Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

T R E 4 5 O N

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Giving up is unforgivable.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: I Enthusiastically Second These Suggestions

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: I Enthusiastically Second These Suggestions

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269Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Too many people think that we’re not powerful because we’re not all powerful.

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    Damn! Why Dems/Liberals ever think of that? Lucky we get people telling us the F..king obvious. Any ideas Mr. Obvious on how to overcome the issues the thugs erected to stop Dems from voting and the Inferior court of the land both helped them and created more? Now that might be useful.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

    In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes.

    Michael Bloomberg managed to do the same in recent years. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros paid no federal income tax three years in a row.

    ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits.

    Taken together, it demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most. The IRS records show that the wealthiest can — perfectly legally — pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year.

    “Kill the rich.” sounds more and more reasonable every day.

    This part kinda cracked me up:

    Every person whose tax information is described in this story was asked to comment. Those who responded, including Buffett, Bloomberg and Icahn, all said they had paid the taxes they owed.

    A spokesman for Soros said in a statement: “Between 2016 and 2018 George Soros lost money on his investments, therefore he did not owe federal income taxes in those years. Mr. Soros has long supported higher taxes for wealthy Americans.” Personal and corporate representatives of Bezos declined to receive detailed questions about the matter. ProPublica attempted to reach Scott through her divorce attorney, a personal representative and family members; she did not respond. Musk responded to an initial query with a lone punctuation mark: “?” After we sent detailed questions to him, he did not reply.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    Some things you are sorry to learn: Cicadas are peeing on people who walk under trees. Ick.

  10. 10.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    This article is a somewhat overwrought appeal for a wealth tax. I am in favor of raising the top income tax rate on individuals and an increase in estate taxes, but am not sure about a wealth tax.

    The article falsely implies that wealthy individuals are taking special advantage of a tool not available to anyone else. But no one is prevented from buying stocks or other assets, and no one pays tax on unrecognized gains from an increase in value of assets.

    But yeah, we need an overhaul of the tax code to undo the mischief caused by Republicans in 2017 and earlier. This should include the return of a corporate minimum tax.

    I’m not sure whether there should be a wealth tax; most countries that previously tried it rejected it. But I look forward to some interesting discussion on the issue.

  12. 12.

    Spanky

    FWIW, the western DC suburbs around Dulles are cicada hell. It’s much better east of the city where Andrews AFB is.

    Bottom line: AF1 will not have a cicada problem.

  16. 16.

    Spanky

    I was bit in the shower this morning by a tick. I’m lucky enough to have an instant reaction to ticks just like a mosquito bite, so I know they’re there long before they settle in and infect me.

    Anyway, I’d finished the wash and was turning off the water when BAM. Right below my navel, where there was no tick a minute before. Da fuck?

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    The biggest lie your anxiety tells you is that it’s important, that the world will end if you stop being anxious.

    The one that I struggle with is, when in times of challenging circumstances, I assume that it will always be this way, and that the best course of action is to WAIT. I am such an action-oriented person and I don’t WAIT very well.

  19. 19.

    germy

    We’re watching the CBS morning show right now. They just did a segment on the propublica “bombshell” and one of the hosts said the story is surprising, because “we all always believed everyone pulled their weight and paid their full share.”

    I mean, really?  Who is surprised by this story?

    .@AnandWrites says economist Arthur Laffer, through advocacy of supply-side and trickle-down economics, is “an architect of this legacy of misery in this country.”

    Watch Laffer’s response: pic.twitter.com/aGyju73unh

    — The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow) June 9, 2021

  20. 20.

    evodevo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yep…same here in KY…and those really tiny ones have the most notable bite..I react immediately.   It’s hard to get ahold of them, however.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Brachiator: The article falsely implies that wealthy individuals are taking special advantage of a tool not available to anyone else.

    And this is the equivalent of saying “The rich and poor alike are barred from living under bridges.”

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I had totally forgotten this incident until I saw the headline, although I vaguely remember hearing about it at the time:

    Wisconsin Pharmacist Who Tampered With Vaccine Gets 3-Year Sentence

    He bought the entire conspiracy package with all the extras.

    The prosecutor’s memo also described Mr. Brandenburg as a medical professional with a decade of experience who also believed in a host of conspiracy theories. “He believed that the authorities were ‘out to get him’; that Judgment Day was imminent; that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were ‘fake’; that the Earth was flat; that he was a ‘prophet’; and that vaccines were ‘of the Devil,’” Mr. Frohling wrote in the memo. He also wrote that Mr. Brandenburg believed the vaccine from Moderna was “microchipped” and would make recipients infertile.

    It’s scary to think of this delusional nut job dispensing medications. Hell, I’m not sure I’d trust him to put air in my tires. Crikey.

    nytimes.com/2021/06/08/us/spoiled-covid-vaccines.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pg…

  24. 24.

    The Golux

    @Spanky: Tick bites are the worst.  I’ve had four so far this season, and the first one I got is still annoying me occasionally.  (As are the rest.)  They just take forever to heal completely.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SiubhanDuinne: And as it turned out, the govt really was out to get him. But then that’s what is supposed to happen when one breaks the law.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @The Golux: Tick bites are the worst.

    Meh, not for me. Chiggers are far far far worse, a torture straight from the devil’s drawing board.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    Good!

    I’m glad Joe cut off the one-on-one negotiations with Capito. They’ve been counting on Dems to hold onto useless and futile gestures for far too long.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The article falsely implies that wealthy individuals are taking special advantage of a tool not available to anyone else.

    And this is the equivalent of saying “The rich and poor alike are barred from living under bridges.”

    Don’t quite agree.  And I have noted before that the Democrats need to thoroughly review the tax code and undo much of what the GOP did in 2017 with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which created tiers which greatly favors investment and business income over wage income. I would also like to increase the standard deduction so that more lower income people pay no tax at all. I would also increase the Earned Income Credit and take a serious look at universal basic income.

  36. 36.

    Gin & Tonic

    I was amazed by the periodical cicadas when I traveled to MD to see my daughter and grandkids the other day. I’ve lived above their northern extent pretty much my whole life, so had never experienced them. It’s wild. I can see how they can clog up mechanical equipment.

    My granddaughter, just turned six, is fascinated with them.

  37. 37.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Suzanne: It recently occurred to me that being anxious is like believing in magic. If I can just think hard enough about some bad thing I fear and tense enough muscles against it, it won’t happen!

  38. 38.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    Like I predicted, the negotiations are really with the Conservadems.  Same as it was in 2009-10.  All that Biden learned the lesson from Obama trying in vain to work with Republicans was nonsense.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I was amazed by the periodical cicadas when I traveled to MD to see my daughter and grandkids the other day.

    Are these buggies confined to the East Coast?

  40. 40.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: Is that the one who said the vaccine magnetizes people so forks stick to their foreheads?

    I know nut picking is easy and that one at least made me laugh, but crikey where do they find these people?

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    @germy:

    one of the hosts said the story is surprising, because “we all always believed everyone pulled their weight and paid their full share.”

    A brazenly disingenuous comment, if ever I saw one.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I can’t find it now, but there was a Twitter thread last night from a parent whose daughter (9 yo?) had taken photos of dead cicadas posing on her dollhouse furniture (in bed, at the kitchen sink, etc.). The kid’s got a future!

  45. 45.

    germy

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I remember about 20 years ago there were stories about a boy who claimed he was magnetic.  Forks, spoons, etc. stuck to him.  People were amazed.

    Turns out he was just a sweaty, sticky kid.

  47. 47.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’d invite you to come spend a day at work with me and experience it first hand, but total immersion in rwnj-land might not be good for your mental health. Also, head explosions are so messy to clean up.  ?

  48. 48.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    If you are feeling constantly anxious, keep this in mind; 2017 the GOP controlled the government and fucked up it  They had all three branches of government, a lapdog press and they still lost it.  The Republican House couldn’t even pass budgets with out the Democrats voting for it.  These people are fucking losers at their core.

  50. 50.

    germy

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t know if they play dumb for the cameras, or if they’re truly dumb.

    I think they follow the orders of the studio executives.

    Like Lester Holt last night, dutifully pressing Harris on her “failure” to visit the border.  NBC executives basically wanted him repeating Republican talking points, and he was happy to oblige.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    I would have preferred that Biden talk about negotiating with Republicans and all the other reach around across the aisle BS so that all the focus wouldn’t be on the two Democrats.  It’s pretty disheartening to have McConnell and the Republicans get away with their scamming while all the focus is on Manchema.

  53. 53.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Having murdered cicadas by the hundreds on my daily commutes, the notion that they effectively grounded a plane makes me a little sick.

  54. 54.

    randy khan

    @Brachiator:

    This particular brood goes as far west as Indiana, as far north as Michigan, and as far south as the northern part of Georgia, but there are cicada broods as far west as Texas and Oklahoma, and as far south as Louisiana.  Here’s a map:

    Where’s the buzz?

  55. 55.

    captnkurt

    @debbie: All that’s missing from the background of “”””””Dr.”””””” Tenpenny’s super-convincing “it must be true because I saw it on Facebook” speech is Green Shirt Guy laughing his ass off.

    Also, did you check out the embedded TikTok in the middle of that article from RobbsFilms? Stick around till the end…

  56. 56.

    randy khan

    Living in cicada central, I am totally unsurprised that they could cause problems with planes.  It’s hard to describe how many of them there are.

  58. 58.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: There are a whole genre of videos on YouTube of people sticking fridge magnets on their vaccination sites and claiming the vaccine made them magnetic.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: A gal I used to know got frisky with her boyfriend in a field of tall grass. They had chiggers every where.

  61. 61.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Matt McIrvin: Goes along with all the “OMG this snowball wont melt with a lighter, look, soot, its burning OMG” videos.  Quite the demon haunted world they live in.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: I agree about Chiggers. Have you tried Chigarid liquid?

    Smells like Save the Baby, but it really worked for me in Texas where the Chiggers seemed to have Imm sensing radar.

  64. 64.

    germy

    @Matt McIrvin:

    “We could use a man like Herbert Hoover again…”

    Every Friday our PBS station shows Margaret Hoover’s Firing Line, and every episode she treats her guests to a clip of William F. Buckley.

    Margaret would love another Hoover in the White House.

  65. 65.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It recently occurred to me that being anxious is like believing in magic. If I can just think hard enough about some bad thing I fear and tense enough muscles against it, it won’t happen! 

    Oh, absolutely. I find myself doing a lot of magical thinking when I’m having bouts of anxiety. I can usually recognize it, but it sucks.

    Like, right now, with the real estate market being crazy AF, I am really stressed about it. Like, if I want to move back to Arizona, is that gone forever because prices are shooting up? Because, in my mind, that will go on forever. Mortgages are fairly difficult to qualify for ATM, even for people with good credit — that’s obviously going to go on forever, too. So, in short, am I stuck here forever? The idea of not having the option to go back is just incredibly distressing to me right now. And everyone else is able to see that this shit moves in cycles, that I’m good at my job and got three offers during the pandemic, that I need to chill the fuck out. Yet: that is difficult.

  67. 67.

    Cermet

    Ticks are terrible (I got both Lyme and Rocky Mt. Spotted Fever) but as I discovered, Brown Recluse is far worse; one got me in five places – I drained four of the five of venom but the fifth wouldn’t drain. Required surgery to remove the venom. I lost a circle of skin about 1.5 in in diameter but not into the muscle.  I’m lucky, a coworker lost muscle tissue almost to the bone on his left forearm. These critters are bad (to the bone) … sorry for that pun on the song.

  69. 69.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    I’ve started to believe that voter ID is going to happen no matter what. The GOP has used it pretty successfully as a cudgel to claim Dems enable fraud and to restrict access to the polls where adopted. I feel like it would be better to push for making id’s free, accessible, and national instead of fighting it. The Birchers have long been opposed to national Id’s. I wonder if this wouldn’t be a divisive issue on the right.

  70. 70.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: More proof she does not read the comments on this blog. Maybe she could try Chigarid? Or would that stand a chance of getting rid of you?

  71. 71.

    eclare

    @Cermet:  Wow!  What were you doing when you got bit by the Brown Recluse?  I always thought they were, you know, reclusive

    No snark intended, that sounds awful.

  72. 72.

    Soprano2

    @germy: I mean, really?  Who is surprised by this story?

    No one should be, but after decades of Republicans telling everyone that the wealthy pay the most in taxes so that’s why we need to cut their taxes more, it’s not that surprising that some people would be unaware that so many of the wealthy pay little or no income taxes. Can’t think of his name right now, but a man who used to be the tax reporter at the NY Times wrote a book about the tax system; he figured out that when you take all taxes into consideration, not just income taxes like Republicans do, the tax system is pretty much a flat rate system in the U.S. It’s probably worse now, because he wrote it before the 2017 Republican tax cut bill.

  73. 73.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: Oh wow!! That’s what just happened to me during my walk.  I felt wetness but it wasn’t raining and I was walking under some trees. Oh dear!! Shower time.

  74. 74.

    Skepticat

    @Spanky: … so I know they’re there long before they settle in and infect me.

    Please don’t be too cavalier about whether you might be infected. I have lifelong, debilitating afteraffects of untreated Lyme disease because in the early days, before the disease was more common and more commonly understood, even doctors thought a tick had to “settle in” before transmitting spirochetes. Sadly, that’s not true. If you were bitten, you should have a blood test specific to Lyme and even see an infectious disease specialist. I certainly hope you have no problem, but I also hope no one else ever has the issues I’ve dealt with for many years.

  75. 75.

    Starfish

    Some of the accusations of manic progressivism and Eeyorism here seem like gaslighting lately.

    In the run-up to the election of Donald Trump, there was a “don’t panic” sentiment coming from right-wingers because it could not be that bad, and it was much worse than a lot of people imagined. I expected it to be pretty bad because the last time things were not going to be so bad were the George W. Bush forever wars.

    The arguments now are not between the center left and the showboating leftist bros. They are within the  group of people who got Biden elected.

    Now, I am worried that some white folks are saying they are not going to vote for a Democrat again if they don’t get to work because everyone does not have the luxury of living comfortably under the fascist government that Republicans are going to set up.

    I am also worried about the people saying “this is not a big deal, and look at the good stuff they are doing.” Government was not designed to move fast, but there are some problems where we have kicked the can down the road for fifty years, and we need to move with an urgency (on issues like climate change.)

    Too many things may be broken to get it all fixed, but we can’t leave voting rights to Joe Manchin to figure out. It is too important.

  76. 76.

    Soprano2

    @germy: Like Lester Holt last night, dutifully pressing Harris on her “failure” to visit the border.  NBC executives basically wanted him repeating Republican talking points, and he was happy to oblige.

    Yesterday a guy at work asked me when Harris was going to go to the border. I asked him why he wanted her to do a photo op, and he said that she needs to see what’s happening there with her own eyes. I said yeah, then what? How does that make a difference one way or another? He kept insisting she needs to go there. I said yeah, you’ve got your talking points but nothing else. He also won’t get vaccinated, and told me his doctor said he’s young and healthy (early 30’s) and doesn’t need it. I told him he needs a new doctor! Anyway, they’ve got their talking point and won’t come off it. They want pictures of her at the border with a bunch of “those people” crowding around to use, is all. Oh, and I actually think it was brilliant of her to say things that would get her slammed by the Squad – she needs separation between her and them IMHO.

  77. 77.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Brachiator: Yes, and I’m pretty sure if we started taxing unrecognized gains in people’s investments, a lot of middle class people (what’s left of them, anyway) would be pretty pissed off as well.  Most securities are held by the rich, but what the middle class has matters to their finances.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    A Poem for this Thread…

    Ticks are terrible,
    Chiggers itch,
    Spiders can kill,
    Life’s a bitch.

    Don’t leave the house!
    It’s hell out there.
    But inside your head
    Thoughts are hard to bear.

    What to do
    When Cicadas fly?
    When Manchin reigns?
    McConnell won’t die?

    Take a deep breath,
    Scratch that itch,
    Love your loves,
    And tax the rich.

  80. 80.

    Ocotillo

    @germy:  It’s too bad Veep didn’t respond a bit better.  When Holt pressed her and started to say “Republicans say….” she interjected her response at that point.

    What I would like to have heard her say is “there you go Lester, that is a Republican talking point.  They are all about going to the border and posing in their camo outfits and doing nothing.  I am here to work and get things done.  Republicans are all about politicking and posing for photo ops.  Democrats work for the country”

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Cermet: I had a friend who got bit on her thigh. She had a dinner plate sized scar there and it ate deep into the muscle. I knew a tinner who got bit by one on his stomach. I forget how many feet of intestine he lost.

    And yet I have worked in crawl spaces that were lousy with them with no problem at all. Leaves me with 3 hypotheses:

    1) they aren’t very aggressive and one must truly provoke them
    2) I am immune to their venom
    3) They take one look at me and go, “Ew. I’d rather bite a wombat with leprosy.”

  83. 83.

    Starfish

    @Brachiator: Wealthy people do not necessarily have income and do not need to work. We accidentally went to the rich people accountant to do our taxes, and a) it cost a lot of money and b) she had someone getting audited all the time for donating way more than she was making in income because that lady had a lot of generational wealth.

    The only problem with a wealth tax is figuring out how much wealth people have. Primary residences should be excluded so someone who bought a house in California in the 1980s that is now worth millions is not dinged for living in their home. Cars and yachts should definitely be included in the measure of wealth. “I made my third home so ridiculously gaudy that no one else is going to want to buy it” should not be an argument for reducing property tax.

    Now that work is not going to have to be in person for most of the people making $100,000+, I think people in rural areas are going to see what a lot of money looks like because people are building some ridiculous houses in places like Nebraska.

    We do really need a wealth tax because a lot of people do not seem to understand how wealthy the very wealthy are. That type of distortion where some people are starving while other people are trying to figure out which ego will get to the moon first is not great for society. There are going to be a number of children who got orphaned due to COVID.

  84. 84.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Brachiator:

    Agree that a wealth tax is a lousy idea. My ideal tax code would have about a 40% estate tax, a 40% tax on all assets placed into trust, a corporate tax on retained corporate earnings above the aggregate values of dividends, would treat capital gains as ordinary income, would actually favor dividends and would eliminate any deductions related to the purchase and development of real estate going forward. Oh, and I’d eliminate charitable deductions altogether and I’d treat all corporate political/issue contributions as income to the shareholders.

  86. 86.

    germy

    @Ocotillo:

    She explained over and over that her goal is to address the root causes of the migrations.  But the beltway journalists keep returning to the GOP talking point and demanding she stage a photo op instead.

    She and Biden are doing the right thing.  Ed O’Keefe and his associates can flap their arms all they want.

  87. 87.

    Zinsky

    Two comments:

    1. God speed to Joe Biden and I wish him a gaffe-free, solemn but joyful reunion with our European democratic allies.  Let’s hope he can begin healing the wounds inflicted by the habitual abuser and bully, Donald Trump; and,
    2. I am in love with Jennifer Rubin.
  88. 88.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: I’m glad Joe cut off the one-on-one negotiations with Capito.

    Me too, it was a gesture that had to be made but seemed worthless (although now I hear there’s another group negotiating on this, it’ll probably be worthless too because Republicans aren’t willing to actually finance anything). I heard an interview on NPR this morning with Buttigieg, and she continually pressed him on whether Democrats are willing to go it alone with reconciliation, and were Democrats willing to come further toward Republicans to make a deal. Pete was good as usual, staying on message and saying that they want to make a deal if it’s possible but something has to be done. Then she talked to a Republican freshman rep, Carlos Gimenez (why him, he had nothing to do with these negotiations?). She didn’t press him at all about how the Republicans want to fund it with money that’s already slated to be spent somewhere else!  It really felt like she pushed and pushed Pete but didn’t push Gomez at all. These reporters never ask “What is the money you want to spend on infrastructure from the Covid relief bill slated to be spent on? Which programs do you want to defund in order to fund infrastructure spending”? It makes me crazy that not one reporter will ask them this; they assume that because the money isn’t spent yet it’s fair game to redirect it.

  89. 89.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly:A gal I used to know got frisky with her boyfriend in a field of tall grass. They had chiggers every where.

    OMG, that would be so horrible! My mom and sister got them so bad once that they had to go to a doctor to get prescription antihistamines. Those things are straight from hell for sure.

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Good point!

    It seems like you are just not a big itch producer. Neither am I, luckily, but the Immp is. However, fire ants will sting me good if I get bit by hundreds, which I have. Leg acne.

  92. 92.

    geg6

    @Brachiator: ​
     

    The article falsely implies that wealthy individuals are taking special advantage of a tool not available to anyone else. But no one is prevented from buying stocks or other assets, and no one pays tax on unrecognized gains from an increase in value of assets.

    You really should wait a beat or two and think it through before posting a comment that contains this statement. I never thought you were this totally clueless.

  93. 93.

    Soprano2

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I feel like it would be better to push for making id’s free, accessible, and national instead of fighting it.

    I always tell the right wingers I’m ok with photo ID for voting if they’ll also budget money for an effort to help all voters without one get it, for free. They aren’t too keen on that idea. They think everyone already has a driver’s license, so what’s the big deal anyway? I do agree with this, if they’d make the ID’s free and easy to get it would be OK.

  94. 94.

    Immanentize

    @germy: Harris should visit the border crossing at Glacier National and talk to the Agents on both sides about all the Americans illegally trying to sneak guns into Canada.

  96. 96.

    Soprano2

    @eclare:What were you doing when you got bit by the Brown Recluse?  I always thought they were, you know, reclusive

    I got bitten by one that was inside a T-shirt that was hanging on a rack in the hallway at my house. If you live in an older house it’s not that hard to have an encounter with one. Lucky for me, the worst thing I got from it was cellulitis, which was unpleasant but easy to get rid of with antibiotics. I got bitten on my back where there wasn’t much fatty tissue. If you get bitten on a thigh or the butt, though, it can be really bad. Don’t google it if you’re squeamish.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    More from the article:

    So how do megabillionaires pay their megabills while opting for $1 salaries and hanging onto their stock? According to public documents and experts, the answer for some is borrowing money — lots of it.

    For regular people, borrowing money is often something done out of necessity, say for a car or a home. But for the ultrawealthy, it can be a way to access billions without producing income, and thus, income tax.

    The tax math provides a clear incentive for this. If you own a company and take a huge salary, you’ll pay 37% in income tax on the bulk of it. Sell stock and you’ll pay 20% in capital gains tax — and lose some control over your company. But take out a loan, and these days you’ll pay a single-digit interest rate and no tax; since loans must be paid back, the IRS doesn’t consider them income. Banks typically require collateral, but the wealthy have plenty of that.

    The vast majority of the ultrawealthy’s loans do not appear in the tax records obtained by ProPublica since they are generally not disclosed to the IRS. But occasionally, the loans are disclosed in securities filings. In 2014, for example, Oracle revealed that its CEO, Ellison, had a credit line secured by about $10 billion of his shares.

    Last year Tesla reported that Musk had pledged some 92 million shares, which were worth about $57.7 billion as of May 29, 2021, as collateral for personal loans.

  99. 99.

    geg6

    @germy: ​
     
    Don’t know how much prompting he really needs, since he has admitted that he, himself, is a Republican.

  101. 101.

    Soprano2

    @TeezySkeezy: I’m pretty sure if we started taxing unrecognized gains in people’s investments, a lot of middle class people (what’s left of them, anyway) would be pretty pissed off as well.

    I don’t even know how we would do this. A number like this goes up and down constantly. How can you tax them? That would be crazy!

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    @Starfish:
    I do not understand the logic of this:

    Now, I am worried that some white folks are saying they are not going to vote for a Democrat again if they don’t get to work because everyone does not have the luxury of living comfortably under the fascist government that Republicans are going to set up.

    So you’re not going to vote for a Democrat because somehow that will stop the Republicans from setting up their fascist government?

    ETA: I guess you’re saying that white folks are the ones who won’t vote for Democrats, and non-white folks will suffer for it. But the syntax is misleading.

  104. 104.

    Starfish

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    A gal I used to know got frisky with her boyfriend in a field of tall grass. They had chiggers every where.

    You really know how to set up a romantic scene. I would definitely read your novel.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: We don’t have fire ants here, but I got acquainted with them in LA when I laid down on top of a nest to take a snake pic. A lesson well learned.

  106. 106.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: My cousins walked us through a field of tall grass in 1978, when I was a few days pregnant. My aunt realized what they’d done and made us take baths in Lysol, collected our clothing and washed it, and thought she’d saved us. Well, she saved my husband and son, but those little buggers waited for me in the cloth seat of the pickup truck and I felt them crawling up my legs the next day. I had more than 40 bites on my legs, red circles the size of a 50 cent piece, and seriously worried about whether they could cause birth defects. There was no remedy for the terrible itching and pain, as far as anyone knew. (yes, there was, but this other aunt we stayed with acted like I was just a whiner).

    We stopped at a campground a week later and when I went to the swimming pool with our little boy, people looked at the huge spots on my legs and stayed far away from me.

    In all the times I’d visited Missouri I’d never gotten a chigger bite, but we mostly stayed in Independence and KC, away from places with tall grass.

  107. 107.

    Josie

    @geg6: I am glad to see you say this.  I wondered when I read his statement how he could say such a thing.  Those of us who live month to month because we chose a profession (teaching) that doesn’t pay very well and then retired on a pension that pays even less are definitely prevented from doing much investing.​

  108. 108.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I barely get bitten by mosquitoes, while if my husband is outside and there is one mosquito within 500 feet it will find him. I think there are certain body chemistries that some insects are more attracted to. My husband gets bites all the time, while I rarely do. You must not be very attractive to recluse spiders.

  110. 110.

    Soprano2

    @germy: She explained over and over that her goal is to address the root causes of the migrations.  But the beltway journalists keep returning to the GOP talking point and demanding she stage a photo op instead.

    I hope they stick to this and refuse to stage the photo op. The more they resist Republican talking points, the better. Eventually Republicans will move on to something else. From what I read last night, she needs to hire someone like Kent to help her!

  111. 111.

    Spanky

    CNN.com:

    Biden heads overseas as his prospects darken at home.

    And Turtleman smiles his little turtle smile.

  112. 112.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly: I meant to mention something that is kinda funny. One of the big knocks on a wealth tax is how does one afix a value to assets? Which would be an interesting point except that banks do it all the time.

  113. 113.

    eclare

    @Soprano2:  I am the same way as your husband.  I’ve tried the 95% DEET product you can get at Bass Pro.  No effect.  If I go to a backyard party, I just resign myself to the fact that I’ll get 10-20 bites on each leg and don’t wear repellant.  At least that way I don’t stink.

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    @Spanky: clearly, patently, plainly, and beyond per adventure. Although a fair number of students want to review their exams….

    Also, I am hosting a scholarship workshop most of tomorrow. But that is mostly a fun co-taught interactive that I’ve done before.

    The Immp passed his driver’s test yesterday, so more freedom for both of us.

    I have to till the garden plot again, but I’m waiting until tomorrow when the heat is supposed to break.

    Gin and Tonics at my house at 5?

  116. 116.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: Yeah, mosquitos aren’t very fond of me either. Most years I don’t have much trouble with ticks either but this year is an exception. Chiggers… Oh lordy, I have had some epic encounters with them. I’ve learned to avoid their usual hangouts in the warmer months and for those times I must enter those I bring my wife along.

    I have read that Vitamin B-12 is a big help in repelling mosquitos. Your husband might try a daily dose of it.

    ETA black flies and no see ums used to torture me as well but the last time I was in the north country neither was a problem for me.

  117. 117.

    trnc

    @Brachiator:

    The article falsely implies that wealthy individuals are taking special advantage of a tool not available to anyone else.

    And this is the equivalent of saying “The rich and poor alike are barred from living under bridges.”

    …

    Don’t quite agree.

    Which part don’t you agree with? Yes, everyone can buy stock, but Bezos’ billions in stock value add up to vastly more tax breaks than whatever amount of stock the average box store cashier can afford.

    And I have noted before that the Democrats need to thoroughly review the tax code and undo much of what the GOP did in 2017 with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which created tiers which greatly favors investment and business income over wage income.

    This is pretty standard dogma for democrats, and not just for the 2017 tax cuts. It applies to republican tax policy for the last 40 years.

  118. 118.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly:  I started my tax career working on a wealthy man’s estate tax return.  The art appraisers, antique car appraisers, jewelry appraisers, furniture appraisers, etc made a lot of money.  I can’t imagine doing that on a yearly basis.

    I am a jack up the income and estate taxes and fund the IRS person.

    GA phased out their net worth tax while I was there, it was just too costly to administer

    ETA> GA phased it out for individuals, it still exists for corporations.  Those are, like you wrote, straightforward.

  119. 119.

    germy

    @eclare:

    I wish they’d come up with an unscented repellent.

    The perfumes and garbage they add to make the consumer feel like “it’s doing something” just give me a headache.

  121. 121.

    opiejeanne

    @Starfish: Second homes get favorable tax treatment right? That should be gone.

    No, they took that deduction away in 2017, when they fucked with the tax code to put more money in the pockets of billionaires.

  122. 122.

    zhena gogolia

    Really good piece here:

    Boston Globe Editorial Board: The case for prosecuting Donald Trump"Saving American democracy for the long run requires a clear condemnation of the Trump presidency. That means making clear that no one is above the law." t.co/exIA59VrgR— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 9, 2021

  123. 123.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: He also won’t get vaccinated, and told me his doctor said he’s young and healthy (early 30’s) and doesn’t need it.

    Delta says hi…

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: The art appraisers, antique car appraisers, jewelry appraisers, furniture appraisers,

    Where as the market appraises stocks and bonds on a daily basis. Pick a date (Jan 15?) and whatever the price is, is what it’s filed at.

    Nothing is going to be perfect, somebody’s sacred ox is going to be gored, but right now the system is rigged for the ultra wealthy. Saying, “It will be hard…” is not a reason for doing nothing, especially when doing nothing only helps the Bezos and Bloombergs of the world.

  125. 125.

    Hoodie

    @geg6: yes, this is one of those “technically correct, but . . . ” statements you get from apologists for the wealthy and the way the system is rigged to increase their wealth.  A friend’s high school buddy runs a big hedge fund.   From time to time, he sends my friend offers to “let him in” on some lucrative deal that normally requires something like a minimum $1m investment that my friend would not be able to satisfy.   These deals sometimes have rates of return in 20% range, usually because they’re based on inside information, which, of course, is legally massaged to avoid SEC violations.

  127. 127.

    Ken

    @geg6: It does sound a bit like “We were just starting out, and only had a $500,000 loan from Mitt’s father and the income from our two trust funds”, or whatever it was that Romney’s wife said in that clueless interview.

  128. 128.

    Wapiti

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My ideal tax code would have about a 40% estate tax … would treat capital gains as ordinary income…

    My example of the inequity of treating capital gains differently: my FIL had a chunk of money in EE Bonds that he held for 30 years. The gain in value is taxed as normal interest, despite being a long-term commitment of funds and despite being nibbled away at by inflation.

  129. 129.

    OzarkHillbilly

    An amorous cicada, one of billions to emerge from the ground across a swath of the US, has been blamed for a car crash in Ohio.

    The insect, part of a brood that emerges once every 17 years to mate, terrify residents then die, flew through an open car window, according to police, and struck the driver in the face. That caused the motorist to veer off the road in Cincinnati on Monday, striking a utility pole and causing extensive damage to the vehicle.

    The motorist sustained minor injuries, police said. The cicada was declared dead on the scene.

  130. 130.

    Ken

    @opiejeanne: As in the Delta COVID variant, which is more infectious and has more severe effects, including in younger people. The UK is having a lot of problems with it, and it’s currently a small but growing percentage of US cases.

  131. 131.

    germy

    Julien Xavier Neals was nominated by President Obama, then blocked for over a year by Mitch McConnell. Like Merrick Garland, he never even got a vote. Today, he is President Biden's first confirmed federal judge.

    — Swing Left (@swingleft) June 8, 2021

  132. 132.

    dave319

    “Win elections.” Gee, why didn’t we think of that sooner, there, Jen W. Bush–errr, I mean, R. Rubin?
    How about performing this obvious Win feat by fighting like hell to support your principles, instead of pretending normalizing fascism by refusing to confront it is going to be a compelling strategy for getting your voters’ blood up and hot enough to fight the hard fight this actually is? (Tip: It. Won’t. Enough freakin’ Kitchen Table, already.)

  133. 133.

    Baud

    @dave319:

    I wish “win elections” were as obvious a point as it seems to us, but we have historically had difficulty selling that idea to enough of our voters.

  134. 134.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Believe me I agree with your point, but if you enact a wealth tax only on stocks and bonds, I can’t help but wonder what that would do to, say, real estate.  Does Bezos sell some stock and buy a Greek isle?

    I fully support putting together a group to study a wealth tax in detail, I’m just wary of unintended consequences.

  135. 135.

    germy

    Trump Impeachment Lawyers Are Now Representing Capitol Riot Defendants

    Attorneys Michael van der Veen and Bruce Castor defended former President Donald Trump at his Senate impeachment trial over allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection.

    Even as van der Veen, Castor and the Trump defense team called the impeachment “political theater” and ultimately secured Trump’s acquittal, they condemned the rioters for bringing “unprecedented havoc, mayhem and death” to the Capitol. They argued in a legal brief that the rioters’ actions deserve “robust and swift investigation and prosecution.”

    Now, van der Veen and Castor find themselves on the other side of those prosecutions, defending at least three people charged in connection with the Capitol breach.

  138. 138.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have read that Vitamin B-12 is a big help in repelling mosquitos. Your husband might try a daily dose of it.

    Thanks, I’ll suggest that to him. Spiders really like him, too, maybe it’ll help with that also.

  140. 140.

    germy

    Through a tangled web of more than 22 shell companies, Bill and Melinda Gates quietly became the largest owners of farmland in America. Their farmland grows potatoes for McDonald’s fries and carrots and onions that end up in grocery stores. My latest t.co/F1gp9ERj3n

    — april glaser (@aprilaser) June 9, 2021

  142. 142.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: Delta says hi…

    I know, I told him I hope he doesn’t get sick and die just to “own the libs”. He’s married with two young children, you’d think he and his wife would get vaccinated but nope, and his wife is a schoolteacher! I guess I need to tell him about the 21-year-old woman my nurse customer says is in a local hospital ICU, not expected to survive Covid. These young conservatives all think they’re invulnerable to Covid.

  144. 144.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: but if you enact a wealth tax only on stocks and bonds,

    For starters, I’m not saying do only that, what I am saying is the value of stocks and bonds is already set and updated daily/hourly/minutely by the market. As for furniture, art, yachts, jets, etc etc etc, if one doesn’t want to have them appraised every year or 5, don’t own them. Problem solved.

    I can’t help but wonder what that would do to, say, real estate. Does Bezos sell some stock and buy a Greek isle?

    He might well already have one, lots of rich people do own islands. And we already pay taxes on real estate.

    I’m just wary of unintended consequences.

    There are always unintended consequences, nothing is perfect. When they raise their ugly heads, they will get fixed, or not. I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the better.

  145. 145.

    Soprano2

    @eclare:I can’t help but wonder what that would do to, say, real estate.  Does Bezos sell some stock and buy a Greek isle?

    Planet Money did an episode on these tax-free “ports” where the wealthy store the art they bought as an investment. It seems like such a waste, to buy a painting and then store it in a tax-free warehouse somewhere just to avoid taxes. It amazes me what some people will do to avoid the taxman. They’ll spend more money than they would pay in taxes just to avoid paying taxes!

  146. 146.

    geg6

    @zhena gogolia:

    I love Lin Manuel Miranda but I can’t watch Jimmy Fallon.  I don’t care how much I love some of his guests.  I cannot take his immature white guy act.

  147. 147.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Baud: always remember: in 2016, #OurRevolution thought electing their candidate would lead to an American strongman, no different than MAGA thought would come of electing Trump.

  149. 149.

    Jeffro

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:I’ve started to believe that voter ID is going to happen no matter what… I feel like it would be better to push for making id’s free, accessible, and national instead of fighting it.

    I agree with this 100% as long as folks can still vote a provisional ballot and have a window of time to circle back with said ID to validate the ballot.

  150. 150.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The insurrectionists’ defense seems to be “I was told a bunch of lies by Trump!”

     

    (And then they get a text message from Trump:  “Thank you! Can I count on your support?”)

  153. 153.

    opiejeanne

    @eclare:  Aha. Thanks.
    I’ve lost track of the variants in the past couple of months, and I think it might be because I’m vaccinated and I’m not paying as much attention as I did. That’s selfish of me, and I guess it speaks to my privilege.
    I do still worry about the unvaccinated, especially the too young and those who can’t be vaccinated.

  158. 158.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I was just about to type the same thing.  I wonder if this is a strategic choice – that it’s more important to get another senate seat than to get a governorship?

  162. 162.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Soprano2: or even if it is already allocated, as with El Jefe Maximo redirecting dollars for onbase housing in the Defense budget to Wall.

    The lamestream media thought that was hunkydory.

  163. 163.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: Without going back to check, I wasn’t sure who the her and the him were in your comment.  Probably Demmings and Rubio, but I wasn’t sure.

    Then I thought, I’m all for that, it fits pretty much any Republican and Democrat I can think of.

  164. 164.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: a lot of activists are still looking for One Weird Tricks and “OBAMA BIDEN JUST NEEDS TO BE LIKE LBJ!” solutions

    and if this

    How about performing this obvious Win feat by fighting like hell to support your principles, instead of pretending normalizing fascism by refusing to confront it is going to be a compelling strategy for getting your voters’ blood up and hot enough to fight the hard fight this actually is?

    were language that actual voters responded to, we wouldn’t be where we are

  166. 166.

    numfar

    @OzarkHillbilly: You ain’t kidding.

    My cousins and I used to get them when we’re little.  As boys, we would go out in the woods and whenever we needed to pee, we would just go on the nearest tree or bush.

    Every summer, one of us would come home with a chigger on our pecker.  My aunt would give us some fingernail polish and tell us to go to the bathroom and paint the spot where we were bit.  Evidently, it suffocates that little bastards.

  167. 167.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I wish I were a Normie so I could tell if this Demmings ad is as good as I think it is. The fact that she’s leaning into being “a cop” fills my spiteful heart with glee, both because she’s running against the Lawless ex-President and…. for other reasons. And she goes right at Little Marco The Memorizer

    Richard M. Nixon @dick_nixon
    This is an explicit play for the Orlando types who drank a bottle of rye and voted Rubio because Patrick Murphy was corrupt, but their aunt died of the virus, their neighbor has no help with the Social Security…

  169. 169.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @numfar: Evidently, it suffocates that little bastards.

    That is what I was told, growing up, Don’t know if it is just another fable or fact. I can’t even remember if it worked for me, may not have used it due to severe eczema.

  170. 170.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’d also point out — as you know well, living in Misery — that many states have a “personal property tax”. This requires residents to pay a yearly tax on tangible personal property, which mostly means vehicles and farm equipment. Boats and aircraft are already covered, but that could be extended to art, furniture, etc.

  171. 171.

    Soprano2

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose: My understanding is that the unspent money from the Covid bill is already allocated to be spent by the various recipients. The press acts like that money is just sitting there, unallocated, waiting to be spent. It drives me crazy!

  174. 174.

    prostratedragon

    Can I give everyone some advice, as someone who has lived with a lifelong anxiety disorder? The biggest lie your anxiety tells you is that it’s important, that the world will end if you stop being anxious.

    Some of us just try to stay real laid back. A good idea if you have cardio issues.

  178. 178.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: It seems like such a waste, to buy a painting and then store it in a tax-free warehouse somewhere just to avoid taxes.

    You obviously follow the older thinking, that a painting is “art” and so should be displayed so that it can be admired and add beauty to a space.

    Current thinking — at least, among a large fraction of those who buy paintings — is that they are a place to park surplus funds, with reasonable expectation of getting a good ROI when the asset is sold. As such it’s far more important to store the asset under conditions that preserve it and minimize costs including taxes.

    In a way I’m sorry NFTs aren’t taking off, because they might have taken over that role from art, allowing it to come out of the vaults and be admired.

  180. 180.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: I even have to pay PP tax on my chickens.

    That’s your fault for investing your money in chickens.  If you’d used it to buy a Rembrandt or a Matisse, you wouldn’t have any PP tax.

  181. 181.

    topclimber

    @OzarkHillbilly: Back in my MBA days I took several courses on international finance. At the time, many countries demanded that corporations pay a withholding tax on earnings repatriated to their world HQ. If the corporation could prove the actual tax was less than the withheld amount, they could get a refund. If it was more, the local tax authorities would have to make that case.

    The point is: make sure some of the money doesn’t disappear into corporate coffers. Help the taxing country with cash flow during the period between withholding and any legal decision that reduces corporate tax liability to below the withheld threshold. Prevent at least some funds from being held indefinitely pending this or other taxable events.

     

  183. 183.

    germy

    My hair’s back-combed real high and I’m wearing Beatle boots and paisley bell-bottoms. The Weather Channel said today we should dress for the mid-70’s.

    — RUTH BUZZI (@Ruth_A_Buzzi) June 1, 2021

  184. 184.

    germy

    More than three dozen state lawmakers from Arizona have delivered a letter to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, telling her that "more leadership is necessary" to pass the For the People Act.

    "Stand up in this crucial moment for our state and for our country." t.co/lencLfDlKT

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 9, 2021

    Will it work?

  186. 186.

    taumaturgo

    @dave319: How about performing this obvious Win feat by fighting like hell to support your principles, instead of pretending normalizing fascism by refusing to confront it is going to be a compelling strategy for getting your voters’ blood up and hot enough to fight the hard fight this actually is?

    Democrats are great pretenders. They campaign as champions of the little guys and once elected, they governed as conservative defenders of the status quo.

  187. 187.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Despite the difficulties, I could get behind a wealth tax.  Real estate and personal property taxes are paid by many so the concept is not a hard sell. Require the uber rich to compile their asset list and penalize the hiding. The fact that many rich people have little knowledge of what they actually own can fuel some righteous outrage. It can’t be said enough that regular folks cannot conceive of what a billion dollars actually is.

  189. 189.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @randy khan: There are parts of Maryland that were submerged under the sea at some point that don’t have cicadas – the seawater interrupted their reproductive cycle and they died out there. I’m guessing the same thing happened in areas that were buried under glaciers during the last ice age. The NY/PA border through the MI-OH border on west was about where the glaciers stopped during the last ice age and cicadas would not have been able to emerge from permafrost and hundreds to thousands of feet of glacial ice.

  190. 190.

    Ksmiami

    @eclare: I still think reigning in large inheritances could limit the power of legacy wealth like the Koch’s and the Waltons and put a lot of money into government coffers. Plus maybe the offspring of these MOCs would have a chance to be well adjusted people…

  191. 191.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Wapiti:

    The privilege we extend to capital gains in taxation leads to massive fraud in representations of value. If we reverse that and genuinely favor dividends (leading to greater monetary velocity), values would be far more objectively determined.

  192. 192.

    Ksmiami

    @taumaturgo: bs the Democratic Party has given us birth control, voting rights for minorities, the New Deal, the ACA and support during a pandemic. Do political changes move slower in America- yes, but there is only one party mechanism that delivers to the majority and it isn’t the GOP.

  193. 193.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @taumaturgo:

    Reading one of your posts gives me the same feeling I get every time I hear a radio station play “Hey Jude” (well, really, anything from the entirety of the Beatles catalog): shopworn, boring, overplayed, tired.

  194. 194.

    eclare

    @Ksmiami:  That is why the estate tax was enacted, to curtail legacy wealth.  It is way too easy to get around with various trust and partnership schemes.  Plus the exemption is way too high.

  195. 195.

    taumaturgo

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Democrats are great pretenders. They campaign as champions of the little guys and once elected, they governed as conservative defenders of the status quo.

  200. 200.

    Kelly

    @Brachiator:Are these buggies confined to the East Coast?

    Arizona has cicadas. I don’t know their life cycle but I spent a very hot day at the bottom of Grand Canyon where the only shade was under trees full of the noisy, drippy bugs

    Updated to add: Arizona cicadas appear annually.

  201. 201.

    evodevo

    @Soprano2: ​
      Yep…been there, done that. chiggers go after me and not Mr. Evodeo, and mosquitoes go after him and not me. Must be body chemistry is all I can figure… AND you can’t scratch many of the chigger bites in public LOLOL – they LOVE underwear…

  205. 205.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Brachiator: ​
     

    The article falsely implies that wealthy individuals are taking special advantage of a tool not available to anyone else. But no one is prevented from buying stocks or other assets

    “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread”

  206. 206.

    zhena gogolia

    The Google Doodle is Shirley Temple today. Unfortunately, the visuals don’t look like her at all.

  209. 209.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax:

    Do you remember Louis Nye’s catchphrase “Why not?” on Steve Allen? I can’t remember why he said it, I just remember everyone parroting it when I was a kid. It’s not on YouTube anywhere that I can find. They have Don Knotts.

  210. 210.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Winning more elections is key to just about anything we want to see happen. I am all for a wealth tax, for instance, but this Congress will not pass one. Maybe we’ll see a wealth tax enacted later this decade, but not until the Democrats win another couple election cycles. Same with universal background checks for firearms purchases, and probably a half-dozen other initiatives. This may be frustrating, but I think it’s a fact. I also believe we can win the next four election cycles. We more or less have to win them anyway, or the Republicans will just tear down what progress we make this Congress.

  214. 214.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    I’m thinking bigger when it comes to a national ID. It should not be done at the state level. A national ID would replace social security cards and the id’s needed to travel to Canada or the Caribbean. This is would make it easier to catch wealthy white retirees who vote in two states where they own property.

  216. 216.

    dnfree

    @Brachiator: there are different broods in different places that emerge different years. Ours in the Chicago area aren’t until 2024 again. I think most are 17 years but some have adapted to do 13 years.

  219. 219.

    CaseyL

    George Packer has an interesting article in The Atlantic. He posits 4 American “movements” shaping the country and its politics right now. He describes their rise and characteristics fairly well.  Being George Packer, it’s all pretty much “obvious in retrospect” analysis; and he’s less useful for pointing a way forward.  But an interesting article, and he does make some good points.

  222. 222.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    she wasn’t on my list of possible suspects, but I’m curious as to why she chose to go public with this at this moment. A few weeks ago, there was a lot of chatter about Catherine Cortez Masto being in a vulnerable seat, then that died down. I wonder if this is some kind of indirect protection

    Zach C. Cohen @Zachary_Cohen 2h
    Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) tells ⁦ @JaxAlemany ⁩ she’s unwilling to eliminate the filibuster. “I think we just have to continue to talk and to be open and allow people to see that healthy debate on the floor and we’ll just go from there.”

  223. 223.

    germy

    @germy:

    What I found most depressing was how young Laffer looks.

    I expected him to be a wizened nonagenarian, but he gives me the impression he’s got decades more to spread his… wisdom.

  224. 224.

    The Moar You Know

    Is there any possibility that you could learn just one new note?

    @Omnes Omnibus: no shit. It’s like listening to “Ode To Joy” being played on an apartment buzzer.

  233. 233.

    zhena gogolia

    @Old School:

    The “Why Not?” tag line got so famous that a writer for the Los Angeles Times claimed in 1960 that it had subconsciously become part of the language. Allen appeared in an Off-Broadway musical revue called “Why Not?” in 1960 and that same year released a comedy album called “Why Not?” He also used the line in television commercials. The craze lasted about a year then disappeared with barely an echo.

    Only in my feeble brain! I thought I had imagined the whole thing.

  234. 234.

    Geminid

    @germy: Conservatives seem to value this theory a lot, but a lab leak origin of Covid-19 is a very spurious defense for trump’s lazy and inneffective response. If anything, it makes his culpability greater. It’s another diversion, but diversions are all they’ve got.

  236. 236.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: as several people have pointed out, their stance is “Covid was just the flu and it was all overblown by Fiendish Dr Fauci as part of his fiendish plot to force Americans into lockdown (step 2: ???; step 3: Profit! Power?), and it was a secret plot by the Heathen Red Chinese to bring America to its knees, and Fauci was in on it (because he wanted to give money to the Wuhan lab because [see above?])

    but it’s exactly the kind of incoherent Monsters-on-Main-St jabber that’s like a speedball to their audience

  237. 237.

    Ken

    @Geminid: “So, instead of just being incompetent at handling a pandemic, he also did nothing when the US was attacked by biological warfare?”

  238. 238.

    Old School

    Outside the box thinking:

    ORBITS: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) asks whether the Forest Service or the BLM can alter the orbit of the moon or the Earth in order to fight climate change during a House Natural Resources hearing

  239. 239.

    Soprano2

    Boy, I just watched last night’s Rachel Maddow show, and she is not optimistic. She went through all the inexplicable things the Department of Justice is doing right now, and it was discouraging. Why aren’t they doing more about what’s happening in Arizona, where the Republicans are clearly breaking federal laws? Why do Democrats send so many sternly-worded letters, but not do much else? It’s crazy! I understand what the E. Jean Carroll thing is, and that they really didn’t have a choice about it, but some of the other stuff is discouraging. The Senate just confirmed Biden’s first judicial pick – the first one! I hope they have a plan to move quickly on those, because we are one senator away from Mitch McConnell having control of that again. Sometimes I wonder if the Democrats in the government understand how much urgency they need to have on things like this, and feel that they don’t. Things are not the way they were in 2009 anymore, and too many of them don’t seem to understand that.

  241. 241.

    Ken

    @Old School: I could almost see someone stupid enough to ask NASA about changing the orbit of the Earth, but the Forest Service? That’s gone beyond stupidity into mental illness.

  243. 243.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Geminid: This is my take on it too. If there was a lab leak (still unlikely, never going to be provel) then it makes Trump’s behavior even worse.

    He fucked up the covid response enormously. And he implied repeatedly that it wasn’t a leak, it was purposeful. So let’s say there was an accidental lab leak of a natural virus – now what? Trump’s response doesn’t look better. And he made things worse by making accusations against China, making international relations worse and not getting anything for it.

    So he flubbed the foreign policy portion of it too, even worse than he did in the more likely “not a lab leak” scenario.

  244. 244.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Conservatives and their media patrons have this theory that if liberals have to acknowledge that if Trump wasn’t 100% wrong on everything, he can’t credibly be accused of being wrong about anything.

  247. 247.

    Immanentize

    @MisterForkbeard:

    “The lab leak scenario,” which is a great way to describe it, is merely a way to create a narrative of being attacked so we can find our enemy. Like the Maine. Or the Gulf of Tonkin, or Iraqi WMDs….

    Even if plausible, highly unlikely. But highly useful to catapult the propaganda.

  250. 250.

    prostratedragon

    @Soprano2:  Is it the times, or just these individuals I wonder. Back when the Salk vaccine came out, my parents, a minister and a schoolteacher both in their early 30s, actually got their shots before I did (I think as in the present case the vaccine wasn’t approved or at least dosed for children for about a year). When we kids finally could get it, there was literal rejoicing.

  251. 251.

    Starfish

    @zhena gogolia: What I am saying is that white folks are more prone to “I am not voting because the perfect candidate did not show up for me.” This is Susan Sarandon level nonsense.

    There are also people of color who had a huge turn out for white candidates who are giving them nothing. I think there was a strong Native American mobilization for Sinema. Those voters deserve better so the way that the party apparatus may support her for being an incumbent may harm the Native American voters who deserve a better candidate.

  252. 252.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

     I meant to mention something that is kinda funny. One of the big knocks on a wealth tax is how does one afix a value to assets? Which would be an interesting point except that banks do it all the time.

    Of course, in current America, the same Blacks whose houses get undervalued (compared to White folks’ houses) by appraisers (when applying for a home equity loan or similar), will find the value of their assets magically shooting past that of Whites, when wealth/asset taxes are involved.

  254. 254.

    catclub

    @Ken: Exactly. We were attacked by an enemy (according to them) and we did EVEN LESS to respond to it.

  258. 258.

    Dopey-o

    @OzarkHillbilly: ChigaRid is applied after the agony commences. IMHO it is 90% effective at calming the itching sensation.

    also good is using a lit cigarette to break down the anti-coagulant component of mosquito bites, which causes the itch.

  259. 259.

    Subsole

     

    @Soprano2: A lot of journalists think “doing something” and “doing something flashy and exciting that I can sit and talk about for 30 minutes to boost my numbers” are the same.

  260. 260.

    Subsole

    @Old School: I actually think we could do it, if we ditched some starboard ballast.

    Fire Gohmert into orbit.

    As a proof of concept.

  261. 261.

    Subsole

    @taumaturgo:

    Oh, hey! There you are!

    Never saw your response when I asked for suggestions or constructive action. Figured you just needed some time to think on it.

    So.

    Whatcha got?

    I bet it’s supergood.

  262. 262.

    SWMBO

    @Spanky: ​
      Many years ago my mom was bitten by a tick. She kept going downhill and was getting weaker and weaker. Just after this, my dog got ticks and I got one off her (probably). The dog was diagnosed by the vet with ehrlichia. Pixie was on antibiotics for this for about 6 months. My mom was still going down so I looked up ehrlichia to see if it was zoonotic. It is (ehrlichiosis in humans) and mom had every one of the symptoms. Her doctor had sent her to every specialist she could think of to try to help her. Mom would get sick (bronchitis or something), they would put her on an antibiotic and she would get better for a while. When she finally convinced the doctor that she needed to be tested for a tick disease that wasn’t Lyme or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, it took 6 weeks to get the test results because there was only one or two labs in the country that could culture it and diagnose it in humans. They started my mom on doxycycline and on the first day, she said she felt a little better. The second day, she thought it was working. The third day, she didn’t feel like she was dying and she might actually make it. She was on doxycycline for 10 months before she got a negative test result.
    You have to wait 30 days after the tick bite to build up enough of the germ to be detected (even in dogs). Don’t know where you live but my mom lived in southern Jefferson County Missouri, which according to the CDC, said was near the epicenter of the country’s tick disease (Boone County Missouri).

  263. 263.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    I even have to pay PP tax on my chickens.

    Get away!!! No way on a bunch of yard birds. Now if it’s 6 giant chicken ranch buildings full of birds, maybe. But 3 or 4 dozen yard birds? No way!! Misery must really suck!

  265. 265.

    SWMBO

    @eclare: ​
     
    My brother is a corrections officer and he got bit at work. He was going to the bathroom and it got him just above his butt crack. He went to the doctor immediately and was on antibiotics. Less than a week later, he thought he was having a heart attack. Nope. It was the venom working its magic. He was in the hospital for 4 days after they removed about 4 inches of infection. They left a drain in and put him on IV antibiotics for it. The only good thing he said was you knew instantly when you were bitten.

  266. 266.

    J R in WV

    We keep a prescription of doxycycline on hand for wife, who attracts ticks from me. I would say she gets half a dozen ticks for every one I get, and I tend to remove them even in my sleep nearly. She also got a series of spider bites on her leg that tore her up! She’s on Doxycycline right now.

    The ticks ride in on the pups, if they’re on the dog long enough the oral anti-tick meds the dogs take will kill them, but sometimes they’re only on a dog for a few minutes, then loose in the house. Recently we’ve started having Lone Star ticks, which have a cute little white spot, the lone star, on their back. Not really cute, nothing about poisonous bugs is cute.

    We drop the ticks into alcohol, then flush them in the morning.

    You guys should put Taumaturgo in your pie filter, he isn’t ever going to say anything that you want to see. Works for me!!

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