Common Rotation - Union Maid Fight Song
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Philly, Go
I can't tonight, but if you can:
URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Families are being detained at PHL airport. **Gather at 7pm at Terminal A to demand their release.** Share widely.
— Helen Gym (@HelenGymAtLarge) January 28, 2017
Reciprocal
President Pig Fucker has banned dual citizens of the list of random countries from coming into the US. Meaning, a dual UK-Iranian citizen would be banned from entering the US on a UK passport.
I don't know the precise details of our visa waiver reciprocity agreement with EU countries, but they shouldn't put up with their citizens being treated that way without a response. Obviously Theresa Trump isn't going to do anything, but other countries should.
I don't know the precise details of our visa waiver reciprocity agreement with EU countries, but they shouldn't put up with their citizens being treated that way without a response. Obviously Theresa Trump isn't going to do anything, but other countries should.
Not That It's About Me And My Comfortable Life
But I'm in a shitty mood and assholes on the internet aren't helping. Time to step away for a little bit...
Not A Humane Country
Nothing in the last 15 years of glorious humanitarian interventions has suggested that we are much into the "humanitarian" part of the intervention. As I've long said, if we can't even take in anything more than a trivial number of refugees from the conflicts we directly or indirectly have participated in, then the whole concept is a farce.
I know it's considered to be bad form to acknowledge anything from the wikileaks dump, but when this is what our "liberal" Think Tankies are coming up with...
..apologies, this wasn't even from the wikileaks dump.
One remarkable email exchange in particular reveals the critical role played by Tanden in that positioning. In October 2011, a CAP national security writer, Benjamin Armbruster, circulated a discussion on CNN about whether Libya should be forced to turn over its oil revenue to the U.S. as compensation and gratitude for the U.S. having “liberated” Libya.
After one CAP official, Faiz Shakir, noted how perverse it is to first bomb a poor country and then make it turn over its revenues to you for doing so, Tanden argued that this made a great deal of sense:
Tanden’s argument is quite similar to Donald Trump’s long-time stance about Iraqi oil: “I say we should take it and pay ourselves back.” But Tanden’s twist on the argument — that Americans will continue to support foreign wars only if they see the invaded countries forced to turn over assets that the U.S. can use to fund its own programs — is singularly perverse, as it turns the U.S. military into some sort of explicit for-profit imperial force. As Shakir put it in a subsequent email, that suggestion would “make people start to think that our military is just for-hire to carry out the agendas of other people.”
..apologies, this wasn't even from the wikileaks dump.
Knowledge Failure
I'm sure these guys are evil, but they also probably lack any sense of what it's like to move to another country for a job even if you are relatively financial secure. The timing is a nightmare. You have to get all of your paperwork together, relying on unclear and inconsistent legal advice which could potentially cause a lot of problems if it's either bad advice or you fail to follow it correctly. You have to time your arrival, get a place to stay, magically set up a bank account in the post-9/11 era where for some reason that's treated like a terrorist activity, all when your job is supposed to begin AND when all of your papers have come through AND when you have money to pay your rent AND etc... etc... You have to force the stars to align pretty well and have a great deal of luck to make it all happen. Suddenly saying "never mind" is a big fucking deal, and that's before we get to people who are trapped in foreign countries with kids here waiting for them...
Not Just Those People
It's maddening when something has to hit Real White America In The Suburbs before it's something to treat with compassion, rather than as an excuse to continue destroying lives and communities, but...
In Bucks last year, there were 185 fatalities, up from 124 in 2015. In that time, Montgomery County deaths increased to 253 from 177. Considering the size of the populations, the crisis is similar: Each county had about 30 deadly overdoses for every 100,000 residents.
Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit
So if you popped out for a little winter beach vacation or work trip, your kids might not have a parent for awhile.
We do love families and children.
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - People holding so-called green cards, making them legal permanent U.S. residents, are included in President Donald Trump's executive action temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, a Department of Homeland security spokeswoman said on Saturday.
"It will bar green card holders," Gillian Christensen, acting Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in an email.
We do love families and children.
Really Never Alarmist Enough
Back during the worst of the Bush days I'd occasionally get genuinely well-meaning people telling me that something I had posted was wrong, and that the alarmism was dangerous. Even when I'd point to the source of whatever it was - not the liberal version of infowars, but, say, the New York Times (an imperfect publication but the beef should be with them, not me), or the clear text of an order or law, they wouldn't back down. The point is not that I was always right about everything, but that some people were always trying to say "no, no, it's not that bad, and you're being alarmist which is also super bad." Anyway, I think it's probably helpful, not harmful, to be extra alarmist. Not that I'd do it deliberately, but I don't really see the point in searching for the more charitable view of things, especially when it's so often the wrong one.
In that spirit, I'm not smart lawyer type, but I wouldn't recommend that any noncitizen resident of the country (visa/green card, whatever) travel outside the country at the moment if you're planning to try to come back. Whatever the specific intention of the regulations (or wording), throwing this shit out there on a Friday night with no explanations means that multiple agencies, individuals, and private entities (airlines) have to figure out on their own just how they're supposed to carry out President Pig Fucker's instructions.
In that spirit, I'm not smart lawyer type, but I wouldn't recommend that any noncitizen resident of the country (visa/green card, whatever) travel outside the country at the moment if you're planning to try to come back. Whatever the specific intention of the regulations (or wording), throwing this shit out there on a Friday night with no explanations means that multiple agencies, individuals, and private entities (airlines) have to figure out on their own just how they're supposed to carry out President Pig Fucker's instructions.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Heroes
Good job everybody.
In what was perhaps the grandest metaphor of a week’s worth of visiting Republican Party retreat members being literally cornered by protestors wherever they found themselves in downtown Philadelphia — grander still than even the fact that the city deemed to protect the Loews Hotel where they were staying by using trash trucks to block off the streets — a ghost train of sorts was there to carry them off, back to Washington, D.C., this morning. When protestors arrived at 30th Street Station late this morning, to greet the visiting GOP one last time for the week with messages of dissent and resistance to an increasingly aberrant, toxic presidency, they soon realized: None from the party had the courage to enter the station, and take the train that had been chartered on the GOP’s behalf.
What Are We Defending?
I have no doubt that anything good that comes out of something planned by the Trumpkins is accidental, but I would recommend that fellow lefties not overstate the case by bending over backwards to defend Washington Consensus economic ideas. NAFTA probably was not a good thing for either the US or Mexico.
Rodrik doesn't say it precisely, but almost all discussions of policies which discuss "number of jobs created (destroyed)," either expected or actual, are basically bullshit (the exception being more short run things like fiscal policy during a downturn). It's all about income distribution (individual and geographic), something we're not allowed to talk about.
Rodrik doesn't say it precisely, but almost all discussions of policies which discuss "number of jobs created (destroyed)," either expected or actual, are basically bullshit (the exception being more short run things like fiscal policy during a downturn). It's all about income distribution (individual and geographic), something we're not allowed to talk about.
The American Dream
Good luck, Florida Man.
Designed as a larger version of Minnesota’s Mall of America, the six-million-square-foot mall and amusement park would be large enough to include an indoor ski slope, submarine rides and an enclosed water park. Triple Five, owner of the Mall of America, expects 30 million visitors a year and more than 14,000 permanent jobs at the 200-acre complex on a wedge of pastures and wetlands where I-75 meets Florida’s Turnpike.
American Dream’s hiring projections would make the mall Miami-Dade’s largest employment center. An economic-impact report submitted by Triple Five estimates that more than 60 percent of the positions would pay less than $25,000 a year.
Should Have Gone With $.99
A bit too generous, I think.
You'd think that for PR purposes they'd feel the need to construct some sort of system through which they would at least *pretend* to pay a real rent, but, nah, fuck it, one buck it is.
The Oakland Raiders have submitted a proposed lease agreement to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority that would have the team pay $1 a year in rent for the use of a new dome.
The team presented the document at Thursday’s brief authority board meeting as the team awaits a decision from National Football League owners on whether it will be allowed to relocate to Southern Nevada.
You'd think that for PR purposes they'd feel the need to construct some sort of system through which they would at least *pretend* to pay a real rent, but, nah, fuck it, one buck it is.
Tell Us More, Chuck
I know that there's understandably and perhaps even correct view that anything anti-Trump is good at this point, but this was (from a few weeks ago) more than a little disturbing if the senior Senator from New York wasn't just flapping his gums.
It's the kind of thing we "joke" about, and it would explain a lot, but...
Rachel asked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) about Trump’s bizarre antics, and he replied, “[Y]ou take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you. So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”
It's the kind of thing we "joke" about, and it would explain a lot, but...
Constant
Through Republican and Democratic administrations, every crazy crackpot right wing idea gets a serious (if sometimes critical) airing on cable news.
Morning Thread
I thought I learned in High School Economics that tariffs never work. I guess we're all going to learn more about tariffs than we ever wanted to know.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Normalization
One thing that seems to have been normalized is protest. I can't quantify this in any way, but way back in the early aughts, protesting was something that weirdos did, a bit like playing D&D in the early 80s. Nothing wrong with it, necessarily, but somehow weird. Now it's like "republicans in town? ok, we're there."
I Live On Hell St.
Trump's lying about my city, saying that the murder rate is steadily increasing. It isn't.
Too many people are killed, of course, but the man who never leaves his golden palace believes that life in cities is like all of those dystopian 70s movies. The best you can say is that he's just a typcal philly.com commenter. More worrying is that this is a Bannon-esque vision of military occupation of places where black people live. Time to send the Feds into Chicago. Probably the truth is somewhere inbetween.
I live about a mile from where the action was today. I never worry about safety, or at least I worry much less about violent crime than I worry about being run over while being a lawful pedestrian. Cities like Philly have problems, but not the ones the Trumpkins imagine.
Too many people are killed, of course, but the man who never leaves his golden palace believes that life in cities is like all of those dystopian 70s movies. The best you can say is that he's just a typcal philly.com commenter. More worrying is that this is a Bannon-esque vision of military occupation of places where black people live. Time to send the Feds into Chicago. Probably the truth is somewhere inbetween.
I live about a mile from where the action was today. I never worry about safety, or at least I worry much less about violent crime than I worry about being run over while being a lawful pedestrian. Cities like Philly have problems, but not the ones the Trumpkins imagine.
Not Really
This has been bugging me for a couple of days. I'm all for doing what can be done to put the best people in office, but that's the beginning, not the end. The "organizing" by those with money and entrenched interests doesn't stop on voting day, either. Voting is the first step, not the last. Voting is good, but not BEST!!! This is a stupid and wrong hierarchy.
Marching, good. organizing, better. Speaking up, good. Running for office, better. Registering, good. Voting BEST!! #MakeAmericaSaneAgain!
— Michael A. Nutter (@Michael_Nutter) January 21, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
I Think We Might Have A Problem, Guys
President Trump on his remarks at the CIA, via the @ABC transcript pic.twitter.com/u4qt0XNYJq
— Mark Berman (@markberman) January 26, 2017
Assholes
Didn't realize there was a protest this evening, so wandered over there a bit too late. But here's a picture someone took of the Philly welcome to the Republicans staying in the hotel right there.
...oy
...video.
...oy
...video.
Police estimate 1000 Anti-Trump protesters outside GOP retreat at Loews hotel in Philly tonight pic.twitter.com/yd8aQr0wMF
— Robert Moran (@RobertMoran215) January 26, 2017
White on White Crime
Something about that community.
A man has been charged with killing his girlfriend and then dumping her body in the woods near the house where they lived just outside Lafayette, Ga., according to Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson.
Small Favors
At least with the election of Trump we don't have numerous think pieces (and sweet sweet consulting cash) about how Democrats just need to pretend to love Jesus more.
I always thought that stuff was wrong politically, but also really offensive to actual religious people (I am not one). Just hit the love Jesus button often enough and the rubes will believe you.
I always thought that stuff was wrong politically, but also really offensive to actual religious people (I am not one). Just hit the love Jesus button often enough and the rubes will believe you.
All In All
As I've said a few times (I've said everything a few times by this point), a wall doesn't keep people out (or in). Armed guard towers do.
Difference Between The Parties
Of course there is. I know there is and I'd never suggest otherwise. But you can forgive "normal" people for not being clear on exactly how.
The US federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 at about $10.81/hour in 1968 in 2016 dollars (inflation adjusted). It is currently $7.25 in today's dollars. Maryland's minimum wage is currently $8.75/hour and is scheduled to be increase to $10.10/hour in 2017, still about a buck an hour lower than it was in 1968 (adjusting for presumed inflation).
Per capita GDP is about as twice as high as it was then.
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett on Monday vetoed legislation that would have made the wealthy county the first jurisdiction in Maryland to require a $15 minimum wage.
Leggett (D) said boosting the wage to the level embraced by national progressive activists, including former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), would harm Montgomery’s economy and its ability to compete for jobs in the Washington region.
...
Leggett left the door open to considering a revised bill, contingent on a study of the economic impact of a $15 minimum wage on the county’s public, private, and nonprofit sectors. His other conditions for signing a revised bill include extending the wage hike’s phase-in to 2022 — two years after the District will begin requiring a minimum of $15 an hour — and including an exemption for small business and youth workers.
The US federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 at about $10.81/hour in 1968 in 2016 dollars (inflation adjusted). It is currently $7.25 in today's dollars. Maryland's minimum wage is currently $8.75/hour and is scheduled to be increase to $10.10/hour in 2017, still about a buck an hour lower than it was in 1968 (adjusting for presumed inflation).
Per capita GDP is about as twice as high as it was then.
Unfair Competition
Normally we think that sweetheart tax deals and similar at least steal jobs from one state and move them to another so there's some local justification for it (increase the tax base even though we aren't making them pay any taxes!!!). Of course, quite often it's just screwing other local companies.
pssst..don't tell them about what's going in New Jersey...
Can the largest mall in America get built without some financial help from Miami-Dade County?
That’s the question well-funded opponents of the American Dream Miami project want answered before county commissioners give preliminary approval Wednesday to a zoning change needed to build the $3 billion retail theme park planned for Northwest Miami-Dade.
The large malls that would compete with American Dream want commissioners to preemptively ban the planned six-million-square-foot complex from pursuing a special taxing district that could divert millions of dollars from Miami-Dade coffers and into infrastructure expenses that developer Triple Five would otherwise have to pay.
pssst..don't tell them about what's going in New Jersey...
In It To Win It
As I've been gently saying for a couple of months, with great responsibility comes great responsibility. Too many times I've seen what happens when people who were given lots of your (probably) money to save the world from destruction piss it all away. What happens is that they get rich.
The consequences of failure of this magnitude never fall on the people responsible for it.
Rival campaign managers from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s respective presidential bids are set to join forces on the lucrative paid speaking circuit.
In joint appearances across the country, Robby Mook and Corey Lewandowski will offer a “future-focused look at why Trump won” in what their speaking agency, Leading Authorities, promises will be an “entertaining pair sure to keep any audience engaged,” according to the Washington-based firm’s website.
The consequences of failure of this magnitude never fall on the people responsible for it.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Where's My Reward
When you thought becoming president would fill the dark holes of despair inside you, but instead...
The bad press over the weekend has not allowed Trump to "enjoy" the White House as he feels he deserves, according to one person who has spoken with him.
The Mall Is Flat
Clearly frightened of the competition from the American Dream.
More mall landlords are choosing to walk away from struggling properties, leaving creditors in the lurch and posing a threat to the values of nearby real estate.
As competition from online shopping batters retailers, some of the largest U.S. landlords are calculating it is more advantageous to hand over ownership to lenders than to attempt to restructure debts on properties with darkening outlooks.
That, in turn, leaves lenders with little choice but to unload the distressed properties at fire-sale prices.
Don't Be Savvy
Resist the tendency to think that you are "in on the joke," that you know what politicians really mean, that seemingly incomprehensible strategies have a grand purpose behind them, and that, most importantly, only those with deep insight can divine what they are.
If you can figure out it, the rubes can too.
If you can figure out it, the rubes can too.
Life Goes On
Sometimes people get on a "why can you post about X when TRUMP ARGLEBARGLE" and, yes, there are few things more important than the catastrophe being imposed on our country and the world, but there are also many things in the world and they don't all stop happening.
Right Thing
Yes, the junior senator from New York is doing the right thing. The opposite of that is some senators are doing the wrong thing. I wish we didn't have to explain this.
The Heroes We Need
People always park in crosswalks around here. It's bad. It's unsafe. There are a lot of elderly people in the neighborhood who do, yes, walk places. They need access to the crosswalk and the associated curb cuts (the good kind, not the garage front kind). There's a bit of an enforcement hole, as the state authority tasked with enforcing parking violations tends not to patrol areas without permit parking, and the cops understandably think they have better things to do. Cars also block sight lines, making accidents more likely. There neeeds to be more enforcement. People get enraged by this idea.
There are a lot of ways to improve the parking situation - such having more residential parking permit areas (permits are really really cheap) to cut down on the number of people who just use it to store their beaters and people who use it as a parking lot for the bus line - but too many people prefer the "just let me park wherever the fuck I want" solution (blocks need to vote to get permits, many refuse), which doesn't really help. Also, too, it's unsafe.
There are a lot of ways to improve the parking situation - such having more residential parking permit areas (permits are really really cheap) to cut down on the number of people who just use it to store their beaters and people who use it as a parking lot for the bus line - but too many people prefer the "just let me park wherever the fuck I want" solution (blocks need to vote to get permits, many refuse), which doesn't really help. Also, too, it's unsafe.
Scary Times
The press knows, or soon will know, the scope of what we're dealing with. Unlike past presidents with issues, who at least surrounded themselves with some semi-competent people, Trump has surrounded himself with sycophantic incompetents. Republicans are completely corrupt, and those nasty Dems just turn everything (according to the institutional press) into a partisan problem. You know, both sides.
It is at times like these when a press imbued with some respect and authority is about the only possible check there is left. I do not think they are up to the task.
It is at times like these when a press imbued with some respect and authority is about the only possible check there is left. I do not think they are up to the task.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Somewhere Out There
While it's true that people abroad get a bit more US-related news than we get of other countries and generally know a bit more about things here than we know of them, it isn't actually the case that people in other countries spend all day thinking about the US. We aren't actually the center of their universe, just the biggest star on the horizon. They have their own politics, own culture, own daily bullshit, own memes and favorite cats on the internet sites, etc. It really ain't all about us.
Policy Matters
One thing our political press is usually (not always!) very bad about is engaging with the fact that policy actually matters, that it isn't just some debate club. Making it harder to access legal abortions will make people die. Making health insurance coverage worse will make people die. It's very rude to point it out, and it's also very true.
The Sunkist King
Is Trump so unaware that his handlers can get away with calming his feefees with his traveling sycophants, or is he aware and likes it that way anyway? I vote the former, but..
Authorities are also pushing back against the perception that the CIA workforce was cheering for the president. They say the first three rows in front of the president were largely made up of supporters of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
An official with knowledge of the make-up of the crowd says that there were about 40 people who’d been invited by the Trump, Mike Pence and Rep. Mike Pompeo teams. The Trump team expected Rep. Pompeo, R-Kansas, to be sworn in during the event as the next CIA director, but the vote to confirm him was delayed on Friday by Senate Democrats. Also sitting in the first several rows in front of the president was the CIA’s senior leadership, which was not cheering the remarks.
Where'd All The People Go
It's true that in much of America pedestrians are weird invading life forms, but shore towns are generally an exception to this. I don't think most people understand precisely why they love going down the shore, as they say here. Sure they like the beach and all that, but they also like that they can wander around (what the fuck do you think a boardwalk is for) and maybe even stumble home after a drink without having to drive. And, yeah, they get to do it without all the perceived scary residents of cities (you know who I mean!!!). So, sure, it makes perfect sense for state reps of shore towns to declare it's Deathrace 2017.
Ending Welfare As We Know It
One of the more maddening things was the victory laps about "welfare reform" as if getting people off welfare should have been the goal, instead of getting people to not need welfare, which should have been.
Spice, Spice, Baby
A press conference today! Exciting!!! Hopefully he yells at the naughty children again!
Word to your mother.
Word to your mother.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
I've Known This Guy
When I was younger. Men from a certain generation (maybe they exist now, too, I just don't know them), the parents of some of my friends. You know, guys who are Trump's age. At least at home - most weren't big enough shits in life too pull it off outside the home - everybody had to circle around and make sure that Daddy was ok, that Daddy got what he wanted for dinner, that people talked about what Daddy wanted to talk about, which was, of course, Daddy. Their moods would fluctuate wildly, from amusing (a bit, anyway) raconteur to despondent black hole. Everybody spent all their time doing what they could to keep Daddy happy, though there really wasn't anything that could be done.
Mr. Trump grew increasingly angry on Inauguration Day after reading a series of Twitter messages pointing out that the size of his inaugural crowd did not rival that of Mr. Obama’s in 2009. But he spent his Friday night in a whirlwind of celebration and affirmation. When he awoke on Saturday morning, after his first night in the executive mansion, the glow was gone, several people close to him said, and the new president was filled anew with a sense of injury.
Joe Piscopo Will Save The American Dream
And some nonsense about replacing pensions with tax cuts and raising money with naming rights for highways. MAGA!
It's Biff's America, we just live in it.
He also said that he would make a second attempt at a casinos referendum in 2019 that would allow the American Dream Meadowlands retail complex in Bergen County to open a casino. He believes the state's share of casino revenue could be used to defray pension costs by $100 million each year.
It's Biff's America, we just live in it.
You'll Leave When You Have Kids
This article is about how there are no kids in San Francisco, but it makes the point that somehow there are kids in other urban hellholes.
As an urban renaissance has swept through major American cities in recent decades, San Francisco’s population has risen to historical highs and a forest of skyscraping condominiums has replaced tumbledown warehouses and abandoned wharves. At the same time, the share of children in San Francisco fell to 13 percent, low even compared with another expensive city, New York, with 21 percent. In Chicago, 23 percent of the population is under 18 years old, which is also the overall average across the United States.
It Doesn't Matter
You know, low inauguration attendance is just something for stupid liberals to respond to with "hur derp President Trump is a big loser hur derp" and then move onto something else the next day. Sure there's some value in all of the evidence that the guy who won the election isn't exactly supremely popular, which does but shouldn't impact how the press covers him, but mostly it just gives something else for team liberal to make fun of Tiny Hands about. The Tiny Hands thing is the same. Both are only "funny" (also incredibly scary but we also have to laugh or drink ourselves to death) because the most powerful man in the world actually cares about these things. He's awake at 4 AM obsessing about TV ratings, still claiming (and having his flunkies claim) that he won in an historic landslide, and losing his shit because more people showed up to see the black guy get inaugurated.
The point is, we know it doesn't matter. He thinks it does matter. Eek.
The point is, we know it doesn't matter. He thinks it does matter. Eek.
America's Worst Boss
You sign up with the devil because you figure it'll be a great career move (not justifying, just how DC works). Put in a bit of time, and have sweet sweet access jobs for the rest of your life. Doesn't work too well if the devil chews you up and shits you out in record time.
He just said what the boss said, but sometimes looking in the mirror is troubling.
But most of his remarks were devoted to attacking the news media. And Mr. Spicer picked up the theme later in the day in the White House briefing room. But his appearance, according to the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s thinking, went too far, in the president’s opinion.
He just said what the boss said, but sometimes looking in the mirror is troubling.
But The Next One Will Be Worse
When the bullpen is filled with a Rogue's Gallery filled with Arkham Asylum's worst, it's hard to even root for a Cabinet appointee to be shot down. And, I admit, I lean towards thinking that the "advise and consent role" for appointees whose terms don't outlast that of the president is a bit silly..
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