Confirming Evidence

45* and the GOP lie. A lot. I keep thinking, eventually that's not going to come as any kind of news to anybody. And as soon as I think that, I remember the rubes will never hear anything but what The Ministry of Dis-Infotainment tells them.

WaPo:

• “The entire purpose of this is to lower middle class taxes.” — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.)
• “Primarily, and priority number one, is middle-class Americans.” — White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
• “The theme behind this bill is to get middle-class tax relief for most people in the middle class.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Fox News on Tuesday

President Trump was so excited about passing his first major piece of legislation Wednesday that he blurted out that the Republican Party had misrepresented the entire bill, handing Democrats some potentially troublesome talking points for the 2018 midterm elections.

Speaking at the White House just before the House prepared to sign off on the tax-cuts bill one last time, Trump reveled extensively in his win before turning things over to Vice President Pence to heap praise upon him continuously for a few minutes. It was a thoroughly unique spectacle, even as victory dances and Trump Cabinet meetings go.

But along the way, Trump basically admitted that the GOP's talking points on the bill weren't exactly honest in two major ways.

While talking about the corporate tax rate being cut from 35 percent to 21 percent, Trump said, “That's probably the biggest factor in our plan.”

President Trump says GOP tax plan will lower tax on businesses: “That’s probably the biggest factor in this plan.” pic.twitter.com/ntTtnnD55b

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 20, 2017

Oops

This one's worth tracking:
"these companies...will start pouring into the country..." (jobs jobs jobs - and raises for everybody - yeehaw)

Trump's second admission was about the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate being repealed in the bill. Apparently eager to argue that this constituted his having cut taxes and slain Obamacare in one fell swoop (after Congress came up short on Obamacare this year), he argued that repealing the individual mandate was basically the same as repealing Obamacare.
So we have enormous corporate powers being given more money to spend on Coin-Operated Politicians, who are increasingly obliged to strip out protections of the law in order to accommodate the avarice of the American Aristocracy - at the expense of everyone else.

(And BTW - wanna talk about what happens with expanded Corporate Power, together with no ACA, together with HR 1313, proposed in March 2017, that says companies can require DNA - and health info on all family members - from all of it's employees? Wait til you see what that one costs ya.)

In the First World of Industrialized Nations:
Every country except the US has some form of Single Payer
Every country except the US has a sizable Labor Faction in government
Every country except the US has Anti-Climate Change policies in place
Every country except the US has sensible Gun Safety laws
And on and on and on

American Exceptionalism just ain't what it used to be.

Today's Tweet

Waiting for the Dems to figure out how they turn this around so they can blame themselves.

Farewell, Individual Mandate.
Created by a GOP think tank.
Implemented by a GOP governor.
But then the black POTUS adopted it & it had to go.
So now uninsured sick ppl can show up at ERs
& local taxpayers foot the bill.
Congrats, MAGA folk - you finally got Socialized health care

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) December 20, 2017

 

Still Ain't No Wave

We've got an awful lot of fretting and hand-wringing going on - with good reason, me thinks.

But we've finally got a lot more people paying a lot more attention now, which is the only thing that makes a democracy work, which should be obvious, which apparently isn't obvious because we've been having these elections where 60-70% of us seem to take it all for granted, refusing to do the one goddamned thing we all have to do if we expect our little experiment in self-government to keep going.

We can't sit on our asses letting everybody else do the work. Shitty things happen when we get comfortable having other people make our decisions for us.

Slate:

Democrats have lost their one-vote lead in a state election that will determine control over the Virginia House of Delegates. The race is now a tie, and the State Board of Elections will determine a winner by drawing lots. If Democrat Shelly Simonds wins, Democrats will break the GOP’s 20-year chokehold on power in the House. If Republican David Yancey wins, the GOP will retain unified control of the state legislature.

-and-

If Simonds loses, incoming Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam will have to govern with both houses of the assembly controlled by slim Republican majorities. This divided government will not reflect the will of the voters. In November, Democratic candidates won the state’s total House vote by nine points. Thanks to gerrymandering, their ability to break Republicans’ grasp on the House has come down to pure chance. In a democracy, the outcome of a wave election should not depend upon names drawn from a fishbowl.

So we get to sweat this one out, waiting for the fates to settle it for us - partly because too many of us rationalized our way into thinking one vote doesn't matter.

Decisions get made by the people who show up.

So show up or shut up. Especially now. Don't start thinking we can fix it all with one or two elections. We have a very long way to go because we've just now started to fight back.

Happy Solstice

And the light is reborn as we start another lap.

Without deviance from normality, there can be no progress.

--Frank Zappa

Today's Pix

Today's Blather

At first blush, we see 45* as having no real concept of putting thought to words, but what he's doing (trying to do) is basic spin.

He's a bad rookie salesman's idea of a Sales Pro. Just like he's a dumb guy's idea of a smart guy. Just like he's a shmendrik's idea of a mentsh.

So when he's asked about the Mueller investigation, and he says this:

"What we have found, and what they have found, after looking at this, really, scam, is they found tremendous — whatever you want to call it, you’re going to have to make up your own determination — but they’ve found tremendous things on the other side."

That's 45*'s attempt at a turnaround - taking a negative and rephrasing it as a positive.

He gets tangle up on some of simplest things. Here's 50 or 60 seconds of near-gibberish as he tries to answer a fairly simple question on TaxScam'17®:

"I think it's very important for the country to get a vote next week, not because we lost a seat, which we would've gotten a seat, a lot of Republicans feel differently they're very happy with the way it turned out, but I would've, as the leader of the party I would have liked to have had the seat, I wanna endorse the people that are running, but I will tell you that it's to me it's very very, just important to get this vote. Not because of that, but because of the, and I don't know what the vote will be, I don't what exactly the final, we have a margin now of two, plus our great vice president, so um, so I really think we're going to get a vote, but I will say it, we have to get more senators and congressmen that are Republicans elected in '18, and then you'll see a lot more of what we're doing right now."

He was asked how Roy Moore's loss to Doug Jones might affect his legislative agenda. All he had to say was, "We still have Big Luther, so we have the votes - or it looks like we do. We have a majority in congress, which is what every president wants of course - and we'll do even better when we get more Republicans in office in 2018."

The guy doesn't know jack shit. He doesn't have the intellectual horse power to organize his thoughts, and he doesn't have the mental discipline to keep even simple sales techniques straight - like the rule of 3s.

I'm the leader of the GOP
We're moving our agenda forward
Which gives us the momentum to get more Repubs in office by this time next year

Instead, he goes on a 175-word-safari to nowhere. Which points up why I know this clown to be a bad sales guy (aside from not knowing his fucking business).

Bad salesmen talk themselves out of the sale because they don't know their fundamentals, which always leads to not knowing when to shut the fuck up.

SLAPP Happy

Sec'y Reich explains:

It should be pretty clear now why the Repubs are trying so hard to fill the Federal Bench with mouth-breathers who'll go along with whatever horse shit comes down from Corporate HQ.

Ain't No Wave Just Yet

Virginia Delegates 94th District

Simonds (D) 11608

Yancey (R) 11607

The Hill:

The votes will be considered “unofficial” until certified by a judge following the recount. A judge is set to consider the recount results tomorrow, according to the newspaper.

The recount, an all-day affair, saw hundreds of ballots being counted by high-speed machines and between 200 and 250 “irregular” ballot being hand counted by election observers and officials, according to the Daily Press.
Next time I hear "Yeah, but I'm only one vote - what difference does it make?" - it'll take everything I've got to resist the urge to shove this story up their ass.

And don't be feelin' that Blue Wave
Don't get happy - don't get cocky
Get to work

Today's Tweet

“We the people of the United States” (we are a democratic republic, not a dictatorship) “in order to form a more perfect union” (we are a work in progress dedicated to a noble pursuit) “establish justice” (we revere justice as the cornerstone of our democracy) “insure domestic tranquility” (we prize unity and peace, not divisiveness and discord), “provide for the common defense” (we should never give any foreign adversary reason to question our solidarity) “promote the general welfare” (we care about one another; compassion and decency matter) “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (we have a responsibility to protect not just our own generation, but future ones as well).

We have reached an inflection point where our core values and democratic institutions are at stake. My thoughts. https://t.co/WaCI2PYg8v

— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) December 19, 2017

Polling

CNN POLL: 

Presidential Approval Rating, December of First Year

86% - Bush, 2001

77% - Kennedy, 1961

71% - Bush, 1989

69% - Eisenhower, 1953

59% - Nixon, 1969

57% - Carter, 1977

54% - Obama, 2009

54% - Clinton, 1993

49% - Reagan, 1981

35% - Trump, 2017

It Comes As No Surprise

One big fuckin' lie after another.

Mother Board:

“On express orders from the previous White House, the FCC scrapped the tried-and-true, light touch regulation of the Internet and replaced it with heavy-handed micromanagement,” Pai said Thursday prior to voting to repeal the regulations.

But internal FCC documents obtained by Motherboard using a Freedom of Information Act request show that the independent, nonpartisan FCC Office of Inspector General—acting on orders from Congressional Republicans—investigated the claim that Obama interfered with the FCC’s net neutrality process and found it was nonsense. This Republican narrative of net neutrality as an Obama-led takeover of the internet, then, was wholly refuted by an independent investigation and its findings were not made public prior to Thursday’s vote.
They just make shit up. And it doesn't matter because by the time anybody can countervail that lie, it's made its way into the bloodstream and there's a whole new lie (or an entire set of new lies) to deal with today anyway.

Fantasyland

I worked at Disney World a million years ago when it first opened. My shift would end an hour or so after the park had closed, and when the weather was nice, sometimes I'd walk down "Main Street", past the Hall Of Presidents. 

When it's dark out, and all the lights are still on, but there are no people and no sounds except your own footfalls, the word "spooky" comes to mind - which is nowhere near the best descriptor now that 45*'s in there.

This helps though:

3. I’m still laughing at this one: Hall of Presidents Trump but debating with Rubio the size of his hands... and his uhh... pic.twitter.com/1GeHsMXxGs

— Dusty (@DustinGiebel) December 19, 2017

PS) We need to take every opportunity to mock that prick while it's still legal.

What We've Always Suspected

...even known to a certain extent. Now we get further confirmation.

IBT headline:

Senator Bob Corker Said He Hasn’t Read The Tax Bill, Denies Changing His Vote In Exchange For Personal Tax Breaks

Josh Keefe and David Sirota:

In a series of rapid-fire telephone interviews, Corker asked IBT for a description of the provision, and then criticized it. But minutes later, he called back to walk back that criticism, saying he wanted to further study the issue, and that it was more complex than he initially understood it to be. Despite potentially holding the fate of the entire tax bill in his hands, Corker told IBT that he has only read a short summary of the $1.4 trillion legislation.

“I had like a two-page summary I went through with leadership,” said Corker. “I never saw the actual text.” Despite not reading the bill -- and having time to read it before the final vote scheduled for this week -- he reiterated his support for the bill to IBT, support he announced hours before bill’s full text was publicly released on Friday.

Corker called IBT to respond to a series of IBT investigative reports showing that he switched his vote to “yes” on the tax legislation, only after Republican leaders added in a provision reducing taxes on income from real-estate LLCs. Federal records reviewed by IBT show Corker, a commercial real estate mogul, made up to $7 million last year from such income. President Donald Trump's financial disclosures listed between $41 million and $68 million of the same income. 

After the report, Corker called IBT and asked for a detailed description of the provision, insisting he did not know about. After the provision was described, he said: “If I understand what [the provision] does, it sounds totally unnecessary and borderline ridiculous.”

A few minutes later, however, Corker called back, and tried to back off that criticism.

So, it seems we get to decide which is worse - Corker trading his vote for personal gain, or that he doesn't know what's in the bill he says he's going to vote for.

At first blush - What the fuck is wrong with these people!?!

The only ray of hope here is that maybe Corker (and Collins, et all) are just stringing them along(?), and they plan on torpedoing the bill, as well as their fucked up leadership, and and and.

Here's an idea, disgruntled Repubs - switch sides.  Or at least caucus with the Dems for a while.

Or better yet - if you're going to trade your votes, trade them for some Honest-to-Pete Campaign Finance Reform.

The problems associated with Corker being so totally in the dark about this legislation are not limited to Bob Corker. Nobody seems to know what's in these things anymore, especially when Repubs are running the joint.

And I think it's because Congress Critters are over-worked. Not over-worked because they spend so much time and energy getting prepped and up to speed on bills and resolutions and stuff (they obviously aren't), but because they have to expend the majority for their efforts on the phones trying to raise enough money to get re-elected. That's an old one, but I think we're seeing a shitload of confirming evidence.

They have to find ways to put more hours into the day.  So basically, they're outsourcing (this is also an oldie but a goodie).  They "hire" staffers from the Lobbying firms or from the industry groups themselves, and hand the project over to them while their office management team oversees the thing - Management Staffers, btw, also often hired from the business interests they're supposed to be policing.

So weirdly, 45* and Bannon are right in saying "The Swamp" and "Deep State", but they're pointing at the wrong people. The professionals doing the real work of governance aren't the problem. The real problem lies in the process whereby we put people in charge of the government who're trying really hard to drive the rank-n-file bureaucracy (the parts that actually work) into the same fucked up swamp as the White House and Congress.

And while I'm at it, Grover Norquist is right too - unfortunately, he's got way too many people supporting his efforts to drown the wrong goddamned thing in that bathtub.

Remember though - it ain't easy. It's complicated and twisted and confusing; and for every difficult gnarly problem there's a solution that's simple and elegant and wrong.

But if we start with the money, the rest of gets a little smoother.

End Citizens United

Whooda Thunk It

Jeremy Scahill can be a bit of a sensationalist, but he's always been careful to back up his reporting with solid evidence.

That said, remember that people lie; and sometimes they lie for good reasons; and sometimes good reporters - and good government - get fooled.

The Nation:

Former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting “illegal” or “unlawful” weapons into the country on Prince’s private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.

We're in a very odd place right now. I'm not saying Erik Prince isn't the smarmy TheoCon asshole zealot he appears to be - I think he is.

I'm saying there are at least 4 probables here.

1. This is an effort to discredit Blackwater because somebody's pushing back against Prince's continuing efforts to privatize US Military and Intel functions
2. It could be a Counter-Ops False Flag thing where Blackwater funds an attack on itself, hoping to stir up lots of negativity, only to have it revealed that they didn't do the evil deed, which reverses the negative and gets lots of good sympathetic PR for them
3. Opportunists looking for a payday
4. Blackwater's guilty as fuck, and this is the only way we can think of to take them down that doesn't leave "the good guys" open to similar charges.

The oddness of this place has grown out of the "conservative" War On Facts that has intensified over the last 25 years to the point that we're in this weird deadlock because a boatload of us are stuck in a state of Radical Skepticism.

If you don't like the way it's going, just deny the facts. And if pressed, you can always pull an alternative "reality" straight outa your ass.

And yeah - it's all pretty fucked up, but that's not an excuse to do nothing.

Today's GIF

Exercise equipment is so worth it

Today's Tweet

Miss Lonelyheart waxes pathetic

Ann was desperately hoping that the tax credit for cat litter, Marlboro Reds, indifferent box-wine Chardonnay and the gnawing loneliness consuming her soul would make it into the tax bill. pic.twitter.com/VsEK9MSS4E

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 15, 2017

 

Timing Is Everything

And watch your 6 - apparently nobody else will.

Monday is coming...

🌊#FridayFeeling #Cool #FlashbackFriday #JobsReportpic.twitter.com/pX4x9ZOkGp

— Tom Hall ☘ (@TomHall) December 8, 2017

 

How Great I Art

Much appreciation to Albemarle Dems, and to whoever posted this from their Twitter feed.

...and to Walker Thornton for all she does for your favorite blogger.

It's Brookings

...and Brookings is "left leaning", but that don't make 'em wrong.

Like Colbert said: "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

(I just wish this kind of stuff could come from an author with a name other than Looney, y'know?)

Anyway:

THE ISSUE: House and Senate Republicans are working on a tax bill that will overhaul several parts of the U.S. tax code. By introducing new complexities to the tax code, the new bill creates tax sheltering opportunities for many Americans, especially the wealthy and those with good financial advisers.

- the first 3 points -

• By taxing wage income and business income at different levels, the bill adds complexity to the tax code and creates many new opportunities for more sophisticated and well-advised taxpayers to reduce their tax burdens.
• One of the least desirable parts of the bill is a provision that allows pass-through business owners to deduct 23 percent of their income before they calculate their taxes. This would result in very large differences in the tax burden of taxpayers in very similar circumstances.
• For example, if a plumber makes $60,000 a year as wages paid by an employer, he or she will pay 60 percent more in income taxes than if that plumber had been a sole proprietor or self-employed and takes advantage of the pass-through rate.
• The most sophisticated taxpayers and the highest income taxpayers will have a multiplicity of choices about how to structure their income and businesses in order to reduce taxes the most.

But let's get really real - if these jokers wanted to cut taxes for working families, they'd be  doing exactly that.  It's not about "relief", and anybody living within driving distance of a smart phone knows that.

It's also not about simplifying the Tax Code - not when it installs new ways for Corporations to avoid paying their fair share, which only increases an already pretty severe slant against the Workin' Guy.

These jagoffs are setting a deficit time bomb that they'll be using as the excuse they need to dismantle the main economic safety features which, for a good 80 years, have proven essential to making sure we have a properly-functioning middle class.

Paul Ryan has already tipped his hand by saying 2018 is when they'll be taking a nice big whack at Medicare.

We'll see what happens with Ryan. Rumors about his probable departure have intensified of late, but that could easily be a shot at gaining a bit more leverage - dunno. There are so many flips and turns and double-, triple-, and fourple-crossing that goes on, it's not really possible to keep up.

As always, the sausage-making continues apace.

Today's Pix

Click on a pic