Wednesday
Sep272017
The Commentariat -- September 28, 2017
Damian Paletta & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Republicans on Wednesday proposed slashing tax rates for the wealthy, middle class and businesses, while also preserving popular tax deductions that encourage buying homes and giving to charity, according to a 9-page document obtained by The Washington Post. But the document, titled 'Unified Framework For Fixing Our Broken Tax Code,' leaves many key questions unanswered. In it, the White House and Republican congressional leaders do not identify the numerous tax breaks they say will be removed in order to offset some of the trillions of dollars in revenue lost by cutting tax rates. The framework is being presented to Republicans and the public Wednesday as a starting point for negotiations on revamping the U.S. tax code. Congress must vote the changes into law, and Republican leaders are now tasked with resolving controversial questions to unite their party -- and possibly some Democrats -- behind tax legislation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The tax plan that the Trump administration outlined on Wednesday is a potentially huge windfall for the wealthiest Americans. It would not directly benefit the bottom third of the population. As for the middle class, the benefits appear to be modest." ...
... Trump Voices Another "Believe Me" Tell. Adam Raymond of New York: "President Trump traveled to Indiana Wednesday to begin pitching his tax-reform plan, which he said will benefit the middle class at the expense of wealthy Americans like himself. 'They can call me all they want. It's not going to help,' Trump said of his rich friends. 'And it's not good for me, believe me.' That's not true. Trump's plan, which calls for reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to three, lowers the top rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, while repealing the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, both of which are paid almost entirely by the wealthy." ...
... WealthFare. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) ripped President Trump's long-awaited tax framework on Wednesday, arguing it would provide a financial 'windfall' for wealthy Americans. 'It seems that President Trump and Republicans have designed their plan to be cheered in the country clubs and the corporate boardrooms,' Schumer said from the Senate floor. He added the GOP tax plan should be called 'wealth-fare.'"...
... Flim Flam. Josh Barro of Business Insider: "The 'doubled standard deduction' in the GOP tax plan is a lie.... The plan would increase the standardized deductions available to taxpayers by 15% or less. Meanwhile, taxpayers who still wouldn't take the standard deduction under the Republican plan -- those who would instead deduct things like mortgage interest -- would pay tax on more of their income than they do now." Mrs. McC: I know you're shocked that Trump & the GOP would mislead you when they haven't done that since ... yesterday. Hope you didn't spend your "double deduction." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times: "Many Californians face a big financial hit under the Republican tax plan, which would eliminate a major tax break that benefits state residents more than those anywhere else in the U.S. The federal deduction for state and local taxes allowed Californians to reduce their taxable income by $101 billion in 2014, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The tax outline released Wednesday by President Trump and top congressional Republicans would ax the break, which largely benefits residents in states that are Democratic strongholds."...
...Norm Ornstein of The Atlantic: "The end of September marks the 40th anniversary of the Food Stamp Act, the program that institutionalized the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP ... 81 percent of SNAP benefits go to those who are working or to those we do not expect to work -- children, the elderly, the disabled. In other words, SNAP benefits the most vulnerable among us, especially those in dire poverty. It is one of the most successful programs we have had in our social safety net...Why write about food stamps now, other than the 40-year milestone? Because yet again, Republicans, including the Trump administration, are going after SNAP with a meat ax." --safari
**Grim outlook for SCOTUS. Ian Milhiser of ThinkProgress: "Neil Gorsuch ... is on a bit of a victory tour...On Thursday, Gorsuch ill speak to a conservative group at Trump's D.C. hotel. By headlining this event, Gorsuch will personally enrich the very man who appointed him to his lofty position. And he will enable the very mechanism that allows Trump to profit off the presidency.... Gorsuch, along with four of his fellow Republican appointees, have the power to set into motion a downward spiral in which the Supreme Court enhances the GOP's ability to win elections, thereby entrenching the Court's Republican majority -- and undermining the legitimacy of what's become an increasingly partisan institution." Read on. --safari
Humiliated into Helping Puerto Rico. Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would waive the Jones Act for Puerto Rico, a century-old shipping law that Puerto Rican officials said was hindering efforts to get supplies to the island. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, announced the decision on Twitter, saying that President Trump had authorized the waiver after a request from Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló of Puerto Rico." ...
... We have a lot of shippers and a lot of people that work in the shipping industry that don't want the Jones Act lifted. -- President Trump, Wednesday, accidentally admitting the real reason for curbing aid to Puerto Rico ...
... Lachlan Markay, et al., of The Daily Beast: "Over the course of the weekend, President Donald Trump grew increasingly irritated as media coverage portrayed him as inattentive to the devastation on the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. And so, he engaged in a now standard form of online catharsis: He sent out a series of off-key tweets in which he seemed to blame the hurricane-ravaged island for its own fate. When it was all done, Trump came off looking not only inattentive towards Puerto Rico's plight but also unconcerned. The insecurity that he felt about that earlier coverage has only intensified, aides and confidants say, with some conceding that the president has himself to blame." --safari
Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday said he is considering an executive order to allow health insurance to be purchased across state lines. Trump told reporters at the White House that he plans to issue a 'very major' executive order, probably next week, 'where people can go out across state lines, do lots of things, and buy their own health care.' Trump said the order is 'being finished now. It's going to cover a lot of territory and a lot of people -- millions of people.'... Experts said it's not clear what an executive order on selling insurance plans across state lines would do.... 'To do anything from a federal level would usurp states' ability' to regulate their own insurance markets, said Christopher Holt, director of health care policy at the right-leaning American Action Forum." ...
... Paul Demko & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... the idea [of selling health insurance across state lines] is broadly opposed by state insurance commissioners, consumer advocates and insurers, and has failed in states where it's been tried.... Most insurance experts find it hard to imagine how an executive order could supplant existing state regulations, and believe such a move would likely spark a legal challenge.... There's been zero interest from insurers.... Insurers in states with tough regulations are fearful of having to compete against out-of-state plans that don't have to adhere to the same rules.... Skeptics also worry that there wouldn't be any accountability for insurers that engage in shoddy business practices if state regulations are stripped away...." ...
... He's Not Happy about It. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Tom Price's apparent fondness for taxpayer-funded private jet trips has attracted the attention of President Trump, who on Wednesday said he was disappointed in his secretary of Health and Human Services, and would personally examine any financial malfeasance. 'I was looking into it, and I will look into it. And I will tell you personally, I'm not happy about it,' Mr. Trump told reporters before departing on a trip to Indiana.... 'I am not happy about it. I'm going to look at it. I am not happy about it, and I let him know it.'" Got that? He's not happy about it. (Emphasis added.) ...
... Lauren Fox, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday said 'we'll see' when asked if he would fire Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in the wake of reports he has used taxpayer-funded private planes for government business. ...
... Gail Collins takes a stab at picking Trump's worst Cabinet member, & she prominently features Price. Mrs. McC: I'm sticking with Pruitt. Then again, as Collins writes, "There's so much competition." Remember how Trump promised to "pick all the best people"? Of course we knew long ago that he had excelled in picking all the worst. ...
... Price Sabotages Mississippi Health Insurance Enrollment Prep as Repeal Fails. Dylan Scott of Vox: "For the past three years, the US Health and Human Services Department has partnered with a health advocacy group in Mississippi on an education tour before Obamacare enrollment started.... Up until Monday, Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, thought these events were going forward in the coming weeks as planned. He had even asked HHS just last week for biographies of the officials they'd be sending. But then two days ago, he received a short message from an agency official, which Mitchell shared with Vox: HHS wouldn't be doing any Obamacare marketplace events in the South this year. No further explanation was provided. 'HHS bailing out was the last straw for us,' Mitchell told me by phone Wednesday. 'It's clearly sabotage.'" ...
... Kate Nocera & Paul McCloud of BuzzFeed: "... a source ... told BuzzFeed News that all of the department's 10 regional directors were told to not to participate in state-based events promoting open enrollment -- a significant change from years past. The move follows a trend by the Trump administration of stepping away from past federal assistance for Obamacare and, particularly, of dialing back resources for the upcoming open enrollment period.... In a statement Wednesday night, department press secretary Caitlin Oakley said 'Marketplace enrollment events are organized and implemented by outside groups with their own agendas, not HHS. These events may continue regardless of HHS participation.' She went on to say that 'As Obamacare continues to collapse, HHS is carefully evaluating how we can best serve the American people who continue to be harmed by Obamacare's failures.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: As Obamacare continues to collapse, we're doing all we can to kill it. Besides, we're out of money for these fairly cheap & effective outreach programs, because we spent all our discretionary funds sending the Secretary on private jet excursions. ...
... Another Day, Another Lie. Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday said the attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare isn't dead, tweeting that 'we will have the votes on Healthcare' but not for Saturday's reconciliation deadline. 'We will have the votes for Healthcare but not for the reconciliation deadline of Friday, after which we need 60. Get rid of Filibuster Rule!' he tweeted. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell chose not to hold a vote on the Obamacare repeal bill written by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) after it became clear there wasn't enough support for it to pass." Mrs. McC: I heard Trump speaking to reporters & he used the present tense: "We have the votes." Mitch obviously noticed that wasn't true. ...
... Update: Here's a Trumpentweet, issued Tuesday morning, where he also uses the present tense: "With one Yes vote in hospital & very positive signs from Alaska and two others (McCain is out), we have the HCare Vote, but not for Friday!" So, yeah, a big fat lie, in keeping with the time-honored Trump tradition.
Jim Acosta, et al., of CNN: "Returning from a high-dollar fundraiser in Manhattan on Tuesday evening, an infuriated ... Donald Trump watched aboard Air Force One as Fox News called the Alabama Senate primary for Roy Moore against Trump's favored candidate, Luther Strange. What ensued was a barrage of angry venting at his political team and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had consolidated establishment GOP support behind Strange.... He went to bed 'embarrassed and pissed' following the election loss, according to a person familiar with his mindset. Trump, multiple sources said, was furious with McConnell ... and feels outdone by his former aide [Steve] Bannon[, who campaigned for Moore]." ...
... Frank Rich: "As the news of Moore's victory hit..., the Times tweeted that the results had delivered 'a blow to President Trump.' Nothing could be further from the truth. Both of the GOP primary candidates were far to the right, and both were full-throated Trump supporters. Yes, Trump, acting impulsively on sloppy political intelligence, had endorsed the loser, Strange, but the Moore victory only adds to Trump's power over the GOP. Moore was a Trumpist before Trump was: a nativist, homophobic, law-disdaining, white supremacist, theocratic Dixie judge -- a Bible-thumping regional variant on Joe Arpaio. He will be a vocal Trump ally in trying to drive what’s left of the GOP Establishment in Washington out of power." Mrs. McC: Do read on. Rich is usual funny, articulate & insightful self.
... Adolescent in the White House. Nicole Lafond of TPM: "During a private dinner with conservative activists at the White House this week, President Donald Trump complained about his fellow Republicans in the Senate, calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 'weak' and physically mocking him and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Imitating McCain's thumbs-down gesture, which he used to indicate his no vote in the last Obamacare repeal vote in July, Trump reportedly mocked the gesticulation at the dinner, complete with a facial expression...Trump also physically mocked McConnell, according to Axios, which reported Trump mimicked McConnell's posture by slumping his shoulders and having a lethargic demeanor." --safari ...
... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "'In private, President Trump has taken to physically mocking ... Mitch McConnell (slumped shoulders; lethargic body language) and Senator John McCain (imitating the thumbs-down of his historic health-care vote)...,' [citing Mike Allen of Axios].... This walks right up to a familiar line for Trump, who has a long history of mocking the disabled. (McConnell learned to walk after suffering from polio and McCain was tortured while a POW in Vietnam.)" ...
Emily Goldberg of Politico: "A majority of American voters say Donald Trump is not 'fit to serve as president,' according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, with 51 percent of respondents saying they are embarrassed to have Trump serve as president. The poll reports that 59 percent say Trump is not honest, 60 percent say he does not have good leadership skills and 61 percent say he does not share their values.... Fifty percent of white voters say Trump is fit to serve, while 94 percent of black voters say he is not fit for the role; Hispanic voters are split 60 percent to 40 percent.... Men are divided 49 percent to 49 percent, while 63 percent of women say Trump is not fit."
The Guardian: "Rapper 50 Cent has claimed that Donald Trump's team offered him $500,000 to make an appearancein Trump's presidential campaign. The musician and actor was discussing the Trump administration on US radio station Hot 97 when he mentioned the president's proposal, adding that he believed it was motivated by a desire to appeal to black voters...'They wanted to pay me $500,000 as part of the campaign just to make an appearance.' [Curtis] Jackson revealed that he turned down the offer, as it would have sullied his reputation. 'I was like, "Nah, that's not good money,"' he said. 'That's not worth it!'" --safari
Norman Eisen & Anne Weismann in a Washington Post op-ed: "At issue [in the Kushner, et al., private e-mail revelations] is the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate statute Congress enacted to establish public ownership of presidential (and vice-presidential) records. It obligates the White House and those who work there to preserve all records relating to their official duties. Despite these legal requirements, the first eight months of President Trump's administration have been marked by stories of deleted presidential tweets, by the use within the White House of messaging applications that destroy the contents of messages as soon as they are read, and now by White House staff using personal email accounts to conduct government business.... The emerging pattern makes clear these are the actions of public officials who fail to respect and observe the rule of law.... These and other lapses are not simply 'technical' violations of a somewhat obscure law; they have real-life consequences on matters of great public interest and urgency." ...
... Ashley Feinberg of Wired: "According to the records held by the New York State Board of Elections, Jared Corey Kushner is a woman." Mrs. McC: Either Kushner (a) is an admirably evolved metrosexual or (b) is incapable of filling out complex paperwork, like the one-page voter registration form. If (a), good for him; if (b), he's the ignoramus we thought he was. (Okay, there's a slight possibility the Board of Elections made an input error on the sex designation. But that's not nearly as funny.) ...
... BUT remember, he's an exemplary businessman ...
... Predatory Capitalism. Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "One of Jared Kushner's real estate companies has been sued. A class action lawsuit filed in Maryland State Court this morning alleges that Westminster Management, a company owned by ... [Kushner], charged its tenants improper fees, and then used their failure to pay those fees as a basis to threaten them with eviction.... According to the suit, Westminster Management charged late fees that are higher than allowed by Maryland state law." --safari
Daisuke Wakabayashi & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "For three weeks, a harsh spotlight has been trained on Facebook over its disclosure that Russians used fake pages and ads, designed to look like the work of American activists, to spread inflammatory messages during and since the presidential campaign. But there is evidence that Twitter may have been used even more extensively than Facebook in the Russian influence campaign last year. In addition to Russia-linked Twitter accounts that posed as Americans, the platform was also used for large-scale automated messaging, using 'bot' accounts to spread false stories and promote news articles about emails from Democratic operatives that had been obtained by Russian hackers.... The House Intelligence Committee announced on Wednesday that it would hold a public hearing on the matter of Russian influence next month, and a Senate aide said Facebook, Twitter and Google have been invited to testify at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Nov. 1." ...
... Ben Collins, et al., of the Daily Beast: "The Facebook group United Muslims of America was neither united, Muslim, nor American. Instead..., it was an imposter account on the world's largest social network that's been traced back to the Russian government. Using the account as a front to reach American Muslims and their allies, the Russians pushed memes that claimed Hillary Clinton admitted the U.S. 'created, funded and armed' al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State; claimed that John McCain was ISIS' true founder; whitewashed blood-drenched dictator Moammar Gadhafi and praised him for not having a 'Rothschild-owned central bank'; and falsely alleged Osama bin Laden was a 'CIA agent.'... The imposter account bought Facebook advertisements to reach its target audience. It promoted political rallies aimed at Muslim audiences. And it used the Twitter account 'muslims_in_usa' and the Instagram account 'muslim_voice' to pass along inflammatory memes under cover of the UMA.... The Kremlin-backed trolls did all this while simultaneously using other accounts to hawk virulently Islamophobic messages to right-wing audiences on Facebook...." ...
... Josh Dawsey of Politico: "Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was the beneficiary of at least one of the Russian-bought political ads on Facebook that federal government officials suspect were intended to influence the 2016 election. Other advertisements paid for by shadowy Russian buyers criticized Hillary Clinton and promoted Donald Trump. Some backed Bernie Sanders and his platform even after his presidential campaign had ended, according to a person with knowledge of the ads." ...
... As Harry Enten of 538 said, "... the number of votes cast for Stein in the three states that proved to be pivotal (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) exceeded Trump's margin of victory over Clinton."
... Dylan Byers of CNN: "At least one of the Facebook ads bought by Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign referenced Black Lives Matter and was specifically targeted to reach audiences in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore...." ...
... Deb Reichmann of the AP: "Russian internet trolls are exploiting the controversy over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to stir up divisions in the United States, a Republican on the Senate intelligence committee said Wednesday. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma said paid social media users, or 'trolls,' were hashtagging 'take a knee' and 'boycott NFL' to amplify the issue. They were taking both sides of the argument this past weekend, and pushing them out from their troll farms as much as they could to try to just raise the noise level in America and to make a big issue seem like an even bigger issue,' Lankford said at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee."...
...Denise Clifton of Mother Jones: "Millions of tweets were flying furiously in the final days leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. And in closely fought battleground states that would prove key to Donald Trump's victory, they were more likely than elsewhere in America to be spreading links to fake news and hyper-politicized content from Russian sources and WikiLeaks, according to new research published Thursday by Oxford University...[F]ake news from Twitter reached higher concentrations than the national average in 27 states, 12 of which were swing states -- including Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan, where Trump won by slim margins...While it's unclear what effect such content ultimately had on voters, the new study only deepens concerns about how the 2016 election may have been tweaked by nefarious forces on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media." --safari
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator who has aggressively pushed to dismantle regulations and downsize the organization, is threatening to reach outside his agency and undermine the Justice Department's work enforcing antipollution laws, documents and interviews show. Under Mr. Pruitt, the E.P.A. has quietly said it may cut off a major funding source for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. Its lawyers handle litigation on behalf of the E.P.A.'s Superfund program seeking to force polluters to pay for cleaning up sites they left contaminated with hazardous waste. The E.P.A. reimburses the Justice Department for that work, paying more than $20 million annually in recent years, or enough for 115 full-time employees, budget documents show. But Mr. Pruitt has signaled that he wants to end those payments...." ...
... Brady Dennis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "... Scott Pruitt has taken at least four noncommercial and military flights since mid-February, costing taxpayers more than $58,000 to fly him to various parts of the country, according to records provided to a congressional oversight committee and obtained by The Washington Post."
Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "As Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blasted many within his department for being disloyal to the Trump administration's agenda this week, the agency's inspector general's office continued a probe into whether officials acted inappropriately when they abruptly reassigned dozens of senior workers.... The reassigned workers include Joel Clement, a climate scientist who was removed from his job as director of policy analysis and reassigned to a revenue accounting position for which he has no experience. Clement became a whistleblower when he publicly complained about his switch from his longtime role, in which he assessed climate impact on Alaska Native communities."
Capitalism Is Awesome, After All. No Bonus but a Helluva Consolation Prize. Liz Moyer of CNBC: "The abrupt departure of Equifax's chief executive officer on Tuesday has not dampened the criticism of the company since it disclosed a massive data breach earlier this month. As in other recent corporate scandals, the departure of Richard Smith was swift if not inevitable. The credit reporting company said he was retiring effective immediately and he wouldn't get a bonus for this year, though he is eligible to walk away with at least $18.4 million in pension benefits." (Also linked yesterday.)
A'Hunting He Will Go. Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Donald Trump Jr. went hunting in Canada after giving up his Secret Service protection, The New York Times reported Wednesday." Donnie was bow-hunting moose.
Medlar's Sports Report. Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post: "Rick Pitino survived the tawdriest of scandals during his tenure as coach of the Louisville men's basketball team, first a 2009 extortion attempt during which he admitted to having sexual relations with the wife of his team's equipment manager, then a 2015 scandal in which a former Cardinals staffer arranged for strippers and prostitutes to have sex with players and recruits.... But Pitino could not survive allegations that, in the grand scheme of college basketball scandals, barely rise above sordid: That an executive from Adidas, which outfits the Cardinals' athletic teams, and others conspired to steer top recruits to Louisville via six-figure payments to their families, in one instance enlisting the aid of one of Pitino's assistants. Those allegations, unveiled Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York after a years-long undercover investigation by the FBI, proved to be Pitino's undoing. On Wednesday, Pitino was placed on unpaid administrative leave by Louisville..., likely ending a career that earned him a spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013." ...
... With an Assist from Safari. Adam Peck of ThinkProgress: "On Tuesday morning, the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York announced that they had arrested ten people, including four assistant coaches from top-tier Division I college basketball programs for their alleged roles in corruption scandals involving funneling money to prized recruits.... The indictments...sent shockwaves around the college basketball world. Though only four coaches were initially arrested for their roles ... the implication is that Tuesday's news is just the tip of the iceberg.... Players in the NBA and other professional and even amateur sports leagues sign endorsement deals all the time. Only in the NCAA is it known as a rules violation...The NCAA's draconian bylaws governing how and when 'student-athletes' can be financially compensated are almost entirely to blame for the current drama." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
John DiStaso of WMUR (Manchester, NH): "Democrat Kari Lerner of Chester pulled off a surprising upset win in a Rockingham County special New Hampshire House election Tuesday, defeating Republican former state Rep. James Headd of Auburn by 39 votes in a district in which Republicans have a 2-1 advantage in registrations." (Also linked yesterday.)
David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "Florida's Democratic Party picked up a crucial seat in the Florida Senate Tuesday in a special election triggered months ago by a Miami Republican's alcohol-fueled tirade at a bar near the state Capitol. Riding an election-day and early-voting surge, Annette Taddeo topped State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz in the race to claim Senate District 40, a southwest Dade seat resigned in the spring by former Sen. Frank Artiles. The victory gives Democrats 16 seats in the chamber and hands Taddeo her first campaign win in a political career filled with second-place finishes.... Taddeo previously lost races for U.S. Congress and as Charlie Crist's running mate in the 2014 governor's election...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Washington County (Pa.) fire chief Paul Smith has resigned in wake of his use of a racial slur to refer to Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. 'The media dragged my fire company and township into this as well as my family,' Smith told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a statement.... Smith ... called Tomlin a 'no good N***er' on his Facebook page. He then added 'Yes, I said it.' He also blamed the media for labeling him a racist. 'I am not the racist the media portrays me as,' Smith said." Mrs. McC: I don't know who's worse: "the very fine people" in the Charlottesville white-supremacist/neo-Nazi crowd or guys like Smith who indignantly claim they're not racists. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... digby: Paul Smith is "just one guy. But there are millions like him and Trump is activating their racism for his own gain. Dividing this country is what he does." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Martin Chulov of the Guardian: "More than 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan have opted for independence, according to election monitors, in an overwhelming endorsement of a proposed split from Baghdad that has sparked increasing threats of air and land blockades that could be imposed as early as Friday. The result came after Iraq's parliament authorised the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to send troops into areas disputed between Arabs and Kurds that were contentiously included in the ballot. Euphoria on the streets of Erbil in recent days has been met with sharply increasing tension in the region, which is likely to escalate in the wake of the result." --safari...
...Update: Juan Cole: "The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding that the Iraqi army take control of the province of Kirkuk and reclaim the Kirkuk oil fields as a national patrimony. The parliament also demanded that the government arrest and try Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani for treason...the Baghdad government is using its international recognition to impose an air flight ban on Iraqi Kurdistan in the wake of this week's referendum.... As isolating as the Iraqi moves are, Turkey can hurt the KRG even more badly. PresidentTayyip Erdogan is threatening to cut off oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan through the Cayhan pipeline. Turkey is also ceasing food exports to Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraqi Kurdistan is landlocked and surrounded by hostile governments who do not want it to secede from Iraq. In going ahead with the referendum, Barzaniput his country on a collision course with the whole world." --safari
News Lede
New York Times: "Hugh Hefner, who created Playboy magazine and spun it into a media and entertainment-industry giant -- all the while, as its very public avatar, squiring attractive young women (and sometimes marrying them) well into his 80s -- died on Wednesday at his home, the Playboy Mansion near Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 91."
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ALL GIRLS
Life is all right in America.
ALL BOYS
If you’re all white in America.
West Side Story, "America" (film version)
When I was a kid, bathroom reading in my house gave you four options (if a rushed occupation prevented you from supplying your own). National Geographic (almost always my first choice), Time Magazine (second choice), Reader's Digest, and the St. Anthony Messenger. That last was a Catholic family magazine. I usually skipped the exegetical stuff and went straight to the back to check out a feature called Pete and Repeat. It consisted of two cartoon panels which looked exactly alike, until you looked very carefully, whereupon you could discover tiny differences, such as a glove with six fingers instead of five or a shoe with light gray laces rather than dark gray.
Over the last few days I've been reading accounts of the Trump White House's weak and unconscionably tardy response to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, thinking that a sort of Pete and Repeat comparison would be instructive. Until you get to the details. Unlike the very subtle changes in that old cartoon, comparing the differences between what Trump says and the truth is like placing the Mona Lisa side by side with a morgue photo.
According to the Little King, his response has been "amazing", "the greatest, the best", "unlike any in history". The reality? Exactly the opposite. But he seems to be able to get away with this sort of bullshit.
Even worse than his non-action for almost a week (he certainly didn't wait a week to help out those gun totin', rootin' tootin', Trump votin' Texans), was his blaming of Puerto Ricans for their own situation ("Electrical grid is bad, bad."). And then, on top of that, comes this astonishing tweet: "Much of the island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with."
So, forget about all the deaths and destruction. Money is owed to his pals on Wall Street and MUST be repaid.
This seems beyond the pale even for a self-absorbed, sociopathic creep like Trump. And let's not even mention the irony of a guy who has gone Chapter 11 four times to escape repaying his own debts complaining about Puerto Rico's debt problems. A larger asshole, if ever discovered, would surely make anatomic history.
And what was that business about Puerto Rico being an island? Surrounded by water, no less (typically the case with islands). What the fuck was that? Was he trying to convince us or was he registering his own amazement? Don't we have, like, a navy? How 'bout planes? We dropped candy bars to kids in Berlin in 1948, we couldn't toss a few Snickers to kids in Puerto Rico in 2017? Or maybe some bottles of water?
Nope. Why? You know why. The singers in West Side Story told that tale half a century ago. It's no different today. At least not for racist pigs like Donald Trump. Oh, and didn't you just love that line about how he grew up in New York so he "knew" some Puerto Ricans? It's like the old "Some of my best friends are black" line meant to inoculate the speaker from any and all charges of racism. Oh yeah, I'm sure you "knew" Puerto Ricans, Donnie. They picked up your trash and made sure your water glass was refilled at the restaurant.
I suppose you could do a Pete and Repeat comparison for all things Trump, that is, between his words and the truth, and you would never see any differences that couldn't be spotted from outer space.
Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, Trump...
Every time I think the next Confederate can't be worse, it's like another ten or twenty rungs below the previous guy. So I won't be predicting that we've reached bottom any time soon. We may be dealing with president pence before long and who knows what horror shows await us in the future? Christ, we may have a President Roy Moore in a few years the way vote suppression is going.
@Ak: One of your best yet! (BTW wasn't there a long ago cartoon character called the Little King, a sort of dumpling shape with a crown on his head? Don't remember much else as I much preferred the Flash Gordon artwork & stories!).
As for stoopid stuff that DJT sez...if you saw his "...Puerto Rico is an island (see Seth Meyer video) with his hand visuals
...and then his tax reform nonsense responses to the reporters...it never stops. Isn't there a grown-up in his administration? Mnuchin? Price? Devos? Jared? Pruitt? Zinke?
Oops. Asked & answered.
...and before we leave the dense demesne of racial animosity in Right Wing World, a message from two poor lads at Fox:
Loofah Boy: "I was attacked every single day of my life. Every day."
Hannity: "Bullseye! The two Irish guys."
Ah yes, woe is them. Eternal victims. And who are the winners? Lazy, mooching blahs, that's who, who won't stand for OUR FLAG, dammit.
In a scene that Samuel Beckett or Jean Genet would have died to write, they being in the business of theatrical representations of absurdity, Loofah Boy O'Reilly got back on Fox for a night to commiserate with fellow poor soul Sean Hannity.
Their topic? What else? Black people suck and white people are their victims.
Without mentioning the background of the NFL's silent and non-violent protests, the two victims defended the glorious white race as only two privileged white guys who've made millions beating the drum of racism on Fox can.
"'This isn’t a white supremacist nation,' O’Reilly said. 'This is the biggest bunch of bull I’ve ever heard… Don’t be telling me that cops in America go out every day thinking to hunt down black people. That’s a lie. They don’t.'"
No Bill, maybe they don't go out to "hunt down black people" every day, but the alarming number of shootings of unarmed blacks by white cops indicates that when they do encounter black people, things very quickly can go south, so to speak.
I don't know why I bother to mention it except that you just know that all those "I ain't no fuckin' racist" types sitting at home, eyes whirling in hypnotic circles, glued to Fox, were feeling, shall we say, "stimulated" at all the talk about how evil blahs are and what victims poor whites are.
Just perpetuating the standard winger myth. And for one more night, the Loofah lad was back on the national stage, reveling in the supremacy of the color of his skin and his ability to say that that just wasn't so.
Akhilleus, excellent summary of Trump/PR but I do want to remind everyone that he really believes he did a great job.
MAG,
"The Little King"! You're right. I'd forgotten all about that strip. I loved "The Little King". He was a jolly little guy, and unlike the current little king, possessed of a sense of joy without ever taking advantage of anyone else.
"The Little King" was one of those wordless, pantomime strips, like "Henry" (always felt a little bad for Henry) and, for all you Mad Magazine fans, the infamous "Spy vs. Spy".
I do admit that I also had a taste for Alex Raymond's stuff ("Flash Gordon" et al), and Hal Foster ("Prince Valiant"--except that 'do, whoa...) and Milt Caniff ("Terry and Pirates"). But I did enjoy the simple good-hearted little king.
Maybe someone can do an update of some of those old strips, using the current little king and his band of robbers and liars as characters. "Trumpy and the Pirates", "Flesh Grabber", "Prince Kushner". I can see Paul Ryan as a bumbling Emperor Ming. Ivanka could be an updated Dale Arden. "I'm sorry Flesh, but I simply can't go into space in this off-the-rack mess! Where's my Vera Wang!?"
Back in the 60's, underground comics became a seminal source of cultural and political commentary. Unfortunately, Trump has bypassed absurdity and political parody and gone straight to upside down, inside out lunacy. I suppose we could still get some wisdom from Mr. Natural. But R. Crumb's Mr. Goodbar has just the right message for Trump Confederates and the little king himself.
"Do it today."
@Akhilleus, et al.: It seems one of the main purposes of Fox "News" is to promote white supremacy. I don't mean that they go on the air & trade racial slurs, but in a way they're worse: again & again, they tell viewers what is NOT racist, as in the Hannity-O'Reilly exchange you cite. That is, they give their seal of approval to what racist thoughts & expressions are acceptable; i.e., you are fine to believe black people are dangerous muggers because once somebody you know went to NYC & got mugged by a black (or Puerto Rican or whatever) teenager. Of course getting mugged by a white teen doesn't mean white people are dangerous. They don't just condone racist memes; they give the viewers ideas on reasons to be racists. They highlight black crimes & anything some black person says or does that might be controversial among white people.
AND Fox gives rewards for racism. Before Megyn Kelly got a top primetime spot, she made her mark doing segment after segment on the New Black Panthers. And who could forget Kelly's pronouncement that Santa Claus -- a fictional character that most people grow out of in grammar school -- was a white man? Extra points for making a single remark that is both racist AND War-on-Christmas-y! I'll bet O'Reilly is still having a sad he didn't think of it first.
Mrs. B.,
Megyn Kelly has moved on from all that racist stuff. Now she's paying the bills by trying to coax Jane Fonda into talking about her plastic surgery. (Jane gave her a great "Are you fucking kidding me?" look.)
Can't wait for the pot-luck casserole segments and the in-depth interviews with a couple of the Real Housewives of Peoria.
How are the mighty fallen.
Soooo.....
Tax cuts for King Trumpy and his Wall Street pals won't benefit them one smidgen but WILL guarantee growth such as "has never been seen in many, many, many years", says the Little King.
"Nope", says Bruce Bartlett, who was domestic policy advisor to Saint Ronald of Reagan, and one of the architects of Reagan's tax cut, the one pointed to by current Confederate liars as the Rosetta Stone of economic growth.
According to Bartlett, that just ain't true.
There were many reasons for the modest growth after the Reagan tax cut, but Trickle Down wasn't it, even though subsequent Republican administrations adopted the Tax Cut Growth Fallacy as if it were the gospel according to Ron.
"Despite huge tax cuts almost annually during the George W. Bush administration that cost the Treasury trillions in revenue, according to the Congressional Budget Office, growth collapsed in the first decade of the 2000s. Real GDP rose just 19.5 percent, well below its ’90s rate...The flip-side of tax cut mythology is the notion that tax increases are an economic disaster — the reason, in theory, every Republican in Congress voted against the tax increase proposed by Bill Clinton in 1993. Yet the 1990s was the most prosperous decade in recent memory. At 37.3 percent, aggregate real GDP growth in the 1990s exceeded that in the 1980s."
The point here, very well made, is that Trump is a lying sack of shit. And so is Ryan, McConnell, and every other Confederate talking head.
Trickle Down doesn't work. Never has. Never will.
A very useful piece. Check it out.
More in trickle, dripple and drivel ...from the drips:
Gary Cohn says a typical American family earns $100,000 a year—(...and with the tax savings they would get under the proposed new tax plan cuts, which they could use it to pay for a new car or a kitchen). "‘here's how much they really make "
And, oh yeah. The total amount of the tax savings from that (average) family of four earning a fictitious $100K a year? One thousand dollars!
Good luck buying that new car.
Wow! and can't wait to see the $1,000 kitchen redo.
"The GOP plan is expected to primarily benefit corporations as well as the wealthiest Americans, which includes various members of the White House and the Cabinet. The estate tax repeal alone would save Trump $564 million, Wilbur Ross $545 million, Betsy DeVos' father-in-law Richard $900 million, and Linda McMahon $250 million, reports Bloomberg. In fact, in several ways, the President himself stands to benefit tremendously."
MAG,
So, the "typical" American family earns $100,000 a year?
Cohn must mean the typical rich winger family.
According to the Census ACS survey, the median household income for the United States was $55,775 in 2015, half of what Cohn claims.
But here again, the Trumpies are using weasel language. "Typical", according to them, doesn't necessarily mean "median". Probably doesn't mean "average" either, which in 2013 was $73,298.
Like all Trump claims, this one is yet another self-serving obfuscation, another lie.
But, as I maintained, long ago, during the Reagan Debacle, it was very likely that not a single member of the Reagan cabinet knew anyone who made less than $100,000 a year. Now it's more like $500,000, given the collection of billionaires who are all scheming together to increase their riches at the expense of everyone else.
The Trump Way.
Now made even easier by tax breaks for the ultra wealthy, unheard of since the institution of income tax. Al Capone would be jealous.