Kevin Koster commented on Grover Norquist Falsely Claims ‘Average Family’ Will Get $2000 Tax Increase If Warnock And Ossoff Win GA Runoff
2020-12-30 15:38:04 -0500
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It’s frankly nauseating to watch Norquist play this game. This is someone who was a cheerleader for the 2017 Tax Transfer – the one that skyrocketed taxes for Middle Class Employees, and particularly the ones who live and work in Blue States. He couldn’t care less about their tax burdens, since he was fine to increase them by thousands of dollars per year.
That “average family” standard he’s touting is a deliberately misleading one. Because it’s not a measure of working class families (who only saw savings of $5 to $10 per week from the meager provisions for them in the Tax Transfer), the way he’s claiming it is. It’s actually a standard that includes the HUGE cuts that were given to extremely wealthy families, corporations and business owners. It includes the big tax cut for everyone earning over $415,000 per year. It includes the HUGE cut in the amount of inheritance taxes the uber-rich pay, in that they each can now gift over $11.5 million per heir and a married wealthy couple could gift over $23 million per heir – all tax free, where the numbers were less than half of that in 2016.
Let’s also not forget that the Tax Transfer also erased nearly all the deductions that Middle Class Employees formerly had available to them, by drastically reducing the State/Local Tax allowance (which thus means that those Employees have been getting double taxed on tens of thousands of dollars every year), and by eliminating pretty much everything else they could deduct short of a restricted mortgage amount and for charity. (The supposedly “doubled” standard deduction actually just added in the Individual Exemption that used to available to everyone and took that away from anyone who itemizes)
When the overall average between a working class family with an income of $30K per year and a super-rich family with income in the tens of millions per year is run, then yes, the “average” between them is a number where it looks like a savings of 2K per year. If you took out the super-rich from that averaging equation, you’d find that actually there wasn’t any real savings and that, again, for Middle Class Employees, this meant a massive skyrocket.
What Norquist is really saying here is that the super-wealthy will be seeing an increase in their taxes, and he believes that the viewers are uninformed enough to believe that this somehow applies to an average American family.
That “average family” standard he’s touting is a deliberately misleading one. Because it’s not a measure of working class families (who only saw savings of $5 to $10 per week from the meager provisions for them in the Tax Transfer), the way he’s claiming it is. It’s actually a standard that includes the HUGE cuts that were given to extremely wealthy families, corporations and business owners. It includes the big tax cut for everyone earning over $415,000 per year. It includes the HUGE cut in the amount of inheritance taxes the uber-rich pay, in that they each can now gift over $11.5 million per heir and a married wealthy couple could gift over $23 million per heir – all tax free, where the numbers were less than half of that in 2016.
Let’s also not forget that the Tax Transfer also erased nearly all the deductions that Middle Class Employees formerly had available to them, by drastically reducing the State/Local Tax allowance (which thus means that those Employees have been getting double taxed on tens of thousands of dollars every year), and by eliminating pretty much everything else they could deduct short of a restricted mortgage amount and for charity. (The supposedly “doubled” standard deduction actually just added in the Individual Exemption that used to available to everyone and took that away from anyone who itemizes)
When the overall average between a working class family with an income of $30K per year and a super-rich family with income in the tens of millions per year is run, then yes, the “average” between them is a number where it looks like a savings of 2K per year. If you took out the super-rich from that averaging equation, you’d find that actually there wasn’t any real savings and that, again, for Middle Class Employees, this meant a massive skyrocket.
What Norquist is really saying here is that the super-wealthy will be seeing an increase in their taxes, and he believes that the viewers are uninformed enough to believe that this somehow applies to an average American family.
Kevin Koster commented on Sen. Graham Baselessly Suggests Hunter Biden Compromises Father’s Foreign Policy ‘If He Gets To Be President’
2020-12-24 15:24:32 -0500
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It’s amazing to see angry Right Wingers like Graham doubling down rather than acknowledging reality. This shouldn’t be hard for them. They just lost an election, and by the same margin that they won in 2016. You’d think they’d take it and try to limp away with some dignity. They could just wave the “we had 74 million votes” flag and try to declare something with that. But no, they keep doubling down as though they didn’t lose.
In the coming years, these guys are not going to be able to walk all this behavior back. Neither will their supporters. Moving forward, I don’t ever want to hear another angry Right Winger try the moral high ground game again. They openly backed a vicious bigot, they caused significant damage to the country, and they took what would have already been a deadly pandemic situation and they exploded it into a catastrophe. They don’t ever get to lecture anyone again – and if they try it, the appropriate response is “NO. YOU SUPPORTED BIGOTRY. YOU ALLOWED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS TO DIE. YOU DON’T GET TO LECTURE ANYONE.”
In the coming years, these guys are not going to be able to walk all this behavior back. Neither will their supporters. Moving forward, I don’t ever want to hear another angry Right Winger try the moral high ground game again. They openly backed a vicious bigot, they caused significant damage to the country, and they took what would have already been a deadly pandemic situation and they exploded it into a catastrophe. They don’t ever get to lecture anyone again – and if they try it, the appropriate response is “NO. YOU SUPPORTED BIGOTRY. YOU ALLOWED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS TO DIE. YOU DON’T GET TO LECTURE ANYONE.”
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Lame Election Fact Checks May Not Prevent Very, Very Costly Litigation
2020-12-24 15:20:22 -0500
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This is a very serious and very real defamation situation. Unlike the Nick Sandmann nonsense (where Lin Wood was suing everyone and their mother for 500 million bucks over coverage of Sandmann and the Covington kids’ obvious bad behavior on video), this is a matter of open defamation meant to destroy two companies that have the means to fight back.
My instincts say that this may well close down OANN and Newsmax, and that’s not a bad thing. But don’t think that this would change the Right Wing media landscape. If those two cockroaches get stamped out, there will be another 10 that will pop up tomorrow. Breitbart will expand, or Daily Caller will expand, or Sinclair will fill in the gap. The propagandists will just move over to whatever the existing outlet is at the moment. “The First” is another upstart operation, airing home-built “news” shows from Buck Sexton and Dana Loesch (video of their radio shows) and giving a one hour primetime spotlight to disgraced Bill O’Reilly.
I don’t expect this will really affect Fox News all that much, as they have deeper pockets. But these will be significant payouts for sure. John McKee is correct. And this will not be the pittances of a few thousand bucks that were tossed off to Nick Sandmann and Lin Wood by the Post and CNN to make them go away. These will be major settlements.
My instincts say that this may well close down OANN and Newsmax, and that’s not a bad thing. But don’t think that this would change the Right Wing media landscape. If those two cockroaches get stamped out, there will be another 10 that will pop up tomorrow. Breitbart will expand, or Daily Caller will expand, or Sinclair will fill in the gap. The propagandists will just move over to whatever the existing outlet is at the moment. “The First” is another upstart operation, airing home-built “news” shows from Buck Sexton and Dana Loesch (video of their radio shows) and giving a one hour primetime spotlight to disgraced Bill O’Reilly.
I don’t expect this will really affect Fox News all that much, as they have deeper pockets. But these will be significant payouts for sure. John McKee is correct. And this will not be the pittances of a few thousand bucks that were tossed off to Nick Sandmann and Lin Wood by the Post and CNN to make them go away. These will be major settlements.
Kevin Koster commented on Hegseth: ‘God Bless The President’ For Pardoning More Iraq War Criminals
2020-12-24 15:14:21 -0500
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The pardons over the last couple of days have been despicable. (And they’re likely only the beginning) We should keep in mind that it’s entirely possible that Pence’s childish spokesman may pardon himself and his entire family but never actually say so in public. He’s not obligated to say when he does these things.
There are multiple bad choices in these pardons – the Blackwater murderers being some of the worst. There’s also his choice to spare three completely corrupt Republican congressmen who were caught flat-out committing graft. There’s his choice to let Jared Kushner’s dad off the hook for some truly vicious behavior, including blackmail. There are the expected pardons for Trump’s lackeys in the campaign chicanery, like Manafort, Papadopoulos, Flynn and now a full pardon for Stone. With all of these cases, it’s probably not clear to the Pence White House that they just admitted the guilt of these felons – because you can’t pardon someone for a crime if they didn’t commit the crime.
The two pardons that jumped to my attention in these piles, however, are the ones thrown to Ramos & Compean. Those are the two thugs who used to work for the US Border Patrol in Texas. In 2006, they got into a pursuit situation where they were chasing a drug smuggler near the border in El Paso. They didn’t know for certain he was a smuggler or if he was a citizen or not. They just knew he was acting fishy. At some point, the smuggler jumped out of his van and ran on foot toward the border. Compean ran after him and moved in to arrest him. The smuggler tried to surrender at this point, but Compean decided this would be a good time to hit the smuggler with his shotgun. The smuggler then ran away again. Compean emptied his pistol shooting at the suspect and missed every time. Ramos then ran up and shot the suspect in the back. The suspect fell down, and then limped over the border into Mexico, where he was picked up by a passing car. Ramos & Compean never radioed for help or said that they were dealing with an armed suspect. Instead, they gathered their shell casings and threw them down a storm drain. A couple of months later, they were arrested for attempted murder and at that time, they began selling a lie that the smuggler was armed and about to fire a weapon at them. This went to trial and they both went to prison. At which point Right Wing media went nuts on the subject and Sara Carter was able to take cherry-picked bits of the story and peddle it around to establish herself as a “serious Right Wing journalist”. Fox News personalities and AM radio hosts went on and on about how these brave men were being railroaded and how the smuggler deserved to be shot. (Because angry Right Wingers really wanted to send the message that anyone coming over the border better be prepared to die) When W was leaving office in disgrace in early 2009, the propagandists demanded that he pardon these thugs. W commuted their sentences instead. This allowed them to come home from prison but with their felony records. What Pence’s childish spokesman just did was expunge their records and send a message that it’s okay to just shoot people on sight at the border.
There are multiple bad choices in these pardons – the Blackwater murderers being some of the worst. There’s also his choice to spare three completely corrupt Republican congressmen who were caught flat-out committing graft. There’s his choice to let Jared Kushner’s dad off the hook for some truly vicious behavior, including blackmail. There are the expected pardons for Trump’s lackeys in the campaign chicanery, like Manafort, Papadopoulos, Flynn and now a full pardon for Stone. With all of these cases, it’s probably not clear to the Pence White House that they just admitted the guilt of these felons – because you can’t pardon someone for a crime if they didn’t commit the crime.
The two pardons that jumped to my attention in these piles, however, are the ones thrown to Ramos & Compean. Those are the two thugs who used to work for the US Border Patrol in Texas. In 2006, they got into a pursuit situation where they were chasing a drug smuggler near the border in El Paso. They didn’t know for certain he was a smuggler or if he was a citizen or not. They just knew he was acting fishy. At some point, the smuggler jumped out of his van and ran on foot toward the border. Compean ran after him and moved in to arrest him. The smuggler tried to surrender at this point, but Compean decided this would be a good time to hit the smuggler with his shotgun. The smuggler then ran away again. Compean emptied his pistol shooting at the suspect and missed every time. Ramos then ran up and shot the suspect in the back. The suspect fell down, and then limped over the border into Mexico, where he was picked up by a passing car. Ramos & Compean never radioed for help or said that they were dealing with an armed suspect. Instead, they gathered their shell casings and threw them down a storm drain. A couple of months later, they were arrested for attempted murder and at that time, they began selling a lie that the smuggler was armed and about to fire a weapon at them. This went to trial and they both went to prison. At which point Right Wing media went nuts on the subject and Sara Carter was able to take cherry-picked bits of the story and peddle it around to establish herself as a “serious Right Wing journalist”. Fox News personalities and AM radio hosts went on and on about how these brave men were being railroaded and how the smuggler deserved to be shot. (Because angry Right Wingers really wanted to send the message that anyone coming over the border better be prepared to die) When W was leaving office in disgrace in early 2009, the propagandists demanded that he pardon these thugs. W commuted their sentences instead. This allowed them to come home from prison but with their felony records. What Pence’s childish spokesman just did was expunge their records and send a message that it’s okay to just shoot people on sight at the border.
Kevin Koster commented on Trumper Civil War! Dobbs Suggests Sen. Graham Should Be Voted Out Of Office
2020-10-24 00:38:42 -0400
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Given that Graham has abandoned whatever principles he once had to make sure they can ram through Amy Coney Barrett to get that 6-3 hammerlock for the Far Right Wing for the next 35 years, it’s beyond strange to see a partisan like Dobbs turning on him.
Kevin Koster commented on Sen. Kennedy Baselessly Accuses Pelosi Of Not Wanting A COVID Relief Bill
2020-10-23 23:11:54 -0400
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Kennedy is blatantly lying here, and it’s shameful that Cavuto sat there and allowed him to get away with it.
Here’s the actual timeline:
May – Pelosi and the House pass the HEROES Act, looking ahead to make sure that there is stimulus for testing, tracing, small businesses and the unemployed for the rest of the year, as well as assistance for all the states, since they’ve been strapped as a result of the pandemic. McConnell, Kennedy and the Senate Republicans openly sneer at this and refuse to take any action, noting “we’ll pause” rather than do anything further. Angry Right Wingers are at that time frantically hoping the pandemic will disappear by July, when the existing stimulus will expire.
June – the GOP ignores the HEROES Act and McConnell sends the Senate on summer vacation for most of July, only returning at the exact moment that the stimulus has effectively expired.
July – As soon as we pass July 4 and Senate GOP have refused to do anything, the stimulus is set to expire. When the Senate reconvenes in late July, GOP members refuse to back anything other than a tiny amount of business assistance and a blanket liability waiver for businesses. McConnell retreats to his office and hides in terror rather than engage in negotiations with Pelosi to work any stimulus out. Instead, the Pence White House sends Mnuchin and Mark Meadows to stonewall. Meadows repeatedly threatens to walk out and have Pence issue some Executive Orders. The stimulus expires.
August – Meadows responds to Pelosi’s offer to lower the size of her stimulus proposal by stomping out and telling Pence to issue Executive Orders. Pence’s childish spokesman immediately has a press conference announcing them – except that they do almost nothing. One memo actually jeopardizes Social Security funding while setting up current employees for a massive tax hit in 2021, and another sets up a raid on FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to throw a few dollars to the unemployed. Both parties spend the rest of the month working on their conventions.
September – Congress doesn’t return until after Labor Day – much of the month is taken up with discussion of funding the government. McConnell makes a public display of presenting an insulting “skinny” proposal that would not do anything other than some small business assistance and that blanket liability waiver. McConnell attempts to play this as somehow a genuine effort – it goes nowhere. All sides note that we are now too close to Election Day to reasonably expect anything to be accomplished.
October – Pelosi and the House pass a reduced stimulus bill. McConnell again retreats from it in terror. Pelosi attempts once again to negotiate with Mnuchin to get something done before Election Day. Pence’s childish spokesman, in the midst of a steroid rage while being treated for his COVID infection, angrily calls off the negotiations. And then suddenly begs for them to be restarted. McConnell responds by refusing to talk about it and instead putting the insulting “skinny” proposal back up to be rejected again. All sides agree that nothing will be accomplished until after the election (and frankly that nothing will be accomplished until 2021).
If you look at this timeline, you’ll see that any real possibility of further stimulus was killed back in June when McConnell, Kennedy and the GOP refused to engage. Their entire point was to not get anything done. And McConnell has been noted as wanting to now play himself as anti-spending, so that if Biden prevails, he can be consistent about opposing it in 2021.
Here’s the actual timeline:
May – Pelosi and the House pass the HEROES Act, looking ahead to make sure that there is stimulus for testing, tracing, small businesses and the unemployed for the rest of the year, as well as assistance for all the states, since they’ve been strapped as a result of the pandemic. McConnell, Kennedy and the Senate Republicans openly sneer at this and refuse to take any action, noting “we’ll pause” rather than do anything further. Angry Right Wingers are at that time frantically hoping the pandemic will disappear by July, when the existing stimulus will expire.
June – the GOP ignores the HEROES Act and McConnell sends the Senate on summer vacation for most of July, only returning at the exact moment that the stimulus has effectively expired.
July – As soon as we pass July 4 and Senate GOP have refused to do anything, the stimulus is set to expire. When the Senate reconvenes in late July, GOP members refuse to back anything other than a tiny amount of business assistance and a blanket liability waiver for businesses. McConnell retreats to his office and hides in terror rather than engage in negotiations with Pelosi to work any stimulus out. Instead, the Pence White House sends Mnuchin and Mark Meadows to stonewall. Meadows repeatedly threatens to walk out and have Pence issue some Executive Orders. The stimulus expires.
August – Meadows responds to Pelosi’s offer to lower the size of her stimulus proposal by stomping out and telling Pence to issue Executive Orders. Pence’s childish spokesman immediately has a press conference announcing them – except that they do almost nothing. One memo actually jeopardizes Social Security funding while setting up current employees for a massive tax hit in 2021, and another sets up a raid on FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to throw a few dollars to the unemployed. Both parties spend the rest of the month working on their conventions.
September – Congress doesn’t return until after Labor Day – much of the month is taken up with discussion of funding the government. McConnell makes a public display of presenting an insulting “skinny” proposal that would not do anything other than some small business assistance and that blanket liability waiver. McConnell attempts to play this as somehow a genuine effort – it goes nowhere. All sides note that we are now too close to Election Day to reasonably expect anything to be accomplished.
October – Pelosi and the House pass a reduced stimulus bill. McConnell again retreats from it in terror. Pelosi attempts once again to negotiate with Mnuchin to get something done before Election Day. Pence’s childish spokesman, in the midst of a steroid rage while being treated for his COVID infection, angrily calls off the negotiations. And then suddenly begs for them to be restarted. McConnell responds by refusing to talk about it and instead putting the insulting “skinny” proposal back up to be rejected again. All sides agree that nothing will be accomplished until after the election (and frankly that nothing will be accomplished until 2021).
If you look at this timeline, you’ll see that any real possibility of further stimulus was killed back in June when McConnell, Kennedy and the GOP refused to engage. Their entire point was to not get anything done. And McConnell has been noted as wanting to now play himself as anti-spending, so that if Biden prevails, he can be consistent about opposing it in 2021.
Kevin Koster commented on Glenn Greenwald Helps Fox News Hype Hunter Biden Laptop Story With Conspiracy Theory
2020-10-21 15:57:55 -0400
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Glenn Greenwald has his own agenda running here. He always hated the Russian narrative – because his version of the 2016 election is one where the Dems should have nominated Bernie Sanders, and THAT’s the reason Trump squeaked through, and somehow everything else is just sour grapes and typical Cold War paranoia.
Further, Greenwald hates mainstream Dems and particularly hates anyone involved with the Obama White House, including Biden. As far as he’s concerned, the Dems have once again ignored Bernie Sanders and he’d be perfectly happy to see the Pence White House squeak through again.
Further, Greenwald hates mainstream Dems and particularly hates anyone involved with the Obama White House, including Biden. As far as he’s concerned, the Dems have once again ignored Bernie Sanders and he’d be perfectly happy to see the Pence White House squeak through again.
Kevin Koster commented on The Hunter Biden Email ‘Scandal’ Gets Worse And Worse – For Team Trump
2020-10-16 19:18:17 -0400
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It would appear that Fox News (and many other angry Right Wing propaganda operations) are aware of the problems with this desperation move by supporters of the Pence re-election Campaign. Because they’ve tried to change the narrative away from the actual “surprise” itself and toward the fact that multiple media outlets are recognizing it as a falsehood.
So now we have frantic headlines galore about how awful it is that Twitter and Facebook are not allowing blatant falsehoods to be cited right before an election. We have frantic “whataboutism” regarding this hoax versus the Trump tax papers – except that the tax papers have been confirmed as real and this story is an obvious fabrication.
I’m honestly uncertain which is the stranger approach for angry Right Wingers at this time – pushing desperate fantasies like this one, or pushing desperate fantasies about how Trump is supposedly going to win in a massive landslide in 2 1/2 weeks.
By the way, don’t look now, but I’m ready to wager that Fox News and angry Right Wingers everywhere are going to jump up and down about Tara Reade one week before Election Day, which is when her frantically published tell-all book is going to be inflicted on the public.
So now we have frantic headlines galore about how awful it is that Twitter and Facebook are not allowing blatant falsehoods to be cited right before an election. We have frantic “whataboutism” regarding this hoax versus the Trump tax papers – except that the tax papers have been confirmed as real and this story is an obvious fabrication.
I’m honestly uncertain which is the stranger approach for angry Right Wingers at this time – pushing desperate fantasies like this one, or pushing desperate fantasies about how Trump is supposedly going to win in a massive landslide in 2 1/2 weeks.
By the way, don’t look now, but I’m ready to wager that Fox News and angry Right Wingers everywhere are going to jump up and down about Tara Reade one week before Election Day, which is when her frantically published tell-all book is going to be inflicted on the public.
Kevin Koster commented on Ken Starr Gloats Over Stealing SCOTUS Seat From Merrick Garland
2020-10-12 21:03:12 -0400
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Angry Right Wingers have never been able to contain their glee over getting away with stealing these 3 Supreme Court seats and ramming in extremist partisan idealogues.
When Mitch McConnell completed his maneuver of holding the Garland seat open for a full year and then changing the Senate rules to allow the GOP to slam Gorsuch into the seat instead, McConnell celebrated by running around on the Senate floor, exchanging high fives with his aides and with other gleeful Republican senators. He then went to the press and intoned about what a “sober responsibility” it was to have done this.
Any sane legal professional would have serious reservations about the notion of putting Amy Coney Barrett into this seat, let alone onto the Supreme Court at all. Those reservations have nothing to do with whether she drives a minivan or not, or whether she chose to adopt children. Or even whether she goes to church. The reservations are about Barrett’s openly stated Extreme Far Right bias, which the GOP is counting on to provide a 6-3 hammerlock to specifically erase much of the last 65 years of jurisprudence in the United States.
Angry Right Wingers have dreamed for years about reversing Brown v Board of Education, Roe v Wade, and many other major decisions. Now they are guaranteed to be able to get away with it.
On the other hand, if the Dems prevail in 3 weeks, perhaps we can reset the Supreme Court and rebalance to address all the court packing the GOP has been inflicting.
When Mitch McConnell completed his maneuver of holding the Garland seat open for a full year and then changing the Senate rules to allow the GOP to slam Gorsuch into the seat instead, McConnell celebrated by running around on the Senate floor, exchanging high fives with his aides and with other gleeful Republican senators. He then went to the press and intoned about what a “sober responsibility” it was to have done this.
Any sane legal professional would have serious reservations about the notion of putting Amy Coney Barrett into this seat, let alone onto the Supreme Court at all. Those reservations have nothing to do with whether she drives a minivan or not, or whether she chose to adopt children. Or even whether she goes to church. The reservations are about Barrett’s openly stated Extreme Far Right bias, which the GOP is counting on to provide a 6-3 hammerlock to specifically erase much of the last 65 years of jurisprudence in the United States.
Angry Right Wingers have dreamed for years about reversing Brown v Board of Education, Roe v Wade, and many other major decisions. Now they are guaranteed to be able to get away with it.
On the other hand, if the Dems prevail in 3 weeks, perhaps we can reset the Supreme Court and rebalance to address all the court packing the GOP has been inflicting.
Kevin Koster commented on Amy Coney Barrett Confirmation Hearing - Live Stream And Open Thread
2020-10-12 12:28:43 -0400
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Barrett will be a reliable Extreme Far Right partisan vote for everything the Republicans have wanted from the Supreme Court for decades. She is clear in her writings – even to the point that decisions like Brown v Board of Education are likely to be tossed.
It’s really unfortunate that an infected and potentially contagious person like Mike Lee has made a point of sitting in the room with the rest of them WITH NO MASK ON. The point of the mask isn’t just to protect yourself – it’s to protect EVERYONE ELSE! And Lee is clearly doing this to see if he can scare the Dems out of the room – which is why Harris is participating from remote. Whereas Diane Feinstein is trying to show that she’s not intimidated, and yet she’s potentially exposing herself to a serious danger.
The one hope that remains will be for the four additional seats to be added as of next February, so we can then have four more of these hearings, only for sane people.
It’s really unfortunate that an infected and potentially contagious person like Mike Lee has made a point of sitting in the room with the rest of them WITH NO MASK ON. The point of the mask isn’t just to protect yourself – it’s to protect EVERYONE ELSE! And Lee is clearly doing this to see if he can scare the Dems out of the room – which is why Harris is participating from remote. Whereas Diane Feinstein is trying to show that she’s not intimidated, and yet she’s potentially exposing herself to a serious danger.
The one hope that remains will be for the four additional seats to be added as of next February, so we can then have four more of these hearings, only for sane people.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Dr. Marc Siegel To 'Medically Evaluate' Trump On Tucker Carlson Tonight
2020-10-09 20:00:15 -0400
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What the heck does that even mean?
How about telling Pence’s childish little spokesman to take a PCR COVID test right now, and then take a Rapid test as well so we can see how much virus is showing up?
Is Siegal going to perform a physical on Donald Trump on the air? How the heck does that idea work?
This reeks of both Fox News and the Pence White House growing extremely desperate.
How about telling Pence’s childish little spokesman to take a PCR COVID test right now, and then take a Rapid test as well so we can see how much virus is showing up?
Is Siegal going to perform a physical on Donald Trump on the air? How the heck does that idea work?
This reeks of both Fox News and the Pence White House growing extremely desperate.
Kevin Koster commented on Trump Coughs His Way Through Hannity Interview
2020-10-09 14:08:14 -0400
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Trump is clearly panicking about his current standing, and thinks that he can turn it around by making these calls to Fox News and to Rush Limbaugh.
His intention about suddenly inflicting new rallies is that they’ll soothe his ego and they’ll provide some fun visuals of people willfully refusing to follow any pandemic protocol while attending a super spreader event with him. And if the timing works out for him, the lethal consequences won’t be fully known until after the election.
Of course, the fact that he keeps refusing to say whether he’s been tested at all is a dead giveaway that anyone getting into a room with him should believe that he is both carrying the virus and extremely contagious.
His intention about suddenly inflicting new rallies is that they’ll soothe his ego and they’ll provide some fun visuals of people willfully refusing to follow any pandemic protocol while attending a super spreader event with him. And if the timing works out for him, the lethal consequences won’t be fully known until after the election.
Of course, the fact that he keeps refusing to say whether he’s been tested at all is a dead giveaway that anyone getting into a room with him should believe that he is both carrying the virus and extremely contagious.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox Desperately Wants To Make Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation About Religion
2020-10-08 11:08:56 -0400
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Fox News will of course run Diane Feinstein’s quote until the videotape breaks in half.
In reality, Barrett’s confirmation is about the fervent wish of angry Right Wingers to pack the Supreme Court with a 3rd stolen seat, specifically to give themselves a 6-3 hammerlock of Far Far Right partisan idealogues at the apex of our judiciary. It’s nothing more or less than that extremist intention by the Right to fully politicize the court.
As for Barrett’s religious beliefs being persecuted, Harris pretty much demolished that canard last night in short order. And Barrett’s Catholicism isn’t a problem. The problem is that she uses it as a cloak for her obvious partisanship. If she was taking her Catholicism seriously, she would not be able to support the death penalty, she would not support the vicious treatment of immigrants by the Pence White House, she would not support the suppression of voters, and she would not support an obviously partisan move to erase the ACA. But she does support all those things, and she’s made that clear. She also supports the criminalization of women’s reproductive choices, and she supports the Hard Right’s demand that pretty much every single consequential decision of the Earl Warren Supreme Court be wiped out, including Brown v Board of Education.
After Barrett is rammed onto the Supreme Court, in a similarly craven manner as the one used to ram Kavanaugh on, we can look forward to a slew of 6-3 and 5-4 Hard Right decisions. Alito and Thomas gloated openly about this just this week, when they demanded that Obergefell be tossed out, which would retract the civil status that same sex marriages have had. That would simply be cancelled. Roe would be gutted of nearly all its effect, in that abortion would simply not be legal in much of the country, and multiple Red states are already making it a criminal act to even leave the state to have a procedure done elsewhere. If Mr. Brown were to bring his case about educational inequality to a 6-3 Supreme Court with Barrett, we can guarantee he would be told to stop whining and that if he doesn’t like his daughter being bused to a segregated school, he should vote in a new school board.
These are only some of the consequences of having 6 Hard Right justices on the high court at one time. We’ll frankly be looking at a court that may actually go farther than Roger Taney’s did in attacking the rights of most people in the country.
In reality, Barrett’s confirmation is about the fervent wish of angry Right Wingers to pack the Supreme Court with a 3rd stolen seat, specifically to give themselves a 6-3 hammerlock of Far Far Right partisan idealogues at the apex of our judiciary. It’s nothing more or less than that extremist intention by the Right to fully politicize the court.
As for Barrett’s religious beliefs being persecuted, Harris pretty much demolished that canard last night in short order. And Barrett’s Catholicism isn’t a problem. The problem is that she uses it as a cloak for her obvious partisanship. If she was taking her Catholicism seriously, she would not be able to support the death penalty, she would not support the vicious treatment of immigrants by the Pence White House, she would not support the suppression of voters, and she would not support an obviously partisan move to erase the ACA. But she does support all those things, and she’s made that clear. She also supports the criminalization of women’s reproductive choices, and she supports the Hard Right’s demand that pretty much every single consequential decision of the Earl Warren Supreme Court be wiped out, including Brown v Board of Education.
After Barrett is rammed onto the Supreme Court, in a similarly craven manner as the one used to ram Kavanaugh on, we can look forward to a slew of 6-3 and 5-4 Hard Right decisions. Alito and Thomas gloated openly about this just this week, when they demanded that Obergefell be tossed out, which would retract the civil status that same sex marriages have had. That would simply be cancelled. Roe would be gutted of nearly all its effect, in that abortion would simply not be legal in much of the country, and multiple Red states are already making it a criminal act to even leave the state to have a procedure done elsewhere. If Mr. Brown were to bring his case about educational inequality to a 6-3 Supreme Court with Barrett, we can guarantee he would be told to stop whining and that if he doesn’t like his daughter being bused to a segregated school, he should vote in a new school board.
These are only some of the consequences of having 6 Hard Right justices on the high court at one time. We’ll frankly be looking at a court that may actually go farther than Roger Taney’s did in attacking the rights of most people in the country.
Kevin Koster commented on Brit Hume Demands Biden ‘Get On With Life’ And Debate COVID Contagious Trump In Person
2020-10-08 10:55:10 -0400
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It’s always helpful when would-be “elder statesmen” like Brit Hume reveal themselves to be the same uninformed angry Right Wingers they were back when they were foolishly trying to bait Bill Clinton at press events in the 90s.
Kevin Koster commented on Tucker Carlson Pretends Democrats ‘Rooting’ For Trump And Pence To Die So Nancy Pelosi Becomes President
2020-10-06 12:09:02 -0400
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It’s clear that angry Right Wingers are moving from panic mode to open hysterics. The Fox News propagandists aren’t alone in this – the AM Radio shock jocks like Beck and Limbaugh are now repeatedly screaming at their listeners as if the apocalypse were nigh. It’s truly disturbing to hear the level of venom being spat out on a daily and even hourly basis by this crowd. And it’s what leads to bizarre outbursts like those of an unimportant and discredited petty bigot like Carlson.
We should note that any concern about Pence somehow being “worse” than Trump is a bit misplaced. We’ve noted for the past nearly 4 years that the actual decisions about policy have consistently been made by Mike Pence throughout this presidency. It’s the reason that people refer to this administration as the Pence White House. (And this was always the intention – given that the offer to any VP that took the offer from Trump Jr was to be able to set all the domestic and foreign policy while Trump himself would be free to be “out there making America great again”). Trump himself has done very little while in the White House other than act as a public face for the Far Right policies being pushed by the group around Pence. In that way, Trump has actually performed the role of Vice President while Pence has done the work of the presidency. Which is why Trump is more properly referred to as Pence’s childish spokesman.
The saddest part of the situation is that even as a spokesman, Trump has been unable to do more than make vicious statements that cater to the angriest partisans in the mob of bigots who support him. And by emboldening that crowd, Trump has fomented a wave of hatred across the country that has caused real damage. Further, by refusing to behave in any kind of a responsible way in the midst of a pandemic, Trump has contributed in a real way to the massive infection and death count in the United States from COVID.
This miserable epoch of our history will hopefully be brought to an end by the voters in less than one month.
We should note that any concern about Pence somehow being “worse” than Trump is a bit misplaced. We’ve noted for the past nearly 4 years that the actual decisions about policy have consistently been made by Mike Pence throughout this presidency. It’s the reason that people refer to this administration as the Pence White House. (And this was always the intention – given that the offer to any VP that took the offer from Trump Jr was to be able to set all the domestic and foreign policy while Trump himself would be free to be “out there making America great again”). Trump himself has done very little while in the White House other than act as a public face for the Far Right policies being pushed by the group around Pence. In that way, Trump has actually performed the role of Vice President while Pence has done the work of the presidency. Which is why Trump is more properly referred to as Pence’s childish spokesman.
The saddest part of the situation is that even as a spokesman, Trump has been unable to do more than make vicious statements that cater to the angriest partisans in the mob of bigots who support him. And by emboldening that crowd, Trump has fomented a wave of hatred across the country that has caused real damage. Further, by refusing to behave in any kind of a responsible way in the midst of a pandemic, Trump has contributed in a real way to the massive infection and death count in the United States from COVID.
This miserable epoch of our history will hopefully be brought to an end by the voters in less than one month.
Kevin Koster commented on Sen. Scott Promises Not To Let Raging COVID Stop Senate From Ramming Through Barrett Confirmation
2020-10-04 14:24:52 -0400
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It should not be a surprise that angry Right Wingers in the Senate are fully committed to ramming Barrett’s confirmation through the mill as fast as they can. If they need to change the rules to get it done online, they’ll do that. If they need to just skip the hearing and go right to the floor vote, they’ll do that. The priority is ramming her on and getting that 6-3 hammerlock on the Supreme Court for the next 25 years.
As for coronavirus stimulus, that’s never been a priority for Republicans. Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly tried to get something done here, but the House has already recessed until after the election – unless something truly bizarre happens in the next week. They already voted on their own reduced version of the stimulus at 2.2 trillion, and the GOP laughed at it. My expectation is that this will once again result in a standoff, with Pelosi reluctantly telling Dem voters that it’s up to them to fix this on November 3rd. I’ll add that in the event that the Pence White House loses and the Senate is flipped, angry Right Wingers won’t be in any mood to cooperate with anything, so any kind of relief would not likely happen until next February at the earliest. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong on this, but the GOP has been extremely consistent in their contempt for any kind of stimulus.
It is my fervent hope that people have enough savings to hold them over until next year, or until they can be employed again.
As for coronavirus stimulus, that’s never been a priority for Republicans. Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly tried to get something done here, but the House has already recessed until after the election – unless something truly bizarre happens in the next week. They already voted on their own reduced version of the stimulus at 2.2 trillion, and the GOP laughed at it. My expectation is that this will once again result in a standoff, with Pelosi reluctantly telling Dem voters that it’s up to them to fix this on November 3rd. I’ll add that in the event that the Pence White House loses and the Senate is flipped, angry Right Wingers won’t be in any mood to cooperate with anything, so any kind of relief would not likely happen until next February at the earliest. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong on this, but the GOP has been extremely consistent in their contempt for any kind of stimulus.
It is my fervent hope that people have enough savings to hold them over until next year, or until they can be employed again.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Gutfeld: Trump Got COVID Because He ‘Took The Risk … For Us’
2020-10-03 04:09:28 -0400
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I have to give Gutfeld points for really trying on that one. So we’re supposed to believe that Pence’s childish spokesman somehow contracted COVID out of his selfless bravery in trying to set an example for us?
How about that the Pence White House refused to acknowledge the reality of a raging pandemic for months, and that Mike Pence’s gutting of key departments like the CDC led directly to tens of thousands of avoidable illnesses and deaths? How about the part where Pence’s childish spokesman knowingly and deliberately endangered thousands of people every time he inflicted one of his super spreader gatherings? How about the reality that this situation, where a growing number of COVID victims can thank their infection to the Pence White House’s malfeasance, is less a heroic gesture than one of dangerous incompetence?
How about that the Pence White House refused to acknowledge the reality of a raging pandemic for months, and that Mike Pence’s gutting of key departments like the CDC led directly to tens of thousands of avoidable illnesses and deaths? How about the part where Pence’s childish spokesman knowingly and deliberately endangered thousands of people every time he inflicted one of his super spreader gatherings? How about the reality that this situation, where a growing number of COVID victims can thank their infection to the Pence White House’s malfeasance, is less a heroic gesture than one of dangerous incompetence?
Kevin Koster commented on Brit Hume: ‘I Don’t Think There’s Any Doubt Biden’s Senile’
2020-10-02 03:10:06 -0400
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This entire offensive and vicious false narrative was completely obviated by what actually happened in the debate.
Kevin Koster commented on Breaking News: Donald And Melania Trump Tested Positive For COVID
2020-10-02 18:30:25 -0400
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Pence’s spokesman was just rushed to Walter Reed by Marine One. They’re publicly saying that this is for “an abundance of caution”. They’re also admitting that he now has a fever, but reports are differing about the severity.
Regardless of the spin they’re going to attempt here, the fever and the hospital are not signs to be taken lightly.
Regardless of the spin they’re going to attempt here, the fever and the hospital are not signs to be taken lightly.
Kevin Koster commented on Fox’s Dr. Siegel: ‘Almost Impossible’ To Die From COVID If You’re Under 70
2020-09-28 21:52:59 -0400
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I suppose I should tell some people I know that their husbands aren’t dead because they were under 70 when they died of COVID. The most recent one was 51 years old. The fact that Fox News thinks it’s okay to put something this offensive on the air tells you everything you need to know about them.