Everything the Shitgibbon touches turns to…well, merde:
Late last year, in a Miami conference room, a consultant for President Trump’s company said business at his prized 643-room Doral resort was in sharp decline.
At Doral, which Trump has listed in federal disclosures as his biggest moneymaker hotel, room rates, banquets, golf and overall revenue were all down since 2015. In two years, the resort’s net operating income — a key figure, representing the amount left over after expenses are paid — had fallen by 69 percent.
But what about that Trump economic boom? Alas:
Even in a vigorous economy, the property was missing the Trump Organization’s internal business targets; for instance, the club expected to take in $85 million in revenue in 2017 but took in just $75 million.
And what could be the reason that a venerable, once-much-admired, landmark property would do so poorly?
“They are severely underperforming” other resorts in the area, tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak told a Miami-Dade County official in a bid to lower the property’s tax bill. The reason, she said: “There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand.”
I have never met Ms. Vachiratevarunak, but I already admire her greatly. That last line? Olympic-level shade.
The WaPo article linked above is full of similar delights:
On one recent weekday in Miami, the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort and Spa — a top competitor of Doral’s — was bustling with families eating dinner and children playing in the pool.
A few miles away, Trump’s Doral was shining, spotless and heavily branded. The Trump name was on chocolate bars ($5) and shot glasses ($10), and even on the paper inserts at the bottom of the bathroom wastebaskets.
But it was also much quieter.
Carl Goldstein — a retired butcher, visiting as part of a Passover tour group — had the lobby almost to himself.
It turns out that racism and viciousness drive away sponsors and guests? Whodathunkit?
TL:DR Incompetent grifter’s grift cracks.
This thread…it is open.
Image: Jan Steen, Dancing Peasants at an Inn, 1646
Jerzy Russian
Yes, there are negative connotations associated with that brand in the same way that there some air quality issues associated with large feedlots. Also, both produce the same product in the end.
ThresherK
The Trump name was “even on the paper inserts at the bottom of the bathroom wastebaskets”.
But was it stamped on the urinal cakes?
JaySinWA
They are just keeping out the riff raff. Wouldn’t want to associate with Those people.
Eural Joiner
Open thread?
How about that Game of Thrones, amirite?
I kid, I kid :)
cain
He’s going to blame black people for it and ratchet up the hate.
MelissaM
@ThresherK: You mean urinal tortes.
RandomMonster
I would pay money for Trump-shaped urinal cakes. But not to Trump.
MelissaM
If he was a smart businessman, he’s rebrand, get his name off, pull a Phillip Morris. But as we and the Russians know all too well, he’s not smart a’tall.
patrick II
So, a bunch of empty rooms at Donald’s country clubs, and a bunch of farmers who voted for Trump about to go bankrupt, lose their farms who will need a place to stay. Could work out.
Ruckus
@JaySinWA:
Well they’ve kept me out, I don’t want to associate with those people.
Nicole
Someone on Twitter compiled when the Democratic candidates responded to news of the Alabama abortion ban yesterday:
“As of 1:51am ET, 2020 Dem candidates who responded to Alabama:
Gillibrand (3:28pm)
Williamson (4:46pm)
Inslee (8:33pm)
Booker (9:55pm)
Sanders (10:15pm)
Swalwell (10:25pm)
Harris (10:27pm)
Castro (10:56pm)
Warren (10:59pm)
Ryan (11:17pm)
O’Rourke (11:26pm)
Hickenlooper (11:53pm)
Klobuchar (1:01am)”
(I edited to include Hickenlooper, whom she missed) No Biden or Mayor Pete by the end of the day, although someone said in the comments Biden said something this morning.
https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1128538659303641088
danielx
@ThresherK:
Inquiring minds want to know: is Trump toilet paper available, preferably with his picture on each sheet?
satby
This post sparks deep joy.
Into the keep pile it goes.
TenguPhule
Because every day in every way, our national discourse descends.
BC in Illinois
? Schadenfreude Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium . . . ?
By Fred Schiller
Orchestrated by Lou Beethoven
TenguPhule
@RandomMonster:
Three hundred fifty pounds of urinal cake is a bit much.
TenguPhule
@danielx:
But then he’d be looking at you while you’re exposed.
TenguPhule
Fuck em. RAISE HIS TAXES.
Martin
AB 59 is up today in CA. Expanded voting access for students:
Quite a few of the UCs are polling places, usually offering early voting and allowing students to vote in any district. But that is uneven across the state. Some CSUs but I understand that’s less common because there are fewer administrators to implement it. I can’t imagine this won’t pass.
satby
@Nicole: found this at Elle, though it predates Alabama’s law:
Source
trollhattan
Our friends at NPR this morning gave the Missouri governor extended minutes to tell us how awesome Trump’s hissyfight with China is, and assures all it will totally help farmers, they just have to be patient, see? because Trump really knows what he’s doing and those darn Chinese who have long needed a stern talking to so they don’t be cheating us in the long haul. And also, too, he totally Gets It because you see, he’s a farmer, his own self!
Hook, meet line and sinker. Sinker, you know what to do.
BC in Illinois
@danielx:
Oh, yes – – but it can cause problems.
Portions of Market Street in downtown St Louis were closed down for three hours yesterday, when a suspicious package, “heavily taped,” arrived at KSDK TV studios, addressed to Claire McCaskill. As “5 on your Side” news reported,
Former Sen. McCaskill said,
But sales of Trump toilet paper — which had bottomed out — went up.
Martin
@Nicole: Harris made statements before the vote as well. She’s great on the issue, and not afraid of pushing hard because of the success we’ve seen in CA.
This was also news to me:
rikyrah
I told you that the case I posted a week or two ago about the child being DNA tested from gay parents was not going to be isolated, but was a test case???
The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) Tweeted:
Children of LGBT U.S. citizens may be stripped of their birthright citizenship due to a policy that de-recognizes their parents’ marriage https://t.co/9uS7C7FFho https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1128621053431955456?s=17
TenguPhule
No ‘do-over’ on Mueller probe, White House lawyer tells House panel, saying demands for records, staff testimony will be refused
Because they don’t want them to even see the full report the first time.
IANAL but they really are just stalling and refusing based on fast talking bullshit.
catclub
Does anyone know what a more accurate version of the bold text would be? That ‘infiltrate all devices on the network’ would mean all devices on the internet. I hope that is not what they meant. ‘All devices on the Cisco Router’s subnet’ perhaps?
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) Tweeted:
The Wisconsin Republican Party’s finances are in bad shape after going all in for Scott Walker, who lost. The state GOP has been racking up $600 a month in interest on a maxed-out credit card.
https://t.co/u38jbs0dlb https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1128699170087424001?s=17
Brent Wilson
I work as a programmer in the event industry and the client running the event often has to put up a bunch of vendors like myself in hotels in order to support their event. There was concern at one event a few weeks ago that there might not be enough room at the hotel where the event was held to house all vendors so alternatives were presented and a nearby Trump hotel was floated as an option for the overflow. I, along with apparently a bunch of other vendors, made it very clear that I was NOT going to be accommodated at a Trump property and if it came to it I would make my own arrangements even if that involved significant inconvenience (which it was likely to). Not surprisingly the Trump hotel was dropped from the list of alternatives that week.
Ruckus
@danielx:
He’s more than a thousand miles away, and even the thought of a picture of him that close to a private part is more than close enough.
schrodingers_cat
@Nicole: Well its understandable, the mayor may be busy preparing for his interview with the classic liberal Rubin.
Charming fellow, from his wikipedia page
More at his wiki page
catclub
@TenguPhule: Recommend they sell the place at a loss and pay their damn tax bill.
R-Jud
From the WaPo article up top:
“Perceived threat of gun violence”? Whatever could this mean?! /s
ET
I know that she had does ask, but she does have some brass ones. She was asking for a lower assessment because the owner of the property has such a toxic brand they aren’t making enough. Really?
Mike in NC
Might prefer to eat a urinal cake than pay five bucks for a frickin’ chocolate bar with Fat Bastard’s logo on it.
RandomMonster
@TenguPhule: At least it would be a big target. For those men with aiming challenges.
Geeno
@catclub: I think it’s all devices physically attached to that router, but then you break into them and just keep chugging upstream. Conceivably, you could get to any device you wanted.
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@rikyrah: Did you see the reports what T wanted Nielsen and ICE head to do? I am truly not interested in candidates playing footsie with those who want to see people like me dead.
TenguPhule
Good news in Kay’s woods.
The Republican bid to win the pro-rape vote appears on track to succeed.
TenguPhule
FYWP is now in effect.
Posts being gobbled.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully):
But, do we really believe them?
This is what ICE has been doing.
rikyrah
@R-Jud:
The building is in muthaphuckin DOWNTOWN Chicago….
There is no danger.??
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully): Mass arrests of families, to show how “tough” ICE is.
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@rikyrah: They said no because of logistical difficulties not because of moral objections. So it doesn’t really exonerate them in my eyes.
ETA I replied to your comment on my blog.
Jager
About 6 weeks after trump debuted his line of men’s clothing, it was available at Marshalls and other discounters.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Confirmed by 17 other DHS officials who were there, apparently. Right out of the Nazi playbook.
rikyrah
Robert Costa (@costareports) Tweeted:
An unusual group on Air Force Two today: Vice President, Senate Majority Leader, and Chief Justice all on the plane. Rare to have that trio together, particularly on a flight. https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1128702163495137281?s=17
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully): And the only reason there were logistical problems is because they were required to take the prisoners alive and undamaged.
Doug R
@MelissaM:
The “brand” is ALL he’s got. Best to sell at a loss.
Nicole
@schrodingers_cat: I check the link (as I had no idea who he was). That guy sounds like a real charmer.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Proof that there truly is no god. Since they all survived safely.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully):
They have no morals…that is obvious?
R-Jud
@rikyrah: Seriously! What a crock of racist-dog whistle horeseshit.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Nobody read my thoughts re. that scenario, ya hear?
SFAW
@trollhattan:
After I said “shut the FUCK UP, you fucking liar” for the second, or maybe third time, I shut it off. I waited about 45-60 seconds, turned it back on, heard his disgusting voice, shut it off again. Waited ANOTHER 45-60 seconds, turn on, hear voice, turn off (plus a “shut THE FUCK UP, YOU FUCKING LIAR!” of course)
Fucking NPR, i really used to like them, but with their stupid fucking Cletus safaris, even MY legendary* patience is wearing thin. I was going to call them up and tell them to just read a FTFTFNYT story on-air, it’ll save money.
*”legendary” = “instantaneously goes from cool and calm, to ready to reach through the radio to strangle some motherfucker who desperately needs it, right-fucking-NOW”
Cacti
@schrodingers_cat:
Mayor McCheese is firmly in the “fascists need hugs” school of political philosophy.
Eural Joiner
So…the GOP base is just screaming for a totalitarian dictatorship now. From Josh M. at TPM:
“In other words, from both sides of the equation, they argue that Congress has no oversight role at all.”
Pretty much the entire basis of the Federalist, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the oversight and restriction of a too powerful and abusive government. Yet, the modern GOP can’t get there fast enough. Traitors. Every. Last. One. of. them.
waysel
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully): I really like your new nym.
Gelfling 545
@danielx: Actually I believe I saw some advertised around last Christmas.
KSinMA
@trollhattan: Yeah, that was touching, wasn’t it?
trollhattan
@SFAW:
I shall acquire this nugged from that epic rant.
I don’t yell at the radio often, but the spouse does daily, hourly and sometimes forces switching it off entirely. Swear to bog she’s taking her pent-up Trump hatred into traffic, where she now yells at everybody while speeding, herself. The darts don’t seem to help.
TenguPhule
@Eural Joiner: Gonna need a lot more tumbrels before all of this is over.
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah:
You beat me to it.
( Its part of his BS about Chicago being a war zone.)
trollhattan
@BC in Illinois:
Somebody’s taking time to threaten a former senator? What in the actual fig is that supposed to accomplish?
PST
@R-Jud:
I’m looking at Trump Tower as I eat my lunch on a lovely May Chicago afternoon in the most crowded, touristy part of the city. People with suitcases are everywhere. No one perceives a danger of gun violence around here. The trouble with Trump Tower as a hotel is that it is absurdly expensive. It always has been. I’ve never talked to a single business or pleasure traveler who has stayed there. Trump doesn’t care if an excuse is plausible. Like all narcissists, he doesn’t care if you believe him.
Hitlesswonder
@SFAW: Yesterday, they had some journalist from Russian media outlet who explained Russian opposition to regime change in Venezuela as belief that nations should not interfere with internal issues in other nations. There was no pushback from the npr interviewer…either with regard to the us elections or more on point, with regard to Russian control of Venezuelan oil assets under the current government. It was lamentably poor journalism and I’m not sure why.
TenguPhule
Oh bullshit, they’ll charge the women with first degree homicide. They just won’t charge them under *this* felony.
Cacti
@Eural Joiner:
Nowadays, they’re arguing that Congress has no oversight authority, and that Judges have no authority to enjoin enforcement of illegal or unconstitutional executive orders.
We’re in the middle of a soft coup attempt against 232 years of checks and balances.
Barbara
@Martin: Term limits are hard, I believe, because of constitutional issues, whereas number is not fixed.
Here is my idea, one that occurred to me because it is compatible with what is being done now in the other levels of federal courts: when a justice turns 70, appoint another justice as his or her replacement, and let them both serve as justices. The number of justices will not be fixed, but will never be greater than 18 (and you can make that clear as well). In addition to ensuring “new blood,” it will limit (not entirely eliminate) the ability of sitting justices to “time” their retirement so that a specific administration has the right to replace them.
Baud
@Barbara:
I believe that was FDR’s idea almost exactly.
Gravenstone
@R-Jud: It means that you take your life into your own hands to even enter the Chicago area. What, with all the violent gun battles on every street corner and shit. It’s that bad. //
It’s a politely worded racist dog whistle that some angry young man of color will shoot whitey the first chance he gets.
Mnemosyne
@PST:
I had drinks there a couple of times. The staff was rude the second time and I’m not really interested in going back.
Cacti
@Barbara:
Yeah, term limits and limiting a POTUS’s number of appointments would both require a Constitutional amendment and are pipe dreams at this point.
However, the size of SCOTUS, and the number and size of appellate circuits and federal districts merely requires congress changing the Federal Judiciary Act.
Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog
@Hitlesswonder:
“It’s NPR: poor fools who just don’t know any better” seems implausible. It’s this way because this is the way they want it.
rikyrah
Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) Tweeted:
This seems worrisome.
An American official is now leaking to the NYT that the intelligence does *not* merit the current war planning against Iran, and says the Trump administration is actively working to draw Iran into war:
https://t.co/sjl1rUWzo7 https://t.co/kqhVUk8e1F https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1128607664722841602?s=17
Kent
I can’t imagine how Trump’s brand is going to ever get better once his is out of office too. At this point he still gets some traffic from the true believers and all the businesses and foreign governments who want to suck up and have influence. Once he is an ex-president all those folks are going to disappear too. While everyone else will still avoid anything Trump like the plague.
I gotta imagine they will slowly and quietly re-brand a bunch of these properties once he is out of office. Just to keep the profits coming in. Because the name is just too toxic.
R-Jud
@Gravenstone: It is true! I feared for my very life the entire 6 years I lived there. Which is why I cried when I left–out of sheer relief! //
Leto
Speaking of grifters grifting:
As Leaks Show Lavish NRA Spending, Former Staff Detail Poor Conditions At Nonprofit
I know that part of this was covered last week but there’s more financial information here. On the one hand, this is typical rat fuckery seen at any company determined to fuck it’s employees out of just compensation. On the other, they’re part of the cult of Moloch. Fuck’em.
Gammyjill
I live in a suburb of Chicago. I think Trump Tower is one of the most gorgeous buildings in a city just loaded with gorgeous buildings. I’ve never been inside and certainly won’t til those five awful letters are taken off the building. It’s located on the north side of the river near Michigan Avenue and that’s one of the safest areas in the city. Also, I think that the building isn’t owned by Trump, but rather, they pay to use the name. They should get rid of it.
catclub
@SFAW:
patience of a saint, i tells ya.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
I think Iran will find a way to decline Trump’s invitation to the shooting match. Iran’s rulers are saner than America’s and less keen on such things.
trollhattan
Drew Magary, who is funnier than any sports writer deserves to be, details why Elizabeth Warren is awesome far better than I could. I do believe the man has a new gig (new to me at least). An excerpt.
catclub
@TenguPhule:
That will change when there are no abortion providers left and women learn to perform the procedure on themselves.
THEN the women will finally be considered to have agency.
khead
@TenguPhule:
Nope. The GOP is still too chicken shit to go there. If the GOP really wanted to put their money where their mouth is the charges would be first degree murder for the doctor and mother. But I had people lining up to tell me they wish WV would charge both of them in a FB thread this weekend. Trust me. It’s just the GOP isn’t quite ready to go there. Yet. There may still be a few GOP folks who realize the backlash that would happen.
SFAW
@catclub:
WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BY THAT???!!?!?!?!?!
Oh, wait …
I meant to say “Why, thank you! How kind of you to say that!”
And thanks for the post-comma phrasing.
Barbara
@Cacti: Right, and my idea isn’t even to change the core number of 9, but to make provision for “replacement” justices in advance of the departure of a sitting justice after he or she attains a specific age. That’s what we do now for appellate judges.
tobie
I just wanted to remind folks: With everything going on with abortion laws in Georgia, Ohio, and Alabama, Planned Parenthood and NARAL could really use some donations. Here are links to Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
L85NJGT
Well, as far as I understand, under the logic of MAGA, they need to demolish Trump tower and restore the Sun-Times print plant. They should also return Navy Pier to a break bulk facility and the river to a toxic shit ditch.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
I wish I could claim to be its original author, but, alas, “Cletus safari” was something I think I picked up here, last year. Betty Cracker? Anne Laurie? One of the jackals? I can’t recall.
SFAW
@L85NJGT:
No such thing exists
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Cacti: Oh don’t worry, come 2021 if there is a Democrat as president the GOP will find their sacred love for the constitution again.
Nicole
@trollhattan: I like Magary a lot; thanks for posting this. He’s writing just as sharply as he did before the brain hemorrhage (that’s not humor; he really did suffer one last year).
L85NJGT
@Amir Khalid:
The Iranians will win. The US is barreling toward a Suez type crisis, with a permanent loss of global influence and power as a likely outcome.
raven
@JaySinWA: Hooray for the Riff Raff!
Chyron HR
Nice.
Baud
@rikyrah:
I’m not an American official and I could have told you that.
Kathleen
@Cacti: Yhe first overt shot fired in the coup was when Snowald stole NSA docs and spirited them to Russia. I still have receipts on those who hailed Snowald as heroes. I’ve not forgotten.
tobie
@trollhattan: The question from the start has been how progressive debt forgiveness for student loans is. David Leonhardt had a balanced take, saw much virtue in Warren’s proposal but was still skeptical about this provision. Catherine Rampell and the Brookings Institute were far more critical, noting that it is in fact upper-income earners who acquire the most student debt and debt relief would lead to a transfer of wealth from the poor to the middle class and wealthy. I personally like the idea of limiting student debt to a certain percentage of income and canceling it 10 years after graduation.
Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Yup,
And people are misreading the “signals”.
Pulling “non-essential staff” from Iraq, is not a signal that War is near. It’s to shutdown a host of aid, support and advise programs in Iraq, to punish Iraq for telling Pompeo and Bolton to fuck off.
trollhattan
@Nicole:
Wow, did not know that. I hope he fully recovers, we need that brain at work!
“Why your team sucks” is one of the best continuing series, ever.
Barbara
@Jay: I hope you are right. I mean, that is still a harsh tactic, but I assume that it’s showing Iraq what the punishment will be if they are no longer willing to act like a U.S. colony.
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen: Careful, those receipts will get you labelled, a hectoring bully!@Baud: Some people need the bleeding obvious to spelled out in all caps.
trollhattan
@tobie:
Doubtless, once you get into the weedpatch of policy-budgets-recipients it gets quite complicated. I don’t know much at all about the issue structurally, more that the massive debt is a drag on an entire generation and is keeping worthy people out of college entirely, but am willing to declare: “Do the opposite of whatever DeVos is doing” as my initial negotiating package.
schrodingers_cat
@L85NJGT: Our Suez and Panipat was the election of T.
Barbara
@tobie: I have also seen other analyses that provided ideas on how to make it more progressive, which I assume Warren would be open to. But really, rewriting the bankruptcy code so that student debt can be discharged in bankruptcy under specific conditions after a certain period of time has passed if the debtor is otherwise qualified to discharge their debts, would go a long way to alleviating the most acute distress in this area.
tobie
@Barbara: Amen to the idea of rewriting the bankruptcy code to include student loans! It’s criminal that you can discharge any debt but student debt in bankruptcy. I didn’t realize until a thread a few weeks ago here that the bankruptcy exception was introduced into law in 1998. I need to look up the history on that.
scuffletuffle
@satby: Yes, I just saw some this past weekend.
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@Amir Khalid: Iranians beard are more sensible than the Walrus stache of doom. That’s a comforting thought! Not.
rikyrah
Be the last time they protest anything ??
Don’t start none. Won’t be none.: Ancient African -American proverb
https://twitter.com/blackgirlinmain/status/1128738053315493895
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@waysel: Thanks, it was conferred on me. I decided to humbly accept and add it to my nym.
Another Scott
@Barbara: Sounds interesting, but the phase-in would be, er, difficult:
Clarence Thomas 6/23/1948 Age: 70 yr 10 mo George H. W. Bush 10/23/1991 Served: 27 yr 6 mo
Ruth Bader Ginsburg 3/15/1933 Age: 86 yr 2 mo Bill Clinton 8/19/1993 Served: 25 yr 8 mo
Stephen Breyer 8/15/1938 Age: 80 yr 9 mo Bill Clinton 8/3/1994 Served: 24 yr 9 mo
John G. Roberts 1/27/1955 Age: 64 yr 3 mo George W. Bush 9/29/2005 Served: 13 yr 7 mo
Samuel A. Alito, Jr. 4/1/1950 Age: 69 yr 1 mo George W. Bush 1/31/2006 Served: 13 yr 3 mo
Sonia Sotomayor 6/25/1954 Age: 64 yr 10 mo Barack Obama 8/8/2009 Served: 9 yr 9 mo
Elena Kagan 4/28/1960 Age: 59 yr 0 mo Barack Obama 8/7/2010 Served: 8 yr 9 mo
Neil McGill Gorsuch 8/29/1967 Age: 51 yr 8 mo Donald John Trump 4/10/2017 Served: 2 yr 1 mo
Brett Michael Kavanaugh 2/12/1965 Age: 54 yr 3 mo Donald John Trump 10/6/2018 Served: 0 yr 7 mo
So, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, and probably Alito would quickly get understudies. And 5/4 decisions could become 9/4 or 5/8 depending on who was President (and who controlled the Senate) when this started. It could make things much better, or much, much worse. :-(
It’s good to be talking about this!
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@SFAW:
I quit fucking NPR cold turkey close to 4 years ago. Best thing I ever did. I’d stopped giving them money a decade prior.
News should inform, not enrage. I get more pissed off at how stuff is reported by the feckless, corporate media (of which NPR is a card carrying member) than I do at what the modern GOP does.
rikyrah
???
Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) Tweeted:
Immigrants serving in the U.S. military are being denied citizenship at a higher rate than foreign-born civilians https://t.co/kxMRSNQWy6 https://twitter.com/VeraMBergen/status/1128731989002149888?s=17
Jay
@Barbara:
They’ve never acted like a US Colony.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@L85NJGT:
Eh, nothing’s truly permanent. The GOP are the real problem, everybody knows that. Get rid of them and the problem’s solved
tobie
@trollhattan: DeVos is the worst and it’s true that she’s been cruel to student borrowers while promoting the interests of for-profit, online colleges that gouge their students who end up dropping out at alarming rates.
Jay
“
Senator Bob Menendez
✔
@SenatorMenendez
“You’ll have to ask Russia,” is a pretty incredible response from a Senior @StateDept official about the Trump Administration’s views on #Russia’s nuclear capabilities.⁰⁰
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee needs answers so we can make informed policy decisions.”
1,299
10:20 AM – May 15, 2019
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-imperial-presidency-in-full-effect.html?m=1
Another Scott
@Barbara: Ah, then I misunderstood you in my reply at #110.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jay:
Sounds like a very pithy, snarky remark by someone who feels useless and sidelined in their job
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@rikyrah: They shut down the USCIS offices on bases a while ago when Mattis was in charge of defense.
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Nope. It’s insitutional.
Until you guys clear out all the rot you will remain one election away from the inmates being back in charge of the asylum.
Cacti
@Kathleen:
As others have noted, pointing out the gullibility/stupidity of certain prominent BJ denizens on that issue is considered bad form…usually by the people who were wrong and their lackeys.
As for the soft coup that’s going on, if we ever have another election where fascists gain control of all 3 branches of government, it will likely be the last one ever held in the former Republic.
Villago Delenda Est
@Barbara: All this does is drive them into the arms of Iran.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
A serious question: does stating the obvious count as leaking?
Immanentize
@Barbara: Here’s another idea — work the Sup CT. like Fed App courts. Have justices sit in rotating panels of 3? 5? with CT. Of Appeals Judges sitting by designation occasionally. Then, if an issue is not adequately decided by the panel, let the 9 justices sit en banc in those matters. This would prevent the Court from doing what it is currently doing — bypassing lower court decisions by the Fed. Appellate Courts.
Cacti
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully):
So, when did you become a Hectoring Bully? Did it have something to do with Mayor McCheese?
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The perception that America’s leadership is capable of ideological bias, venality, and gross stupidity will take decades to live down. Over seven decades after WWII, there are still people who worry about Germany’s and Japan’s intentions.
Brachiator
@tobie:
I guess I can see that student debt relief would lead to a transfer of wealth from the poor to the middle class and wealthy, but I think that more lower income and middle class people would benefit, and this might be better overall.
However, in many ways, I think I am not hot to forgive student loans. People get hit by all kinds of debt. Where’s the break for them? In any event, I would not make debt relief automatic, but tie it to some kind of national service. I would focus more on poverty relief, pouring money into public schools and moving towards a universal basic income. Yeah, that costs money, too.
However, I have no problem with using the promise of student debt relief as a carrot to get more young people to the polls.
ETA: Coming back to one of the original topics of this thread:
Oh, yeah, I definitely got that Schadenfreude feeling!
Immanentize
@raven: Really nice. Thanks
Cacti
@Amir Khalid:
I’d say that their fears with Japan are more well-founded, as there is a cultural current in Japan that considers the country a victim of WWII, rather than one of its primary belligerents.
Much like our own confederate states, lost cause revanchists.
Barb 2
That is such good news!!!!!!!!!
Trump properties not doing well! May he go bankrupt – and soon. Number 7 is a lucky number – perhaps part of his prisoner’s I’D as well?
Immanentize
@Barbara:
If corporations are people, arent special corporate provisions (like chapter 11) just an equal protection violation?
Jay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Iran is their ally and a neighbor, but they are not in Iran’s arms and never will be.
Barbara
@tobie: No, it was prior to 1998. It was definitely in place at least a decade before that because it came up when I was working for a judge.
Kay
@Barb 2:
They lie constantly though, the Trumps. Who knows if it’s up or down? The “up” part was probably invented. To me they may as well just insert random numbers.
Ruckus
@PST:
He cares if you believe him. Cause then he’s hooked another sucker.
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@Cacti: Indeed. It was day before yesterday, one of the morning threads. I took a short break from Balloon Juice and decided to own the compliment on my return.
Barbara
@Immanentize: That would also work. Conflicts would need to be resolved by the court as a whole as well.
Nicole
@trollhattan: I don’t watch football, but I never miss his “why your team sucks” columns. You’re right, they are hilarious. Years ago he did a series of why your child’s favorite TV show sucks, and the one for Dora the explorer was one of the funniest things I ever read.
Kay
Trump said his approval was at 50%. So his real approval is a decline. But not really.
You can’t start with his information.
Kay
@Gammyjill:
Because of course it’s not.
Ruckus
@L85NJGT:
Oh you can be sure they are working on that. In the back of some shithead’s tiny little nonfunctional excuse for a mind that’s plan C, in case they can’t get A or B past the pitchforks and pikes.
tobie
@Barbara: This table places the exception for forgiving student loan debts at 1998 but it may well be too general to be useful. Still, the fact that student loans can’t be cancelled in bankruptcy proceedings is crazy.
@Brachiator: The point that both the Leonhard and the Brookings Institute pieces that I linked to are making is that there are other, more progressive and more effective ways of making college affordable for lower income and middle income students than blanket debt forgiveness. Progressive groups like the Urban League have been opposed to blanket debt forgiveness for student loans for some time because of it’s perceived regressive nature.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully):
Makes it a lot more difficult to give you crap, you having acknowledged/owned the title. I likey.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: @schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully): I hold no brief for Buttigieg, but I have to say people have gone off the deep end against him when they make puerile, homophobic jokes about his last name or argue without evidence and as though it means something that Harris speaks better French and Tamil than Buttigieg speaks Norwegian.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I’m happy to forgive student loan debt for, say, doctors who agree to do primary care in underserved areas for 5 years, or school teachers, or nurses. I would even throw in science students who want to do primary research.
Business students, not so much.
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
@Omnes Omnibus: This particular commenter has wanted me to shut the fuck up even before Buttgieg was on the scene.
As for language skills of the two candidates you mentioned it was a guess, I have no evidence. I don’t particularly care who can speak what language. I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of the media coverage.
Amir Khalid
@Cacti:
Which doesn’t really affect my point.
Barbara
@tobie: Some enterprising indebted medical graduates declared bankruptcy immediately upon graduation, got a federal judge to endorse their position and basically spurred Congress to radically overreact by not allowing forgiveness under nearly any circumstance. It happened in the mid-80s. Seriously, we had to review cases asking for forgiveness, and this was way before 1998.
satby
Since you’re talking about me I’m going to point out that’s a completely untrue statement. Prove it with a link to me saying that.
But her emails!!!
@tobie:
1. I’m fairly certain that Warren would be open to suggestions which would her student loan forgiveness package more progressive.
2. I believe there ready is an income component built into her proposal. Something along the lines of forgiveness being reduced by x dollars for every y dollars in income.
3. The funding mechanism she has proposed is a wealth tax so it won’t be a direct transfer from the poor and middle class to the well to do, although one can argue that the money raised from a wealth tax would be better spent on the poor and middle class.
4. Warren’s plan is also probably aimed at creating more college graduates, particularly among demographics where access to loans or cost would be a problem, so it’s as much an investment in human capital as it is a hand out.
Barbara
@Another Scott: Not understudies. You don’t understand. They would be justices, there would just be more of them. The main thing is that there would be more turnover, more dynamism overall, which is what you have in the rest of the federal judiciary.
schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully)
Bol ke lab azad hai tere
Bol jubaan ab tak teri hai
Speak your lips are still free
Speak till your tongue is still yours
-Faiz
But her emails!!!
@Mnemosyne:
How do you address the issue that such policy basically reinforces business as the exclusive domain of the scions of the wealthy?
Mart
Read today that the Red Hen restaurant has been making big $$$ bank since they politely asked Ms. Sanders to leave, as the workers did not care for her burnt ash eyebrow shading. Conservatives expected it to go broke.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thank you for the perspective of the unctuous, self-appointed hall monitors.
Omnes Omnibus
@But her emails!!!: What about English majors, music majors, and anthropology majors? Is the only value in a degree that provide an immediate benefit? That anthro degree could help someone be a good diplomat someday.
tobie
@Barbara: I’m no expert on this so I could well be wrong. Thanks for letting me know from your own firsthand experience.
@But her emails!!!: I share goal number 4. I just think Warren’s proposal for getting there is not the best. Whether the wealth tax will generate the revenue she promises is another issue but maybe less important since if we are fortunate enough to retake the Senate and win the White House the entire tax code in this country is going to have to be revised.
Wapiti
So if someone owns, say, a golf course, and in the interest of making a little side money converts the water features to hog sewage lagoons, and stores raw steer manure where the sand traps used to be… Can he get a break on his property tax bill if people don’t flock to the course.? Asking for
a friendsomeone else.lgerard
One of the things I learned from the book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump is that despite trump’s grandiose claims not a single one of his courses is among the top 175 courses in the country’
They are so mundane and boring that Reilly describes them as “baloney sandwiches”.
tobie
We’ve got a new national emergency according to the Washington Post:
Today was not the day to quit sniffing glue.
lgerard
@Wapiti:
trump keeps a few goats in a small patch of his course in NJ and gets an $80,000 tax break for doing so, so yes
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve already been labelled a “whiner” (a badge I wear with pride), and I would be delighted to join you in the 2019 freshman class of Hectoring Bullies! Boo Yah!!!!!
I don’t remember the jackals who supported Snowald because I stopped reading BJ while that discussion was going on but I trust there were many.
Kathleen
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: May I sip a cold glass of iced tea with lemon while I sit next to you on the virtual couch?
Cacti
@Kathleen:
Pretty much every front pager. They really get bent out of shape when you bring it up.
Kathleen
@Cacti: As I replied to S_C, I quit reading BJ during that time and therefore don’t know/remember any specific individuals. I was thinking more of the blogs I did read for awhile then quit reading.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: Says the very one who complained about “negative nancies who insist Republicans are invincible”
Perhaps a little self-reflection is in order?
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus:
We’ll always need fast food cashiers. //s
TenguPhule
@tobie:
But it seems like a great day to start drinking.
Kay
@tobie:
The 2005 bankruptcy “reform” made private student loans non-dischargeable, which was utterly ridiculous. They shouldn’t be shielding private lenders from discharge! When they did that the private loans ballooned because why not? There’s no risk.
I like the bankruptcy route because I think work is work and we shouldn’t be valuing one job as more publicly desirable than another. Just measure debt to assets and ability to pay and leave it to bankruptcy courts. We don’t need to be deciding what people study.
The people who paid their loans won’t complain because we’ll be dinging the debtors with a bankruptcy, which seems to make it more fair. We already have an expert court and whole infrastructure to run it. They could have it up and running in 90 days.
Felanius Kootea
Not surprised. I received a deeply, deeply discounted offer for a Las Vegas stay at a Trump property co-branded with Hilton.
My husband and I laughed as I tore up the offer and threw the shredded remains in the recycling bin.
jonas
I’m not an accountant, but are Trump’s resorts *really* losing money, or is this just another of his well-known tax avoidance schemes — trying to get the property reassessed or something? With a privately held company, aren’t his profits/losses basically self-reported?
catclub
@Kay:
Just in case Joe Biden is popular with the young college crowd, bring up who was involved in the 2005 bankruptcy bill.
catclub
@Felanius Kootea: I would be tempted if I knew they were losing money on it. But that is not guaranteed.
see Jonas at 171.
Mnemosyne
@But her emails!!!:
Undergraduate business degrees are insanely overrated, and MBAs are just as bad, if not worse. They’re really just a signal to employers that you know how to follow orders and won’t ask uncomfortable questions about the ethics of the company’s business practices.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, but you literally give that impression all the time. I offer even extreme solutions to problems like getting the IRS to turn offer Trump’s tax records to Congress and you dismiss those out of hand. To you, we’re inevitably doomed to Republican-domination forever and ever amen it seems
jonas
@Felanius Kootea: To paraphrase a line from Dave Barry, I would stay in a Trump resort only if it were a demand made by people who had kidnapped one of my kids.
tobie
@Kay: Thank you! I knew someone here would know the history and the years of the important developments. It’s such a bizarre idea — that all debt is dischargeable but student loan debt. Would love to see that reversed.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat(HectoringBully):
Well, don’t let the Other Hectoring Bullies get you down!!! You’re too valuable at hectoring to be driven off by people without half your wit or edumacation. But there should be a space between _cat and (Hectoring like this:
Just good page makeup to fix that… or not, doesn’t matter much at all, would just look a little better in my artistic subconscious.
And I don’t think Ed Snowden was ever a hero… nor all that bright. After all, he got caught quickly, and then trapped in Moscow, of all places! Yuck…
Citizen Alan
@Barbara:
It’s different with appellate courts though because most cases are heard and ruled upon by a 3-person panel unless a full en ban hearing is requested and granted. I’m pretty sure that most SCOTUS cases have to be heard by all justices, absent recusals or other reasons not to participate.
I’m kinda attracted to the idea of just giving every president the right to appoint 1 justice at the start of their term and no more. Just let the number of Justices float otherwise.
PST
@Gammyjill: I’m with you on the beauty of Trump Tower here. I hate to say it, but some day the name will be gone and we will still have a handsome landmark.
Citizen Alan
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
While I agree with this in principle, work on the disintegrator ray has been slow.
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
They already have that break. It’s called bankruptcy. Other than child support, alimony, and taxes, student loans are the only debts that are per se nondischargeable. Even a debt you owe on a judgment for a lawsuit arising from an intentional tort or from fraud is only nondischargeable if the creditor proactively files a bankruptcy action to get it declared as such.
J R in WV
@tobie:
No, because no day is the day to begin sniffing glue. One of the worst accidents I saw while in the Navy was when a 5 gallon bucket of alcohol-based paint, a primer intended to dry very quickly, was dropped several decks and blew out in the paint locker way deep in the ship.
There were a couple or three sailors down in the paint locker fetching buckets of primer and hooking them to a rope, while others of us pulled the 50+ pounds of pain up from the paint locker to the forecastle with that rope over a pulley.
The bail on the bucket failed, it fell, that 5-gallon bucket of violent blue primer exploded in the paint locker, those sailors were covered in paint, and the air down there became toxic in an instant. They had to climb up a ladder something like 5 or 6 decks before they were overcome by those fumes.
Thankfully, they started their climb instantly, holding their breath until they were 15 or 20 feet above the worst of the fumes. Ventilation was rigged up to blow air into the pain locker, and to suck the fumes out of the paint locker.
But those shipmates were blue, blue! And getting the paint off them was something of a challenge too. No serious harm done, because no one was standing too close to the bottom of the shaft down to that paint locker.
My point here is to say that even joking about sniffing glue, or huffing any chemical fumes, is pretty much as horrific as joking about HIV or alcoholism. So thanks for listening. I’m just glad I was up top pulling on the rope instead of down in the paint locker hooking up the buckets to the rope!
ETA: My dad worked in the family print shop in the 1930s, when solvents like carbon tet and benzine were commonly used to clean presses. Then around the turn of the century he was diagnosed with a rare from of leukemia, believed to be caused by exposure to those solvents back in the day.
Rare because after exposure it took decades for the damage to become apparent, so you had to be young at first exposure to live long enough to get that form of leukemia.
Anyway.
Tl;DR: Solvent exposure is not a joke! I’m done now.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Dude, you wanted the Capital Police to somehow waltz into IRS headquarters and force Trump’s appointee to turn them over.
Kicking off an actual Civil War would be easier and more realistic then that.
Aleta
@J R in WV: speaking of paint and ventilation, here’s my family tale. My relative helped paint the town fire truck, closed up inside its shed or small building. They didn’t follow the ventilation warnings for the paint (some of the real men scoffed at that stuff as government interference in the lives of real men). The vapor alone caused partial blindness in my relative, which progressed to nearly full (and legal) blindness. One eye can see vague shadows now. I believe the toxic vapor damaged the optic nerves. Until then I had no idea that vapor alone, no physical contact, could do that.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
No, we’re doomed to face a Civil Breakdown where we determine whether one side can completely destroy the other. It will be violent, it will be ugly and it is fucking inevitable because the old rules, laws and norms no longer apply when it comes to Republicans and they’re stupid enough to keep flaunting it until the whole country breaks.
tobie
@J R in WV: I was quoting — or actually misquoting — from Airplane, one of the worst movies ever made! Anyhow, now that I’ve heard your Navy experience, I agree that this is no joking matter.
Didn’t you once say you grew up in or near Nitro, WV, where Agent Orange was developed? You’ve been exposed to way too many chemicals in life!
chopper
@J R in WV:
so what you’re saying is, sniffing glue is cool?
Aleta
@Aleta: I guess it could have been solvent but the story is the paint. Fire retardant maybe?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: At least I’m not a homophobic fuckwit.
Bill Arnold
@Cacti:
This is gilt bullshit from the Trump administration. Of the 3 branches of government, the executive branch has weakest claims to be able to legitimately define/circumscribe the scope and operations of the other two branches.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
How’s the view from Betty’s backside, counselor?