Feb 18, 2017

Just In Case

...that Pruitt schmuck actually kills the EPA, I wanted to put up some tiny little tribute to some of the reasons we managed to clean up after ourselves.

Pollution --Tom Lehrer



Garbage --Biff Rose


The story goes that LBJ liked to work with the windows open when the weather was nice, but he couldn't because the prevailing winds brought the stench of the Potomac into the Oval Office and he wanted something done about it.

Two years after Johnson was gone, people had pressured their Congress Critters enough to finally move Nixon to issue an Executive Order in 1970 creating the agency, which was followed by the legislation that would flesh it out and basically create a cop who was supposed to keep the bad guys from poisoning us.

The air got less shitty, the water got better, there was less crap in the soil that ended up on our dinner plates. The Cuyahoga river stopped catching fire. And Lake Erie went back to being something less like a sewer and more like a reason to move to Cleveland (OK, that one's a bit of a stretch - but hey, LeBron likes it there).

Here's the thing: The infrastructure of good government never comes easy, and once it's gone it can be even harder to get it back.

And BTW, a cleaner environment is really good for the economy.

There's no sense in having a job that makes you too sick to work.

And how big does a paycheck have to be to make up for the lousy feeling you get watching your kid gasp for air, and realizing the work you do could be causing that kid's asthma to get worse?

Like they say - the guys who put Scott Pruitt where he is don't like having the EPA around for the same reason muggers and thieves don't like having cops on the beat.

Here It Comes

The Daddy State is rolling along in spite of what we can see on the surface.

Vox:
Report: Trump transition ordered government economists to cook up rosy growth forecasts
The Trump University economics department strikes again.
Updated by Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias matt@vox.com
Feb 17, 2017, 2:19pm EST
As the White House staff tries to put together a budget for President Donald Trump, they face a fundamental problem. Trump has promised to cut taxes, increase spending on the military and infrastructure, and avoid cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The only way to do that without producing an exploding budget deficit is to assume a big increase in economic growth.
And Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is planning to do just that — by making things up.
Deep into his story about Trump budget hijinks, Timiraos reveals that “what’s unusual about the administration’s forecasts isn’t just their relative optimism but also the process by which they were derived.” Specifically, what’s unusual about them is that they weren’t derived by any process at all. Instead of letting economists build a forecast, Trump’s budget was put together with “transition officials telling the CEA staff the growth targets that their budget would produce and asking them to backfill other estimates off those figures.”
And all that crapola falling out of 45*'s Putin Receptacle about Fake News?

Isolate your devotees from outside influence. Give them a comforting substitute for reality.

I'm not going to indulge the ridiculous notion that 45* is playing some amazing 8-Dimensional Chess - that's not something Obama could do, and it sure as fuck ain't something 45* could handle.

That's not to say this shit happens by accident, or that he's not capable of subtlety - just that 45* does what he does with a purpose in mind and it all ends up pretty much out in the open because he can't help bragging about it. And that's the key. 

The Authoritarian has to keep score. He has to be able to point to what he's done and count something (rally attendance, Electoral Votes, dead Jews) because he has to show you how great he is as a boss, or to show the boss what a good little follower he is.

And when he runs up against the contradictions he creates (which always in turn create massive fuckups), he just makes shit up so the "facts" will fit around the required outcome.

Keep watching. Keep pushing back.

Today's Tweet



And this goes along with a tweet thread from a guy (Georgetown Law Adjunct, and Fellow at a DC Think Tank) observing the FUBAR attempts to fill 45*'s NSA spot, to wit:
"Harward just gave cover for every NatSec Pro who wants to pass on it."
"Offers and refusals for spots at NSC at every level, including DAS & Sched C" (Dept of Administrative Services - Sched C = Policy and Support Staff)
"The feeling is that wanting the job proves you're unsuitable for it."
Fine-tuned machine my fat wobbly ass. 

Professional Left Podcast

Episode 376: The Trump White House Is Splunge!








Feb 17, 2017

Syria Today

 Warning - this is not pleasant 

Just a little something to fuck up your weekend in case you're contemplating supporting 45*'s possible intention to throw in with Putin and Assad.

This is the shittiest thing I've seen since the Nick Berg beheading - don't watch it if you're not prepared for the worst.

Not kidding.

This is bad.


A barrel bomb is a type of improvised explosive device used extensively by the Syrian Air Force during the Syrian civil war. They are typically made from a barrel that has been filled with High Explosives, along with shrapnel and/or oil. In Syria they are typically dropped from a helicopter.

Today's Quote

"There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous."
--Raymond Chandler

hat tip = FB friend Mikell Hanes

Back To The Roots



A million more votes for Democrats.  Thirty-three more seats for Repubs. That's not democracy.

Today's Wingnut


Well, that's a little scary.

What He Meant

Today's Tweet