Obama Gives First Post-Exit Speech, Trump Wants Corporate Tax Rate Cut, New Orleans Removing Confederate Memorials: P.M. Links
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Tannen Maury/EPA/Newscom In his first public speech since leaving the White House, former President Barack Obama complained about special interests in Washington and acknowledged that he had failed in his "aspirational" plan to unite red and blue states. Wonder if he'd ever acknowledge that the massive regulatory state that grew under his presidency helps feed the need for those "special interests" in Washington in the first place?
- President Donald Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, which would be awesome if he were remotely interested in reducing the size of the federal budget or overall federal spending.
- Trump is also reportedly planning a new batch of executive orders to coincide with his 100th day in office.
- New Orleans has begun removing four monuments dedicated to memorializing the Confederacy. The workers are under police protection and are wearing helmets and scarves to conceal their identities in case there is a backlash.
- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is expanding universal pre-kindergarten to 3-year-olds, adding millions of dollars to the cost of what's essentially government daycare.
- The United States has issued sanctions against 271 employees of the Syrian agency it believes is responsible for the creation and use of deadly chemical weapons. It's one of the largest sanction actions in American history.
- Ann Coulter's backers have filed suit over UC Berkeley over the fight over whether she should be allowed to speak there, saying the college is discriminating against the free speech rights of conservative students.
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New Orleans has begun removing four monuments dedicated to memorializing the Confederacy. The workers are under police protection and are wearing helmets and scarves to conceal their identities in case there is a backlash.
I would be wearing a disguise while the police are around, too.
I would be wearing a disguise while the police are around, too.
Once they're done with the Confederacy Memorials, it's on to the St. Louis Cemetery, then the French Quarter and then that should about wrap it up for New Orleans.
What about the statue of Andrew Jackson? Native American genocide is still cool in Nawlins?
The man gave political speeches with a pair of dueling pistols on the podium! Cut him a little slack. The Trail of Tears isn't as bad as the 11 medal's of honor given out for Wounded Knee -- THAT makes me want to die.
What about the statue of Andrew Jackson? Native American genocide is still cool in Nawlins?
Isn't that in the French Quarter? I'll admit to not being sober when I was present and, as an adult, I've had fans of the city tell me that visiting sober is like sticking your head in the toilet without the impetus of alcohol-induced vomiting.
Was the statue erected to celebrate the Trail of Tears?
Let's ask Johnny Horton
Hello.
Obama: IF ONLY I DID MORE.
/rips pillows up.
/rips pillows up.
Canadians have the strangest euphemisms.
Longtorso would call that murder.
The KKK wore helmets and masks to conceal their identities too. The more things change...
Nice catch.
Isn't that illegal in LA? Its illegal there to wear a mask with the intent to conceal your identity.
Ann Coulter's backers have filed suit over UC Berkeley over the fight over whether she should be allowed to speak there, saying the college is discriminating against the free speech rights of conservative students.
Cool, but I doubt it gets anywhere.
Judge Nap was on Fox Business this morning talking about this. Coulter would have standing. The students don't.
Ok, but she's giving the SF District Court until Thursday to figure it out. I'm guessing it just gets sat on at best.
Berkely will cave first. They aren't going to risk this going to court.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is expanding universal pre-kindergarten to 3-year-olds, adding millions of dollars to the cost of what's essentially government daycare.
Get em while they're young.
Whoa, calm down, Coach Sandusky.
Not young enough. We need universal pre-natal care. All pregnant ladies need to put headphones on their baby bumps and play "Dreams Of My Father," or something equally inspiring.
Obama has more children than Genghis Khan. True factual news.
If you mean intellectual children, then yes. Also, how come Genghis isn't a more popular first name for babies these days?
Actually, I was hoping someone would glom on to the implied "living" and note "children" as opposed to "descendants".
Fat welfare moms all over NYC just got moist.
Anthony Bourdain Says Donald Trump's Well-Done Steak Order "Hurts Me"
As a chef
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
I'm not usually one to judge people on their food preferences (or beer or deep dish pizza). But people who overcook a good piece of beef are not fit to live among civilized people.
He likes his women the way he likes his steaks.
A silly thing, true, but strangely off-putting. That is how a child eats. Ketchup by itself is a child's condiment- it is too sweet (store-bought stuff is, anyway) and too overpowering to be anything else. What ketchup can possibly offer a good steak escapes mr.
Rich as he is, I wonder if he has ever been served a medium-rare steak with a proper bearnaise sauce. Probably not. He does seem rather like a pan-philistine.
Gwyneth Paltrow Plans Outrageously Expensive Food/Wellness Fest
*facepalm*
Surely capitalism is a blight on society.
Fun fact: my nickname in college was "The Body Whisperer."
Remember Crusty, I know your real college nickname. And if you don't pay me, I'm gonna post it.
Is that because your skin folds would whisper as you walked by?
the original post-millennial celebrity-turned-lifestyle guru
What?
Get a load of Mr. Concise and to-the-point!
Let me see... Check. Check. Check. Wait what are we doing?
the original post-millennial celebrity-turned-lifestyle guru
I think they've confused 'original' with 'most recent flash-in-the-pan'. Otherwise, this description parsed as, "the one-of-a-kind string of letters I combined just now" to me.
I can always count on you to bring us a goop scoop.
Goop Scoop was Winston's mom's nickname in college.
I knew someone who believed in astrology et al. When her cat got sick, she put his picture under a crystal of the right color, and when the cat was wailing even louder the next day, she assumed she had misunderstood the crystal selection guidelines or something.
Speaking of celebrities, I'm more than a little disappointed we never discussed Lena Dunham making Black Twitter explode over one last racial gaffe on the finale of Girls. I guess it's old news at this point, but I only heard about it over the weekend.
"Black Twitter" when half of the provided tweets have pictures of white people.
Whatchoo talkin' about, Rachel?
I assume at least $300 of that goes toward buying way more limes than are necessary for each person.
In his first public speech since leaving the White House, former President Barack Obama ... acknowledged that he had failed
ha!
Where's Fist?
it's time again for another Day Without Fist of Etiquette. Try it on. See how it fits.
He was finally outed as a Reason staffer. I bet you can't guess which one.
Sheldon Richman
Sheldon is not on the staff.
Oh he's on a staff. He sits on several...
Are you accusing him of being a witch, er, warlock?
This site is still having posting problems?
At least it's somewhat predictable now.
If you consider sometimes having to wait as much as 30 seconds to see a post, yes. Otherwise, no.
They are calling it "the revolution of decreased expectations".
Hey, that is the dating website where I had much success.
No argument for tearing down those statues in New Orleans can't also be used to argue for destroying nearly every statue and monument of pretty much anything that is remotely problematic by today's standards.
The Taliban agrees.
It's easier to re-create history to suit your goals once all traces of the past are removed. Feature, not bug.
"In Soviet Union, the future is fixed. It is the past, that is always changing."
+1 Monday Begins On Saturday
Who was it that said something to the effect that "every person who ever had a statue made of them was a sumbitch"? (Oh, and while you're googling for me, what was the actual saying?)
Malcom Reynolds! No google. I R FANBOY
Thank you, I remember the mud statue scene now!
Funny having that stuck in my head all these years. I'd come to think it might have come from PJ O'Rourke.
That doesn't sound like something Frankie Munz' character would say.
OK.
Red, Ripe and Renegade: Berries That Break All the Rules
Supply and demand?
I don't think it's a big surprise that you can sell a premium product to wealthy customers for a higher price.
I guess small breweries and other artisanal sorts of businesses are also "breaking all the rules".
Who's out of touch with what now?
Seriously, the article covering the 'success' of this business rings of "[In California] Shit grows out of the ground in sunlight and you can eat it *for free*!" too loudly for me to hear anything else.
You know who else broke all the rulez?
Gregory House?
Tanya Harding?
Ozzy?
Budgie?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wplM94jTI3s
My baby?
I wish Obama would follow W. Bush's example. He has been an excellent former president.
Maybe it is better to have presidents in their 70s. At least then they will die or at least sink into decrepitude not too long after leaving office.
Yeh-k. He's ego is clearly too big to let his record speak for itself.
"Yeh-k."
Does that mean something, or are you just clearing your throat?
"Yeh-k" is a vile, Canadian curse word.
Is it a noun, a verb, or an adjective? I want to culturally appropriate.
Worse, it has not been stroked in months now.
You know what else hasn't been stroked for months?
W was an absolutely horrible president, but at least he has a little bit of decency, not to mention embarrassment and shame.
Mofo is a functional raging sociopath who seriously thinks he did a great job and deserved a third term.
New Orleans has begun removing four monuments dedicated to memorializing the Confederacy.
Why the fuck does New Orleans have a statue of Bobby Lee? Way to ride the coattails of glory there you pitiful schmucks.
Ann Coulter's backers have filed suit over UC Berkeley over the fight over whether she should be allowed to speak there
This seems really important, way to go Coulter -- they fucked up going after her, she's been taking heat for over a decade.
Was JonBenet murdered by pedophiles? Explosive new Netflix documentary explores theory the six-year-old was killed by members of a Colorado child porn ring
I believe it.
While I'm extremely appreciative of the MST3K revival, I still believe Netflix has too much money.
Also, shouldn't this be like an alternative-documentary or something? It seems like we're well past the realm of actually documenting anything about it at this point.
Rabid MST3K fan here and joined netflix because I got a free month just to check the new episodes.
What you think of the MST3K reboot?
I think it's crap, Joel has all but destroyed it. Watched about half the new episodes and not even a chuckle, just awful. The show may have been Joel's original idea but the comedy genius of the old episodes was clearly Mike Nelson. What a disappointment.
What you think of the MST3K reboot?
Oh, I'm completely the other side of things. There are a couple tweaks that I didn't like, a couple that I do, but overall it's pretty faithful to the original, IMO.
I don't/didn't dislike Mike at all and find him to be the best of the 'test subjects' with the current one being decidedly more... millenial than the others. But the part of the show that I felt needed to be good is pretty true-to-form and/or just as good as it was.
Reading around most seem to agree with you.
I can still watch the old episodes and laugh out loud from all the insanely original zingers, perfectly timed and delivered. That's all gone for me with the new episodes, long stretches of unfunny riffs delivered non-stop with no sense of timing or spontaneity. Before my free month is up just gonna have to see what else is good there to watch.
If you miss the old MST3k, there's always Rifftrax too.
Yeah, I often watch their stuff, a lot of it is currently available for streaming with Amazon Prime.
Binge-watched season 3 of Bosch this weekend, great show.
Not a big fan of it either. The movies and the segments with Not-Mike/Joel aren't bad; if you've ever seen the Season 0 episodes the original took some time to get going as well. But Felicia Day and Patton Oswald are terrible as the mads.
But Felicia Day and Patton Oswald are terrible as the mads.
They're not great, but Pearl, Prof. Bobo, and the Observer started off OK, but were borderline unwatchable, IMO.
I've never been a huge Patton Oswald fan and am still so-so, but he's capable in the role.
A few weeks ago, I discovered one my bazillion cable channels is one called Comet that shows two episodes of MST3K every Sunday night (usually the first one is Comedy Central era, the second Sci-Fi era).
So I haven't felt a need for the Netflix version when I got the real thing.
Almost all the old episodes can be streamed from here:
http://www.club-mst3k.com/
I'm so disappointed with the reboot.
They're all on you tube too, but it's just not the same as having it on real TV for some reason.
I think this is the key. I always watched it with my family growing up and I've had digital copies of pretty much all of the episodes ever since and, when it was just me or friends in the dorm/apartment/house, I/we enjoyed them. Once I had a wife and kids it became a bit anti-social to watch them (and this was only reinforced if viewed on a small screen).
The reboot still hasn't entirely snared Mrs. Casual, but the broodlings are/were now annoyed that they have to restart episodes because I hadn't seen them. While some of the jokes are still over their heads, it's much more watchable as a family because I/we don't have to stop to explain things like Christa McAuliffe, Newt Gingrich, and the significance of a white Ford Bronco.
I can see how it may've been retooled to more general appeal, but it's payed off without exactly or really selling out as far as I'm concerned.
Comet is where I discovered Dead Like Me.
There better be a lot od gratuitous shots of prairie dogs.
People.
JOANIE DIED.
Why no link, Scott? Didn't Cupcakes mean anything to you?
"In his first public speech since leaving the White House, former President Barack Obama complained about special interests in Washington"
That's pretty funny coming from a guy whose massively expensive so-called "stimulus" package was entirely a giveaway to the Democrat party's special interest constituent groups.
And the guy who broke the rules of bankruptcy succession to steal the bondholders share of GM and Chrysler and give it to the UAW.
And don't forget the "fines" that are levied against companies, but then funneled to well-connected organizations rather than the Treasury.
In today's America, "health insurance" = "health care" and "government funded daycare" = "pre-kindergarten classes." Someday, when someone tries to tell you that "hate speech is not free speech" you'll know it's all over.
"President Donald Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, which would be awesome if he were remotely interested in reducing the size of the federal budget or overall federal spending."
So, we should wait for tax cuts until the government is so flush with cash that they decide to cut spending?
Does not compute.
You don't wait for drunken sailors to stop spending before you stop giving them more money to spend. You stop giving them more money to spend--because they will never stop spending.
If you cut my tax rate 10% while simultaneously devaluing the dollar 10%, I don't actually have any more purchasing power. This is basically what the Republicans have being doing for the last 20+ years by cutting taxes without ever cutting spending.
Who proposed not cutting the tax? And why expect spending to be cut because revenue goes down?
On the macro level, spending is what ultimately matters. More govt spending means more scarce materials are being bid away from private uses. Bad deal!
his 100th day in office
An arbitrary number which General Cheeto himself has called "ridiculous," except when Fox News says it isn't, and then it's huge and beautiful and the greatest ever, possibly historic.