Keith

Scoring the first 100 days.

Watch this video on The Scene.

It Didn't Start Well

JAN. 21

“I made a speech. I looked out, the field was — it looked like a million, million and a half people.”

...and it gets worse

Epic Idea

Looks like you can pick any team, any number and any "name".

Go for it.

Example NFL:

http://www.nflshop.com/Denver_Broncos_Jerseys_Custom_Shop

Example MLB:

http://www.mlbshop.com/Chicago_Cubs_Customized_Jerseys

Today's Pix

Today's Tweet

Jason Chaffetz leaves D.C. for 3-4 weeks with a foot problem. Dodgin' the line of fire with foot problems must be a Republican thing.

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) April 27, 2017

Today's Quote

Lots more immediate than my usual quotes and chatterings.

“While the president has denied having invested in Russia, he has said little or nothing about Russian investment in his businesses and properties in the United States or elsewhere. This should concern all Americans and is yet another reason why his refusal to release his tax returns should be met with considerable skepticism and concern.”

--Adam Schiff, US Congress (D-CA28)

Sonny Perdue

Sonny Perdue is our new Sec'y of Agriculture (by a vote of 87-11).

Follow the Wikipedia link and read the bio, because I'm not gonna spend much time here bitchin' about his "commitment to the American farmer", which is code for "take good care of ADM and Monsanto, and the little guys will be plenty grateful for the crumbs".

What I dislike most is that a guy born 70 years ago, and named George Ervin Perdue III - a full-sized adult grown-ass man - is still called Sonny.

That's what I really don't love about The South.

Here's the Washington Post piece on it.

Management By Bromide

People in seats of power need to know stuff. And they need to have a much deeper understanding of the problems than most folks. Simplistic bullet-point pronouncements just ain't gonna cut it.

WaPo:

“In over half of American households, the single largest expense is child care, even exceeding the cost of housing.”
— Ivanka Trump, assistant to the president, in Berlin, April 25, 2017

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, has said she wants to help craft a solution to a vexing problem for American families: the soaring cost of child care. In a forum in Berlin, speaking without notes, she made an interesting observation — that in “over half” of American households, the cost of child care exceeded the cost of housing.

Is this the case?

I'm willing to give her partial credit for getting it partially right, but she loses it all in the end (as usual) because I think the main reason Ms Trump says things like this is an effort to be the "kinder gentler" face of an administration that is appallingly uncaring and unthinking in practically everything it's doing.

And when you look just the tiniest bit past the facade, we're right back to "they don't know what the fuck they're doing".

But that's too simple too.

With 45* trying to bully his way thru everything in sight, Ivanka and Jared traipse about rounding off all the jagged edges and softening every harsh reality.

So there's Ivanka, trying to make it all OK with people - like she's smoothing it over after the drunk-n-abusive step dad goes on his daily rampage (thanks, driftglass).

So we have the standard Trump approach to everything - uncertainty. He wants to keep everybody guessing (he said as much during the campaign). It's his signature move. In confusion there is opportunity. So you make opportunity by creating confusion.

But it's even worse than having an enabling apologist working on you.  Keep one of Mike's Own Proverbs in mind:

Never forget that a smiling hyena will still eat your children

Overheard Today

Ivanka Trump is a feminist in exactly the same way Steve Bannon is a black Dominican rabbi.

hat tip = @rmasher2

Daily Outrage

Because, apparently, they are the assholes we've suspected they are for 35 years.

Vox:

Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) who authored this amendment confirmed this was the case: members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping this Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged me to this particular issue.

A bit of background is helpful here. Obamacare requires all members of Congress and their staff to purchase coverage on the individual market, just like Obamacare enrollees. The politics of that plank were simple enough, meant to demonstrate that if the coverage in this law were good enough for Americans than it should be good enough for their representations in Washington.

That’s been happening for the past four years now. Fast-forward to this new amendment, which would allow states to waive out of key Obamacare protections like the ban on pre-existing conditions or the requirement to cover things like maternity care and mental health services.

If Congressional aides lived in a state that decided to waive these protections, the aides who were sick could be vulnerable to higher premiums than the aides that are healthy. Their benefits package could get skimpier as Obamacare’s essential health benefits requirement may no longer apply either.