He’s Not Kidding

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

53 thoughts on “He’s Not Kidding”

  5. Craig – Needs to be an elephants ass.  Not for the nomenclature, but for the girth.

    Pogo – Loved the line about “no one confesses on the stand”

    Tony – the TYT were hideous in 2016.  Good for Biden on telling them to take a hike.

    Everybody – Great thread yesterday.  Thank you.

     

  6. on the veep watch from politico:

    But as the vetting process enters its final stage, there’s another lesser-noticed facet to the veepstakes: how much cash the contenders have raised for him, and their ability to juice donations if they’re chosen.
    Of Biden’s prospective running mates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has brought in the most money for him, totaling more than $7.7 million combined from a high-dollar event — which she vocally swore off during her own campaign — and a grass-roots event that drew 50,000 participants. She’s also sent multiple emails to her own small-dollar list, as well as his. On Tuesday, Warren will host another event for Biden, alongside Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), with tickets ranging from $250 to $25,000, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
    Sen. Kamala Harris — who headlined two fundraisers alongside Biden and appeared at several other events — has raised more than $5 million, according to a source familiar with the total. And Sen. Tammy Duckworth has co-headlined three fundraisers with Joe and Jill Biden, and appeared at other events, bringing in more than $3 million for the campaign.
    […]
    Though Biden has said that he’s looking first and foremost for a governing partner with whom he’s “sympatico,” fundraising prowess is unquestionably a plus.
    “They’re going to park the VP in a basement and have them do nothing but media interviews and Zoom fundraising calls. Maybe they’ll let them out for bathroom breaks,” said Pete Giangreco, a Democratic strategist who has worked on nine presidential campaigns. “Raising money is going to continue to be a big deal, and if you’re looking for someone with a fundraising base, like Kamala Harris, or a real draw on a Zoom, like Tammy Duckworth, then they bring more assets to the table than someone who is a nontraditional pick.”
    […]
    The Biden campaign is also leaning on his various VP options to raise money online, primarily through emailed solicitations. In late July, during the end-of-the-month fundraising push, Biden’s campaign sent four emails signed by Rice, Duckworth, Harris and Warren.
    Warren, with her vast email list, has been particularly helpful on this front. Biden has sent four email solicitations to Warren’s own email list of supporters, as well as lending her name to more than a half-dozen emails to Biden’s list. An email announcing her endorsement of Biden on April 15 broke Biden campaign records at the time.
    [continues]

  7. speaking of campaign $$, when (god willing) the Rump loses how much of the millions in the campaign war chest can he confiscate for his own personal use?   this story from business insider last month brought the question to mind even for personal use of the monies during the campaign:

    President Donald Trump’s campaign sent nearly $400,000 to his private business in just two days, The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold reported on Friday.
    Documents showed that the campaign channeled $380,000 to the president’s personal business in 43 transactions, Fahrenthold said, adding that the Trump Organization told him the money was for a weeklong “donor retreat” at Mar-a-Lago in March.
    Open Secrets, an arm of the Center for Responsive Politics that closely tracks money in politics, first spotted the payments in Federal Election Commission filings from the Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising committee between Trump and the Republican National Committee.
    This isn’t the first time the president’s personal and business interests have become entangled with his political office.

    [continues]

     

    could be this funneling donor money to stuff in his own pockets may be part of his recent rift with adelson, one his biggest donors.  

  8. Jamie, obviously Perry’s investigators didn’t watch the old tv series. 
    Payroll tax deferral?  Oh, so next year they have to pay it back?  Brilliant! (Stupid…)

  9. Sturge
    “The young jerks” I love it and totally appropriate.🤣
    Yep, Jamie, a horrible group of loons. They helped give us Trump with their “Bernie purity” nonsense. I’m glad Joe shut them out.

  10. Pogo, that tax deferral is a big setup. Trump promised that if elected he’ll make it permanent. In other words he will accuse Biden of wanting to raise your payroll taxes because we know Joe won’t Defund Social Security, which is what this is and how Dems should label it.

  11. Poobah, yeah, I’ve been following that issue.  Nothing more than a pander that is not even real. The devil is in the details, and there aren’t any. Forbes has a nice article on why it’s a sham (I’ll post the link in the next comment) So wage earners making less than $100,000 would get a 6.2% tax break that would have to be repaid since SFB does not have the constitutional authority to cancel any tax, and Nancy would never let a bill get to the floor that would eliminate funding Social Security. The whole weekend EO nonsense is nothing more than campaign bullshit.  The $400 stimulus (idiot argued with a reporter that is was less than what’s there now, that states may have to kick in $100 of the $400, or maybe not – my take is he hasn’t even read what he signed) was done to blame Congress – specifically Democrats – for not protecting the unemployed.  OK, first, states cannot operate at a deficit, so they by and large cannot pay the $100 the EO would require.  Second, it was reported last week that Pelosi & Schumer offered to meet in the middle on the stimulus – $400 – but McConnell said no compromise on liability shield for employers re: COVID, and Dems weren’t agreeing to that.  SFB won’t be saying “Congress” failed to act, he’ll be saying Democrats failed to compromise.  And of course there was the presser – open to his Bedminster members.  Too bad for him that the cameras showed the crowd before and while masks were being passed out. Oh, and his excuse for the clearly apparent violation of NJ mask/social distancing laws – it was a political event or a peaceful protest (of what, pray tell?) – he couldn’t make up his mind which it was.  Let’s say it was “B” – so now the “president” is organizing protests? Of what I ask again. I can only shake my head in wonder and disgust.
     
    Oh, And I like the idea of the horse’s ass if they carve anything new at Mt. Rushmore.

  13. And as predictable as the sun rising in the East, SFB’s advisors are walking it back now that he made his talking points. 

    White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow asserted on CNN’s State of the Union that Trump “will protect Social Security and Medicare,” claiming that the deferral, not a payroll tax cut, is what “will be made permanent. It will be forgiven,” which CNN host Dana Bash argued is “not what the president said at all.”

    Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday that, if reelected, Trump would “push through legislation to forgive that so, in essence, it will turn into a payroll tax cut,” adding the lost revenue would be offset by “an automatic contribution from the general fund to those trusts funds.”

     
    Honest to god.  

  14. Glad I took the weekend off from politics.  I see reading this Monday morning that the usual horseshit happened.  
     
    I applied for Social Security 2 weeks ago.  Fuck You Republicans!

  15. Started watching Columbo  recently.  So the last one I looked at, guess who was the guest murderer…….Johnny Cash , murdered Ida Lupino.  He plays a gospel star with an overbearing wife/manager, and sings a few songs, plus the soundtrack was Cash songs. Nice episode. 

    Oh, just one more thing……

  17. Find a whole new mountain out there, carve in the faces of our first family members, and call it Mount Flushmore.

  18. Better yet, just make it out of plywood, like the “Hollywood” sign, and tack it up to the rocks.

  20. Between Sturgis and other triple-K/tRUMP rallies around the country, maybe all of the Repugz will get the picture once they get sick.  
    We all knew SFB wanted to be on MR, not just near it.   Great deflection for other things (mass murder from mishandling COVID; doing nothing about Russian bounties on our soldiers; colliding with Moscow Mitch to pay peanuts and let Americans starve and become homeless-you have to have an address to vote; lying about pretty much everything; sending his goons from the Department of the HellScape to illegally arrest  protestors)…smoke and mirrors.  

  21. Folks will, hopefully, be more worried about their Social Security than about whatever bogeyman the Repugz try to sell them.  

  22. Randy Rainbow’s birthday song to Christopher Cuomo (to the tune of “Beauty School Dropout”) is a hoot and a half.

  23. I had my first dining out experience.  It was in the vegetable garden behind the restaurant.  There were about 8 tables  for 4.    We waited at the entrance to be told to come in.  All of the waitstaff were dressed in black and very very uncomfortable because it was hot .  Everyone wore a mask and no one complained.  Like me most didn’t know what to do with the mask while eating and drinking.  I took mine off during lunch but my lunch companion just moved his around while eating.  But it was a lovely spot and they have not tried to cram in tables.  And the food was great.  It’s not a big restaurant anyway and if they can keep the garden filled  their  summer might not be too bad.  I had a cheeseburger and truffle fries.

  24. Orange bucket of lard who doesn’t know anything about civics nor the constitution wants to be on Mt. Rushmore? Why? To represent the ugly American and greed?  Wadda pig!

  25. The payroll deferrals are purely for the employers and self employed. Working stiffs will still see money deducted from their check. The employer is required to do so by law. The deferral is when the employer is required to turn it all in. Monthly I believe now. Those rules aren’t written in law and can be adjusted. 
    Gonna be fun when working class Trump supporter gets that one explained to him by his boss.
    BTW, I will take the debate about defunding Social Security, given that Trump is already losing elderly voters over his pandemic screwups.
    Jack

  26. Jack, well technically what you said is correct, but according to Forbes, this is what the EO sez:

    The order will defer :
    ….the withholding, deposit, and payment of the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 3101(a), and so much of the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 3201 as is attributable to the rate in effect under 26 U.S.C. 3101(a), on wages or compensation, as applicable, paid during the period of September 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020

    The employer certainly is the party who collects the tax and remits it.  If the EO is deemed to be constitutional (and that is very questionable) and effective according to its terms, the employer is not required to collect the tax.  If an employer elects to follow that EO, the real question is whether the uncollected payroll tax is forgiven after December 31, and if not, what the respective obligations of the employer and the employee are with respect to the tax that would otherwise have been collected.  That’s an unanswered question.

  28. jack and pogo, deferred means to put off, doesn’t it?  Therefore, those taxes will be paid by we the people later, no?

  30. Pogo
    It should get interesting if the courts give a president such powers, the power to cut taxes implies the power to impose taxes. 
    I realize we have the supreme court that we have but still.
    I think all employers would be wise to council their employees in this maxim. “Remember everything Trump touches dies.”
    Jack

  31. Jamie, thanks  for RR.  His videos have such great production value.  Very impressive.


  33. Let’s throw Collins to the curb! 


  35. Pelosi is another hero to me! Blunt and to the point. Focused and always on point. 

  43. Trump Sends In the Economic Quacks Now he’s prescribing hydroxychloroquine to fight recession.

    This would be a really good time for presidential leadership. But what we have instead is a pitchman hawking miracle cures at his country club. In the process he may well have undermined whatever slim chance there was of reaching an even halfway decent deal to avert disaster. As I said, I don’t think there’s any deep game here. Yes, Trump’s intentions are bad. But recent interviews and inside reporting make it clear that he really is completely out of his depth, with no understanding of either the epidemiological or the economic reality we face.
     
    At a moment of crisis America is cursed with a president who is incompetent, deeply ignorant, yet so personally insecure that he surrounds himself with people who tell him he’s a universal genius.

  44. KGC – and an imbecile, per Steve Schmidt republican campaign guy.
     
    The explosion was SFB needing a new diaper.  The gun fire outside the WH was so insignificant that it is not even in the newspapers.  What is in the media is that SFB latest head man is so anti-government that he killed the latest stimulant package.

  45. I saw a very strange-but-nice concert last night or Saturday.  I don’t watch concerts much but this one I watched the whole thing.  3 people on stage at the grand old opry house.  Empty theater.  No applause, no band, no cheers. Vince Gill, Emmy Lou Harris, and Rodney Crowell, each with a flattop, and they just traded songs amongst themselves for the whole show.  Just like if I and two other goobers were to sit around the living room trading songs.  It was a nice change from the old grand old opry and those 3 pulled it off like old champions. 

  46. george, with tongue thoroughly planted in cheek, recounted Rump’s greatest hits and goldie oldies in op ed at wapo today.  here’s a sample:

    I believe it’s normal for the president to say “Yo Semites” and “Yo Seminites,” “Thigh Land,” “Minne–a–napolis,” “toe-tally-taria-tism,” “Thomas Jeffers” and “Ulyss-eus S. Grant.” I believe it’s Biden who’s cognitively impaired.
    I believe the president “aced” a “very hard” impairment test, and that his “very surprised” doctors found this “unbelievable.” I believe it was “amazing” he remembered five words, such as “person, woman, man, camera, TV” — in correct order. I believe he took the SAT himself.

  47. I saw a headline on a click-bait which I immediately thought was the Onion, but it was serious.
    “Homeless Man in San Francisco Finds Out Who He Is. “
    Can’t tell the wheat from the chaff these days.

  48. AT&T is sending folks door-to-door in a pandemic!  I would never have answered the door, but I was on the phone and distracted.  I slammed the door in their masked faces.  Later, I saw them without masks on, chit-chatting about AT&T with another neighbor who also made the mistake of opening the door.  The bastards came back to me an hour later; same knock.  I just screamed that there is an effing pandemic and to go the hell away.

  50. Vince, Emmylou and Rodney at the Opry?  The Ryman or Opry Land?  Went to the Opry at Opryland back in the day – 1975. Pleasant trip but, well, I wish it’d been at the Ryman. Don’t recall who played, but hey, I can say I went to the Opry, and had good seats as I recall. 

  51. Mr Sturgeone, regarding your comment, “Homeless Man in San Francisco Finds Out Who He Is.” 
     
    I believe that Plato said, “Know thyself.” I believe that a million kids went to SF in the late ’60s to find themselves. Maybe this homeless guy was one of them. 

  52. From the wise-ass to the sublime : back to the topic.
     
    To make trump happy, let’s add his statue to Mount Rushmore.
    The Emperor Has No Balls – San Francisco.png

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