How’s this for a Machiavellian / House of Cards scenario (posed in the NY Times, in their recent article about an additional Moore victim coming forward):
Moore stays in the race and wins. But the Senate refuses to seat him, because they have high standards and moral compasses suddenly. Alabama Governor then has to appoint a replacement:
Jeff Sessions.
Trump gets to pick a new toady Attorney General, who will probably immediately fire Mueller.
Following McConnell’s call for Moore to step aside, Moore tweeted, “The person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell. He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. #DrainTheSwamp” https://twitter.com/MooreSenate/status/930128259035082756
Because, fuck those people
*Buried in the Senate Republican tax plan released last week is the elimination of a $20-a-month tax benefit for people biking to and from work, a program that costs the government a grand total of $5 million. The same tax bill would retain a $255-a-month parking subsidy for drivers that costs $7.3 billion.
“The cost of this [cyclist] benefit is equal to a rounding error in the tax bill.…” said Ken McLeod, policy director at the League of American Bicyclists.… The cost of the driving subsidy is roughly 1,500 times bigger than the biking subsidy. As such, some experts believe Senate Republicans are targeting Americans living in cities, where cycling—and Democratic voting habits—are more common.…
“This is urban versus rural or suburban,” said League of American Bicyclists Executive Director Bill Nesper. The cut hurts the urban lower and middle class while saving the U.S. government almost no money. “We often imagine that there’s this image of the bike commuter as a wealthy person in Spandex, but it’s mostly low-income people riding to work,” said (Steven) Higashide. Sixty percent of those who commute by bike have household incomes of less than $75,000 each year, according to the Census Bureau.*
Nobody like bicyclists. They get in the way, scoff at traffic controls, run pedestrians down and dent your car while you are trying to turn in front of them. So, easy target it seems.
This is literally the first I’ve ever heard of a bicycle tax benefit. The online tax services I use have never asked about my commuting habits, and I’m not sure how to claim a benefit outside the bounds of what the online services ask about.
And yeah, for what it’s worth, I commute by bike because it’s a lot cheaper than a car, and I need to pinch what pennies I can.
The Governor here, Kay Ivey, came into office following the resignation of the old Governor who got caught canoodling with a lady who was not his wife (and spending tax dollars on private jet trips). While I have no doubt that she’s a staunch Republican, I don’t see her getting herself involved in this Republican scuffle and she’ll stay on the sidelines, IMHO.
Roy Moore was well known by the local people in Gadsden, AL for being shady. The security guards at Gadsden Mall had him on the list of people to watch out for.
Going back to the impressively unqualified candidate for the federal bench.
Mr. Talley, who has never heard a case, and has only been a member of the bar for three years, remember?
Turns out, the wife he’d forgotten to mention as working for the Administration, is also a witness in the Mueller probe.
All the details of the GOP tax plan, beyond the general transfer from poor to rich, are designed to screw D-leaning demographics. It’s quite despicable and sickening when you think of it.
I suppose this is well discussed on left-leaning message boards. But is mainstream media doing its job in exposing this?
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[off-topic anecdote]
Watching SNL just now, their “news” show informed me that in Texas it is illegal to possess or promote the use of six or more dildos. Googling seems to confirm this. Ownership of 47 semi-automatic rifles is, of course, no problem. I realize there are D’s in Texas. If this law was passed by the D’s instead of the R’s I’ll sit corrected (and astonished).
Molly Ivins wrote about this, several years ago. Her phrasing was perfectly typical of her
“Apparently possession of fewer than six dildos marks you as a mere enthusiast.”
I do miss her wit. One of my favorites (which made me do a double take when I heard her read it in the audio edition I had) was her idea of authors like here (she was on a book tour) promoting their books with matching products. Hers would have been Barbecue-Flavored Vaginal Gel.
Not really a Stupid Republican idea (or a Republican idea), but this is the thread I had open when it occurred to me.
Mention has been made of AG Sessions’s somewhat diminutive stature and his apparent suitability for either the cobbling or the baking profession. With [del]Christ[/del]Holidaymas fast approaching, perhaps someone ought to get to work producing Elf-On-the-Shelf action figures with Beauregard’s face on them.
I imagine they would be 37% scarier to young minds, and therefore more effective at obtaining desired behavior as Holidaymas draws nigh…
So we are going to stimulate growth by cutting taxes on the rich and then significantly increasing taxes on people going to college, especially those in graduate school. When I was in graduate school, my university waived my tuition, a benefit of nearly $40,000 a year. They also gave me a position as a research assistant and paid me around $20,000 a year. I dutifully paid taxes on the 20 grand, but under this new tax plan I would have been on the hook for taxes on $60,000 every year. Talk about a disincentive. I was eating ramen and beans in grad school and occasionally making choices on which bill not to pay in any given month. If I was on the hook for another couple thousand in taxes, I would not have gone. I wonder how many other engineers and physicists are in the same position as me.
I don’t know why Republicans think attacking higher education is a good idea for stimulating growth in this global economy, but I think this is probably one of the stupidest things I have read in a long time.