.
Jose Andrés & his chefs have served 1M meals in Puerto Rico, & vowed to stay till the island's recovered https://t.co/pQNZrIyDlN @timcarman
— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) October 18, 2017
Great honor to Chef Andrés, but “recovery” for Puerto Rico may be elusive. And as someone who grew up with tales of the Great Famine and its aftermath as part of my childhood, I don’t think the depopulation of Puerto Rico would turn out to be the kind of “win” some parts of the GOP are hoping for, however many poor brown people can be made to suffer.
From the Washington Post, “‘Shrinking, shrinking, shrinking’: Puerto Rico faces a demographic disaster”:
… During the decade before Maria, economic decline and depopulation, a slower-moving catastrophe, had been taking a staggering toll: The number of residents had plunged by 11 percent, the economy had shrunk by 15 percent, and the government had become unable to pay its bills.
It already ranked among the worst cycles of economic decline and depopulation in postwar American history, and projections indicated that the island’s slide could continue for years.
Then came Maria.
Now, even as officials in Washington and Puerto Rico undertake the recovery, residents are expected to leave en masse, fueling more economic decline and potentially accelerating a vicious cycle.
“We are watching a real live demographic and population collapse on a monumental scale,” according to Lyman Stone, an independent migration researcher and economist at the Agriculture Department. The hurricane hit “might just be the kick in the pants Puerto Rico needs to really fall off this demographic cliff into total epochal-level demographic disaster.”
Whatever happens with Puerto Rico, moreover, will have far-reaching effects, because while the disaster is felt most keenly on the island, the accelerated exodus is already being felt on the mainland.
Cities popular with Puerto Ricans, such as Orlando, Hartford, Conn., and Springfield Mass., are bracing for more students, many of whom come from families living below the poverty level.
Politicians, meanwhile, are weighing the potentially significant electoral consequences of a wave of migrants expected to lean Democratic — especially in Florida. The swing state already boasts half a million Puerto Rican-born residents, and more are expected in Maria’s aftermath….
Like many on the island, Sergio M. Marxuach, policy director for the Center for a New Economy, a San Juan-based think tank, said a massive federal investment is necessary.
“We’re going to need some significant government intervention — essentially a big rescue package, not only to rebuild the economy but get it growing,” he said. “People are saying, ‘I don’t want my children to grow up in a place where the economy is going to be devastated for the next 10 years.’ If enough people think that way, it’s going to be a self-reinforcing downward spiral.”…
I’d just as lief find a less human-cost-intensive way to flip Florida Democratic, thank you.
OzarkHillbilly
Jeff Sessions shifts ground on Russia contacts under Senate questioning
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So yesterday evening, I came to learn from my RWNJ mom that she and dad have more money due on their mortgage over a longer term than I do. Her compulsive shopping and boarding and dad’s antique collecting have definitely taken their toll, along with eating out every meal.
Dad draws a little SS, but most of his income is from a teacher’s pension which is no longer assured; llus, when he dies, it stops (they opted the bigger monthly benefit). Mom has maybe 150K in 401K retirements (and could be as low as 67K – I was too upset to flesh out the administration). She’s 73, he’s 78; he’s the longest lived male by far on his genetic line, and my maternal grandmother lived to 99. There are 13 years left on their mortgage, $114K.
It isn’t enough. They’ve lit their resources on fire for decades with stupid, reckless purchases and getting scammed by one particular antique dealer, and I’m going to wind up supporting her.
RaflW
I haven’t read any of the stories, but seen several headlines that big pharma has quite a bit of manufacturing in P.R. and that US drug supplies are going to go critical pretty fast on some popular scripts.
Of course this wildly incompetent admin hasn’t a clue what to do about that. Except bash brown people.
So much winning!
Kay
Don’t feel bad that he had to resign- he’s horrible. He was making her “give him hugs”. Ugh.
efgoldman
@Kay:
Hell, if he were some melanin-enhanced individual who got busted and thrown in jail for six months for boosting a 20-ounce soda, the LOEs and their enablers would be screaming to lock him up and throw the keys in the Marianas Trench.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
How could this have happened!?!
How could this have happened!?!
Meanwhile the Astros are in full panic – they look like the collapse of Saigon
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Kay
@efgoldman:
Her resigned so fast I think there’s more to it, which will come out, ’cause they’re hot on the trail now.
Gorsuch does seem like a jerk.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
eclare
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That’s tough. You’ve certainly had your share of family drama lately.
Kay
That’s subtle. Virginia. The Party of Ideas seems to be out of them.
Baud
@Kay: Targeting the economically anxious, I see.
wormtown
@Kay: and Merrick Garland seemed like such a nice man :(
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I am sorry. That sounds extremely stressful fo you. But the house must have equity value? I hope it can stay on keel with you out of it for many years.
Kay
@Baud:
The attacks on Latinos strike me as desperate. Doesn’t mean they won’t work short term but they really have to come up with something other than racism.
I went to a school committee meeting last night and NW Ohio has the highest percentage of Latinos in the state. It’s still small as a pecentage- they’re not a huge group in Ohio, but it’s interesting they’re settling here. A district to the east of me has an elementary school that is now majority Latino, which is why it came up at a school meeting- that’s surprising. I’ve noticed it in the law practice- but I wouldn’t have guessed more than 50% at an elementary school.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
“I’d just as lief find a less human-cost-intensive way to flip Florida Democratic, thank you.”
Fair enough, but after HRC spent $XB to lose by 39,000 votes, you start to wonder at what point just paying voters to move to swing states makes sense…
Immanentize
@Kay:
Gorsuch was always just shooting for payback for his Mom. He has more resentments than Alito. I swear the Republicans choose their Justices based on a resentment metric rather than legal acumen.
OzarkHillbilly
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: It’s the pinstripes.
efgoldman
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Where’s the blog’s old friend c u n d gulag? He must be skipping all around the Bronx.
Baud
@Kay: I hope it doesn’t work, because you know it’ll become a model for everyone else.
rikyrah
@RaflW:
Yep, Big Pharma has a lot in Manufacturing on the island.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
It’s a diminishing income problem, primarily related to how long dad lives and the (hopeful) end of the career of scammy antique dealer, whether by infirmity or death (he’s in his mid 80s – dad has been a big part of him staying afloat – it is that bad, and I can’t tell you the number of scammy misrepresentations he’s made on items).
I figure the mortgage plus escrow to run anywhere between 1200 to 1500 per month. House is worth maybe 250K (troublesome floor plan, bad airport noise, too). She’s talking about gutting her 401K to “reduce” the mortgage payment, assuming that someone is willing to rewrite a paid down amount. Problem is, that leaves her cash poor while maintaining about 2600 useless square feet of her hoard and his hoard, none of which I’ll ever be able to convince her to sell off or eliminate. Given the genetics, she’s likely to live well into her 90s, and as the Countess was happy to remind me recently, she’s only 17 years older than me, meaning I’ll probably be taking care of her and the antique hoard (not to mention her even more useless hoard, much of which came from my hated MGM) that I hate in my 80s.
Maybe I can be the evil only child who expatriates and simply doesn’t give a shit about taking care of her – people can talk about me and trash my name. This stuff gives me anxiety.
rikyrah
@Kay:
He is a GOPer. Of course, he is a jerk.
rikyrah
@Kay:
This is who they are.
White Supremacy front and center.
p.a.
@Kay: Not out of ideas: What’s that tale about the hedgehog and whatever? Knows one big thing? Been working here since, oh, 1640…
Old Dan and Little Anne
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: And I think to myself………what a wonderfuil world.
OzarkHillbilly
One drug dealer, two corrupt cops and a risky FBI sting
Davon Mayer was a smalltime dealer in west Baltimore who made an illicit deal with local police. When they turned on him, he decided to get out – but escaping that life would not prove as easy as falling into it.
A long read but worth it.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On a happier note, my youngest daughter is recruiting me hard to serve as a marshal at the protest of the Spencer event that is supposed to take place in the near future at the university of Cincinnati. I’m seriously thinking about it, but am a little apprehensive about the leadership aspects of it, should things go bad and Cincinnati police act like Cincinnati police.p
As I put it, I’d be tempted to wear an unweighted scuba rig with a small tank and regulator, carrying a scuba mask, just so I wouldn’t have to deal with tear gas.
Chyron HR
@Kay:
You’ve got to remember that these are the noble white working class. They’ve been abandoned by neoliberal elitists. The economically anxious. You know, racists.
Ben Cisco
@efgoldman: Last seen over at Mahablog back in July.
debbie
@Kay:
They should save us all a lot of angst and just fire the entire Republican legislature in Ohio. Can you think of a single good Republican there? I can’t.
Baud
So longtime DNC officials were progressive? I iz confused.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/shakeup-democratic-national-committee-longtime-officials-ousted-n812126
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Reverse mortgage?
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
UC ought to take a look at this plan.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Spencer is on NBC news right now. He’s loving the publicity.
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly: That was good, thanks!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
Yeah, possible. Shitty, shitty expensive product – I really hate that.
I’m going to have to have a talk with her about retail shopping, Christmas shopping, season tickets, fan gear, landscaping shopping, reasonable veterinary procedures, antiques, eating every single meal out, ridiculous foreign car purchases and maintenance expense, hoarding, redecoration, my grandmother’s shitbox house, spending money on structural repairs on said shitbox house etc., etc., etc…..
This isn’t going to be fun, at all.
debbie
@Baud:
I don’t see why the schools have to pay security costs. Shouldn’t that be Pasty Face’s responsibility?
Baud
@debbie: The public always pays for public security, I believe.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Good luck. It’s their money to spend, but they ought to be a bit more careful about it. OPERS just cut pension benefits; I can’t imagine others won’t follow suit. Not even retired teachers are safe anymore.
debbie
@Baud:
I think that needs to change. It’s like letting Eric Cartman run free. He ought to assume responsibility for his actions, like the rest of us schlubs.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Damn straight he is.
Being a marshal would be the opposite of fun, because my own side would have some hotheads and some provocateurs that would need to be corralled. Feels important to do, though, as the counters would have little assistance from local LEOs.
Maybe her recruitment of me (she’s on the organizing committee) has to do with the notion of having an assertive older white southern male business face out front to counter common stereotypes about counterprotests.
MJS
@rikyrah: Lots of manufacturing? That can’t possibly be. Aren’t manufacturing jobs where all the money is? Aren’t we told that once those manufacturing jobs that are never coming back come back, everyone will be fat and happy? Puerto Rico’s median family income is about $19,000, while the rest of the U.S. is at $56,000. Could it be that maybe the profits made by Big Pharma aren’t actually making their way to the workers?
Baud
@debbie: If it changed, they would charge exorbitant costs whenever a liberal group wanted to protest.
JPL
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That’s quite a burden, and I’m so sorry.
satby
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I was going to suggest that if needed after your dad passed you just facilitate your mom getting a reverse mortgage, and possibly by then she may be ready to unload stuff too. People can live on way less than you’re probably assuming, not a life of luxury but the basics covered. Don’t stress way in advance, life changes most plans anyway.
Edited to add: have the talk, but try to accept it probably won’t change much.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: White people do need to step up. Do send your pictures to Alain.
different-church-lady
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Stupid millennials, always irresponsible with their mone-… wait, what?
gene108
@debbie:
I think in another 20 years public pensions will be gone and what few financial incentives there are for perusing a career in teaching – job security and pension benefits, when you retire – will be gone.
Seems like destroying state pension funds is a bipartisan issue, because there’s this big pot of money that politicians can use for pet projects to make them look good, without raising taxes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: They recently canceled an event because they apparently couldn’t come up with the dough required to pay for security. It was a College Republicans on campus stunt. I’m thinking it was UC Berkeley? Or was that the one they screwed up the paperwork?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I recall some story about a paperwork snafu. Don’t know.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?. Should be a beautiful day today!
rikyrah
@MJS:
Well….. when you put it like that….
Why you gotta bring facts into a discussion like this ?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MJS:
Trickling down – it’ll get there eventually. Ronald Reagan, David Stockman and Art Laffer predicted it…
satby
So, any guesses on which filthy rich Russian oligarch has been looking for a depopulated island to buy?
OzarkHillbilly
Escape from Raqqa: how my three-year ordeal in the Isis stronghold ended
I had vowed not to leave the Syrian city until the hated black flags came down. Then a chance encounter set me on an unintended path fraught with danger
Not a very long read.
Gvg
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’d be careful of a reverse mortgage before you see any change in spending habits. If they just keep spending, they will just get in more trouble.
I think you need to consult experts in that kind of behavior and maybe financial experts too. I don’t know how, but you need for them not to be able to get credit. Back up might help too. You are the only child? Are there other relatives that will back you up and tell them the spending is a problem? Friends of theirs that want them to change? Clergy they respect who know them?
Honest antique dealers?
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I am really sorry.
One of my friend’s father’s died last year. It ended up that he had a gambling problem and had taken out a second mortgage on his house, forging his wife’s signature on the papers, leaving his wife with only debt. It was horrible for her and my friend But Mom, who was always kept in the dark about everything has blossomed and is having fun (albeit on very little income).
Of course it is a bad idea to spend a 401k on mortgage generally. Haven’t they switched that over to an annuity with fixed payments? Oof. This is so hard, I am hoping for a long life for your Dad and his pension.
ed_finnerty
this is a fantastic read
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/10/38-unpopular-opinions/
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yeah, my memory is hazy on which was which. The google is my friend. Maybe.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Is it possible for you to file a police report about the antiques “dealer”? Cops aren’t fond of con artists who prey on old folks.
If the antiques person gets scared straight (even if it doesn’t lead to charges, just knowing the cops are watching him) that might stop some of the hemorrhaging of $$$.
satby
@ed_finnerty: meh.
And I usually like Drum.
Baud
@ed_finnerty: It’s his birthday today.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly:
But not today. Oh well. Need to fix breakfast and go to work.
JPL
Trump seems to think that the FBI could have paid for the dossier. hmmm
https://twitter.com/RealPressSecBot
Lapassionara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Does she have a friend that she trusts you could enlist as an ally? This is not the sort of conversation you can have with her by yourself. Good luck!
Anne Laurie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Speaking of anxiety: That kind of habitual “manic” spending can be a sign of either OCD or bipolar disorder. The not-subtle treatment, 20 years ago, was to put the patient on an increasing dose of Prozac… given enough, either they’d stop being so “anxious” about missing out on the perfect object (diagnosis: OCD), or they’d go into a full-blow manic phase (which is treatable, with the right medication). From what you’ve said here about your family history is there any way you can “bully” one or both parents into medical intervention?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@different-church-lady: ,
I have a lot of recollections of the times I begged them to lay off bullshit Christmas spending, as well as giving clearly disinterested grunts. And uttering some disdain over the latest antique fraud purchased from the sainted Howard.
My absolute favorite was my final ploy to break the cycle – 2007. The idea was Christmas Day in Mexico. We’d forego most gifts, stay in this delightful working fishing village (Isla Mujeres), planning to arrive Christmas morning.
Thanks to dad wanting Christmas anyway and not wanting to leave his tree and decorations, we wound up doing Christmas anyway, Mom wound up sharing our suite, and the holiday was even more expensive than usual all while dad, my needy assed lazy grandmother and my mom sulked over the disruption of the holiday.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gvg:
Only child, so I’m it. Their antique buys have genuinely been from just one person for 15-20 years, and he’s older than they are.
raven
@debbie: Our reverse mortgage is working well for now but I guess we’ll have to see.
MJS
@satby: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that a good number of these opinions are “unpopular” because they happen to be stupid.
Emma
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Can you afford to get someone that can help you prepare a long-term plan you can present to your folks? Maybe a neutral party would de-escalate the emotional storm. Also, a friend or family member that agrees with you and has the sort of calm personality needed in these cases. And you need to figure out a way to protect whatever assets you have.
I am going through my own emotional upheavals with my father, but at least the financials are more under my control than his and he’s ok with that.
Also, there comes a time to disengage. If they are considered compos mentis there’s not much you can do. Protect yourself.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Well, possession is 9/10ths of the law.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: If that’s Gillespie who is running to be Governor in Virginia, I hope he loses in a landslide when all the Latinos come out and vote against him. He’s a prick.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Sounds like an important job — and one you’d be suited temperamentally and professionally to perform well. I agree it’s crucial for us non-crazy, middle-aged Southern white folks to step up and push back on the hate and chaos our demographic has unleashed.
PS: Is that creepy gun nut still following your daughter’s group around?
Baud
@JPL:
No he doesn’t.
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: @Emma:
Oh how you have made me appreciate my frugal (tight wad) methodist-turned-catholic depression-affected Mother who just moved into an apartment in a transitional facility — at 86! She thinks her one bedroom apartment is probably too lavish for her needs….
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I just got it, we’re in Niger because some Nigerian prince wants to give Trump his money, aren’t we?
JPL
@Baud: I hope that his latest tweet about FBI involvement means that Mueller has a smoking gun and our horrible leader will resign.
Baud
@JPL: Probably not.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: They bounced Zogby — about time! I was an early Perez supporter, but I’ve been disappointed by the way he’s handled the more toxic Sanders people. I get what he was trying to do, but it seemed to make things worse. Hopefully this announcement is just the start of the housecleaning.
MomSense
@Baud:
Stop making sense.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
Creepy gun nut will undoubtedly be there, marching with Spencer’s boys, and loaded for bear.
Chyron HR
@JPL:
The FBI shouldn’t pay people to gather intelligence, it should be pro bono work!
??
!!!!!
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know what Perez can do about tbe Sanders people. That stupid Unity Commission was agreed to before he got on board. I was disappointed to hear that Perez took a teaching job. I wish he would focus on this full time.
oldgold
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Sounds like your family may have taken the fun out of dysfunctional.
NorthLeft12
Uhhh, I think you are going to have a problem with that plan. Or maybe I am just being a pessimist.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Interesting that he resigned when other GOP politicians have engaged in similar conduct but are still in office.
OzarkHillbilly
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:This may be pedantic but Nigerians come from Nigeria. Nigeriens come from Niger. It was something I noticed just in the past few days and thought “Huh. Well that makes sense.”
Patricia Kayden
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: So universities can’t ban hate speech? I find that incredulous. Spencer is no different than a member of the KKK. He should be banned.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Lapassionara:
Her best friend is sweet and would try to help, but is dumb as a rock and would screw it up.
raven
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The situation with Sgt Johnson could be interesting. The recent Vietnam doc showed the battle of Binh Gia
I wonder if something like this might explain why it took two days to recover Sgt Johnson?
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought it was a sarcastic comment?
Jeffro
Any administration with half a brain and half a heart would’ve been on the scene much sooner and on a massive scale. They’d likely also be working to relocate willing PR families to wherever they could be supported in the U.S., just to take the pressure off PR itself and keep people healthier (fed, educated, etc) until the emergency period has passed.
But like I said, half a brain, half a heart = non-starter with these kkklowns.
boatboy_srq
@OzarkHillbilly: Time to replace the #NotNormal hashtag with #NotPatriotic.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I had the same thought but I just read this over at the Guardian:
So apparently not.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Heh. Just sharing a recently acquired bit of knowledge.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I think universities should break out the amount they have to spend on security for these “provocative” rightwingers who insist on appearing to whinge about their lack of free speech, and highlight those security/related costs in red on the next session’s tuition bills.
Free speech is NOT free, and the college community is paying for these whackaloons to come visit and spread hate and lies.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Hmm, why don’t I buy that?
JPL
@Baud: Spoilsport!
Since collusion isn’t a crime, truth be told the republican congress won’t do a darn thing. Trump shouldn’t be worried, but he is.
Jeffro
Interesting: Russia’s very own Jill Stein, only a Paris Hilton version…
…looks like the opposition already sees her for what she is, though.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Because you have actual military experience? (mine is all 2nd hand)
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Shit is never what it seems to be at first. Something about fog.
Gin & Tonic
@gene108: A vast majority of public/municipal pension funds are substantially underfunded and actuarially unsustainable even today, let alone 10-20 years from now.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: True.
rikyrah
It has been a long week. I don’t know if you caught it, but Ari Melber interviewed the parents of a fallen soldier that Dolt45 couldn’t find the time to call or send a letter. The raw, open pain expressed by the mother broke my heart ??
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 10/18/17
If a letter could bring my son back I would run to D.C. to get it
Gold Star parents, Sheila and Calvin Murphy, talk about their son who was killed in Syria. 22-year-old Army Specialist Etienne Murphy died in May after an armored vehicle he was in rolled over
And, that lying, disgusting piece of trash hadn’t even contacted them..
Leto
@raven: I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Green Beret community (like most SF/SOF communities) are tighter than most communities. That’s based on experience being stationed and working with them. So I don’t think the experience that Tran had at Binh Gia (racism mixed with contempt for local nationals) is the same. I think this goes back to the fact that we don’t the capabilities on hand in Niger to support everything we’re doing. We don’t have the air assets, nor does it seem we have all of the ground assets, necessary to do our job there. Of course, we still need this administration to tell us what exactly we’re doing there in the first place.
As an aside: the last time I heard, we (US military) were in, about, 168 countries across the world, in various capacities. Either advising/training local forces, or in the more obvious places, conducting operations. It’s not surprising that we’re in Niger, but now we really need to know wtf is going on.
raven
@Leto: I’m thinking more about them just not being able to identify Sgt Johnson when the shit came down, not anything overt by the team.
Steeplejack (phone)
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I’m still in a daze that the Nationals got excused from further participation so quickly.
rikyrah
In moderation, please help.
rikyrah
Voter suppression laws threw Wisconsin to Trump, and possibly the whole election. Read @AriBerman’s cover story: https://t.co/CWaHu3TOgo
— Aaron Wiener (@aaronwiener) October 19, 2017
Leto
@raven: I also wanted to comment about this in a modern context: I think it’s either Nat Geo, or the History Channel, that had a program on covering a USAF Pararescue deployment to Afghanistan. Six episodes and I think it was in 2015? But during one of the episodes they were talking with one of the PJs and he talked about not being able to properly honor the Afghani dead when they bring them back. With US personnel, they have flags on board to drape the bodies in, they have certain rituals they do, but for the Afghani personnel, they don’t really have anything. And this PJ found it distressing. He wanted to honor these guys. They had given the same sacrifice for their country but the PJs basically just turned over the body bag to the locals and that was it.
I remember the same part in the Vietnam doc, with Tran explaining how the US refused to touch the Vietnamese dead, or transport them. I thought it was an interesting contrast to how we try to do it now. I also realize that what the PJ thought/felt isn’t universal. Still, progress.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: The announcement you linked indicates that he’s not without power; just wish he’d exercised it before now, but better late than never.
Steeplejack (phone)
I am happy to report that I successfully launched my mother on her flight home to Las Vegas with a minimum of fuss. I am home now, and the housecat and I are discussing how to fritter away our free time today.
rikyrah
SecDef Schlesinger ordered intervention if Nixon ordered nuclear strike. Mattis please take note.https://t.co/jwAAsC45sz
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) October 19, 2017
rikyrah
Hey Kay,
This tweet is for you….LOL
Surrealistic scene yesterday at World Bank meetings as Ivanka reinvents herself as a development economist https://t.co/RW8S8JTktT pic.twitter.com/5SyYYnDT1h
— William Easterly (@bill_easterly) October 15, 2017
Leto
@raven: Ah, gotcha. Maddow explained last night that apparently Sgt. Johnson won’t be able to have an open casket due to the injuries he suffered. At this point I want someone, Mattis, McMaster or USAFRICOM, to explain what the hell is going on. Dotard is of no help, SHS will just lambast everyone for not being patriotic enough, and we can’t count on anyone else in the administration (Javanka/Miller) to know/say squat.
Lapassionara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Does your state have a filial responsibility act? I hope not. Does she have a doctor/lawyer/minister she might listen to? The spending you describe sounds way over the top. She for sure needs reining in, but I am not sure how you do that without help.
rikyrah
“We have to let Spencer speak because of free speech.” Ok, can I go in and cover his speech. “No.” https://t.co/Cs31mvAiOm
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 18, 2017
University of Florida has given Richard Spencer full control over which journalists will be allowed inside the venue to cover his speech.
— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) October 18, 2017
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
Oh, no, another “bad hire”?
rikyrah
U.S. judge pushes back against Trump administration’s view of emoluments clause in lawsuit by watchdog group https://t.co/hHOKI0561T
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 18, 2017
So the check wasn’t in the mail, after all. https://t.co/Dj9VrO1wWn
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) October 18, 2017
Leto
@Steeplejack (phone): You’ll have to share the successful design of the trebuchet you used.
raven
@Leto: @Leto: In his follow-up to “A Bright Shining Lie” called “After the War Was Over, Hanoi and Saigon” Sheehan begins in the ARVN Cemetery north of Saigon. His post is that these are some people that are really lost in history, no care taking and little notice. Of course many, North and South were never identified at all and the Burns Doc points out how important burial close to home is to the Vietnamese.
raven
@Leto: Yea, I mean if he got captured or dragged away after he was KIA there’s no telling what they did to him. There ain’t no Geneva Convention there.
raven
Uh, that’s why they called it a fucking ambush!
rikyrah
Lost in the shytstorm about the disrespect of Sgt. Johnson’s family was the news that Melania has a body double. There’s something so absolutely patently absurd about that..I can barely wrap my mind around it. They are so phony and disingenuous that they have a double for the plastic First Lady who doesn’t do shyt already.
You really can’t make this stuff up. No studio head would accept this in a Hollywood script.
Leto
@raven: On top of that, the Burns doc pointed out how the new Vietnamese government bulldozed the ARVN cemeteries. Not only are families from the North still trying to find their dead, but families from the South (those who remain) can’t properly honor their dead. That seemed unusually cruel and vindictive.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire)
Long time no speak, Juicers. Depression will do that.
As a Latina, all my worst fears are starting to become reality. Maybe there has always been this much vitriol towards Latin@s, I was just a bit sheltered by growing up in places where there were a good number of us. I live in Ohio now, and anything outside the three C’s makes me a bit nervous, not gonna lie.
Still haven’t heard from relatives in P.R., either, though I did see a military hospital being set up in Humacao where my dad’s family is from, so that’s good news.
rikyrah
The war widow and the ambulatory sputum
by Liberal Librarian
……………………………………..
The idea that this pile of bovine excrement would be able to show the slightest shred of empathy for a fallen soldier—especially if that soldier were African-American—is laughable. This is the man who tossed rolls of paper towels to people in Puerto Rico who had no food, water, or electricity. He is quite simply a sociopath, unable to consider any human emotion unless it impacts him directly. Say what you want about George W. Bush, but no reports ever came out of a military family being insulted after receiving a call from him on the death of a loved one. Trump is missing the part in normal humans which allows for empathy, for seeing other people through their eyes. Moreover, he’s a really bad sociopath. He can’t even fake empathy.
This is why the appellation “Moron Hitler” is apt. Like Hitler, he is completely devoid of warmth for fellow human beings. No one’s suffering touches him. He is unfeeling and uncaring. And that is a dangerous type of man to have at command of a superpower’s military forces.
rikyrah
@Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire):
I hope that you hear from your family soon.
Matt McIrvin
I am not at all convinced that these Puerto Ricans are going to be allowed to vote. As I saw someone pointing out on LGM, many of them have probably lost all of their personal documentation in the hurricane. Proving citizenship and registering to vote may be difficult, in states where the state government is actively hostile. They’ll be lucky if ICE doesn’t declare them Mexican and dump them in Ciudad Juárez.
raven
@Leto: And yet most Vietnamese have moved on. “It don’t mean nuthin” as we’d say.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire)
@raven: For the love of all things holy, I hope they weren’t using the same patrol routes over and over again. That would be sitting duck territory.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Have you priced an ice floe and setting her adrift on the Ohio River?
Corner Stone
@rikyrah:
I have seen a few things about this but don’t know what to make of it. I have seen pics where the nose and chin looked a little off, a little more rounded. But I thought that could be due to everyday things going on in a woman’s body?
I guess the only way we can ever really tell if it’s the fake one is if she allows Trump to touch her.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire)
@rikyrah: Me, too, and thank you. My dad has been very frustrated that all of the news has been about San Juan, but unfortunately that is to be expected.
Leto
@rikyrah: Eagerly awaiting word of the brain double they use with Dotard.
I simply chalk the Melania’s double up as another way to grift us. While this body double was out and about, what was she really up to? Why are we having to pay for a body double? Other than, because F you, that’s why!
rikyrah
He’s the Patrion Saint for White Supremacist Steve Bannon and only ‘ Seems Racist’?
Phuck.outta.here.
Robert Mercer Seems Really Racist
by Martin Longman
October 18, 2017 P
With an assist from Charles Pierce, I can across an article in Vanity Fair that details allegations made in court filings against Robert Mercer by a former business associate named David Magerman. I am not surprised by Mercer’s banal views on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its effects, but I am relieved to see Mercer’s views on what’s “not important.”
………………………………………
Robert Mercer may be the first person I’ve heard argue that all the depredations that blacks suffered under the Jim Crow regime were “not important.” His reasoning seems to be that blacks were “doing fine” under that regime when compared to what came after the major civil rights legislation of the 1960’s.
Even if you could find some metrics to support this argument, it’s unusual to say that the Civil Rights Act was to blame.
But this is allegedly how Robert Mercer feels, and that probably explains why he funds Breitbart News and is Trump’s biggest benefactor. The view that blacks were better off when they lacked full citizenship and that their welfare had nothing to do with their ability to vote or find housing or have equal access to public accommodations, these are not mainstream Republican or conservative views. They take a noxious and highly contentious set of beliefs about government programs and put them on racist steroids.
With this set of beliefs, you could justify doing almost anything to the black community on the premise that they’d actually be better off.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): I’m thinking he should be pricing one for himself.
Corner Stone
@Matt McIrvin: The MSNBC report this AM said they had already had 60K move in to FL from PR in just the last two weeks, primarily the Orlando area. That’s a lot of damn votes come counting time.
rikyrah
44 in the house!
Obama to rally at Richmond Convention Center https://t.co/A4WG3rK1Vd pic.twitter.com/PwzJKl6ZCu
— WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) October 18, 2017
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: ThinkProgress tracked down investors in Mercer’s fund. The list includes public sector groups, Columbia University, etc. I’ll do a post on it later if I have time. Seems really important to pressure these groups into divesting from this white supremacist organization.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah:
Ugh. I can hear her saying this in her flat modulated man voice. Like she’s describing what types of cheese are available in the new custom stainless steel refrigerator she would be happy to sell you at a friends & family discount. *wink*
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Lapassionara:
Yeah, we do have that act, never tested.
I’ve always done their lawyering, but they’d never listen to me on moderating spending.
Leto
@Corner Stone: I hope the PR collective memory lives for many, many generations when it comes time to vote.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: UF’s excuse is that Spencer rented the venue and thus is allowed to specify who comes in. I’m not a lawyer, but it sounds like they could have — and should have — negotiated that part of the agreement. The Guardian has more.
Steeplejack (phone)
@OzarkHillbilly:
Make sure your snark detector is turned on before you leave the house today. It’ll help.
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
Of course he’s a jerk! No jurist of any moral or ethical character would have accepted a supreme court sees Under the circumstances he did.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
One of Scalia’s underappreciated dangers was that, despite his being an extremist wacko, Kennedy and Roberts listened to and respected him. If Gorsuch pushes them away, thank heaven for small favors.
Tenar Arha
@Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire): I hope you hear from your family there soon.
Fair Economist
The article doesn’t describe how grim the situation for Puerto Rico is. It has an enormous debt, 70% of GDP prior to Maria, no way to pay it, and no way to get out of it. Payments on it were already enough to drive PR into perpetual depression (the reason for the population decline). Unless it’s forgiven or paid off by the US government, the situation will be much worse and it’s going to go into a quick death spiral, with collapsing employment leading to emigration worsening the government finances leading to further collapses in employment, etc. Literally everybody will be forced to leave, except those willing to live a subsistence existence without electricity, water, sewage, etc., or the very wealthy who can afford to set that up for themselves.
In addition, without a huge aid program PR may not to be able to restore utility services (because that will cost a lot of money which they can no longer borrow). In that case much of the population will have to move this year.
There’s a lot of blame on “mismanagement” but Puerto Rico’s problem is that they tried to build American suburbs, and that’s a luxury a less well-off areas like PR can’t afford. The highways, water pipes, roads, electrical wires, fire and police services you need for sprawl are very expensive. Even right before Maria, PR’s budget would have been in surplus, except for the losses being rung up by its utilities.
frosty
@Steeplejack (phone): I suggest you host a party for a few dozen friends because the house is just too quiet with only a cat. //
Fair Economist
@Corner Stone:
At that rate the entire population will be gone in slightly over a year. And Congress hasn’t even passed meaningful aid yet.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OzarkHillbilly: I my defense, having both countries side by side makes it extra confusing.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire)
@Fair Economist: Personally, I think that is exactly what some folks want- buy up all that land cheap and cut an entire group of people off from their island. It happened to the Native Americans, so why wouldn’t it happen to Puerto Ricans?
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
thanks B.C.
Looking forward to the post and spreading the word.
Fair Economist
@Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire):
Oh, I’m sure that’s what some want. But the financial side puts a weird twist on this. Wall Street will still be demanding it’s 70 billion dollars. That debt will make the island unusable for anybody unless somebody with very deep pockets pays it off.
Uncle Cosmo
@MJS: Comments 8 & 33 suggest that Drumbo either had to repeat Stat 101 or came within an eyelash of flunking it & has been waiting for an opportunity to shiv the discipline ever since,
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m late, but are there financial advisers who specialize in this sort of thing? Like retirement planning combined with “estate planning”, where “estate” means “all this crap you have on hand”? An antique appraiser might also be able to give an interesting encounter with reality.
Heavy spending is sometimes associated with emotional problems–it can provide a temporary emotional lift. I’m not saying this is a reason for what you see, but it might be a part of the problem.