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Sure, 180,000 Americans have died from coronavirus on Trump’s watch, but six years ago today, President Obama wore a tan suit. Happy Tanniversary, Barack! pic.twitter.com/fqEVrQeh3H

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 28, 2020

 

From Letters from an American:

That plan was in the news today as, in response to an inquiry from leading Democrats, the Chief Actuary for Social Security crunched the numbers behind Trump’s plan to end the payroll tax. Chief Actuary Stephen C. Goss said that the plan would end Disability Insurance in mid-2021 and Social Security by mid-2023.

Payroll taxes are just that: taxes that come out of your paycheck. In this case, the tax in question is the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) payroll taxes and the Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA) taxes. These taxes provide the money that funds Social Security and Disability Insurance. Trump has talked about eliminating the taxes, arguing that getting rid of them would put more money in people’s pockets. It would, in the short term but, as Goss explains, it would almost immediately destroy Social Security and Disability Insurance.

A disregard for social welfare laws is not limited to Trump. In the New York Times yesterday, former chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen and Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Priorities, note that the Senate is on vacation while thirty million American households did not have enough food last week. “The economics of this moment are not complicated,” they write. The economy can’t recover and sustain itself until the coronavirus is under control. Until then, it is imperative for Congress to fund a relief bill to put money back into people’s pockets, both for moral reasons, and to keep the economy from grinding to a halt.

The House passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill in May, but the Senate refused to take it up.

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From JoAnn Williams:

The horrifying tenant in the ninety’s movie Pacific Heights would not vacate the premises. His reign of terror devalued the property and forced the owners into foreclosure as he stood by ready to pick it up for a song.

Sounds like another real estate developer doesn’t it, except the person I’m referring to occupies the people’s house and there is no question he has devalued the property.

The people have an opportunity to remove this undesirable tenant in November. I imagine an eviction notice will have to be served to remove him, his family, whoever else is hiding in the closet, and his belongings.

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

OK, if that doesn’t squig you out, here’s the, er, money shot:

“Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room.”

And it reminds me again:

Hypocrisy is not about failing to live up to your standards. Hypocrisy is teaching/preaching something you clearly don’t actually believe as demonstrated by your actions.

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From Max’s Dad:

He is the cool uncle, the relative everyone loves, the buddy who when he asks you how you are really means it. He’s a decent man. My hope for progressive policy and Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders was always a house of cards. Decency was what America needs.

When Bidens candidacy was saved by Rep Jim Clyburn and the black voters of South Carolina and the sudden dropping out of Mayor Pete, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg “saved” the party from Bernie Sanders Joe was the apparent man. Lets face it, Sanders was a risk that could have been taken in 2016 but in 2020 wasnt a risk worth taking. Biden was the safe choice. The choice of the cautious. And dammit, cautious is what we have to do to rid ourselves of this fascist menace.

So here we are. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.A 78 year old white man and a 58 year old woman of color. Against a 74 year old loudmouthed strongman and a admiring closet case. Its not ideal but it is what it is.

Biden gave what is called the speech of his life Thursday night. He was forceful, decent and there were no gaffes. The Republicans sat there in awe, and could only rebut it with their normal far left obsessive screeches and the teleprompter insults. As if being able to read is a flaw. Why not be like our guy, a dyslexic Adderal addict with a tendency to go off the rails and tell people to inject bleach.

Decency. Normal.

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From Nan’s Notebook:

As hundreds of fires burn across California forming a heavy cloud of smoke, these farm workers trudge on keeping the essential agriculture industry alive.

Of course they have few other options since there is no paid time off for sick days … and most of them NEED that $5.50 an hour (and $1.60 per box filled) in order to survive in a state like California with an outrageously high cost of living.

So they continue to toil under record-high temperatures and suffocating smoke — many without any protection from the terrible air quality. Even though state regulations require companies to provide masks for workers when the air quality reaches a certain threshold of “very bad,” it doesn’t always happen.

Few appreciate these workers. In fact, there are those in our society who look down on them.

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From Political Irony:

Donald Trump recently said that if he gets reelected, he would terminate the payroll tax.

There’s just one tiny little problems. It is the payroll tax that funds both Social Security and Medicare.

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From Anthony Stahelski at The Moderate Voice:

We failed to transform South Vietnam into a democracy. The Nixon-Kissinger assumption that introducing capitalism into China would lead to democracy failed- China is now more menacingly dictatorial than ever before. Our attempts to help Russia become democratic in the early 1990s failed miserably.

Attempts to introduce democracy into the republics carved out of the former Yugoslavia have been marginal at best, and, despite our great sacrifice in blood and resources, neither Afghanistan nor Iraq have become democratic. Finally, despite the initial democratic idealism of Arab Spring, the only Arab country that has progressed toward democracy is Tunisia.

So should the United States give up nation building? Not necessarily.

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From Strangely Blogged:

You know, it might just be another of those days ending in “y”, but let’s tear into this RNC week with all the verve of Don Jr’s girlfriend trying out for Evita whilst not being able to feel her lips. At all. Like, is her face even attached? What is going on in this picture?

Anyways, it was a tough day in TrumpWorld, what with the investigation in NY going on with whether the Trump Organization was both committing tax fraud and bank fraud being announced, and also with the “pool boy” in the Falwell saga coming forward with the receipts on a seven-year affair with both Mrs. and Mr. in what I believe the kids these days call a “cucking” scenario. Before being revealed as a kinky grifter, the son of the far-right Rev. Jerry Sr.’s endorsement was very valuable to Trump in getting a toehold on the evangelical set.

(And I assume the evangelicals will forgive Falwell, and continue to support Trump, for reasons.)

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From The Onion:

CHARLOTTE, NC—Admitting that the terrifying details would likely give them nightmares for weeks, Republican National Convention viewers told reporters Tuesday they were chilled by Senator Tim Scott’s ominous story of a black man who rose to a position of power.

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