Trump's Card

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Tweet misrepresents the report* but she made the point more elegantly outside of the Twitter moron-speak-sphere:



*The report says "“[It is] unlikely to be the factor that triggered the shift in serious violence, but may be an underlying driver that has allowed the rise to continue.” Abbott's considered remarks accurately convey this but the Tweet does not IMHO. Why? Because the Tweet is conflating "allowed the rise to continue" with "likely contributed" to the original rise. There's a primary cause and then there's a factor that allows that cause to keep happening, at least according to the report. You can argue that the report is making a distinction that deflects from the real problem but you can't say that report is saying that cuts are the primary cause.

Thank you, this is what I was getting at.

[Satchmo Distel]

Curiosity mainly. They live a bucolic semi-rural existence (with a gorgeous pre-Raphaelite paved garden I'm deeply envious of) yet fear is eating their souls. And it's all mediated, nothing is based on direct experience. Their worldview is, I would claim, deliberately distorted and manipulated by others. They're fundamentally not stupid people, just disinclined to look beyond or behind their received opinions. Lazy more than dim perhaps.

Rural communities are traditionally more right-wing because they confine themselves to limited sources of biased, paranoid information. In some ways, social media is starting to make some urban communities follow the same trend. Very noticeable in Florida with the pro-Trump bigotry.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/thisweekabc/status/993114395138973696?s=21

[Tubby Isaacs]

"Necessary".

Meanwhile, Missouri's Governor still isn't taking one for the team. Looks like a special session later this month to consider impeachment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...eric-greitens/

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some scary Morning Consult approval ratings for red state Dem senators.

Manchin on -5, McCaskill -7, Baldwin -2.

The only blue state Republican, Heller, has -2.

Going to be very hard to get to 51.

[anton pulisov]

Manchin is a Democrat in name only.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Obamacare would be gone without his vote. The economic effect of that, aside from the health effect, would be appalling for West Virginia. More jobs would be lost from that than the total of mining jobs in the state.

Anyhow, he's being primaried.

[Satchmo Distel]

Polling produces very erratic results in springtime. There might be a North Korea bounce going on or whatever but I'm past trying to read the befuddled mind of the white middle-class with its 15 minute attention span.

[Ginger Yellow]

Obamacare is gone, without the mandate.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They wasted a lot of time getting egg on their face if all they had to do was abolish the mandate and wait.

With any luck, a few more states could be expanding Medicaid.

[Lang Spoon]

Tubby Quixote, tilting at windmills for possible small marginal gains.

[Lang Spoon]

That reads more catty than meant. I admire your courage, your tenacity etc sir.

[Satchmo Distel]

Tubbs is watching a lot of shit CNN on our behalf and keeping tabs on numerous utter cunts on Facebook in the hope of catching some stray nuggets. It's a courageous sacrifice.

And of course we have solidarity of profile pictures.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha ha.

Republican fun and games continuing in West Virginia.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...primary-570752

Blankenship has responded in kind, launching a slash-and-burn campaign targeting McConnell.

His scorching attacks have veered into deeply personal, even racially charged territory.

This week, Blankenship began airing a TV commercial labeling McConnell “Cocaine Mitch,” an apparent reference to a 2014 report that drugs were once found aboard a shipping vessel owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Taiwan-born Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Then, a few days later, Blankenship began airing another spot declaring that McConnell’s “China family has given him tens of millions of dollars.”

[ad hoc]

Have I understood this correctly that the British foreign secretary, in order to attempt to speak to the president of the USA, has, as his only option, appearing as a guest on some lightweight morning chat show that the aforementioned president watches?

[ursus arctos]

He’s also written an op-ed for the New York Times

[ad hoc]

He’s also written an op-ed for the New York Times

Like Trump will read that

[ursus arctos]

True dat.

It is rather clearly for another audience.

Though I’m afraid that even a front row seat at the royal wedding wouldn’t turn his head at this point.

[Satchmo Distel]

Two people getting more attention than him? He would always skip.

[San Bernardhinault]

Ha ha.

Republican fun and games continuing in West Virginia.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...primary-570752

Bizarrely, almost immediately after Blankenship's China-persons advert came out, this story appeared on Politico. Mrs Mitch may well be abusing her office to help her dad's businesses.

[ursus arctos]

Nice precis of the last week of Rudy! being Rudy!

Giuliani is being as aggressive as Trump has said he wants his lawyers to be. He asserted yesterday that Trump does not need to comply if special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenas him, opened the door to the president invoking the Fifth Amendment if forced to testify and then declared that “the Founding Fathers created immunity for a president, so the president can't be indicted.”

“I am focused on the law more than the facts right now,” he told CNN last night.

Earlier in the day, he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week”: “My issue is getting up to speed on the facts here. I’m about halfway there.”

Some lawyers might wait to defend their client on television until they were all the way there. Not Rudy. But this is not actually his biggest problem.

Giuliani is repeating seven of the mistakes that have felled previously highflying Trump aides, who rose rapidly only to fall out of favor

[Tubby Isaacs]

Bizarrely, almost immediately after Blankenship's China-persons advert came out, this story appeared on Politico. Mrs Mitch may well be abusing her office to help her dad's businesses.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just seen that Blankenship advert.

The other guys support jobs for China, here's me holding two white girls.

[anton pulisov]

Why is Rudy! being called Rudy! ?

I thought that was a Jeb! thing.

[ursus arctos]

More than a decade before the last of the Bushes