Trianwreck!
Aug 29 2019
Cartnoon
Aug 29 2019
The Breakfast Club (Mind Of A Bigot)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Hurricane Katrina blows ashore in southeast Louisiana.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.
Indiana just days away from legalized sports betting
Continue reading
Aug 28 2019
Pondering the Pundits
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Paul Krugman: Trump and the Art of the Flail
Protectionism is worse when it’s erratic and unpredictable.
The “very stable genius” in the Oval Office is, in fact, extremely unstable, in word and deed. That’s not a psychological diagnosis, although you can make that case too. It’s just a straightforward description of his behavior. And his instability is starting to have serious economic consequences.
To see what I mean about Trump’s behavior, just consider his moves on China trade over the past month, which have been so erratic that even those of us who follow this stuff professionally have been having a hard time keeping track.
First, Trump unexpectedly announced plans to greatly expand the range of Chinese goods subject to tariffs. Then he had his officials declare China a currency manipulator — which happens to be one of the few economic sins of which the Chinese are innocent. Then, perhaps fearing the political fallout from the higher prices of many consumer goods from China during the holiday season, which would result from the tariff hikes, he postponed — but didn’t cancel — them.
Wait, there’s more. China, predictably, responded to the new United States tariffs with new tariffs on U.S. imports. Trump, apparently enraged, declared that he would raise his tariffs even higher, and declared that he was ordering U.S. companies to wind down their business in China (which is not something he has the legal authority to do). But at the Group of 7 summit in Biarritz he suggested that he was having “second thoughts,” only to have the White House declare that he actually wished he had raised tariffs even more.
And we’re not quite done.
Jamelle Bouie: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Understands Democracy Better Than Republicans Do
The idea that proponents of greater electoral equity have to quiet down because we live in a ‘republic’ is absurd.
Spend enough time talking politics on the internet — or in any other public forum — and you’ll run into this standard reply to anyone who wants more democracy in American government: “We’re a republic, not a democracy.”
You saw it over the weekend, in an exchange between Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Dan Crenshaw of Texas. In a brief series of tweets, Ocasio-Cortez made the case against the Electoral College and argued for a national popular vote to choose the president. “Every vote should be = in America, no matter who you are or where you come from,” she wrote. “The right thing to do is establish a Popular Vote. & GOP will do everything they can to fight it.”
Crenshaw, who has sparred with Ocasio-Cortez before, jumped in with a response: “Abolishing the Electoral College means that politicians will only campaign in (and listen to) urban areas. That is not a representative democracy.” And then he said it: “We live in a republic, which means 51% of the population doesn’t get to boss around the other 49%.”
Crenshaw is wrong on the impact of ending the Electoral College. A presidential candidate who focused only on America’s cities and urban centers would lose — there just aren’t enough votes. Republicans live in cities just as Democrats live in rural areas. Under a popular vote, candidates would still have to build national coalitions across demographic and geographic lines. The difference is that those coalitions would involve every region of the country instead of a handful of competitive states in the Rust Belt and parts of the South.
But the crux of Crenshaw’s argument is his second point. “We live in a republic.” He doesn’t say “not a democracy,” but it’s implied by the next clause, where he rejects majority rule — “51% of the population doesn’t get to boss around the other 49%.”
Tim Wu: The American Economy Is Creating a National Identity Crisis
It has become painfully clear that we are more than just consumers and corporate shareholders.
Europeans often describe the United States as a great place to buy stuff but a terrible place to work. They understand the appeal of our plentiful and affordable consumer goods, but otherwise they just don’t get it: the lack of real vacation, the sending of emails after business hours, the general insensitivity to work-life balance.
That may be just a casual observation, but it identifies something deep and problematic about the economy that the United States has built over the past 40 years.
Since the 1980s, American economic policy has insisted on the central importance of two things: cheaper prices for consumers and maximum returns for corporate shareholders. There is some logic to this: We all buy things, after all, and more than 50 percent of Americans own at least some stock.
But these priorities also generate an internal conflict, for they neglect, repress and even enslave our other selves: our identities as employees, producers, family members, citizens. And in recent years — as jobs become increasingly unpleasant and unstable, as smaller towns and regional economies are gutted, as essential industries like the pharmaceutical and telecommunications sectors engage in outlandish profiteering, and above all, as economic inequality becomes the trademark of our nation — the conflict seems to have reached a breaking point.
Alex Kotch: Death and destruction: this is David Koch’s sad legacy
Anarcho-capitalism was the real cancer plaguing the billionaire libertarian. And it spread across universities, halls of Congress and the White House
In 1992, billionaire industrialist David Koch was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and given just a few years to live. Thanks to his enormous wealth, he was able to purchase the best treatment in the world, and he survived 27 more years until his death last week. [..]
Koch Industries, a private company, is the United States’ 17th-largest producer of greenhouse gases and the 13th-biggest water polluter, according to research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst – ahead of oil giants Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum and Phillips 66. The conglomerate has committed hundreds of environmental, workplace safety, labor and other violations. It allegedly stole oil from Indian reservations, won business in foreign countries with bribery, and one of its crumbling butane pipelines killed two teenagers, resulting in a nearly $300m wrongful death settlement. The dangerous methane leakage, carbon emissions, chemical spills and other environmental injustices enacted by Koch’s companies have imperiled the planet and allegedly brought cancer to many people. But it took Koch’s own struggle with the disease for him to care about cancer and fund research to combat it.
Michael H. Fuchs: We need to cancel the next G7. Let’s resume them when Trump is gone
Right now, the G7 is not equipped to work towards its goals, and the biggest obstacle is US President Donald Trump
The takeaway from the 2019 Group of 7 (G7) Summit? We need to cancel the 2020 G7.
The goal of the G7 is to bring together some of the world’s most prosperous democracies to coordinate on the most important issues of the day. Whether on climate change or responding to Russia’s invasion of Crimea or making gender equality a reality, the G7 countries are supposed to lead, crafting policies that can foster global peace and prosperity in ways that uphold democratic values.
Right now, the G7 is not equipped to work towards these goals.
The biggest obstacle is the US president, Donald Trump, whose policies are antithetical to the goals of the G7 – he wants America to work alone, to destroy the current global trading system, slash foreign assistance that helps address transnational challenges, ignore human rights, and doesn’t believe climate change is real. When Trump attends, chances are high that he causes a diplomatic incident, like he did at the 2018 G7 when he threw a temper tantrum and insulted his Canadian host. The G7 is an annual long weekend of toddler day care for Trump.
Aug 28 2019
Can We Impeach Yet? Pretty Please?
(makes puppy dog eyes, expectant and pleading)
I don’t know Nancy. Does Murder count as a ‘High Crime’? Gotta rate rate at least misdemeanor.
In the morning news we find-
‘Take the land’: President Trump wants a border wall. He wants it black. And he wants it by Election Day.
By Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey, Washington Post
August 27, 2019
With the election 14 months away and hundreds of miles of fencing plans still in blueprint form, Trump has held regular White House meetings for progress updates and to hasten the pace, according to several people involved in the discussions.
When aides have suggested that some orders are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said. He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the use of eminent domain, saying “take the land,” according to officials who attended the meetings.
“Don’t worry, I’ll pardon you,” he has told officials in meetings about the wall.
Hello Nancy? He’s commissioning crimes, RIGHT NOW!
Are you going to do anything about it?
Two very important points- this is twice in 24 hours and it’s not related to Russia at all. It’s ongoing criminality while serving (which means something you know) in office.
Aug 28 2019
Cartnoon
Perhaps, like me you have a Deyfuss block (I mean I knew about it, but it it was not clear to me that it was a broader indictment of deeply entrenched and rampant anti-Semitism in the French Military, indeed French Society) althought yours probably is related to some different piece of Historical trivia.
Many people are familiar with the ‘XXYZ Affair’ as a casus belli of a period of military tension between France and the United States which happened around 1800 and leave it at that (if they are aware of it at all).
It had interesting and instructive aspects.
Aug 28 2019
The Breakfast Club (True Duty)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech; Clashes mar the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; Black teen Emmett Till abducted and killed in Mississippi; Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana granted a divorce.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Aug 27 2019
No connection at all.
Any thought that these two things are correlated, or that either of them is correlated with the 2016 campaign, is roundly denied by Institutional Democrats.
To steal a trope from Chris Hayes, Thing 1-
New Poll Shows ‘Deep and Boiling Anger’ Towards Political Establishment Still Widespread
by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams
August 25, 2019
If you’re feeling anger the political system being rigged to benefit those at the top, a new poll reveals you’re far from alone.
Released Sunday, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 70 percent of Americans said they felt “angry because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power.” That figure, based on polling conducted Aug. 10-14, is barely different from the 69 percent who said they felt that way in an October 2015 poll.
“Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, which conducted the survey with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. “Four years later, with a very different political leader in place,” said Horwitt, “that anger remains at the same level.”
Other questions asked by the pollsters reveal more pessimism.
Sixty-seven percent said they do not feel confident that our children’s generation will face a better life than ours; that’s up from the 61 percent who felt that way in 2017.
Respondents’ views of race relations were grim as well.
The poll finds that 60 percent believe race relations are bad in the nation. That view was expressed by 56 percent of whites, 81 percent of African Americans, and 61 percent of Hispanics.
Since President Donald Trump took office, 56 percent said race relations have gotten worse. While 47 percent of whites felt that way, 86 percent of African Americans and 74 percent of Hispanics said race relations worsened under Trump.
Views on the issue were markedly different under Trump’s predecessor.
In November 2011, 19 percent said race relations had gotten worse under then-President Barack Obama; 13 percent expressed that view in January 2009.
Some of the new poll’s other findings indicate less gloom.
It also shows that 57percent of Americans expressed satisfaction with the state of the U.S. economy. Sixty-nine percent also expressed satisfaction with their person financial situation. Despite those views, more than half—56 percent—said they felt “anxious and uncertain because the economy still feels rocky and unpredictable,” causing fears about being able to pay bills.
‘A deep and boiling anger’: NBC/WSJ poll finds a pessimistic America despite current economic satisfaction
By Carrie Dann, NBC News
Aug. 25, 2019
The political and cultural upheaval of the last four years has divided the country on ever-hardening partisan and generational lines, but one feeling unites Americans as much as it did before the 2016 election.
They’re still angry. And still unsettled about the future.
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that — despite Americans’ overall satisfaction with the state of the U.S. economy and their own personal finances — a majority say they are angry at the nation’s political and financial establishment, anxious about its economic future, and pessimistic about the country they’re leaving for the next generation.
“Four years ago, we uncovered a deep and boiling anger across the country engulfing our political system,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, which conducted this survey in partnership with the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies. “Four years later, with a very different political leader in place, that anger remains at the same level.”
The poll finds that 70 percent of Americans say they feel angry “because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington.” Forty-three percent say that statement describes them “very well.”
That’s almost exactly the percentage that agreed with the same statement in October 2015, when the presidential election was being upended by the anti-establishment message of then-candidate Donald Trump.
…
Republicans report feeling somewhat less angry than they were almost four years ago, but that optimism has been offset by an uptick in anger from other groups typically more aligned with the Democratic Party.In 2015, 39 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats said a feeling of anger at the political establishment defined them “very well.” Now, it’s 29 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of Democrats — a 10-point swing for each party, in opposite directions.
Those who are more likely to say feelings of anger describe them “very well” since 2015 include women under 50 (48 percent, up 10 points since 2015), African Americans (46 percent, up 5 points) and Hispanics (49 percent, up 11 points).
“The question that decides the 2020 election may no longer be ‘are you better or worse off than you were four years ago?’ but instead ‘are you as angry as you were four years ago?’” said Horwitt. “And if that’s the question, the answer is a deafening yes.”
Thing 2-
Biden’s support dramatically drops him into three-way tie: poll
By Tana Ganeva, Raw Story
August 26, 2019
The crowded Democratic primary is slowly winnowing down, with Jay Inslee, Seth Moulton and John Hickenlooper all dropping out.
So far, former Vice President Joe Biden has led in the polls; a likely result of name familiarity. But a new poll suggests that Biden might not be the best choice for Democrats going into 2020, reports the Hill.
A new Monmouth University Polls shows Biden dropping below 20 percent popularity with Democratic and Democrat-leaning voters. In June, he polled at 32 percent.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are at 20, suggesting a three-way race that might be tighter than had been assumed.
The rest of the Democrats trailed far behind, with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) polling at 8 percent and Mayor Pete Buttigieg tied for fifth place with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) at 4 percent.
New poll shows Biden falling badly, three-way tie for Democratic lead
By Max Greenwood, The Hill
08/26/19
Joe Biden’s support in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is slipping, according to a new survey from Monmouth University Poll that shows the former vice president dropping below 20 percent.
The survey showed Biden with support from 19 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters nationally, a double-digit decline from Monmouth’s most recent poll in June when he led the pack with 32 percent.
Now, the dynamics have changed, according to the Monmouth survey. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the primary field’s top progressive candidates, are each at 20 percent, putting them in a statistical tie with Biden and indicating a tightening three-way race.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was a distant fourth in Monday’s poll, with 8 percent. Her level of support was unchanged from Monmouth’s June survey.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has registered among the top contenders in polls for months, is now tied for fifth place with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) at 4 percent.
Only four other candidates — former tech executive Andrew Yang, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and bestselling author Marianne Williamson — garnered support form more than 1 percent of respondents in the poll.
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said the latest survey results suggest the race for the Democratic nomination is entering a new phase.
“The main takeaway from this poll is that the Democratic race has become volatile,” Murray said. “Liberal voters are starting to cast about for a candidate they can identify with. Moderate voters, who have been paying less attention, seem to be expressing doubts about Biden.”
But instead of gravitating toward a lesser-known but more centrist-minded alternative, moderate voters “are swinging more toward one of the left-leaning contenders with high name recognition.”
Indeed, Biden has lost support among Democrats who identify as either moderate or conservative. In June, roughly 40 percent of those voters said they backed Biden’s bid for the nomination. Since then, that number has dropped to 22 percent.
There are signs that moderate and conservative Democrats are beginning to gravitate toward Sanders and Warren. Sanders saw his support among those voters jump from 10 percent to 20 percent over the past two months, while backing for Warren rose from 6 percent to 16 percent.
Since June, both Sanders and Warren have gained support overall, according to the Monmouth poll. Sanders gained 6 points in the latest survey, while Warren picked up 5 points.
At the same time, Warren has seen a noticeable uptick in favorability, climbing from 60 percent in May to 65 percent in August. Biden, on the other hand, saw his favorability drop from 74 percent to 66 percent during the same time period.
Only things in the middle of the road are stripes and dead Armadillos.
Aug 27 2019
The Reverse Ouroboros
Aug 27 2019
Cartnoon
You have to remember that in addition to Sports, Clio, all things piratey, and Arts and Entertainment, I’m on the site’s Economics beat, and I think this is screamingly funny.
But it’s also instructive.
Tulip Mania is a factual and seminal illustration of the fundamental weaknesses of Markets.
Aug 27 2019
The Breakfast Club (Genius)
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Krakatoa erupts in South Pacific; President Lyndon Johnson and Mother Teresa born; America’s first successful oil well; Britain’s Lord Louis Mountbatten killed; Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
Aug 26 2019
G7- 2020
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
So Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio spent a lot of time at the G7 promoting Doral (which he owns and will charge top dollar for) as the site of next year’s G7. It’s not quite a done deal yet but the fix is in.
Do you remember the scandal, waaay back in July, about the “Shadow All-Star Tournament”? Allow me to refresh.
Strip club to host golf tournament at Trump resort in South Florida
By David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
July 9, 2019
Doral, Fla., is scheduled to host a golf tournament Saturday put on by a Miami-area strip club, which will allow golfers to pay for a dancer to serve as their “caddy girl” while they play at the president’s club.
The “Shadow All Star Tournament” is organized by the Shadow Cabaret, a strip club in Hialeah, Fla. Emanuele Mancuso, Shadow Cabaret’s marketing director, said in a telephone interview that this was the first time the club had held a tournament at Trump Doral.
The Trump name and family crest are displayed prominently in the strip club’s advertising materials, which offer golfers the “caddy girl of your choice.”
Mancuso said the strip club did not intend to send a political statement by choosing Trump’s resort. Rather, he said, the choice was for luxury. These golfers are VIPs, Mancuso said. “They deserve a VIP environment.”
Mancuso said there would be no nudity at the resort. On the course, he said, the caddies would wear pink miniskirts and what he called “a sexy white polo.” Afterward, however, the golfers and the dancers would return to another venue — the cabaret itself — for what he described as a “very tasteful” burlesque show, which could involve nudity.
“They’re going to be clothed the whole time” at the golf course, Mancuso said. “At the venue is different.”
In a statement, the Trump Organization confirmed the event is happening and said it was for a “worthwhile cause” — a Miami children’s charity. A spokeswoman said the company had not approved the tournament’s advertisements before they were published.
…
It offers packages that claim to combine hotel rooms at Doral with services at the strip club: a $1,000 “VIP Upgrade,” for instance, includes three days at the hotel and “1/2 Hour VIP Room + Bottle @ Club.”Mancuso, the cabaret’s marketing director, said the first event connected with the tournament will be a reception at the cabaret on Friday night.
“If you enroll before the 10th [of July], you are able to pick out your caddie girl,” he said. “Everybody that enrolled after the 10th, they’re going to have an auction” that night.
Mancuso said the dancers would drive a golf cart and not carry golf bags as some caddies do. “They’re actually going through training, most of the girls,” to be able to advise players on golf shots, he said.
Mancuso said the tournament would benefit a basketball-themed charity called Miami All Stars. Online advertisements for the tournament also include logos for the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA.
Carlos Alamilla, the charity’s director, said his group serves about 40 youths in Miami. “We provide everything. We provide fitness, nutrition, basketball and academics,” he said.
The charity’s website says it is “a non-profit organization under the laws of the State of Florida.” However, Franco Ripple, a spokesman for the state, said Tuesday that it is not registered as a charity in Florida. Alamilla did not immediately respond to questions about why his organization’s name was missing from state records.
…
Alamilla said it gave him pause to affiliate his charity with an event put on by a strip club: “It doesn’t jive with what we do, you know.” He said he also dislikes Trump because of the conditions in which his administration is detaining migrant children. “He’s contrary to everything we believe,” he said of the president.Still, Alamilla said, he decided to accept the money — but also ban his charity’s child clients from attending.
“None of my kids are going to be participating in your event,” he said he told the organizers. But, he said, “if we can get some help, you know, for our programs starting now . . . it would be okay.”
Also some stuff about what a money pit Doral is.
The “Tournament” was quickly canceled after it became public but I strongly advise next year’s G7 participants to bring a UV light and some disinfectant.
Aug 26 2019
Pondering the Pundits
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Michelle Goldberg: Mazel Tov, Trump. You’ve Revived the Jewish Left.
‘Only one political party is quite literally inciting white nationalists to shoot up our synagogues.’
On Aug. 11, more than 1,000 people marked Tisha B’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, by occupying an Amazon Books store in Manhattan, protesting the technology behemoth’s technical support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sitting on the floor, they read harrowing accounts of people in immigration detention and recited the Kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer of mourning. One of their signs said, “Never again means never again.”
According to organizers, 44 people, including 12 rabbis and a member of New York’s City Council, were arrested. It was one of over 50 Jewish-organized demonstrations against ICE held across the country that day.
A few days later, a corrections officer drove a truck into a row of Jewish protesters who were blocking the entrance to a private prison in Rhode Island where migrants are being detained. Two of the protesters were hospitalized. That demonstration was one of at least 38 organized this summer by Never Again Action, a decentralized group formed two months ago to engage in nonviolent direct action against immigrant detention.
Donald Trump might have thought he was going to lure Jewish voters to the Republican Party with his lock-step alliance with the Israeli right. Instead, by attempting to use American Jews as mascots for an administration that fills most of them with horror, he has spurred a renaissance on the Jewish left.
Charles M. Blow: Trump’s Paradigm of the Personal
He confuses the way he thinks he is treated with the well-being of the country.
For Donald Trump, all is personal.
And in his view, he is not the executive of the company. He is the embodiment of the country. He runs the country the way he ran his business, as the curating and promotion of his personal brand.
The people who support him are customers — people to be sold a vision and a dream. The people who criticize or oppose him threaten the brand and must be dealt with.
For Trump, everything is image-based and rooted in the appearance of personal relationships. When the Danish prime minister rebuffed his overture about buying Greenland, calling the idea “absurd,” Trump threw a tantrum and canceled his visit to Denmark.
Trump discussed the episode at one of his press gaggles, calling the prime minister’s response “nasty’ and saying, “We can’t treat the United States of America the way they treated us under President Obama.” He went on to say: “She’s not talking to me. She’s talking to the United States of America. You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me.”
No, actually, she was talking to him.
America was not being dismissed or disrespected. This proposal, which sounded like a joke, was being laughed at. And this president hates being laughed at.
Everything in Trump’s view is about whether someone is nice or nasty to him. It’s not about the country at all. It’s not about historical precedent or value of continuity.
John Atcheson: Centrists Are Going to Kill Us
Democrats are in danger of dooming the planet and the democracy by adhering to their corporate-friendly, campaign finance-motivated centrist strategy.
The myth of centrism, and the triumph of Trump are inextricably linked. Trump is President because he won three key states by razor thin margins: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. At the end of the day, he carried these states by just 77,744 votes and it enabled him to win with a minority of the popular vote.
Ask any neoliberal, Third Way Democrat, or centrist why that happened and what should be done about it, and they’ll tell you Democrats lost because they went too far left and if the Party wants to win in 2020, it’ll have to run a centrist in order to peel away a few Republicans.
Here’s the thing. We lost those states because we ran a neoliberal centrist, and doing it again could have the same result. Consider, Bernie Sanders won Michigan and Wisconsin in the primaries, and he also won Indiana. He did it by running on issues working Americans care about – affordable health care, a living minimum wage, a tax structure that doesn’t feed the rich and starve the rest of us, stronger unions, an end to the Wall Street and Big Bank oligarchy that controls both political parties.
Want more proof? On issue-by-issue basis citizens in these states and in the country at large overwhelmingly support progressive policies like those listed above, as well as gun control, the Green New Deal, campaign finance reform, a more humane immigration policy, and equal rights and equal treatment of minorities, immigrants, and the LGBQT community.
This begs a question or two. How do conservative Republicans and demagogues like Trump win, and why don’t liberals?
Jim Hightower: Just Who Got Trump’s Farm Bailouts?
Rich families cashed in on over half the bailout money set aside for farmers hurt by Trump’s trade policies.
Donald Trump loves farmers. We know this because he says so. “Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” he declared in December.
But he’s been “loving” them to death, with policies that are causing farm prices to tumble, miring our ag economy in the ditch and creating a rising tsunami of farm bankruptcies.
Then came Trump’s doofus of an ag secretary, Sonny Perdue, who publicly insulted farmers by branding them “whiners” for daring to complain about policies causing them to lose income and their farms.
So, as an “I love you” make-up gesture, Trump has been sending big bouquets of money to some of his beloved farmers. Our money. Lots of it — $28 billion so far in what he cynically (and comically) calls a “Market Facilitation Program,” otherwise known as a taxpayer bailout.
But Trump Love turns out to be highly selective, with more than half of the government payments going to the biggest farm owners.
The Agriculture Department initially announced a $125,000 limit on the amount any one farm could get, but every Trump deal seems to have a gimmick in it to give a special break to the slickest operators.
The slickum in this deal is that assorted members of a family are allowed to claim that they’re owners of the same farm and thus get bailout bucks — even if they do no actual farming and live in New York City!
One Missouri farm family, for example, got $2.8 million worth of subsidy love from Trump, and more than 80 families topped half-a-million in payments.
Meanwhile, the great majority of farmers have gotten zilch from Donald the Dealmaker — and 80 percent of eligible grain farmers (the smaller producers most endangered by his bad policies) have received less than $5,000.
So Trump’s “market facilitation” is squeezing the many who are most in need, while helping a few of the largest get even bigger.
Jill Filipovic: A new poll shows what really interests ‘pro-lifers’: controlling women
According to their own survey responses, anti-abortion voters are hostile to gender equality in practically every aspect
ccording to self-identified “pro-life” advocates, the fundamental divide between those who want to outlaw abortion and those who want to keep it legal comes down to one question: when does life begin? Anti-abortion advocacy pushes the view that life begins at conception; the name of their movement carefully centers the conceit that opposition to abortion rights is simply about wanting to save human lives.
A new poll shows that’s a lie. The “pro-life” movement is fundamentally about misogyny.
A Supermajority/PerryUndem survey released this week divides respondents by their position on abortion, and then tracks their answers to 10 questions on gender equality more generally. On every question, anti-abortion voters were significantly more hostile to gender equity than pro-choice voters.
Do men make better political leaders than women? More than half of anti-abortion voters agreed. Do you want there to be equal numbers of men and women in positions of power in America? Fewer than half of abortion opponents said yes – compared with 80% of pro-choicers, who said they want women to share in power equally.
Anti-abortion voters don’t like the #MeToo movement. They don’t think the lack of women in positions of power impacts women’s equality. They don’t think access to birth control impacts women’s equality. They don’t think the way women are treated in society is an important issue in the 2020 election.
In other words, they don’t believe sexism is a problem, and they’re hostile to women’s rights. Pro-lifers are sexists in denial – yes, the women too.