This morning I felt do tired that, when I had finished with m,y research, I returned to bed for a couple hours. I still feel tired, so please pardon my brevity.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:30 (average 4:41). My fishy? To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: It seems that Jeb Bush, now reduced to an asterisk (*) in the 2016 Republican Presidential contest, has concluded that the best way to quickly burn through those millions upon millions of dollars in campaign donations he received is to perform a supreme act of self-immolation, by resurrecting the infamous Terry Schiavo fiasco in a new campaign ad, paid for, morbidly enough, by a Bush PAC that calls itself “Right To Rise."
In addition to touting his high score with the NRA , the voice-over in Bush’s new ad celebrates how then-Florida governor Bush “fought time and again for the right to life," with an image of someone leaning over Schiavo, lying in a helpless vegetative state in her hospital bed.
And while the general electorate will likely recoil in horror at this kind of crass opportunism, Bush apparently hopes the Republican base will be shocked and awed as they are reminded of his role in forcing the irreversibly and profoundly brain-damaged Schiavo to cling to life in direct contravention of what her husband explained would have been her own desires, simply to bolster his credentials among the forced-birth crowd of ghouls who demanded that the poor woman be kept resuscitated at all costs, no matter how much pain it caused to others. Because abortion or something.
Bush Barf Bag Alert!!
The autopsy proved that what the doctors had said was right. Under no circumstances could she ever have become conscious again. When I named Jeb :Strike Three", was I right, or was I right?
From NY Times: Johnson Controls, an industrial and auto parts supplier headquartered in Milwaukee, announced this week that is was selling itself to Tyco International, a maker of fire safety products based in Ireland. The deal will let Johnson Controls pass itself off as Irish and, in the process, cut its taxes in the United States by at least $150 million a year.
Johnson Controls is not the first American company to avoid taxes by merging with a smaller company in a low-tax nation, and it won’t be the last. Nor is it the biggest. That distinction goes to Pfizer, which is in the process of becoming Irish, having merged last year with a smaller company based in Dublin.
Johnson Controls is, however, the latest and quite possibly the most brazen tax dodger. The company would not exist as it is today but for American taxpayers, who paid $80 billion in 2008 to bail out the auto industry. Johnson Controls’s president personally begged Congress for the bailout, which came on top of huge tax breaks that the company has received over the years, including at least $149 million from Michigan alone from 1992 to 2009, according to The Times.
What’s galling about this and similar maneuvers is that Congress has done nothing to stop them. Since 2008, some three dozen American companies have used gaps and loopholes in the law to change their tax nationalities, a process known as “inverting.”
Most Democrats are not the problem. Virtually all Republicans support the practice by blocking all attempts by Democrats to make inverted companies pay US taxes. Bernie opposes inverting.
From Crooks and Liars: Stephen Colbert Holds An All-Trump Debate
Barf While You’re Laughing Bag Alert!!
FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!!!!
Cartoon:
16 Responses to “Open Thread–1/30/2016”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
DK: Alful.!!! He needs to dig a hole, and go hide. Sick.
Crooks & Liars:Trump's out of control. period. AWESOME video though. LOL!!!
Cartoon: Very sad…Late January 1968, on the first day of Tet, which had previously been observed with a cease-fire, the Vietcong attacked five of South Vietnam's cities, most of its provincial and district capitals, and about 50 hamlets.Thousands of civilians were executed and 100,000 residents had lost their homes.
*History
Got company, so gotta run….I feel tired too, TC. Go back to the couch, and catnap! Take care, and Thanks, Tom.
2:52 Your fishy? Likely, but don't get too smug! There isn't even enough fishy to warrant licking your claws!
Wooo Hooo!! The way you starve me, eben a small bite of fishy is cause to celebrate!!
Re: The Jebby, see my posting on C2,at http://www.care2.com/news/member/565542931/3950217
NY Times: These inversions need to be outlawed, period! Aren't these the very kind of folks who would scream about their jingoistic loyalty to the Red, white and Blue!
Noted, commented, and stared.
Noted and commented also – at this point, four more notes needed for front page. Please go if you haven't.
3:35 I shall certainly not get between you and your fish.
DKos – To be fair, Terry's parents were just as crazy as Jeb. What ever happened to them? If he can't bring them back now to support his cae, it would appear he has no case. Oh, but Republican.
NY Times – I shudder to think what the TPP will do to this practice. One would not think it could possibly get more immoral and anti-human, but I'll bet the TPP will find a way.
Crooks and Liars – You'll undo all the good effects of your perfumed bath that way. I grant you Trump is asking for it. More than asking for it.
Cartoon – Did anyone ever find out whether they got the idea from Washington crossing the Delaware? Now that you could call a war on Christmas.
Tet is thre Chinese New Year, a traditional day of cease fire.
And a major holiday, which was my point. I apologize for complidating it by bringing the "war on Christmas" in – the point of both offenses was to catch people off guard by using a holiday, and to that extent both worked. It just occurred to me that a second point could be made about RWNJ paranoia.
Puzzle — 2:52 Your fishy? Likely, but don't get too smug! There isn't even enough fishy to warrant licking your claws!
Daily Kos — "crass opportunism"? That is being too kind to Jebby and his campaign! An interesting discovery during the last legal battles for Terry Schiavo's "life" as noted in Wikipedia:
Republicans politicised Terry Schiavo in 2004-05 and now Jebby is continuing to do so. Jebby's actions are reprehensible, both then and now.
NY Times — "…Congress has done nothing to stop them. [inversions]" That is an understatement! A do nothing Republican dominated Congress, by not addressing the issue, has actually promoted the practice. With all the tax revenue heading out of the US, what would happen if all the middle and working class decamped to other countries, obviously hypothetically speaking? Revenues sure would be in the toilet!
Crooks and Liars — FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!!!! I am still crying with laughter! Has he fully replaced Rmoney as the flip-flop king? Interesting that they are both representing the same party. Nothing has changed for Republicans!
Cartoon — May we please see the end to all wars in our lifetimes!
You've been working extraordinarily hard at your recovery and that is exhautipating! I know it is a matter of survival, but that doesn't change the exhaustion factor. I am very proud of you, but please, take 2 cat naps and call me in the morning! I am sure that Lona has or is sending you a supply by puddy tat express!
Catnaps are on their way to TomCat, Lynn. And yours are on their way too.
Done!
I hope Jeb finds himself haunted by her.
Tis a global economy and any such company should have to repay tax breaks, etc. the minute they take such an action at the minimum…
If a Trump trumps Trump does that remove them both from play?
Terrible Extortionate Tragedy
You have a right to feel tired after all you have been through.
Short Takes: Strike three fit him so well! He would have served himself better if he had not reminded us of his role in tormenting Schiavo's family. But wait, he is a white male Republican. Why would I think he would know better?
NY Times: Inverting should be outlawed, and any company that took a tax payer bailout should be forced to pay back that money.
Crooks and Liars: Still having sound problems with the new pc, so I couldn't hear this one.
Cartoon: Should never have happened.
You and your home help have been asking a lot of you these past couple of days, TomCat, so it's not surprising you're tired. Take it easy this weekend, will ya. Have a catnap on me.
Daily Kos: The only decent thing for Jeb Bush left to do was pull the plug on his campaign, devide the left-over campaign money and send it back to their contributors. But no, Jeb had to spend some more of that in an incredibly ill-advised tv ad. Though I doubt that what everyone else, with exception of her parents, called the Terry Schiavo fiasco was put in the ad on advise. Jeb is truly proud of that. Combine his strong pseudo-Christian beliefs with a complete lack of compassion and the entitlement he feels because he's part of a very rich dynasty and you've got a recipe for Republican cruelty and shoving your belief system down the throat of defenseless victims. Add to that a 10" steel plate in front of Jeb's head and you end up with this sickening ad.
NY Times: When are the Republicans in Congress and in red states going to wake up to the fact they are being used, and that the source of the money they're getting paid for their services is going to dry up soon. First Johnson Controls took part of the $80 billion of tax-payers money to bail out the auto industry, then they took huge tax breaks, including at least $149 million from Michigan alone from 1992 to 2009 and now they are inverting and saving themselves at least $150 million a year. Next they probably move their production to low-wage countries too, leaving Republicans, but especially the working man in Michigan completely empty handed. But Republicans in Michigan probably still maintain that companies need even bigger tax-brakes which they then finance by having their poor drink lead-poisoned water.
Crooks and Liars: Thank you so much for including this video clip, TomCat. It is absolutely priceless. I had to laugh so hard it gave me "Clockwork Orange" type of visions of Republican voters made to watch this diamond.
Cartoon: For a pacifist there are far too many dates in a year on which Americans can commemorate a military event.
Thanks all! Hugs!! For an explanation of why I Cartoonesd the Tet Offensive, see today's Open Thread.