Today's Pix

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Today's Tweet

Everything old is new again.

Sounds familiar doesn't it?? pic.twitter.com/LdqrqqeSKP

— Hear Me Roar (@Stop_Trump20) October 2, 2019

Do Something Nice

Humans can really fuck things up - and that's exactly what we've been doing.

But we have the capacity to make things right too. Maybe we should do that more often.

I will never be in the camp with people who say idiotic things like "Well, maybe electing Trump was actually a good thing because the backlash against him will give us a great chance to make things better when he's gone."

Fuck that shit. I'm not stupid enough to think it's OK for some kid to die horribly in a car crash so we can feel righteously motivated to make the improvements in passenger safety that we knew all along would prevent that kid from being killed in the first fuckin' place.

We know what to do.

We know how to do it.

So let's get it done.

Today's Tweet

Cult45's phone calls to Ukraine are not about some valiant effort to help them drain their swamp.

Would anyone saying POTUS held up aide to Ukraine due to “corruption” like the names of at least 10 countries we provide more funds to that are more corrupt? That’s pretty easy to do.

— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) September 25, 2019

Here's that list (low score wins - like golf):

The top 25 most corrupt countries according to the CPI are:

1. Somalia (Corruption Perception Index Score: 9) 
2. South Sudan (Corruption Perception Index Score: 12) 
3. Syria (Corruption Perception Index Score: 14) 
4. Afghanistan (Corruption Perception Index Score: 15) 
5. Yemen (Corruption Perception Index Score: 16) 
6. Sudan (Corruption Perception Index Score: 16) 
7. Libya (Corruption Perception Index Score: 17) 
8. North Korea (Corruption Perception Index Score: 17) 
9. Venezuela (Corruption Perception Index Score: 18) 
10. Iraq (Corruption Perception Index Score: 18) 
11. Turkmenistan (Corruption Perception Index Score: 19) 
12. Angola (Corruption Perception Index Score: 19) 
13. Eritrea (Corruption Perception Index Score: 20) 
14. Chad (Corruption Perception Index Score: 20) 
15. Tajikistan (Corruption Perception Index Score: 21) 
16. Republic of Congo (Corruption Perception Index Score: 21) 
17. Democratic Republic of Congo (Corruption Perception Index Score: 21) 
18. Cambodia (Corruption Perception Index Score: 21) 
19. Zimbabwe (Corruption Perception Index Score: 22) 
20. Haiti (Corruption Perception Index Score: 22) 
21. Burundi (Corruption Perception Index Score: 22) 
22. Central African Republic (Corruption Perception Index Score: 23) 
23. Madagascar (Corruption Perception Index Score: 24) 
24. Guinea-Bissau (Corruption Perception Index Score: 27) 
25. Equatorial Guinea (Corruption Perception Index Score: 27)

However, there are other surveys available that provide different rankings. The 2018 Best Countries rankings from U.S. News and World Report takes a look at survey data from over 21,000 citizens. Eighty countries are featured on this list. This survey shows that Nigeria is seen as the most corrupt nation. Colombia and Pakistan round out the top three.

The top 10 most corrupt nations according to the 2018 U.S. News and World Report rankings are:

1. Nigeria
2. Colombia
3. Pakistan
4. Iran
5. Mexico
6. Ghana
7. Angola
8. Russia
9. Kenya
10. Guatemala

GOP Fuckery

WaPo:

DETROIT — Poor people in Michigan with asthma and diabetes were admitted to the hospital less often after they joined Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. More than 25,000 Ohio smokers got help through the state’s Medicaid expansion that led them to quit. And around the country, patients with advanced kidney disease who went on dialysis were more likely to be alive a year later if they lived in a Medicaid-expansion state.

Such findings are part of an emerging mosaic of evidence that, nearly a decade after it became one of the most polarizing health-care laws in U.S. history, the ACA is making some Americans healthier — and less likely to die.

The evidence is accumulating just as the ACA’s future is, once again, being cast into doubt. 

The most immediate threat arises from a federal lawsuit, brought by a group of Republican state attorneys general, that challenges the law’s constitutionality. A trial court judge in Texas ruled late last year that the entire law is invalid, and an opinion on the case is expected at any time from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The case could well put the ACA before the Supreme Court for a third time.

Dirty Tricks

My favorite new "conservative" trigger?
Tell 'em you think Trump is too stupid to commit treason and watch as they try to figure out which side to defend.

Today In Smarmspace

18 U.S. Code § 2383.Rebellion or insurrection
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

This one is beyond perfection.

45* uses a double shield to express, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

"I'm not saying I want people to start shooting each other if those rotten Dems impeach me - it was that Jeffers guy - and besides, he didn't say he wanted that either - those very fine people just spontaneously started killing liberals because they know those dirty liberals are dirty and liberal and were cheating them out of their right to have the greatest president in the history of forever, and so they were patriotically defending blah blah blah..."

These guys don't ever give direct orders. They don't ever tell anyone to break the law or to do shitty things, even though that's what they want. They speak in coded language and invite inference, knowing that over time, the people around them will pick up the signals and do the dirt for them.

And yes, I know all of that is obvious to most of us by now. But that's why it has to be reiterated - they do that shit all the time and if you don't stop and point and say, "That's fucked up", then it starts to sink in and become the norm.

Today's Tweet(s)

At least Amash has kinda bailed and moved his marker to "Independent", but just the same - talk is cheap, fellas. Let's see you put your money where is.

I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant. https://t.co/a5Bae7bP7g

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) September 30, 2019

Kevin McCarthy again displays his unique brand of incompetence and dishonesty. pic.twitter.com/KAijpPMk6R

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) September 30, 2019

Today's Pix

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Dirt Don't Vote

Here's the link to that map (it's "unsecured" so it doesn't embed properly)

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