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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Lashed to the Mast

Lashed to the Mast

by Betty Cracker|  January 30, 20192:17 pm| 113 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

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W. Bush-era torture apologist Marc Thiessen extruded an especially stinky turd of a column in The Post. Thiessen has never written anything worth reading, but I call your attention to the log he laid in the opinion page litter box yesterday because it’s an especially gross example of how, when “conservatives” buy into Trumpism, they drop all pretense to every principle they previously claimed guided their lives and become walking, talking manifestations of Cleek’s Law.

This column purports to advise Trump on how he can pull a “win” from the shutdown loser-town wreckage that is smoking all around him. Idiotically, Thiessen’s genius plan involves Trump calling Pelosi’s bluff, as if Trump didn’t just try that last week and get burned to the fucking ground for his trouble. But I digress — an excerpt:

[Trump] should go back to the experts at the Department of Homeland Security and ask them: If Democrats refuse to give you the addition physical barriers you have said are essential to secure the border, what other funding would you need to make up for it?… The total, he should tell the border professionals, can be far more than $5.7 billion. Just tell me what you need — the sky’s the limit.

Then, the president should then use his State of the Union address to demand that congressional Democrats fund every single penny. He should announce that if Democrats won’t pay for a wall, this is what border agents and homeland security professionals say they need immediately to secure the border without one. Unfortunately, it is more expensive to secure the border with people and technology than it is with steel slats.

Trump should make clear these demands are nonnegotiable. He will not make any concessions for them. No protections for “dreamers” or extension of the Temporary Protected Status program. Those things are still on the table, but only in exchange for a physical barrier.

If Democrats refuse, Trump will have regained the moral high ground… But Democrats will not refuse, because they have no grounds to do so. They have repeatedly claimed over the past few weeks to support such measures. Well, now it is time to start funding them.

If Democrats agree, then Trump can legitimately claim to have done more than any president in history to secure the southern border. He will have essentially built a virtual wall. And he can do all this without giving up on a physical barrier. Trump can make clear that he will make wall funding a condition of every policy initiative that Democrats put forward in the coming two years. He can declare that he is more than willing to cut a bipartisan deal to reform our broken immigration system — as long as that deal includes a wall.

To recap, if this plan works the way Thiessen thinks it will, Trump will extract untold billions of taxpayer funds for a virtual wall that makes a physical barrier obsolete, then turn around and demand a physical wall too. Why build not one but two walls? So Thiessen’s impotent orange idol can chalk up a “win.”

As we all know, Republican claims about being the party of fiscal responsibility have been garbage for decades. From the sainted Reagan to the present day, Republicans run up huge deficits and bugger the economy in myriad ways, and then Democrats have to come in and clean up the mess.

That said, Republicans used to be disciplined enough to try to disguise their profligacy, using scams like “trickle down” as a pretext for shoveling cash into their donors’ pockets, or lying that a ruinous, pointless war will “pay for itself.”

But here, Thiessen just straight-up urges Trump to spend many billions of dollars on a “virtual wall” and then insist on a multi-billion dollar spite wall that the first project rendered unnecessary. He thinks the American people — the majority of whom don’t want one wall, let alone a belt-and-suspenders boondoggle — won’t mind the expense, point out that Mexico was supposed to pay for it, or object to a vanity wall demand jamming every other piece of legislation for the next two years. Only a cultist could be so deluded.

Because our Beltway press is a dysfunctional garbage heap that privileges phony notions of “balance” over accuracy, Thiessen and fellow neocon trashmongers like Hugh Hewitt retained their prominent perches after cheerleading W. Bush’s epic fuckup in Iraq. Maybe we can make Trump cultism a bridge too far, or at least try to do so.

When Trump is finally exposed as the utter fraud he is in terms that even balance junkies can’t deny — and I think that will happen — let us resolve to use our power as consumers to unseat his worst media enablers, people like Thiessen, Hewitt, etc. — pundits in mainstream outlets who’ve lashed themselves to the mast of the SS Trumptanic.

Let them be reduced to peddling their rancid hot takes at InfoWars or Breitbart, not in the pages of The Washington Post. Or better yet, let them enjoy a steaming mug of STFU.

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Reader Interactions

113Comments

  1. 1.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    January 30, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    Yeah, Thiessen’s the worst. I don’t know why they keep him on. I mean, shit, it’s one thing to be a Trump asskissers, but this guy goes beyond that. I think he lives inside Trump’s ass.

  2. 2.

    WesinCLE

    January 30, 2019 at 2:26 pm

    From Contact “Why build one when you can build two at twice the price?

  3. 3.

    Barbara

    January 30, 2019 at 2:26 pm

    Marc Thiessen is an idiot. Pure and simple.

  4. 4.

    Mandalay

    January 30, 2019 at 2:26 pm

    Since this is an assholes thread:

    As an in-demand public speaker since she resigned as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations last year, Haley is asking for $200,000 per speaking engagement and the use of a private jet, according to sources who spoke to CNBC…

    The money could come in handy for Haley, who reported up to $1 million in debt on federal disclosure forms before leaving her job at the United Nations.

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    January 30, 2019 at 2:28 pm

    @Barbara:

    Marc Thiessen is an idiot. Pure and simple.

    Wait, wait…just going with ‘idiot’ leave out so many other of his unsavory qualities. “Trumpublican bootlicker”, for one. “Soulless hack”, for another

  6. 6.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    Christ.

    Some gun nut student brought his AR-15 (converted to fully automatic?!) onto the UCF campus in Orlando area to make bump stocks for it.

    He’s been arrested on weapons charges – campuses are currently supposed to be gun-free zones (until the NRA is able to corrupt that too) – but there’s only ONE reason to add bump stocks to an assault rifle: to make it more lethal.

    https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ne-ucf-student-ar-15-automatic-weapon-20190130-story.html

  7. 7.

    Ken

    January 30, 2019 at 2:32 pm

    @WesinCLE: They should go with “For a limited time you can get two for the price of one! Just pay the additional shipping and handling.”

  8. 8.

    ruemara

    January 30, 2019 at 2:33 pm

    It would be awesome if we could have a moratorium on idiots being allowed out in public.

  9. 9.

    Mike in NC

    January 30, 2019 at 2:34 pm

    Twump want WALL!!! Thiessen, Hewitt, Rogers, and McArdle will continue publish their horseshit at the Washington Post and continue to hold Twump’s little hands while he holds his breath and stamps his widdle feet. Because both sides…

  10. 10.

    jacy

    January 30, 2019 at 2:34 pm

    I need to stop watching and reading about politics today. How do people this stupid feed themselves? Motherfuckers.

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    January 30, 2019 at 2:36 pm

    maybe its time to write a letter to the publishers asking just what merit does this kind of idiotic discourse bring to its readers. You want to know why print media is crashing and burning? Because its polluted by idiocy like what is cited above. It used to be that Op-Ed columns were thoughtfully researched items that delve deeper into issues. This looks like it was crapped out in about 20 minutes and probably had even less serious thought associated with it. Hell, it probably had less thought to it than the amount of time I spent reading it and associating the proper amount of disdain wrapped up in this blog comment.

  12. 12.

    Kelly

    January 30, 2019 at 2:37 pm

    As we all know, Republican claims about being the party of fiscal responsibility have been garbage for decades. From the sainted Reagan to the present day, Republicans run up huge deficits and bugger the economy in myriad ways, and then Democrats have to come in and clean up the mess.

    THIS, THIS, THIS

    I believed reducing the deficit was important until it was briefly eliminated during the Clinton years. Wasn’t the game changer I expected at all. The R’s cheered and threw it all away for GWB.

  13. 13.

    Kraux Pas

    January 30, 2019 at 2:38 pm

    If Democrats refuse, Trump will have regained the moral high ground

    Making demands for controversial policy changes as a requirement to keep the government open, no matter their merit of the policy at hand, automatically loses you the moral high ground.

    And, to be clear, the wall is a policy completely lacking merit.

  14. 14.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    January 30, 2019 at 2:41 pm

    @Mandalay: Good lord. How does that happen? Is it campaign debt left from her political runs or what?

  15. 15.

    LuciaMia

    January 30, 2019 at 2:41 pm

    So…hes saying Trump should ask Homeland Security to make up some gazillion type number for the virtual wall, “the sky’s the limit,” and Congress is just supposed to accept it without any kind of breakdown or confirmation? Genius!

  16. 16.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    January 30, 2019 at 2:42 pm

    @PaulWartenberg: I must be way behind but somehow I thought bump stocks had been made illegal within the last 6 months or so.

  17. 17.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    January 30, 2019 at 2:44 pm

    Howard Schultz says he’s not a Democrat, surprised by backlash

    Billionaire businessman Howard Schultz, who is considering an independent 2020 presidential bid, went off on the Democratic Party in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.

    Saying he is “no longer” a Democrat because he disagrees with the party on a host of issues, Schultz expressed shock at how strong the backlash to him from the left has been since he announced this week that he might run for president.

    Asked why he wouldn’t just run as a Democrat, the former Starbucks CEO said he doesn’t affiliate himself with the party anymore.

    “I’ve been a Democrat, but I am no longer,” Schultz said, adding, “I don’t affiliate myself with the Democratic Party, who’s so far left, who basically wants the government to take over health care, which we cannot afford, the government to give free college to everybody, and the government to give everyone a job. … We can’t afford it.”

    […]

    “Well, I must be doing something right to create so much interests and backlash from the Democratic Party,” he said.“I mean, some of it is a surprise, but I think we expected to see some of the level of vitriol, but not to the extent it’s been.”

    Claiming he would be the first “legitimate” independent candidate to run for the presidency, Schultz said he is qualified because of his “life experience.”

    “And what qualifies me is that I will be a leader of the country, of all American people, that people will trust and admire [me] because I will understand,” he said. “I have walked in their shoes. I’m on both sides of the equation. I’m somebody who has been — who is successful, I’m somebody who came from the projects, and I understand the American people.”

    Somebody please tell me this asshole is going to drop out soon.

  18. 18.

    MattF

    January 30, 2019 at 2:48 pm

    Thiessen is a lickspittle. Some would-be lickspittles pause before an actual lake of Oval Office spittle and then try to decide what to do– but Thiessen kneels gratefully and laps it up.

  19. 19.

    Ken

    January 30, 2019 at 2:51 pm

    @LuciaMia: Didn’t we use to call that the Green Lantern theory of the presidency? It works – or rather, doesn’t work – the same way whether it’s calls for Obama to wave his hand and create single-payer healthcare, or Trump to wave his rattle and get wall.

  20. 20.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 2:52 pm

    @Mandalay: three cheers for Haley for getting huge paychecks. get it while the getting is good.

    Six boos to stupid companies that pay that. I hope I don’t own their stock.

  21. 21.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 2:54 pm

    @piratedan:

    It used to be that Op-Ed columns were thoughtfully researched items that delve deeper into issues.

    Russell Baker died a few days ago.

  22. 22.

    bemused

    January 30, 2019 at 2:55 pm

    Bruce Bartlett tweet:
    The more I hear from Howard Schultz, the more like Donald Trump circa 2015 he sounds. Like Trump he knows nothing about how the government operates and appears to learned all he knows from the Republican propaganda channel. I say one Trump is enough.

  23. 23.

    Barbara

    January 30, 2019 at 2:55 pm

    @jacy: They have friends. Thiessen was a speechwriter for GWB and whatever contacts he made at dinner parties and whatnot between 2000 and 2008 guarantee that he will always be well fed. When Kathleen Parker was wringing her hands on behalf of Brett Kavanaugh — you can be sure she knows him socially. Anyway, when you read someone like Ed Rogers or Marc Thiessen and wonder how anyone THIS stupid could get a platform in such a seemingly exalted space, just remember, they are probably nice guys who became friends with people like Chris Cilizza and George Will on their way up.

  24. 24.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 2:56 pm

    @LuciaMia:

    should ask Homeland Security to make up some gazillion type number for the virtual wall,

    Is is always a good idea to ask your barber how much you spend on your next haircut, then ask if you need one, too.

  25. 25.

    Mart

    January 30, 2019 at 2:56 pm

    About 60% come here legally on visas and overstay. A 400 pound kid in China can mail a couple pound package of powder to the US that is 400 times stronger than heroin. Employers can hire hundreds of improperly documented workers and watch them frog marched off their site, without any personal penalty.

    But by all means, spend $30 billion to build that wall.

  26. 26.

    mad citizen

    January 30, 2019 at 2:58 pm

    Temp has risen to minus 5 here in central Indiana, and our male black cat is outside for the second time today. Only now he’s sunning himself and not coming back in. Been about 10 minutes.

  27. 27.

    scav

    January 30, 2019 at 2:58 pm

    @Mike in NC: WAAAAAAHHHHHH-LLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

    Whh, whh, whh, wanna Wanna WAAAAAAHHHHHH-LLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!

  28. 28.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 2:59 pm

    So, Trump made a ridiculous unpopular and supposedly nonnegotiable demand, and he was forced to fold.
    So, this fool’s advice is to make a more transparently ridiculous, likely much more unpopular and also supposedly nonnegotiable demand, and things will turn out better this time?

    Trump and the Trumpsters are turning the underpants gnome business plan game into a research area worthy of serious study.
    But, that is how unexpected progress occurs. Modern probability theory started with rich gambling addict fops writing mathematicians for advice on how to win their dumb card games.

  29. 29.

    WesinCLE

    January 30, 2019 at 3:01 pm

    @Ken: LOL

  30. 30.

    Martin

    January 30, 2019 at 3:03 pm

    @Mandalay: This is why she’s in debt. If she feels she is marketable at $200K + a private jet (which will cost $20K to operate for her) then ask for $220K, fly coach, and get out of debt faster. She’s effectively borrowing money in order to fly private, which is a stupid choice.

  31. 31.

    laura

    January 30, 2019 at 3:04 pm

    Trump will have regained the moral high ground…
    In what world has he EVER had a high ground, let alone the moral high ground?
    And yet, the media gives torture enthusiast plenty of ink, gets on all the shows.
    Where’s that Villago Delenda Est guy, because he knows what the solution is.

  32. 32.

    Martin

    January 30, 2019 at 3:04 pm

    @Mart:

    Employers The President can hire hundreds of improperly documented workers and watch them frog marched off their site, without any personal penalty.

    T,FTFY

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    January 30, 2019 at 3:07 pm

    @PaulWartenberg:

    I had to verify where my niece is going to school and it’s USF, not UCF. Big sigh of relief.

    Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the global security department of a certain Giant Evil Corporation is keeping a close eye out for this guy and any known associates. That’s a very large target very close by, and the spring break crowds will start arriving soon.

  34. 34.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    January 30, 2019 at 3:08 pm

    @PaulWartenberg:

    If he had 3 drop-in sears, wants to make bump stocks (useless on a full auto AR) and 1 AR15, he probably planned on selling them.
    Selling to whom, I don’t know

  35. 35.

    Mandalay

    January 30, 2019 at 3:10 pm

    @catclub:

    three cheers for Haley for getting huge paychecks. get it while the getting is good.

    Well…I suppose. But the larger issue is that Haley has (had?) debts of up to one million dollars.

    Trump used to argue “Vote for me – I’m filthy rich and I can’t be bought!”. So what was his argument for appointing someone as US Ambassador to the UN who was up to her neck in debt?

  36. 36.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 3:13 pm

    At least the Sirens’ song was supposed to be pretty, if reports of those who survived are correct.
    We have to listen to Trump’s unpleasant sniffs and croaks, and we are in danger of running aground on rocks. Sounds lose-lose to me.

  37. 37.

    bobbo

    January 30, 2019 at 3:14 pm

    Never read Thiessen before, but he writes like a third-rate wingnut welfare blogger, which is redundant.

  38. 38.

    Chris T.

    January 30, 2019 at 3:18 pm

    1. You can’t regain what you never had in the first place (“moral high ground”).
    2. Actual security experts don’t want Wall.
    3. “Wall” doesn’t provide security (see 2).
    4. Three rights make a left, so three wrongs make a right!

  39. 39.

    Kay

    January 30, 2019 at 3:18 pm

    Trump can make clear that he will make wall funding a condition of every policy initiative that Democrats put forward in the coming two years.

    Democrats would take that deal- Donald Trump supports all their “policy initiatives” in return for funding his wall. But that’s a horrible deal for Republicans and even I don’t think they’re that dumb. I think people generally consider what happens if the plan works. If this plan works Donald Trump hands over the entire remainder of his Presidency to Nancy Pelosi for a wall.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 3:18 pm

    @Mandalay:

    So what was his argument for appointing someone as US Ambassador to the UN who was up to her neck in debt?

    Are you suggesting that Trump had ANY IDEA of what was in her financial disclosure forms? Or cared?

    Fifth of never.

  41. 41.

    Mandalay

    January 30, 2019 at 3:18 pm

    @Martin: I recall reading Ivanka Trump’s financial disclosure when she became Trump’s P.A. She was carrying around $50k of debt on her credit card. I guess that was less effort for her than taking some cash out of one of her accounts and burning it, but the end result is effectively the same.

    I guess she could argue that she is so filthy rich that she just doesn’t care, but a mind that truly thinks that way is unlikely to bring any benefits to this country as a government employee.

    I’m just guessing, but I’m fairly confident that Buffett, Gates, Bezos et al would pay off their credit card balances in full very month.

  42. 42.

    The Midnight Lurker

    January 30, 2019 at 3:21 pm

    Who in the hell is actually reading Thiessen? WoPo isn’t a wing nut paper. Why do the editors let this trash cheapen the work of their good reporters? It boggles the mind.

    And just so I’m clear… and yes, I’ve read and re-read the article several times now… is Thiessen saying we should build two walls? WTF???

  43. 43.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 3:22 pm

    Since I see open thread tag: Howard Schultz is poison, a fraud, an ignorant dope. Trump with less hatred in his heart for people who don’t look like him.
    Crush the Schultz candidacy with ridicule and disdain.

    @joshtpm
    Schultz on Medicare for All: “It’s not thoughtful. It’s not truthful. It’s what’s wrong. ”
    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1090699170367852546

  44. 44.

    Gravenstone

    January 30, 2019 at 3:24 pm

    @PaulWartenberg: If it’s been modified for selective fire, there’s no reason to put a bump stock. Glad he’s been arrested and now has to justify his existence. Hopefully they never return his worship object. But who am I kidding, it’s Florida.

  45. 45.

    joel hanes

    January 30, 2019 at 3:24 pm

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

    I don’t know why they keep him on.

    To make Hiatt look like a well-informed moderate by comparison.

  46. 46.

    Doug R

    January 30, 2019 at 3:25 pm

    If Democrats refuse to give you the addition physical barriers you have said are essential to secure the border

    FFS, He’s into the ditch in his first sentence, the reason Democrats refuse to fund the “WALL” is that experts say it’s a waste of money. They are fine with improving current barriers where needed but other methods are much more flexible and effective.

  47. 47.

    Gelfling 545

    January 30, 2019 at 3:26 pm

    As far as I can tell, people only go to Theissen’s articles to mske snide remarks on his comment page. It’s certainly the only reason I ever go there.

    Weather note: conditions are so bad that south of the city (Buffalo) the county has had to take snow plows off the roads. Nobody’s going no place.

  48. 48.

    RedDirtGirl

    January 30, 2019 at 3:26 pm

    @jacy: They feed on the misery of others!

  49. 49.

    The Moar You Know

    January 30, 2019 at 3:27 pm

    Some gun nut student brought his AR-15 (converted to fully automatic?!) onto the UCF campus in Orlando area to make bump stocks for it.

    @PaulWartenberg: Bump stock not the issue. He put in a full-auto sear. That makes it a full machine gun, and Mr. “I don’t like laws” (actual quote from idiot) is going to be doing some hard federal prison time.

    Federal felony. Florida isn’t going to be able to hand him back his penis substitute with a “sorry, Mr. White Person” like they do for any non-black person who breaks their state firearms laws.

  50. 50.

    Keith P.

    January 30, 2019 at 3:27 pm

    @Barbara: His haircut checks out. I agree with your diagnosis.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    January 30, 2019 at 3:28 pm

    @jl:

    It’s just nonsensical babbling.

    Trump should make clear these demands are nonnegotiable. He will not make any concessions for them. No protections for “dreamers” or extension of the Temporary Protected Status program. Those things are still on the table, but only in exchange for a physical barrier.

    That’s a negotiation and the concessions for the wall. He literally followed his denials with the terms and the concessions.

    You could write the whole thing in one sentence. “Trump should make concessions to Democrats, but only in exchange for a wall”. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that what everyone has been discussing for 6 months.

    “A condition of support of their policy initiatives” is a negotiation and a concession.

  52. 52.

    karen marie

    January 30, 2019 at 3:29 pm

    @Barbara: How stupid is he?

    Unfortunately, it is more expensive to secure the border with people and technology than it is with steel slats.

    Yeah, we’ll just spend a fuck ton of money to install “steel slats” and then not “secure the border with people and technology.” People will DEFINITELY not bring ladders or dig tunnels or take the slats apart.

    I am baffled that this man gets paid to share his “ideas.”

  53. 53.

    joel hanes

    January 30, 2019 at 3:29 pm

    @catclub:

    Russell Baker died a few days ago.

    His books are available and well worth reading today.
    https://smile.amazon.com/Looking-Back-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590170881/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1548880078&sr=1-4&keywords=russell+baker

    Hey, remember when you could watch TV news and see Eric Sevareid express actual thoughts in actual paragraphs ?
    Good times.

  54. 54.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 3:31 pm

    @jl:

    You can read about Australia’s version of Medicare for All on the wiki article. This stuff is part of my research, the wiki article is quite accurate and detailed. I can give links to 100+ page reports if anyone asks.

    The proportion of GDP Australia spends on health care is about 62 percent of what the US spends (a little higher than quoted in the article, since I am including costs of long-term care which Australian statistics do not count the same way as other countries do. Australia’s population health care outcomes, at all ages, from birth to extreme old age are far far better than those in the US. Australia’s population does not have inherently healthier people with far better lifestyles than the US. In the 1960s and 1970s the cots and outcomes of Australia’s health care looked almost identical to those in the US. Australia earned its success through careful, good, health care reform.

    Health care in Australia
    Wikipedia
    ” In an international comparative study of the health care systems in six countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), found that “Australia ranks highest on healthy lives, scoring first or second on all of the indicators”, although its overall ranking in the study was below the UK and Germany systems, tied with New Zealand’s and above those of Canada and far above the U.S. ”
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Australia

  55. 55.

    The Moar You Know

    January 30, 2019 at 3:32 pm

    oh yay, moderation for bad, bad word. Halp?

  56. 56.

    Mandalay

    January 30, 2019 at 3:32 pm

    @jl:

    Crush the Schultz candidacy with ridicule and disdain.

    Right. And with Steve Schmidt running his campaign, can we also drop our crush on all of the homeless never-Trump Republicans like Rubin, Frum, Will, Jolly, et al?

    As Steve Schmidt just showed, they will pretend to like us, then fuck us and leave at the first opportunity.

  57. 57.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2019 at 3:34 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    the idiot student says “I don’t care for laws.”

    /headdesk

  58. 58.

    Ken

    January 30, 2019 at 3:35 pm

    Any “plan” that depends on Trump keeping his promises – or even remembering them from one minute to the next – is a no-starter. Past performance, in this case, is definitely a predictor of future results.

  59. 59.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2019 at 3:36 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    this is Florida we’re talking about. Even the university nobody attends – Florida Poly, what a fcking waste of taxpayer money that’s turning out to be – is gonna see goddamn gun nut threats every minute of every day.

    P.S. Go Bulls (MLIS ’93)

  60. 60.

    Barbara

    January 30, 2019 at 3:37 pm

    @karen marie: Of course the steel slats won’t secure the border and so money spent to build them will be a total waste of taxpayer funds, but it will still be less money than what is required to actually secure the border. Analagy: buying an umbrella with holes in it won’t keep you dry but it WILL be much cheaper than an umbrella in good working condition.

  61. 61.

    karen marie

    January 30, 2019 at 3:38 pm

    @Martin: Yes, but it makes her look so classy. Plus, since it’s private, she can do favors for people and invite them along for a free ride on a classy private jet. I would assume that it’s also a tax issue. She can’t write off the $20k if she pockets it.

  62. 62.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2019 at 3:38 pm

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):

    It may have been he was designing the bump stocks with a 3D printer and selling those on whatever black market the gun nuts are going to get their bump stocks from now.

    We need to go after the fcking gun dealers. Profiting off OUR blood. >:(

  63. 63.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 3:41 pm

    @jl: You don’t like Medicare for All for the US? Don’t think it’s practical or politically feasible? OK, fine. No problem. There are many roads to enlightenment. Then do Obamacare right, and Go Swiss! Private health insurance companies, but very very heavily regulated (yes, the Swiss insurance industry hates it and thinks the Swiss system is of the devil and is constantly fighting for higher profits!). No waiting lines for anything. You pay slightly higher, about 65% of GDP. But, like Australia, the health outcomes, at ALL ages, from birth to very very old age, far superior to those in the US.

    Like Australia, in the 1960s their cost and outcomes, much like those in the US. Switzerland earned its success through good and careful health care reform.

    Healthcare in Switzerland
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Switzerland

    If Schultz doesn’t like Medicare for All, what is his plan? He has nothing, zero, nada, zip, other than the love of the sound of his own voice. An ignorant dope who fits well with the other celebrity ignorant dopes who fraudulent pretend to be informed news professionals in our big media outlets.

    Crush the Howard Schultz candidacy. Schultz is political poison.

    All the well-known major Democratic 2020 presidential possibilities have presented actual, useful, ideas on healthcare reform. Schultz has nothing but empty platitudes.

  64. 64.

    karen marie

    January 30, 2019 at 3:42 pm

    @Barbara: The border is already as secure as it’s ever going to be. At least until water levels are rising and people are rushing over before the land bridge to South America closes.

  65. 65.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2019 at 3:43 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    The Magic Kingdom itself is pretty well secured, but there are entire areas of Disney’s huge complex – there’s a shopping area Disney Springs that is an open-air walking mall, my God a gunman there would be disastrous – that are not fully secured.

    I’m not sure how many spring breakers head to Disney – it’s not necessarily the hottest place for college students to get drunk and rowdy – but Daytona Beach is right up I-4 from UCF, barely an hour away (and there’s a HBC Bethune-Cookman there! :( )

  66. 66.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2019 at 3:47 pm

    @karen marie:

    here’s an idea that’s been floated around for a long time:

    take the cost of building the Wall (it’s, what, $25 billion?), divide it out about $20,000 per year for five years to the asylum seekers to not move here but to say Costa Rica or Panama, and give the leftover money to our DREAMers and not worry about wasting all that money. Everybody wins.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    January 30, 2019 at 3:53 pm

    one Trump is enough.

    Let this be the entirety of Dem candidates’ comments about Schultz forever and ever amen. In this environment, it’s all that need be said.

  68. 68.

    Gravenstone

    January 30, 2019 at 3:54 pm

    @PaulWartenberg: Zero Republican cronies make bank from that idea. You fail!

  69. 69.

    karen marie

    January 30, 2019 at 3:55 pm

    @PaulWartenberg: That sounds like a great idea to me.

  70. 70.

    Mary G

    January 30, 2019 at 3:57 pm

    Howard Schultz tweeted about an article written by Roger Simon on PJ Media saying he could win “Don’t laugh.”

    His ratio continues to be YUGE.

    This guy has never been a voter of the Democratic Party. PJ fucking media is Breitbart but stupider.

  71. 71.

    Just One More Canuck

    January 30, 2019 at 3:58 pm

    I don’t think Trump and his henchmen really want a wall – they just want the money for a wall that they can pillage

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    January 30, 2019 at 4:00 pm

    @jl: Very informative — thank you!

  73. 73.

    germy

    January 30, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    Are deepfakes going to be a problem in all upcoming political campaigns?

    Because if THIS is possible:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBJIve4Ccg

    Then won’t we be seeing all candidates in suspect videos?

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    January 30, 2019 at 4:07 pm

    Alexandra Petri weighs in as only she can on the Howard Schultz nonsense.

  75. 75.

    The Midnight Lurker

    January 30, 2019 at 4:10 pm

    @Mary G: PJ Media… seriously? Now THAT’S desperate!

    At this rate, ol’ Shultz!! might not last out the week.

  76. 76.

    Quinerly

    January 30, 2019 at 4:13 pm

    @Mary G: Something crossed my feed saying Schultz has barely voted in the past.

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2019 at 4:15 pm

    @jl:
    That’s because Schultz is nothing but useless platatudes. Take those away and he’s got absolutely nothing.

  78. 78.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 4:17 pm

    @Betty Cracker: You are welcome. Except, I was hoping for a hint that I should link to the 100+ page reports.

  79. 79.

    Plato

    January 30, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    More U.S. coal-fired power plants were shut in Trump's first two years than were retired in the whole of Barack Obama's first term. https://t.co/4PRuvye3gs

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 30, 2019

    First, they came for the coal mines, I said nothing…

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    @Just One More Canuck: drumpf just wants to win. Which to him means in some internal demented way he won. That demented way doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else than him and usually doesn’t but that’s what he’s looking for.

  81. 81.

    Plato

    January 30, 2019 at 4:26 pm

    EU: FU, UK

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47061650

  82. 82.

    feebog

    January 30, 2019 at 4:30 pm

    Then, the president should then use his State of the Union address to demand that congressional Democrats fund every single penny. He should announce that if Democrats won’t pay for a wall, this is what border agents and homeland security professionals say they need immediately to secure the border without one. Unfortunately, it is more expensive to secure the border with people and technology than it is with steel slats.

    This only works until a Democratic House committee hauls of few of those border agents and homeland security professionals in to testify. Suddenly the facts will acquire that well known liberal bias.

  83. 83.

    Jeffro

    January 30, 2019 at 4:31 pm

    Speaking of “lashed to the mast” – Lindsey Graham has written a letter to FBI Director Wray asking all sorts of questions about Roger Stone’s arrest. Yes really.

    Wow, Lindsey, honey, you are in a heap of trouble whenever YOUR kompromat comes out. I’m just sayin’…

  84. 84.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 4:34 pm

    @Plato: I saw that as more along the lines of. “The backstop was a crucial part of the agreement that we got unanimous EC agreement on” Now you you want to start renegotiating pieces of THAT agreement?”

    Sounds easy enough.

  85. 85.

    Sebastian

    January 30, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    Reality is that Shultz and other CEOs are surrounded by sycophants and never hear a No or Sir, this is a colossally stupid idea, and so they surf on their inflated ego. Bunch of idiotic autocrats amongst each other that play a gigantic game of musical chairs.

    This is the first time he is being called on his stupid bullshit and what you see is a gigantic inkcloud of butthurt.

  86. 86.

    Bill Arnold

    January 30, 2019 at 4:42 pm

    @jl:

    I was hoping for a hint that I should link to the 100+ page reports.

    Informative and/or entertaining links are good. Just warn about page count or pdf-ness. (Search engines like links…)

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    @Sebastian:
    Yup. If folks did not understand this before I should hope observing Trump’s administrative staff turnstyle would spark some level of understanding. “I didn’t hear a ‘harrumph.'”

  88. 88.

    opiejeanne

    January 30, 2019 at 4:46 pm

    @germy: holy cow. I know we’ve seen stuff like this in voice recordings by careful splicing. It’s coming and it’s going to make us all miserable.

  89. 89.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 5:00 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Internet binders of 100+ page reports! Includes detailed descriptions and data on the 25 to 30 countries that have better systems than the US.
    Link goes to an html page of links, so no problems loading.

    WHO European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
    http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/partners/observatory/publications

  90. 90.

    Barbara

    January 30, 2019 at 5:03 pm

    @Sebastian: CEOs are top down actors — their job is to create and execute strategies, and, basically, everyone underneath them has one job, and that is to do what the CEO wants. You cannot take that model and superimpose it on a democratic government especially one that is not parliamentary. Everything is contested. The other co-equal branches do not have to do what you want them to. You need to persuade them at every level to do what you want. Someone like Robert Rubin could be successful because he had been the managing partner at Goldman Sachs and was used to having to persuade a bunch of prima donnas to do things for the good of the overall enterprise. But Schultz probably didn’t hear the word no for decades. All he is showing is that he knows nothing about government.

  91. 91.

    Bill Arnold

    January 30, 2019 at 5:06 pm

    @opiejeanne:
    We will soon need something like this, which will at least help in some cases.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping

  92. 92.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 5:08 pm

    Commonwealth Fund has more concise information at their international health policy center.

    Commonwealth Fund
    International Health Policy Center
    https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center

    And, some wikpedia articles, Health Care in X, are good, but I can’t vouch for many of them, don’t have time to read them in detail.

    Anyway, point being, you can read up a couple of hours and have lots of content and information to inject into the noises you emit in public , and Schultz is a billionaire so he has the money to hire flunkies to do it for him.

    But he has zero information and zero ideas, other than whatever ignorant centrist BS on the corporate media thinks is bad, he thinks is bad. Schultz is a policy nonentity.
    I’ve seen no evidence that on the information front, he is any better than Trump. Need to convince him to stop making a dangerous fool of himself in front of the whole country and to go back and work on stuff where he has at least a slightly larger than zero level of competence and information.

  93. 93.

    Ken

    January 30, 2019 at 5:09 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Needs more blockchain.

  94. 94.

    Ken

    January 30, 2019 at 5:10 pm

    @catclub: I wonder if there’s a chance that Northern Ireland will just say, “Screw this, we want to be in the EU and the natural border around here runs through the Irish Sea.”

  95. 95.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    @Ken: Given the way the DUP has backed May, my guess is no fuckin way they do this.
    That is the Democratic UNION Party, after all.

  96. 96.

    tobie

    January 30, 2019 at 5:19 pm

    @jl: What stood out for me with Schultz’s comments was not that he criticized M4All nor that he didn’t have an alernative proposal, but that he called M4All “unamerican.” I actually think the German Bismarck model of healthcare would be a better fit for the US, but not because it’s American. It’s because it allows for public and private insurance.

  97. 97.

    opiejeanne

    January 30, 2019 at 5:22 pm

    @Betty Cracker: That was very good, but I do take issue with her comment that going to space is useless, wasteful activity. Much useful information and equipment has come from NASA that we use in our every day lives and in hospitals.

  98. 98.

    Bill Arnold

    January 30, 2019 at 5:24 pm

    @Ken:
    The first precursor to blockchain that i recall seeing was auch a timestamp scheme. It might have been https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00196791 – “How to time-stamp a digital document” – 1990. People have been worried about this for a while.

  99. 99.

    Bill Arnold

    January 30, 2019 at 5:26 pm

    @jl: Thanks!

  100. 100.

    jl

    January 30, 2019 at 5:28 pm

    @tobie: Schultz is attacking Kamala Harris (who is a mix of establishment center/left and progressive Dem Warren/BS/AOC faction) as shrill and un-American and radical. Don’t need to know much more than that. My mind is pretty open on all the major Dem pres possibilities at this time, but unfair and dishonest attacks on Harris like are just unacceptable and ludicrous. And it is absurd for Schultz to claim that he wants to bring the country together and find a good government consensus, and then go attack Harris as some kind of divisive extremist, who in many ways is fairly close to center, and who so far,backs the progressive policies that most of the population supports.

    Schultz is either a pompous ignoramus, and in politics, a fool, or he is a cynical manipulator with a very corporatist agenda he wants to push. I don’t know which. In either case, he is very bad news, and useless in national politics.

  101. 101.

    tobie

    January 30, 2019 at 5:32 pm

    @jl: Agree.

  102. 102.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    @jl:

    or he is a cynical manipulator with a very corporatist agenda he wants to push.

    I think the chances of him getting a useful independent bid that gets him elected president, or getting the Democratic nomination, are close to nil.
    But the chances of Trump disappearing and him getting the GOP nom are better than nil.
    He is presently proving that all Democrats hate him – which is gold in a GOP nomination fight.

  103. 103.

    MCA1

    January 30, 2019 at 5:44 pm

    @Barbara: All too true. He hasn’t had to persuade anyone of anything for quite some time.

    However, he’s showing more than that he doesn’t understand how politics works. He’s also showing:

    – he doesn’t know anything about actual policy, either
    – he watches, and regurgitates bullshit he hears on, Fox
    – he’s actually a Republican

    Schultz is Trump without the clinical, toxic narcissism. Just the standard vainglorious narcissism of the average billionaire who’s fooled himself into thinking he did, in fact, do it all by himself. And maybe without the nasty bigoted parts, too.

    The good news is the more he opens his mouth, the more I think that if he were to stick around for awhile (and I don’t he will, because if keeps this shit up Starbucks revenue is going to be down 10% in Q1), he’d siphon off more Never Trump votes than Democratic votes. There’s no one in Michigan or Wisconsin who wasn’t stupid/morally vacant enough to vote for Trump instead of Clinton who’s going to be fooled by this horseshit. The only people who would turn out for Schultz are (a) suckers who bought the outsider, run government like a business while draining the swamp pablum and are losing faith in Drumpf, and (b) cowards who voted for Gary Johnson because while they did have enough moral compass to not vote for Cheetolini, they didn’t have the minimal gumption it took to suck it up and vote for any Democrat, ever. He’s not going to steal Democrats, because all he does is shit on Democrats. Which means he’s a Republican. He’ll get the so-called “sane” Republican vote, from people who were willing to overlook Trump’s manifest unfitness but are now secretly embarrassed by him.

  104. 104.

    catclub

    January 30, 2019 at 5:46 pm

    @opiejeanne: sending satellites into space has tremendous bang for the buck. It is really useful. Sending people into space has a good bit lower bang for buck than sending satellites. But I approve of sending Schultz there.

  105. 105.

    Michael Cain

    January 30, 2019 at 6:04 pm

    If that’s what Trump says, the SOTU response should include at least a statement that the House won’t consider the wall until there’s an actual plan. Where will it run, plus-or-minus 20 feet? Which private land will have to be taken? How much land is effectively ceded to Mexico because the wall runs ten miles north of the border in places? Where does the wall need to be a dam capable of withstanding monsoon flash flooding? How many interstate and international water compacts are violated? What are the environmental impacts? There are a lot of knock-on effects that can’t be simply ignored.

    Granted, Trump displays all the worst stereotypes of the famous New Yorker cover. He’s not just ignorant/incurious about international things; he’s ignorant/incurious about a great deal of the United States.

  106. 106.

    trnc

    January 30, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Along the lines of “What would a Russian agent do differently than Pres Individual 1,” what would a person involuntarily confined to a mental institution write that would be different than Thiessen?

  107. 107.

    cope

    January 30, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    @PaulWartenberg:

    Florida Poly, what a fcking waste of taxpayer money that’s turning out to be

    Driving back and forth to Tampa when our daughter lived there, I watched that monstrosity go up. At first I thought it was a mega-church and then I thought maybe a convention hall. When I learned it was going to be a college/university, I reckoned it would take 20 years of student’s tuition to pay for the fucking building alone.

    Edited to add an “atta boy” to me for including my first ever block quote in a comment. I’m getting there…

  108. 108.

    opiejeanne

    January 30, 2019 at 6:49 pm

    @catclub: Sending people into space begat heart monitors and all sorts of other monitors used in hospitals, from labor rooms to the ER and ICU.
    It also gave us the extremely useful product called Velcro.
    That’s just off the top of my head.
    Since those earlier days of manned space flight there have been many more inventions and discoveries, so yes. I agree that he should partner some of that money with one of the billionaires currently funding their own space programs and if he wants to ride along on a manned mission, more power to him. I wish he would take the Resident with him.

  109. 109.

    Uncle Cosmo

    January 30, 2019 at 8:11 pm

    @germy: I have been telling people for years now: Anyone whoruns for office & causes sufficient causes electoral difficulties for a suitably unprincipled opponent (which if we’re talking GOP is nearly all of them) had best be prepared to deal with being smeared via CGI – their face &/or voice spliced into a video (or audio) that’s embarrassing &/or damaging &/or disgusting &/or illegal &/or obscene & released untraceably onto the Internet in the closing days of the campaign. The technology is almost here (if not here already) to do that fast, relatively cheaply, & all but undetectably – & with the Wingnut Wurlitzer braying at 170 db it could cause not just the loss of the election but the loss of the victim’s reputation until & unless the hoax is exposed.

  110. 110.

    The Lodger

    January 30, 2019 at 8:49 pm

    @cope: was nt Fla Poly the college with the collapsing pedestrian bridge?

  111. 111.

    cope

    January 30, 2019 at 9:05 pm

    @The Lodger: That was FIU down Miami way. Florida Polytechnic is between Orlando and Tampa.

  112. 112.

    Gravenstone

    January 30, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    @opiejeanne: There’s an old Heinlen short story called “Spin Offs”. In it he basically outlines all the medical advances that arose from the Moon landing initiative that were applied to him after he suffered a TIA. So yes, the manned space program has borne a great deal of fruit.

  113. 113.

    Kayla Rudbek

    January 30, 2019 at 10:41 pm

    @germy: it’s scary to see things discussed at Charles Stross’ blog now coming over here

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