In the words of GWB @ Trump’s inauguration address, “that was some weird shit” at the SOTU speech the other night. But this has to take the cake:

https://www.inquirer.com/news/donald-trump-school-choice-philadelphia-janiyah-davis-mast-charter-20200208.html

So, it turns out the Philadelphia fourth grader Janiyah Davis, who Trump said was trapped in a “failing government school” before he made the point of awarding her, and only her, a scholarship, live, on prime time TV, was already going to a top-notch “government” school, had no need for a scholarship, and didn’t have a clue why Trump put her in the audience.

It just boggles the mind how anyone can be that stupid, mindless and incompetent.

https://www.pilotonline.com/government/elections/vp-nw-scott-taylor-announcement-20200106-npik5dzqxjhzrj324r6foalv5i-story.html

Realizing he can’t win the race for Senate, he’s baaaack. Dirty Tricks Taylor running for his old seat. Watch out Ben Loyola – as a Trump acolyte, I imagine Taylor will take a page from Trump’s primary campaign and accuse your father of working with Fidel Castro to assassinate JFK.

Taylor will likely have the backing of Eddie Gallagher, fellow SEAL and war criminal, as well as the SEAL platoon kicked out of Iraq for drunk conduct, the druggies from SEAL team 10, and SEALs Adam Matthews (murderer) and Kyle Seerden (pederast) will probably be supporting him from their jail cells.

It will be interesting to see who Rocky Holcomb, Tina Mapes and Ken Stolle back this time. After all, they participated in Taylor’s dirty tricks back in 2018, signing the bogus petitions for Shaun Brown and allowing them to be passed around the sheriff’s office, apparently conducting political activities on the taxpayer’s dime. By the way – will we ever get the full story on this? Will the independent prosecutor ever issue a full report, or just cover it up with the fig leaf of indicting Lauren Creekmore? Apparently the Virginian-Pilot can’t find the time to follow up and do its job on this story.

Today’s story in the NY Times is sickening. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/us/navy-seals-edward-gallagher-video.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

For those w/o a NY Times subscription, here’s some highlights:

“The guy is freaking evil,” Special Operator 1st Class, Craig Miller told investigators.

In one instance, captured on a SEAL team member’s helmet video, he fatally stabbed a wounded captive that had been previously sedated, then posed over it to announce a “re-enlistment” ceremony, holding the captive’s corpse by the hair as if he were clutching a hunting trophy.

“I was listening to it, and I was just thinking, like, this is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Miller, who has since been promoted to chief, told investigators.

Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told the investigators: “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving.” “The guy was toxic” said Special Operator 1st Class Joshua Vriens. They described how their chief targeted women and children and boasted that “Burquas were flying”. Asked whether the chief had a bias against Middle Eastern people, Scott replied, “I think he just wants to kill anybody he can.”

The good order and discipline of the United States military is being destroyed by a corrupt, incompetent and immoral commander in chief.

Wednesday December 18, 2019

Donald Trump “Look what I’ve done for steel. I mean, the steel is back. We taxed all the dumb steel coming in from China and other places, and US steel mills are doing great — they’re expanding all over the country, and they were gonna be out of business within two years the way they were going.”

Friday December 20, 2019:

US Steel is closing a mill in Zug Island, near Detroit, laying off workers and cutting its dividend. The troubled company is trying to reverse operating losses it now forecasts for the fourth quarter. The mill, called the Great Lakes Works, is expected to close its iron and steel-making operations by April 1. The part of the mill that rolls slabs into sheets of steel will shutter by the end of next year. About 1,500 jobs will be lost, the company said. US Steel had already announced a temporary layoff of about 200 workers at the plant earlier this year.

Well, almost without comment: Merry Christmas Zug Island! From Donald Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/with-trump-backing-border-patrol-contract-significantly-increases-union-staffing/2019/12/10/77025414-16da-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

“The new federal standard would have left the Border Patrol union with about 18,000 hours of official time per year, or the total hours agents are allowed to dedicate to union activities. Instead, the new contract provides nearly 10 times that amount — 153,920 hours.” All to be spent working on Trump’s campaign, no doubt.

At this point, other than his basic bodily functions, what conduct by Trump isn’t impeachable?

It’s official: life expectancy is declining in the U.S; importantly, this is happening across all racial groups. The nation’s lifespan reversal is being driven by diseases linked to social and economic privation, a health care system with glaring gaps and blind spots, and profound psychological distress. The twin trends — an increased probability of death in midlife and a population-wide reversal of longevity — set the United States in stark contrast to every other affluent country in the world.

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/health/vp-nw-life-expectancy-america-20191126-3kjlb6buivcdpetwcges7igdky-story.html

Thoughts?

In order, worst to first:

Trump: As the evidence piles up and he and the Republicans keep having to revise their defense, as even their own witnesses testify to their lies, this debate was a breath of fresh air and a marked improvement over the clown show that was the Republican party debates 4 years ago. Continue reading “Who won the Democratic Party Debate?” →

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/13/trump-administration-shows-just-how-clueless-it-is-about-middle-class/#comments-wrapper

Henry Olsen actually gets something right. Why indeed is Larry Kudlow promoting a 15% income tax rate for “the middle class” when, in fact, the middle class already pays less? The 15% tax bracket doesn’t even begin until $80K taxable income – with the standard deduction @ $25K, this means Americans already don’t pay 15% until they hit $105K of income. This is nearly 50% more than the median income in the U.S.

As Olsen says, potentially this could make my brother in MA and cousin in NY very happy, as they got less than $200 in a tax cut due to the SALT limitation that screwed successful states. But this does nothing for the vast majority of Americans and is unlikely to change the anti-Trump votes of those who would benefit. To say nothing of the fact that it will blow up the deficit even higher.

Once again, a poorly conceived tax bill from an incompetent administration. We’re still trying to fix the many errors and unintended consequences from their last bill. I don’t want higher taxes, and especially think a wealth tax is a poor and stupid excuse that addresses a symptom and not the cause. But this tax bill would do nothing but make the problem worse.

I often hear the right screaming about socialism, how we’re going to be the next Venezuela under Democrats. No, we’re going to be the next Japan, thanks to the Republicans. A debt to GDP of 236%, limited immigration and ignorant nationalism despite a labor shortage, a birth rate of 1.4, with an elderly population headed towards 33% of the population. Middle class Japanese working 80 hours a week, but getting nowhere due to low growth and rising real estate and stock market prices that only benefit the 1%. A supposed democracy reduced to a de facto oligarchy in which a few keiretsu leaders effectively control the country.

Tonight Bill Browder gave a talk at Chrysler Hall as part of the Norfolk Forum speaker series. It was very moving; his description of what Sergei Magnitsky went through at the hands of Vladimir Putin was truly painful to hear. And yes, he went there: the June 9 meeting between Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort with Russian lawyer and Putin asset Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower, where Trump tried to sell the Magnitsky Act down the river for personal gain, just as he has done with Ukraine.

I urge everyone on this forum to read his book Red Notice and realize the true menace that Trump is. The Magnitsky Act is the one real weapon that we have to bring Putin and his billionaire oligarchs to heel, but he continues to do Putin’s bidding and attempts to weaken its enforcement daily.

Total vote count was interesting last night – about 1.3M for Democrats, 1.0M for Republicans in the Senate, or 55% – 45%. So, it should be 22-18, actual looks like 21-19, pretty much in line. Percentages were about the same in the House.

I was surprised at the number of non-contested races: 23 with Democrat unopposed + 5 with a Libertarian or Independent candidate only versus 6 Republican unopposed + 2 Libertarian/Independent only. My how times have changed and the Republican gerrymander has crumbled.

Personally, I think it’s a shame that VA Beach republicans, especially DeSteph and Davis, didn’t pay a larger price for their disgraceful, unethical rat-f-ing last summer with the Shaun Brown petition scandal. At least Holcomb didn’t get back in and Stolle appears to be gone.

The implications for VA Beach will be interesting, especially in the Senate. Cosgrove, DeSteph and Kiggans are now in the minority; what will that mean for their ability to deliver?

On Hearsay today, Askew & Simonds, to their credit, said they would back the independent redistricting bill, despite Democrats now in charge for redistricting following the 2020 census.

Rather interesting watching Faux News. They all but didn’t cover the elections last night, and now seeing Trump + Pascarle trying to spin it today that somehow Trump improved Bevins numbers by 15 points is just absurd. In the end, Bevins was a bad governor and voters properly threw him out. In the last 4 years, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all properly thrown out their ineffective Republican governors. It’s a shame that Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, SC, Oklahoma and Texas voters have chosen to rinse and repeat with ineffective Republican governors that leave their state in the bottom third in health care, education, and their economy.