The December 5, 2016 Thread

16 Comments
CNN's Brian Stelter:
Let's tell some truths about lying, because the way Donald Trump lies has people rethinking some of the basic premises of journalism, like the assumption that everything a president says is automatically news. When President-elect Trump lies so casually, so cynically, the news isn't so much the false thing he said, it's that he felt like he could just go ahead and say it, go ahead and lie to you. That's the story. [...] Court cases involving Trump have shown that he lies even when the truth is really easy to discern. And that's what we're seeing all again now. That's why I think fact-checking is important, but the framing of these stories is even more important. Take Trump's promotion of this voter fraud conspiracy idea. He said on Twitter "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." The journalistic impulse was to say something like "Trump claims he won the popular vote." I would suggest to you that better framing is "Trump lies again, embracing a far-right-wing conspiracy theory." See, focusing on the falsehood createsmore confusion and gives the lie even more life. And that's the wrong way to go. Focusing on Trump's tendency to buy into BS gets to what's really going on here. This calls for more reporting and for reporters to show our work, to show that we actually know the truth.
Finally and exact. If what Trump is saying is a lie, the word lie should be in the headline. Trump lies again. Exactly.

Coons’ smootchy statement on nomination of General James Mattis for Sec Def

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The Constitutional principle of civilian control of the military is a bunch of old-timey bullshit in the opinion of Senator Chris Coons. It might be anyway. He is studying it. I wonder what other parts of the Constitution are relics that might need shit canning? It isn't an idle question because trump's cabinet is shaping up to be one that will challenge Senators like Coons to decide how much of the Constitution still matters.

The December 4, 2016 Thread

3 Comments
New York Times: “When Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, called Donald Trump shortly after the Nov. 8 election, they talked about domestic policy and infrastructure. But when Ms. Pelosi raised the specific subject of women’s issues, the president-elect did something unexpected: He handed the phone over to another person in the room — his 35-year-old daughter, Ivanka.”
The December 3, 2016 Thread

The December 3, 2016 Thread

Jonathan Chait: “Consider how the world looked eight years ago. The Republicans lost power amid having let Osama bin Laden and his followers escape in Afghanistan, launched a failed war on the basis of misleading intelligence, managed a scandal-ridden administration stuffed with hacks, handed off an economy plunging into the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and had its outgoing president’s approval ratings bottoming out in the 20s. Barack Obama leaves office with a growing economy throwing off wage gains up and down the income ladder, and with a president whose approval rating has risen into the upper 50s. Some conservative intellectuals tried to grapple with their party’s governing failure in the Bush years, but their mental exertions wound up having no bearing at all on the circumstances that brought their party back to power. Sometimes there is no moral, just a bunch of stuff that happens.” “The party that needs to search its soul about whether it has the capacity to govern competently is not the one out of power. And what should concern Democrats is not whether they’ll get back in power but what will be left of the country when they do.”
BREAKING: Charters vs Christina School District & DDOE Settlement

BREAKING: Charters vs Christina School District & DDOE Settlement

4 Comments
What's it mean? The funds generated by the 2003 Christina School District referendum (10 cent referendum) that went to pay for 4 specific district programs will now be shared between District schools and all Charters and Choice schools that have Christina resident students attending them, it's straight up division. Total revenue from $0.10 tax, divided by total number of Christina resident students enrolled in District, Charter, and Choice schools going forward (FY 18 and beyond). For the current fiscal year (FY 17), Christina will take the total generated revenue from the $0.10 referendum (approximately $5.5 million according to the settlement), divide it by the total number of students and make payments to the appropriate schools by December 3oth. In addition to a one time payment in the amount of $150,000 to each of the plaintiff charter schools, which totals $2,250,000.

Occasional Words from the Resistance

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…from the desk of R.E. Vanella. Like a Woodpecker With a Headache The house at 1410 Quotidian Street was not the nicest on the block. It was in a category neighborhood people referred to as run-down. Not dilapidated or unoccupied, but in some manner of general disrepair and lazy upkeep that usually suggests one of two situations; an elderly or infirmed homeowner who lacked the resources or ability to manage proper maintenance, or occupied by a renter. In this case it was the latter.

The December 2, 2016 Thread

34 Comments
It looks like a few Republican Senators are trying to clip Paul Ryan’s wings when it comes to his plan to move forward on privatizing Medicare.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was blunt about the outlook for a major Medicare overhaul. “I think we should leave Medicare for another day,” he said. “Medicare has solvency problems. We need to address those, but trying to do that at the same time we deal with Obamacare falls in the category of biting off more than we can chew.”… Most Senate Republicans agreed that there was still a lot of work to do on Obamacare before the topic of Medicare changes could even come up in the Senate. “I’m all for a kind of step-by-step approach, so let’s do one thing at a time,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told TPM. “A step-by-step approach makes a whole lot more sense as opposed to something big and comprehensive. We don’t do big, comprehensive very well here in Washington, D.C.”… “It’s just too much to bite off,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told TPM. He added that he thought Ryan’s plan was “worthy of consideration,” but that ultimately any changes to Medicare should be considered in a bipartisan manner.