Dems: Let's start with 2+2=4.
Left: Don't reduce individuals to objective metrics.
GOP: 2+2=5. Fuck you.
MSM: Toxic Political Culture.— D. L. R. Ohlms (@DLROhlms) June 22, 2017
Juliet Eilperin, in the Washington Post:
Former president Barack Obama will formally reenter the political fray this week less than six months after leaving office, headlining a fundraiser for a group that could prove critical to the Democratic Party’s rebuilding efforts.
Obama’s appearance Thursday before a few dozen people at a closed-door event in the District on behalf of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) highlights the balance he is trying to strike as his party seeks to regain its footing at both the state and national levels. Obama does not want to cast “a long shadow,” in the words of Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, but he remains a central figure for a party that has yet to settle on a single strategy to combat President Trump…
The NDRC’s executive director, Kelly Ward, would not say how much the fundraiser is expected to bring in. But she said Obama “still has such a microphone” to help convince donors to invest in state-level races and help in “shining a light” on a phenomenon that influences the outcome of elections year after year.
“That bully pulpit still very much rests with him,” Ward said.
The NDRC aims to influence how state and federal legislative districts are drawn and hopes to create “a centralized, strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy,” she said. The group’s chairman, former U.S. attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also are scheduled to appear…
In a statement, Obama’s spokesman Kevin Lewis said the former president wants to support the committee’s “efforts to address unfair gerrymandering practices that leave too many American voters feeling voiceless in the electoral process.”
“Restoring fairness to our democracy by advocating for fairer, more inclusive district maps around the country is a priority for President Obama,” Lewis said…
What else is on the agenda, as we begin another week?
Baud
2+2=Pie should be added to the pie filter.
Quinerly
Suggested reading. Longish piece on how Steve Bannon is back in the driver’s seat and going after Mueller: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/steve-bannon-is-out-of-trump-doghouse-leading-charge-against-robert-mueller.html
JPL
@Quinerly: I’m surprised that Mueller has lasted this long. Maybe they are waiting for the August recess.
Baud
@JPL: I think right now they want to discredit him rather than stop him. Maybe that calculus will change at some point.
Quinerly
@JPL:
The piece actually is less about Mueller and more about Bannon’s hatred for HRC. That’s what stood out to me. That and the fact that Bannon will be there in the bunker with Trump when all abandon him.
Quinerly
Comey’s memos on his private conversations with Trump contained classified information: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/341225-comeys-private-memos-on-trump-conversations-contained-classified?rnd=1499645596
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Baud
@Quinerly: Another reason to love her.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
A long read, but worth it: What happened when Walmart left
…..
Quinerly
Priests, rabbis, and a Buddhist munching on mushrooms for science: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/08/religious-leaders-get-high-on-magic-mushrooms-ingredient-for-science
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
My heart aches for the 23.1%.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Except they always leave their ugly buildings and signs behind to sit vacant.
I remember when one arrived at our old town. Everyone was excited about JOBS! SAVINGS! and of course they started cheap, but then the prices crept up. The town build roads, cleared woods, wallmart got tax breaks to encourage them.
There were elderly greeters for the first year or so, but they’re long gone. I think they were hired more as a publicity stunt than anything else. A temporary expense they soon cut.
I bought groceries there a few times. The produce invariably rotted as soon as I brought it home, and the electronics were garbage.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Elections have consequences.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It’s the same here.
@germy: It’s the same here.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Fun query about Trump Junior’s acquaintance Goldstone and his “client” – Goldstone is being put forth as a music promoter, and his “client” is the son of a Putin-aligned criminal oligarch.
Who among us hasn’t heard the dulcet tones of that guy?
debbie
It never stops:
germy
@debbie: “A beautiful new healthcare bill”
They really should be selling used cars in halfmoon ny
gene108
Just remember, if the
healthcaretax-cut bill for billionaires currently stalled in the Senate passes, it is just round one regarding tax cuts. They want to over haul the tax code to give more tax cuts to billionaires.I am sure, once the Walton family gets these massive tax cuts, they will work hard as job creators to turn around places in rural West Virginia.
It is a long game, but worth it, in the end I think. Once the billionaires have their tax cuts, they will unleash the power of the free market and use their job creator superpowers to transform the left behind towns.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: The 74.7%, Fuckem.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@gene108:
I see you got an early start on day drinking.
Kay
The new FBI Director will be horrible because you would have to be to take the job with Trump as President. They all know what it’s like by now. He smears shit over anyone who comes near him with the exception of the fawning lackeys.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
That last paragraph, what the hell did she think was going to happen?
Baud
@gene108: A plan so foolproof, any failure can only be attributed to black people and immigrants. #MAGA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nah. They simply need to look to their rich, real estate developer friends for assistance. I’m sure they’ll be fine.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Thanks for this
weaselone
@Quinerly:
I’m going to wait for this confirmed by a source other than John Solomon, rightwing hack.
Also, if these are personal memos, how exactly would they have classification markings on them, or were these made after the fact and if so who made them and what part exactly was deemed classified? Smells fishy.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: @germy: and don’t forget that before Wal-Mart pulls out, they’ve long run all the smaller independent stores out of business. Small towns like my old one consisting of a gas station and two blocks of vacant buildings as a downtown.
rikyrah
I will remind folks:
CALL CALL CALL
Your Senators and tell them that Trumpcare is a national nightmare ?
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
The Bannon quotes about HRC made my eyes misty this AM. He is pure evil
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
We really need to pay social workers and the like more. There is so much wasted human capital, in this country, because teachers, social workers, etc get paid so little and the jobs require a college degree that people opt for other fields.
I had a teacher in high school tell me she thought one reason teacher’s got paid like they do is because teaching is viewed as “women’s work”; something for a gal to do until she finds a husband to take care of her.
I think the same applies to social work, as it, like teaching, are fields dominated by women.
debbie
@Kay:
FAKE NEWS! I checked a couple articles, but could see no sourcing, no suggestion about what kind of information they’re referencing. FAKE!!!
Quinerly
@weaselone:
I see Trump has latched onto it. Fox is running it as a big headline.
Baud
@Quinerly: We could have stood up to them but instead about 10% of our side chose to participate in their culture. I’m not sure how we deal with that.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
No lies told in that piece. And now, the Waltons are coming for their Medicaid in order to give the Waltons a tax cut.
gene108
@Baud:
And the fact the tax cuts were too small and the dear billionaires are still taxed too much.
satby
@gene108: she’s a prison guard,it seems to say, not a social worker. And it sounds like she’s still pretty poorly paid.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay, our truth teller ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: One thing I got from that article is they can dish it out but whine when someone pushes back.
Fuckem.
rikyrah
@weaselone:
Smells from here
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Complete and utter EVIL ????
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Out here in the Peoples Republic of California, our prison guards have a union. Two groups that YOU DO NOT PISS OFF, as the Governator found out, are the prison guard union and the nurses.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: The same thing people always think when a new large employer comes to a small town.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Absolutely. If they beat us, then they beat us. Let’s not beat ourselves.
Kay
@debbie:
Far be it from me to defend Comey but the piece about it uses the same fuzzy language they used with Clinton- I can’t tell if it was classified after the fact or if the memo he gave to the friend is even one of the memos with (allegedly) classified info.
Comey did one great thing that as far as I’m concerned makes up for a lot- he got an investigation. I just want an investigation. I want to know what happened. I knew the congressional investigation would go off the rails and it has- they’re investigating too many things – they’ve added Lynch and now Comey. That will be worthless- “mistakes were made”. Mueller is the only real hope of ever finding out what happened.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
But, this is WV. Not exactly a pro Union state. That said, she still probably has one of the better paying jobs in the area .
Jeffro
@Baud: now there’s a grim sales pitch to Democrats stuck in extremely red districts and states : “come with us if you want to live”. Offer relocation assistance to someplace that isn’t so determined to kill its own citizens .
rikyrah
@Kay:
And , he has assembled a Murderers Row Team.
PPCLI
@weaselone:
@Kay:
@Quinerly:
Contrary to DTJr’s tweet, the story does not say that Comey leaked classified info, though the headline and the article are cleverly crafted to give that impression while not strictly speaking saying anything demonstrably false. It says that there was classified info in some of the memos. Comey shared at least one (and probably only one) memo with his friend, and his friend leaked some of the information in one memo to the press. If any of the information Comey let out or that his friend communicated had been classified, no doubt the article would have said so.
So: Comey wrote some memos. Some of those memos had information that is (currently) classified. Some information — not said to be classified — from one of the memos, was conveyed to the press. One of those memos — not, apparently, one with (currently) classified information — was given to a Comey friend.
That is not “leaking classified information”.
Edit: Ah, I see Kay beat me to the post.
Baud
@PPCLI: If this were Hillary, that would be worth a week’s worth of 24 hour news coverage.
Kay
@rikyrah:
To oppose or disagree publicly with Donald Trump is to get attacked and smeared. They take the job knowing this by now. So who takes that job? No one who intended to be act independently would take it- it’s career and reputation suicide.
The minute he does something Team Trump doesn’t like they’ll go after him publicly. Trump went after a judge who crossed him. He’s not going to let the FBI Director do his job. Anyone who works for him now knows that.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: That point is made in the story. Also how it not only replaces all the other businesses but how it becomes the sole socialization location.
debbie
@Kay:
Agreed.
Iowa Old Lady
@germy: He reads like a parody of himself. The writers for The Onion must despair.
Baud
@Jeffro: That’s the problem, isn’t it? Even if we controlled everything, the problem isn’t one that can be fixed in a day. As we saw in 2010, Dems are only given a short time frame in which to create Utopia.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, and don’t forget how little they cared when the small businesses had to close. All they cared about were the low prices. Well, this is what that low pricing will bring us. Walmart, China, no difference.
Baud
@Kay: I would probably take the job, but then I would be honored to be fired by Donald Trump.
Kay
@PPCLI:
I agree. I think the piece is vague and accusatory and all muddled up. The part where the writer says some of the memos may have had classified info and then moves directly to the one he released (so as to imply the two are the same with no explicit connection) is borderline dishonest. Exactly how they covered the emails. Weasel wording.
Iowa Old Lady
@gene108: There’s empirical evidence that as the percentage of women in a field rises, the relative pay declines. Bank tellers were an early example. At one point they were all men and the job was seen as an entry level job that led to management.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Yep.
PPCLI
@Kay: Weasel wording, indeed. In the words of Tallyrand (or maybe Diderot): “God gave man language in order to conceal his thoughts”.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: it’s hard for people to grasp how decimated these towns all over the country are by Wal-Mart if you don’t live in a rural area. But at the same time, people choose to go get the cheap shit from China and quit patronizing their local businesses, just to save pennies. Hell, the drive to the Wal-Mart usually ate up in gas any savings.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Trump can’t even do that right, it was the ONE THING he was supposed to good at.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: They worked her into the piece, had to take one more shot at the Hillbeast.
Kay
@Baud:
I honestly think people are having a lot of trouble dealing with Trump. This smearing he does is effective. I think it’s a real dilemma and it’s probably having a chilling effect- you risk your reputation when you cross him. The people who are standing up to him are getting brutalized and it keeps happening. So far the only two who I have seen effectively handle him are Obama and Mr. Khan, the soldier’s father.
It’s easy to say “fight him” but looking at this I can easily see how he could destroy just about every dissenter.
Did you see what they did to that CNN guy? Jesus. No one in management stuck up for him. They’re afraid of Trump.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: I think the last time I was in a Walmart was about 20 years ago.
sherparick
@Quinerly: I see the Republicans in the House have moved on from the Hillary witch hunt to the the Comey/Mueller witch hunt. All in service of destroying the welfare state, eliminating most taxes on rich people, and propping up King Donald and his corrupt family.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: It won’t be just one. There will be more.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Trump is good at one thing. He forces others to reveal their true selves. Unfortunately, that has caused many people to become disillusioned about their friends and family.
kd bart
@Baud: “Hillary will comes for your guns” trumps everything.
Baud
@Kay: I don’t know. I think the people who have been brutalized are the people who helped elect Trump — Republicans, the media, and Comey. People who have consistently opposed Trump only look better for the effort. YMMV.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I saw WaterGirl’s comment, then again, though painful in the short term, in the long run that may be beneficial.
ETA: Reading ‘The Hunting of the President’ last year, the folk in Arkansas that plotted against the Clintons, were always more worried about Hillary than Bill. They seemed to have thought he was limited to being Governor.
kd bart
@satby: No one complains about US Trade policy when they’re purchasing an 46″ HDTV for $300 at their local Best Buy or WalMart.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I always knew I was a little weird. I thought people were making their reputations by crossing him. I certainly admire them more for it.
Kay
@Baud:
The best thing that ever happened to Comey was getting fired. Now he’s free to defend himself. Imagine what they would have done to him if he had been barred from defending himself, still working there.
We’ll reach the point where staying on means you’ve capitulated. Trump doesn’t have any use for independent, ethical people. He’ll destroy them the moment they oppose him. I forgot Elizabeth Warren- she seems to have weathered the Trump smears with some grace. So that’s 3 people. Not a lot.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: She’s just the latest with that story.
Baud
@Kay: He’s attacked Schumer a bunch. I don’t think it has hurt him.
ThresherK
@Kay: That “CNN is afraid of a Republican and won’t stand up for itself” doesn’t surprise me.
That the mainstream media is coming up on the one-year anniversary of the first shitbomb Comey dropped, and hasn’t got its act together, well, I don’t know if I should be more surprised or disappointed.
OzarkHillbilly
Iowa Old Lady
Just as a PSA, if you don’t follow Chuck Wendig on twitter, you’re missing out:
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: That was remarkably successful.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree with you. Sally Yates is my hero. History is not going to be kind to M^2 and PR or the R officeholders in general.
Joey Maloney
@?BillinGlendaleCA: There is exactly one Wal mart whose door I will darken: the one in Hilo, Hawaii, when I’m visiting my family. It’s well-integrated into the retail ecosystem there with several other big-box stores adjacent to keep everyone honest. Their pricing is about the same – ridiculously high, like everything else on the island.
I still don’t feel great about giving the Waltons even a penny, but they have some stuff the other stores don’t. And still, the experience sucks. It’s poorly stocked, dirty, and chronically understaffed. Lord hep you if you have to return something. Better block out the whole afternoon to wait in line and then argue with the assistant manager.
opiejeanne
@germy: I worked at a fabric store in Riverside, CA when Walmart came to San Bernardino. Those cheaper prices were an illusion. We had women come stomping up to our register, griping that Walmart had a particularly popular item cheaper. I asked how much and the answer was always only 2 or 3 cents. That was much less than the cost of the gasoline to drive to the other store and back at the time. Then Walmart announced that they were going to take out Target and Kmart, so they plunked another Walmart about a mile from the first one. The Target was fine, the Kmart was already on its last legs at that location, but other stores disappeared because they couldn’t compete with Walmart.
I just checked and both locations are gone but others have sprung up throughout the region, like weeds. And the Target is still there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Joey Maloney: In fairness, for quite a while the closest Walmart was 15 to 20 miles from here(LA freeway miles). They just opened one in the mall behind the Costco in the neighboring city(Burbank), I’ll stick to Costco.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: I have a Target within walking distance from the cave.
efgoldman
@OzarkHillbilly:
Depends who/where you are.
Just because CNN allowed bullshit, that’s CNN’s fault; they have agency. Now that he’s really slagged them, they are fighting back, hard.
Amber Asswipe can yell, tweet, and rally all he wants; he can’t force WaPo or FYNYT or CBS to do anything, fire anybody, retract a true story – none of that.
No credible news source cares if his base hates them; his voters can barely read TV Guide, and won’t ever bother those sources.
schrodingers_cat
@opiejeanne: We have both a Target and a Walmart in adjacent parking lots. Target is a much nicer experience all around. However, certain things are only available in Walmart like sewing supplies, seasonal garden stuff etc and they have a better deal on kitteh litter. So that’s the only time I go there is when I need stuff that’s not available elsewhere.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I suspect the easiest way to defend oneself from attacks by Trump is to say something along the lines of “I see you’re getting advice from Bannon/Kushner/ Putin/(insert the name of any other person you want to cut tRump off from) again.” It would be telling tRump that he can’t think for himself which would drive him nuts as everything always has to be about HIM. If Bannon gets enough credit for things, tRump will have to fire him.
Another Scott
@Baud:
Well said.
But it’s not even forcing among his supporters. It’s like he and his important minions are living embodiments of cartoon Marie Antoinette.
We must fight them every single day…
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@efgoldman: Thanks. I like your clear eyed take of the situation, an antidote to the daily bath in negativity that some choose to indulge in and make it a point to repeat endlessly in every fucking thread.
Ksmiami
@Jeffro: yep- these towns need to die sorry. Misery upon misery
Ohio Mom
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I can count on both hands the number of times I’ve been in a Walmart.
There is always a specific story: exchanging the too-small Shrek tee shirt the babysitter gave my then-seven year old for his birthday, driving with a friend to go out for lunch and she just had to stop in Wal-Mart on the way…
Every time I’ve been shocked how junky and messy the store is. I can’t see the attraction, it is not like we live in the middle of nowhere.
Cincinnati has lots and lots of retail. We sit have six or more Wal-Marts inside the beltway and they are mostly near other big-box stores and supermarkets. There isn’t anything you can’t get somewhere else just as easily.
A testimony to the power of branding and marketing.
Kay
@ThresherK:
It’s hard, though. I don’t have any experience with a President, obviously, but if you’ve ever dealt with someone like Trump it’s really difficult.
I’m old enough to know better and I can effectively steer clear of nutjobs, but media can’t steer clear of him. They’re locked in this box they can’t get out of- I don’t know how they get out of it.
He will do or say anything and that puts the person who won’t at a disadvantage. He RELIES on other people not behaving like him. It’s key.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Heh they jumped in that box with him, willingly, by going on and on about emailz. Empathy and pity, I have for them is zero.
OzarkHillbilly
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: “Charming” little downtown Woodinville has a limit on businesses’ footprints, just small enough that Walmart can’t squeeze in. I say “charming” facetiously but it’s not bad. The biggest box store that fits is a standard-sized Target. The owner of Molbak’s, a large nursery on the main drag, is very frustrated that he can’t sell off his acres of property currently taken up by a small parking lot and large plant and garden supplies, not to mention the massive gift shop. The plants are of highest quality but pricey; we only go there if we can’t find what we want at Flower World which is in a gorgeous parklike setting and the plant materials are less expensive. People bring picnics to the lawns, it’s so pretty.
Another Scott
@Joey Maloney:
That was our experience the one time we tried to return something to our local NoVA WallyStore. About 15 years ago. We never darken its doors now (and rarely went there before).
With the relentless mania to cut prices in the ’80s – enabled by China joining the world trade system, if it hadn’t been them, it would have probably been something else. But they were particularly brutal and damaging in their implementation.
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
This morning while channel surfing, it appears that Kushner is getting a pass.
sherparick
@gene108: One has to wonder in a post-coal, post-industrial (worker) world about the economic future of places like McDowell County? In the antebellum era before 1861, it had an economy and prosperity based on local agriculture and shipping lumber and coal to industrializing towns and cities along the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. After the civil war, the local agriculture got priced out by cheaper food from afar and the coal and lumber industries became pure exploitation and the prosperity went away. And now coal is going away, and a lot of the jobs in the chemical industry have been automated. How does a place like McDowell makes its way in the world? Unless the State builds prisons and hospitals there, it does not. Hunting and recreation can create a modest tourist economy, but those are not great jobs.
They vote this way because believe Democrats are Godless commie, tree hugging, baby killing, liberals, and they hear it preached on the radio daily. The problem is, as John Cole’s story of the flatearthers reveals, we have millions of fellow citizens who simply believe insane things and act on those beliefs (believing that the Earth was crated on October 22, 4004 BC (Bishop Ussher’s calculation, which is what most “Young Creationists” accept as “Biblical”) is no less insane “flat Earthism” and millions of our co-citizens believe this with all their heart.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: T’s election was due to his nativist anti-immigrant platform, and on that he has delivered.
The mass deportation of the undocumented has begun, even children fleeing violence and in the last stages of getting their GCs approved are fair game.
8 people have died in ICE custody
Partial Muslim ban has gone into effect.
They are going after cities refusing to do ICE’s work, the so called sanctuary cities.
His fearful base is eating it up with a spoon.
Jerzy Russian
@Iowa Old Lady: What the fuck is that linked tweet even about?
schrodingers_cat
@Jerzy Russian: And the all caps are jarring.
Joey Maloney
@Another Scott: Here’s the sad part. I do most of my clothing shopping at the big box stores on the Big Island on my annual visit: Target, Costco, Wal mart if I can’t avoid it. You want to know why? Because I can never remember my measurements in centimeters and it makes me look like an idiot when I try to shop locally.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ksmiami: That’s funny, I hear people saying the same thing about cities.
The Thin Black Duke
@schrodingers_cat: Wallowing in endless negativity is a masochistic game that only the privileged few can afford to do. The rest of us who live in the margins learned a long time ago that you have to play the hand you’re dealt.
gene108
@sherparick:
Immigration would save McDowell county. They have the space, the buildings, etc. They need people.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/how-latinos-are-saving-iowa/431358/
d58826
@Kay: Somewhat OT. Question with regard to Jr’s meeting. Given the stakes involved and the number of people (and not limited to Russians) who might try and infiltrate a campaign, wouldn’t a well run campaign have a security team that would vet these kinds of meetings/attendees before they happen? The security team would cover campaign workers, family members of candidate and top aides or anyone else in a position of influence over the campaign. To take a cold call meeting like Jr claims he did seems amazingly irresponsible. But the amazingly irresponsible is a synonym for Trumpworld.
lethargytartare
@debbie:
Sleater Kinney came out of retirement to comment:
We never really checked
We never check the price tag
When the cost comes in
It’s gonna be high
We love our bargains
We love the prices so low
With the good jobs gone
It’s gonna be raw
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: Hey, I was catching up with a dead thread from yesterday when you mentioned some details about your graduate advisor. Did you by chance go to U of Cincinnati? Feel free to ignore this if it’s none of my business.
Betty Cracker
@gene108: There’s a similar story happening in many small towns in the interior of Florida and all over the South. Ironically, while immigrants are saving those towns by providing a workforce as the descendants of town founders flee to cities, their presence fuels the hate and fear among xenophobic town folks that Trump exploited to get to the White House.
satby
@Ksmiami: no they don’t. With the right digital infrastructure and an online ability to work anywhere those towns could be viable. We just don’t have that structure or mindset about jobs. I made an above average salary working online from the middle of nowhere, but my job and many other US based ones were sent offshore because they could be done from anywhere, and corporations got big tax breaks sending stuff offshore.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Yup. Grad school there in the mid-late ’80s. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Trump’s Con Won’t Work This Time
by David Atkins July 9, 2017 4:02 PM
Donald Trump has spent a lifetime conning people. From his earliest days wheedling banks out of their money to run failing casinos, to selling overpriced low-quality steaks and fraudulent real estate courses with his name on them, to projecting the image of a hard-nosed businessman for a fake reality show, Trump has always been about the con. His answer to any challenge is to bluster and bull his way through.
So it should come as no surprise that, rather than try to mitigate the damage of whatever may have happened between his campaign and the Russians in 2016 by being aggressive with Putin at the G20 summit, Trump’s strategy was to be chummy with the Russian dictator then try to declare that everyone should ignore the whole thing and move forward:
……………………….
Trying to bluff one’s way through a sticky situation is the hallmark of a veteran con artist. But that won’t work this time for Trump and his family. There comes a point at which too many people are paying attention, and the stakes are too high, for bluffing to work. The talented con artist changes tactics at this point. Among the possibilities are pretending to hold underlings accountable, false contrition, fake shows of aggressive bravado against the very criminal actors one colluded with, and the like.
rikyrah
In moderation..please help.
rikyrah
The Collusion Walls Start to Close In on the Trump Family
by David Atkins
July 9, 2017 8:20 PM
…………………………
The problems for Trump Jr. here are several.
First, there is no reason at all to believe that any of Trump’s family and associates are telling the truth now, either. They have lied and omitted key details about all their meetings with Russian agents in the past, and we should have no reason to believe their statements about what happened during these meetings now.
Second, there’s the reality that Trump’s immediate family and campaign were actively seeking damaging information about their political opponents from a hostile foreign adversary, and allowed themselves to be lobbied on a law designed to punish the murder of political activists by that same adversary. Even if you were to take the Trump team’s statements at face value, we now have Trump’s son and onetime campaign manager directly admitting that they sought to collude with Russia on negative information about Clinton.
Third, we now know once again that Trump and his associates lied about this and other meetings they had with Russian agents and officials.
Finally, the fact that all this information is coming out now means that someone on the inside is talking. That in itself is deeply problematic for Republicans, and it could start to make various members of the inner circle seek out reputational life rafts rather than stay loyal to the captain’s of a sinking ship. It’s not as if the Trump family has ever shown much loyalty to their underlings in return for their service, after all. It doesn’t pay to fall on one’s sword for them.
Aimai
@Iowa Old Lady: thank you for that link.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Happened in Lewiston ME too with Somali immigrants.
Laura
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Costco’s employees are unionized! It’s a solid business if you’re into the size vs. selection.
I’ve never set foot in a Wallmart. Never will. Fuck the Waltons. All of them. They deserve an equalizing rate of taxation for the huge costs to society for their business model.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: Advisor by the name of Peter, then.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Hiding Out: Why Republicans Really Don’t Want an August Recess
by D.R. Tucker
July 10, 2017 5:00 AM
From a certain perspective, this June 30 report was the least surprising story of the year:
rikyrah
House Freedom Caucus Approaches a Reckoning
by Martin Longman
July 8, 2017 11:45 AM
I don’t think there is any formal list of the members of the House Freedom Caucus, but it appears to have about 30 members. At the moment, there are 240 Republican members of Congress and 194 Democratic members, with one seat vacant due to the resignation of Jason Chaffetz of Utah. Assuming all members are voting, the Speaker needs 218 votes to pass a bill.
If the roughly 30 members of the House Freedom Caucus refuse to support a bill, that gives Speaker Ryan about 210 votes. On some issues, he might be able to find eight to ten Democrats who will support him, but that’s simply not the case on a bill to repeal or replace Obamacare.
Now, there are some bills that absolutely need to pass. Foremost among these are the appropriations bills that fund governmental operations. Without these bills, the government shuts down. This can be resolved for a while by passing temporary bills to keep the government funded at previous levels, but then the Freedom Caucus needs to support those continuing resolutions, too, or the Speaker still needs to go to the Democrats for votes. Another prime example of a must-pass bill is one that raises the borrowing or debt limit of the federal government. During the Obama administration, Speaker John Boehner had to go to the Democrats repeatedly to get the votes he needed to pass these kinds of bills. Eventually, this irritated the House Freedom Caucus enough that they forced Boehner into retirement and replaced him with Ryan.
We’re rapidly approaching a new situation in which the House Republicans will have a different kind of must-pass bill on their plate. This will be a bill that becomes necessary if the Senate cannot pass any version of their Better Care Reconciliation Act.
Mike in DC
Some adorable B-bro has made a list of “neoliberal shills” on the tweeters.
The list includes noted corporatist sellouts Al Giordano and Markos Moulitsas. Also @angryblacklady, who really seems to get under their nanometer-thick skins.
rikyrah
They’ve been briefing their friends this story was coming https://t.co/JotaURY5hj
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 9, 2017
FlipYrWhig
@gene108: And notice that Iowa was one of the states that swung the biggest towards Republicans since then. The white people whose state was saved by Latinos are disgusted by it. And that’s the Republican base. And that’s the people whose “economic anxiety” the lefties keep telling us we have to assuage. SMH.
FlipYrWhig
@Betty Cracker: Missed yours while I was writing. Absolutely this. AFAICT it’s THE reason for voting patterns shifting, and for the shift’s gathering momentum since 2008.
rikyrah
Pence lied about this.
Then installed a foreign agent as APNSA. And lied about that.
Pence will not be president after Trump. https://t.co/sqU6pEGEWb
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) July 9, 2017
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: He left out the “Canceling the August recess has the added bonus of enabling us to avoid our constituents for an even longer period of time.” part of the letter.
rikyrah
That’s a helluva headline on the NYT homepage. And also note the story below it. pic.twitter.com/axr3ZL7JWW
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 10, 2017
rikyrah
The story now shifts from presidential collusion to congressional complicity https://t.co/oVHrjL7CDH
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 9, 2017
rikyrah
If Mueller starts really going after Trump’s son, it’s hard to imagine what Trump wouldn’t do to stop it. We’re headed for dangerous times.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) July 10, 2017
cleek
casting a shadow with his microphone from the bully pulpit with his shining light?
the man is a living metaphor.
Benjamin Mays
@germy: Sadly, adding WalMart was, actually, a big lift for the County. There really were no local stores much left anymore. I was born in Welch and remember it from when it was still alive and overwhelmingly Democratic. Huge swaths of the County now look like a post-apocalyptic movie set. Painful.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Only if Trump believes it’ll endanger his (Trump Sr.’s) own precious hide. I’m sure he’s otherwise willing to throw Fredo under the bus faster than you can say “thump-thump!”
OGLiberal
@gene108: And they thanked the party that would allow this to continue by giving Trump an almost 10 pt win in the state, the largest margin of any GOP candidate in Iowa since Reagan in ’84.
Fuck Iowa…and those Latinos there should move to a blue state, where their productivity will be better appreciated. Except the 26 percent of Iowa Latinos who voted for Trump. They can stay behind and sell stuff to the white Trump lovers who hate them but still have government provided farm subsidy cash to buy from them.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Yup. Are you stalking me, or him? :-)
It’s a small world, just wondering your connection.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Iowa Old Lady
@Jerzy Russian: Trump has driven him out of his mind. Wendig is a well known writer who’s usually in total control of language. Trump has reduced him to madness.
Quinerly
More on The Hill piece on Comey: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/10/trump-accuses-james-comey-of-breaking-the-law-based-on-a-misleading-fox-news-report/?utm_term=.39ef6ca3907c
Jeffro
@Baud: it’s double standards, all the way down. Which in itself ought to be a major, every-opportunity talking point for Dems from now until 2061
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: So should we preemptively curl into a ball or should we start ranting incoherently about a civil war?
rikyrah
Hmm…Trump’s very 1ST tweet about HRC’s “missing 33,000 emails” appears to be from 6/9/16, after Manafort, Kushner, Don Jr met the Russian pic.twitter.com/sJcSRaSXZv
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 10, 2017
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: Not stalking either one, just figured there can’t be many people who fit his very specific profile. We (he and I) share some mutual friends, and have met a few times.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: :-) Thanks.
He’s an amazing guy.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bruce K
@Iowa Old Lady: An alternative hypothesis is that he’s venting the rage rather than bottling it up until it explodes, saving his sanity for when he’s going to need it. (The Twitter thread ends with him effectively going “Ahem, how’s everyone doing today?”)
Lord knows there are times when I need to vent my rage at what the cheeto hath wrought through his vanity and ignorance and evil.
rikyrah
The ACA boosted the economy, but the GOP’s #Trumpcare bill would destroy nearly 2M good-paying jobs. We must fight to #ProtectOurCare.
— Rep. Diana DeGette (@RepDianaDeGette) July 10, 2017
rikyrah
At this stage, Trumpcare will get worse, not better.https://t.co/0UAAoJAd6x pic.twitter.com/LHcLAha8Bd
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) July 10, 2017
rikyrah
Must-read deep dive by @janestreet: Fueled by Trump’s claims, GOP state legislatures push new requirements to vote https://t.co/zSNft4YdmE
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) July 10, 2017
Bill
@OzarkHillbilly:
Interesting piece, but I have to ask why anyone would stay in the place she describes.
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: True, we don’t have that luxury and never did.
gvg
I hate to defend Walmart, but that article is short on understanding of facts. Walmart is a retailer. it sells stuff. Other people than it’s own employees need to have jobs and incomes to spend in order for it or any other retailer or service to make a go. Basically the economy was going down there right? Before Walmart came in. Things were so bad, they needed the few hundred jobs at Walmart. Now it’s fine when an area is doing ok or a little shaky and welcomes in a big retailer who will increase the jobs, but if it’s immediately the biggest “good” employer around, you have a problem, unless Walmart is building some huge transit hub or even manufacturing or service center that lives off business from a wide area. that can be a net benefit worth some tax credits. Just an ordinary large store, is not a long term savior. In fact i have to say my evaluation is that the Walmart corporation made some bad business moves going into such small population areas and some managers ought to be demoted or let go for that failed strategy. IMO they fell in love with opening new stores and getting fawning news coverage.
The real cause of the problems is the coal being gone and/or not needed anymore.
I understand the town going crazy happy when they came and lashing out now, because I don’t see any good news for them and so they looked on the bright side. Giving up is the alternative. Still the news and distant viewers shouldn’t fall into cliche thinking.
In general the Walton’t have been anti tax of course, but I haven’t actually heard that they gave to Trump. Maybe some of the congressional looney’s though. if so, I don’t approve.
It’s also a fact that Walmart has a history of unethical behavior towards other businesses and I’d like to see them get some pain from enforced laws about this, however that doesn’t seem to be the focus of this story. YMMV
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Junior has the unfortunate distinction of being not Ivanka.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
In Douglas, AZ there’s a fairly good Walmart, for Walmart. It’s a stone’s throw from the Mexican border, and probably half or better of the customers are Mexican citizens driving nice vehicles with Sonoran license plates. Their parking lot is covered, so everyone gets to park in the shade. The shade is provided by solar panels, so Walmart gets most of it’s electric power from its own solar power installation.
I sometimes shop there because it’s closer to our little house than the much better shopping area in Sierra Vista, which flourishes because it’s outside Ft Huachuca, an Army base with very steep mountains and the Military Intelligence School. I can get to Douglas faster because the roads to Douglas are straight as an arrow with 70 mph speed limits. Sierra Vista is a little closer, but the road is very curvy with a lower speed limit, so the drive takes longer. Until recently there was a gravel section where you could only hit about 30, and sometimes it was a cloud of dust in your face.
I would rather go to Sierra Vista, and now that it’s paved all the way, we rarely go to Douglas, unless there’s a specific need to go down to the border, like going to Bisbee or something like that. Hate Walmart ! Sierra Vista has both Home Depot, Lowe’s, a really good used book store, great restaurants, many Army wives from abroad will start a restaurant when they get to America. And clean laundromats!!
Citizen Scientist
@Kay: True. Also not surprising that a person who has likely released classified info to people not authorized to have it is criticizing someone whose for doing it.
Cain
@opiejeanne:
Here in jolly old Portland, Walmart has been introducing “local market” Walmart which is much smaller and more upscale. Nobody here wants the big giant sized one, but this one seems to be able to sneak in. There was an area in my old neighborhood where people fought tooth and nail not to have a walmart. But they couldn’t fight against the smaller version. I’ve been there maybe once or twice, it is way better than the big box walmart. I don’t like going there, rather shop at Fred Meyers or Target and Safeway.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: According to Wikipedia, per the 2010 census:
Per the same census (1 Apr 2010) whites accounted for 93.9% of the WV population, AAs for 3.4%.
Which makes McDowell County a hotbed of ethnic diversity by Mountaineer standards.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
OMG, I F’ed up a possessive apostrophe!~!!! Please, forgive me, I know better, I’m just a bad typist.