The Commentariat -- October 28, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
CW: If, like me, you want to watch (at least part of) the GOP debate tonight & you're not in the vicinity of your teevee, you can start at this CNBC page, click on "Watch Live" in the menu at the top of the page, click on the image of the key that comes up. pick your cable or dish service provider, then sign in thru the provider. For instructions to use other media & apps, this CNBC page will get you started.
Afternoon Update:
Craig Melvin & Erick Ortiz of NBC News: "The school resource officer who was caught on camera violently flipping a South Carolina high school student at her desk has been fired, authorities announced Wednesday. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said an internal investigation over the Monday incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia focused on whether Senior Deputy Ben Fields had violated the department's policies. He said at a news conference that the department looked at cellphone videos taken from the classroom and interviews with witnesses, and concluded that the maneuvers he used in the confrontation were 'not acceptable.'"
*****
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The budget agreement struck late Monday between the White House and Congress hands President Obama a clear victory, vindicating his hard line this year against spending limits that he argued were a drag on the economy and buying him freedom for the final 14 months of his term from the fiscal dysfunction that has plagued his presidency. The deal is the policy equivalent of keeping the lights on -- hardly the stuff of a bold fiscal legacy. But it achieves the main objective of his 2016 budget: to break free of the spending shackles he agreed to when he signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, an outcome, the president allowed Tuesday, that he could be 'pretty happy' about." ...
... Phony Baloney. Paul Ryan Mad About Budget Bill His Staff Helped Write. Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday morning that he hadn't seen the new bipartisan budget deal and that the secretive process used to craft it 'stinks.'... 'Paul Ryan's staff was involved in crafting the [SSDI] provision for weeks,' a Democratic aide told HuffPost. 'His staff signed off on the provision, his staff also signed off on other key provisions' related to tax compliance and Medicare.... At 52 pages, the disability insurance provision comprises a significant portion of the 144 page bill." ...
... Kevin Drum: "This is so staged it makes Dame Edna look serious. Ryan has basically been given permission to blast the deal in order to verify his conservative bona fides, and everyone else understands this is just an act." ...
... digby: "We can now see why Ryan was willing to take the [speaker's] job. If Boehner can successfully take the basic requirements to keep the government running off the table Ryan can indulge his Freedom Caucus with endless witch hunts and crazy maneuvers for two whole years before any chickens come home to roost. If they ever do. Get ready for a very theatrical political freak show to try to appease the rubes. It's what they really want. Planned Parenthood is up next." ...
... UPDATE. This just in, via Jake Sherman of Politico: "After sharply criticizing how it came together, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan announced he would support the budget deal Wednesday." CW: What a weasel. ...
... Greg Sargent: "Paul Ryan's transformation from safety-net-obliterating, Ayn Rand-worshipping conservative hero to RINO squish Obummer-enabling sellout is complete." ...
(... Oh, but there's this. Elaina Plott of the National Review: "Paul Ryan has signed off on a letter promising restless members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) that he won't bring immigration-reform legislation to the House floor while President Obama remains in office." CW: They've got it in writing. I promise not to do jack-shit for "those people" while "that person" is in office. They all make me sick. ...)
... Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Republicans are facing a last-minute uprising against Speaker John Boehner's budget deal, as dozens of GOP lawmakers are telling leadership they might vote against the package because of changes to crop insurance programs, and other concerns. Senior GOP lawmakers estimate that between 60 and 120 Republicans will vote for the package as is, leaving Democrats to supply the vast majority of votes, though the vote count is fluid at this time. Aides in both parties expect the bill to pass, but the number of GOP defections is a notable rebuke to Boehner and other top Republicans." ...
... Sophia Tesfaye of Salon: "The U.S. government just avoided economic calamity. Naturally, the extreme right is unhappy." ...
... Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The tentative budget agreement forged by congressional leaders and the Obama administration will ward off a historic spike in Medicare premiums for the coming year, but it will nevertheless require nearly one in three older Americans to pay 17 percent more in monthly premiums for doctors' visits and other outpatient care." ...
... CW: If you want to understand what is really in the budget, Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities is you man.
... Otherwise, you can turn to Steve Benen: "On the bottom of page 144, the budget agreement would designate the 'small House rotunda' on the first floor of the Capitol to serve as a 'Freedom Foyer.' I'm not making this up." CW: See? There's something in this budget to make everyone happy -- even for the loudest whiners. They get their very own foyer.
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "A group of House Republicans ... moved Tuesday to impeach [John Koskinen,] the head of the Internal Revenue Service, saying he violated the public trust and lied to Congress as it investigated the treatment of conservative groups. The announcement by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform panel, came four days after the Justice Department formally closed its investigation of the targeting scandal without filing criminal charges.... Chaffetz was joined by 18 committee Republicans in sponsoring an impeachment resolution, which now goes to the House Judiciary Committee. House Democrats quickly denounced the move as political grandstanding."...
... CW: Those "fiscal conservatives" sure are wasting a lot of our taxpayer dollars in the service of grandstanding hoo-hah.
CW: I'm sure there will be plenty of waste here, too. Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Northrop Grumman on Tuesday won the Pentagon contract to build a fleet of stealthy planes known as the Long Range Strike Bomber, a new generation of aircraft designed to reach deep into enemy territory. Northrop beat out a team of Boeing and Lockheed Martin in the high-stakes competition for a project likely to be one of the Pentagon's most significant over the next decade. In announcing the award, valued at nearly $60 billion, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the program represents a 'technological leap' that will allow the United States to 'remain dominant.'"
Juliet Eilperin & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Tuesday that there is no evidence police officers in major cities have pulled back from enforcing the law out of concern they will come under fire for using harsh tactics. Twice in the past week, FBI Director James B. Comey suggested that exactly such a phenomenon was responsible for rising crime rates in many U.S. cities, as police officers worry that their behavior will be captured on video and go viral":
Richard Fausset, et al., of the New York Times: "... the Justice Department said Tuesday that it would investigate ... a white sheriff's deputy upending and dragging an uncooperative black girl in a high school classroom [in Columbia, South Carolina], follows a set of national studies showing that black students were far more likely than whites to be disciplined in public schools, even for comparable offenses."
... Elahe Izadi & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who requested the independent criminal probe [by the DOJ], said at a Tuesday news conference he was 'shocked and disturbed' by what the short video showed. Officials also have uncovered another video, recorded from a different angle, showing the student resisting, 'hitting the student resource officer with her fist and striking him,' Lott said. 'What she does is not what I'm looking at; what I'm looking at is what our student resource officer did.'" (Link missing.)
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Justice Anthony Kennedy ... suggested during an event at Harvard Law School last Thursday that public officials who do not wish to follow the Court;s marriage equality decision should resign. Kennedy's remarks came in response to a question from a student who ... asked whether public officials who disagree with the Court's decisions on marriage equality or abortion have 'authority to act according to her own judgment' of whether the Court's legal reasoning was sound.... [He said] 'the rule of law is that, as a public official in performing your legal duties, you are bound to enforce the law.'... The justice did acknowledge the 'difficult moral questions' presented when a public official is asked to 'enforce a law that they believe is morally corrupt.'" ...
... CW: Looks as if Kim Davis would be making a big mistake to take her "religious freedom" claim to the Supreme Court.
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty Wednesday to bank fraud charges connected to $1.7 million he paid to cover up what federal officials said was sexual misconduct dating back to his years as a high school teacher and coach. Prosecutors are recommending up to 6-month prison sentence." ...
... The Chicago Tribune story, by Jason Meisner & Jeff Coen, is here. (It is currently not firewalled.) "'Guilty, sir,' Hastert said during his hearing before a judge in Chicago federal court. Hastert admitted he knew his conduct was wrong.... Hastert faces probation or up to 6 months in prison.... Hastert read a brief statement saying that he didn't want officials to know how he intended to spend the money he withdrew."
Coral Davenport, et al., of the New York Times: "... scientific data [collection] ... could yield groundbreaking information on the rate at which the melting of Greenland ice sheet, one of the biggest and fastest-melting chunks of ice on Earth, will drive up sea levels in the coming decades. The full melting of Greenland's ice sheet could increase sea levels by about 20 feet.... Each year, the federal government spends about $1 billion to support Arctic and Antarctic research.... But the research is under increasing fire by some Republican leaders in Congress, who deny or question the scientific consensus that human activities contribute to climate change. Leading the Republican charge on Capitol Hill is Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the chairman of the House science committee...."
Shannon Hall in Salon: "Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue, according to a recent investigation from InsideClimate News. This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world's largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation -- an approach many have likened to the lies spread by the tobacco industry regarding the health risks of smoking."
Michael de la Merced & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Walgreens Boots Alliance said on Tuesday that it would buy Rite Aid for more than $9.4 billion in cash...." CW: Cash? Really? Bags of cash? Suitcases full of cash? What denominations? How many people will it take to carry $9.4 billion in cash.
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "For the 24th year in a row, and by a wider margin than ever before, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to urge the United States to end its economic embargo on Cuba. Despite the Obama administration's professed eagerness to do precisely that, the United States was one of only two nations to vote no. Joined by Israel, against a 191-vote majority, the U.S. delegation dismissed the Cuban-sponsored resolution as failing to reflect the 'spirit of engagement President Obama has championed.'"
The folks at Fox "News" are as smart as ever. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Fox News host Harris Faulkner asked on Tuesday why guns should be regulated in the U.S. if 'we're not regulating the car.'"
Presidential Race
Nick Gass of Politico: "With Vice President Joe Biden officially out of the running and the Benghazi testimony behind her, Hillary Clinton has surged to a 41-point lead in the first caucus state of Iowa, according to results out Tuesday from the latest Monmouth University poll surveying likely Democratic caucus-goers." ...
... digby: Over there in Right Wing World, they are not too worried about the presidential race because they have a ringer in FBI Director James Comey. He's going to put Hillary Clinton in jail. And AG Loretta Lynch won't be able to stop him. digby finds the Hillary-Behind-Bars scenario pretty hilarious, BUT: "Using whatever means necessary whether it's calling bogus voter fraud, closing polling stations or indicting opposition politicians on flimsy charges is a legitimate democratic process in their eyes. If Comey and the FBI are good partisan Republicans they'll help out any way they can. And that means they may not be able to press charges but you can bet they'll leak misleading information to feed the hungry little birdies in the press and the wingnut mob." ...
Stephen Koff of Cleveland.com: "U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Brown's endorsement could matter among Ohio primary voters next March as Clinton vies with Bernie Sanders for the party's nomination. Brown has long embraced the progressive label, taking positions more often affiliated with colleagues such as Sanders, of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts than with moderates such as Clinton."
Do you know how crazy this election is?... I've about had it with these people. Let me tell you why. We got one candidate [Ben Carson] that says we ought to abolish Medicaid and Medicare. You ever heard anything so crazy as that...? We got one guy [Donald Trump] that says we ought to take 10 or 11 million people and pick them up, where the -- I don't know where, we're going to go in their homes, their apartments. We're going to pick them up and we're going to take them to the border and scream at them to get out of our country. Well that's just crazy. -- John Kasich, at a rally in Ohio Tuesday
Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: Second-place Donald held a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, last night. Second place, for Trump, "is terrible."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ben Carson calls abortion murder but thinks states should decide whether it's legal. The retired neurosurgeon says it's wrong to accuse fellow Americans of treason, yet suggested President Barack Obama could be guilty of the crime. He advocates severe punishment as a deterrent for health care fraud, yet helped secure a lighter sentence for a convicted schemer. On issue after issue, Carson's positions conflict, a collection of statements, assertions and pronouncements that are often out of step with a conservative electorate.... Carson's contradictions continued this week, when he said he had junked his long-held plan to eliminate Medicare and Medicaid." ...
... Steve M. explains why Ben Carson's Seventh-day Adventist beliefs -- including the conviction that Sunday-worshipping Christians are "the devil's partners" -- will not hurt him with these supposedly-doomed evangelicals: "I don't believe religion is exclusively or even primarily about religion for these people -- it's about tribal identification and tribal solidarity. The tribe in this case isn't the members of a particular faith tradition, but rather the overall group of heartlanders who wear their Christianity on their sleeve." ...
... CW: I think Steve has this just right. BTW, every time Carson uses the word "secular," in whatever context -- & he uses it often -- that's a dogwhistle to evangelicals. (When Carson asked for Secret Service protection, for instance, he said the reason was that "I'm in great danger because I challenge the secular progressive movement to the very core.") ...
... Dr. Ben Still Doesn't Understand the Debt Ceiling. Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "In a new interview with The Hill, GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said he would not sign any budget deal that raised the debt ceiling if he is elected president." CW: See, Doc, the budget sets expenditures for the coming year (actually the coming two years this time around, but let's not make this too complicated), & the debt ceiling covers expenditures in the current year & years gone by. Maybe somebody should buy Dr. Ben a calendar & explains years and things to him, although I suppose introducing the concept of fiscal years may be way beyond his ken. Or we could forget about all this & concentrate on the End of Days. Jeesh! ...
... Josh Marshall of TPM: "I genuinely wonder if this guy is all there."
Li'l Randy Still Doesn't Understand the Debt Ceiling. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has called [the agreement to raise the debt limit] a 'slap in the face to conservatives.' Likely speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said the process that created it 'stinks.' But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the first Republican to pledge outright that ... 'I will filibuster the new debt ceiling bill.'... Paul also called the bill a 'steaming pile of legislation,' and urged fellow Republicans to join him. But Paul made the same move in 2011...." (CW: Ted Cruz understands it, but he's a phony-outrage machine who likes to stay in character. Li'l Randy just isn't very bright.) ...
... Andrew Kaczynski & Megan Apper write an open letter to Rand Paul: "Stop using fake founding fathers quotes. Four months ago, we brought to your attention that your first two books contained several quotations incorrectly attributed to our founding fathers.... Speaking in Greenville, South Carolina earlier this year, we caught you using a fake Patrick Henry quotation.... Just this week you released a new book, Our President &Their Prayers: Proclamation of Faith by America's Leaders, with co-author James Robison who 'compiled and edited' the text. It too is full of fake quotations." CW: If Li'l Randy is not very bright, neither are his ghostwriters. ...
... there's a ridiculous cottage industry out there of people who think they're smarter than everyone else, and because certain quotes are disputed -- well, yeah! If you want to say something's not a Thomas Jefferson quote, you can get a whole book on whether it's a quote or not.... I mean, this idiot [Kaczynski] says the same thing about my speeches. Do I need to say in my speech, 'as many people attribute to Thomas Jefferson, but some people dispute,' before I give the quote? It's idiocy, it's pedantry -- it's ridiculous stuff from partisan hacks. And I'd say that guy's one of 'em. -- Rand Paul, defending his "scholarship"
Paul & Christie Campaigns Are Literally in the Toilet. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "During a tense 30-minute meeting at the Coors Event Center [in Denver]..., several lower-polling campaigns lashed out at the RNC. They accused the committee of allotting them less-than-hospitable greenroom spaces while unfairly giving lavish ones to higher-polling candidates.... Trump was granted a spacious room, complete with plush chairs and a flat-screen TV. Marco Rubio got a theatre-type room, packed with leather seats for him and his team of aides. Carly Fiorina's room had a Jacuzzi. Then there was Chris Christie, whose small space was dominated by a toilet. So was Rand Paul's." ...
... CW: Now, boys. This is just the RNC's subtle way of telling you drop out of the race to make room for Jeb! I'm with Kasich & Graham. You can't take these people seriously. They're only worth our notice for the laughs. ...
... Noah Weiland of Politico writes a piece titled "Everything you need to know about Wednesday's GOP debate." CW: But that's not true. He doesn't write about toilets & Jacuzzis. ...
... Steve M.: "I think this will continue to be a two-man race, and Carson really might have a chance of winning it." ...
... CW: Nah. I realize the dynamics are different every cycle, but I think we're seeing in Carson's surge the 2012 effect: that is, one GOP candidate is on top for a while, then another, then another. We just don't know yet who that third guy (or gal, as Steve suggests) is. Carson's uptick is really bad news for Trump, not because it deprives him of his top talking point ("I'm No. 1"), but because it means that the flavor of the summer doesn't taste so good in the fall, & voters will be looking at other candidates. It's Carson today, maybe Cruz or Rubio tomorrow. The Iowa caucus results, BTW, are just as important as they were in 2012, President Santorum. ...
... Speaking of "gal," Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: Carly Fiorina has told a story, at least twice before, of taking a friend to an abortion clinic years ago; this, she said, "helped harden her antiabortion position." Now she has revised her story to say the facility she took her friend to was a Planned Parenthood clinic. How convenient. ...
... CW: Let's just say Fiorina's story is 100 percent true. Having a friend who later wished she had not had an abortion is not by any means a sound basis for opposing abortion for other women who who want to choose that option. And if her friend "never got over it," as Fiorina claims, the friend has a psychological problem that is probably unrelated to the abortion. We all make decisions we later regret, but we do get over our angst. Fiorina's argument is as sensible as "My friend wished he had not bought a Corvette, so Corvettes should be illegal." There's nothing wrong with personally opposing abortion (or Corvettes!), whatever the reason, but to impose that view upon other women & families is imperious.
Beyond the Beltway
Onward, Christian Smugglers. Candida Moss & Joel Baden of the Daily Beast: "In 2011, a shipment of somewhere between 200 to 300 small clay tablets on their way to Oklahoma City from Israel was seized by U.S. Customs agents in Memphis.... Their destination was the compound of the Hobby Lobby corporation, which became famous last year for winning a landmark Supreme Court case on religious freedom and government mandates.... Law enforcement sources tell The Daily Beast, the Greens [who own Hobby Lobby] have been under federal investigation for the illicit importation of cultural heritage from Iraq." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ...
... Charles Pierce: "Now, it appears, their truly appalling Museum Of The Bible may discuss only eight commandments -- hanging up those prohibitions against bearing false witness and coveting your neighbor's goods may strike some people as a little ironic.... I've checked. I don't think you can claim that you have the 'religious liberty' to be a smuggler. Who knows what John Roberts thinks, though." ...
... CW: I'm awfully disappointed the Greens got caught. As the Daily Beast reported, "The tablets were described on their FedEx shipping label as samples of 'hand-crafted clay tiles.'... The monetary value assigned to them -- around $300, we're told -- vastly underestimates their true worth...." The Greens' haul was 40,000 "tiles"! Surely, they would have sold most of the "hand-crafted tiles" at their Hobby Lobby stores throughout the nation, & I could have picked up one -- at a huge markup from their assigned value of .75 cents apiece. I'd have decorated it with Hobby Lobby glitter & craft paints & maybe some cute decals.
Daphne Duret & Lawrence Mower of the Palm Beach Post: "Corey Jones was on the phone with AT&T's roadside assistance -- and possibly recorded -- when a Palm Beach Gardens officer confronted him on an Interstate 95 off-ramp last week, triggering the events that led to his death." Jones is black. He had a gun & a concealed carry permit for it. The officer who shot him dead was not in uniform, was not wearing a badge, & drove an unmarked white van with tinted windows.
Way Beyond
Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "In interviews, four of the 69 Arab prisoners of the Islamic State freed in a military raid last week described life under the thumb of the Islamic State."
News Lede
New York Times: "Iran has accepted an invitation to join talks with the United States and Russia this week on a possible political resolution to the Syrian civil war, state news media reported on Wednesday. The talks would be Secretary of State John Kerry's first formal negotiations with Tehran on issues beyond the nuclear accord reached in July."
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Reader Comments (19)
A satisfying fantasy.....after Green spends the maximum prison time for illegal import of antiquities, we fondly waive goodbye as he is transferred to Iraq for prosecution. He would be on the same plane carrying the antiquities being returned to Iraq.
The more I watch Ben Carson, the more I think Kate M. was onto something when she speculated a few weeks back that he could be self-medicating (she used more professional terminology, but that was the idea). "Common sense," D.C., suggests there is something wrong there. Maybe it's just because his demeanor is outside my experience, but -- even aside from his wacko worldview -- he frightens me.
Marie
Here's a link about the South Carolina treatment of young people, "http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/10/race-discipline-south-carolina-schools-corporal-punishment/412678/?google_editors_picks=true". And this is normal?.! What do you want to bet that these same schools will outlaw students with cell phone cameras next? Watch for it.
I have to agree that when I see Carson he looks 'off'. If you dressed him up as a beggar on the street, the things he says would seem not fully considered or very thoughtful. Politicians are daily proof of the power of a good suit. The fact Carson wants his finger on the nuclear button is the race to the bottom emblematic of the whole Republican field. Yikes!
Another thing that strikes me about Carson is that his demeanor could be a cover for a lot of suppressed anger. He may be drugged and/or mentally ill, but he also may be one angry man. Since he was so successful in his career, receiving so much respect and adulation, you have to wonder what he is angry about. Maybe my theory is full of holes, but he does remind me a little of Clarence Thomas who strikes me as a seething pot of resentment.
The Investigation Party
Just wondering what it is, exactly, that Confederates, especially in the House, do. They despise governing, hate the very idea of governance and government, but want to control it anyway. And because of their puerile contempt for governing (not to mention history, science, economics, and basic civics), they hardly ever know what they're talking about. They have no clue how to address the myriad problems facing the nation (many caused directly by Confederate ideology) never mind a sense of what it might take to begin thinking about how to manage and fix these problems.
So what do they do?
They investigate people who ARE able to do all of those things.
That's pretty much it. They've already shut down the government once because they couldn't get their way (very mature) and have been trying to do it again. And would likely do it yet again after that if they could. They've thrown away billions of aid for Medicaid expansion as a purely partisan gesture, thus endangering the health and welfare of millions of Americans. And then they investigate some more. Just last week I read that if Bowe Bergdahl doesn't go to prison, John McCain wants an investigation. They'd investigate a traffic light if their limo had to wait too long.
No wonder they never get anything done. They spend all their time (and our money) navel gazing.
So far there have been at least seven Benghazi hearings (not counting one initiated by Clinton herself). Not a one has found any wrongdoing or criminality. Or a reason for continuing the farce, but on they go.
There have been numerous investigations of Planned Parenthood at both the federal and state levels. Nothing found there either (in fact of the 11 red states that aggressively investigated the PP fetal tissue program, the Planned Parenthood chapters in eight of those states aren't even part of the program!), and there is at least one additional hearing planned by the House. There have been investigations of the IRS and investigations of the ACA enrollment plan. The Justice Department just said there was no criminality connected to the IRS looking into tax exemption applications so now there's an IRS impeachment hearing in the works.
When an environmental science researcher suggested congress look into ways the fossil fuel industry stymies action based on climate change data, Republicans set up a committee to investigate him instead. Money well spent, I'm sure.
In fact, back in 2011, winger ding-dong, former insurance fraudster and car thief, Darrell Issa, announced a sweeping list of Republican priorities. Was it a list of legislative initiatives planned by the GOP? A plan for getting things done? It was not. It was a loooong list of investigations they planned to undertake. WikiLeaks, the FDA, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, whether the earth is really round, and why the sky is blue. They weren't planning on getting anything done. They were planning on investigating stuff and people they didn't like.
And spending like drunken sailors to do it. In fact, the party of fiscal responsibility (a little like calling the corporate polluters great exponents of clean air and water) has taken billions of dollars out of the economy to satisfy their pet peeves. Adding up the piles of dough wasted by Confederates on phony investigations, including the $1.5 billion a day lost by their government shut down fiasco and the $30 billion left on the table by red states refusing Medicaid expansion funds, the total, according to Daily Kos, tallies up to well over $50 billion. Wasted.
Add to that the tab for The Decider's War of Choice which continues to run on without end, we're talking about three, maybe four or five trillion thrown into a sinkhole by the Fiscal Responsibility Fools.
If that's fiscal responsibility I'd hate to see what it would look like if they were just capricious, profligate assholes.
"Michael de la Merced & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Walgreens Boots Alliance said on Tuesday that it would buy Rite Aid for more than $9.4 billion in cash...." CW: Cash? Really? Bags of cash? Suitcases full of cash? What denominations? How many people will it take to carry $9.4 billion in cash."
Dear Weader: I don't think Walgreens is actually going to pass out $20 bills to the Rite-Aid stockholders. "Cash" in a business transaction these days does include "Checks", with which I suspect Walgreens will make its payments.
Still a Coward.
Lyin' Ryan protests the new budget deal as something that "stinks" even though his own staff was intimately involved in its creation. Rather than begin his imminent tenure as Speaker with a show of strength, resolve, and leadership, he prefers to let someone else do the dirty work so he can hang with the barking mad loonies and not have to face them down.
He's just provided everyone with a look ahead to his speakership. Go along to get along. Talk out of both sides of his mouth. A shiftless follower of the resentful mob rather than a resolute leader of women and men.
A cowardly and feckless fop.
Don't know if the country can take much more of this brand of Confederate "leadership".
Jack,
I still love the image of a phalanx of nattily attired bankers sporting top hats and spats, galloping down Fifth Avenue dragging big bags with dollar signs on them, greenbacks flying out as they make their way from Walgreens to the nearest Rite-Aid.
The Idiot Test
Don't you think it should give voters pause that at least two (and probably more) of the current candidates for the presidency don't have a clue what the debt ceiling limit is all about? I'm pretty Jeb! is hazy on this as well. It doesn't surprise me that a loony (Carson) and a plagiarizing, fabricating faker (Li'l Randy) don't understand this basic concept, but it does worry me that people are lining up to vote for these fools.
Would you get in line to have a guy work on your car who didn't know the difference between a voltage regulator and a gas cap? Or who thought internal and spontaneous combustion were the same thing?
Still think Carson will not be the nominee ultimately based on his race. Racism is too ingrained in the GOP physche. His contradictory statements and views are likely the product of ignorance and or mental issues as others have observed. However, it's working in his favor right now by sweeping up droves of voters who can make his various positions fit their particular bias. No thinking required. Just hate on.
@Jack Fuller: Just kidding. I know Walgreen's isn't going to hand over wheelbarrows full of greenbacks to Rite Aid. I assumed "cash" meant the $9.4 billion didn't comprise stock options or borrowed money (leveraged buyout) or whatever other kinds of instruments might accompany such a deal. I just thought it sounded funny. Guess not.
Marie
Marie,
I'll bet you could fool Dr. Ben into thinking a cash buyout meant truckloads of greenbacks. Never mind, too easy.
Randy of course thinks cash should mean gold bullion.
@CW,
I thought your money joke was humorous and raised an interesting question of how much $9.4B would weigh.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing each note regardless of denomination (since our notes are all the same size and shape) weighs about one gram.
To put things in perspective and to help those who may be metrically challenged I did the math to convert the amounts to a typical tractor-trailer load of 40,000 lbs. per trailer, excluding pallets and wrapping.
The results are:
$1 notes = 518.1 trailers
$5 notes = 103.6
$10 notes = 51.8
$20 notes = 25.9
$100 notes = 5.2
Now, if Walgreens wanted to be real dicks and pay them in pennies it would take an amazing 129522 trailers. If 53' trailers were put end-to-end (without tractors) this would stretch out to about 1300 miles.
Unwashed,
1,300 miles? Hey, if Walgreens wanted to fork over another billion or so in pennies, you'd have enough trailers, end to end, to build Trump his Mexican wall! For that matter, Trumpy is always telling everyone how rich he is. Surely he has a few spare billion in his piggy bank to make up the difference.
Voila. His first major foreign policy problem solved.
Ak,
I'm not sure that would work. It might just turn into a bigger magnet to attract more of the pesky little devils who would just crawl underneath to make holes in the floors to drain all the pennies out. As they pushed their wheelbarrows back south they might even be singing Bing in Spanish.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/10/28/a-d-c-cop-tried-to-break-up-a-group-of-teens-it-ended-in-this-impressive-dance-off/
That's the way to do it.
@Unwashed: Thanks! Your calculations gave me my laugh of the day. And I needed it.
Marie
I'm very curious to find comments from those in the operating room keeping his patients alive while he performed all his wonderful brain surgeries. There are many surgeons taking credit for successful operations when there a whole raft of support people keeping the patient alive.
@Howard Gladman
see:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/at-johns-hopkins-theres-little-to-show-ben-carson-worked-there/2015/10/27/06ef5cdc-7cef-11e5-afce-2afd1d3eb896_story.html