…ok…I’ll be honest…this might seem a little harsh after yesterday but I did try not to spoil anybody’s thanksgiving & if you’re really lucky meg will take pity on you & head me off at the pass before I take the shine off the weekend…but there’s a few things that I’m not feeling thankful for?
When President Trump pardoned Michael T. Flynn on Wednesday, he did more than wipe clean the record of his first national security adviser, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. He also bolstered the hopes of a wide array of clemency seekers that he might deliver a wave of pardons and commutations before leaving office.
[…] lawyers and others who have been in touch with the White House say they anticipate that Mr. Trump will use his authority in cases that extend beyond those involving the special counsel’s inquiry and the lengthy cast of aides and associates who have gotten in legal trouble since he first ran for the presidency.
[…]
Several groups that have pushed for a criminal justice overhaul are working with an ad hoc White House team under the direction of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, with a goal of announcing as many as hundreds of commutations for offenders now in jail for crimes ranging from nonviolent drug convictions to mail fraud and money laundering.
[…]
The end of any presidential administration is a time for intense lobbying related to pardons.But in Mr. Trump’s case, it extends to his own personal and political considerations, his lingering bitterness over the Russia inquiry and his transactional approach to governing.
Trump’s Pardon of Flynn Signals Prospect of a Wave in His Final Weeks in Office
[…]
Far more explosive in political terms is the possibility of pardons or commutations for allies, associates or even himself, reflecting Mr. Trump’s oft-stated belief that his presidency was undermined by law enforcement investigations, including the special counsel’s inquiry.
[…]
Of the actions Mr. Trump has taken, many have benefited individuals with a personal or political connection to him.
[…]
There is open speculation about whether he might go even further in using his clemency power in his self-interest, possibly issuing pre-emptive pardons to members of his family and even himself for federal crimes.
[…]
Other potential pardon seekers and their allies are discussing a range of strategies to win over the president. They include highlighting donations to Mr. Trump, spending money at his properties, trying to hire lawyers or lobbyists seen as close to him and emphasizing business connections that could help Mr. Trump after he leaves office.
[…]
They have focused on getting Mr. Trump’s attention through appeals to Donald Trump Jr. and Mr. Kushner, appearances on Fox News and a visit to the Trump International Hotel in Washington where, one organizer said, they ran up a tab of about $10,000 to try to get Mr. Trump’s attention.
…sincerely…fuck all these assholes…& not in the nice way…this shit is egregious & frankly indefensible…& the primary way you know it’s indefensible is that they hadn’t got a defense worth shit…that’s why they need a pardon from the oranange asshole…& exactly nothing about that is fucking okay
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/23/trump-us-constitution
…or to put it another way
…we’re still in SOP-SNAFU territory
The Trump administration has used a $17 billion loan fund meant for businesses critical to U.S. national security to help a hodgepodge of little-known companies with unclear importance to national defense, and the fund remains mostly unspent nearly eight months after Congress approved it as part of a $2 trillion stimulus bill.
Aircraft manufacturers including Boeing were the fund’s intended recipients but balked at the terms and did not apply. Instead, the 11 companies that have tapped the fund so far include a company that has pitched its products as an enabling technology for the facial recognition tracking of immigrants, a manufacturer of roadblock barriers and surveillance firms.
One company that received a loan is an experimental spaceflight technology firm backed by deep-pocketed venture capital investors. Others have a history of financial losses. One manufacturer relies on minimum-wage prison labor to make wire harnesses for military and commercial customers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/25/boeing-national-security-bailout-loans
…meanwhile…you know where it might be helpful to throw a bunch of money?
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/need-covid-nurse-ll-be-8-000-week
…because there are a lot of people who need the care
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/23/coronavirus-cases-deaths-hospitalizatons-lag
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-outbreaks-nursing-homes-hit-record-high
…but we can probably go right ahead & chalk that up to another on the long-ass list of shitty ideas proposed by the shittest admin very possibly ever to disgrace the White House
The new rule, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Friday, comes as the administration rushes to execute five more prisoners before the end of President Trump’s term. It is part of a spate of moves and rule-making processes before he leaves office.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/25/rivada-pentagon-5g-leasing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/pebble-mine-alaska/2020/11/25/story.html
…but before anyone goes thinking that might be on account of some sort of principled stance
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/24/trump-mining-arizona-holy-land-oak-flat-tribes
…shit…even the stuff that could almost sound like a good thing (although frankly I’m not convinced it would have been) is liable to fall apart the way everything in his feckless fucking orbit does
…although to be fair there’s not exactly a shortage of stuff that would maybe be a good idea if it weren’t for how fucked up some underlying situations are
https://www.today.com/specials/homeless-students/
…& sometimes the bar is just depressingly low these days
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/border-cages-removed-texas/2020/11/25/story.html
…& sometimes the good news isn’t as clear as we’d like
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/24/us-coronavirus-vaccine-distribution-challenges
…so let’s hope the incoming crowd can do some shit about some of this shit & not just spend the next few years trying to put out all the fires the last bunch of clowns left burning
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/biden-cabinet
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/biden-s-cabinet-picks-signal-return-u-s-role-global-stage
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-attorney-general/2020/11/24/story.html
…because that’s a big hill to climb
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-trump-s-immigration-legacy-could-take-time-undo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/25/trumps-legacy-by-numbers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/24/tucker-carlson-outlines-post-trump-playbook
…& this kind of thing is thin gruel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/24/san-francisco-police-homicide-charge
…even if some of it is kind of tasty?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/24/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-new-york-elite
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/24/you-tube-suspends-oann
…which reminds me
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nra-irs-disclosure-990/2020/11/25/story.html
…& there was this, too
…see…some of this stuff is kinda-sorta feel-good material?
https://www.today.com/news/obama-says-daughters-sasha-malia-joined-demonstrations-last-summer
Anyone keeping the new Aesop rock yet? Spirit World Field Guide?
…I’ve listened to bits of it but I haven’t managed to sit down & let it play through…& I haven’t found a youtube link to add any of it to the DOT
…but what I have listened to, I liked?
I am digging quite a few tunes, I bought the cd which came with digital download, if you want, or anyone does, I can supply a link. I have a lifetime of spending my money on 20 dollar CDs and clothes etc. So I do not feel bad about sharing mp3s.
…I have every intention of picking up a copy but for the time being I’ve been listening to it on bandcamp when I find a moment…so if you felt like popping that link in a message to me it’d certainly be gratefully received?
https://click.pstmrk.it/2m/rhymesayers.fetchapp.com%2Fget%2F2eb1821a/Kim05gAD/bC0/yK_xj993Ei/UHJvZHVjdCBVcGRhdGU
Was it downloadable?
…think that would be a yes…& thank you
Before I read through the rest of this, that $8,000-a-week Covid nurse job listing was in Fargo, ND. I believe Fargo is not in that fantastically wealthy belt that sprung up in the Bakken shale area, and didn’t go through the oil boom of the earlier part of this century. The median house price is $222,000, so you’d be making about double that. In Manhattan you’d have to make $1.3 million to pull that off, and the Manhattan market is skewed by lots of things, like cheaply rehabbed studios going for $400,000. walkups with no amenities, units in buildings with lots of rent-stabilized and/or Section 8 apartments so you (the private owner of your place) would be paying the lion’s share of the common or maintenance charges, etc.
I went into the wrong line of work, although what I would do with myself in Fargo, ND I can’t say. As a Covid nurse I’d probably be too exhausted to do anything, I guess. That $8,000 a week nurse is earning every nickel.
My little sister got a 2-year nursing degree, became a nurse supervisor, and makes well over a quarter of a million annually. I’m not sure how much, but she lived in a mansion for several years, and just sold that and built a new house on 10 acres or so in the middle of nowhere.
Now, a lot of this is due to hard work, but at the end of the day, she got a two-year degree from a community college. I love her, but you can’t tell me that the health-care industry in this country isn’t seriously fucked up.
I’m gonna spare you the story of the guy I went to high school with who became a doctor and lived in a chalet on the top of his own mountain, or my father’s cardiologist who built an pagoda palace complete with gates, dragon sculptures, and mosaics on a lake in my home town. Naturally all of these people despise any thought of health-care reform.
Nurses making $8000 per week is strictly supply and demand. They are desperate and those nurses are worth every cent, work 12 hour shifts and are exposed to getting sick themselves and see death nonstop. My wife started with a 4 year nursing degree, got a masters then post masters ARNP. She made nowhere near that working for someone else so we opened our own clinic. She still doesn’t make anywhere near that! Primary doctors don’t make that much in most places but specialists do & that is why we have so few primary doctors and nurse practitioners. The big winners in our medical system are insurance companies and hospital executive administrators (and they don’t really earn the money they make!). Until they change that, our system will remain fucked.
On the good medical news front, we just got approved to give the vaccine to our patients in the second round. It is not a money maker but insures we can take care of the people most at risk in our patient pool that would have no chance of getting it any time soon without us.
I lost my comment/reply, by trying to add one last link.😖🥴
I don’t have time *right now* to re-write it all, because I need to go do some errands, but I WILL get it up.
You’re 100% right on Fargo NOT being anywhere near the Bakken!💖
And just to warn you, you and the others might be as absolutely HORRIFIED as *i* am, about Covid in ND, SD, and the rest of “the middle stares”/flyover country, when I get done.
What I DO have time to say, right now, is that I’m CRYING as I type this, and I live in a LUCKY and extremely medically-privileged state, being here in MN….
You guys are probably going to be horrified & appalled,once I get all my links up…
These states 100% L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y *DO NOT* have ANYWHERE NEAR the medical infrastructure they need to fight any SORT of Covid battle…
Imagine an army field hospital trying to deal with fallout sickness, and you’d probably be getting close💔🥺
Pardoning people who got in trouble for helping him shouldn’t be allowed. So many faults in our system have been exposed by trump and I can only hope the country now has the stomach to go about fixing them.
I’d be happier if Biden was shuttering DHS altogether.
It’s more than just that they got into trouble. Trump and his cartel are concerned that they will testify against him later in exchange for clemency. Trump’s pardons are designed to cover up his crimes and silence potential witnesses. There will be many, many more.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/trump-pardoned-flynn-protect-himself/617220/
Oh, 100%. He wouldn’t be doing it unless it directly benefitted him. I wasn’t saying that’s why he did it, I’m saying why it shouldn’t be allowed.
Trump can’t take back any of his pardons. Once it’s done it’s done and there are no backsies. Don’t be surprised if one of these slimy characters does a double-cross and testifies against him at some future point.
I have a similar hope. Once he’s no longer in power, some of the horrible people he associates with will probably find some benefit in backstabbing him, and I will be there to laugh. I also have hope that as Republicans turn on trump, he will also turn on them, and damage the party further.
Like Caviar, and the best Vodkas, the Schadenfreude will be ICY cold, and it will also be delicious😉
Okay, quote of the day goes to NBC News for referencing Trump’s “shriveling legal battle.”
That is a masterful turn of phrase.
A masterful creation, to which I would (very sadly) suggest the current offering of: McSweeeney’s:
The Complete Listing (So Far): Atrocities 1 thru 1004, 10 February 2011 thru 23 November 2020
[https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-so-far-atrocities-1-1-004]
…I’m a little surprised that amy siskind isn’t one of the contributors to that given the list she managed to keep?
https://theweeklylist.org/
It’s Fur Face Friday!
https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2020/11/fur-face-friday_27.html
…never too late for that bit of good news
Will the suppression ever stop?
…I was going to put something about that in the DOT but I misplaced my link(s) somehow…it is undoubtedly high in the list of transparently bullshit bits of manoeuvring they’ve tried in the name of outright voter suppression they can somehow claim with a straight face aren’t supposed to be screamingly biased to disenfranchise demographics not known to vote republican
WOW
Perhaps there should be a state-wide cookout
After which all non-POC’s in Georgia are putout
Only letting them return after a learning timeout
It’s even worse than it sounds, and it already sounds bad. Georgia imposes an ad valorem tax for car registration. In other words, you have to pay a percentage of the car’s value to register it. As a practical matter, this ranges from several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. The steep cost means lots of people drive unregistered cars or register them out of state using a relative’s address.
…yeah…I’d like to say I’m surprised about that sort of bonus corollary…but sadly it feels like par for the course?
Feel free to keep these contributions to the DOTs coming in the future!
How could I have missed this? I’m all over the US political news every day.
I did that when I lived in MS. It literally cost me less money to drive back to NM to re-register my car there, than to get a new registration in MS.
Yeah, nobody told me about that dodge until I’d paid several hundred dollars to register two cars. Then I found out I could’ve just kept them registered using my parents’ address in Florida for less than $100. The other thing people do (did? I moved out in 2001) is to leave their paper dealer tags on for months or even years. It was a running joke in Georgia.
#DiaperDon
Buried in that homeless students/schools article, was THIS LITTLE NUGGET;
https://flagaward.org/the-award
For anyone around here, who knows someone who is a GOOD teacher, and who teaches in NYC–NOMINATE THEM!!!!!
and PLEASE, spread the word about this award!!!!!
This is GOOD STUFF, and it could be an IMMENSE help for a teacher, school, and the kiddos there!😃😁🤗💖💖
The noms are open until December 15th, so there’s LOTS of time to get a good nomination in, IF you start NOW.
And if anyone could get that link up for folks over on Backtrack & the new GT, I’d VERY much appreciate it(!!!), because I don’t seem to know how to add a link, when commenting in disquis🙃🤪(and thank you in advance!💗💖💓)