Today's Tweet

A kid murders both of his parents and then pleads for mercy because he's an orphan.

We must cut back on health care to pay for the repairs to the house I just purposefully burned down. https://t.co/h8BP1ZuR5h

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) December 7, 2017

 

Casualties Of War

Al Franken resigned this week.

(hoping I'm wrong about all this, BTW)

I can't stop thinking he got swift-boated. GOP went after him solely because he's been very strong on Equality issues.

It's basic Debate (and Salesmanship) training: If the opponent can knock down your strongest point, they can ignore everything else you have to say and revert to their comfortable assumptions.

There's a strong element of False Equivalence too. Kristen Gillibrand has led the charge, saying that when we argue over Degrees of Offense, we're having the wrong conversation - harassment is harassment is harassment, and we simply cannot have it.

I think I get it - we all have to be called to account, including our friends and political allies.

But this looks a lot like the GOP has played the Hypocrisy Card, and the Dems have bought in like it's Everything On Sale At Whole Foods. 

AKA: taking your strength and turning it against you. And as usual, Dems have been most obliging by going into navel-gazing mode, picking fights with their own, and imploding with self-recrimination.

Meanwhile, we are in fact very busy being drawn into having Ms Gillibrand's Wrong Conversation anyway - because when you overreact, you can lose some credibility, which means you give up the edge, which means the other side gets more control over the subject of the argument.

To wit: we're talking about why The Librul Media cropped out one of their Silence Breakers.

"It's intentional, to represent women who aren't able to come forward," Rosner wrote. "In this case, it is an actual woman with a tale of harassment who was unable to be public, but here she represents all women who remain silent (for whatever reason)."

Rosner also compared this cover to New York Magazine's July 2015 cover, which depicted the 35 women who had accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault at the time. The cover left one empty space to symbolize the women who hadn't come forward with their stories.

"When New York Magazine did their Cosby accuser cover they similarly left an empty chair — it's an elegant and powerful gesture, a visual ellipsis," she wrote.

And suddenly, we're not talking about the problems caused by harassment. The folks who need to be thinking about, and talking about harassment aren't thinking or talking about it.

So Dems, you assholes better make this work, cuz this is USAmerica Inc, where we really suck at nuance. Maybe you're trying to move against that; trying to demonstrate a stark contrast between the two parties, but the Rule Of Unintended Consequences is against you.

If you think this is a low-cost proposition, you're probably in for a rude surprise. I think you can count on a serious backlash against the perception of "Dems being Dems - always looking to tell us how to live our lives - they're a buncha pinch-faced blue-nosed prigs who just love the smell of their own farts, and the Nanny State! and blah blah blah".

If you make it about Purity, we lose the best opportunity we've had in 50 years.

Don't fuck this up.

Stoopid Is As Stoopid Does

The Beaverton:

JERUSALEM – In response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, the Palestinian National Authority has announced that it will recognize Texas as a state of Mexico since it was violently annexed by the United States in the 1840s.

“The territory north and east of the Rio Grande is very important to the Mexican people,” explained a PNA spokesperson. “Before American settlers showed up and implemented slavery, Mexico oversaw this land. Then, President Polk sent his armies to invade the rest of these Mexican territories, and force the country to give up California, New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. We may soon recognize these states as part of Mexico too.”

hat tip = @ALT_uscis

There's A New Wrinkle

I thought it had to be phonied up, but I checked half a dozen sources.

Here's the C-SPAN clip:

Dry mouth, sniffles, slurred speech. Lotsa speculation, particularly about how maybe it's nothing but an older man's dentures getting all wonky on him.

OK, but he's a billionaire who shits in a gold-plated toilet. Wouldn't he maybe have dental implants instead of dentures?

With all the pressure from the Russian thing, and considering all the reports about his usual whacko behavior becoming even more bizarre, I'm thinking some high-octane Medicinal Cocktails are not out of the question.

Let's not forget who this guy's doctor is.

Today's GIF

I'd just like to get back to where I've got some chops - but I promise I won't assault your sensibilities by trying to do anything like this.

'Bout Damned Time

driftglass and Blue Gal have been nailing this one for a good long time - politics is broken, and it's because we have a party making a mainstay of its raison d'etre to piss in our gas tank.

And finally, NYT is starting to catch up:

(Mann and Ornstein)

What is astounding, and still largely unappreciated, is the unexpected and rapid nature of the decline in American national politics, and how one-sided its cause. If in 2006 one could cast aspersions on both parties, over the past decade it has become clear that it is the Republican Party — as an institution, as a movement, as a collection of politicians — that has done unique, extensive and possibly irreparable damage to the American political system.

Even today, many people like to imagine that the damage has all been President Trump’s doing — that he took the Republican Party hostage. But the problem goes much deeper.
These guys have been here before, but as they point out in the piece, they've been going along with the standard crapola that it's all even - the corporate media's insistence on the horse race - the evil duopoly - yada yada yada. 

Not any more.

Today's Pix

(Click to embiggen)

TaxScam 2017

These tax cuts don't work because the numbers don't work. Because the numbers never fucking work on these things.

WaPo:

Republicans would no doubt counter that any time you reduce taxes, you increase the incentives for work. But it’s important to remember that if you’re a regular wage-earning American, this bill is as likely to increase your taxes as decrease them. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’ official scorekeeper on tax issues, every income group under $75,000 a year will on average see a tax increase by 2027. And while many of tax cuts that individuals at lower incomes might benefit from phase out over the course of the next decade, the cuts that most help corporations and the wealthy are permanent. All that is why, as Ryan Grim points out, while the bill has a net cost of $1.5 trillion, it actually cuts $6 trillion in some taxes but increases taxes in other ways by $4.5 trillion.

To be fair, the tax code already favors investments over work; Republicans merely want to reinforce and extend that characteristic. While they often lecture about the “dignity of work” when they’re proposing to take away safety net programs that aid those in need, they are doing little or nothing to change the tax code so that it does more to encourage work. Right now, wage income (i.e., money you work for) gets taxed at a higher rate than investment income (i.e., money you make when your money makes you more money). The salutary effects of labor on an individual’s spirit apparently only operate on the grubby lower classes, while the wealthy should be honored and rewarded for their ability to watch their portfolios grow.

Everything we do in government - everything we support our government for doing - is a statement of our values. And we need to dig a lot deeper into what we think we're supporting. There are no simple 10-word answers.

We deserve a closer look. We have the right to know everything that's in every bill under consideration.

When the GOP (eg) huddles in private and pushes for a vote with no hearings and no disclosure, we're being treated like serfs - like we only have the right to agree and obey. We are not being well-served.

It's dismissive and condescending and disrespectful.

There's no honor in it.

Today's GIF

TaxScam 2017 is alchemy. It doesn't work. The only way it could possibly do what they say it'll do is if it drives a solid 3% GDP growth - which is something a tax cut plan has never done. 

So the GOP must have discovered some amazing missing piece of the puzzle - a secret ingredient - and I think I know what it is.

Today's GIF

Let's be careful out there

Safe Sex

Today's Tweet

Seriously - what the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

Patriarchy's ultimate self-own pic.twitter.com/Jeg4BKUx4b

— Victoria Smith (@glosswitch) December 3, 2017

 

Something Happened

Once upon a time, I thought Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was more or less a decent fellow, but something's gone horribly wrong. And I don't think it's all about my own political evolution - it seems pretty obvious that something short-circuited in that guy's head.

Grassley became one of the main peddlers of the Death Panel bullshit back when ACA was being debated.

He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and effectively blocked the Garland appointment simply by following Mitch McConnell's lead and announcing that he'd spend almost a year ignoring it.

Now we can add this one to the hi-lites:

The Hill:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he favors repealing the estate tax, which the Senate tax reform bill does not do, saying it "recognizes the people that are investing," The Des Moines Register reported Saturday.

“I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies," Grassley told the newspaper.


It fits the pattern though. Faux Conservatives have preached the gospel of deprivation for decades.  Mostly it translates for the rubes this way: "As long as those undeserving poor people (aka Black Folks, mostly) get less than me, I'm willing to make the sacrifice."

But there's something that's coming through louder and more clearly lately, and it grows out of that core belief that struggle makes you stronger.

We've become conditioned to believe great people are always made to suffer. We project that onto these upper crust individuals to the point where we simply assume a Donald Trump (eg) has suffered as well. Suffering makes you great. Trump is great. So Trump must have suffered. We don't see an Aristocracy of Inherited Entitlement at work here because that's not how we grow up understanding the American ideal.

The unintended lesson is that great people have been made to suffer, so it's the suffering itself that makes you great. 

With that in mind, some folks end up going out of their way looking for "leaders" who promise them more suffering, thinking it gives them a shot at becoming great (ie: rich and powerful), when all that's really going on is that they'll get another chance to empty their pockets in exchange for feeling superior to all those moochers who just want free stuff.

"I've worked hard all my life - I ain't got jack shit, but by god I earned it"

Amy's List

Amy Siskind - keeping track of the shittier shit that lands on us every day we spend allowing Cult45 to continue.

December 2, 2017

This week marked further erosion to our failing democracy. Attacks on, and deconstruction of our free press is happening at an alarming rate, as conservative billionaires buy up media outlets, some of which are then precipitously shuttered. Republicans in the Senate passed a tax bill whose primary beneficiary will be people like Trump and regime members, without any debate, scoring, hearings, or even a chance for senators to read a bill which impacts one-sixth of the US economy.

This week Trump continued his bigoted attacks on marginalized communities, dividing us at home and embarrassing our country on the world stage. There was disturbing reporting on Trump’s mental health, including his continued belief in conspiracy theories. With events and his actions this week, Trump’s net approval gap (-29) matched an all-time low.

This week was the second bombshell in the Mueller probe, as Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate. Flynn’s testimony in court documents ties in Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Flynn’s ongoing cooperation will likely ensnare many higher-ups, including Trump.

1. Late Saturday, in retaliation for RT being told to register as a foreign agent in the US, Putin signed a law that allows the Russian government to list any foreign media operating in the country as a foreign agent.

2. Late Saturday, Trump tweeted Fox News is “MUCH more important” than CNN in the US, and “CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly.”

3. CNN Communications tweeted in response, “It’s not CNN’s job to represent the U.S to the world. That’s yours. Our job is to report the news.”

4. Former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden slammed Trump: “Until now it was not possible for me to conceive of an American President capable of such an outrageous assault on truth, a free press or the first amendment.”

-and-

72. Burr said Trump told him the investigation was overshadowing his first year and he wanted to see it come to an end. Burr also said committee members were approached by Trump, and shared their conversations.

73. Trump expressed these sentiments to Roy Blunt, who serves on the committee, while flying on Air Force One to Springfield, MO in August. Trump told Blunt he wanted “to wrap up this investigation.”

74. Trump complained to Mitch McConnell and Bob Corker, who is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in phone conversations about the continuing investigations, and blamed McConnell as leader for not shielding him.

75. Trump called Sen. Thom Tillis, who in August introduced a bipartisan bill limiting the president’s power to dismiss special prosecutors, over the summer. Tillis said Trump “just asked me where my head was” on the legislation

Today's Today

Today's Tweet

All I want for Christmas is - well - quite a bit actually.

1. TRUMP GONE
2. THE DEMISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
3. TRUMP FAMILY IN PRISON
4.DEMOCRACY RESTORED pic.twitter.com/FV35kVA0Wj

— Bonnie (@BonitaTeuben) December 3, 2017