Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I was promised a recession.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

We still have time to mess this up!

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Hoodoo Economics (Open Thread)

Hoodoo Economics (Open Thread)

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Ron Johnson is pissing on people’s heads and telling them it’s raining:

From The Hill:

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) on Friday blocked an effort to pass a second round of stimulus checks, arguing coronavirus relief needs to be targeted and raising concerns about the country’s debt.

The motion Johnson cock-blocked was from fellow Republican Josh Hawley (and also Balloon Juice favorite Bernie Sanders). Hawley is trying on a “conservative populism” frock that seems to be all the rage among potential 2024 GOP presidential primary contenders in the Trump lame duck era. Marco Rubio has made similar noises.

Prediction: GOP donors will reassert their will by slamming their wallets shut the day Biden is sworn in. Hawley, Rubio and the rest will soon be singing Ron’s tune about the deficit again, even though a just deity would smite every one of them for such hypocrisy after the pre-pandemic corporate tax giveaway, etc.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

196Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    "Dr. Jeff Toll, who has admitting privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the first hospitals to stock the vaccine, recalled a patient asking: “If I donate $25,000 to Cedars, would that help me get in line?’” https://t.co/Gv8EYX9oNY

    — Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) December 18, 2020

  3. 3.

    beckya57

    Johnson is terrible even by contemporary GOP standards; there seems to be a decent chance he’s coordinating with the Russians to at least some degree.  I hope Ben Wikler and his talented colleagues with WI Dems are targeting him when he’s up for re-election.

  6. 6.

    RaflW

    These fuckers (I use that term advisedly) blew at least a $1.5T hole in the deficit with the Ryan-Trump-McConnell tax cut of 2017. Absolute bad faith malarkey to moan about debt now. Not to mention that interest rates are near zero!

    E. Warren was not having it this morning, and I think other Dems may — finally! — be onto the garbage cycle of “oh, noes, deficit!” precisely timed with a D entering the W.H. again.

  10. 10.

    MisterForkbeard

    @germy: I’m kind of worried about the Silk Road guy. I have NO IDEA why Trump would even be considering pardoning him – dude ran a darkweb site for drug traffickers and worse.

    I can’t imagine what would justify a pardon there, even facially.

  11. 11.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @germy:

    As much as I loathe Trump, Pence, McConnell, and basically all Republicans in power, I think it is 100% appropriate that major government officials and White House staff are in the earliest round of vaccinations.  It doesn’t stop being true if they’re evil.  It certainly includes Biden and Harris, who I haven’t heard about.  Does anyone know if they’ve been inoculated?

  14. 14.

    Cameron

    Stimulus does a hell of a lot more stimulating than tax cuts.  The first nonprofit I worked for dealt with food security issues in north Philadelphia, and one of the first things I learned was that food stamps (now SNAP) was miles ahead of almost anything else in having an economic multiplier effect in neighborhoods.  And that was in 1995.  I don’t know whether he’s genuinely ignorant, genuinely stupid, completely dishonest, or some combination of these factors, but for sure he’s dead wrong.

  16. 16.

    Cacti

    Story just dropped on Business Insider that Jared Kushner set up a shell corporation so Trump family members could pilfer $617 million in campaign cash.

    That’s where Trump’s campaign money “disappeared” to.

  18. 18.

    VeniceRiley

    @Frankensteinbeck: Since the booster shot will be in January, having lame duckers get it is a waste. Pence isn’t in the over 80 crowd either.

    Pfizer has millions in the warehouse and the administration isn’t shipping.  DOD has gone dark and won’t update the transition team at all.

  21. 21.

    cmorenc

    @beckya57:

    Johnson is terrible even by contemporary GOP standards; there seems to be a decent chance he’s coordinating with the Russians to at least some degree.  I hope Ben Wikler and his talented colleagues with WI Dems are targeting him when he’s up for re-election.

    Johnson is up for re-election in 2022 – Wisconsin D’s success in getting rid of him is going to yet again be a function of D turnout, which means we need to turn out the vote in Milwaukee and not permit R suppression efforts to inhibit that.

  22. 22.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @beckya57: I look forward eagerly to the day when Ron Johnson (R-Moskva) is hauled away in handcuffs to serve a long sentence for sedition against the USA. (Yeah, I know it’s unlikely, but a ghoul can dream, no?)

  24. 24.

    Leto

    @Cameron:

     

    I don’t know whether he’s genuinely ignorant, genuinely stupid, completely dishonest, or some combination of these factors, but and for sure he’s dead wrong.

    Slight tweak there. It’s complete dishonestly and we saw the “we need to tighten the purse strings” dumbshit line from space. At this point I want every Dem to essentially say, “Go fuck yourself” to anything they utter. Any noise they make about anything. They have no guiding principles other than greed. AOC and Biden’s spox were correct: they’re “motherfuckers” and “fuckers”, respectively. They’ve spent the past four years (longer, but I’m just going with Trumpov’s maladministration) essentially ignoring Dems/the majority of the US in any/all legislation they propose. Time to use our political power like a cudgel. Fuck’em.

  25. 25.

    patrick II

    Louis DeJoy may or may not receive a pardon. If he does, he will have to abandon the post office before his 10 year term is up because acknowledging a pardon means also acknowledging being guilty of a crime. If he doesn’t, I want him investigated and tried for sedition.

  26. 26.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    No Senate R should be able to expect a spittle-free meal from any restaurant that is willing to seat them anywhere in the United States. That includes every person accompanying them.

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    @Cameron: 
    Key things about republicans of the last 50 yrs is that their bullshit story has never changed, they are all assholes, and they are all lying to enrich their benefactors and themselves. Or they are too stupid to understand all that. For some all 4 apply.

  31. 31.

    Kent

    @MisterForkbeard: In the grand list of damage that Trump can do to this country on the way out the door, pardons don’t even reach into the top 1000.

    Not saying I don’t care about these sorts of pardons.  I do.  But January 20 can’t come soon enough for a million other reasons that matter more to the country than whether some random scumbags get out of jail or off the hook for something.

  32. 32.

    Captain C

    @Leto:

    “we need to tighten the purse strings”

    Any Republican claiming that needs to be asked over and over “okay, so what are you planning on cutting from your own district?”

  33. 33.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @MisterForkbeard: If he sets back up in business, he can help the Russians reach the people whom the last hack didn’t reach.  Many very high-value targets there.  No, that wasn’t exactly your question.  As far as appearances: chaos.  That’s enough.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    President Donald Trump’s most powerful advisor, Jared Kushner, approved the creation of a campaign shell company that secretly paid the president’s family members and spent almost half of the campaign’s $1.26 billion war chest, a person familiar with the operation told Insider.

     

    The operation acted almost like a campaign within a campaign. It paid some of Trump’s top advisors and family members, while shielding financial and operational details from public scrutiny.

     

    When Kushner and others created the company in April 2018, they picked Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to become its president, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew John Pence as its vice president, and Trump campaign Chief Financial Officer Sean Dollman as its treasurer and secretary, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations about the shell company.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    There’s an otter swimming around our crappy little boat, and I keep trying to get it on video to show y’all, but it goes under water every damned time I pick up my phone! It’s probably one of these guys.

  37. 37.

    Kent

    @Captain C: Any Republican claiming that needs to be asked over and over “okay, so what are you planning on cutting from your own district?”

    Medicaid for illegal aliens, government waste, indecent public art, public transit, bike lanes for hippies, taxpayer funded abortions, drag queens in public libraries.

    I’m sure they can come up with a big list if asked.

  41. 41.

    taumaturgo

    The financial aid being considered is far from a stimulus is emergency relief for people that can’t afford rent, food, medicine at no fault of their own, but leave if for conservatives to punch down at those in need during this catastrophic pandemic. No problem approving over $700 billion for war merchants and lobbyists, yet his underwear is all bunched up at the thought of a miserly $600.00 check. The message for Democrats in the Senate is to finally join Sanders in the fight for a $1,200 direct payment and to stop praising Trump – I’m looking at you Durbin – for anything he may or may have not done.

  42. 42.

    Captain C

    @Kent: And the answer to that is, “Sorry, that doesn’t begin to cover your share.  Would you prefer no money for highways, or should we withdraw all corporate/ag subsidies from your district?”

  44. 44.

    TomatoQueen

    OMG otters. The gov’t can shut its ass down as far as I’m concerned, cos Betty’s got OTTERS.

  45. 45.

    Matt McIrvin

    @VeniceRiley:

    Pfizer has millions in the warehouse and the administration isn’t shipping.

    Maybe we should be happy about that–it means they’re not flushing those millions of doses down the toilet to spite Biden.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @Cacti:

    This is the least surprising news of the past year. It was obvious in 2016 that Trump saw the campaign as a grifting opportunity, and his time in office confirmed that was his major goal.  When it came up during the election that his campaign was short on cash, embezzlement was literally my first explanation.  Anyone who didn’t see that can’t be trusted to see the nose on their face.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    In 2009 the republicans limited the stimulus to $700 billion over two years. That recession was so severe that twice as much money spent over 5 years would have been justified and efficient longterm. The nation suffered, and many people were permanently set back. But austerity almost achieved the republican goal of defeating Obama in 2012.                                            They are going to try making austerity work against Biden this time.

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) objects to a relief bill, saying stimulus bills don’t stimulate the economy.
    He instead proposes “lower regulation” and “a competitive tax system.”

    Jesus Fucking Christ.
    I hate these people. It is going to be a “I hate these people” Friday.

  50. 50.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kent:

    Yes, elected Republicans will happily and proudly tell you what social services they’re cutting.  Their voters want them to cut social services to the bone, convinced they themselves will somehow be fine as long as everyone else is made to hurt enough.

  52. 52.

    Leto

    @Captain C: That would be good: “Alright Congressperson Useless, you want to cut purse strings? We’ll start by defunding all of your emergency services. Fire, cops, ambulances… all gone. Teachers? Nope, parents can eternally Zoom their kids. Water and sewage treatment? Go dig a well and trench.

    I’m glad we had this talk. Really productive.”

    @Cameron: I know, but I’m tired of even giving them a microgram of a doubt. Time to relentlessly work public opinion against them. Honestly I’d love to put a scarlet T on each one of them, but I’m afraid they’d consider that some type of martyr badge of pride. Dumb fucks.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Geminid:

    austerity almost achieved the republican goal of defeating Obama in 2012.

    I remember the election modelers being really clear that we were going to get toasted in 2010 specifically because Obama and the Democrats achieved so much in Obama’s first two years.  Succeed, and the other side goes into a reactive fury.  So basically, Obamacare sank us in 2010, precisely because it was such a big fucking deal.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I’m kind of worried about the Silk Road guy. I have NO IDEA why Trump would even be considering pardoning him – dude ran a darkweb site for drug traffickers and worse.

    I can’t imagine what would justify a pardon there, even facially.

    Trump is a strange man. He knows some pardoned folk personally.  With others, he seems to think that crimes committed by white people don’t merit punishment.

  56. 56.

    Kent

    @Captain C: Oh, I’m not arguing with you.  It’s just my experience that GOP types always seem to have a long list of examples of “government waste” and spending that they are always happy to talk about.  Pre-election and especially pre-Trump it was one of the staple topics on Fox.  Of course it is mostly bullshit.

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    So the Australian destroyer of democracy got the vaccine today.

    Hopefully something else kills Murdoch post haste.

  64. 64.

    Leto

    @mrmoshpotato: Chris Hayes said this was going to happen, last night, on his show. He spoke about the messaging cycles they were moving through and this was the next one. Sow doubt about the vaccine itself.

  67. 67.

    Bill Arnold

    @Cacti:
    My notes on that before checking the thread.
    Juicy reveal. :-)
    EXCLUSIVE: Jared Kushner helped create a Trump campaign shell company that secretly paid the president’s family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash, a source tells Insider (Tom LoBianco and Dave Levinthal, 18 Dec 2020)
    The bulletpoints:

    – Jared Kushner approved the creation of a shell company that spent almost half of the Trump campaign’s $1.26 billion war chest, a person familiar with the operation told Insider exclusively.
    – Kushner directed Lara Trump, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew John Pence, and Trump campaign Chief Financial Officer Sean Dollman to serve on the shell company’s board, the person told Insider.
    – American Made Media Consultants became the source of consternation for President Donald Trump’s campaign staff, who were kept in the dark about its operations.
    – Despite its $617 million spending through AMMC, the Trump campaign publicly disclosed little information about the company, including how it used the money.

    This is also in play. The NDAA has a component about unmasking the real owners of shell corporations (though it’s weak and delayed IIRC):

    Delaware has long been one of the best places in the US to hide corporate arrangements.
    But that could change, as Congress earlier this month passed a corporate-transparency measure directed at combating financial crimes, both domestic and foreign.
    The measure is part of the veto-proof National Defense Authorization Act and would require anonymous shell companies — including limited liability companies such as American Made Media Consultants — to disclose their real owners to the US Treasury Department.

  69. 69.

    Josie

    @VeniceRiley:

    I’m somewhat concerned that Dear Leader has hollowed out the DOD and now they have shut down Biden’s transition team.  It’s almost as if they are up to something they don’t want us to know about.

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    It is going to be a “I hate these people” Friday.

    It is “I hate these people” Friday, every fucking day. The only work they do is working towards making it so, every day.

  71. 71.

    trollhattan

    @jeffreyw:

    Somebody tell me again how Hoover Institute is only housed at Stanford and has No Impact Whatsoever on the university and its policies. There be rot, somewhere, highly placed and the golden rule comes through loud and clear (“he who has the gold…”).

  73. 73.

    Leto

    @Bill Arnold:

    – Kushner directed Lara Trump, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew John Pence, and Trump campaign Chief Financial Officer Sean Dollman to serve on the shell company’s board, the person told Insider.

    Oh man… I was giddy over this because it just wraps all of them up even more, including human look-a-like Ken Doll, Mike Pence. Because I’m sure it was just his nephew in on this, and totally not him and MOTHER!

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Bill Arnold: I’m not a lawyer, but I am guessing what Jared did was probably legal. Our public corruption laws are as flimsy as a toilet paper fence. Someone should try to fix that.

  75. 75.

    Gravenstone

    @beckya57: I noted to a friend complaining about him on Facebook that he’s counting on his constituents forgetting all about his seditious fuckery by the next time he’s up for reelection. It’s up to us to prove him wrong.

  76. 76.

    mrmoshpotato

    Fuck that fucking fascist fucker John Kelly.

    absolute bullshit and if you fall in line with this you're very stupid. nobody had to work for trump. they all chose to, and they enabled him, and among those who lied and hurt thousands for him, john kelly was at the head of the parade. fuck all of them. https://t.co/7TocGAeBcc— Oliver Willis (@owillis) December 18, 2020

  80. 80.

    JaneE

    Johnson is right that the stimulus should be targeted.  Generally speaking, any business or group he thinks should get money almost certainly should not.  Target individuals, limit relief to the bottom income folks and give state and local governments the money needed for public health initiatives and mitigation, and replace their tax losses due to the shuttered economy.   If that means printing up some money then do it – and worry about inflation when and if it hits.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Loved it when the genealogist showed that Kelly’s immigrant Italian granny never learned English, after he made a stink about lazy immigrants not learning English.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: See, this is why Biden NEEDS a campaign manager / deputy chief of staff who calls Republicans “fuckers.” O’Malley Dillon is a real-life anger translator.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    President Donald Trump’s most powerful advisor, Jared Kushner, approved the creation of a campaign shell company that secretly paid the president’s family members and spent almost half of the campaign’s $1.26 billion war chest, a person familiar with the operation told Insider.

    When Kushner and others created the company in April 2018, they picked Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to become its president, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew John Pence as its vice president, and Trump campaign Chief Financial Officer Sean Dollman as its treasurer and secretary, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations about the shell company.

    I wonder what they spent the money on?

    Wow. And Pence is in on this thing, too. Interesting.

     

  90. 90.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I’m pretty sure “fuckers” everywhere are offended at being lumped in with Republicans.

  91. 91.

    Bill Arnold

    @Peale:

    Its the Naming Names that has him upset.

    That’s been my primary guess even before this reveal. The Trump Family businesses are a maze of twisty little corporations, some of them almost certainly (I haven’t looked may have been verified) anonymous shell corporations. Also there may be other non-Trump activities hidden by such entities that could embarrass DJT or put him in legal jeopardy or both.

  92. 92.

    Kent

    @trollhattan:

    @jeffreyw:

    Somebody tell me again how Hoover Institute is only housed at Stanford and has No Impact Whatsoever on the university and its policies. There be rot, somewhere, highly placed and the golden rule comes through loud and clear (“he who has the gold…”).

    What makes you think that Stanford would be some liberal egalitarian bastion of liberalism if it were not for the Hoover Institute?

    It is an uber-rich and elite institution, not a liberal one.   If you want diversity and liberal values you are better off going next door to San Jose State.

  94. 94.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Martin:

    Are libs owned? Because that’s all it takes. 

    Yeah, because that all this party of fuckers cares about.

    “Will it make liberals cry?”

  95. 95.

    Kent

    @Brachiator: Hey, they actually did the country a ginormous favor by grifting half a billion dollars rather than spending it more effectively on the election in PA, AZ, GA ,and WI.

  96. 96.

    cain

    @Baud:

    Yet, it’s Hunter Biden they keep caterwauling about – it’s all projection.

    The evidence of course is all in Hunter Biden’s laptop.

  98. 98.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Brachiator:

    I wonder what they spent the money on? 

    A new pasty face for that motherfucker, Jared?

    Five hundred Scarface-sized mountains of blow for all of them?

  99. 99.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Brachiator:

    He instead proposes “lower regulation” and “a competitive tax system.”

    On this subject, I have a newish client who had just started a new business doing something that requires a large piece of sophisticated equipment related to geology. He acquired one on a rent to own basis with a hard deadline on the balloon. The thing has been doing well and providing steady revenue.

    Unfortunately, he can’t find ordinary loans for love nor money from a bank because he hasn’t been in business long enough and as a cash guy for years, doesn’t have a credit history as a guide – his only current options are either bankruptcy OR a predatory investor that’s going to siphon off money in the form of 10% of the gross revenues until his inevitable bankruptcy.

    ”Lower taxes” don’t fix that.

  100. 100.

    jeffreyw

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Raising Steam – Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Raising_Steam

    Raising Steam is the 40th Discworld novel, written by Terry Pratchett. It was the penultimate one, published before his death in 2015. Originally due to be published on 24 October 2013, it was pushed back to 7 November 2013 (and March 18, 2014 in the U.S.).

  101. 101.

    Bill Arnold

    @Betty Cracker:

    who calls Republicans “fuckers.”

    Didn’t actually call them fuckers, from the transcript I saw.
    quote: “not saying they’re not a bunch of fuckers.”

  103. 103.

    Cacti

    @Roger Moore: I had the exact same thought.

    When the stories about his campaign being low on money came out, I didn’t think it was for any reason other than his grifting family stuffing it in their pockets.

    I would have been surprised only if it WASN’T for that reason.

  104. 104.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jeffreyw:

    Ah, it was in the period when he was only sort of writing the books.  After Snuff, I couldn’t read them.  He was so obviously unable to edit his writing and having trouble keeping his characters’ voices straight.  Alzheimers is evil.  At least he had an unusual kind that mainly targets writing ability.  I will happily trade the last couple of Discworld books for him not having to go through the other Alzheimers horrors.

  107. 107.

    Geminid

    @Frankensteinbeck: People modeling the 2010 election had to factor in the consistent drop off of Democratic turnout in off-year elections. This was always a problem for Democrats in Virginia, where odd year state elections tended to favor republicans. That dynamic changed in 2017 and 2019 in Virginia, and nationally in the 2018 midterms. Will the Democrats continue this trend in 2022? We’d damn sure better.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    yesterday there were reports that trump wanted to pardon Allan Weisselberg, the trump CFO, which strikes me as saying to Letitia James “I know nothing about the stolen jewels, and don’t look in that bottom drawer!”

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @Frankensteinbeck: People modeling the 2010 election had to factor in the consistent drop off of Democratic turnout in off-year elections. This was always a problem for Democrats in Virginia, where odd year state elections tended to favor republicans. That dynamic changed in 2017 and 2019 in Virginia, and nationally in the 2018 midterms. Will the Democrats continue this trend in 2022? We’d damn sure better.

  110. 110.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Danielx:

    I notice Trump desperately wants a special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden.  It just isn’t possible to him that there might be nothing to find.  Trump is sure everyone is as dirty as him while simultaneously investigating Trump is the real crime, because Trump is innocent and the good guy even if he did it.  So a narcissist’s mind works.

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    I am very tempted to go to the t-shirt-making place and have them make me a shirt with  “WHAT JEN O’MALLEY DILLON SAID” emblazoned across the front.

  113. 113.

    Bill Arnold

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m not a lawyer, but I am guessing what Jared did was probably legal.

    Might be grey area, but you’re probably correct. It can still do damage to those involved. And hopefully they’re starting to feel some nervousness about other-than-legal jeopardy:
    Everything You Need to Know About Indian Creek Island, Miami’s Most Exclusive Enclave – Inside the exclusive Miami community that Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Tom Brady, and Gisele Bündchen are about to call home. (Marshall Heyman, Dec 18, 2020)

    The entire development is private and gated with its own police force and an armed marine patrol that circles the island 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (All the properties are on the water.)

  115. 115.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Bill Arnold: Haha, yes!  Go all weasel words on these weasely fuckers!

    “I didn’t call them ‘fuckers’.  I just left the possibility open that they’re a bunch of fuckers.”

    ETA – Narrator: We all know they’re fuckers.  Fucking fascist Soviet shitpile traitorous Trump trash fuckers.

  116. 116.

    Nelle

    My daughter tells me that there is a flurry of activity on social media about instituting “cross the Rubicon” and other incitement that now is the time.  She’s got a combination of OCD and anxiety/panic disorder and if we were near, I would confiscate all her devices, even though she’s an adult.  Alas, we are a thousand + miles apart.  Anyone see anything about this or is she in some weird internet alley ?

  117. 117.

    Mike in NC

    @Danielx:  Trump allegedly lives by the motto “Always win and always get even”, which was probably drilled into him by his slumlord dad and notorious mentor Roy Cohn.

    The bottom line is that he’s never stopped being a sleazy two-bit New York City mob boss. Cannot wait for January 21st when the indictments will start to come down like a Nor’easter.

  121. 121.

    pamelabrown53

    @Leto:

    LOL re: human look a like Ken doll. I wondered if that fly on his head during the debate was just mired there due to hairsprayed immobility. Now that I think about it he’s more of the Stepford genre…more sinister.

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Delk: huh, I wonder who’s on Brad Parscale’s speed dial these days? Or if Fredo is getting the sense that Daddy will side with Ivanka as to who gets to primary Micro Rubio

  128. 128.

    Brachiator

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    A number of Republicans opposed stimulus in the first relief bill. But the Fed and Treasury favored it. More importantly, Trump wanted to look like a Big Man handing out checks to people, so the GOP fell in line. We stumbled into a good policy which was in some ways another Trump ego trip.

    ETA: Idiot Republicans don’t understand how stimulus works. The Fed has been strongly in favor of stimulus and the Central Bank has been pumping money into the economy in various ways.  It’s not a matter of free market capitalist giants wielding the mighty battle axe of supply and demand.

  129. 129.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Bill Arnold: and @Nelle:

    It’s linked to bizarre Q mythology, but mostly it’s just another stage of the endless goalpost moving as Trump’s followers flail around for excuses to believe it’s not over.  Back during the BLM protests the generals wrote letters publicly saying that the military is not going to get involved in the election, period, end of discussion.  This is just like when the MAGAs were convinced the Supreme Court would overturn the election.  It’s hot air from the desperate in denial.

  130. 130.

    Mike in NC

    @mrmoshpotato: A couple of months ago we were taking a walk through the development and passed a house belonging to a stranger. The car in the driveway had a bumper sticker that read “Reelect Trump and make liberals cry AGAIN!”

    I fantasized returning with a crowbar and giving that asshole something to really cry about.

  131. 131.

    Martin

    @Nelle: Probably not an alley, but also probably not a problem.

    Some social media like Instagram/TikTok don’t really create social bubbles – you kind of get the whole world coming across your screen, so the nutters suddenly become a lot more visible.

    I have the same issue with my daughter. She’ll get worked up over something and declare that the US is imploding and I’m like ‘dear, that’s 11 people in Billings, MT – they couldn’t overthrow a Dunkin Donuts’

  133. 133.

    cain

    @Brachiator:

    I’m wondering if the Dems are going to walk away given this parade of bullshit – and not fund the govt.

    But it’s really time to stop being predictable, you can bet that this was all done with the idea that the Dems are responsible adults and that they will take any shit sandwich because they believe govt should be funded.

  134. 134.

    Martin

    @Mike in NC: So, not that I would ever do such a thing, but it turns out if you take some nice yeasty bread dough, roll it out like a breadstick and freeze it, and shove it up their tailpipe you can do some pretty fun things. In winter, it’ll just sit there until the heat of the exhaust causes it to rise and block off their exhaust on their way to the store. Pretty hard to figure out the cause, too.

  135. 135.

    Bill Arnold

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This is just like when the MAGAs were convinced the Supreme Court would overturn the election. It’s hot air from the desperate in denial.

    Trump is probably marinating in this stuff, depending on who’s still on staff and feeding his mind swamp memes. So that’s a worry. That EO i linked doesn’t look like it would apply but there is probably some fantastical reading of it that ties into emergency powers and a transformation somehow of sanctions against individuals into an election do-over, with tight security to prevent a sufficiently large number of members of the Democratic party from voting.
    I’m afraid to look, mainly because I’d be tempted (e.g. to stir the Q swamp in response).

  136. 136.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Frankensteinbeck: I notice Trump desperately wants a special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden. It just isn’t possible to him that there might be nothing to find.

    Don’t overthink this. Orangecandyass knows Biden is devoted to his family. Therefore the best way to get back at him – to really hurt him – is to destroy his only living child by dragging him through endless investigations and false accusations. And after months of that, when there’s nothing to find, his Trumpistas will just shriek at the top of their lungs that the Deep State destroyed the evidence.

    (On a somewhat unrelated note, I hope Dominion gets its day in court vs that lying bitch Sidney Powell & hoovers up in damages enough of her net worth that she has to move to a cardboard box under a bridge.)

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @cain:

    I’m wondering if the Dems are going to walk away given this parade of bullshit – and not fund the govt.

    You have to fund the government. This is not a game of chicken.

    But it’s really time to stop being predictable, you can bet that this was all done with the idea that the Dems are responsible adults and that they will take any shit sandwich because they believe govt should be funded.

    “Responsible adults” is a metaphor.  We elect these people to run the government. It’s not optional or voluntary.

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore: It goes back further than that. WaPo (referring to a 2000 interview):

    The most famous quote from that article, though, comes a bit further down. Trump’s describing his ultimately abandoned pursuit of the Reform Party’s [2000] presidential nomination.

    Trump had inked a deal with Tony Robbins, the frighteningly upbeat motivational speaker, by which Robbins would pay Trump $1 million to give ten speeches at his seminars around the country. Crucially, Trump had timed his political stops to coincide with Robbins’ seminars, so that he was “making a lot of money” on those campaign stops. “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,” Trump said. …

    It’s always, always been about the grift.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Bill Arnold:

    Trump doesn’t need anyone else to help him marinate.  He’s a toxic narcissist.  It is impossible for him to lose any fair contest, and any action he wants to take is justified.  I absolutely guarantee that he has already asked about the possibility of a military coup and what legal justifications he could use for it.  He has probably asked many times, because he didn’t like that the answer was “That is not possible,” and answers he doesn’t like can’t be true.  He also has no impulse control, and fetishizes dictators.  Martial law would have been his first choice, not his last resort.

  144. 144.

    Bill Arnold

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Therefore the best way to get back at him – to really hurt him – is to destroy his only living child by dragging him through endless investigations and false accusations.

    Does Trump every consider the possibility that there will be revenge for his evils?
    An in-law’s family has a “two year rule”; revenge after two years. They aren’t expecting it, and also, if they’re nasty people, they accumulated a lot of enemies so there is no single obvious suspect.
    Trump has wronged a lot of people. Some of them are more powerful than he, a few are more powerful than he and his allies.

  145. 145.

    cain

    @Brachiator: “Responsible adults” is a metaphor. We elect these people to run the government. It’s not optional or voluntary.

    That’s not how the GOP is looking at it. They are playing chicken and are willing to make sure the Dems get nothing by blowing everything up. They count on exactly this attitude to put them in a corner.

    I’m not attacking the attitude, the govt must be funded – we need to get control of the Senate.

  147. 147.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: The fed missed a big opportunity, though. They could have simply addressed this with a rent/mortgage freeze on all parties from apartment renters through landlords, through banks, and back to them. Simply by turning off the rent seeking chain all the way up to the fed, almost every party would have gotten significant relief. Profits would have gone down, and there are landlords in the middle that might have suffered because they are using the rent to pay their own bills and not a mortgage, but they would have been smaller and easily supplemented with a small stimulus. It would have taken the eye-popping stimulus amounts off the table, and provided the same or better relief,  with less administrative work and chicanery. Mortgages wouldn’t be forgiven, just extended, and if you had the means to keep paying, it would just go to principal, benefitting you more.

  148. 148.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Will Rodgers said of Herbert Hoover: Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He understood that water trickles down. But he did not understand that money trickles up. But these republicans know this. They’ll screw up the country if they think it will screw up Biden.

  149. 149.

    glory b

    @Mutaman: I never understood why people in Wisconsin insist that Hillary would have won if she had made a few more trips there. First, I never understood why anyone needs an in person visit to be :inspired” to vote, and I also note that Feingold was PHYSICALLY THERE for the entire campaign and they didn’t elect him!

  150. 150.

    pamelabrown53

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I don’t think pardoning the Silk Road guy will make liberals cry. It’s a more perplexed WTF!? Maybe, Trump thinks of him as a future hire!?

  152. 152.

    RandomMonster

    @Betty Cracker: I’m not a lawyer, but I am guessing what Jared did was probably legal. Our public corruption laws are as flimsy as a toilet paper fence. Someone should try to fix that.

    Anything illegal will get a pardon anyway.

  154. 154.

    RandomMonster

    @pamelabrown53: I don’t think pardoning the Silk Road guy will make liberals cry. It’s a more perplexed WTF!? Maybe, Trump thinks of him as a future hire!?

    Trump thinks no rich white criminal should ever be punished.

  155. 155.

    Martin

    @pamelabrown53: Worth a read.

    It turned out that Judge Forrest had decided to take part of her lunch break to sentence the Black man for a drug offense for which he had been arrested, and found guilty. From what I could glean, the man had been caught in the Bronx selling cocaine, which he, or his public defendant lawyer, I don’t recall, had tried to explain was the only vocation available to him to feed his family, which included the woman sitting in the courtroom with the crying baby. After a couple of minutes of legalities, without an audience present, or a press gaggle, not even this man’s mother and father were there, the judge sentenced him to a minimum of 25 years in prison for selling drugs. Meaning, he’d be in his 50s when, and if, he got out of jail. In the best-case scenario, that little baby would be his age in that moment when the man was freed. As he was led out of the courtroom by the U.S. Marshals, the woman with the baby rushed out, trying to fight back tears with that little baby in her arms. Ten minutes later, an ocean of white people filled the courtroom again, and Ross Ulbricht’s trial resumed.

  156. 156.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Captain C: Exactly. In fact, don’t even ask or warn him. Just relocate a single military installation, somewhere in Bumfuck WI, and then send a single tweet:

    Tick fucking tock, Senator.

  157. 157.

    jl

    We don’t need a stimulus bill, we need a disaster relief and insurance bill, and the efficiency of a relief bill is much greater now that we have two effective vaccines, and good reason to believe that more will be on the way soon. Life will start returning to normal, or semi-normal sometime this year, either through immunization induced herd immunity, or rendering the disease far less severe by protecting the vulnerable from hospitalization through immunization. So, less reason to believe that some economic sectors will need to be severely downsized over the long term.

    The value of preserving public services, small businesses, restaurants, gyms, employment relationships, housing arrangements, small landlords, tenants’ housing, has vastly increased over the last month.

    And someone, Dems, Biden administration, or maybe even BJ troops calling their Congresscritters, need to point out that the Trumpsters and GOP have been, simply and absolutely wrong about everything over the last 4 years. Actually, it’s decades.

  158. 158.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @pamelabrown53:

    It’s a more perplexed WTF!? Maybe, Trump thinks of him as a future hire!?

    People are begging Trump to pardon the guy.  Trump is heavily depressed, and this kind of sucking up and pleading for his mercy makes him feel strong again.  Nothing else is necessary, although it wouldn’t surprise me if bribes happen somewhere and Trump the lifelong criminal thinks the laws that the guy was prosecuted under are dumb.

  159. 159.

    pamelabrown53

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It’s such an egregious abuse of the special prosecutor system. Hunter Biden never held a government office, elected or otherwise. Any alleged misdeeds should be handily dealt through regular channels.

    Just another example of republicans shattering the norms for themselves while simultaneously working the same system to hurt, wound and destroy democrats.

  161. 161.

    jl

    And BTW, real interests rates have fallen so low that it costs nothing for the federal government to borrow right now. See today’s Big Picture blog. Nothing, zero, zip, nada.

    And there is no evidence, from the economic situation before the pandemic, that we’ll be facing a high real interest rate environment any time soon. Over the short and medium term, we’ll be moving from a zero, or even negative, real interest rate to a low real interest rate environment.

    The DeLong–Summers analysis that, even before the pandemic, more debt used for public investment and economic stimulus will over the medium and long term reduce the national debt burden holds even more today.

  162. 162.

    Jesse

    Remember when we were thinking, as the 2020 campaign was rolling, why in the world isn’t Trump spending more? Looks like we may have a clue.

  164. 164.

    Mary G

    @Obvious Russian Troll: This. Mitch McConnell wants a stimulus bill with checks and letters from Trump to be approved and issued before the January elections to choose Georgia’s senators. He has said that Kelly and David are in trouble if that doesn’t get done. (Link to WaPo Plum Line.)

    So Johnson, who managed to become a billionaire despite being dumb as a stump, has decided that because he’s playing to the rubes about the election and getting a lot of adulation from the deplorables for it, figures two things are better than one and throws a monkey wrench into Mitch’s plans. He’s probably decided to run for president down the line.

  165. 165.

    pamelabrown53

    @Mike in NC:

    Trump’s motto: “Always win and always get even” is partially a joke. He’s lost big and plenty.

    I think the salient point is even while he loses he always punches down and hurts/destroys people of lesser means.

  166. 166.

    cain

    @Martin:

    @cain: I will note that an unfunded government cannot finalize the census.

    Indeed.

    I think what frustrates me is that – you’d think we’d have the leverage here but because GOP doesn’t give a shit about anything and also believes they can blame Dems regardless of outcome – are willing to do whatever.

    I think if they are blocking out – they should go back and remove any pork from Johnson’s district or some others so they get nothing – but boost some other GOP just to fuck with em.

  167. 167.

    jl

    The Kaiser Family foundation has estimated that immunizing the institutionalized elderly (e.g., in nursing homes) will by itself

    More Than 100,000 People Died Of COVID-19 In Nursing Homes, Findings Show

    https://www.npr.org/2020/11/27/939532354/more-than-100-000-people-died-of-covid-19-in-nursing-homes-findings-show

    COVID-19 Has Claimed the Lives of 100,000 Long-Term Care Residents and Staff

    https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/covid-19-has-claimed-the-lives-of-100000-long-term-care-residents-and-staff/

    Which is why the immunization plan is to prioritize this population immediately after health care workers, and get that done by the end of January. Getting that done will greatly reduce the chance of local and regional health care facilities from crashing due to the epidemic. Health system crash is the reason for the most damaging and stringent lockdowns.

    That harm reduction won’t in and of itself end the epidemic or eliminate the economic and social harm. Covid will still be far more deadly than flu, and people will spontaneously hunker down in areas with resurgences, damaging the economy, but reducing chances of health system crashes will be a big help.

  172. 172.

    mrmoshpotato

    @UncleEbeneezer: I REALLY hope this warrants investigation/charges of State Campaign Finance laws.

    Yup!  And when Dump tries to pardon himself of state charges, Tish James can just roll her eyes and call Dump a dumb, orange dumbass.

  177. 177.

    Elizabelle

    I hope that Business Insider story pans out. Recall: BI published some stories sympathetic to the lying ass Tara Reade, Biden accuser.

    Will see who else picks up the story and verifies it.

  181. 181.

    karen marie

    @germy:  Trump may be giving reasons for McConnell to allow investigations of Trump but it’s doubtful that McConnell will.  Why would he start now?

  182. 182.

    Ksmiami

    @Geminid: Biden has to use the emergency powers act and can fund so much through that. And it has the advantages of being true during these times

  187. 187.

    Miss Bianca

    @Martin: They don’t *have* to certify this one, do they? There was so much incompetence, malfeasance and hinkiness on display with the 2020 census that I would argue there’s grounds for the Biden Administration to declare it invalid and do a new one.

  188. 188.

    J R in WV

    @Mike in NC:

    A couple of months ago we were taking a walk through the development and passed a house belonging to a stranger. The car in the driveway had a bumper sticker that read “Reelect Trump and make liberals cry AGAIN!”

    I fantasized returning with a crowbar and giving that asshole something to really cry about.

    Less obvious to just loosen all the lug nuts on one side of the car.

    Not take them off, just loose enough to come off pretty soon. On a really good car, the suspension will keep the driver from feeling all that slack until it’s too late.

    BANG! when the first wheel comes off. Crummy tire shops do this by accident pretty often.

  189. 189.

    PaulWartenberg

    How the FUCK will deregulation and a “competitive tax system” help 15 million Americans who need to pay their rent RIGHT FUCKING NOW?!

    I swear to fucking God, the Democrats need to Baker Act every goddamned elected Republican and force them to explain to a team of psychiatrists how their goddamned trickle-down economy bullshit actually works.

  191. 191.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Mike in NC: I fantasized returning with a crowbar and giving that asshole something to really cry about.

    What a piker. You wanna make that anus weep, sneak over & give him The Dundalk Boot for the holidays:

    An ice-pick in the sidewall.

    Many years ago I knew a guy, not real well, who came out one morning to discover all four tires on his truck had gotten the treatment. He was convinced (but could never prove) his ex’s new squeeze did it . Roughly $1,000 of tires ruined, at a time when a thou was worth a lot more.

  194. 194.

    Matt

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Hardcore cryptocurrency freaks love Ross. They’re also bigtime Trump supporters; turns out they have an affinity for fellow scam artists, human traffickers, and money launderers.

  196. 196.

    Amir Khalid

    @burnspbesq:

    I would not assume that Uncle Rupe jumped a queue to get it. His age alone would put him on any high-priority list for early Covid-19 vaccination.

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