I am still enjoying the great sense of relief I feel every time I’m reminded that President Obama has been re-elected. As Joe would say, it is a BFD. That relief has been enhanced by rain of wingnut tears as they realized how much of a beating they took in the 2012 election. I’m very thankful for all of that.
And yet, I also know that it is far from over. The wingnuts can and will continue to do damage to the world, the Nation and people from all walks of life. They are at war with reality. Get ready for more crazy. The Wingularity is a long way off.
You could dip a teaspoon into the news stream and come up with dozens of fresh examples everyday. I came across this one this morning:
Republican lawmakers in Michigan, a state which eliminated tax credits for children last year, have proposed a tax credit for unborn foetuses of 12 weeks gestation
So, when the nutters took control of Michigan, one of their first actions was to take away tax credits for families with children (those moochers needed to be punished). Now they want to give tax credits to zygotes and the unborn. Typical. Their fantasies must be feed and they get extra satisfaction if they can flip the bird to reality while they do it. Extreme, crazy and dangerous, they are doing wonders for the Republican brand. I’m thankful for that even as I know the fight will go on for years.
Now I’m off to get the bird out of the brine and into the oven.
How about an open thread.
Cheers
Ben Franklin
I am thankful peace and harmony has returned to Gaza…..
http://www.theonion.com/articles/calm-sense-of-impending-violence-returns-to-middle,30494/
c u n d gulag
Unborn fetuses – FEH!
Nothing!
Since these Conservatards are mostly male, and only pro-male, I’m surprised they haven’t given tax credits for sperm and eggs.
Women only produce a few eggs, while men make billions of sperm cells.
That kind of tax credit would be in their line of thinking.
RepubAnon
Are the tax credits only for fetuses that have not yet been born? (The “Life is sacred from the moment of conception to the moment of birth” meme.) Or is this simply a nasty way of forcing a choice between tax credits for children versus putting something into law that gives the Supremes grounds to overturn Row v Wade?
As to C U N D Gulag’s comment re tax credits for sperm and eggs – General J.C. Christian’s drive for equal rights for Spermatozoan-Americans should be notified. (http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/)
Maude
I can’t get my head around this.
Quaker in a Basement
Tax credits for foetuses? Just what effect are they going for w/r/t out-of-wedlock pregnancy?
Judas Escargot, Bringer of Loaves and Fish Sandwiches
Local newsradio has started pushing Benghazi (always about ten days behind GOP talking points, that station, but they do eventually get there).
But with even McCain admitting his error a couple of days ago, I’m not sure how much real traction they expect to get with hearings. Since I’d be happy for 2014 to be a repeat of 1998, let them crow.
Meh, whatever. No in-laws today, and my own family’s centrist-to-liberal so no arguments expected. Now for THAT, I shall be thankful.
Happy T-day, all.
Villago Delenda Est
Every time they suffer a setback, they double down on the stupid.
Game theorists are scratching their heads over this. It makes no fucking sense, at all!
But then again, these people reject reality, so why not rational game theory? I mean, both involve math, which is hard, you know.
debbie
In Ohio, the first thing the Republican-led legislature did after the election was introduce another bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
I see victory in 2014 and 2016.
Tim in SF
Love the fetus, hate the child.
Tim in SF
Do unwed mothers need tax breaks? Do they even pay taxes? I thought they are part of the 47% who “don’t pay a penny.”
wenchacha
Ah, yes. Blessed be the fruit.
Violet
@c u n d gulag: I’m thinking punishment for unused sperm would be appropriate.
PurpleGirl
How are they going to verify that the fetus is at 12-weeks gestation by Dec. 31st? Will they take any person’s word for it? Will they require a birth certificate the following year? A notarized note from the doctor?
The stupid, it burns.
Yutsano
@Violet: Indeed.
scav
next up? extra tax credits if they’re shoess and in the kitchen.
Syrbal
We could solve the energy problem if we could connect these morons to generators. To hell with “clean coal”….we have pristine idiocy to burn!
lafcolleen
Bizarre dream last night.
Husband, friend and I are in a dingy liquor store to buy beer. They can’t decide what beer to buy, so aska few people standing near to recommend a beer. Someone says, “ask that guy . . .”
We turn around and MITT ROMNEY is walking toward us drinking out of a 16 ounce can of Miller Genuine Draft beer and offering cans to my husband and friend (I don’t drink beer.)
The best part of the dream? Mitt wasn’t drinking the beer ironically.
Ted & Hellen
You’re right: Republicans in general are disgusting and horrible and absolutely, positively RELENTLESS in pursuit of their goals.
I wish we had a party and a president on the left side of center who was equally relentless in pursuit of liberal/progressive goals.
Just think what could be accomplished.
Ben Franklin
@lafcolleen:
He doesn’t buy for the alcohol, he needs the formaldehyde those clear-glass beer bottles deliver.
gf120581
You know how we like to joke that Republicans only care about you until your born and after that you can go fuck yourself? The Michigan GOP is making it clear this is not a joke.
lacp
Tax credits for foetuses? Six months, the first commercial foetus farm. Two years, we’ll all be bitching about the economic impact of Big Zygote.
Mark S.
@lafcolleen:
LOL
Richard
A tax credit for fetuses, none for children. Sounds like a plan to encourage late term abortions.
Persia
@RepubAnon: I am wondering how long it is until we have rumors about blah people getting pregnant just for the tax credit and then heartlessly aborting their precious babbies.
ding dong
I give thanks to Republicans who keep on fucking that chik fila chicken.
anibundel
Even so, I am thankful to be living in the second decade of the 21st century. The future’s pretty damn cool.
Frankensteinbeck
@Tim in SF:
Not the point. This is the best example that slut shaming is a secondary or tertiary issue. Their only conscious thought is ‘I will do anything to stop abortions!’ Like every other damn thing, it’s an article of faith and a way of forcing their culture on everyone around them. Oh, and they feel really self-righteous putting a stop to ‘baby killing’. Seriously, look at anti-abortion arguments. They’re whatever makes the anti-abortion folks feel the most righteous, like they’re putting a stop to evil.
jwb
@Villago Delenda Est: Well, I think it makes more sense from a game theory perspective if you realize that the goal is to piss off liberals rather than win elections.
Quaker in a Basement
Get pregnant–get a check!
Are you sure these weren’t Colbert Republicans who did this?
feebog
What’s the problem here. All the wimins have to do is delay labor for about 18 years and viola, tax credits are restored!
piratedan
@PurpleGirl: unfortunately those fetuses will not be allowed to be born without two forms of proper ID…..
Polish the Guillotines
One thing I’m definitely not thankful for: Kid Romney “singing” at the Lions-Texans half-time show.
MikeJ
Finally got the oe spelling of fœtus here. Now to slip in the œ ligature…
Mark B.
I forgot how much Kid Rock sux until I saw that sucktastic halftime show. And the shiny silver running suit covering up his paunch. Aggggghhhh!!
Mark B.
Man, I mistyped my email in the previous post and now it’s moderated. Stupid iPhone.
Smiling Mortician
@Persia: I can’t help but read the proposed credit as encouraging this. A savvy (and fertile!) entrepreneur could, with proper planning, get pregnant and carry for 12 weeks before aborting, what, 3 or 4 times a year? It’s gold, Jerry! Gold!
Death Panel Truck
@Polish the Guillotines: Beforehand they praised the United Way volunteers for all that they do. I told my wife, “And how do they reward them? They inflict Kid Rock on them. That’s not a reward, that’s punishment!”
Xenos
I like this new tax idea. Since one can not get a tax credit for your child once it is born, this system would be perfect if you had an abortion every year. Take that pregnancy to week twelve, claim your credit, then have that abortion. If you are really organized you could pull this off twice, maybe three times per year, getting multiple fetus tax credits each year.
Tax credits for abortions! It is genius.
ETA. I really should read the whole thread before commenting. really.
Yutsano
@PurpleGirl: The proper answer, of course, is SHUT UP THAT’S HOW!!
Polish the Guillotines
@Death Panel Truck: So true. It’s also an assault on the freedom of our ears not to have to hear Kid Rock.
Peregrinus
I heard about this. Unbelievable round of bullshit.
BTW, Fox headline, earlier:
“WALMART, LAX EMPLOYEES SCHEDULE PROTESTS FOR
ONE OF BUSIEST SHOPPING & TRAVEL DAYS.”
What, was “Black Friday” too neutral?
gogol's wife
@lafcolleen:
That is hilarious. You sound like me. I always have dreams with famous people in them. This one is priceless.
karen marie
@Persia: That’s why they made it 12 weeks. No abortions after three months.
arguingwithsignposts
You know, it’s Thanksgiving, and these fuckers never quit. Sigh.
JWR
What happens if a woman claims the tax credit and then miscarries?
Brachiator
@jwb:
But wingnuts don’t care what liberals think. You see this very clearly in this last election. The GOP was so tightly encased in their own ideological bubble that they were totally unaware of anything other than the nonsense spewing forth from Fox News and Donald Trump.
And even though they lost in the national elections, it makes perfect sense that they will continue to try to wield power at the state level. It’s all they have left.
arguingwithsignposts
@Brachiator: Cleek was right.
max
The Wingularity is a long way off.
Well, Peak Wingnut is when everyone is doing it. I’m thinking the Wingularity is when the usual loons disappear up their own asshole.
So I’m with you here.
Happy Thanksgiving to anyone and everyone!
max
[‘Except Republican politicians, of course.’]
NotMax
Pumpkin pie? Nah, cheesecake.
1930s Hollywood-style Pilgrims you never saw in your history book.
Brachiator
@arguingwithsignposts:
I have absolutely no idea what you mean here.
@JWR:
Presumably, the credit would still be allowed. But there is all kinds of mischief here. You don’t get a federal personal exemption for a stillborn child and many states conform. This proposed law upends all this.
I also wonder if these goons might end up proposing mandatory pregnancy testing?
jwb
@Brachiator: No, they don’t listen to liberals, but the goal is still to piss liberals off. You can make the case that even the “unskewing” was only to piss liberals off. What upsets them about the election is not that they lost but that because Obama won liberals have become that much harder to piss off.
arguingwithsignposts
“Republicans want whatever pisses off liberals,updated daily.” source.
Brachiator
@jwb:
This makes no sense at all. None. It is nonsensical to say that wingnuts don’t listen to liberals, but just want to piss them off. How would the wingnuts even know that they had succeeded in pissing liberals off if they did not check to see?
And what does this even mean? Life really is not a schoolyard playground or cafeteria. Do you actually believe that conservatives don’t really want to govern, but only want to score ego points against liberals? And what practical difference does it make if liberals are pissed or happy? Does the world turn differently on its axis?
Michigan is trying to pass a law that would ultimately hurt women. And to you, these women don’t really exist, and it’s all about liberal fee fees being hurt? You can’t really be serious.
Brachiator
@arguingwithsignposts:
It is long past time to retire this bit of narcissistic nonsense.
Brachiator
I missed the original news story. My deepest sympathies to the family of Hector Macho Camacho:
Camacho
Famed Puerto Rican boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho is clinically brain dead, doctors said Thursday, though they said family members were disagreeing on whether to take him off life support.
Dr. Ernesto Torres said doctors have finished performing all medical tests on Camacho, who was shot in the face Tuesday night.
“We have done everything we could,” said Torres, who is the director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan. “We have to tell the people of Puerto Rico and the entire world that Macho Camacho has died, he is brain dead.”
He said at a news conference that the family expects to say by Friday if Camacho should remain on life support.
Torres said Camacho’s father has already indicated that he wants the boxer taken off life support and his organs donated, but one of his sisters opposes the idea.
“This is a very difficult moment,” he said.
Ismael Leandry, a longtime friend and former manager, told reporters that Camacho’s mother also is wavering on taking her son off life support and would like more time with him. He said the family is waiting for Camacho’s oldest son to arrive Thursday night before having a family reunion and making a decision.
“Let’s remember him as a good man,” Leandry said. “He was a good father, a good son.”
Steve Tannenbaum, a friend and a former boxing agent for Camacho, said in a phone interview that he idolized Camacho as a boxer.
“He is one of the greatest small fighters that I have ever seen,” he said. “Hector Camacho had a legendary status.”
jwb
@Brachiator: This all comes back to the comment about game theory and how conservative actions make no sense from game theory. My claim is that conservative actions make no sense from game theory because the assumption is that conservatives want to govern and I say it is because the goal of conservatives is not to govern but to piss off liberals. You can take that or leave it as you may, but if you leave it then you need to come up with an account of why conservative action diverges from the predictions of game theory…
Of course, by my account—and it is not really mine but any number of folks on our side—conservatives listen to liberals to hear our cries of anguish, our gnashing of teeth. But they don’t listen to us in terms of our account of reality or polls or governance except insofar as it provides data as to what might piss us off.
Now, you might ask why this rather than power is their aim, and I’d respond that they think it’s fun (the conservative id) and that it pays in ratings (Foxification). I’d also acknowledge that many conservatives don’t want to operate this way because they recognize that it makes little sense from the perspective of power, but if they are running for office or writing or reporting for the conservative mediascape they have little choice, because the GOP has been running on little but id since 2008.
General Stuck
I’ll be a yippity goddam to spend another 4 fucking years standing in the rain clubbing it out with mostly idiots from my side, trying to kill me with their concern and high blood pressure.
And Fuck the wingers, they are for popcorn and shovels entertainment, and not one word I say nor anyone else will distract them for the end game of smashing head long into reality, that is their destiny and courtesy of the American voter. People that exist to defend the status quo, usually don’t change that easy.
Now, who is up for some brain dead speculations on how democrats are going to burn down their own house with Obama selling out medicare and SS? And go back and forth with the same fapping donut holes of understanding, until your fingers bleed the stupid. (and mine are so calloused from same, it is shameful)
So take it away firebaggers, get your importance on, and show us how to pull the worst of all out of your ass.
You all have a nice Thanksgiving.
James E. Powell
@JWR:
What happens if a women claims the tax credit and then miscarries?
She is charged with manslaughter.
PurpleGirl
@James E. Powell: The inmates are running the asylum.
Valdivia
Happy thanksgiving y’all!
nellcote
The tax credit is just an ass backwards way of claiming the foetus is a person. See also personhood amendment.
PsiFighter37
Do you have to provide a positive pregnancy test stamped with time and date? A sex tape? Can a woman walk into the statehouse crushing an entire quart of ice cream and claim her 12 week-old fetus made her do it?
This sounds like a really fucking moronic idea, one of the worse ones that have come out of these whacked-out state legislatures over the past couple of years.
Maude
@Valdivia:
You too.
slightly_peeved
@Villago Delenda Est:
They’re like problem gamblers – they just need one lucky hand and they’ll win their political capital back.
Valdivia
@Maude:
thank you! it’s been a really *really* rough couple of weeks so today I cooked (which I love) and I am now relaxing over a really nice glass of Malbec.
Hope you have/had a wonderful celebration
Yutsano
@Valdivia: I brought to the ranch a Chilean malbec that we may crack open over dinner. Or tomorrow. Or some time.
And Happy Turkey Day to thee!
EDIT: just got brought a glass of wine. No I’m not spoiled at all why do you ask? :)
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
happy turkey day to thee as well.
I hope you enjoy that malbec, truly one of my favorite wines. Though if you can find a really good carmenere they are even better.
Yutsano
@Valdivia: I’ll ask if we can crack it open during dinner. My mom is as curious as I am about it although I may want to check and see if I can get it locally first.
Doesn’t it feel wonderful to kick your feet up and let the oven do the work for a couple of hours? :)
Lurking Canadian
@Brachiator: Of course they don’t listen to liberals. Have you never seen a wingnut explaining something that “enrages” liberals (“Liberals hate Sarah Palin because she shows that women can have children AND a career!”) that enrages no actual liberals? Do you think they run their engines on idle from sunup to sundown on Earth Day for some kind of rational reason?
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
“I don’t expect everything to be handed to me. You can just put it down anywhere.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
arguingwithsignposts
@Brachiator: Oh, shut the fuck up. It’s not past time to retire this you contrarian POS. This is exactly what Repubs do. You only hate it because you didn’t invent it.
redshirt
How about a tax credit for used sperm?
Dennis G.
@slightly_peeved: Funny. Thanks