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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Fight them, without becoming them!

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

No one could have predicted…

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The willow is too close to the house.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

When we show up, we win.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / Why’s Everything That’s Supposed to Be Bad Make Me Feel So Good

Why’s Everything That’s Supposed to Be Bad Make Me Feel So Good

by John Cole|  April 11, 20181:03 pm| 229 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism, Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver, Assholes

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What’s your addiction? Is it money? Is it girls? Is it weed?
I’ve been afflicted by not one, not two, but all three.

Ahh, McSuderman:

No Republican was more vociferously opposed to the build up of public debt than Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP speaker of the House who announced this morning that he would not run for reelection. For years, Ryan has served as the frontman for the GOP’s fiscal crusades, a role that helped elevate him into the upper echelons of party leadership.

Ryan repeatedly lambasted the fiscal policies of President Obama and the Democratic party. He charged that Obama “dodged the tough choices necessary to confront the threat of runaway federal spending,” and criticized the president for ignoring the recommendations of the bipartisan fiscal commission that he helped create. Under Obama, Ryan said in a 2011 op-ed, “Democrats have simply done away with serious budgeting altogether.” Ryan was serious about the deficit. Obama and the Democrats were not.

Repeat after me. Paul Ryan was never fucking serious about the budget. Let me clarify- he was never serious about deficit and debt. He may have talked all the time about them, but that’s the “confidence” in con artist part (I haven’t seen it in years, but House of Games is my favorite con artist film, from before when Mamet lost his shit. I wonder how it has aged.) They talk and talk and talk, and while they are talking, they are reaching into your back pocket.

Paul Ryan was serious about the budget in one sense- in shifting who benefited. He didn’t care about the overall size, he just wanted to take from the untermensch and give to the noble Randian superclass. That’s why he didn’t so much as flinch pushing the Trump tax giveaway, but had to be pulled over broken glass to reauthorize CHIP (even though it saved money in the long term) because it meant his precious going to the poors.

Democrats, to be sure, have not exactly been icons of limited government. But under Clinton, the deficit turned into a technical surplus. During his first term, discretionary spending actually dropped; it wasn’t until the second term, with Republicans in control of Congress, that it began to increase again.

Stop right fucking there:

Fucking google something, McSuderman.

Deficits ballooned during President Obama’s first term, and from day one of his presidency, Republicans were swift to blame Democrats for a lack of fiscal discipline. But the rapid increase actually started under Bush. Depending on how you run the numbers, it is possible to make the argument that most of the Obama-era deficits were caused by Bush-era policies.

NOT ONLY IS IT POSSIBLE, BUT IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO RUN THE NUMBERS. You might have heard of the crash of 2007 in between attending Arcade Fire fanfests.

Obama’s second term was marked by still large but shrinking deficits that Republicans, since taking over, have grown again.Who ran congress during that period and what signature legislation was passed (and paid for) that helped lead to those shring When Paul Ryan noted that Obama ignored the recommendations of the bipartisan committee on fiscal responsibility, he was right. But what Ryan didn’t say was that Ryan himself was on that committee—and he voted against its recommendations.

HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THE DEBT OR DEFICITS. HE CARES ABOUT WHO GETS THE MONEY YOU ASSHOLE.

I do not mean to suggest that Democrats are actually the party of good budgetary sense.

Fuck off.

In the long term, the largest drivers of the debt are Medicare and Social Security, and Democrats have, for the most part, been resistant to structural reforms.

No. Medicare and Social Security are fine and will be fine if YOU AND REPUBLICANS stop looting America, starting trillion dollar wars of choice, and spending 800 billion a fucking year on a bloated defense budget. And the only reason they want to “fix” both of them is because they want to privatize them, looting both for the benefit of their financial betters, which will no doubt make both of them worse and far more costly. But again, the actual cost is not what matters to Ryan. What matters is who gets the loot in this bust out.

Is there anything more addictive than the narrative that Democrats are bad for the economy and bad on fiscal matters?

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Reader Interactions

229Comments

  1. 1.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:06 pm

    May Paul Ryan and his immediate family suffer an untimely end at the hands of his victims.

    Fuck em.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    April 11, 2018 at 1:06 pm

    Suderman is a libertarian, writing at Reason. That honestly says everything that needs saying about his intellectual capacity and honesty.

  3. 3.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:06 pm

    Is there anything more addictive than the narrative that Democrats are bad for the economy and bad on fiscal matters?

    Republicans are fiscal hawks and good at national security. //

  4. 4.

    Ohio Mom

    April 11, 2018 at 1:07 pm

    This morning I’ve had one errand and appointment after the other — this is the first moment I’ve had to check the news. Wow!

    Why can’t every day’s news be this delightful?

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 1:07 pm

    OF COURSE, the ZEGK never gave two shyts about the deficit.

    The Tax Scam of 2018 proves that.
    No sooner than that passed, than he tried to purse his lips about ‘ the deficit’ and why we have to ‘reshape the American Social Safety Net’, i.e. gut it.

    May he wind up in a cell with a guy named Tiny.

  6. 6.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:08 pm

    They talk and talk and talk, and while they are talking, they are reaching into your back pocket.

    While their other hand is busy unzipping their pants to bugger you.

  7. 7.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:09 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Why can’t every day’s news be this delightful?

    Not delightful enough

    “Paul Ryan found dead in home of unnatural causes” is something to break out the champagne for.

  8. 8.

    LAO

    April 11, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    @dmsilev: And he’s married to Megan McArdle!

  9. 9.

    PsiFighter37

    April 11, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    I do wish Paulie had gotten beaten by Iron Stache. That would’ve been great to see.

    Oh well. Happy to still try to pocket his seat and move on.

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    April 11, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    I hope 99% of elected republicans trip & fall into mount doom. After running up the mountain barefoot through a field of legos.

  11. 11.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Why can’t every day’s news be this delightful?

    This is nice, but I’m reserving “delightful” for days involving indictments of major figures in the Trump/Russia investigation.

  12. 12.

    scav

    April 11, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    @TenguPhule: nitpick. For at least one member of the family, it would be entirely a timely death.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    April 11, 2018 at 1:19 pm

    John –
    Actually, I was kind of surprised that Suderman blamed the Rethugs as much as he did — which seemed to be a fair amount. Yeah, he did too much both-siderism, and his “ZOMFG Entitlements!!!” bullshit — he threw Medicare in there, etc. — was fucking ridiculous.

    I don’t expect any glibertarian to have any sort of epiphany re: non-evil Demonrats, just as I don’t expect JenJen Rubin to remain semi-rational after Shitgibbon is gone. But for now, it was somewhat better than I’ve come to expect from the Reason morons.

    And fuck Paul Ryan. I hope he suffers financial catastrophe, and becomes one of those people he’s been trying to kill for at least 8 years.

  14. 14.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:19 pm

    @scav: I bow to your superior pedantry.

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:20 pm

    @ruemara:

    After running up the mountain barefoot through a field of legos.

    Broken glass is cheaper.

  16. 16.

    SFAW

    April 11, 2018 at 1:21 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    “Paul Ryan found dead in home of unnatural causes” is something to break out the champagne for.

    “Police seeking former Senator Vitter for questioning”??

  17. 17.

    gene108

    April 11, 2018 at 1:21 pm

    starting trillion dollar wars of choice

    And for the first time in history cutting taxes not once, not twice, but three times while we are engaged in conflicts.

  18. 18.

    Cacti

    April 11, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    Paul Ryan is a total empty suit.

    How he came to be regarded as some keen legislative mind is one of the great mysteries in the history of the Republic.

    You’d have thought his status as a lightweight would have been confirmed for all-time when “bumbling” Joe Biden completely wiped the floor with him in the VP debate.

  19. 19.

    scav

    April 11, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    @TenguPhule: There’s still room for someone to claim the death is distinctly overdue.

  20. 20.

    Drunkenhausfrau

    April 11, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    Thank you for venting my spleen.

  21. 21.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    April 11, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    Republicans love America and Demonrats hate it//

  22. 22.

    trollhattan

    April 11, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    This is the kind of post that ensures Balloon Juice maintains its top-100,000 blogs status. Excelsior, good sir!

  23. 23.

    terraformer

    April 11, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    This is one of those things about political reporting that bothers me the most. The data are there for all to see, yet, consistently, reporting is that Republicans are fiscally conservative and hawkish on reducing the debt and deficits, and that Democrats are to blame for all our ills. Goddam frustrating. It’s almost as if our political reporting class is being paid to ensure “controversy” and the opposite of truth.

    Fuck Paul Ryan, that zombie-eyed granny starver and ghoul. I would have liked to see the Ryan/Iron Stache debates, assuming Ryan would agree to one. He hasn’t had a town hall in his WI district in years, which should be a controversy, but no.

  24. 24.

    EBT

    April 11, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    Queer, trans, and on SSI. Republicans want to see me dead, many of them not even metaphorically or indirectly as a result of their policies.

  25. 25.

    Jeffro

    April 11, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    I read that and now (thanks a lot Cole!) I’m smoking again…SO GOOD

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    @SFAW: Well played.

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    @Cacti:

    How he came to be regarded as some keen legislative mind is one of the great mysteries in the history of the Republic.

    No mystery. Our DC media pool is badly overdue for chlorination.

  28. 28.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 11, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    “Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell found dead and entwined naked in a Georgetown apartment – cause of death believed to be carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas stove which lost its flame when the celebratory fondue pot bubbled over…”

  29. 29.

    Yarrow

    April 11, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    Excellent post, John.

    Is there anything more addictive than the narrative that Democrats are bad for the economy and bad on fiscal matters?

    Not for the media and pundit class.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:33 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Needs more wetsuit.

  31. 31.

    Ridnik Chrome

    April 11, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    Is there anything more addictive than the narrative that Democrats are bad for the economy and bad on fiscal matters?

    You’re acting like they actually believe that stuff. They don’t. They know it’s bullshit, and they don’t care.

  32. 32.

    SamR

    April 11, 2018 at 1:36 pm

    I hate to defend him, but I think this is a misread of his column. He puts forward the media narrative—Republicans were serious about deficits—shows that events haven’t backed that, and concludes the piece:

    This is the GOP’s essential nature. Republicans didn’t lose the mantle of fiscal responsibility. They never had it in the first place.

    His writing is unclear but that was my takeaway of what he was trying to say.

  33. 33.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    @PsiFighter37:

    I do wish Paulie had gotten beaten by Iron Stache. That would’ve been great to see.

    I am not surprised that he is quitting because it has been clear for a long time that whatever else he may be, Ryan is not a fighter, and certainly not brave. He is bought and paid for and discards principles if they become inconvenient to his puppet masters. Quitting is probably the bravest thing he has done in a long time.

  34. 34.

    Mike in DC

    April 11, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    The hard core of Republicanism is the richest .01 percent of the country who want, first before everything else, to pay as little as possible in taxes, secondarily to work the system to feather their own nests. Everything else that the GOP “stands for” can be reverse engineered from there. E.G.:
    A) Opposition to social welfare spending of all kinds(reduce our taxes)
    B) Appeals to racial animus (get the white underclass to support us so we can cut taxes and loot the Treasury)
    C) Appeals to social conservatism (ditto)
    D) Support for deregulation and more defense spending (feather the nest)
    Etc.

    The whole goddam enterprise is a grift to benefit pols, lobbyists and the super rich, at the expense of everyone else.

  35. 35.

    Ridnik Chrome

    April 11, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    @Drunkenhausfrau: OG in the house! (Or haus, as it were.)

  36. 36.

    opiejeanne

    April 11, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    But under Clinton, the deficit turned into a technical surplus.

    Wth is a technical surplus?

  37. 37.

    TenguPhule

    April 11, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Wth is a technical surplus?

    Its when an asshole conflates the national debt with annual deficits.

  38. 38.

    Mike in NC

    April 11, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    The country sure dodged a bullet when Ryan failed to get elected as Rmoney’s creepy VP. Good riddance despite all the kisses that the Beltway media will be blowing his way.

  39. 39.

    opiejeanne

    April 11, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    @LAO: Ew. so this is her better half? Double ew.

    EW EW EW EW EW

  40. 40.

    Canadian_Shield

    April 11, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    Satire from the Borowitz Report:
    “In a fit of pique, David and Charles Koch have unceremoniously listed House Speaker Paul Ryan for sale on the auction site eBay.

    The Kochs, who reportedly had purchased Ryan for a sum estimated in the tens of millions, now seem likely to lose their entire investment.

    According to Ryan’s listing on the auction site, the Kochs set a five-hundred-dollar asking price for the used congressman, a figure that, in light of the tepid bidding for him, seems optimistic.

    “Granted, owning Paul Ryan doesn’t have the benefits that it’s had for David and Charles for all of these years, but the status of owning a former Speaker of the House has to be worth something,” one Koch associate said. “Certainly more than the current high bid of seventeen dollars.”

    The eBay listing suggested several possible uses for the former House Speaker, including as a Halloween ornament or garden gnome.”

  41. 41.

    John PM

    April 11, 2018 at 1:50 pm

    “House of Games is my favorite con artist film”

    Such a good movie!

  42. 42.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    April 11, 2018 at 1:54 pm

    @TenguPhule: Good point. And more enticing to visualize (for some of us).

  43. 43.

    bystander

    April 11, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    @Cacti:

    How he came to be regarded as some keen legislative mind is one of the great mysteries in the history of the Republic.

    Ask Andrea Mitchell. She can also tell you all about Biden. His name cannot be spoken without the words “gaffe machine” repeated immediately thereafter.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    @bystander: That would be Andrea Fucking Greenspan.

    NBC can’t fire/retire her fast enough for me, but they won’t, because she is true NBC derp. You think Chuck Todd is just an aberration?

    Pure corporate drivel, with a libtard interface at night.

  45. 45.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    Cynthia Nixon comes out for marijuana legalization, on both reasonableness and racial equity grounds. Cuomo is still calling it a gateway drug.

    She’s looking better and better. No administrative experience is a concern, but she really seems to know the issues and have a good heart and head.

  46. 46.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Wth is a technical surplus?

    The snarky answer is that it’s when the government takes in more than it spends, but under a Democrat.

    The slightly more serious definition was that while the government was taking in more, it was still accumulating SS debts because of demographics. That said, had it happened under a Republican, I *really* do not think they’d demean the surplus with the term “technical”.

  47. 47.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    April 11, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @Fair Economist:
    Any elected Democrat still saying that warmed-over Reagan era crap deserves to lose.

  48. 48.

    Downpuppy

    April 11, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @SamR: Yep. Most of the column is not bad, & this part:

    This is the opposite of fiscal responsibility. It is, if anything, an active disdain for the sort of fiscal restraint that Republicans so often claimed to support under Obama. And it strongly suggests that the GOP’s criticisms were merely opportunistic. Under Trump, Republicans have demonstrated that they are the party of fiscal ruin.

    To be more precise: They have demonstrated it once again. The behavior we have witnessed under Trump is not a twist or a reversal or an unpredictable turn. It is simply how Republicans have behaved whenever they have been given the opportunity since at least the turn of the century.

    could have been written by Cole or Pierce, except that they would have said something rude or funny instead of “strongly suggests”.

  49. 49.

    The Moar You Know

    April 11, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    Is there anything more addictive than the narrative that Democrats are bad for the economy and bad on fiscal matters?

    No, and that’s why I won’t even bother to discuss it with anyone of either party. We could leave the nation with a trillion dollar suplus and it would still be “tax n spend” Democrats. I give up.

  50. 50.

    TriassicSands

    April 11, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    Among non-violent criminals (and by non-violent I mean those people who don’t themselves physically attack others or order henchmen to do the attacking) Paul Ryan certainly is one of the worst human beings imaginable. Of course, his policies often lead to physical harm to large numbers of people, but he never gets the responsibility he deserves for that “violence.”

    Ryan is a lot more similar to Trump than any media source would ever give him credit for being. He is utterly dishonest, an intellectual fraud, and capable of extraordinary cruelty and selfishness.

  51. 51.

    p.a.

    April 11, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.

    Joey G. perhaps never heard of Lincoln’s “…[fool] some of the people all of the time…” or as currently phrased the Fox News/Hate Radio effect (h/t Atrios I believe)

  52. 52.

    Jeffro

    April 11, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    Speaking of bullshit, Chunky Bobo asks, “Why Not Mike Pence?”

    (I’ll tell you why, Ross: because we don’t reward treason, that’s fucking why)

    Get this, though:

    …if, in what is no longer an absurd hypothetical, the president were to face real legal-political jeopardy over the Stormy Daniels business, the evangelical leaders currently fretting about Trump’s political position would face a case where doing the consistent thing — namely, returning to their Bill Clinton-era position that character counts in presidents and using illegal means to conceal gross infidelities are impeachable offenses — would actually deliver something closer to what they claimed to want, not so very long ago: not a liberal in the White House, but President Mike Pence.

    Someone bring me my bat. Character most certainly DID count, and we had it for eight years with Obama, and it counted for jack. fucking. shit. with you people, ROSS.

    Or try this:

    …for all their inevitable appeal, these are bad reasons to pre-emptively reject impeachment, in the Daniels case or any other that Mueller might reveal. And I don’t just mean they’re bad reasons because they’re too partisan and tribal; I mean that the evidence from the last case like this, the Clinton impeachment in all its splendor, is that the partisan and tribal response does not necessarily serve your party or tribe that well.

    OMFG – the Clinton impeachment was not “the last case like this”, you dick: Clinton was not an omega-level scam artist and fraud, nor was he in league with a hostile foreign power. He was, however, an actual ‘stable genius’ – another 180-degree difference between him and Trumpov.

    and then here is the kicker: Ross sees a divine hand in all of this (no, really):

    …anyone interested in looking for the hand of God in history should probably welcome that miracle’s arrival, rather than resisting in the name of MAGA.

    Am I jesting? Only to a point. That God has a sense of dramatic irony and narrative surprise seems like one of the most obvious lessons to be drawn from the Trump era. That God is using Trump not as an agent of his good work but as a kind of ongoing test of everyone else’s moral character seems like a not-unreasonable inference to draw. That God would offer religious conservatives in danger of selling their souls a chance not just to step back from the brink but to literally replace Donald Trump with a fellow religious conservative — well, that seems like just the kind of opportunity that a beneficent deity would grant to erring members of his flock.

    Yes, Ross…God is testing religious conservatives…only, that test happened last fall, and they failed when they endorsed pedophile Roy Moore because at least he wasn’t a Democrat. They’re already over the brink, m’man. They’ve already committed their souls to hell.

  53. 53.

    Ohio Mom

    April 11, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    @TenguPhule: I think everyone already knows I am easier to please than you are.

    I didn’t start out that way, I worked on it. It works better for me, though that isn’t to say it’s approach that is good for everyone.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    NPR dropped their “Ryan would easily win re-election” contention from their 2:00 p hourly newscast.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    @TriassicSands: In other words, a sociopath. With telegenic looks and earnest blue eyes.

  56. 56.

    Spanky

    April 11, 2018 at 2:09 pm

    Why should I care what this person writes? Does anyone read it?

    Better at the WaPo:

    As he announced his plans to retire Wednesday, Ryan boasted about the passage of the GOP’s $1.4 trillion tax law, and of securing much-needed increases in defense spending in last month’s $1.3 trillion government spending bill.

    “These I see as lasting victories that will make this country more prosperous and more secure for decades to come,” Ryan said.

    But both measures contributed to a mushrooming deficit that the Congressional Budget Office projected this week will reach $1 trillion in 2020. Ryan has sounded the alarm about the nation’s deficit and debt for years, but leaves the situation worse than he found it despite proposing a series of budgets over the years that slashed spending and transformed Medicare into a voucher program for younger Americans.

    Not BJ-perfect, but better. And more people read it.

  57. 57.

    Frank McCormick

    April 11, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    @terraformer: To my mind Conservatism/Libertarianism are actually religions impervious to facts with a good number of the media being members in good standing.

    I took exception when John said

    Fucking google something, McSuderman.

    . The original author’s Google-fu skills are not in doubt as much as they are not needed since he “knows in his heart” what must really be true (or at least sold).

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    April 11, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Jeffro:

    …if, in what is no longer an absurd hypothetical, the president were to face real legal-political jeopardy over the Stormy Daniels business, the evangelical leaders currently fretting about Trump’s political position would face a case where doing the consistent thing — namely, returning to their Bill Clinton-era position that character counts in presidents and using illegal means to conceal gross infidelities are impeachable offenses — would actually deliver something closer to what they claimed to want, not so very long ago: not a liberal in the White House, but President Mike Pence.

    Someone bring me my bat. Character most certainly DID count, and we had it for eight years with Obama, and it counted for jack. fucking. shit.

    For Republicans and evangelicals, “character” only counts for white presidents.

  59. 59.

    TriassicSands

    April 11, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    “earnest blue eyes.”

    That somehow look colder and deader than the bottomless black of a great white shark’s eyes.

    It’s a shame that Paul Ryan’s exit from the House is coming in the form of retirement and not a defeat at the polls, which is what would be most appropriate. Unfortunately, I have so little confidence in the judgment of Wisconsin voters that Ryan, aided by GOP billionaires, may well have been able to win re-election for years, even decades, to come.

  60. 60.

    Ridnik Chrome

    April 11, 2018 at 2:18 pm

    @Fair Economist: I’d like to see someone challenge Cuomo from the left, but does it have to be another B-list celebrity with no actual experience in government?

  61. 61.

    Leto

    April 11, 2018 at 2:18 pm

    @ruemara: I think you have a bright and promising career in the CIA with that sort of thinking…

  62. 62.

    Just One More Canuck

    April 11, 2018 at 2:20 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Thanks for the nightmares

  63. 63.

    bystander

    April 11, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    @Elizabelle: …and Sunday mornings with Joy Reid.

    Mrs. Greenspan gives hacks a bad name.

  64. 64.

    TriassicSands

    April 11, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    After HuffPost in December pointed to speculation Ryan would end his speakership, Politico’s Tim Alberta reported that Ryan indeed had “his eyes on the exits.” WaPo

    I assume that Ryan was just lining up his next gig — either a seven-figure salaried corporate job or a laughably fraudulent academic position.

  65. 65.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    April 11, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    @Cacti:

    You’d have thought his status as a lightweight would have been confirmed for all-time when “bumbling” Joe Biden completely wiped the floor with him in the VP debate.

    Biden was using facts in his argument which if you ask any pundit is cheating.

    Personally, I think Ryan is bailing because the glow the tax cut hasn’t gone so he clan claim to be one of the Good Republicans spot on the Wingnut Welfare and he doesn’t end up looking like a loser in both his own election and the general election.

  66. 66.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    NRA guilty as sin. Rejects Wyden’s request for info on Russian money as “burdensome”.. Burdensome to their goal of staying out of jail, that is.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    It’s a global phenom.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    April 11, 2018 at 2:26 pm

    @Spanky:
    Good find. I also boggled at this:

    He became speaker Oct. 29, 2015, shortly after the gap between spending and revenue had contracted to $438 billion. The following year, the deficit grew to $584 billion, and then again to $666 billion in 2017. The deficit is expected to top $800 billion in 2018, and then eclipse the $1 trillion mark in perpetuity after 2020.

    Based on some measures, the government already has more than $20 trillion in debt, and it must make large interest payments to continue borrowing. This is expected to eventually overwhelm the federal budget, particularly if interest rates rise. But Ryan’s obsession with these issues were no longer shared by other conservative leaders, particularly after President Barack Obama was no longer in office.

    Fiscal conwhatitive?

  69. 69.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    April 11, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    @ruemara:

    I hope 99% of elected republicans trip & fall into mount doom. After running up the mountain barefoot through a field of legos.

    You’re being too hard on em. I’d gladly offer to carry each and every one of them up on my back and toss them into Mount Doom.

    I can dream.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    Thread about the ZEGK and Dolt45

    https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/984117302605033478?s=19

  71. 71.

    ruemara

    April 11, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    @Leto: I think you have your head up your ass. Only one of us is correct and it’s not you.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    April 11, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    Thirty-five sounds like a lot of witnesses to this not-a-lawyer.

    Special Counsel Robert Mueller requested that a judge issue subpoenas for 35 witnesses to appear at the trial scheduled in federal court in Virginia for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to a filing dated April 6.

    The filing does not say who Mueller intends to subpoena, just that he is requesting that they appear before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis when the trial starts July 10.

    Is there any chance Manafort doesn’t cut a deal? What’s that ticking noise?

  73. 73.

    laura

    April 11, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    @SamR: then DON’T defend him. Sheesh, he’s a writer, and yet, his writing is unclear.
    It’s not. It’s meant to obfuscate and there is no one writing at reason who is the least bit interested in the social good because they fundamentally believe that the social good is not something that matters..
    To them, the government should never act in the public interest, but only to grease the skids for private enterprise.

  74. 74.

    JR

    April 11, 2018 at 2:35 pm

    After defeating Napoleon, the English national debt was ~275% of their GDP. Public debt financing is the reason why we don’t speak French.

  75. 75.

    Gravenstone

    April 11, 2018 at 2:35 pm

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I realize that you’re snarking, but Republicans love the fantasy of an America that never was. Not even Norman Rockwell painted their imaginary world. Democrats embrace the realities of the world as it is, and seek to improve it for everyone – as nothing is perfect.

  76. 76.

    Leto

    April 11, 2018 at 2:37 pm

    @ruemara: I think you don’t know what a joke is; only one of us is correct, and it’s not you.

  77. 77.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    April 11, 2018 at 2:42 pm

    Yeah, but, but, party of fiscal responsibility! Drunken sailors!

    It’s always the same damned drill. Republicans shit the bed, Democrats come in to clean it up, Republicans stand by screaming that Democrats aren’t cleaning it the right way or fast enough, cleaning up shit is no fun, so voters get grumpy and vote Republicans back in, Republicans shit the bed again, and on and on ad infinitum.

  78. 78.

    Jeffro

    April 11, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    @Brachiator:

    For Republicans and evangelicals, “character” only counts for white presidents.

    It’s absolutely infuriating. And part of that is that it’s completely unnecessary. There is an alternate universe, somewhere, somewhen, where that reality’s GOP celebrates that Obama is a tremendously decent person/awesome husband/incredible family man and reminds its own candidates that they need to aspire to that standard or they don’t deserve to lead the party and country.

    (It’s a close cousin of the alt-verse where everyone recognizes man-made climate change is huge problem and people only disagree on the size of the carbon tax that’ll be needed to wean us off fossil fuels/pay for a complete clean energy conversion).

    No, I haven’t been hanging out with John Boehner today, why do y’all ask?

  79. 79.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    April 11, 2018 at 2:44 pm

    @Leto: It could have been misconstrued reasonably.
    @Gravenstone:
    They long for the back and white world of Leave it to Beaver; the 50s were in reality like any other time in history: couples divorced, men beat their wives, teens smoked and drank alcohol. Like it ever was.

  80. 80.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 11, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    More Bolton housecleaning? Deputy National Security Adviser for strategy has resigned.

  81. 81.

    ruemara

    April 11, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    @Leto: Trust me. You lack the ability to make an effective joke.

  82. 82.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    April 11, 2018 at 2:47 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: followed by “President Trump has been admitted to the Letterman Hospital in Washington for a damaged throat after choking on an ice cube during a rant about the latest video released from the Storm Daniels scandal”

  83. 83.

    donnah

    April 11, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    Axios has a news item about a Comey interview coming up with George Stephanopolis. Apparently Comey spills some spicy beans and likens Trump to a “mob boss”.

    Please continue, Mr Comey…

  84. 84.

    sherparick

    April 11, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    @dmsilev: He kind of left it off that St. Ronnie Reagan was the first guy to run this grift (and it did con the Democrats into cutting Social Security Benefits in 1981 and 1983). Also, discussions of national debt and deficit without context of nominal economic (GDP) growth and real interest rates is pretty rates nonsensical and meaningless. It is just about “scaring people” with large numbers.

  85. 85.

    sukabi

    April 11, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    What they say off record…

    “If we’re going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherf**ker,” the unnamed Republican Congressman we’ll call “Rep. X,” supposedly said to Erickson.

    Erickson says Rep. X continued his rant, saying, “dammit he’s taking us all down with him. We are well and truly f**ked in November. Kevin [McCarthy] is already circling like a green fly circling sh*t trying to take Paul’s [Ryan] job because nobody thinks he’s sticking around for Nancy [Pelosi]. She’s going to f**k up the cafeteria again too. [Lord’s name in vain], at least I’ll probably lose too and won’t have to put up with that sh*t.”

    (Speaker Ryan announced today he is retiring at the end of his term.)

    “It’s like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really f*cking stupid Forrest Gump. He can’t help himself. He’s just a f**king idiot who thinks he’s winning when people are b*tching about him. He really does see the world as ratings and attention. I hate Forrest Gump.”

  86. 86.

    Leto

    April 11, 2018 at 2:52 pm

    @ruemara: The fact that you’re copying a years old meme makes me suspect on your ability as well.

  87. 87.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 2:53 pm

    @Canadian_Shield:

    The Kochs, who reportedly had purchased Ryan for a sum estimated in the tens of millions, now seem likely to lose their entire investment.

    They haven’t lost their investment in him any more than a truck driver loses his investment when he sells his 20 year old truck for less than he paid for it. They got their money back many times over from all the legislation Ryan pushed through for them.

  88. 88.

    Kathleen

    April 11, 2018 at 2:53 pm

    @ruemara: My fantasies involve Rethugs enduring flesh eating parsites, begging on street corners, and drowning in pee and poop while gagging in their puke and drool. YMMV.

  89. 89.

    The Other Chuck

    April 11, 2018 at 2:54 pm

    @Leto: Why don’t the two of you just fuck and get it over with?

  90. 90.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    @ruemara: Remember, pie is tasty! And internet pie has no calories!

  91. 91.

    Leto

    April 11, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    Deleted as the original went through.

  92. 92.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    @donnah: Is this some kind of calculated effort to see what it takes for Trump to stroke out? It’s not that I mind all this needling and taunting, heck, I wish I could join in, but I don’t understand what the endpoint is. And as for Comey, as far as I am concerned he will never redeem himself. His double standard for the public’s right to be “informed” about investigations involving candidates was the kiss of death for his integrity.

  93. 93.

    ruemara

    April 11, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    @The Other Chuck: God, fuck you. As if.
    @Fair Economist: True, but it strikes me as odd that scrub decided to harangue me.

    @Kathleen: ewwww. I just want simple death. With a little torture, not such a messy cleanup.

  94. 94.

    gene108

    April 11, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Wth is a technical surplus?

    I vaguely remember right-wingers arguing the two years of Clinton budget surpluses were not what they seemed because of borrowing against Social Security or something and if Clinton had honest book keeping it wouldn’t have been a surplus…

    TL;DR Bill Clinton had a good thing going, and right-wingers couldn’t let that stand, so they invented their own standard to knock Bill down a peg

  95. 95.

    boatboy_srq

    April 11, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    @dmsilev: Shorter Suderman: the Founding Fathers should have made sure the United States had better, more numerous and more productive gold mines.

    /s

  96. 96.

    burnspbesq

    April 11, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    No administrative experience is a concern

    No, it’s not a ”concern,” it’s a fucking deal-breaker. Or have you learned nothing from Trump?

  97. 97.

    Tom

    April 11, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    @trollhattan: Any chance that Manafort doesn’t cut a deal? Sure, the likelihood that his family will wind up like the daughter of that Russian spy in England.

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    It’s Save Our Show time.

    Go to the link and vote for what shows you hope the networks will save.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2018/04/11/save-our-shows-2018-designated-blacklist-and-yes-timeless-lead-early-voting/504030002/?csp=chromepush

  99. 99.

    Chip Daniels

    April 11, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    “Found encased in two wetsuits and a dildo.”

  100. 100.

    jl

    April 11, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    WTF kind of patent pending crazed Cole rant is this? Has TL taken possession of the physical Cole?
    Thanks for a great, informative, post, Cole.

    The tired and false narrative about serious strict and responsible GOP budget daddies versus big gummint big spending lax Dems serves the purposes of filthy rich money bags very well, and will persist as long as they are allowed to run every damn thing in the country.

  101. 101.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    @burnspbesq: Officially Trump *does* have administrative experience (CEO of a large company). The problems with Trump lie elsewhere – liar, cheat, foreign agent, racist, sexist, corrupt, etc. I’m not seeing those problems with Cynthia Nixon.

  102. 102.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    NRA guilty as sin. Rejects Wyden’s request for info on Russian money as “burdensome”..

    They need to make up their fucking minds. First they say they didn’t take Russian money. Now they’re saying they took money from a few Russians. Next they say responding to questions about all the Russian money they took would be burdensome. Sorry, but responding to a request about the money you got from nobody or a handful of people won’t be burdensome. It’s only going to be burdensome if the number is a big one, in which case the need to learn about it far outweighs the burden.

  103. 103.

    laura

    April 11, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    @sukabi: Clean up on aisle republican.

  104. 104.

    danielx

    April 11, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @ruemara:

    After running up the mountain barefoot through a field of legos.

    Ooh. That’s cold.

  105. 105.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @trollhattan: When the lawyers arrive later today, I hope they can explain how the blind subpoena works. I thought every defendant had a right to know who was testifying against him or offering state’s evidence at a trial. No?

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    NRA guilty as sin. Rejects Wyden’s request for info on Russian money as “burdensome”.. Burdensome to their goal of staying out of jail, that is.

    R-I-C-O

  107. 107.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Is there any chance Manafort doesn’t cut a deal?

    Yes, there is. Manafort doesn’t cut a deal if he’s more afraid of what Putin will do to him for talking than what Mueller will do to him for not talking.

  108. 108.

    zhena gogolia

    April 11, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    @sukabi:

    That is lovely. God I hate these people with the fire of a million suns.

  109. 109.

    sukabi

    April 11, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    @tobie: don’t mob informants / witnesses get identity protection if there is a reasonable fear of harm to them or their families?

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Is there any chance Manafort doesn’t cut a deal? What’s that ticking noise?

    Jail is more attractive than Putin.

  111. 111.

    burnspbesq

    April 11, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    Officially Trump *does* have administrative experience (CEO of a large company)

    Ah, my bad. I didn’t realize you’d fallen for the con that private sector experience and government experience are equivalent.

  112. 112.

    jl

    April 11, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    @Roger Moore: Thanks to you and Fair Economist (a type of person which, by the way, is not supposed to exist), for comments.

    I think NRA is trying to dribble the dirt out as slowly as possible to make it ‘old news’ by the time the truth is out, and hence keep it from being reported by corporate media. They were saying a few weeks ago that they had exactly 1 (one) Russian contributor. Now it looks like that initial modified very limited hangout is inoperative.

  113. 113.

    Peale

    April 11, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    @Roger Moore: LOL. You know, they are supposed to have audited financial statements and if they do, then they need to have a system to track finances. Unless the way they got that money was by putting out fishbowls at gun shows and every once in awhile a guy named Ivan dropped a million singles in. What a bunch of crooks.

  114. 114.

    sukabi

    April 11, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I think when this thing turns, the fire and fury will be epic…I think it’s getting very close to turning.

  115. 115.

    germy

    April 11, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    Interesting that Paul Ryan’s primary challenger (the white nationalist) was banned from twitter.

    So now he makes all his proclamations from… Facebook.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/paul-ryans-retirement-gives-a-big-boost-to-the-most-prominent-white-nationalist-in-us-politics

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    As long as he pays taxes on it…..I think he can keep the dough.

    Paul Ryan’s Campaign Fund:
    Campaign Committee Fundraising, 2017 – 2018 LAST REPORT: 03/31/2018
    Raised:
    $11,369,137
    Spent:
    $9,908,290
    Cash on hand:
    $10,559,719
    Debts:
    $0

  117. 117.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    @sukabi: I wish I knew the answer to that question.
    @burnspbesq: Would you know the answer to this and if it’s related to Mueller’s 35 blind subpoenas today?

    don’t mob informants / witnesses get identity protection if there is a reasonable fear of harm to them or their families?

  118. 118.

    burnspbesq

    April 11, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    @tobie:

    No Confrontation Clause issue yet. The defense will have plenty of opportunity for discovery, and plenty of opportunity to take action if they think the discovery has been inadequate. I don’t expect any Brady violations from Mueller’s shop.

  119. 119.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    @sukabi:

    don’t mob informants / witnesses get identity protection if there is a reasonable fear of harm to them or their families?

    Yeah, but most mob bosses don’t have access to a nation state’s intelligence apparatus to track down informants. Given Russia’s proven ability to break into supposedly secure US government computers, I would have little faith in witness protection keeping Putin away from me.

  120. 120.

    Millard Filmore

    April 11, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I’d gladly offer to carry each and every one of them up on my back and toss them into Mount Doom.

    We have tumbrils for that.

  121. 121.

    jl

    April 11, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    Paul Krugman’s twitter today has links to several of his long running in-depth economic analyses of the long running Paul Ryan fraud. So, people might want to check those out too.

  122. 122.

    germy

    April 11, 2018 at 3:35 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    It’s always the same damned drill. Republicans shit the bed, Democrats come in to clean it up, Republicans and bernie bros and jill stein voters stand by screaming that Democrats aren’t cleaning it the right way or fast enough, cleaning up shit is no fun, so voters get grumpy and vote Republicans back in, Republicans shit the bed again, and on and on ad infinitum.

  123. 123.

    James E. Powell

    April 11, 2018 at 3:37 pm

    @donnah:

    A mob boss that Comey put in the White House. That a-hole really needs to go away forever.

  124. 124.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 3:37 pm

    @sherparick:

    Milton Friedman noted that Chicago School Economics were utter bullshit, but they came with certain political benifits.

    Cut taxes on the Rich and the Corporations, claiming it will “stimulate the economy” through “trickle down”,

    Cut regulations claiming they are a burden on economic development,

    Cite the debt and deficit as a drag on the economy and cut spending on social services and infrastructure, while raising fees and service costs, ( taxes, but not taxes in the con job),

    Privatize on the basis that Corporations are more efficient than Big Government,

    Watch it all blow up and Democrats get elected.

    Fight tooth and nail to prevent Democrats from fixing things, citing “see above”,

    So, Democrats fix say, 70% of what was broken, but lose under the constant “Dems are bad for the Economy”,

    So the Rethug’s start all over again, breaking stuff.

    As a result, it’s been an almost constant decay, economically, for most American’s, since Carter.

    If you guys are going to get around eventually to permenently taking out all the Russian Rethugs, you should add Chicago School Economists in Acedemia, the Media, the Think Tanks, etc, as well.

  125. 125.

    germy

    April 11, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    @jl: Joy Reid’s twitter is also great commentary on the fraud.

    This entirely. And the Paul Ryan gauzy fiction held through dozens of votes on his budgets, which would have decimated the poor, the sick and the elderly. His contempt for the social safety net, and the fact that his numbers never added never marred his “boy wonder” image. https://t.co/agWBHb29aL— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 11, 2018

  126. 126.

    Gravenstone

    April 11, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    @opiejeanne: One they’re damned if they’ll give him credit for creating.

  127. 127.

    Turgidson

    April 11, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @Downpuppy:

    Until further notice, Suderman remains an innumerate twit with a world view that most assholes grow out of by the time they’re 14.

    But this article might be the first down what I call the Frum Trail toward something more closely resembling sanity. It starts with pieces like this – largely accurate, more in sorrow than anger, critiques of GOP dipshittery, but loaded with idiotic false equivalence and “But the Democrats!” bullshit. If he follows the Frum Trail, the false equivalence and bullshit will gradually be replaced by outright alarm and/or contempt for what the GOP is doing.

    Frum used to feel it necessary to drop in a half dozen “but let’s nkt forget that Obama is a poopy face” gems in every article about the GOP. Took a while, but he eventually excised that shit.

    I’m not holding my breath for Suderman though. Not sure he has enough shame or self awareness to really move into the realm of reason, no pun intended.

  128. 128.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Now [the NRA is] saying they took money from a few Russians. Next they say responding to questions about all the Russian money they took would be burdensome. Sorry, but responding to a request about the money you got from nobody or a handful of people won’t be burdensome.

    LOL! Good catch.

  129. 129.

    Gravenstone

    April 11, 2018 at 3:44 pm

    @Canadian_Shield: I wouldn’t be shocked to learn there actually was a “dark web” site to allow oligarchs to trade politicians.

  130. 130.

    Peale

    April 11, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    @Jeffro: Yep. I’m actually starting to find the “parallels” between Clinton/Lewinsky and Trump/Daniels off putting to say the least. Despite countless effort to try and find something illegal about that affair, Starr and Olsen came up with zilch. The story in the conservatives head is that somehow Clinton Forced Lewinsky into sex, or barring that, threatened to fire her if she wouldn’t have sex with him, or got her some plum no-show job with big raises, or waltzed into the Smithsonian and handed her the hope diamond, or paid her off using public funds. Something, something, to make that criminal. And none of that happened.

  131. 131.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    No, it’s not a “deal breaker”. Government ain’t all that hard. They teach classes on it in school, there were Children’s cartoons made about it, you can take Adult Ed Classes, University Courses, even Community Colleges,…….

    And there’s an entire crapload of people out there, in the Party, and in what used to be called the Civil Service that can provide an unmatched collective level of experience, knowledge and advise that can be tapped into.

  132. 132.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @burnspbesq: Thank you! This is helpful.

  133. 133.

    Mike in NC

    April 11, 2018 at 3:50 pm

    @sukabi: Terrific article. I saw on MSNBC that Mattis is now conferring with Fat Bastard and Bolton to plan another drive-by shooting in Syria. Going out on a limb to guess it will be expensive, pointless, and not in the national interest. Maybe it will cause these clowns to stop with the phony bluster which fools nobody. But the media will swoon.

  134. 134.

    Marcopolo

    April 11, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome: Actually, probably yes. Cuomo is known for knee-capping folks who don’t go along with him. I’m pretty sure that most, if not all, current NY D elected politicians don’t want to invite that kind of attention from him—or want to deal with Cuomo partisan effing their careers for the rest of their political lives. That leaves running against him to folks outside of “regular establishment Dems” which includes people like Zephyr Teachout & Cynthia Nixon. In fact, Nixon addressed this very issue in her declaration of candidacy. She also points out that no one held Cuomo’s celebrity status (as Mario’s son) against him when that is what helped him get into politics.

  135. 135.

    guachi

    April 11, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    Every Democratic President in my life (and, really, all post-WWII) has reduced the deficit as a percentage of GDP. Every Republican President has increased it (since Nixon).

    Since Kennedy, job growth under Democratic Presidents is 93% higher than it is under Republican Presidents.

    Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility and growth.

  136. 136.

    JR

    April 11, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    Yeah I was just following a Friday
    Trying to get home find a phone
    Geezer lighter the futures brighter
    Trying to hit a Saturday nighter

  137. 137.

    Mandalay

    April 11, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @laura:

    then DON’T defend him. Sheesh, he’s a writer, and yet, his writing is unclear.

    Oh FFS, his writing was crystal clear.

    The title of the fucking article was Republicans Have Finally Been Revealed as the Party of Fiscal Ruin.

    In the article: Under Trump, Republicans have demonstrated that they are the party of fiscal ruin.

    If you make it to the end of the article it states Republicans didn’t lose the mantle of fiscal responsibility. They never had it in the first place.

    The article is taken from a libertarian web site, and the writer made his opinion crystal fucking clear: while both parties had issues with fiscal responsibility the Republicans are far, far worse than the Democrats.

    You don’t have to agree with the writer on everything, but if you have grade 3 reading skills and make it to the end of the article it’s blindingly obvious he was eviscerating the Republicans.

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    NEW:

    A majority of Senators now supports a bill that would protect the Mueller investigation from Trump.

    I talked to Democratic aides, who offered interesting reasons for (very) cautious optimism about its chances.

    My new post:https://t.co/Qp8tRKaeyP

    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 11, 2018

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    LOL

    Real funny how your position on marijuana can “evolve” when you’re getting paid.

    You do you, John Boehner. pic.twitter.com/hyROEMMBlG

    — Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) April 11, 2018

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    April 11, 2018 at 3:59 pm

    @Peale: Nickel bet that Trumpov tweets something to this effect sometime very soon – how “unfairly” his affairs are being treated in the media compared to Clinton’s. As if our media didn’t cover it obsessively for years. As if Clinton’s ‘lawyer’ paid hush money just weeks before his election. Etc Etc. I’m sure it’ll include something gross and graphic too.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 4:00 pm

    Wait!
    How did we miss this?

    …………………

    And the hits just keep on coming. The FBI “seeking all records related to the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape”
    This week is so momentous—it’s only Wednesday—that it might have its own name in the future. Schadenfreude Week or something like that. https://t.co/IaaxvUxgVP

    — Andrew Seidel (@AndrewLSeidel) April 11, 2018

  142. 142.

    germy

    April 11, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    @rikyrah:

    The FBI “seeking all records related to the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape”

    Okay, now they’ve gone too far.

    This is the red line, and they’ve crossed it.

  143. 143.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    So, Wonkette thinks the anonamous, potty mouthed Republican flipping out on Treason Tribble and the Midterms is Peter King,

    https://wonkette.com/632462/which-gop-congressman-cussed-trump-to-erick-erickson-at-the-safeway-a-wonkvestigation

  144. 144.

    Mary G

    April 11, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    @Jay: Wow. This is the best summary of how things work that I have ever seen. Mind if I tweet it out with credit to you, or do you tweet yourself?

  145. 145.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    Republicans are fiscal hawks and good at national security.

    just to note this: Every “Unified Republican Government” Ever Has Led to a Financial Crash

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    April 11, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @guachi:

    Every Democratic President in my life (and, really, all post-WWII) has reduced the deficit as a percentage of GDP. Every Republican President has increased it (since Nixon).

    Since Kennedy, job growth under Democratic Presidents is 93% higher than it is under Republican Presidents.

    Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility and growth.

    Not fair. You are using facts to support a reasonable conclusion. This would never do for Fox News.

  147. 147.

    Mary G

    April 11, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @rikyrah: Can’t wait for Mueller to subpoena Mark Burnett for the all the “Apprentice” outtakes where Twitler shows his ass.

  148. 148.

    Emma

    April 11, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    @ruemara: Caltrops.

  149. 149.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    @Mike in NC: Will any of the TV talking heads break from the pack and finally question their glorification of Mattis? I’m not holding my breath. It seems to me that we’ve had more civilian deaths, more accidents (dead SEALs, ships colliding), and more deaths by friendly fire under his watch than under Ash Carter. Yet all we ever hear is what a brilliant warrior-scholar he is.

  150. 150.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    @rikyrah:

    “The former Toronto police chief and politician who once compared legalizing weed to legalizing murder is defending his decision to open a company connecting patients with medical marijuana.”

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4403194

    Another Cop, this time a high ranking DEA Agent known for busting Medical Dispensaries,

    https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/8xve5b/the-problem-with-former-cops-cashing-in-on-legal-weed

  151. 151.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    The NRA is now trying the FACEBOOK Approach.

    Remember back when FACEBOOK said ‘ nobody was affected’ by the Russians?

    Yeah, I remember it too.

    Well, the NRA began with
    “OF COURSE, WE DIDN’T TAKE RUSSIAN MONEY”

    So, lookey lookey here…

    Now, they’ve taken money from 23 Russians.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601534305/nra-in-new-document-acknowledges-more-than-20-russian-linked-contributors

  152. 152.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 11, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @tobie: Wasn’t that McMaster? Warrior-scholar, I mean?

  153. 153.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @rikyrah: I think if that majority does not include McConnell, it still does not get a vote.
    Plus, even if it gets a vote in the senate, so what?, a law has to pass the House and the president has to sign it.
    An Immigration law can pass the Senate but not the House.

  154. 154.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @Jay:

    So, Wonkette thinks the anonymous, potty mouthed Republican flipping out on Treason Tribble and the Midterms is Peter King,

    Good detective work if not as definitive as the conclusion implies. Also, pretty funny.

  155. 155.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    @rikyrah: But 23 isn’t anything like the whole list, because the whole list is “burdensome”.

  156. 156.

    laura

    April 11, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    @Mandalay: I did read the article and, despite my public school education, the third to last paragraph reinforced my opinion about libertarianism -structural changes to social security and Medicare -reform them out of existance. No mention of the military as a deficit driver.
    Libertarians object to government to advance the social good. Government is viewed as an unfair advantage in competing with the private sector.
    So what if he jumped late on the Republicans are the party of fiscal irresponsiblility. But go ahead, throw Mr. McArdle a parade if you’re so inclined.

  157. 157.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: You’re right. McMaster was the warrior-scholar because of his PhD in American History. Mattis is the warrior-monk because of his lifelong bachelorhood (??).

    ETA: Still would like some media outlets to examine his tenure as Secretary of Defense instead of offering the usual platitudes about his brilliance. This seems especially important as the US is on the verge of another bombing campaign in Syria.

  158. 158.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Schadenfreude Week

    well, until we really know, how about Fitzmastide Week?
    Miss Havisham Week might work … Great Expectations.

  159. 159.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @Mary G:

    Feel free to use it anyway you like. I’ve limited my social media to blogs and comments.

  160. 160.

    Yarrow

    April 11, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @rikyrah: The NRA is made of Russian money. Tick tock, motherfuckers. Their time is coming. Can’t wait for it to be Wayne La Pierre’s turn.

  161. 161.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 11, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    @tobie: Early on in this nightmare, many people had high hopes about the generals in the admin, not me, though.

  162. 162.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    Let’s use this happy event to recommit to protecting Social Security and Medicare from these gross, greedy profitteers who are dying to get a cut of it.

    Nothing. They get nothing. Our offer is “zero”

  163. 163.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 11, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    Paul Ryan is like the British Empire enjoying a wonderful reputation quite contrary to its actual record. Good PR can do wonders.

  164. 164.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    It’s always the same damned drill. Republicans shit the bed, Democrats come in to clean it up, Republicans stand by screaming that Democrats aren’t cleaning it the right way or fast enough, cleaning up shit is no fun, so voters get grumpy and vote Republicans back in, Republicans shit the bed again, and on and on ad infinitum.

    While the cycle is there, I don’t think you have the dynamics quite right. The problem is there’s a group of voters who hate shitty beds but who have shitty memories. When they’re lying in bed covered with Republican shit, they’ll run to the Democrats to clean that shit up. But once they’ve had a shower, the Democrats have made the bed with clean sheets, and they’ve had a while for their memories to fade, they go right back to the Republicans. It’s as if they believe shit just happens and haven’t noticed the pattern that it’s always the Republicans in charge when everything turns to shit.

  165. 165.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    @Fair Economist: I am not convinced it’s King. While I can totally see Peter King talking like this, he represents Long Island, one of those places that was royally screwed by the tax bill, and I doubt very much that he needs to bow and scrape to Trump’s “base” the way he might if he lived in a Midwestern state or a more gerrymandered district. So if he is talking like this, he is just making excuses for his cowardice.

  166. 166.

    rikyrah

    April 11, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    @Kay:

    Let’s use this happy event to recommit to protecting Social Security and Medicare from these gross, greedy profitteers who are dying to get a cut of it.

    Nothing. They get nothing. Our offer is “zero”

    TELL IT, KAY!!

  167. 167.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    @rikyrah: Actually, it should be less than zero. It should start with raising or eliminating the wage cap on Social Security contributions and counting carried interest as wage income subject to wage taxes.

  168. 168.

    debit

    April 11, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    @Roger Moore: Bingo.

  169. 169.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Real funny how your position on marijuana can “evolve” when you’re getting paid.

    Sadly, though, this is how things change. When it’s a bunch of DFHs fighting for some oddball cause, it’s a disreputable, uphill fight. When they finally manage to win once or twice, it becomes acceptable to talk about this DFH stuff without being tarred as a DFH yourself. But it’s only when it’s genuinely popular and conservatives start looking to see how they can make money from it that it becomes not just acceptable to talk about but accepted as the smart viewpoint.

  170. 170.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 4:33 pm

    @rikyrah:

    This week is so momentous—it’s only Wednesday—that it might have its own name in the future. Schadenfreude Week or something like that.

    I believe the contemporary term for it is “Infrastructure Week”.

  171. 171.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 4:34 pm

    @Jay: That Wonkette link was fun. And Peter King has a habit of referring to “Forrest Gump” in various observations. (Project much there, Mr. King?)

    Hmmmm. I am wondering if any other shoppers witnessed this “truth-telling” session. Maybe someone was hiding behind the mangoes and can further enlighten us.

  172. 172.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 4:36 pm

    @Barbara:

    if he is talking like this, he is just making excuses for his cowardice.

    It’s what they do in the Republican caucus. Ryan is stepping away for personal reasons, yessirree. Had nothing to do with an unpromising election season.

  173. 173.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 4:41 pm

    @Elizabelle: Of course, I would love to see Peter King defeated in November, and if he is talking like this that probably means his internal polling is not looking too good.

  174. 174.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:42 pm

    @rikyrah:

    They should introduce a bill to reduce the age from 67 back to 65, just to rub it in :)

    It would be fun to run as PRO entitlements. I imagine one of those big novelty checks and the candidate standing in front of it. “Your name HERE” – God I would die laughing to watch the hysterics from the fake fiscal conservatives. You would get 20% of Trump voters immediately. They know damn well where their income comes from. Just be bold about it – “yup- I’m buying them with this check”

  175. 175.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Boner did stellar work over the years protecting Big Tobacco.

  176. 176.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Barbara:

    and I doubt very much that he needs to bow and scrape to Trump’s “base” the way he might if he lived in a Midwestern state or a more gerrymandered district.

    I think ALL republicans need to bow and scrape. That vocal 30% of the population, that backs Trump, is 60-70% of the GOP primary vote. Everywhere.

  177. 177.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    April 11, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    @rikyrah: Thanks for letting us know. I love Timeless; I’m really getting into Deception.

  178. 178.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:47 pm

    @Kay:

    They should introduce a bill to reduce the age from 67 back to 65, just to rub it in :)

    simultaneously with raising the income limits on the tax.

  179. 179.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:47 pm

    Where is DougJ? No one loathes Paul Ryan like DougJ loathes Paul Ryan. He might have to do a whole podcast.

  180. 180.

    Duane

    April 11, 2018 at 4:47 pm

    @Elizabelle: As someone wrote earlier, quitting is the bravest thing Ryan’s ever done. It consisted of tuck tail and run. McConnell won’t support a law to protect Mueller. Doesn’t think we need it. Don’t need fire insurance unless the house burns down. Stupid, cowardly bastards at the highest level.

  181. 181.

    ? Martin

    April 11, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    @Jay: Right. I don’t recall who made the observation that Republicans don’t conform their politics to their economic and religious beliefs, rather they conform their economics and religious beliefs to their politics. We tend to get cause and effect reversed when thinking of GOP policy. If they’re harming people, it’s because they simply want to – all of the ‘reasoning’ is just bullshit excuses to get voters to let them get away with it. See Lee Atwater for details.

  182. 182.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:50 pm

    @catclub:

    “Now that Paul Ryan quit let’s beef up these entitlements- what can we add? Cushions for the hammock? A cold drink?”

    They don’t have enough fun in Congress. That job could be a lot less boring and soul-killing with a little imagination.

  183. 183.

    ? Martin

    April 11, 2018 at 4:51 pm

    @Duane: I don’t know, that gym photoshoot during the campaign was pretty fucking brave.

  184. 184.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 11, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    We’re coming up on the 40th anniversary of Prop 13. That’s how long it’s been since the GOP was the Party of Fiscal Responsibility.

    Forty years. And the mainstream media still hasn’t fucking caught on.

    ETA: They haven’t been the party of Keeping Us Safe or Responsible Foreign Policy for a couple of decades, either. Yet I may go to my grave in 2050 with the GOP = Daddy Party myth still intact.

  185. 185.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:53 pm

    “By September, the hacker had released documents in close House races in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina, working with Republican bloggers who disseminated the information for them. They also posted information on Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair, even though he was effectively running unopposed.

    Both Luján and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote letters to Ryan asking him not to use the material and received no response. His spokeswoman told the Times that Ryan had no control over how the stolen information was used. Nonetheless, there were some Republicans who refused to do so, saying it was inappropriate. They were rare.

    I don’t think anyone believes it’s likely that Paul Ryan personally colluded with the Russians in this operation. The fact that many Republicans, some affiliated with the National Republican Congressional Committee and a group closely affiliated with Ryan, eagerly used it to win their campaigns is not surprising. But it is highly unlikely that Republican strategists or party officials with strong knowledge of the House campaigns didn’t collude with the hackers at some point, because it’s difficult to believe that Russians would have which House races to target without some help from people with expertise concerning the 2016 map.

    Republican congressional leaders must be thanking their lucky stars daily that the Trump administration is such a scandal-ridden Dumpster fire. If things ever calm down in the White House, somebody might just turn his or her attention to the question of what Paul Ryan knew and when.”

    A Digby repeat from the past:

    https://digbysblog.blogspot.ca/2018/04/ryan-and-guccifer-sittin-in-tree.html?m=1

  186. 186.

    Calouste

    April 11, 2018 at 4:54 pm

    @? Martin: There is a thin line between brave and stupid, and that photo shoot didn’t fall on the “brave” side of that line.

  187. 187.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: OTOH prop 13 is massively regressive and stupid.
    OTOOH California has thrived even with it, so what do I know.

  188. 188.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    April 11, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    @burnspbesq: Gotta agree with burnspbesq. Also, I see no evidence that Trump Inc. is a large organization. There was more organization and employees at the train store at which my Dad worked. After all, they had to account for inventory.

  189. 189.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    @Barbara: “Former congressmanweasel” Peter King has a nice ring to it.

  190. 190.

    J R in WV

    April 11, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    @Kay:

    Let’s use this happy event to recommit to protecting Social Security and Medicare from these gross, greedy profitteers who are dying to get a cut of it.

    Nothing. They get nothing. Our offer is “zero”

    What she said!!

    Also, the NRA, taking foreign money, passing it along to Republican politicians ~!!! There are laws against that! RICO those motherfuckers out of existance!!

    Then let the SPLC sue the smoking ruins for a billion dollars !!!

  191. 191.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    @Kay: stroked out in pleasure?

  192. 192.

    Yarrow

    April 11, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Forty years. And the mainstream media still hasn’t fucking caught on.

    Because they’re paid not to.

  193. 193.

    scav

    April 11, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    What’s amusing me no end about this recent rush of team R et al to pot promotion is that the local news / gossip is that there are too many local growers making entirely not enough profit — so a fair number are rolling over to lettuce. It’s a gateway drug to Oakleaf and Kale!

  194. 194.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 4:59 pm

    @Jay:

    I’m glad she’s doing that. I’ve been waiting 2 years for someone to bring that up. It’s really weird that there’s NO follow-up on it. There were the initial reports and then… silence. Aren’t media even curious how Russia ended up involved in GOP congressional campaigns? WTF?

  195. 195.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    @catclub:

    Probably playing with his baby – his priorities are all screwed up :)

  196. 196.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    @J R in WV: I find it interesting that the NRA is acting like it was less than 30 donations from Russians (and some of them were allegedly Americans residing abroad) and that the average contribution was — what — $525? That seems likely to change.

  197. 197.

    catclub

    April 11, 2018 at 5:01 pm

    @burnspbesq: CEO of a small (criminal) enterprise is more accurate.

    Now whether being CEO of a criminal enterprise is good experience for governement service is left as an exercise for the reader.

  198. 198.

    Kay

    April 11, 2018 at 5:04 pm

    @kyledcheney
    2h2 hours ago
    More
    Wikileaks started publishing Clinton campaign emails an hour after the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape news broke.

    Huh. And now Mueller is looking at Access Hollywood chain of events. I can’t keep track of this. I forget whole parts of the puzzle. I worry it will be too complicated for voters, who, let’s face it, are often idiots and caused the problem in the first place.

  199. 199.

    trollhattan

    April 11, 2018 at 5:05 pm

    @Mike in NC:
    How is Raytheon stock doing today? That last Syrian airfield remote remodel used up quite a few of their cruise missiles at a few mil/pop.

  200. 200.

    Immanentize

    April 11, 2018 at 5:05 pm

    @Kay:
    I am with you! Make the age 60. Explain how that will help kids get jobs. Medicare expansion. More money for Medicaid living assistance.

    Plus, as you always say, schools, education, teachers. More investment in all of our futures!

  201. 201.

    Yarrow

    April 11, 2018 at 5:09 pm

    @Kay: It’s not going to be too complicated when the story is finally told. It’ll be pretty simple. Russia owns Trump, his family, his cronies and many Republicans. Russia acted to promote their interests and the aforementioned people encouraged it, promoted it, or at least went along with it. It’s treason. So many people going to prison.

  202. 202.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    @Kay:

    Despite the media hunt, FBI NY, and “leakers” hunt for the “30,000 missing Hillary Emails”, Podesta’s risotto, the DNC hacked doc’s,

    Looks like the vaunted US Media and the “Open Secrets” crowd really, really want’s to avoid talking about the DCCC hack and leak,

    Or the RNC hack and no leak.

    I’m gonna guess that it’s on the Meuller/FBI/ Intel Agencies to do list.

  203. 203.

    ? Martin

    April 11, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    @catclub: California has thrived despite Prop 13. A fair bit of our current housing price crisis is due to it. A lot of the NIMBYism in CA is due to people unwilling to move to comparable priced property because they’d lose their tax benefits. So they want to keep their equity and their low tax rate, and the key to that is to deny housing to others. If not for Prop 13, they’d see new construction as something they could benefit from. CA allows other revenue collection from property owners on new construction (Mello-Roos), and they’re covering much of the prop 13 shortfall, but that only drives the wedge deeper on the housing problem.

    We paid $430K for our house, now valued at just over $900K. A brand new constructed home wouldn’t just be 2x the property tax (about $7K in our case), but an additional 5K-10K for assessments for infrastructure that don’t apply to my neighborhood but would in a new neighborhood. $12K+ per year is daunting. My neighbor pays ⅓ what we do as they bought into the neighborhood much earlier. The problem is that correcting prop 13 means redistributing those taxes which would inevitably have big impacts on the market. What’s more, existing homeowners freak out at having to come up with another $12K per year, but it wouldn’t really be that much – probably only half or a bit less, but there’s no way to know that until after it’s done.

    CA should come up with a schedule to phase in a repeal of 13 and replace it with some kind of smoothing function that caps tax increases at maybe 2x the rate of national inflation for existing homeowners (roughly double what it is now). Eventually things would equalize and it’d give the markets time to settle out without a big shock to the system. The added tax revenue would go to reducing the Mello-Roos taxes until they are eliminated.

  204. 204.

    The Moar You Know

    April 11, 2018 at 5:11 pm

    We’re coming up on the 40th anniversary of Prop 13. That’s how long it’s been since the GOP was the Party of Fiscal Responsibility.

    @lowtechcyclist: Not one goddamn thing responsible about Prop 13. I would reluctantly buy the argument of applying it to residential homeowners on a primary residence (I am one of those, full disclosure) but it also applies to commercial and investment properties, which is inexcusable. The biggest beneficiary was Wells Fargo, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

    -Pissed off lifelong CA resident

  205. 205.

    piratedan

    April 11, 2018 at 5:14 pm

    @Yarrow: and I want them all, big fishes, little fishes… you do not get a pass on betraying YOUR country so that you can make a buck. You go to jail, eat less than satisfying food, have your freedoms and rights taken away from you and then maybe you can thank your lucky stars that you didn’t get a bullet in the back of the brain pain, because that’s certainly what is deserved.

  206. 206.

    Immanentize

    April 11, 2018 at 5:16 pm

    @Yarrow: @piratedan:
    I am still sceptical that m/any will end up in prison because of this….

    But it would almost make me buy stock in shitty private prisons if they do.

  207. 207.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 5:19 pm

    @Kay:

    Meuller’s not “laying it out” for “the Voters”, that would be a waste of time.

    Meuller’s laying it out for the Grand Jury, and it’s going pretty well so far.

    Meuller’s setting it up like a Mob Trial. First, all the Gooba’s get wrapped up with plea deals and convictions. Then, the Capo’s get wrapped up on the basis of the testimony of the Goomba’s that rolled, and the convictions of the Goomba’s that didn’t.

  208. 208.

    MisterForkbeard

    April 11, 2018 at 5:20 pm

    @Elizabelle: I know a Young Rich Psychopath who regularly rubs shoulders with the superwealthy and lawmakers. He tells me he knows Paul Ryan personally, and hereally wants to spend time with his family, and also that he’s a great guy who’s super smart and brave, because he gave balanced budgets with details!

    I didn’t want to lay into him about it, but this guy is pretty much the quintessential villager. Rich, not half as smart as he thinks he is, is overly concerned with the deficit when Democrats are in charge and somehow always takes the republican-friendly position despite saying he’s a complete independent. We can’t pop bubbles of that magnitude. :)

  209. 209.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 5:20 pm

    @Jay: @Kay: I’m surprised at the free pass digby gave Ryan here:

    I don’t think anyone believes it’s likely that Paul Ryan personally colluded with the Russians in this operation…But it is highly unlikely that Republican strategists or party officials with strong knowledge of the House campaigns didn’t collude with the hackers at some point

    The three Wisconsin boys–Ryan, Spicer, and Priebus–ran the RNC and I’m yet to be convinced that they didn’t look far and wide for cash and technical support. We’re yet to scratch the surface on the involvement of Russia in Congressional races in 2016.

  210. 210.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 5:24 pm

    @? Martin: Any kind of differential tax risks this kind of arbitrage. I have an acquaintance who grew up in the 60s in a now very expensive beachfront community in Southern California, where her mother still lives. She and her siblings have fretted that they would not be able to afford to keep the house in their family after her mother dies if they have to pay the tax rate imposed on new owners. Apparently they have consulted lawyers and believe (no idea if they are correct) that heirs would have to pay tax as if they were new purchasers. They have tried to think of ways to keep their mother’s preferential tax rate. I told her she was crazy. Once they are found out they would be in a world of trouble.

  211. 211.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 5:30 pm

    @tobie:

    Yup but there’s no “there” there, so, Ryan get’s a pass for now on Collusion, but he doesn’t get a pass for not preventing, sanctioning or policing other’s collusion.

  212. 212.

    trollhattan

    April 11, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    @The Moar You Know:
    Howard Jarvis’ corpse is second only to Ronny Reagan’s as most worshipped by California Republicans. I’ll piss on his grave if I ever encounter it–Loomis probably knows where it is.

  213. 213.

    Mary G

    April 11, 2018 at 5:33 pm

    @Barbara: I inherited my So Cal house and the tax rate is the same as my mom’s. Maybe due to my disability? They need to ask a lawyer.

    Got the bill for the McMansion next door on the same sized lot by accident and it’s $14,000+ higher. Howard Jarvis lets me stay here and I feel glad and bad at the same time. It does lock me in here.

  214. 214.

    Uncle Cosmo

    April 11, 2018 at 5:34 pm

    @catclub:

    how about Fitzmastide Week?

    Given the inevitably intemperate nature of Twitler’s tweets, Badvent – or maybe SAD!vent – might come closer to the troof…

  215. 215.

    Barbara

    April 11, 2018 at 5:36 pm

    @Mary G: I’m not getting involved. I understand that this is a real dilemma and there are people who have true need, but it offends me that people would be treated in such a disparate manner in the funding of local government services. I hope they lose their tax break. They have done nothing to deserve it.

  216. 216.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 5:37 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: Sadvent. I love it.

  217. 217.

    tobie

    April 11, 2018 at 5:45 pm

    @Jay: I can live with that, as long as the greed, corruption, and criminality of Republican operatives is finally shown. I don’t think the public has given much thought to how the Russians provided info and support to GOP congressional campaigns.

  218. 218.

    JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo

    April 11, 2018 at 5:54 pm

    @Mary G:

    As noted in the past, I want to know what happened to Verna from season 3. Something happened to her that really affected her and caused her to quit, and Verna said back then that she was not allowed to say what it was that happened

  219. 219.

    trollhattan

    April 11, 2018 at 5:59 pm

    @Mary G: Your tax rate is somewhat portable to another home. I forget the details but believe buyer’s age and the cost and location of the new house are factors.

  220. 220.

    Jay

    April 11, 2018 at 6:06 pm

    @tobie:

    I don’t think that the Meuller/SDNY/FBI/Intel Community investigations are going to stop with Trump/Russia,

    There’s GOP/Russia

    There’s NRA/Russia

    There’s Mercer/Anal/Wikileaks/Assange/Russia

    There’s Nader/Prince/Russia/UAE/Saudi/Russia

    There’s The Evangelicals/Nazi’s/Briebart/Russia,

    Just to name a few. A huge “back door” of corruption, manipulation and sabotage has been exposed, threatening the US National Security State, US Democracy and the Western Cooperative Alliance.

    I worry that like Felix Sater, some of these “back doors”, like Prince might get “used”, by the National Security State to their own ends, (China Intel), with out learning the lessons of taking a poisonous snake to bed.

  221. 221.

    Fair Economist

    April 11, 2018 at 6:11 pm

    @Barbara:

    Of course, I would love to see Peter King defeated in November, and if he is talking like this that probably means his internal polling is not looking too good.

    Trump won by 9 in his district, and he represents the sort of upscale suburban district that’s swinging hard to the Democrats, so King would be more correct than Erickson that he’s at serious risk of ouster, if it is indeed him. I wouldn’t yet put him in the “gonna lose” category but it’s pretty reasonable hyperbole for a casual conversation.

  222. 222.

    Mnemosyne

    April 11, 2018 at 6:12 pm

    @Mary G:

    I think CA is the only place I’ve lived where people expected to inherit their parents’ house and then keep it. In other states, people automatically assume they’re going to have to sell it.

    I think that’s an unacknowledged factor in our tight real estate market — people inherit houses and then rent them out for additional income rather than selling them, which only further squeezes the number of available houses.

  223. 223.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 6:13 pm

    @catclub:

    OTOH prop 13 is massively regressive and stupid.
    OTOOH California has thrived even with it, so what do I know.

    Prop 13 was stupid, but California has been decently smart about responding to it. One thing California has done because of Prop 13 is to replace the lost property tax revenue with a reasonably progressive state income tax system. Our tax system still isn’t progressive overall- the bottom 20% of the population pays a higher percentage of their income in state taxes than the top 1%- but it’s still one of the least regressive of any state. Of course the heavy reliance on income tax has other problems; California has a terrible see-saw budget because we bring in a lot of money when the stock market is doing well and then a lot less when it’s doing badly.

  224. 224.

    Roger Moore

    April 11, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @Jay:

    Just to name a few.

    You left out Stein/Green Party/Russia and Sanders/Devine/Russia, which certainly need some detailed investigation.

  225. 225.

    Elizabelle

    April 11, 2018 at 6:52 pm

    @Roger Moore: Agreed. Clean the whole rat’s nest out. Let the chips fall where they may.

  226. 226.

    evodevo

    April 11, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: Yes. My Toyota-employed county is lousy with these types…the only thing that would get through to them is an ACTUAL Depression … the Bush Recession gave a lot of them pause, but then the Obama economy came along and pulled them out before they suffered too much. They really really require a 2×4 upside the head…

  227. 227.

    SgrAstar

    April 11, 2018 at 8:41 pm

    @Jay: Nope. Burnsie is right. Cynthia Nixon has no qualifications to be the governor of NY. If she wants to become a politician she should start at the state leg level. Why does she think she has the chops to be Governor? There’s nothing in her bio to explain that. Also too, governing well is actually very challenging. Example of failures to meet the challenges: every republican administration. I just can’t stand the celebrity politician model…and I think there are many examples of how that model fails.

  228. 228.

    Dev Null

    April 11, 2018 at 11:46 pm

    @tobie:

    And one Michael Cohen and one Elliott Broidy, although they didn’t join the RNC Finance committee until April 2017. Broidy seems to have had connections with Ukraine and Russia:

    Trump Donor Elliott Broidy named in Ukraine criminal probe

    And there was that multi-billion-$ fraud in Malaysia. And Broidy is connected with MBS and the UAE.

    So many grifters …

  229. 229.

    oaguabonita

    April 12, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    Late here, but also too, you let slide by Ryan’s Zombie Lie that

    . . . Obama ignored the recommendations of the bipartisan committee on fiscal responsibility . . . that he helped create

    Presuming this refers to Bowles/Simpson (was there some other such body?), Obama did not ignore any recommendations of this bipartisan committee[or actually, “commission”] because there were no “recommendations of the bipartisan committee”. The commission’s charter required a minimum level of consensus (11 out of 16? something like that) for it to issue a report containing recommendations, which they failed to achieve. (In this context, the statement above that Ryan voted against the [draft!] recommendations makes sense, i.e., he helped kill them and prevent a commission report.) So there are no “recommendations of the bipartisan committee” for Obama or anyone else to “ignore”!

    What there is instead is just a lengthy op-ed that Bowles and Simpson co-authored and released (fraudulently, on commission letterhead, from the commission’s website, iirc), which, unsurprisingly, the Worse-Than-Useless Corporate Media regularly mis-identified as the commission’s report/recommendations. Cole hizownself seems to have been taken in by this “journalistic” misconduct.

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