The famously reclusive Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, emerges to say something.
(Let’s see if I can do this embed thing)
Or you can find it here. Nothing much happening yet.
Rex Tillerson’s Speech at the Wilson CenterPost + Comments (54)
This post is in: domestic terrorists, Foreign Affairs, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
The famously reclusive Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, emerges to say something.
(Let’s see if I can do this embed thing)
Or you can find it here. Nothing much happening yet.
Rex Tillerson’s Speech at the Wilson CenterPost + Comments (54)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Enhanced Protest Techniques, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Decline and Fall, Fucked-up-edness, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All
Congrats to James O’Keefe for proving that The Washington Post doesn’t just blindly run the claims of Roy Moore’s accusers https://t.co/b9E7btaUNy
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 27, 2017
Watch the video. About halfway through, it starts to dawn on the woman that the jig is up. https://t.co/dC7oUtAJVy
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 28, 2017
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Maybe I’m just a wide-eyed optimist, but O’Keefe’s latest failed “prank” feels like it might be some kind of media tipping point… he’s just such a clown luzer, like a wafer-thin mint after Mr. Creosote’s dinner…
Project Veritas’s James O’Keefe refers to woman who falsely told @bethreinhard she was impregnated by Roy Moore as “investigative journalist embedded within the publication” pic.twitter.com/2xmY63vTVU
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) November 27, 2017
I feel there’s a lot of words there that he may not understand. Like embedded, ambushed, investigative and of course journalist
— Alicia A. Caldwell (@acaldwellwsj) November 27, 2017
But in his flop sweat video from earlier today, O’Keefe suggested that the reporter wasn’t his.
He’s in full meltdown mode.https://t.co/UFy97Zbcry
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 28, 2017
Isn't the lesson from the failed O'Keefe sting that WaPo isn't playing around, and that their stories are airtight, and that Moore is wrong and his accusers are right?
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) November 28, 2017
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Even the Establishment Wingnut Wurlitzer apparatchiks are embarrassed / annoyed!
Impossible to overstate the idiocy of latest O'Keefe Roy Moore 'sting,' directed at WaPo. Beyond boneheaded. O'Keefe really ought to hang it up. Stupidity + maliciousness a bad combination. https://t.co/iG7VQwxuk2
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 27, 2017
Not sure it would serve a purpose. Who are the persuadables who would be reached?
— Jim Antle (@jimantle) November 28, 2017
"There's no money for election data or a startup results system on the right Brandon because kerfufflenutter."
Fuck you.
Fuck every last "penny pinching" one of you I went begging for funding from over the last few years.
Die of clown spider cancer. https://t.co/kkwYYriLu8
— Brandon Finnigan (@B_M_Finnigan) November 28, 2017
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And here’s an interesting point…
There is a big dangling thread in the WaPo story of James O'Keefe and the fake Roy Moore accuser that is dying to be pulled on:https://t.co/Yww0rjx8eG pic.twitter.com/lQNfKQqOAs
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) November 27, 2017
Media Idiots Open Thread: O’Keefe & the Power of a Truly TERRIBLE ExamplePost + Comments (80)
This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance
Matt Fiedler at Brookings had an excellent thread on the impact of the individual mandate on coverage.
In assessing the individual mandate’s effect on coverage, recent sharp decline in uninsured rate above 400% of the FPL is an important data point. /1 pic.twitter.com/pJbxMT0fIX
— Matt Fiedler (@MattAFiedler) November 27, 2017
Noam Levy in the LA Times had a good story on the implications of a mandate repeal in single insurer, high cost counties:
There are 454 counties nationwide with only one health insurer on the marketplace in 2018 and where the cheapest plan available to a 40-year-old consumer costs at least $500 a month. Markets in these places risk collapsing if Congress scraps the individual insurance mandate.
One of the key things to note from this Levy piece is that a significant chunk of the non-subsidized population is not liable for the individual mandate penalty. The IRS offers an an automatic exemption if the least expensive Bronze plan is more than 8.05% of income. In these counties, this is a threshold income for a single forty year old individual of at least $74,500 or 620% Federal Poverty Line (FPL). A married couple of the same age has a six figure income exemption. The mandate very lightly touches people in thees regions already.
This is an excellent test for the taste for compliance. How many people who make between 400% FPL and the county level mandate exemption and who do not have significant medical issues buy insurance? If taste for compliance drives purchasing decisions we would expect to see this group to look a lot like the group of people who make just over the hardship exemption in their buying decisions. If the mandate is primarily a financial factor, we should see a discontinuity between these two groups.
I don’t have the data nor the statistical chops to do this analysis, but there is enough variation for an interesting analysis where either result or more likely a mixed result would be policy relevant.
Mandate, exemptions and the taste for compliancePost + Comments (3)
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republicans in Disarray!, Trump Crime Cartel, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
"The Exorcist" pic.twitter.com/LU721Fv1YC
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) November 27, 2017
The holidays are upon us!! Right now: flotus is seeing to every last detail here at the @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/TglHYDVUx1
— Stephanie Grisham (@StephGrisham45) November 27, 2017
Pretty sure you have to do battle with The Balrog once you reach the end of this corridor. https://t.co/S8s5ODr4rX
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) November 27, 2017
Do they provide the coin to pay Charon? https://t.co/VgI0tNcceI
— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) November 27, 2017
Christmas is about believing what a woman said about her sex life.
Christmas is about a family finding safety as refugees.
Christmas is about a child in need receiving support from the wealthy.
Christmas is about God identifying himself with the marginalized not the powerful.
— Carlos A. Rodríguez (@HappySonship) November 21, 2017
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That having been said, what’s on the agenda for the day?
***********
Also, speaking of “homespun” horrors…
Richard Shelby says he already voted in the Alabama Senate race, and he did NOT vote for Roy Moore.
He says he voted for "a distinguished Republican write-in."
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) November 27, 2017
It took 157+ years, but Lincoln finally got a vote in Alabama! (H/T @joshchafetz) https://t.co/CuWZJIyoID
— Matt Glassman (@MattGlassman312) November 28, 2017
Whoa, why TF isn’t this all over the place? This is a BFD. It’s Alabama’s other senator— a Repub—saying he doesn’t support the Repub nominee https://t.co/ayh37vCiHB
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 28, 2017
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House official: Trump will not campaign for embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore before Dec. 12 election.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 27, 2017
They’ve seen the polling — and it’s not good for Moore https://t.co/apQpU3NVeL
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) November 27, 2017
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Reason for the SeasonPost + Comments (175)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Republican Stupidity, Decline and Fall
Honestly, the whole Code Talkers event was just bizarre. A lovely speech by Peter McDonald, one of the Code Talkers, and then Trump just was at peak narcissism and idiocy: https://t.co/gt5XhPkVf5
— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) November 28, 2017
MR. MACDONALD: Thank you, Honorable President of this great United States of America, President Trump. Thank you for inviting us, Navajo Code Talkers, to the Capitol and to the White House of this great nation we call the United States…
My name is Peter MacDonald. I’m the president of the 13 surviving Navajo Code Talkers. I went in — I’m 90 years old — I went in when I was 15 years old in 1944. I was with the 1st Marine Brigade on Guam, and then went on to North China with 6th Marine Division to get those Japanese in Northern China to surrender. They didn’t want to surrender, but it took 1st Marine Division, 6th Marine Division to get them to surrender eventually. We had a separate treaty ceremony in Tsingtao, China, October 25th, 1945.
Navajo Code Talkers, in the early part of World War II, the enemy was breaking every military code that was being used in the Pacific. This created a huge problem for strategizing against the enemy. Eventually, a suggestion was made in early 1942 — February ’42, essentially — to use Navajo language as a code.
The Marine Corps recruited 29 young Navajos, not telling them what they are being recruited for, because this was a top-secret operation. They were just asked, “Do you want to join the Marines? You want to fight the enemy? Come join the Marines.” So they volunteered…
In every battle — from the frontline, beach command post, command ship, all other ships — Code Talkers were used. On the island of Iwo, Major Connor said, the first 48 hours of battle, over 800 messages were sent by the 5th Marine Division, only. The first 48 hours, over 800 messages. Major Connor also said: Without Navajo, Marines would never have taken the island of Iwo Jima. (Applause.)
So thank you very much. The 13 of us, we still have one mission — that mission is to build national Navajo Code Talker Museum. We want to preserve this unique World War II history for our children, grandchildren, your children, your grandchildren to go through that museum.
Why? Because what we did truly represents who we are as Americans. America, we know, is composed of diverse community. We have different languages, different skills, different talents, and different religion. But when our way of life is threatened, like the freedom and liberty that we all cherish, we come together as one. And when we come together as one, we are invincible. We cannot be defeated. That’s why we need this national Navajo Code Talker Museum so that our children, the future generation, can go through that museum and learn why America is so strong…
Trump really said, "That was so incredible, and now I don't have to make my speech. I had the most beautiful speech written out. I was so proud of it. Look." That was before the "Pocahontas" shit.
— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) November 28, 2017
If you read the Oval Office Occupant’s remarks, it’s clear that he thought the whole event was a godsdamned joke. Old not-white dudes in weird regalia! So much to laugh at!
If the Repubs had any self-respect, they wouldn’t let this man out of his compound without putting a muzzle on him. Yeah, I know — self-respect is one of those concepts the GOP ditched around 1972.
Extremely good and normal to make native American WWII veterans listen to an ethnic slur while standing near a portrait of Andrew Jackson
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 27, 2017
Belittling non-white veterans and their families is a constant theme with Trump, from the Khan family to La David Johnson to the Navaho code talkers
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) November 27, 2017
If there's a Trump strategy here, it's to sideline her as a CFPB messenger by starting round 10,000 of the stupid "Pocahontas" story
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 27, 2017
there's no strategy. trump saw a native american person and his brain started screaming "pocahontaspocahontaspocahontaspocahontaspocahontaspocahontaspocahontas" and he had to yell it out. https://t.co/yJXN0XXB1t
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) November 27, 2017
I don’t expect Trump to be adopted by any native nation. But some of them may end up giving Trump a name. https://t.co/PvMNoqVJrA
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 28, 2017
The Code Talkers’ Speech (Trump Is Even Worse Than We Thought)Post + Comments (69)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes
There's growing talk of rich people leaving Manhattan and Greenwich if the GOP tax plan goes through https://t.co/xiG7N5Ibkl
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) November 27, 2017
Talk is cheap.
— Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) November 27, 2017
My Cynical read on the subtext to this Bloomberg article: Cut the crap, Repubs — no matter what your half-dozen addled superdonors and their hordes of think-tank minions believe, you fvck with the New York financial sector, and the *best* outcome is a batch of aggravated aggressive new political funders in swing-state Florida.
Because the people who make a lot of money by living in Manhattan? They do NOT want to live in Miami, whatever the delights of that city. Theoretically you could force them to leave the Big Apple, but all that would accomplish is making enemies of highly motivated individuals who really know how to hold grudges…
… The problem for the Connecticut hedge-fund set — and, more broadly, for a lot of the Wall Street crowd — is that Republican proposals in both the House and Senate would drive up taxes for many high-earners in the New York City area. By eliminating the deduction for most state and local taxes, an individual making a yearly salary of $1,000,000 — a figure not uncommon in the financial industry — would owe the Internal Revenue Service an additional $21,000, according to a preliminary analysis by accounting firm Marcum LLP…
A final bill could still do away with the hike, but so far there are no signs coming out of Washington that will happen. Financially struggling New Jersey had the sixth-highest individual income rate this year, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators. New York ranked eighth and cash-strapped Connecticut 12th. Nine of the 10 states with the highest individual taxes, including Washington, D.C., voted Democratic in the 2016 presidential election.
No one interviewed for this story would talk openly about making plans to move, but Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is estimating that New York City alone could lose as much as 4 percent of its top earners if the bill becomes law. In Florida, where there’s no state income tax, there’s the sense that this is a great opportunity to lure disgruntled tax refugees….
Frustration was high among commuters in the northern New Jersey suburb of Summit early one recent morning. They know there’ll be little sympathy for them across the country and they aren’t necessarily ready to pack up and move, but they’re ticked off.
“Most people in this community don’t need a decrease, but I don’t think it’s right to have more taxes taken out and be told it’s a tax cut,” said Gary Bakalar, head of client relationships at insurer XL Catlin in New York. “I’m a lifelong Republican and this is starting to make me question the wisdom of that.”
I say this as someone who was born in Manhattan, and who got the hell out as soon as was legally possible: Living with NYCers is like living with a mixed pack of pit bulls, border collies, and Jack Russell terriers. Even if you love the individual components, it’s an ongoing, non-stop challenge. Living with a bunch of rich, successful NYCers who don’t want to be living with you is… well, doesn’t the current involuntary migration of pissed-off, desperate Puerto Ricans seem like enough punishment, even for Rick “Lizard Person” Scott?
To avoid $21k in NYC taxes million dollar earners move to Miami, where they’ll be under water in a few decades; the rich aren’t geniuses https://t.co/J3aotfjHec
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 27, 2017
Hyperbole aside, it’s very true that the wealthy have few places to go https://t.co/2KFT3ijNR5
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 27, 2017
So few seats on the escape shuttle https://t.co/GGSlrUHXiQ
— Zeddy ( me [ person ] ) (@ZeddRebel) November 27, 2017
Open Thread: The Sorrows of the Everyday MillionairePost + Comments (152)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Teabagger Stupidity
Betty Cracker covered this earlier, but two quick things about this Trump “Pocahontas” outburst.
1.) As my friend pointed out to me on FB, these fucking stooges in the WH chose to honor the Navajo code talkers in front of a large portrait of Andrew Jackson.
2.) It’s worth remembering what Senator Warren did to deserve this crap. Her major transgression, her big sin, this egregious breach of trust was… relying on what her family told her about her heritage and then passing it on to others. I know this is hard to believe, but this is how most people learned who they were and their family history- the oral tradition. There wasn’t always genealogy.com and DNA testing.
So she relied on what she was told growing up in Oklahoma, where probably everyone is somewhat Cherokee to some extent. That’s why they are calling her Pocahontas and the sophisticated race-baiters and bigots are calling her Fauxcahontas. That’s her fucking crime. And it is worth noting that to this date NO ONE has proven she is not some small part Cherokee, there’s just no paperork proving she is.
At any rate, I need to get something off my chest. This is me, my brother, and sisters, as children. I’m the gap toothed one on the far left.
A bunch of fine looking Kinder! For years, we have been telling people that we were mostly German. On my mothers side, there is a touch of Scottish. But mostly we were under the impression that we were pretty much full German. My father’s parent’s names were Vogel and Cole, and my mom’s side is Rudolph and Blaine (her father a German and my grandmother Scot from on parent). We can trace our family back to the Hessians. We’ve always thought we were almost completely German
But a year ago, my father did a DNA test, and it turns out we are a bunch of frauds and not nearly as German as we thought. In fact, my father is only about 30% German. It appears that Nordic blood courses through his veins, and we are as much Viking as we are German.
My entire life has been a fraud- an elaborate ruse, a lie.
That’s how fucking stupid this Pocahontas crap is, on top of being offensive to Native Americans.