Well, it wasn’t going to be Chuck Todd, was it? Good for SNL.
Election 2016
Evening results open thread
The afternoon results are in. Anti trump strategic voting seems to have been going on in Maine. Cruz has had a very good weekend.
And now we wait for the evening results.
Be excellent to each other.
Protesters Violently Ejected from NOLA Trump Rally (Updated)
This sort of thing keeps happening:
Via Gawker:
Several protesters were dragged out of a Donald Trump rally in New Orleans last night by his security personnel. Rally attendants yelled “all lives matter” and shoved them as they were being forcibly ejected.
“Secret service and Trump’s security team were part of that crew, but so were civilians, who were allowed to push, kick and shove the protesters,” says freelance reporter Amy K. Nelson who captured this video from inside the crowd at Lakefront Airport.
Meanwhile, the Dumbest Man on the Internet re-ups the license to that title:
That’s some up-is-downism worthy of America’s most persecuted religious group: Evangelical wingnuts. Seriously, though, it’s almost inevitable that the Trumpenproletariat are going to maim or kill someone at one of these rallies. And Il Douche will be smirking from the stage when it happens. Scary shit, y’all.
ETA: Via valued commenter Tripod:
Donald Trump makes members of his Orlando crowd raise their right hands and swear to vote in the primary. pic.twitter.com/EVenRilJrV
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) March 5, 2016
Holy goose-stepping FSM…
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Late Night Open Thread: Have the Kochs Chickened Out?
Kochs won't fight Trump https://t.co/aV00HyvZe0
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) March 3, 2016
Or — parsimonious businessmen that they are — do they just figure Trump’s doing their job this election cycle?
From the Reuters article:
… The decision by the billionaire industrialists is another setback to Republican establishment efforts to derail the New York real estate mogul’s bid for the White House, and follows speculation the Kochs would soon launch a “Trump Intervention.”…
Three sources close to the Kochs said the brothers made the decision because they were concerned that spending millions of dollars attacking Trump would be money wasted, since they had not yet seen any attack on Trump stick.
The Koch brothers are also smarting from the millions of dollars they pumped into the failed 2012 Republican presidential bids of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, the sources said…
This seems consequential https://t.co/KbjAvTDSb8
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) March 3, 2016
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I Give You All I’ve Got to Give, Rings and Pearls and All
Here’s a depressing read about the absolute fucking disaster that is Louisiana:
Initially, Jindal had been able to cut taxes because Louisiana was buoyed by billions in federal money, an influx to help with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. But as that money ran dry, Jindal said he would veto any bills that would push taxes back up to where they had been. Instead, to plug budget gaps, Jindal relied not just on cuts, but also on controversial, one-off fundraising methods. The state sold off assets, including parking lots and farmland. It cleaned out money from hundreds of trust funds — among them, one intended to build reefs for marine wildlife. It pieced together money from legal settlements.
***The math, now, is daunting: For the fiscal year ending June 30, Louisiana is facing a $940 million deficit, roughly one-eighth of what the state typically doles out from its general fund in a year. For 2016-17, which begins July 1, the gap is $2 billion.
“This was years of mismanagement by a governor who was more concerned about satisfying a national audience in a presidential race,” said Jay Dardenne (R), the lieutenant governor under Jindal who is now the state’s commissioner of administration. Dardenne said Jindal had helped the state put off its day of reckoning in a way that mirrored a “Ponzi scheme.”
Dardenne was elected separately from Jindal and said he wasn’t “part of his inner circle.”
Jindal suspended his presidential campaign in November, saying he couldn’t stand out in a “crazy, unpredictable election season.”
On Jindal’s watch, nearly every agency in Louisiana shed employees, and state lawmakers say some teetered because of the losses. The Department of Children & Family Services shrank to 3,400 employees, from 5,000 in 2008, and social workers began carrying caseloads above national standards. The state also cut funding for youth services and mental health treatment.
“When you cut those programs, it doesn’t change the need for people to get those services,” said Walt Leger (D), a state representative. “It just means you’re no longer providing them. Those folks end up in jail or wandering the street, not being treated for mental health issues, and all of those things have a huge societal cost.”
In recent days, lawmakers have zeroed in on a plan that would somewhat narrow the deficit for the rest of this fiscal year but barely make a dent in the $2 billion gap for next year. Lawmakers would raise sales and cigarette taxes while dipping further into a rainy day fund. They would also use settlement funds from BP, the company responsible for a 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Still, massive cuts would still be required for hospitals and universities.
The same thing, of course, has happened in the other state where the conservative ideal for fiscal governance has been implemented, and it’s a god damned train wreck, too:
Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s aggressive tax cuts have come back to haunt him. In the latest move to make up for a massive state deficit caused by his economic policy, Brownback plans to cut nearly $45 million in funding for public schools and higher education in his state by March.
Brownback shared his plans for the current budget cycle on Thursday ahead of a Senate vote on a bill aimed at eradicating a $344 million deficit projected for the end of June. More than half of the money would be taken from funding for K-12 schools, and take place as soon as March 7, The Associated Press reported. The cut would also affect Kansas colleges and universities. Top Republicans said lawmakers need to agree on a solution to fix the budget by Feb. 13 to make sure the state pays its bills on time through the summer months.
Brownback spent his first term slashing taxes for the rich, promising it would lead to boom times for everyone else. Brownback’s “real live experiment” was supposed to lift Kansas out of the recession and into economic prosperity. The tax breaks instead led to debt downgrades, weak growth, and left the state finances in shambles. The Republican-led legislature in his state previously celebrated his massive tax cuts, but his action landed the state’s budget in shambles when it didn’t boost the economy like he’d hoped.
In his State of the State address last month to kick off his second term, Brownback announced that he would pursue tax increases, reversing his past policy. Republicans are also calling for higher taxes on cigarettes and liquor as part of the annual budget.
My own state has a budget hole that the legislature is going to blow open worse next year as they expand tax cuts for energy producers, and up north in Pennslyvania, Gov. Wolf is trying to clean up Corbett’s mess but Republicans are having a god damned siezure over raising the personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 3.4 percent. You read that right. from .0307 to .034. Meaning for every hundred dollars of taxable income, your income tax rises from $3.07 to $3.40. For the median income in PA, that is basically 150 bucks a year.
So while we are all freaking out about the Drumpf the Insult Comic Hairpiece talking about his dick- and don’t get me wrong, he’s a fucking head case and a fascist, it’s worth remembering that the sane Republicans are batshit fucking insane. The sane Republicans don’t even pass the Jon Rogers legendary 2004 “I miss Republicans” test.
How about someone in the media point that shit out? How many more times are we going to have to go test these failed policies that hurt people and the nation before we stop? As Charlie Pierce has quipped, “the thing about lab rats is that most of them die.”
I Give You All I’ve Got to Give, Rings and Pearls and AllPost + Comments (163)
Friday Evening Open Thread: Big Mouths, Small Bores
Trump reverses stance on ordering military to break international laws https://t.co/LRaLGTScTN
— Todd Tucker (@toddntucker) March 4, 2016
First woman gets within winning distance of the Oval Office, and the Repub men leap from sabre-rattling to literally bragging about their mighty weapons, in front of a live audience and an appalled world….
Thing is, this is news. The likely Republican candidate conceding he won't deliberately commit war crimes is news. https://t.co/r2cgY2rE53
— Alan Beattie (@alanbeattie) March 4, 2016
Every time @realDonaldTrump is challenged on foreign policy, his personal wall of bulls**t gets ten feet higher.
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) March 4, 2016
He is the best negotiator, mostly with himself and his positions. https://t.co/Wv9y6gzGPu
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) March 4, 2016
Won’t somebody think of the GOP children?!?…
Every negative stereotype I have tried to combat for the last 8 years about republicans has been utterly destroyed in the past 9 months.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 4, 2016
***********
Apart from #facepalm, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Friday Evening Open Thread: Big Mouths, Small BoresPost + Comments (131)
I’ve Been Saying This Since Day One
Good germans. The moment HRC has the nomination Red State will be all in for Trump and so wil the rest of them.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) March 3, 2016
Texas Lt. gov just said he and all good Republicans will support Trump if he wins. They’ll fall in line, I’m telling you.
Good Germans.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) March 2, 2016
By the way, I predict that even if Mr. Trump is the nominee, pundits and others who claim to be thoughtful conservatives will stroke their chins and declare, after a great show of careful deliberation, that he’s the better choice given Hillary’s character flaws, or something. And self-proclaimed centrists will still find a way to claim that the sides are equally bad. But both acts will look especially strained.
Google Kubler-Ross, peeps. Anyone who thinks this election is going to see enormous Republican cross-over for Hillary or Bernie to protest Trump needs their fucking head examine.