Mourning in America - Trump Year One: November '16 to

the good news is that the continued booming financial success of newspapers, and the attendant swelling of the ranks of dedicated, capable investigative reporters at newsdesks across the usa, means that trump will have his feet held to the fire over every trangression, no matter how minor

Just a reminder: if you want democrats in office, support unions. Don't fall for anti-teachers-union/pro-charter-school bullshit. Norquist agrees:

https://twitter.com/GroverNorquist/status/803680084292997120

i see what you did there, gazzara

https://twitter.com/JonathanMerritt/status/804310057424928768

jesus fucking christ i want off this planet

"THE MEDIA SAID IT"

"google it"

even Fox News is calling the Carrier deal BS all the way 'round

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/30/hundreds-could-still-lose-jobs-at-carriers-indianapolis-plant-despite-trump-deal.html

In persuading Carrier to keep hundreds of jobs in Indiana, President-elect Donald Trump is claiming victory on behalf of factory workers whose positions were bound for Mexico. But the scant details that have emerged so far raise doubts about the extent of the victory.

By enabling Carrier's Indianapolis plant to stay open, the deal spares about 800 union workers whose jobs were going to be outsourced to Mexico, according to federal officials who were briefed by the heating and air conditioning company. This suggests that hundreds will still lose their jobs at the factory, where roughly 1,400 workers were slated to be laid off.

Also, neither Trump nor Carrier has yet to say what the workers might have to give up or precisely what threats or incentives were used to get the manufacturer to change its mind.

...

Carrier said in a statement that more than 1,000 jobs were saved, though that figure includes headquarters and engineering staff that were likely to stay in Indiana.

@iaivanova
The guy who'll be running Treasury foreclosed on a 90-yo woman's home over a 27-cent error

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-treasury-foreclosed-homes-mnuchin-232038

well at least Trump didn't get payed to make speeches at this guy's banks

well, trump said he'd run the country like a business - looks like he's committed to delivering on that promise!

While consumer advocates fight OneWest in the trenches, some inside the Beltway see a glimmer of hope in Mnuchin, an expert in mortgage bonds and structured finance. They say he has the technical know-how to fix mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a job Congress and the Obama administration have avoided.

i.e. the fix is in

https://twitter.com/JonathanMerritt/status/804310057424928768

― k3vin k.

this is my mom's book club, minus the person there who tries to explain that they believe in an an unsubstantiated lie

sorry if this has been mentioned already but lost in the chaos of the last few days is that trump apparently offered fucking jerry falwell jr the secretary of education position

http://religionnews.com/2016/11/28/why-jerry-falwell-jr-says-he-turned-down-trumps-cabinet-position/

No mentions of Elaine Chao being tapped for Transportation?

@MarkHalperin
Why is it Elaine Chao's spouse is mentioned in many news stories abt her, but she is almost never mentioned in stories abt her spouse?

@dick_nixon
It is almost as though the press knows something about their private life.

hehehe

(much as i don't like Open Secret McConnell images it conjures up)

I find it hard to believe that Trump actually extended him an offer, I figured discussions with him were more of a signal to the evangelicals than a serious consideration.

xp the much more obvious answer is that women, even famous and powerful ones, are more often defined by their relationships to the men in their lives than vice versa. (cf. Greenspan and Mitchell)

shadow president pence

and also that she's a beard

xp

Both of these things can be true.

I'm worried about most of his picks so far, should I be concerned about Chao? Like should I be telling my senators to oppose her? I know she was secretary of labor under bush and previously deputy secretary of transportation. I know she's from some huge shipping family. She probably sucks as much as any republican, trying to figure out whether she sucks in some special way beyond that.

The mine disaster.

has anyone made the 'the invisible hand of the market has tiny fingers' joke yet bc I did

YES

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/12/01/thursday-morning-open-thread-peotus-trump-fraud-in-chief/

Our system isn't one.

Update: Since someone on Twitter asked, the other four people to get under 50 percent in each contest were John McCain (2008), Michael Dukakis (1988), Walter Mondale (1984) and George McGovern (1972).

"Looks like the Washington Post may have decided the nation needs a Paper of Opposition, since the NYTimes is determined to control the Kneepads Brigade."

oh ffs

balloon juice is a great name for anything though

some peoples shoulders are v prone to chipping huh

The Shoulderchips Brigade

josh marshall has been writing a lot about the possibility of medicare phaseout, this post was interesting and highlights some of the difficulties the GOP will encounter in trying to phase out both medicare and ACA: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/why-are-gops-now-asking-dems-for-helping-killing-obamacare-and-medicare

i have trouble understanding their motivations for wanting to kill medicare and social security, even at great political cost. clearly a subset of republicans want to do it. but why? is it just pure ideology - they oppose the idea of a federal govt, SS/medicare are successful and popular federal programs and contribute to a perception that the federal government can provide basic essential services, therefore they have to go?

they want to kill poor people

no point in sugar coating things imo

Esp. black ones (xp)

Alan Grayson tom

otm

eh it's just that they want more business for the private sector. making peoples lives worse is incidental but not a dealbreaker

That's the economic motivation; the rest is psychological. I've heard it said too many times from conservative relatives that it's your fault if you don't find a job w/insurance.

The underlying assumption seems to be that a private-sector thing is always and everywhere better than a public-sector thing.

Government employees never do anything right, you see! And they have no incentive to do anything right because they're impossible to fire. People who work for _real_ businesses have to be competent, because if they aren't, they get fired.

Never mind that none of the above is correct - I've seen plenty of mind-boggling inefficiency, redundancy, and petty tyranny in private-sector companies of all sizes. Government employees abolished slavery, defeated Hitler, built the Interstates, and landed on the motherfucking moon. Then there's everything they've done to safeguard your health, beat diseases, ensure you have safer food, cleaner air and water...

Government employees abolished slavery, defeated Hitler, built the Interstates, and landed on the motherfucking moon. Then there's everything they've done to safeguard your health, beat diseases, ensure you have safer food, cleaner air and water...

yeah, but imagine if the employees of GloboCorp could have taken those things on instead. the civil war would have been finished in 2 years, at a quarter of the cost, Stalin and Mao would have perished along with Hitler after issuing public apologies, the interstates would have extra lanes, and the moon would be a gas station on the way to alpha centauri.

Government employees never do anything right, you see! And they have no incentive to do anything right because they're impossible to fire. People who work for _real_ businesses have to be competent, because if they aren't, they get fired. omg heard a guy on the train this morning say the same exact thing becasue the train was running about 10 mins late. must have been all those government workers just taking their breaks on the tracks .

tbf i heard many government employees make the same argument themselves.

if only amtrak was run like model corporation megabus, where the buses are always on time and there's always someone on hand to let you know which line to stand in.

The only thing that makes the private sector good at ANYTHING is competition. Government services that are monopolies anyway are not going to be run better just because they're suddenly in the hands of someone taking a profit.

The biggest problem with that standpoint isn't 'private corps will do it more efficiently' it's whether efficiency is the proper metric, especially when it's code for 'profitability.' I don't want prisons or transit or Medicare to be judged by efficiency; they should be evaluated by their contribution to the public good.

I know it's a trenchant argument, but I'm surprised how often it's overlooked.

Like I don't think there's a single profitable public transit system in the world. Hence the name.

The only thing that makes the private sector good at ANYTHING is competition. Government services that are monopolies anyway are not going to be run better just because they're suddenly in the hands of someone taking a profit.

Did Thatcher and Reagan fight and die in vain?

we can only hope

https://twitter.com/dick_nixon/status/678455833957670912

oops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWVpcypf0w