Donald Trump’s budget director, where he’s proving his critics right.
Just this week, Mulvaney said he believed that the Obama administration “was manipulating the numbers” on unemployment, which is bonkers. Soon after, the OMB chief was caught brazenly lying – twice – about basic details surrounding the health care debate.
Yesterday, Mulvaney extremism came into even sharper focus.
Trump’s budget director added that cutting assistance to struggling seniors is “one of the most compassionate things we can do,” telling skeptical reporters, “You’re focusing on recipients of the money. We’re trying to focus on both the recipients of the money and the folks who give us the money in the first place.” He pointed to programs such as Meals on Wheels as initiatives that are “just not showing any results.”
The point of Meals on Wheels is provide food to the low-income elderly. I’m honestly not sure what kind of “results” Mulvaney is looking for – if the struggling seniors eat the food, and the evidence suggests the meals have a positive impact on their well-being, then the return on Americans’ investment is high.
This really was just the start of a jaw-dropping presentation. During the same briefing:
* Mulvaney said there’s no “demonstrable evidence” that after-school programs help at-risk children, despite the demonstrable evidence that points in the opposite direction.
* Asked about paying for Trump’s border wall, the White House budget chief said, “It’s up to somebody else to figure out where the money comes from.”
* When the discussion turned to climate change, Mulvaney declared, “We’re not spending money on that anymore; we consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that.”
* One reporter reminded the OMB director, “The United Nations said the world is currently facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of World War II – 20 million people in just four countries facing starvation or famine – and yet you’re cutting funding to the U.N., cutting funding to the foreign aid budget. Are you worried that some of the most vulnerable people on Earth will suffer as a result?” Mulvaney responded that the Trump administration is “absolutely” cutting those funds, adding, “That should come as a surprise to no one who watched the campaign.”
satby
And thanks again everyone, for all the emotional support. Rosa was one day away from euthanasia four years ago when I pulled her for someone who was looking for a boxer. Rosa wasn’t a puppy, and only 1/2 boxer, so the person backed out of adopting her, which is why she ended up with me. So she had four more years of people loving and, in the beginning, doggie companions to play with; treats and rawhides, and an endless number of sheets and blankets to shred in her cage. The change to doggie aggression was gradual, and I hoped we could just contain the situation, but it wasn’t to be. In spite of it all, I’m still glad I took her for those years.
rikyrah
The People and Terrain That Stand in the Way of Trump’s Wall
by Nancy LeTourneau March 17, 2017 8:21 AM
Too often we forget that long before this country was formed, the land that makes up the Southwest belonged to Mexico. As a result of the Mexican-American War in the 1840s, that territory was ceded to the United States. Between the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and a later addition in the Gadsden Purchase, the border between Mexico and the United States as it exists today was formed.
That history is critical to understanding why the challenges Trump will face in building a border wall only begin with the question of how to pay for it. Back in the 1840’s and 50’s, those agreements didn’t take into consideration the people who live on either/both side of those imaginary boundaries or the terrain they traverse. A good case in point is the Tohono O’ogham Nation. Their tribal lands exist on both sides of the border along a 75 mile stretch in Arizona.
When it comes to the idea of building a wall through their lands, Tohono O’ogham Nation leaders have said, “No.”
Gerald S. Dickinson explains why that is a huge problem for Trump.
rikyrah
Why Six States Still Spend Nothing on Preschool
Many state preschool programs are still tiny, but in the Mountain West and New Hampshire, they are nonexistent. Here’s why
by Lillian Mongeau March 16, 2017 9:46 PM
IDAHO CITY, Idaho — In 1864, the tiny town of Idaho City was the biggest American settlement in the state. Now, with the gold rush long over, the logging industry nearly collapsed and few good jobs left in the area, the local K-12 school graduates fewer than 35 students a year.
Nevertheless, since 1999, every 4-year-old in town has been offered an option most 4-year-olds in Idaho don’t get: a spot in a free, public preschool program.
“Preschool can be a great resource in rural communities,” said John McFarlane, the district superintendent who doubles as the seventh- through 12th-grade principal. “We can’t go to the museum; we can’t go to the Discovery Center. We don’t have licensed day care. We don’t want to assign [our kids] to a rural life for their whole life if they want something else.”
laura
@satby: She just wanted to be loved.
Isn’t that what we all want/need whether we’re people or critters, doing OK or broke down, broke in dem bones, broken in spirit, breaking bad habits? Take good care, you’ve had a trying week and I hope you and your household take comfort in each other’s company.
Here’s hoping Theo continues to improve too!
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Too true.
rikyrah
Democrats Can’t Be Suckers on the Debt Ceiling Debate
by Martin Longman March 16, 2017 4:10 PM
Last week, I asked what the Democrats should demand in return for providing some votes for raising the debt ceiling. I brought it up because it appears that there are enough Republicans who aren’t inclined to vote for the hike themselves that congressional Republican leadership is going to have to go hat-in-hand to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and request some assistance.
rikyrah
Neil Gorsuch’s Alarming Views on Antitrust and Monopoly
The Supreme Court nominee doesn’t seem to care about how concentrated economic power stifles fair competition and hurts average Americans.
by Sandeep Vaheesan March 17, 2017
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. In the coming weeks, the judge will be questioned about his views on a range of social and political issues—abortion, gun control, and voting rights among them. Senate Democrats should add another issue to the top of the list: antitrust law.
Federal antitrust law controls monopolies, cartels, and mergers. It restricts what companies, in particular large companies, can do—for example, buying their rivals, fixing prices, or engaging in below-cost pricing to drive competitors out of the market.
It used to, anyway. Historically, the goal of antitrust law was to preserve competitive markets. Starting in the 1970s, however, judges influenced by the Chicago School of law and economics began limiting the scope of the federal antitrust statutes by redefining the objective of these laws. The only proper goal of antitrust law, according to this perspective, was to promote “efficiency” and “consumer welfare.” In other words, as long as they kept prices low in the short term, mergers and monopolies were fine. Further, this school of thought assumed that mergers and monopolies could realize “economies of scale” and thereby lower prices to consumers. Under this theoretical framework, mergers and monopolies are generally a good thing. As president, Ronald Reagan appointed Supreme Court justices and federal antitrust officials who advanced and institutionalized this narrow antitrust ideology, leading to multiple merger waves over the past four decades and the staggering level of market concentration in America today.
…………………………………………………………
Gorsuch’s antitrust philosophy is exemplified in his opinion in another case, Novell v. Microsoft. Novell sued Microsoft, alleging that the software giant broke a promise to share the technology necessary for Novell to produce a word processing program compatible with Windows 95. Novell claimed Microsoft did so in order to favor its own software, Microsoft Word.
Not only did Gorsuch rule against Novell, but he went on to impose a near-impossible burden on antitrust plaintiffs. He held that Microsoft could not be found liable unless it was proved to have sacrificed short-term profits in its exclusionary campaign against Novell. That decision created a remarkably lenient standard that essentially allows monopolists to use their power to marginalize competitors so long as they can show they made money in the process.
At a time when the public has serious and growing concerns about the power of platform monopolists such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google, Gorsuch’s decision in Novell gives these titans broad power to squelch rivals and to extend their existing monopolies into adjacent markets. In his opinions, Gorsuch goes further than most of his judicial peers in his deference to monopoly and disregard for Congress’s original goals.
Another issue that the Senate should investigate further is Gorsuch’s position on the so-called state action doctrine, which protects states and private parties acting subject to state authorization and supervision, from lawsuits alleging anticompetitive behavior. For instance, a state optometry association that is authorized by law to establish credentialing requirements for optometrists, and supervised by state regulators, would likely be immune from antitrust attack.
Gorsuch has only issued one opinion on the state-action doctrine, and in that case, he reached the right result. The Senate should find out, however, whether he intends to limit the doctrine, which could allow antitrust law to be used to target occupational licensing rules that protect consumers and promote higher wages and stable employment for workers. There is precedent for just such a legal strategy. At the turn of the 20th century, the judiciary limited the use of the antitrust laws against monopoly and mergers, while permitting these laws to be used against workers and farmers organizing for fairer wages and prices and safer working conditions. In response, Congress in 1914 passed the Clayton Antitrust Act and established the Federal Trade Commission to give the federal government the power to check concentrated private power and preserve competitive markets.
pk
@rikyrah:
Treaties shreeties! The US government is going to honor it’s treaties with the Native American Tribes? Really?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I”m sure this is also fine, too
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/16/17
Russian hackers targeted down-ballot races
Glen Caplin, senior national spokesman for the Hillary Clinton campaign, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Russian hack of the Democratic Party unfolded.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/16/17
Flynn scandal intensifies amid documented payments from Russia
Rachel Maddow raises the question of whether Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn committed a crime by accepting payments from Russia, and whether the Trump campaign knew about it before hiring him.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/16/17
Trump’s proposed State Department budget cuts put US at risk
Wendy Sherman, former undersecretary of State, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump’s proposal to cut the State Department’s budget by a third, and the implications that will have on fighting terrorism and epidemics like Ebola.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not Irish, but I love corned beef. Love it.
My sister went to the Irish neighborhood and got some on sale. Had it for dinner 2x this week.
donnah
I was more than a little concerned by Trump and Co’s plans for the Executive Branch. Rude Pundit just wrote about it, as did Charles Pierce at Esquire. Forget the stupid tax leak diversion, they are going to review and redefine the Executive Branch of our government. Which is Trumptalk for Destroy and Decimate.
Joe Falco
@raven: Nice. I’m quite familiar with the statue. The weather has been cloudy so far today and much warmer than what it had been. There’s also going to be a “leprechaun” run and walk tonight by one of the big medical clinics in town.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe if Rexy stopped running away from the reporter pool he could save his strength.
Of course, with all the cuts coming to State Dept, he probably figures most of these postings will be going away anyway so why bother visiting any of them?
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: We Slavs are very serious about Saint Days. My father, whose name was “Joseph,” received at least a dozen cards every St. Joseph’s Day and we all went to church at 5 a.m.
And your last name really isn’t “Cracker?” Wow, had me fooled….
rikyrah
@satby:
you are good people, satby.
schrodingers_cat
@donnah: Its not the Trump Plan its the Republican plan he is the head of the party. That connection should be hammered again and again.
rikyrah
We’ve seen how well austerity measures worked across Europe. Trump’s cuts are completely unnecessary and undermine our values on all fronts.
— meta (@metaquest) March 16, 2017
rikyrah
Trump admin refuses to negotiate with North Korea on nukes, says it may take “preemptive action” against them https://t.co/Kc1GRVj5Wi
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) March 17, 2017
rikyrah
.@SpeakerRyan–
We want to know why you’ve done nothing to keep Americans safe. Why is a Russian spy ship off our coast again?#trumprussia
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) March 17, 2017
.@SenJohnMcCain–
What are u gonna do & say about the Russian spy ship that’s off our coast again—Nothing? Great.#trumprussia #resist
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) March 17, 2017
Russian spy ship spotted 50 miles off US coast https://t.co/1qNWEdaKhm pic.twitter.com/3BvgFRSmYK
— The Hill (@thehill) March 17, 2017
Corner Stone
I have seen the future of robotics and AI and it is not pretty. Clearly Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers is in fact a robot, a poorly programmed one, and she is repeating all the talking points they fed to her using the punch card system.
There is more originality in the work a car automation robotic arm provides than original thought in McMoRo’s headular unit.
rikyrah
Irony: @realDonaldTrump can’t defend using tax $ to feed the elderly, but they’re OK with $17.5M on 5 boondoggles to Mar-a-Lago in 60 days? https://t.co/IVYi7NXxzB
— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) March 17, 2017
rikyrah
Democratic push to end gerrymandering, helmed by Eric Holder, to begin in Va. https://t.co/7FywhsmReZ
— Donna NoShock (@NoShock) March 17, 2017
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: okay, maybe not– the consequences of hiding from your own press
rikyrah
Here’s what President Trump’s budget proposes to cut https://t.co/8uYMPTMLKT pic.twitter.com/6zK4ddrqZL
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 17, 2017
MattF
@rikyrah: Speaking of the House ‘Freedom Caucus’, I just read that Louie Gohmert has recently signed up with them. Didn’t they used to have standards?
rikyrah
The Am. Indian Healthcare Act was imbedded into the ACA & doesn’t have an exp. date. If Rs repeal ACA, IHS & Indians across the US suffer.
— Deb Haaland (@DAH_NM) March 16, 2017
rikyrah
Feds employ 2.2 million civilians, about 1.5% of all US jobs. Trump’s budget would cut from 100,000-200,000 fed civil service jobs.
— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) March 17, 2017
Jim, Foolish Literalist
In my mind I often compare Paul Ryan to a demented, Randian Eddie Haskell, but this… I just… what?
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: My version of this, after Louisiana was set to pass one of the “personhood” statutes was — “a fireman answers a call tp a burning building. On the right, he can hear the screams of a terrified child. On the left is an in vitro fertilization clinic with thousands of fertilized eggs. Which way does the law require him to turn?”
hovercraft
@debbie:
St. Pats is by far the worst day to ride on public transit in NY, from the subways to the LIRR, to Jersey Transit, these morons infiltrate everywhere, they are the worst. If you start drinking @ midnight and are falling down drunk first thing in the morning, how can you enjoy, let alone remember the holiday? There’s just a special level of stupid and obnoxiousness that isn’t there for other holidays.
rikyrah
Meals on Wheels serves meals to 2.4 million seniors, including 500k veterans each year. But no one loves our veterans more than Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/kMItyKRnYV
— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) March 16, 2017
amk
Meanwhile, across the ocean.
MattF
@rikyrah: It’s tough love.
Immanentize
@satby: Truly amazing, Satby. On its own, so kind, but especially so in light of all the purposeful pain we see meted out these days. Thank you.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Perhaps his family came from the Emerald Isle so long ago that they he doesn’t have any family or friends back there. The Irish LOVED, Barrack O’Bama, they claimed him as a native son, the Irish on the other hand are quick to point out that Twitler is definitely Scotch German, nothing to do with them. He had to cancel his planned visit to Ireland during the campaign, much like his visit to the UK has been pushed back because of concerns about the scope and size of the protests. Ryan not only has no clue how to govern, he has no knowledge of what the Irish call Twilter, and it definitely isn’t royalty.
Another Scott
@sherparick: There was a good segment on the BBC News (on the radio) this morning with an Irish comic. He made the point that, among other things, St. Patrick was an illegal immigrant. It was hilarious. Can’t find a linky though. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Good morning, jackals. Re the budget: I called Senator Bennet’s office (busy, left a voice mail) and Representative DeGette’s office (spoke to a friendly if overwhelmed staffer). Could not get through to Gardner’s office (surprise) so I sent an email. The message to all three was the same: oppose the budget. The idea that the only way to pay for defense is by cutting programs for the most vulnerable is not only wrong, it is depraved.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@satby: Thank you for caring for her, and I am so sorry for your loss. (hugs)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: that’s why I mention Eddie Haskell, he’s sucking up to Trump by proxy-fantasizing about how much the Irish love him because he’s a such a big swinging dick foreign land owner. And the golf-subset of ODS– from the would-be Men’s Fitness cover model who loves to strike a pose on a nautilus machine or holding a compound bow because the doughy ex-fratboys on his staff tell him how fucking boss he looks
Tazj
@satby: I’m sorry too, but also glad you gave her 4 more good years.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Been listening to the BBC all morning. If there has been an apology, they don’t know about it.
The reaction has been alternating between amusement, outrage, but mostly “WTF is this guy’s problem?”
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Of the despicable people in the Republican party, he is head and shoulders above everyone else.
Another Scott
@FlipYrWhig: Yeah, “I would have taken the oil” isn’t the words of someone who isn’t interested in foreign wars.
:-/
In a couple of hundred years when we understand more about the brain, people will look back on these times and say, “Imagine how much better life would have been for them if the voters just had IgSnorts Bx-398 to combat that brain pathogen that caused them to be so stupid…”
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@rikyrah: He and/or Tillerson also publicly demanded that they give up their nuclear and missile programs to start. Great way to make a foe want to negotiate – demand that they capitulate before negotiations even begin.
These brainiacs think that negotiating with other countries is like negotiating with Joe’s Gas and Go or Fred’s Apartments. These countries that they’re determined to pick fights with (Iran, NK, all the rest) have histories that go back thousands of years. They know a little more about “negotiations” than Donnie thinks.
We’re going to lose bigly if things continue the way they’re going… :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: If this is the case, the military will be slaughtered in order to maintain his status, which is not something that works for US presidents in the long run, even if it’s a conflict they may have felt they didn’t have much choice about. For examples, see Truman, Harry S (Korea); Johnson, Lyndon B (fuck LBJ)(Vietnam); Bush, George W. (Iraq).
The Central American adventures of St. Ronaldus would have a far more negative effect on his memory if it weren’t for the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall, Solidarity and Lech Walensa, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact–most of which he doesn’t really deserve much credit for.
US Presidents who engage in extremely expensive military adventures for image purposes typically do see an effect on their images–just not a positive one.
Mel
@NorthLeft12: So true. My significant other’s mother, whose multi-child household survived her husband’s midlife bout with a brain tumor due to the family’s ability to access unemployment benefits and assistance programs, whose children were able to attend college in part due to Pell grants, who has a severely developmentally and physically disabled grandchild who is only alive due to SSD /medicaid and whose parents would have to go bankrupt and become homeless in order to meet even part of the monthly bills for services that keep their beloved child alive and safe and comfortable, who herself depends upon both Medicare and Social Security for a large portion of her retirement, and who benefited for decades from an active workers’ union protecting her from wage, gender, and workplace safety abuses, proudly announced last year that she voted for Trump because, “It doesn’t matter, b/c he won’t take MY benefits, and I just wouldn’t vote for That Woman, because she’s crooked.”
Now that this shitstorm is in full swing, her line is, “It’s not my fault. I was only one vote. And besides, he’ll keep the babies safe!!” (She’s rampantly anti-abortion and anti-reproductive rights, even though she has a daughter in law for whom a pregnancy would cause life-threatening complications and possibly death due to an autoimmune condition.)
So: okay with her if millions of people die from treatable conditions, as long as women are forced to get pregnant and stay pregnant. Okay that many children and families won’t have insurance, housing, enough food, a chance to get an education, or a hope of safe, reasonable employment and the ability to survive in retirement, as long as some “crooked ” (translation:intelligent, outspoken, and not subservient) woman is kept “in her place”, and the “other people” are suffering first. There is just no educating her, no amount of reasoning that works, no amount of attempting to appeal to her about the real, devastating human impact of the policies she voted to support that makes any difference. We have tried. And tried. And tried some more.
That’s the extent of her demented “logic”, such as it is. Doesn’t matter how badly her family suffers, doesn’t matter how much other people will suffer; screw the environment, world diplomacy, workers’ rights, equal rights: as long as she’s “got hers”, and dies before her benefits go away, apparently nothing else matters. Yet, she’ll tell you in the same breath how much she “loves the grandkids” and how church charity work is “so important”. She’ll spend hours working on housing for low income families, talk about how great it is to see a school offering a tutoring program, and donate to food drives, but then totally support slashing housing funding, say it’s great to cut school lunch and Head Start programs, etc.
The ignorance, the irony, the blatant disconnect from reality, the sheer, heartless, mindless horror of it is astonishing to us. It’s even more heartbreaking and terrifying how many more of her there are out there.
Corner Stone
@Mel:
I know we’re a bunch of vicious jackals around here but feel free to borrow some punctuation next time.
trnc
@rikyrah:
I’m not vouching for block grants. I’m saying that the budget and particularly the way Mulvaney talked about MOW is delivered are clues to their ultimate goal with Medicare. Block grant it, then claim that it doesn’t work and repeal it.
Mel
@Corner Stone:
Yikes! I did go on, didn’t I?
Venting that frustration regarding the monster-in-law’s lunacy felt oh-so-good, but the rant definitely took on a life of its own.
At least it’s a largely grammatically correct sentence despite the venom-induced verbosity.
Still, I would have dinged my former students for creating it. Mea culpa!
gorram
@satby: Not to mention, they always go for Guinness… which quite literally financed the UK’s death squad Black and Tans that tried to keep us under their boot! Ugh.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
I would have sworn Cracker was a famous and well known Irish name!! What’s up with that?!?!
J R in WV
@Mel:
No wirries, Mel. It are a well cmposed sentence, realluy! (sic) ;-)
Keep up the ranting as needed for psychological health! ! !
gorram
@germy: He didn’t. It’s a neo-pagan conspiracy theory. Pretty much all of the historical documents depict a slow social transition from non-Christian beliefs to Christian beliefs during that time period that completed after his death. One of Hughes’ chapters in this book gets into it.