Fighting the power and resisting the rise of SkyNet while making it look totally nonchalant.
Apr 14, 2018
Today's GIF
Fighting the power and resisting the rise of SkyNet while making it look totally nonchalant.
Apr 13, 2018
Adventures In Good Government
Constituent Service - services provided by the government - paid for by those constituents - in service to the community - the way it's supposed to be.
What a grand idea.
The Baltimore Sun, Luke Broadwater:
In Baltimore’s most crime-ridden zones, city officials are conducting an experiment in government. They started last year by targeting four small, deeply troubled areas to be flooded with more police patrols and city services. They called them “Transformation Zones,” at first, then rebranded them as “Violence Reduction Zones.” They’ve since added three more zones, bringing the total to seven.
Each zone gets several dedicated police officers, called Neighborhood Coordination Officers, and an extra focus across city government for ramped-up services. Mayor Catherine Pugh has put $1.6 million in the city’s budget for two “rapid response” crews from the Department of Public Works to quickly clean up these areas, three more housing inspectors to enforce code violations such as peeling lead paint and extend hours at local recreation centers.
The idea is simple: If it can be rightly said that these areas were for far too long over-policed and under-served — and if this punitive style of government did not produce lasting crime declines — then officials should try the opposite: The zones should be drowning in services, from job training to street cleaning.
In Baltimore’s most crime-ridden zones, city officials are conducting an experiment in government. They started last year by targeting four small, deeply troubled areas to be flooded with more police patrols and city services. They called them “Transformation Zones,” at first, then rebranded them as “Violence Reduction Zones.” They’ve since added three more zones, bringing the total to seven.
Each zone gets several dedicated police officers, called Neighborhood Coordination Officers, and an extra focus across city government for ramped-up services. Mayor Catherine Pugh has put $1.6 million in the city’s budget for two “rapid response” crews from the Department of Public Works to quickly clean up these areas, three more housing inspectors to enforce code violations such as peeling lead paint and extend hours at local recreation centers.
The idea is simple: If it can be rightly said that these areas were for far too long over-policed and under-served — and if this punitive style of government did not produce lasting crime declines — then officials should try the opposite: The zones should be drowning in services, from job training to street cleaning.
Everything costs something
So if you want this:
You'll have to stop doing this:
Privatizers Gone Wild
The best political maneuvers are the ones that stand a fair chance of accomplishing something positive for your agenda no matter the outcome.
So here we go - 45*'s attempts to manufacture a little dust-up with Amazon and USPS are intended (I think) to further dismantle good government while bashing Unions, and lining the pockets of Congress Critters and their Cronies.
WaPo:
Trump issued an executive order forming an administration task force, to be chaired by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and directed it to evaluate the Postal Service’s finances and operations. The order also directs the task force to issue a report outlining proposed changes within 120 days.
The order states that the Postal Service has incurred $65 billion of cumulative losses since the Great Recession ended in 2009 and that it must make changes so that it operates under “a sustainable business model.”
Trump’s order stipulates that “the steep decline in First-Class Mail volume, coupled with legal mandates that compel the USPS to incur substantial and inflexible costs, have resulted in a structural deficit where revenues are no longer sufficient to fund the pension liabilities and retiree health obligations owed to current employees.”
The libertarians in Congress can't stand thinking anything the government does might actually succeed or do something good for people without turning a profit for some Rent-Seeking Crony. And since a lot of them believe it's all good and proper for them to behave like Coin-Operated Politicians, they'll do what UPS or FedX tell them to do.
So 45* gets to bash WaPo (he thinks) by voicing his deep concern for the solvency of USPS, in order to fuck over Jeff Bezos, while ordering an audit of USPS, partly to punish them for being all Government-y and shit, and to make sure they're not involved in any dirty dealing because, well, you know how those union people are, and besides that, we need to make sure that the tax money that USPS doesn't get is being spent wisely and blah blah blah, and what the fuck is anybody even talking about!?!
45* throws all the shit up in the air, which is intended to keep everybody busy while he does whatever he wants us not to be able to see because of all the shit in the air.
The Union Busters and Privatizers go right along with him because in confusion there is opportunity.
And the kicker is that USPS is not really part of the federal government. They own a monopoly on the use of your mailbox, and that's really about it.
But "conservatives" like to build it into a very useful Straw Man and score big political points at the expense of people just trying to do job for us - which of course has become what the GOP is pretty much all about.
Today's Tweet
Seems obvious there's a good probability this is attempted Suicide By Cop - or maybe this particular cop is just smarter and better trained than the ones we usually see in these videos - and maybe this exemplifies the scenario that plays out on most occasions.
Still, knowing what we know - and having seen what we've seen - it's not unreasonable to believe this turns out very differently if that kid has dark brown skin.
Show this to anyone who dares claim the cops had to shoot & kill #StephonClark—and shoot him 20 times no les.— Leo the Great! (@LeoredhookBKLYN) March 30, 2018
Just watch this. Jaw dropping.pic.twitter.com/ofDSzbDmlp
Apr 12, 2018
Today's Tweet
Why I'll be closing out (or at least moth-balling) my Facebook account pretty soon:
Worth remembering this gem from 2009.. #Zuckerberg pic.twitter.com/TV9vmatbqQ— Ryan Paisey (@RyanPaisey) April 10, 2018
Once Zuckerberg decided against a subscription fee, his investors (who had already poured billions into the venture) had to be assured of some kind of revenue stream, and then we were off to the races.
Apr 10, 2018
Sweet Music
Goin' Down In Flames (Lookin' Bad) --Matt Farmer
hat tip = Crooks & Liars
There's more - not the least of which:
- 3 top guys at RNC - the Money Guys - are in deep shit, which makes the Russia thing vey much about Campaign Finance Fuckery
- Susan Collins's story of trading a Yes vote on TaxScam2017© for a promise of support for her HealthCare proposal turns out to be bullshit.
- Another name for Maddow's Wall - 45*'s top Homeland Security Adviser is quitting
Today's Tweet
Dear @realDonaldTrump:
You & your attorney Michael Cohen do not constitute "our country." The American people do. What the US Attorney for SDNY & the judicial branch did today was not an attack on our county. It was the vindication of the Rule of Law, which our country relies on.
--US Rep Ted Lieu
--US Rep Ted LieuBreaking: Trump responds to Michael Cohen raid "It's a disgrace... it's an attack on our country" pic.twitter.com/TcuHJ6y8Fb— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) April 9, 2018
Le Bomb
"...like dropping a bomb on Trump's front porch."
Aides said they viewed Trump’s late-afternoon comments to reporters as a necessary venting session. He had been grousing privately about Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who oversees the Mueller investigation because of Sessions’s recusal.
He complained about Rosenstein again Monday in private, a White House adviser said, and stewed all afternoon about the warrant to seize Cohen’s records, at times raising his voice. Trump said that Rosenstein approved the warrant, that he wished Rosenstein was not in the job and there was no one making the prosecutors follow the rules, the adviser said. Trump complained sharply about Sessions and Mueller and asked detailed questions about who was behind the move — and said that people would be more critical of such a warrant if it wasn’t intended to damage the president.
Aides said they viewed Trump’s late-afternoon comments to reporters as a necessary venting session. He had been grousing privately about Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, a Trump appointee who oversees the Mueller investigation because of Sessions’s recusal.
He complained about Rosenstein again Monday in private, a White House adviser said, and stewed all afternoon about the warrant to seize Cohen’s records, at times raising his voice. Trump said that Rosenstein approved the warrant, that he wished Rosenstein was not in the job and there was no one making the prosecutors follow the rules, the adviser said. Trump complained sharply about Sessions and Mueller and asked detailed questions about who was behind the move — and said that people would be more critical of such a warrant if it wasn’t intended to damage the president.
45* bitching about somebody not following the rules is like 45* bitching about somebody not following the rules.
The guy depends on everybody else following the rules (legal, ethical, moral) because that's what makes it relatively easy for him to find the Smarm Space, where he can weasel through a loophole - one of his own imagination sometimes - and turn the whole thing to his advantage.
The US Presidency operates within a fairly loose framework; one that largely depends on the office holder's sense of honor; and duty; and public service. POTUS has to know there are things you do and things you don't do. And there's no need for rationale beyond the fact that it's either the right thing to do, or it's the wrong thing to do - kinda like what your mom tried to teach you.
Of course, all that Boy-Scout-y-sounding stuff can get a little sideways when political considerations are factored in, but if you have a relatively clear idea of where the lines have to be drawn, there's a better-than-even chance that we all don't end up dead just because the Prez got to feeling a little peckish.
Apr 9, 2018
President Underwood
Yeah, yeah, it's Kevin Spacey. For just a bit, pay attention to the writing - what the character says, not the off-camera shittiness of the actor.
The Crux Of It All - Maybe
Arn Pearson, Salon:
Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s embattled EPA administrator, finds himself under attack this week after news broke that he had rented a Washington townhouse at below-market rates from the wife of a lobbyist who represents major fossil fuel companies. That was not the first time Pruitt has exercised questionable judgment around a property transaction, according to documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit watchdog group.
In 2011, Pruitt and his wife, Margaret, bought a property in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just days before a court ruled that it had been fraudulently transferred by a Las Vegas developer who was on the hook for a $3.6 million loan default. Pruitt, who was then Oklahoma attorney general, apparently flipped the property for a $70,000 profit four months later, selling it to a dummy corporation set up by a major campaign contributor, Kevin Hern.
Money laundering seems to be the general theme. And not just for the Trump-Russia thing, but for a lot of shit that's been going on just under the surface in this little game of Fuck-Your-Buddy. It goes a long way to explain a few things about how some of these guys finance their campaigns, and it could be all the explanation we need for why so many Congress Critters are so reluctant to call any of it out, which would then explain why they're not jumping up and down trying to move on impeachment - there's a shitload of tracks to cover first.
If everybody's guilty, then nobody can blame anybody; so nobody can be held accountable.
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