February 12, 2018 6:30 AM
Monday Morning Reads – Feb 12
Happy Monday, everyone! Last weekend was dominated by the American media drooling over North Korea. Weird.
News by the Numbers
- 21 cheerleaders – In 2006, North Korea sent 21 cheerleaders to prison camps after they spoke about life in South Korea. But you need to get past the AJC drooling over North Korea before you read it. Here is a guide to North Korea atrocities.
- 2 medals – Team USA has two medals, one gold, and one silver. You can check that link for an updated count.
- 37,734 “noncriminal” arrests – Arrests of illegal immigrants skyrocketed under President Trump. Rather than prioritizing high-level targets, all illegal immigrants are at risk of deportation. Also, I look forward to the inevitable argument over “noncriminal” in the comments section.
- 6,000 jobs – The PSC unanimously agreed to continue construction on Plant Vogtle despite it being, well, a giant money pit. It came with a crevet: Congress extend the nuclear tax credit. They extended it. Now 6,000 jobs at Plant Vogtle are protected and ratepayers are still screwed.
- $111 million per year – Clayton County school superintendent Morcease Beasley has a problem with HB 821, a bill that would, among other things, eliminate the sales tax on jet fuel (LOOKING AT YOU DELTA.) He argues it would take away from education funding. Chris Riley argues otherwise.
- 66 deaths – This year’s flu severity is tied with the Swine flu. That’s not good. Of those 66 deaths in Georgia, two were children.
About Author
Will Kremer
Will is an active member of the Georgia Republican grassroots. He previously served as Chairman of the Georgia Association of College Republicans, 2nd Vice Chairman of the 7th District Republican Party, and Treasurer of the Forsyth County Republican Party. Promise Land = Forsyth County.
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Watched Homeland last night. I love Claire Danes’ portrayal of a manic depressive. Will be an interesting season. As an aside, leading up to the show is something called “My Cartoon President.” Obviously making fun of Trump and funny as hell! I almost busted a gut! The Libs are nothing if not creative! These ones actually have a sense of humor! Good to see!
If finding it distasteful to have a full-blown megalomaniac as President earns me the label of a “Lib” from you then I gladly accept. Though I choose to consider myself a libertarian with a small L.
Happy Darwin Day to all my fellow primates!
Alfred Russel Wallace should get some love too. Without his independent efforts primarily in the Malay Archipelago I’m not sure Darwin would have ever published On the Origin of the Species. Keep in mind that Darwin didn’t get around to publishing his seminal work until nearly 30 years after he sailed on The Beagle, only prompted by Wallace’s discoveries. A quintessential example of the pith-helmeted 19th century British explorer, Wallace was co-credited by Darwin with the formation of the Theory of Evolution.
Some odd things happening with your auto-correct this morning, Will. I looked up crevet, which I guess was subbed for caveat, and found it’s ‘a crucible or melting pot; a cruset’ and next found cruset to be ‘obsolete: a goldsmith’s crucible’. So there’s a weird tie-in with alchemy and hellish fires and GP turning uranium into gold.
Re: Clayton County schools.
Chris Riley says: “Clayton County is “federally prohibited from spending the local sales tax collected on jet fuel after 1987 on anything other than airports.”
But if that sales tax money is removed, won’t Clayton have to come up with money from elsewhere to replace it? So wouldn’t the schools likely suffer anyway?
Cabinet Secretaries are authorized to fly First Class. Always have been. “Nothingburger” story. Matter of fact, most SES personnel are, too. Next….
I don’t know the logistics of the job well enough to have an opinion on whether good planning can reduce airfare costs, but when it comes to travelling back home, that’s just the cost of having the job, and should be his personal costs negotiated into salary. It’s a long commute, but a commute nonetheless. I imagine Congress-people would get more leeway on that because they’d be traveling back to their districts as well as home…
Too good? Yes, they are. Gov’t officials of a certain rank are allowed to fly first class. And that level falls well short of Cabinet secretaries or Agency directors, like Pruitt. Hell, as an agent, I was authorized Business Class if my flight was over 8 hours. And my rank was nothing approaching Pruitt’s level. Again, well within the regs.
I harken back, yes harken, when our US ambassador to Egypt and ol’ Noway were in first class, seats 1A and 1B…
Re: Porter et al. Does domestic violence and the country’s security just not matter? It doesn’t for John Kelly. It was only few women, and not his Mom, sister, daughter or niece. And the possibility of blackmail involving national security is a risk worth taking if that what it takes to subvert norms and enact tax cuts for the rich. Like others, I thought some of Trump’s low character had rubbed off on Kelly, and hoped that Kelly understood his mistake when he didn’t apologize, and was saving face and would not make the same mistake again.
I was wrong. It’s going on two years of the GOP lowering the bar nearly every weak, and wondering where’s the bottom. Kelly isn’t anyone to restrain Trump’s base instincts and propensity to undermine the country, but is rather someone enabling and bringing discipline to those ends. Kelly and many Trump supporters are simply revealing who they really are: racists, misogynists, violent, and dismissive of democratic institutions such as a free press and system of checks and balances. It’s a good thing to know with certainty that the party is rife with such. Due process and everything. And it’s good to know that the majority of the remainder of the GOP either thinks the ends justify these means, or are too weak to publicly oppose it with other than lip service. People that can’t be counted on to have any sense of decency.
It wasn’t really that long ago that there was unity in the understanding of the sacredness of democracy. Republicans like Cox and Richardson and Ruckleshas cared about the country. Since then it’s become fake.
18 people were killed by police in the United States last week. In two of these incidents, a law enforcement officer was killed. https://chamblee54.wordpress.com/2018/02/11/killed-by-police-february-10/
Have you ever seen film of a military parade presided over by the ruler of Russia, China or North Korea and thought to yourself, damn, now there’s a country to be respected for honoring military service? Such parades are the province of insecure leaders attempting to intimidate their citizens, bully the world, and inflate their own egos. But hey, it will MAGA just like military parades back in the day when Eisenhower was President!
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. The party’s slogans.
Well, you could modify the slogans a bit to reflect priorities:
Military strength over diplomacy; Security over liberty; Loyalty over free press and differences of opinion.
Would you eliminate the Blue Angels? It’s a flying parade and display of military might.
Shouldn’t you be asking your Fearless Leader why it’s not good enough for him?
I see plenty of differences between one large national parade and smaller local displays, where local shows have increased accessibility to attend, lower costs, less burden on the military, more local base involvement, etc.
Perhaps a different way to frame it is: Why is a parade better for Trump than what he sees with his current access to military personnel and equipment already? The difference is all just about public attention, but for who? There are certainly other easier, cheaper, more accessible, and less burdensome ways to recognize pride in the military. There is undoubtedly an element of ego involved.
I have yet to go to a ‘Blue Angle Demonstration Squadron’ exhibition where it is a) a military only event, and b) did not have a display with a large navy and marine recruiting both.
My Rand loving sibling wishes they would cancel the how Blue Angle program since it is a $35 million cost and the things make too much noise flying over mom’s house every two years when they are at the EEA.
Yes, Noway2016, the Blue Angels should be eliminated.
The Blue Angels are a major user of fuel. Does anyone remember the concept of using oil resources more efficiently?
God! Of course you do! Sorry, I forgot who I was asking.
Using it (fuel) efficiently like running Al Gorged’s private jet?
As mentioned before, I show families on SNAP how to shop and cook better. This new SNAP box includes things like Shelf stable milk? Who drinks shelved milk? Canned fruit and veggies? Most kids I deal with like fresh bananas (most are not from America), seasonal local grown berries and citrus from SNAP accredited farmer’s markets. Many grow their own veggies (like collards) I have a family that doesn’t need canned green beans or carrots, they have them in their gardens.
This is crazy. We are going to create a whole government employed or contracted agency to create millions of specialized boxes (can’t have children with peanut allergies getting peanut butter, or folks allergic to strawberries getting strawberry jam) all over the country. Are we going specialize them to regions? I know my Cheesehead folks eat more acorn squash and kohlrabies then collard greens and black eyed peas. Then having SNAP folks travel 10 to 30 miles out of their way to make sure they are all eating’ American’ food? We have a rush of Canadian peanut butter and German milk? Would it not be easier to place the bar codes of non- American food, like off season apples, berries, as not being able to be paid for with a SNAP card? (Get ready for the Wal-Mart outrage PR machine on this one).
And what classified as ‘American’ food? Example, every yogurt cup on the shelf is made using milk from America livestock. You can’t import fresh milk. However; roughly half of the yogurt made here in America is by non American companies.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-12/trump-budget-swaps-food-stamps-for-100-percent-american-food
And if the administration is going to start placing a reciprocal tax on foreign grown food, the increase in price will discourage most folks from buying it anyway regardless of SNAP or not.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-12/trump-says-he-will-unveil-reciprocal-tax-on-imports-this-week
Jeff Sessions, Attorney General:
“The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement.”
What!?! And it wasn’t even in the script. He ad-libbed the Anglo-Saxon part.
Shire Reeves, royally appointed peace makers of a shire. AKA the King’s man, and enforcers of posse comitatus, pre-dates the Norman invasion. So in a round about limited point of history he is not wrong. HOWEVER: current day reference to the ‘Anglo tradition’ of Sheriffs is seen by ‘some’ as a coded meaning to the domestic terrorist group Posse Comitatus, who believe the only legitimate form of government is a county level and the highest authority a county sheriff. They are Alt-right Christian identity survivalist who use lawsuits as their weapon of choice. Not the best wording on Sessions part.
But why would you ad-lib insert that into the script- unless you couldn’t grasp the concept of “heritage” without the descriptor of ‘Anglo-American’ being attached to it? And where would you get such an association? From a place where it was important to distinguish this particular heritage from… other heritages.
I will counter by saying I can’t get too excited about the first class travel thing. It’s not really that much money in the big scheme. If we want to hire “the best and the brightest” the government will need to offer some minimal lever of perks. I don’t want future Secretary of State Scott Holcombe to be dinged for taking the occasional Business class flight. Any corporate executive at that level would probably have their own friggin’ corporate jet.
If your figures are correct and I doubt they are, could those cuts be considered “entitlement reform?”
It’s nonsense talk for fools and Rupublicans…. Remember, when Trump said he’d eliminate the national debt in eight years?
It’s nonsense talk for fools and Rupublicans…. Remember, when Trump said he’d eliminate the national debt in eight years?