When Most People Think of A Cruise That's Full of Shit...

Republicans' Alternate Universe of Delusion and Disinformation

Weekend Reading

U.S. Herd Immunity

Rush Limbaugh captivated dads like mine and created America's modern fascist aesthetic

Newsmax Host Attacks Biden’s 12-Year-Old Dog Champ: “Looks Like It’s From a Junkyard”

Donald Trump Jr. Rips Teachers Unions In Front Of A Gun Wall; Critics Go Ballistic
The Green New Deal Threatens Republicans’ Bread and Butter, it’s Not Just Competition in the Battle of Ideas
The Failure of the Media in Responding to the Lying Right

Born to Run: U.S cannabis enters the sweet spot

LESSONS FROM MY 4-MONTH SOCIAL MEDIA BREAK AND WHY DIGITAL DETOX IS NECESSARY

Utilities Offer Yield and a Way to Play Green Energy. And Their Stocks Are Cheap.

Stop Giving Liars A Platform

Good Riddance

Rush Limbaugh passes having changed GOP, conservative politics

Ten omissions from Fox Nation’s remembrance of Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh Taught Me How to Think Like a Piece of Shit

The Strength That Rush Limbaugh Projected Was So Flimsy

Limbaugh critics resurface incendiary comments after his death

Rush Limbaugh, Spouter of Racist Hate-Filled Garbage, Dead at 70

Rush Limbaugh Spent His Lifetime Speaking Ill of the Dead

I’ll Never Forget Rush Limbaugh Mocking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s

Limbaugh draws fire on Obama parody

Tell The Truth About Limbaugh, At Long Last

Rush Limbaugh’s toxic legacy

Why Should I Say Anything Nice About Dead Rush Limbaugh?

Midweek Levity

 

Guadalajara 

Texas and Yet Another Failure of Privatization

Beto O'Rourke: Why Texas Oil & Gas Can't Keep Texans Warm

Greg Abbott Lies About Green Energy To Deflect On Freeze Fail - UPDATE: AOC Responds

The Texas grid got crushed because its operators didn’t see the need to prepare for cold weather

Why Does Texas Have Its Own Power Grid?

The failure of privatization in the energy sector and why today’s consumers are reclaiming power

A Cost Comparison ofPublic and Private Water Utility Operation

Privatization of Water and Wastewater Services

Has privatization failed Texas utility customers?

Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage

Texas Mayor Tells Residents To Fend For Themselves

Feds Warned Texas To Weatherize Power Grid The Last Time This Happened

Fox News aired bizarre and wildly misleading claims about Texas' blackouts that pin blame on renewables and climate policies

Why on earth would right-wing people with connections to the fossil fuel industry lie about ‘frozen wind turbines’ in Texas?

Midweek Reading

How highways make traffic worse
The Hoax Master of Wisconsin
The New York Stock Exchange president says the stock market is not a casino. Here’s what academic research says.
Stock Market Gambling Around the World and Market Efficiency
‘Real World’ Republicans Demand To Know Why Nancy Pelosi Didn't Stop Jan. 6 Riots
A closer look at senators who voted to convict Clinton, not Trump
Let's tell the truth about the Republican Party: It's the real enemy of the people

Invertebrates

The Republicans' idea of governing, in a nutshell:

Businesses tied to Speaker Robin Vos and other lawmakers could see taxes cut after they took PPP loans

Ron Johnson votes not guilty

Government exists for them. It's their piggybank. So they can deregulate and pollute. To assure they and their cronies reap all of societies rewards.  

They are not accountable. They are not responsible. It's someone else's problem. It's someone else's fault.

Sunday Reading

Go read this article about how we got duped into cooking with gas

57 GOP State And Local Officials Were At The Capitol Insurrection

Warren Buffett’s Favorite Valuation Metric Is Ringing an Alarm

After acquitting Trump, McConnell slams him for a 'disgraceful dereliction of duty'

Amsterdam Is Embracing a Radical New Economic Theory to Help Save the Environment. Could It Also Replace Capitalism?

3 companies' million-dollar investments buoy Port Milwaukee

Lie After Lie: Listen to How Trump Built His Alternate Reality

The war on voting

Why the U.S. Is Underestimating Covid Reinfection

Louisiana Republican Party Censures Sen. Bill Cassidy For Voting To Convict Trump

A Broken Party Acquitted Donald Trump In His Second Impeachment

Republican Jurors Literally Met With Trump Defense Attorneys

Chris Cuomo's harsh takedown of Lindsey Graham: 'Spewing the same poison as the extremist perpetrators'

Fitzgerald Cited for Campaign Violation

Party Over Country

The majority of the Republican party continues their descent into complete irrelevancy.

Senate votes 57-43 for Trump acquittal

Shameless. Gutless. Immoral. Cowards. 

In The Land of Make-Believe

When your policies only benefit the top 1%, when you have nothing intelligent to add to any conversation, when the majority of your constituents have been hurt by your political decisions, all you are left with is symbolism, revisionism and make-believe.

After COVID shutdown, former Wis. Governor Scott Walker hopes to re-open Reagan’s boyhood home

In fact, it's all about revisionist history, an imagined past, phony accolades and false idols for bozos like Scott Walker.

I Am Not A Cat

Weekend Reading

Kenosha Judge Shrugs Off Kyle Rittenhouse’s Admitted Bond Violations, Denies Higher Bail And New Warrant

Breathing device sobers you up by hyperventilating the alcohol out

Sanders Responds to CBO Report on $15 Minimum Wage

Don’t Believe the Bad Press About the Economic Impact of a $15 Minimum Wage

CBO analysis confirms that a $15 minimum wage raises earnings of low-wage workers, reduces inequality, and has significant and direct fiscal effects

CBO attacks plan for higher minimum wage — or does it?

GOP senators criticized for appearing to pay half-hearted attention to trial

GOP senators discover their discomfort with intemperate tweets

Majority Of Those Arrested In Capitol Siege Had History Of Financial Trouble

Michigan's top GOP lawmaker: Jan. 6 Capitol attack was a 'hoax'

As DeJoy Readies New Assault on Postal Service, Pressure Grows for Biden to 'Clean House'

The Congestion Con

Further Means Testing of the Stimulus Will Be Disastrous for Suffering Americans

Resolution Cuts Pot Possession Fine to $1

Did UW-Whitewater send Robin Vos and Steve Nass to Madison to act like grade schoolers?

For Conservatives, Government Is The Problem and The Solution

Inspired by all the recent flurries we’ve had in Wisconsin, John Torinus is back shoveling the yellow snow of economic policy. He begins with two head-scratchers.

“Congress should think twice before getting too generous with weekly unemployment compensation. That’s because manufacturers are already having a hard time finding enough workers to man their factories.”

First, what is “too generous” for weekly unemployment compensation? Recent compensation has been bolstered by the fact that we’re living through a global pandemic. It’s part of a stimulus package to keep workers and businesses afloat. It’s not meant to exist into perpetuity.

Second, it’s been pretty clearly and universally established that manufacturers are having a hard time finding workers because the work is grueling and worth more per hour than the amount they are willing to pay.

Tornius alerts, “The labor shortage is real.”

Again, this is wrong. Pay that is not commensurate with the work that is being asked to be done is real. We have a compensation problem, not a skills shortage or a labor shortage.

Torinus then pretends that stimulus money distributed during the ongoing pandemic has left many just sitting at home collecting checks, and many others just planning to do this forever. This is classic Republican bullshit. They’ve been claiming this garbage forever. Poor and working class are lazy and will stay home if given then chance. Yet, conservatives will bend over backwards to cut taxes and provide incentives to the rich. Remember, The Haves are the job creators and something will eventually trickle down to the poor and working class.

He then talks of the plethora of living wage jobs available for any willing worker. “Employers have also raised starting wages in this area to $14 to $16 per hour.” $15 per hour results in a yearly income of just over $30,000.

Torinus continues with even more drivel, “Yes, it is a noble goal to want a minimum level of income for every adult in the United States. But the better way to get there is through good-paying jobs in the private sector. Government jobs, which always seem to keep growing in number, may be necessary, but they do not propel the economy.”

Last I checked, the private sector has been around a while. We’ve deregulated, cut taxes and genuflected to their omnipotence for decades. Yet, the economy has been a roller-coaster of recessions alongside declining wages and benefits for most workers. And, despite Torinus saying so, the number of government employees has been declining, not increasing. As Fiona Hill, of the Brookings Institution, found, “Contrary to popular belief in the bloated growth of the U.S. public sector, the size of the federal government proportionate to the total U.S. population has significantly decreased over the last 50 years.”

Torinus’ article seems, in the end, to be an elaborate smoke and mirrors, which concludes, somehow, that the government is preventing the private sector from employing more people and also responsible for helping the private sector to employ more people.

He concludes, “We don’t need excessive unemployment compensation if there are lots of open jobs with good pay and benefits. Congress and the president have to get the incentives right. We can’t afford disincentives for working.”

Again, what is “excessive unemployment compensation”? What and where are these “open jobs with good pay and benefits”? Funny, too, that, with Republicans, “We can’t afford disincentives for working.” Yet, the subsidies, tax cuts and giveaways to corporations and billionaires can’t be considered anything but a disincentive and/or welfare. Somehow, in the twisted Republican logic, giving incentives to The Haves is sound economic policy, but giving incentives to those who really need it, is bad for business.

Wait, Who's The Snowflake?

I wonder what Republicans would be saying if some libtard, liberal, snowflake stormed the Capitol, destroyed property and wanted to kill legislators, and then demanded organic food in prison.

Man who wore horns in Capitol riot moved to Virginia jail that serves organic food

I don't remember any caveat regarding organic food in Republicans' chants of "Lock 'em up!"

Trickling Down or Just Getting Pissed On

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. Milwaukee's new Economic Development Commissioner wants to double-down on corporate welfare.

Milwaukee officials consider higher incentives to bring businesses downtown

According to the new Commish, "The city is exploring more aggressive policies to incentivize job creation and investments in the downtown area. Those could come in the form of employment incentives using the city’s main economic development tool, tax incremental financing, for example. Or it could involve new ways the city could help growing companies recruit workers to fill new jobs."

There's no money for potholes, we can't fast-track lead pipe removal, workers can no longer have affordable health care or secure retirements, a living wage is too much to ask, we can't upgrade public infrastructure, but there's endless and increasing money to giveaway to corporations.

Improving the roads and transportation options, upgrading broadband, updating the electrical grid and sewer system, greening public buildings, along with numerous other public projects, would go much further toward growing Milwaukee's economy than simply giving "incentives" to already profitable corporations.

For Further Reading:

Open For Business?

Ticked Off About TIFs

Development Gone Astray

The Con That Is Foxconn or How Republicans Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Socialism For The Rich

Job Piracy

Snow Job

Two Milwaukee aldermen call city’s snow removal efforts “simply unacceptable”

“The Department of Public Works’ snow removal efforts in the wake of this past weekend’s snowstorm are simply unacceptable,” begins a joint statement from Alderman Khalif J. Rainey and Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II. “Neighborhood streets across the city are a mess, and we are almost 48 hours past the end of the snowfall. Our residents are—AGAIN—fending for themselves as they use their own shovels and snow blowers to dig out from the snow, doing the job that DPW apparently isn’t up to doing!”

The article goes on to note that, "DPW sent out 110 trucks with salt and plows Saturday night and ended up with 270 pieces of equipment on Milwaukee’s roads by Sunday morning.”

Alderman Nic Kovac offered some pushback to the negativity, “Most of the feedback (about DPW’s efforts) is positive, not exclusively. We can always do better, but I think they’ve been doing a good job and most of the feedback I’ve gotten is our crews are working very hard.”

The City of Milwaukee has 1,424 miles of paved streets (7,000 lane miles). Between the roads, parking lots, and sidewalks DPW is responsible for plowing, having most of this cleared 48 hours after over a foot of snow has fallen, doesn't seem to be a bad job on the part of the DPW.

Maybe the aldermen should be sounding the alarm on truly "unacceptable" issues. It's possible the plowing efforts could use some tweaks. What can't? But, based on the amount of snow and the fact that was primarily cleared within 48 hours, plowing does not seem to be a pressing issue the aldermen should be seeking media attention for and releasing joints statements about. 

Weekend Reading

Someone Is Going to Have to Explain to Me How This Makes Any Damn Sense

Wisconsin GOP Are Manipulative Pieces of Sh*#

Foxconn Sued For Being Lying Pieces of Sh*#

What happens if the Wisconsin Legislature repeals the state mask mandate? Here are five things to know

In First Speech as Budget Chair, Sanders Rebuffs 'Partisanship' Complaints From GOP That Unilaterally Passed $1.9T Gift for Rich

Here are the 11 House Republicans who voted to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments

City Creating Plan to Develop and Preserve Bay View

Why Chicago Is Lighting Its Railroads on Fire

Biden Beats Back The Austerians At The Gates

The Economic Consequences of MajorTax Cuts for the Rich

Income inequality in America is at its highest level in more than 50 years

More than 80% of the stocks in the US are owned by the wealthiest 10%

One Emergency After Another: Wisconsin Governor And Legislators Battle Over COVID-19

Midweek Reading

Why Phoenix may be uninhabitable by the end of this century

South Carolina GOP Censures Rep. Tom Rice Over Trump Impeachment Vote

Biden’s chief of staff smacks down NY Times for whining about undoing Trump legacy

'Cry Me a River': Sanders Hits Back as Billionaire Investor Whines About Potential Tax Hikes Amid GameStop Fiasco

The Price of Wheat Doesn’t Tell Us About the Strength of the Economy and Neither Does the Stock Market: Why Is This so Hard for Intellectual Types to Understand?

The Robinhood/GameStop “Scandal”

What do short-sellers really do?

The Store of Value Generation is Kicking Your Ass and You Don’t Even Know it

Billionaire Sports Owners Get Richer

Robin Vos Will Solve Foxconn Fiasco

The GameStop Bubble Is a Lesson in the Absurdity and Uselessness of the Stock Market

The problem with the Republicans' 'offer' on a COVID relief package

Making a Martyr Out of a Murderer

Now Scott Walker is exploiting the pandemic to - you guessed it - attack teachers and their unions

Warren To Join Senate Finance Committee, Immediately Introduce Wealth Tax Bill

Email Reveals Real Reason Vos, Republicans Created Racial Disparities Task Force

Trump's American Carnage

Sunday Reading

Ted Cruz Says Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama Could Be Impeached Next

Scott Fitzgerald has never been an honorable public servant

Effects of gerrymandering felt in Wisconsin as governor, GOP clash over Covid restrictions

Coronavirus World Map: We've Now Passed The 100 Million Mark For Infections

Highest-paid executives of publicly-held companies Part I, II, III and IV

Elizabeth Warren Smacks Wall Street ‘Casino’-Goers Amid GameStop Kerfuffle

We Energies Wastes $75 Million Per Year

Elizabeth Warren’s Face Says It All When She’s Challenged On Wealth Tax

WI GOP Learns Its COVID Agenda Could Cost the State $50 Million per Month

The GameStop Game and Financial Transactions Taxes

Robinhood, and its role in the GameStop saga, explained

Superforecasting: The Art & Science of Prediction

Republicans' "Private Citizen" Bullshit (Yet Another Installment In The Republican Hypocrisy Compendium)

Weekend Reading

Joe Biden’s Dogs Shepherd In New Era of Presidential Pets at the White House

Wisconsin GOP Rejects Special Session on Unemployment

America Abandoned Its Economic Prophet. The World Embraced Him.

Debt and Deficits, Yet Again

Hearings Scheduled about Proposed Privatization, Loss of Public Access to Bradford Beach's Historic Bathhouse
Senate Joint Resolution 3: terminating the COVID-19 public health emergency, including all emergency orders and actions taken pursuant to declaration of the public health emergency.

The Nazification of the Republican Party

Poor Dan O’Donnell Feels Persecuted

Wisconsin Senate votes to end Gov. Tony Evers' statewide face mask mandate

Fox Schmooze

You Reap What You Sow

When Republicans have power, the idea of "unity" doesn't even enter their collective mind. It's their way or the highway. But now that the citizens have had enough of the Republicans' bullshit and lies, suddenly Republicans are clamoring for unity.

Yet, when one sees stories like these:

Arizona Republicans Censure Party Leaders At Odds With Trump

Rand Paul spars with ABC host over election integrity

The mother of all false equivalencies

Trump paid Capitol rally organizers over $2.7 million

Who, in their right mind, could find unity with such reality-denying, cognitively dissonant, know-nothings?

Sorry, conservatives, right-wingers, Republicans, but you can fuck off! Democrats have been goose-stepping rightward politically on issue after issue for the past five decades. Yet, it was never enough. Conservatives continued to cheat and gerrymander. Endlessly taking more and more. And, it was working. But, as is typical for Republicans, they got greedy. They wouldn't stop. They kept cheating and abusing their power. 

And now it's all blown up in their faces. 

So fuck unity. And fuck Republicans. You reap what you sow. 

Public Work Should Be Done By The Public Sector

A recent article - Waukesha's Zignego Co. lowest bidder at $87M for Highway 50 road project - made me again think of the delusional efficient private sector viewpoint. 

Conservatives and wannabe-economists have, for years, pounded the private sector efficiency drumbeat. Sadly, this perspective is as misguided today as it's ever been.

For the majority of private sector actors, the modus operandi has been to cut corners, pay workers less and/or to simply not do certain tasks altogether. 

For Further Reading:

The Lean Efficiency (And Persistence) Of Private Sector Lies

Privatization, Increased Costs And Income Inequality

Fizzle for the buck

Why public–private partnerships or other ‘innovative’ financing of infrastructure will not save taxpayers money

And The Winner Is....The Public Sector

Myth: The Private Sector is More Efficient Than the Public Sector

Why taxpayers are getting a bargain from public-sector workers

Weekend Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court casts doubts on Republican-backed redistricting rules

Republicans Still Don’t Get It

Chicago-Area Billionaire Gave Millions To ‘Patriots’ Group That Backed Pro-Trump Rally

‘You Were One of Trump’s Yes Men,’ Fox’s Chris Wallace Tells Mick Mulvaney

Uihleins, owners of Wisconsin company, gave millions to group sponsoring the Jan. 6 March for Trump

These 15 state legislators asked Pence not to certify election results

Off-duty police were part of the Capitol mob. Now police are turning in their own.

The History of Wisconsin and Milwaukee’s Population Growth

Everything is awful. Here’s a Q&A with a philosopher about why cats rule.

What Alan Krueger taught the world about the minimum wage, education, and inequality

Republicans Lash Out Against New Security Measures At The Capitol

Milwaukee Newspaper Takes ‘Rare Step’ of Fact-Checking Ron Johnson Op-Ed with 19 Detailed Footnotes: ‘How About Telling the Truth?’

Why Are U.S. Taxpayers Providing Public Pensions To Millionaire Members Of Congress?

Walker: Capitol Attack "Identical" to 2011, Triggered his "PTSD"

Tiffany, Fitzgerald and Johnson are just as guilty as Trump

Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly flashed white power signs, serenaded with Proud Boys anthem during bar visit

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Joe Biden With Impeachment

Johnson, Tiffany and Fitzgerald are Trump's stooges

Republican Hypocrisy On Display, Yet Again

The Republican Party should really be referred to as the Hypocrite Party. 

Republicans Lash Out Against New Security Measures At The Capitol

Republicans are fine with children having to go through metal detectors to get to school, passengers taking off clothing to be able to fly, and any other number of inconveniences for the population at large...until it impacts them. Then they are outraged and their personal freedom is being infringed. 

Yes, to keep the NRA happy, so any dipshit can carry and own a gun, the population at large must capitulate to enhanced security measures, but Republicans legislators feel they should be exempt from such disruptions.

Republicans are truly terrible people (and I use the term "people" loosely).

Thursday Reading

U.S. government checks constituted 40% of farmers’ income in 2020

A New Congressional Budget Office Study Shows That Medicare for All Would Save Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Annually

Trump’s Businesses Raked In $1.9 Billion Of Revenue During His First Three Years In Office

Ronald Reagan Paved the Way for Donald Trump

Republicans won in rural Wisconsin again, now comes the hard part — governing

Trickle-down economics doesn't work but build-up does – is Biden listening?

Trickle-down economics is dead. It’s time to tax the rich harder

NBC's Chuck Todd to GOP senator on Electoral College challenge: 'You're the arsonist here'

A decade ago, this scientist predicted 2020 would bring 'peak' chaos to the U.S.

The Senate’s coup-staging ‘Dirty Dozen’ shouldn’t be allowed to hold office

Federal Judge Tears Apart Election Lawsuit

Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to Zero

Capitol attackers have long threatened violence in rural American west

The Covid Tracking Project

St Croix County Republican Party tells members to 'prepare for war' and to remove 'leftist tyrants' from local office

Sunday Reading

F*** You, Ted Cruz

Biden’s Record-Breaking Cabinet Nominees, In One Chart

Republicans want to move on from the Trump riot without any self-reckoning

Fox News wants its viewers angry enough to watch but not angry enough to riot

The New History of the Milky Way

The Police’s Tepid Response To The Capitol Breach Wasn’t An Aberration

No, Austin Won’t Become Silicon Valley 2.0
White man who drove into Iowa protesters avoids prison after guilty plea
Mass Delusion in America

Fox News’ Mocking Of ‘Crybaby’ Democrats Has Not Aged Well In Scathing Supercut

Donald Trump’s Years Of Violent Rhetoric Laid Bare In Damning Supercut
The right's new conspiracy theory: blame left for Capitol riot

Ted Cruz and His Pals Are Responsible for Wednesday’s Carnage and Mayhem

'White privilege on display': police hypocrisy condemned after pro-Trump insurgence
D.C. mob riot versus Act 10 and Black Lives Matter protests

Rioters breached US Capitol security on Wednesday. This was the police response when it was Black protesters on DC streets last year

Interstate 94 Expansion Gets Cold Reception at City Hall

Monday Reading

Trickle-Down Economics Fails a Sophisticated Statistical Test

Shirley Abrahamson was our truest Wisconsinite

Merry Christmas We Energies

South Shore Terrace beer garden opens for winter with chalets

Wisconsin Center District closes on bond sale for $420M expansion

AOC calls Amazon jobs a 'scam' because more than 4,000 of its employees are on food stamps

Deutsche Bank May Seize Trump’s Assets If He Loses and Fails to Repay Debt

Brianna Keilar Hits Pearl-Clutching Republicans With A Very Long List Of Trump’s Insults

Millionaire Republican Cites Deficit To Block Aid — After Enriching Himself With Special Tax Cuts

Foxconn tells Wisconsin it never promised to build an LCD factory

Fifty Years of Tax Cuts Didn't Trickle Down

Wisconsin Jurists Who Defied Trump Get an Earful

Wisconsin Supreme Court says individuals can determine for themselves whether they can avoid the voter ID law because of age or disability

Poverty

 

[source]

Midweek Reading

The Gadfly of American Plutocracy
How Compass Became the Bane of Real Estate
How One of the Reddest States Became the Nation’s Hottest Weed Market

Police Association Calls BLM Protesters ‘Terrorists’

Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds Biden's win, rejects Trump lawsuit

Senator Ron Johnson No Longer Has Constituents; He Has a Boss, a Don

The Election is Over. Wisconsin Turns to Redistricting.

Democrat asks Pelosi to refuse to seat lawmakers supporting Trump's election challenges

A new California bill would require a 4-year degree to become a cop

Violence flares in Washington as far-right Trump supporters clash with counter-protesters

Everything We’ve Learned About Modern Economic Theory Is Wrong

Best Metal Music Of 2020

Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

Rebel Wizard - Magickal Mystical Indifference

Midnight - Rebirth By Blasphemy

Enslaved - Utgard

Sepultura - Quadra

King Diamond - The Institute

Protest The Hero - Palimpsest

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic

Intronaut - Fluid Existential Inversions

Igorr - Spirituality And Distortion

Warbringer - Weapons of Tomorrow

Cryptic Shift - Visitations From Enceladus

Lamb of God - Lamb of God

Umbra Vitae – Shadow of Life

Vader – Solitude in Madness

Cirith Ungol – Forever Black

Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still

Lucifer – Lucifer III

Sylosis – Cycle Of Suffering 

Plague - Portraits of Mind
VoidCeremony - Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel

August Burns Red - Guardians

Inferi - Of Sunless Realms

Spirit Adrift - Enlightened In Eternity

Carcass - Despicable

Pallbearer - Forgotten Days

Hellripper - The Affair of the Poisons

Uada - Djinn

Harakiri for the Sky - I, Pallbearer

Necrot - Mortal

Antichrist Demoncore - Satan Is King

Adzes - No On Wants To Speak About It

Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress

Satan's Fall - Final Day

Testament - Titans of Creation

Buzzwords Are Not Public Policy or We've Heard Enough From So-Called Business Experts

More cliched economic jargon from error-prone businessmen. 

Biden Needs Some Business Experts

The article moans, "The new administration does not have a lot of chops when it comes to job creation. That’s largely in the domain of the private sector. Biden and his crew are loaded with experience in managing the government, but are extremely shallow in knowing what to do to help the private sector become vibrant again. Remember, all tax revenues come directly or indirectly from dynamism in the private sector. Most companies deserve to be revered for providing jobs and tax revenues, but that is not the mindset of the progressives in the Democratic Party. Their proclivity is regulation. Common sense regulation is a necessity in any economy, but more important is turning entrepreneurs loose to reinvent the economy. They are the job creators, not the government."

There is so much wrong here, it's hard to know where to begin. There are so many regurgitated conservative falsehoods in this right-wing word salad, it really does make the mind spin. For someone who can occasionally make reasonable sounding arguments, John Torinus, more often, just parrots typical Republican talking-points. 

Biden has been working for the citizens his entire adult life. He's plenty familiar with job creation. Republicans are the party that has left this country in recession after recession over the past few decades. And, it has been the Democrats who enacted targeted policies to help pull the country out. Biden was Vice President during the Obama Administration, in case Mr. Torinus has forgotten that fact. 

What did Obama and Biden do? There has not been a consistent job market expansion on record, dating back to 1939, that lasted longer than the expansion during their administration. Job growth was faster than population growth—a key measure of a healthy job market expansion. The typical weekly pay of U.S. workers has been increasing since early 2013 and re The ACA made it possible for more than 20 million individuals to afford health insurance and decreased the share of Americans without health insurance to an all-time low.ached its highest level on record, dating back to 1979, at the end of 2016. They inherited a deficit that claimed 9.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2009. By FY 2016, the deficit had fallen to less than one-third of that, at 3.2 percent of GDP.

Seems like they know something about job creation, reinventing the economy and helping the private sector be vibrant.

And this "dynamism in the private sector" and "turning entrepreneurs loose" are, as Joe Biden would say, a bunch of malarkey. This country has been cutting taxes and deregulating the past 40 years. If the private sector entrepreneurs are so damn dynamic, why does the economy keep falling back into recession when we allow Republicans control of the government?

It's long overdue for the private sector knows it all, government needs to get out of the way-gang to go away. The public sector employs over 20 millions people. The public sector accounts for nearly half of the entire economy. This idea, pushed by Republicans for decades, that government is inept and wasteful is wrong. If anything, the private sector is the wasteful and inefficient actor. Not to mention the fact that the private sector is also selfish and greedy.

Private retirement account fees are drastically higher than public pension fees or Social Security fees. Much of the medical advancements we see are due to university research and the National Institutes of Health. Study after study has shown that public infrastrucutre projects are cheaper when done by unionized public workers, rather than being bid out to private corporations.

 

So, please, Republicans, conservatives, dynamic private sector know-it-alls, please step aside and let the adults in the Democratic party save the country from your destructive and misguided ramblings once again.

Weekend Reading

Robin Vos' plan puts politics ahead of health

One call for PPP loans — that's all Gruber, Irgens needed

Milton Friedman was wrong on the corporation

Beating Up on Finance

Trump Won State, GOP Legislators Declare

The Republican Party Is Now a Seditious Organization

Skills To Pay The Bills

More proof there is no skills gap or skills shortage. 

6 of the top 10 most in demand jobs in Wisconsin through 2026 require a high school diploma, or job-specific training, at most.

[source]

Weekend Reading

How Ronald Reagan’s Racism Helped Pave the Way for Donald Trump’s

Senate GOP confirms yet another 'not qualified' judicial nominee

In Case You Missed It, Reagan Was A Scumbag

Tony Evers releases $541M COVID-19 relief package but Republicans signal tough path

Home Prices Are In a Bubble. Full Stop.

Alito drops pretense of impartiality, delivers political remarks

Milwaukee paid $40M+ in police brutality cases

Ron Johnson More Trumpian Than Trump?

After NY Gov. Cuomo Accuses SC of Partisanship, Cardinal Dolan Hails Decision to Block COVID Church Restrictions

Supreme Court's scientifically illiterate decision will cost lives

The Wisconsin Legislature is a gerrymandered swamp run by self-serving Republicans

Documentary Wants You To ‘Slay the Dragon’ of Gerrymandering In Wisconsin

Republican Senator Faces Insider-Trading Accusations Ahead of Georgia Runoff

'Bye-Bye, Betsy DeVos. You Won't Be Missed,' Says Sanders as Billionaire Education Secretary Attacks Push for Tuition-Free College

Michael Flynn calls for Trump to suspend the constitution and declare martial law to re-run election

How Trump Took the Middle Class to the Cleaners

Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing

'In Breaking the Senate, We Are Abandoning Our People': Watch AOC Excoriate McConnell on House Floor

Baby boomers have an average of $25,812 of debt, not including mortgages—here’s how they compare to other generations

Why Is Life Expectancy In The US Lower Than In Other Rich Countries?

 

[source]

2020 Takes Alex Trebek But Leaves Mitch McConnell

Fox 6 anchor Ted Perry apologizes for joking about the death of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

If Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, Laura Ingrahm, Tucker Carlson, et al, can pretend they are serious journalists bringing their viewers an honest take on the stories of the day, why can't a local news reporter express his view about a vile man, with a humorous quip, on his private Twitter account?

For context, Mitch McConnell is a piece of shit. He's a power-hungry, know-nothing that has done all he can to steal elections, take away health care, and generally make the lives of Americans more difficult.

Does anyone really think Ted Perry wants McConnell dead? Again, he's just using some humor to drive home the point that we're stuck with some very shitty people, while some of the good ones have passed away. Someone, anyone, argue that Mitch McConnell has done anything good for anyone but himself over his entire political career.

So, for those who can't deal in metaphors, maybe McConnell doesn't need to actually die. But he does need to be voted out of office. He's a terrible public servant. He's a miserable human being. Fuck Mitch McConnell! And fuck anyone that would defend that pile of garbage!

A Message To Trump Supporters Dealing With The Loss Of Their Dear Leader

So here's the deal for all the anti-science, racist, misogynistic, road-blocking, gun-totting, know-nothing, taunting, harassing, hate-spewing, douchebag Trump supporters and voters ... go fuck yourselves!

Now, to live up to all the bullshit you emit into the world, to uphold your anti-socialism blather, your anti-government rhetoric: 

stop relying on police and fire fighters

refuse Medicare and Social Security 

stop driving on the roads

stop using trains and airports

pull your children out of public schools

stop collecting your farm subsidies

stop using food stamps 

don't you dare set foot in a public museum, a public park or a zoo

plow your own roads

clear your own sewage

light your own streets

(to name a few) 

But most of all, and I repeat, go fuck yourselves!!! 

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