Hashtag of the weekend: #catglowup…
#CatGlowUp from a sickly kitten I found on a hike to this grrrls best friend who really doesn't enjoy outdoor recreation or the required accessories ? pic.twitter.com/PyaoHTzVZU
— Meg (@queeriodicals) July 26, 2019
Retweet if yall think my boy Black Savage glo was LIT #CatGlowUp pic.twitter.com/E9DUS7PubC
— iAmMoshow – The Cat Rapper ™ (@iammoshow) July 27, 2019
#CatGlowUp bby Goku and Vegeta last summer and Goku and Vegeta now pic.twitter.com/hw3mHoeIVZ
— ?Elle ?Gato? Maruska ? (@ellle_em) July 26, 2019
(IMO, all kittens are adorable but tiny little black Siamese-cross babies — all bat ears, duckling fuzz & attitude — are The Best.)
***********
Speaking of soft, coddled household pets, here’s an update on the WH version…
This is a fabulous idea and I’m sure it will turn out as well as Jared’s other ventures. https://t.co/PQzQYxrRjL
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 27, 2019
After Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale decided he wanted to make the recruitment of donors a top strategy in President Trump’s 2020 reelection bid, his first conversation was with someone not officially employed by the campaign at all: Jared Kushner.
Parscale expected the effort to cost $20 million or more in this year alone, so he knew he had to get buy-in from Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser before moving forward.Kushner, 38, is the hidden hand of Trump’s 2020 campaign — rarely glimpsed in its Northern Virginia headquarters but signing off behind the scenes on everything from spending to digital initiatives to top-level hires.
He has asked Bill Stepien, a senior political adviser to the campaign, to provide him with a 10-year plan outlining how Republicans can win inner-city voters. He speaks daily — and often multiple times a day — with Parscale, and has recommended digital and media vendors for the campaign. Campaign aides who want to brief Trump often go through him. And when Kushner suggested that the campaign bring on Kayleigh McEnany as its national press secretary, Parscale made the hire.
Kushner, along with the rest of the Trump family, also receives a weekly report from the campaign about “everything we’ve done, every dollar we’ve raised, what staff have done, what every single division’s goals were that week and what they did and didn’t accomplish,” Parscale said.
Some allies liken Kushner to a de facto campaign manager, saying his role in Trump’s reelection bid is akin to Karl Rove for President George W. Bush or James Baker for President George H.W. Bush. Some of his critics agree — but also say that Kushner lacks the political savvy of those two experienced hands, and that his position smacks of nepotism.
Kushner rejects the comparison, saying he trusts the judgment of Parscale — who in 2016 was the Trump campaign’s digital director — and has simply empowered him…
I interpret this to mean that hired hand Parscale has accepted that The Boss’s Son-in-Law must be given all the deference he expects. Also that Young Prince Jared, like many overpromoted nepotism hires, has dedicated himself to bean-counting and penny-pinching, in the belief that every other employee must be a grifter trying to skim some of the takings that rightfully belong to Big Daddy Smallhands. Neither of them are very bright, and it comforts me that they must find each other intensely irritating on a daily basis…
… Kushner’s campaign duties are the latest in a mushrooming list of high-profile responsibilities, from working to fashion an immigration compromise on Capitol Hill to being tasked with attempting to deliver Middle East peace. Neither has had much success, making him a punchline among those in Washington skeptical of his portfolio and his abilities.
Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor, said that “Kushner’s unique status enables him to tinker with the campaign machinery at will.”
Stuart Stevens, a Republican strategist working with former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld in his long-shot bid for the GOP nomination, was more blunt.
“I see no reason to believe that he knows anything about politics,” Stevens said, noting that Kushner had believed that Trump’s 2017 firing of FBI Director James B. Comey was “a good move.”
“An entitled son-in-law that has power because who he is married to is not exactly new,” Stevens said. “How many businesses have been run into the ground with such a strategy?”
Within Trump’s orbit, Kushner remains a deeply polarizing force. Nearly everyone has a strong opinion, viewing him either as a trusted conduit to the president with smart ideas or as an entitled, calculating princeling protected by his familial status. Even some allies say privately that he sometimes overstates his role and that they don’t always agree with his ideas…
Kushner’s expansive descriptions of his 2016 campaign purview, including in testimony to Congress and to former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators, have rankled some. The claims have been particularly confounding to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who was the first woman to manage a winning presidential campaign after Trump named her to the post in August 2016, according to someone familiar with her views…
Kellyanne Conway may be a soulless monster, but she’s *not* stupid, and she is not forgiving, either. Imagine the scene come mid-2020, if / when she chooses to shiv this pisher in front of the whole world and their mutual employer! Especially in light of the white-shoed entitled (No)Brain Trust herewith assembled:
For 2020, the campaign structure is intentionally siloed, with Kushner and Parscale among a handful of officials with full visibility of its inner workings. Kushner has spoken with Rove about how to structure a presidential election campaign, and also speaks frequently with Nick Ayers, Vice President Pence’s former chief of staff; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.); and Ken Kurson, Kushner’s longtime friend who is a former aide to Rudolph W. Giuliani and was tapped to edit the New York Observer when Kushner was its publisher…
To paraphrase George V. Higgins, none of these guys could find their way out of an old-fashioned phone booth with the help of a guide dog and a GPS unit. Although their skills at toadying and suck-upery are celebrated!
On the other hand, the whole operation is looking more like a smash’n’grab job by the day:
Friends and associates say Kushner is especially interested in the digital side of the operation. He helped Republicans launch WinRed — a new fundraising platform for small-dollar donors intended to compete with the Democrats’ successful ActBlue effort — and has been working with Parscale to develop a Trump app that supporters can download on their phones and encourages increased engagement.
Kushner worked with Parscale to select and secure the campaign’s headquarters overlooking the Potomac River, weighs in on fundraising and budgets, and has worked to better integrate the campaign with the Republican National Committee — a major source of tension in 2016.
And so far the decision to spend money to recruit major donors — a strategy known as prospecting — seems to have paid dividends. Filings released Monday revealed that the campaign, the RNC and affiliated committees have raised at least $97 million over the past three months and had about $118 million on hand. This does not cover money raised by the RNC last month…
How much of that money, on both ends, will mysteriously leak away into a tangle of holding corporations and untraceable third-party billings?
And will the ever-authoritarian national GOP summon the intestinal fortitude to call in the forensic accountants before the Family Trump decamps en masse to Saudi Arabia or Monaco?
Sidebar: Maggie Haberman’s mom has been the Kushner family’s PR professional since Maggie was in (elite private) primary school, in case anyone’s wondering why she’s puffing a piece from the NYTimes‘s competitor so vigorously. Hey, it’s not like the corner-office suits would ever complain about such a conflict of interest, even were they able to understand the concept.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
Sending positive thoughts to Little Imma, Scotian , and all the rest of the BJ Jackal Family that need it.???
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Brachiator
I don’t hate the NY Times as much as some folk, but I’m getting there
What is this “many say” bullshit? Haberman is flaunting all the “very important people that I know, but that you don’t know” as part of a piece of insider gossip.
I thought that Haberman was supposed to be doing journalism. I really don’t need her recommending other stories I should be reading.
I love these Twitter responses:
ETA. I hate insomnia. Can’t get to sleep, but don’t really want to be up doing anything. Also it’s hot and muggy.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning!@rikyrah: seconded as always!
@OzarkHillbilly: ?
@Brachiator: I was awake at 3:30 and finally just got up a bit after 4. My alarm was going to ring at 5 but I clearly wasn’t going back to sleep. At least not in bed at home, but I’ll be fighting off sleep by 2pm if the farmers market is slow today. I hate that.
OzarkHillbilly
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond: UK on course for no-deal Brexit as Johnson rejects EU agreement
TASF
satby
There’s a new tiny porch kitty visiting the food I leave out for ferals. About 6-8 weeks old is my guess, but I can’t get close to tell for sure. No other small kittens have appeared, so I’m thinking it may be the sole survivor of a feral litter. He seems to have followed my older semi-feral here. I need to try to trap it, if I can we may be able to socialize him /her because it’s still so young.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I take some small comfort in the fact that my friends in the UK have stopped pointing and laughing at me on FB now that they have their own moron in #10.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: As a fellow sufferer I sympathize.
@satby: Embrace the siesta.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: 65 here again this morning!
NotMax
Howdy. Best thoughts for Scotian, Immp, Emma, et al.
Post-museum repast at “New York’s only Welsh eatery” yesterday. Side note for raven – one of the museum exhibits is a collection of a dozen or more costumes from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”
eclare
@rikyrah: Seconding the positive thoughts. Insomnia here too, ugh, I just couldn’t get the temp in the bedroom right. I may need a new window unit.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I encourage people to point and laugh at us, we deserve it. Now they do too.
eclare
@satby: Good luck with the kitty!
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Johnson must think he’s a mini-Trump. He has filled his cabinet with pro BREXIT ministers, and really believes that the EU is willing to give the UK whatever it wants. A couple of pundits who follow this believe that Johnson must have a backroom deal in place, because no one would be so stupid as to bet the entire British economy on an empty hand.
I don’t know. Maybe Boris is just that stupid.
He is also convinced that all of the Conservative ministers will stay loyal to him and the party even if he sticks with the no deal option.
He also seems to be setting things up to blame the EU if there is a no deal BREXIT and things get ugly.
He also seems to be trying to make the EU come up with an alternative to the Irish backstop.
This is the dumbest crap I’ve seen since, well, since Trump stood next to the fake seal.
Aleta
I wouldn’t even trust Kushner to feed a cat if if I was standing right there handing him a can and a can opener.
Brachiator
BTW
The Tories previously cut more than 21,000 police officers. So Johnson is bragging about essentially undoing a prior Tory screwup, and even here it’s not a full restoration.
Barbara
I love the hat with the kitty ears.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: We’re in the mid 60s too. I love the cool nights. Makes the getting up at 3:30 (or earlier) worthwhile. I make my coffee and take a cup out on the front porch where the boys and I will sit and listen to the symphony of night critters, everything from katydids to *whippoorwills* to barred owls to coyotes to things I’m not quite sure of.
**whippoorwills are quiet now tho every now and again one will add his voice to the chorus
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
I never realized valued commenter Goku was a cat.
Aleta
his “unique status enables him to tinker with the campaign machinery at will”
If it were soup or a cake the chef would strangle him, but a national campaign, sure, go for it. ‘We’ll take care of the tampering and the courts, you just tinker away and have yourself a good time Jarrey. Only young once, that’s right son’
Aleta
@Barbara: me too.
JPL
@Aleta: It’s such a sweet picture.
Baud
I don’t usually get into human interest stories, but this is fascinating.
Chris Johnson
@Brachiator: Word is, Boris’s total idiocy is at least in part an act. He’s not that kind of dumb.
He’s just not working for the UK. Much like Trump, he’s there to orchestrate a collapse for his true master.
Somewhere, Le Carre is yelling ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was not an instruction manual, you bastards!’
Aleta
Trump Blames White House Air Conditioning on Obama
THE AP July 26-7, 2019
Lies that could probably be easily disproved if anyone had time to locate and look through WH maintenance staff records for, say, thermostat setting and system performance. But increasing chaos = triage in addressing all the lies.
Baud
@Aleta:
Good on Obama.
JPL
@Aleta: Has he left for his golf course yet?
Raven
@NotMax: The Gal got Rattled!
Raven
@NotMax: She shouldn’t oughta done it!
SFAW
@Brachiator:
OK, I know you’re not stupid, and you certainly pay attention to the world, so I’m hoping this was supposed to be ironic or snark, rather than naivete.
JPL
@Baud: Well just wait until they open investigations into Obama’s book deal. Then you won’t be making snide comments.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Key resource there: “1001 Ways to Cook Leeks”
Piped-in house music: Bryn Terfel singing “Son lo spirito che nega” on endless loop
SFAW
@JPL:
That book deal will end up driving him from office, just the way it did Jim Wright
Immanentize
@NotMax: Wish I could make it to NY tonight. Alas….
Baud
@Immanentize:
Have you forgotten our creed? Sucus est fortior quam sanguinis. Go to the meetup.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Ah, he’ll still be there when you get back. ;-)
Aleta
6/4
6/5
PST
It’s a beautiful morning in Chicago. Sometimes it amazes me how contented I can be despite everything age brings. Is it possible that 65 is the best time of life?
Gin & Tonic
@Brachiator:
What in the world made you think that?
JPL
@Immanentize: How did yesterday go?
Immanentize
@Baud: I don’t know what that means, but is it something like, “suck it up, Cowboy?”
Chyron HR
@Aleta:
Maybe if the 44th president of the united states spelled his name with a dollar sign, Trump would respect him.
OzarkHillbilly
@PST:
It all depends on the life but yeah, sure it can.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Juice is stronger than blood.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: “The juice is stronger than that of blood.”
eta or so the google said.
Immanentize
@JPL: well a small reversal. They had taken out Immp’s catheter in the morning (yay!) But had to put it back in the afternoon (boo!). His bladder is not yet ready to work on its own because pain meds. I asked him whether they had to take him back down to the operating area to reinsert the catheter and he said, “I’m not sure.”. So at least the pain meds are working. Two of his friends came to see him which was great. He is holding up well — maybe better than his dear old dad. I want what he’s taking!
Immanentize
@Baud: I like!
Aleta
@Aleta: I want to know how Mnuchin is “positioning himself.” Given the opportunities coming up to (I think) make more money. He was head of fund raising in 2016. Also
I’m imagining there are now opportunities for private investors and heads of funding (and at the World Bank and IMF) if “Kushner’s” 50 billion plan for Palestinian territories and Lebanon and Jordan and ? gets off the ground. (Cause I don’t actually think it is Kushner’s plan.)
JPL
@Immanentize: What is stress.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize:
Why don’t you just do a Johanna and steal his drip?
Immanentize
@JPL:
Stress! What is it good for?
debbie
Oh, may the Universe be generous enough to permit Jared to be in charge of the reelection campaign!
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: If I go to hospital with my head shaved like that, they may be on to my plan.
JPL
@Aleta: What does it matter. As of yesterday, I thought that Congress held the power of the purse not the executive branch. The supreme court will tell us what is legal.
Immanentize
Ok folks, gotta get back to the patient. Y’all be Jackally, hear?
debbie
@Immanentize:
Great to read you’re both doing as well as you are! Hope Immp gets out of there as soon as possible.
JPL
@Immanentize: Weight loss?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I love that character, I wish there had been more of her in the movies..
debbie
@Aleta:
Ha! He wouldn’t know how to work a can opener!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I gotta give him credit for being pretty good at opening up other people’s wallets tho
OzarkHillbilly
From ProPublica: 2020 Presidential Contribution Data by State
You need Excel to open it, which I apparently lack because I can’t.
FelonyGovt
@Immanentize: Hope he keeps improving and that the news is all good. Hang in there and get some rest.
Kay
@Aleta:
It’s funny that Jared and Ivanka had such supposedly fabulous lives and careers and only reluctantly answered the patriotic call to install themselves as czars of everything, yet here they are, panicked at the thought of being made to leave and scrambling for even more power and control.
Neither one of them ever ran those businesses their families handed them. You can’t actually run a business and take a 5 year sabbatical. They stopped going to work and it didn’t matter- at all. Just like it wouldn’t matter at all if they stopped going to work at the White House. No one additional would be hired to replace them. The “jobs” are invented for them and when they stop showing up the “need” for their work disappears, because it was always a small slice of an existing employees job. They’re redundant.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: LibreOffice is your friend.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Well, since it’s a pet thread, here’s an update on our little guy. 30-pound beagle mix (well, yeah OK actually he’s 31. And he was 28 pounds last summer when we adopted him, so we’ve been overfeeding him a little. Sue me.)
Sammy was diagnosed with heartworm last week, We were calmly walking out of the examining room all cheerful when a technician stopped us in the hallway with a very serious expression and said “you have go back to that room.” She then floored us and the vet with the announcement of the positive result.
We’re now coming to the end of week 1 in what is overall a 5-month process. And the best the vet can reassure us is that he’s young and athletic and has about the best chance he could have of surviving this. Which is a long way from saying “no worries, we’ll cure him”. He’s on steroids and antibiotics, and this continues for a month. Followed by a month of nothing. Then the shots begin, and the shots are apparently the most dangerous part of all. A dead and decomposing worm or worms is in his heart and going into his bloodstream. He’s supposed to be on total bed rest for up to 2 months past the last shot to minimize the risks.
He’s been in good spirits this week, but the drugs definitely knock him out, sap his energy. And, joy of joys, appear to give him bladder incontinence. I don’t think he even knows that puddle is forming under him. Appetite at least is unchanged (and yes I am cutting his rations back). And he still has his full enthusiasm when he spots a rabbit on our walks.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That month off is one of the weird things to me. I know that we’re following the 2018 treatment protocol from the American Heartworm Association to the letter. I’ve read it on their website. I know the reasons for all of this. But it still bugs me that the shot on day 60 is the first time we’re attacking the adult worms, and that there’s a month of no drugs, no shots, no treatment when the worms are just left there. (The theory is that they will be getting weaker during this period as a result of the previous treatments).
Also I think I heard the vet, who is really a very lovely lady, say in passing that the shots are very painful. I need to confirm that. Needless to say, if that’s true I’m really not looking forward to it.
Day 60 is also the first time the vet gets a look at him since the start of the ordeal. That too bugs me, but there’s no way to rush this process.
germy
JPL
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: When I adopted Finch, he was recovering from treatment. I still had to confine him for a few weeks. At the time they speculated that he was about six, and that was five years ago. There doesn’t appear to be any residual damage
Hope your pal has the same results.
Sab
@Kay: The Hatch Act doesn’t have any teeth at all for people like this, does it? They are there to steal as much as they can while they can and then leave government forever. Their risk? No risk of being fired. Possibly eventually a $1000 fine.
germy
germy
I always wondered what that meant.
Aleta
@Immanentize:
nice opening instrumentals on these (but words/voice hmm)
Visions of Johanna 2002 live
Another
words especially clear but so slowed (drug-speed?) Bob Dylan – Visions of Johanna (Paris, France 1966)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@germy:
First reaction: “banana pose”? Is this a yoga thing?
Second reaction on getting to end of sentence: Oh, OK, it’s a seal thing.
Third reaction on checking the picture: Actually that IS a yoga thing.
I’ve often had yoga instructors make me do that. I wouldn’t associate it with “safe and content” but maybe it’s easier for seals.
rikyrah
@satby:
Go satby.
You can get it ?
Baud
@germy:
Republicans in Retreat.
germy
bemused
We adopted a beautiful male kitten about 3 months old with an irresistible face in June from a pet shelter. Very young momma kitty and her litter were found outdoors on their own and brought into shelter. The kittens were so skittish on my two visits trying to play with them, didn’t want to be touched but I just had a hunch this guy was the one for us. I had set up a larger bathroom with everything he needed plus keeping him separated from other cat and two dogs till they all slowly got to know each other. I even slept on the bathroom floor. We thought it was going to take quite awhile for very sad and scared, don’t touch me kitty to adjust but we were happily surprised that in not quite two days he let us pet his back for a few moments and then suddenly flopped down and showed us his tummy. It was all uphill after that and. He is so mellow, purrs a lot, follows us around the house and likes to sleep by my feet. Dogs basically ignore him and he and 7 year old cat are fine together.
germy
This short thread sort of clarified things for me:
Baud
@germy:
I’m starting to wonder whether NPR saw our criticism of the NYT and decided that their response was “Hold My Beer.”
Another Scott
Krebs from Thursday:
Yup.
We have to do much, much more than just secure the voting hardware.
Donnie has told us what he’s going to do. He’s a one-trick pony. He’s going to do the same thing he did in 2016 – claim millions of “illegals” voted, claim the election is “rigged”, claim that it was “unfair”, claim that “Russia and maybe China” were helping the Democrats, claim that “hackers are working for the Democrats”, claim that the “FBI is corrupt”, and all the rest. It will be supertankers full of squid ink.
We have to work to reduce the impact of those tactics now.
Cheers,
Scott.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Given the current media landscape, legal environment, legislative environment and array of media figures, I’m of the belief that we’re beyond a tipping point on reflexive non-violence and lawful protest as a way to beat down the coming hereditary dictatorship.
Law-abiding pacifism has failed us all. It has failed the community of color, it has failed labor, it has failed consumers. The fuckers need some fangs to fear, as they’ve learned that every societal gain and step toward equity can be clawed back through opinion manipulation, shadowy campaign money, deceit and exercise of raw power.
If that wave of violence against people of wealth, treasonous senate and house members and pundits starts, I won’t shed a tear and will light a candle of joy.
Another Scott
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Nope.
Elections still work. We just had the largest off-year victory in the history of the House.
We can’t give up. We have to do everything in our power to increase Democratic majorities and fight for every seat via the ballot box.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
That would be more weighty if you weren’t saying the same thing during the Obama years.
David C Macdonald
@rikyrah:
@eclare:
@NotMax:
An especial good morning thanks to you for the shout out, and of course for all the rest of the Jackels here a good morning to what I hope is a great weekend for you all. As always you all bring light to our lives, and are fine people.
So take care and be well all, and never forget what was my old email addy and what it means, carpediem. To the max that you can, because as I currently exemplify, there never is enough time and it should never be taken for granted.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Oh, you mean as the Mayberry Machiavellis were setting the table for this via Citizens United, McConnell’s mendacity, gerrymandering and vote suppression schemes being instituted in key states?
Gin & Tonic
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I, um, thought of something entirely different.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: THANX! I am a computer idiot, I don’t even know if I have something els on my computer that would work instead. All help is much appreciated.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
God, I just wandered back into the pearl-clutching coverage of the Obama criticism of Citizens United and Scam Alito’s mendacious, mewling response.
So unseemly! So harsh!
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
We were offered a sweet Golden mix by one of out Vets some time back — she was rescued from a chain in a backyard where she was abused at 3 am by another client of the Vet. There was scarring all down her back and she had heartworms, along with other parasites. The Vet kept her in their kennels undergoing treatment for 8 months before offering her to us. The Vet knew we had forested acreage in the middle of other forested acreage.
So not long after we brought the pupper home, she was estimated to be 3 years old, we decided to name her Happy, because she was really happy to be a free dog with other dogs to teach her about the woods. Vet declined to allow us to make any payment, she loved Happy quite a bit after those months of therapy and care.
So don’t fear the treatment for your beagle. You might want ot get a crate to help keep beagle quiet. We drape a big towel over ours to make it more like a den cave, which they seem to appreciate, so there’s cover, yet still a view out the window on the back of the crate. Not that they like it, being in there, but it’s necessary if they need to be quiet. Post-op, harsh medical treatment, etc.
MomSense
I don’t know why I decided to listen to the interview with Wilmer on Pod Save America but it was a really bad decision. He says some good things but then inevitably turns to his critique of the Democratic Establishment and basically says they lack the courage (hints at corruption) for not taking on Wall Street, not telling the fossil fuel industry you can’t destroy the planet, not taking in insurance companies or pharmaceutical companies.
We basically had a few months before Ted Kennedy died and after Franken was sworn in to pass all the things. And we did make huge progress on fuel efficiency, the EPA made a lot of improvements through their regulatory regime. The ACA made massive improvements to patient protections and insurance regulation. If we had gone after the pharmaceutical companies at the same time we never wouldn’t have passed it. Maybe if progressives weren’t so “disappointed” in 2010 and voted we could have taken on pharmaceutical next. That was certainly the plan from a lot of MOC like Jay Rockefeller.
He simplified issues to the point where he makes low information progressives think they’re smart while simultaneously encouraging anger and resentment. It doesn’t even make sense if you follow his logic. Insurance companies and Walk street are all powerful but the only reason we haven’t beat them down is because we lack courage?
I just can’t with him.
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
So fucking accurate!
Will they ever admit he was right?
germy
Here’s what the republican Never Trumpers never acknowledge:
(LGM)
SFAW
@germy:
It means Dems in Disarray, same as it ever was.
Clearly, she should stick to tending bar, because if she is not aware of all Internet traditions, well …
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Good luck to him and you.
Kay
@Sab:
The Hatch Act isn’t enforced. I don’t think it ever has been. We need a whole new set of regulations, going under the assumption the next President will ignore and violate all ethical guidelines.
This is what it’s like with people like the Trumps and the people they hire. They literally create the need for new regulations. You’ll be going along with “understandings” and “norms” and then people like this come along and you have to create a code with sanctions. It’s like how they’ll be some egregious bad behavior in a business and that inspires a new law where one wasn’t required before. They’re those people. They have no self-imposed boundaries or standards of ethical behavior so they have to be imposed from outside.
They refuse to self-police so they have to be monitored. You hear it in Trump himself. “It’s not ILLEGAL” – that is a person who cannot behave decently without a tight web of rules. He doesn’t even know what it would look like.
There are local rules in courts and they are periodically updated. Almost the only time a new one comes in here is in response to some sleazy or dishonest or sloppy act by a lawyer or set of lawyers. They ARE the problem that needs to be addressed by the rule. No one else needed it.
MomSense
@Another Scott:
Given Moscow Mitch’s decision to make sure we don’t defend ourselves from Russian attacks on our election, I’m not actually sure they do always work. I also happen to think Donald Trump is an illegitimate president. We better make elections work, though because non violence isn’t going to end up in our favor. The liberals and progressives aren’t the ones hoarding firearms.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I checked twitter, as I do most mornings, and someone had retweeted an insulting Trump remark about Elijah Cummings. And I just….couldn’t. I closed twitter and went to start the laundry. I am sickened by this demented, racist person who has the power to destroy pretty much everything if the mood strikes him. I have to pace myself if I’m going to make it to the day he leaves office.
Doug R
@OzarkHillbilly:
Try OpenOffice.
Baud
@MomSense:
Much like Trump, Wilmer is a symptom of a cultural problem rather than a cause. Lots of people want a simple story of good and evil and a white knight who will rescue us all through his gallantry. They don’t want to deal with the messiness of democracy and self-governance.
germy
@MomSense:
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I, on the other hand, am somewhat of a Renaissance M(or)an — an idiot in multiple areas of “expertise.”
Be that as it may: I used Open Office for a number of years, was happy with it (did all my work on it). Then had to switch to LibreOffice, I’ve been reasonably happy with it, although there are some minor things which annoy me about it. But FREE helps mitigate the annoyance. And frankly, with all the bullshit extra “features” that MS keeps installing in Office, I’m just as happy.
germy
mrmoshpotato
@MomSense:
And that’s all I read of your comment. ? Wilmer interview details unneeded.
I hope the rest of your Saturday is much better.
MomSense
@germy:
I loathe Moscow Mitch. I’m trying to figure out where he ranks in the category of all time worst Americans. It’s a long list but I think he has to be pretty high in the rankings.
Aleta
@Kay:
They have fake jobs. They *are* purely the facade they’re acting out; and nothing more. It’s like VR or some mechanical sci fi. The culmination (for now) of publicist culture. It’s mind boggling how they keep up that confidence; until I remember Ivanka was raised to be a shell, Kusher a crook, and that Donald tutored Ivanka in fraud, robbery, false pretenses, conspiracy, receiving illegal goods, and positive (“big success!”) misrepresentation. Congratulating each other and now us all the while. Ivanka’s twitter is so full of congratulations for nothing, and anniversary celebrations of nothing, that it should sink like cement.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: McTurtleface the Fascist added under his breath, “We’re the ones who want to take away your insurance.”
germy
@MomSense: I can’t even stand the sight of him.
Kay
@Baud:
Sanders had such a good argument that his policies were popular. They may have been not realistic but the general ideas were popular. That is such a triumph for him, and it’s his actual argument. Then he had to do something dumb like ban private health insurance and scare the hell out of people. They really had to be so ideologically pure they couldn’t just do a Medicare buy-in? It’s WILDLY popular. I think some employers would have bought in. They would be thrilled to pay a flat fee per employee for health insurance. They could make it a benefit that way, and even add to it. That’s a race to the top.
But they had to finger wag and scold. They had to tell people “you’re thinking about this wrong!” – that’s essential. They can’t just win one. People have to surrender.
germy
MomSense
@mrmoshpotato:
As the cat learned the hard way, curiosity isn’t always a good thing.
debbie
@Baud:
They’re terrified of the RWNJs.
MomSense
@germy:
I was only listening to his voice and it was torture.
OzarkHillbilly
@Doug R: @SFAW: Thanx, I have to ask the wife.
Baud
@Kay:
That’s what his base supporters want. You could just as soon ask Trump to betray his deplorable base to form a larger coalition. Won’t happen.
debbie
@germy:
Trump’s line the other day that Article 2 said he could do whatever he wanted sent me right over the edge. Fuck everyone in his party who has failed to explain to him what the Constitution actually states.
debbie
@germy:
Cheek implants are the scourge of modern beauty.
ETA: But they prolong the childlike appearance and probably please her Daddy.
Kay
@Aleta:
I genuinely prefer idle rich kids. I insist they collect classic cars and hold parties and stop imposing their need for fake jobs on people who have real jobs. By any definition these two are redundant. They stop coming to work and it doesn’t matter.
Ivanka is literally standing next to the person with the real job at these events overseas. She stays home what happens? What doesn’t get done. Nothing. Jared wants to stand next to the campaign team this year. Unwanted Ivanka was funny because it’s TRUE. They can plug her into any situation where someone did something and she’s standing next to the person who did it.
MomSense
@Aleta:
They have real jobs, but they aren’t the publicly stated ones. Kushner is trading intel for investment $ in his family properties and business. Ivanka is minding her dementia addled father. I think we are finally arriving at the point when people will recognize how far down the dementia trail trump is. He is showing a lot of symptoms now.
MomSense
@Kay:
Seriously. The world would be a better place if Javanka just spent the summer party yachting in Ibiza with all the other vapid trust funders.
p.a.
My current “pretty much ready to call each other girlfriend/boyfriend” (at our age S.O. is sooo much more fitting) has 3 cats, 2 dogs, and an African Gray. Have not met them yet. Big pressure! At tonight’s get-together I’m going to ask her if 100% acceptance is required, or maybe 3 of 6. Grade me on the curve! Maybe I’ll touch a little tuna water to my ankles when meet-and-greet time arrives. ?
Kay
@germy:
Their perfect dewy skin fascinates me. They look like tall babies. Untouched by harsh elements. Swaddled tenderly since birth.
MomSense
@debbie:
Ha! Madonna ruined her face with those things.
After I listened to Wilmer I made the mistake of tuning into NPR – for all of 30 seconds. I didn’t even last long enough to hear what Scott Simon was talking about before the urge to yell started building. I think it’s Pavlovian at this point.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I am not so sure trump is responsible for this. The Daily Mail article is from Aug 4, 2017. Trump assumed office in January 2017. The money for the WH repairs was almost certainly appropriated while Obama was President.
It’s a stupid argument either way. It was long past due for replacement, but neither Obama or trump had anything to do with it. The GSA is the agency responsible and the contractors are the ones who did the work. Somebody may have misdesigned the new system in which case it would be their fault.
It’s like blaming yourself for a fucked up AC install when all you did was hand the money to the HVAC guy who you thought was good and reputable because that was everything you read.
germy
I had no idea about this history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshmallow
Kay
@MomSense:
Right? They served a function for the masses. That was a good deal. Then they decided they needed titles and briefing books and had to buy things like “education” or “housing” and it all went to shit.
They could have real jobs. Go work at something that requires an actual objective credential where you have to compete with scrappy commoners. I was no fan of Mitt Romney but his kids were grownups. They weren’t appendages.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: The shit I learn here…
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
I would think so! Who in their right mind wants someone’s ass cheeks implanted on their face?
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: Hi, Imm, thanks for checking in and updating us on Immp’s progress. There has been much concern here in Jackal-land. Glad to hear his pain meds are working! Having gone through major surgery myself a time or two, I never undervalue the importance of good pain meds!
Hope you are taking care of yourself as well as the Immp.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
LOL
eclare
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I have adopted two heartworm positive dogs. Every dog is different, but they did not seem to be in much pain, and both treatments were successful. Best of luck to you and Sammy.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Don’t judge other people’s kinks.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Didn’t realize there was a buttface community to offend.
Elie
@Immanentize:
Wishing you the best for the immp. I am so happy how things are going.
Cameron
@mrmoshpotato: You can’t judge a butt by looking at its cover.
Vhh
@Brachiator: how trumpian
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Couldn’t tell if this was dry humor, but: both OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free.
Ruckus
@PST:
There was at some point, a philosopher who said something to the effect that every day that you are alive is the best day. I’d bet we’ve all had some days that we’d say that’s not really true if truth be known, most of which we can recall easily. But then I remember that I’ve been going to funerals and reading obits of people I know for over 60 yrs now. People from 6 months old to 104 yrs. Friends, close friends, family members. And I remember that no matter how much time we get, it ends. So maybe that philosopher was right, we get to be alive, we don’t know how many days it will be but for most of us we count them in years because the days would be a huge number. My number of days is 25,582. Years are easier. That’s a lot of times to celebrate though, to think of actually being alive. Having the opportunity to try better, having the opportunity to try some new food, having the opportunity to say your sorry, having the opportunity to say thank you or just hello, having the opportunity to wonder why that truck didn’t kill you or the operation saved your life or how is it that someone can learn to do that operation or invent a machine which keeps you from having to have that operation.
Having that opportunity to enjoy whatever life brings you, even if it’s just another day.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
My head is almost that smooth and I go to a hospital regularly. And no one says anything.
Ruckus
@Kay:
They are worse than redundant. If they were just redundant they could be removed and nothing would change. If these two were removed, the world would be a better place. Therefore they are not redundant, they are worse. I have no idea what worse than redundant is called, besides part of the trump family. Which is bad enough. No, it’s worse than bad enough. It’s a circle of doom, everyone who enters dooms everyone around them.
Ruckus
@germy:
He doesn’t lie about the tiniest little things.
He lies about everything. He makes up everything as he goes and his skill at making up things is like everything else he does, a lie and always wrong. It’s his one skill, being wrong about everything. Few people are wrong about everything. A number are wrong about a lot, but few are wrong about everyfuckingthing. Everyfuckingthingwrong got elected to be the president. Tell me that wasn’t wrong………
joel hanes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Somebody may have misdesigned the new system
My money is on the Trump people being incompetent to operate the system. Remember these are the people who expected the White House to come fully-staffed, as if they were business conference panelists in a hotel, and who had extended difficulty learning to operate the electric lighting in the White House.
The surest tell that it’s actually a failure of the Trumpists is that he’s blaming it on Obama
dopey-o
@PST: is it possible that 65 can be the best time of a man’s life?
once the little head stops calling all the shots, one’s Serenity Quotient can rise to unexpected heights.
would that such were true in the oval office.
O.T. Has Ozarkhillbilly ever been to St. Louis’ only Welsh eatery, LLewelyn’s Pub (now with 4 or 5 locations)?
Ruckus
@debbie:
Would it make any difference whatsoever if everyone explained what’s in the constitution?
I’ll answer. No, it wouldn’t.
Trump listens, interprets and understands things only as it pertains to him getting exactly what he wants and in the way he wants. And he fucks even that up. He’s a spoiled little brat in real crappy big boy clothes. He’s always been a spoiled little brat in big boy clothes. Shorter English version, He’s never been ready for long pants.
Ruckus
@Cameron:
LOL
Thanks