Oops

So Trump the Chump did his little bombshell thing yesterday, and wow - what a fuckin' stinker that was.  The bastard totally screwed up my chance to crow and brag and strut around - asshole that he is, I'm sure that's exactly what he was planning all along.

So, I was wrong yesterday when I posted my prediction that Lil Donny's big revelation would be about Obama and divorce (Out On A Limb).

But Jesus, dude - you wanna fuck with the Prez and your idea is to try a little extortion?  You turn it into a very bad thing that essentially takes a charity hostage?  Why not just give the money to the charity and stop being such a dick about it?

Gettin' It Done - 12

Yeah, I know - Obama didn't do a lot of the things he should've done: Gitmo and Military Commissions and Black Sites and Drone Attacks and Habeas Corpus and and and.  All true, except that he's also been pretty busy issuing Exec Orders to the effect: "while the legal authority exists for us to do all these really shitty things that are totally unconstitutional or extra-judicial or straight up illegal, I'm directing members of the Executive Branch not to do them - if you guys think that's possible."

I think Obama's been trying to get some political cover (duh); both so he can use the tools he's got to go after the bad guys, and to defend himself from the shit-slingers.  So he doesn't get good marks for closely following the law, but since he's "my guy", I'll have to cop to believing I can trust him more than I'd trust "their guy".  

12. Reversed Bush Torture Policies: Two days after taking office, nullified Bush-era rulings that had allowed detainees in U.S. custody to undergo certain “enhanced” interrogation techniques considered inhumane under the Geneva Conventions. Also released the secret Bush legal rulings supporting the use of these techniques.

I hate the feeling that I'm constantly having to choose from a list of lousy options - imagine what it must be like in the Oval Office every fucking day.

A New One

Just a good place to go once in a while to get a little bleach splashed on your soul.

Atheist Overdose

 

Out On A Limb

I have to admit I've been a little intrigued by what Lil Donny Trump's October Surprise could possibly turn out to be.  But then, along comes Gloria Allred and it's very possible that I can make a solid connection, and a prediction with a fair probability of being right.

First, the leading speculation seems to be that Trump has "uncovered" some "evidence" indicating that Barack and Michelle Obama were like all set to file divorce papers back in 2001 or whatever.  So this is not a big deal in any meaningful way except as a political tool.  Did the Obamas get a divorce?  No.  Did they move beyond some kind of preliminary filing?  Apparently not cuz they're like y'know, still married.  Does any of that shit matter?  Yes - but only if you think I should be in jail because I've tho't about kicking Donald Trump in the nuts; or that Tagg Romney should be in a cell at Gitmo for saying he wanted to take a swing at Obama.

Enter Ms Allred, who is helping out Maureen Stemberg Sullivan in her divorce efforts against Tom Stemberg (founder of Staples).  It seems ol' Willard gave sworn testimony in the divorce proceeding, and that his statements were sealed, and that The Boston Globe has petitioned the court to unseal them for all to see and enjoy.

Could there be anything in the testimony that's bad for Willard?  Well, what if his statements were to the effect that Staples wasn't as profitable as WIllard was telling his investors?  What if he kinda fudged it all - just a little - so his buddy Tom could kinda fuck his soon-to-be ex-wife out of a nice big chunk of settlement money?  And it doesn't have to be anything all that horrible.  If the story is that Romney did anything but stand up and champion Mrs Stemberg's cause, you can bet Benjamins to Baby Wipes he'll come off looking like a paternalistic wife-beater to lots of women voters.

So in rides The Donald to make a pre-emptive strike that works to show Obama in the same light.  On the one side, you've got Romney + Divorce, and on the other side, you've got Obama + Divorce.  Simple equation.  Both sides do it.  Both sides are exactly the same.  Nothing to see here, nothing to think about.  It's all even - go back to sleep.

Ya heard it here.

Today's Krugman

Via NYT:

One of the central talking points of right-wing economists is that “uncertainty” caused by Obama is holding the economy back; they cite, again and again, a paper by Bloom et al purporting to find a relationship between uncertainty and jobs, with uncertainty measured via such things as article counts.

The certainty meme has always irked me.  Why is uncertainty such a big deal for these guys?  Are we supposed to remove all risk from every business venture so the mighty capitalist heroes can be absolutely guarantied to turn a monster profit?

I'm hoping they're talking more along the lines of just reducing the probability of some screwball politician changing something that unfairly upsets the applecart at inopportune times.  Of course, that's what they're selling - that Obama will do something that makes it harder for a business to flourish.  But what has Obama done that in any reasonable (or even discernible) way has depressed the economy, or made it more difficult for any business to operate in the black?

It's a crock.  And John Fugelsang has a few words on the subject:

Today's Pix

Gettin' It Done - 13

Unfortunately, a double-digit percentage of Americans still believe the Apology Tour bullshit.  Which fits perfectly with the double-digit percentage who still think Sadam had something to do with 9/11, and the double-digit percentage who think Climate Change is a hoax, and and and.  Sometimes, it's really hard for me not to say, "fuck 'em".  I'd like to think I could write them off and forget about them because they'll never change and so it's not worth trying.  And sometimes, I do say that, but as mushy as it sounds, they're my neighbors and my friends and my in-laws.  So, since I'm not planning to murder them, I guess I just need to keep hammering away, and hope I can get one or two to listen.  That's what I'm thinking today anyway.

13. Improved America’s Image Abroad: With new policies, diplomacy, and rhetoric, reversed a sharp decline in world opinion toward the U.S. (and the corresponding loss of “soft power”) during the Bush years. From 2008 to 2011, favorable opinion toward the United States rose in ten of fifteen countries surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, with an average increase of 26 percent.

Yo, Willard

I didn't watch the "debates".  I'll go along with the many people who say these things are little more than 90 minutes of dueling campaign ads.  Altho', this time, we did get a new wrinkle in that Willard turned it into a more conventional sales pitch.  It really does look and sound like Romney's in there pimping a deal for his group to take over USA, Inc.  Which I think may be a lot closer to the truth than I'm comfortable with.  My biggest problem is that whenever we elect Repubs, we get way too many freakazoids in the bargain (NeoCons, TheoCons, Cold War Retreads, et al) - we gotta remember that the prez isn't the only guy we're handing power to.  So it's iffy enough when you put a guy in the Oval Office who doesn't know his way around Capitol Hill; or doesn't know much about Foreign Affairs; or isn't particularly up on International Trade.  Obama was a big risk 4 years ago because his resume was pretty damned thin, but he seemed like he had his own shit together enough to be trusted to dig into the details to the point where he wouldn't just get railroaded into making supremely stoopid decisions (I'm talkin' Iraq-level stoopid, not Healthcare Reform-not-getting-everything-we-wanted stoopid).

Putting a guy like Mitt Romney in the White House means we start over again.  Plus, Willard may have several more pounds of brain matter than Jr Bush, but the way he's been jerked around by the Wingnuts for the last 6 years makes me think he'll continue trying to shoehorn himself into just about any position these characters want him to take.

Experience matters.  And there's nothing better to get you ready to be POTUS than actually being POTUS.

And BTW, Willard - you've been runnin' your mouth about "Obama's foreign policy unravelling" for months.  What happened?  Focus Group got your tongue?

One last thing - about how "the women" were turned off by the aggressiveness and the confrontational aspects of the campaigns in general.  Because, of course, the ladies are just too genteel; they're bound to suffer a spell of some kind; I do declare they'll get the vapors if the menfolk continue this unpleasant belligerence.

Bullshit.

If somebody was physically assaulting you, and I walked up and planted my fist in the prick's eye socket 4 or 5 times, would you be just a tiny bit relieved, or would you insist on feeling put off by my aggressive behavior?  And who says I need to do that anyway?  Who says women are so frail they can't possibly fend for themselves?  Sorry guys - pretending that "the women" are always hiding behind their powder puffs and are desperately in need of your protection just don't cut it anymore.

Gettin' It Done - 14

One of the things that didn't work out so well when everybody was busily hacking away at "all that Washington red tape that strangles commerce" was that we ended up boondoggling the financial sector to the point that we might as well have nationalized the banks.

It's interesting to me that the "conservatives" are always accusing their opponents of hiding a socialistic agenda, when they're the ones making it impossible for banks to operate without a guaranty of government help.  The banks borrow money from the government at ridiculously low rates to begin with, and then If the borrower defaults, Uncle Sugar steps in to pay off the loan.  So who the fuck is the socialist in all of this?

14. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending: As part of the 2010 health care reform bill, signed measure ending the wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans. Starting July 2010 all students began getting their federal student loans directly from the federal government. Treasury will save $67 billion over ten years, $36 billion of which will go to expanding Pell Grants to lower-income students.

If you ask me what I think of American Capitalism, I'd have to answer - I think we should try it.  (the good ones know what to borrow, and the great ones know what to steal)

Pick 'Em

Once upon a time, there was a thing called The 4th Estate.

But now it's just a flea market where you pick and choose your own message, your own messenger, and whatever "facts" you need to build your own reality.  Unless you're prepared to spend most of your day trying to figure out what's real and what ain't, you're forever relegated to the giant pile of nuthin' under the heading: Low Information Voter.

We are so fucked.

Today's Pix

Gin Wingmore

Music is recyclable and derivative, but that's not a bad thing in a lot of cases.  As long as people come up with this kinda stuff, Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley will never die.



hat tip = Crooks & Liars

Reset

3 Dead and 4 wounded.

Today's Krugman

Lifted all of it - short and sweet and oh so tasty (NYT):

David Dayen makes a very good point, which I missed: during the Hofstra debate, in which questions were posed by members of the public rather than the Beltway elite, there wasn’t a single question about the deficit. Not one.

The public really doesn’t care.

And you know what? Neither do financial markets, which continue to lend to the U.S. government at incredibly low rates.

Meanwhile, the results from austerity are in — and it’s now clear that the adverse economic impacts of austerity in a depressed economy are much worse than the elite imagined (although Keynesian economists knew better), and are in fact so severe that austerity is largely self-defeating, having little impact on the budget deficit even in the short run because reduced revenue takes away much of the initial savings. Once you take long-run effects into account, austerity is almost surely self-defeating.

Yet deficit fever, with demands for spending cuts right away, has dominated policy discussion for almost three years, with all the Very Serious People believing that by pounding on this issue they were demonstrating their Very Seriousness.

Gettin' It Done - 15

I think it's a good idea whenever you put real money into public schools.  But I don't like things like privatization and high-stakes testing.  I'm fairly sure the people advocating for Race To The Top mean well - people who dive in and fuck things up always mean well - I just don't think you improve the schools if you don't improve the neighborhoods.

15. Created Race to the Top: With funds from stimulus, started $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and reward states for education reform.