US Politics November 2017

KABC? Yes.

36 years since reagan promised prosperity would trickle down. 36 years of stagnant wages for 99% of americans

xpost what are you talking about dude?

you did not read the entire article

you might wanna check w/ Janeane Garofalo about how Al Franken treated women (in his 40s)

The tour wrapped and on Christmas Eve we began the 36-hour trip home to L.A. After 2 weeks of grueling travel and performing I was exhausted. When our C-17 cargo plane took off from Afghanistan I immediately fell asleep, even though I was still wearing my flak vest and Kevlar helmet.

It wasn’t until I was back in the US and looking through the CD of photos we were given by the photographer that I saw this one:

I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep.

I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated.

How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?

I told my husband everything that happened and showed him the picture.

KABC? Yes.

― by the light of the burning Citroën, Thursday, November 16, 2017 11:13 AM (five minutes ago)

???

actually, Garofalo's stories aren't as damning as Tweeden's

tbf it doesn't look like he's *actually* touching her in that photo

posts you really don't need to make, jeez dude

photo, however gross, is not of what she said happened.

the fuck is wrong with you people

YOU DON'T NEED TO TRY TO MITIGATE WHAT HAPPENED OR COVER FOR THIS DUDE EVEN IF YOU LIKE HIM

If Al is smart (and I think he is) he will just cop to it and apologize

ugh, my very bad mistake. Reading on my phone and thought it ended at the rehearsal. I apologize and I am out.

Sen. Franken provided the following statement to Fox 9 on Thursday: "I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it."

anyway - this idea that Strange resigns and that triggers a special election, I don't see how that gets them out of their jam cuz how will they keep Moore off the ballot? State GOP is still 100% behind him, they aren't going to block him from just running again. Seems like at best they just delay the inevitable/repeat the previous debacle. Plus with absentee ballots already sent out/being returned seems like any such decision would also trigger lawsuits.

w

ugh, my very bad mistake. Reading on my phone and thought it ended at the rehearsal. I apologize and I am out.

the franken stuff makes me think that moore will stay in, win, and everyone will forget about it because "both sides" do it

Al’s brother O was on that USO tour with him, so I’m awaiting what he has to say with interest.

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/gov_kay_ivey_has_no_plans_to_c.html

Josh Pendergrass, communications director for Gov. Kay Ivey, said today the governor does not intend to change the date of the Dec. 12 election.

Surprise!

The tax bill Senate Republicans are championing would give large tax cuts to millionaires while raising taxes on American families earning $10,000 to $75,000 over the next decade, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official nonpartisan analysts.

President Trump and Republican lawmakers have been heralding their bill as a win for hard-working Americans, but the JCT report casts serious doubt on that claim. Tax hikes for households earning $10,000 to $30,000 would start in 2021 and grow sharply from there. By the year 2027, Americans earning $30,000 to $75,000 a year would also be forced to pay more in taxes even though people earning over $100,000 continue to get substantial tax cuts.

"What is happening now is just shameful," said Senator Ron Ryden (D-Oregon) in the Senate Finance Committee hearing shortly after the JCT tables were released. "I don’t know how anybody can go home and explain why it’s a good idea to hike taxes on parents who barely stay afloat to pay for a massive corporate handout."

the brazen inhumanity of this - the poor can just "choose" not to buy health insurance! fuck these ogres

Hatch and other Republicans say that low-income people get a choice about whether to buy health insurance or not. If they no longer wish to buy insurance, they would not get government subsidies anymore to help make their health insurance more affordable. JCT is calculating that as a tax increase, but Republicans say it is "ridiculous" to look at it that way. The subsidy was being paid to the insurance company, not to individuals.

"Did we take away their money? No," says Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). "There's not one dollar taken away from them if they make that choice [not to buy insurance]."

that is some amazing nominative determinism

a NBC reporter said this morning that when he asked a GOP senator off the record what's the urgency the senator said, "The donors threatened never to give us another dollar if we didn't pass the tax reduction bill."

franken pic just made a times alert, this is gonna have legs

13,000,000 people will lose health care because of the republican giveaway to the top 1%

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Politico reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his top advisers are privately discussing whether it would be legally feasible to get Luther Strange, the currently appointed Senator occupying Jeff Sessions’s former seat, to resign, in hopes that this would trigger a new special election.

But Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), in an interview with AL.com, knocked down that idea. “The election date is set for Dec. 12,” Ivey said, adding that if Strange did resign, “I would simply appoint somebody to fill the remaining time until we have the election on Dec. 12.” Meanwhile, election law expert Rick Hasen explains why the scheme would probably violate the 17th Amendment. http://electionlawblog.org/?p=96022

posts you really don't need to make, jeez dude

yeah I know

keep in mind Franken was both a comedian and a Senator so I guess the chances of him being a predator on some sort is close to 100%

franken pic just made a times alert, this is gonna have legs

it's hit major outlets but I kinda doubt it tbh

(assuming there isn't more/worse shit but idk)

uh insurers would then shift those subsidy $s back into the cost of the premiums paid by policy owners. they are such half-truthing devious assholes.

xps

franken is going to end up resigning imo

yeah I think so too, as he should

god this last month has been nuts, it feels like that 3rd season of Arrested Development where they had to cram 8 episodes worth of plot into 2

wait waht you guys think franken should/will resign over this? that's crazy

franken pic just made a times alert, this is gonna have legs

it's hit major outlets but I kinda doubt it tbh

i think you underestimate how desperately the right needs something like this to counterbalance the attention that moore is getting. that desperation, putting aside what franken actually did or didn't do, will make it huge

the brazen inhumanity of this - the poor can just "choose" not to buy health insurance! fuck these ogres

Reminds me of the Reason/Jacobin debate, when the Reason folks were asked about the first things they would do to improve lower-class conditions under capitalism: "we need to liberate people from public education, we need to liberate people from the high level of state influence in health care, ..."

xpost
i don't think he'll resign btw

i think you underestimate how desperately the right needs something like this to counterbalance the attention that moore is getting. that desperation, putting aside what franken actually did or didn't do, will make it huge

otm

i think you underestimate how desperately the right needs something like this to counterbalance the attention that moore is getting. that desperation, putting aside what franken actually did or didn't do, will make it huge

bingo

this is a major major gift to them and I suspect Hannity will go over the top to harass this woman

the right-wing media will probably go hard on this but they go hard on a lot of things and the Moore/Trump-be-Trumpin/tax bill shitshow is a bigger deal that is going to suck up more of the oxygen imo

Al Franken, of all people, is like cat nip. This may eclipse Clinton for a few weeks.

I mean what are they going to do, demand his resignation because he did some bad shit while vocally supporting Trump, who has done the same shit? It doesn't make sense (not that that's ever stopped them before, but it makes it hard to write the opinion pieces...)

idk. I guess I'm kinda split as to whether or not he needs to resign. If he's got other skeletons in his closet like this then it would be pretty wise. problem is, that photo just looks really really bad and that's the stuff that people respond to. hence why the Access Hollywood tape got so much traction but the dozens of woman who claimed Trump assaulted them didn't.

no one reads opinion pieces man, what's going to happen is it will be all over the news

but yes of course Foxnews.com is all "sexual misdeeds of Franken, Clinton, Biden" headliners right now, not surprising

but it having any meaningful impact (ie, pushes him out of office, saves Moore's seat, passes the tax bill) seems highly unlikely to me

xp

You're right, he'll be elected president for sure

My mom hasn’t phoned me to gloat yet; that’s my barometer.

if Franken was running for re-election at the moment I'd be worried, but he isn't

goddammit, to this whole thing. i always liked franken.

regardless of what he ought or ought'n't do I fear that this is going to knock the horrible tax plan out of the headlines which is going to harm far far more people than the actions of a pervy Senator

Poor people would be less poor if they just stopped throwing their money away on food and shelter. What a bunch of dumb SOBs.

Like, I write that as a pitch-black joke but at the rate we're going, I would bet good money that some GOP human skidmark will make that exact argument within the next 6-12 months.