10 thoughts on “Election Day 2017 Open Thread”

1. American exceptionalism…..

   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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2. The Air Force admits it failed to enter the church killer’s conviction for domestic violence into the FBI database.  If they had, he would not have been legally able to buy his guns.

   Instead of passing more gun laws that we don’t enforce, why don”t we first insist on the vigorous enforcement of the laws we have? It’s a start.
   As for prayer, it only keeps the victims quiet, making it easier for the killers to aim.
   First, Enforce the laws we have!

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   1. That was a colossal fuck up on the part of the Air Force.  To state the painfully obvious.

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   2. We should enforce the laws we have, but we should also change the laws to make them easier to enforce. Laws that require universal reporting of assorted disqualifiers (criminal conviction, domestic relations restraining order, mental health issues) and universal databases are guaranteed to have a partial failure rate based on the sheer complexities of the system. On the other hand, a universal ban on assault weapons, which are designed and marketed solely for the efficient "elimination of multiple targets" (aka mass murder), is much simpler to enforce. 

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3. Happy 50th Birthday to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting! . . .

   . . . and thank-you LBJ. 

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4. The Case of Wilbur Ross' Phantom $2 Billion

   “Fresh off a tour through Thailand, Laos and China, United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross Jr. picked up the phone on a Sunday afternoon in October to discuss something deeply personal: how much money he has. A year earlier, Forbes had listed his net worth at $2.9 billion on The Forbes 400, a number Ross claimed was far too low: He maintained he was closer to $3.7 billion. Now, after examining the financial-disclosure forms he filed after his nomination to President Donald Trump's Cabinet, which showed less than $700 million in assets, Forbes was intent on removing him entirely.”

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   1. What we have here is a failure to communicate.

      Rich people don't have to follow the same rules as the little people.

      Does your $2 Billion count if it is in an off-shore tax haven, or laundered into expensive London penthouse?

      Does your $2 Billion count if it is in trust to your family? (Something Ross has claimed.)

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5. So much #winning

   As employers use more foreign workers, Trump wins 70 visas for Mar-a-Lago

   Trump won permission to hire 70 maids, cooks and servers at the Mar-a-Lago Club for the 2017-18 tourist season, according to newly released data from the U.S. Labor Department. In 2016-17, Trump hired 64 foreign workers at the Palm Beach property.

   During a March 2016 presidential debate, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio criticized Trump for bringing in workers from overseas, saying American citizens could fill the jobs. Trump defended his hiring of foreign workers.

   “It’s very, very hard to get people,” Trump said. “Other hotels do the exact same thing.”

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6. WOTD From Josh Marshal: Trump is Compromised by the Russians

   Trump Can’t Cross Putin

   Put this down as a reporters’ hunch, educated speculation. The information we’ve seen in the last week makes me think that President Trump is still, in effect, being blackmailed by Russia. President Trump may be instinctively sympathetic to Putin because of his authoritarian tendencies and his role as avatar of the global ‘nationalist’ right. But I don’t think he could cross him even if he hated him with a passion.

   …

   Yesterday Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer from the Trump Tower meeting, let drop that Don Jr. had said that sanctions relief was possible in the midst of the conversation about dirt on Clinton. I strongly suspect that Trump did say this. It fits and it sounds like him. I also have zero doubt that Veselnitskaya would happily make it up if it weren’t true. In practice, it doesn’t matter. Russians have enough on Trump and his inner circle and Trump has so little credibility on this issue that they can do him great harm whenever they choose. It’s simple. Think of everything we’ve learned over the last year. All of it, by definition, was known on the Russian side from the beginning and could have been divulged at any time. Do we really think that’s all there is?

   This link might be members only, but then please join as TPM (and maybe Vox) are the best journalism out there.

    

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7. . . . hi, ho, the dairyio, the Cheetolini stands alone . . .
   https://newrepublic.com/minutes/145698/america-officially-worlds-climate-pariah

   . . . if I were the leader of any other country, I’d be discussing trade sanctions and CO2 tariffs on every carbon-tainted export product that America produces and was trying to foist onto my people.

   (It’s what the Orange Addlebrain would do, right?)

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