If You Don't Vote For Democratic KY House Candidates, This Is What You'll Get

Kansas is what we'll get.  The absolute fucking worst economy in the country, and rapidly sliding toward Haiti.

 

That's what all-repug governance gets you.

 

Shakezula at LGM:

Sam Brownback and Republican legislators conducted an experiment on the people of Kansas. As conservatives have long urged, they slashed taxes on the wealthy, raised taxes on the poor, and devastated social services. All of this was worth it because it would unleash amazing economic growth. How is that working out? Well:

The Philadelphia Fed released coincident indices today. Figure 1 shows state-by-state 3 month trends. 

Needless to say, the outlook for Kansas — that laboratory for supply side nostrums — is not auspicious.

While Alaska seems to be in the running for worst performing, in fact the 3 month (annualized) decline of 4.5% for Kansas is the worst in the 50 states.

KY repugs need to pick up just three seats in the state house to hand unconstrained power to Emperor Bevin, who is already beset by multiple lawsuits over his unconstitutional power grabs.

Three seats, and we're fucking Kansas.  Election Day is Nov. 8. 

You're Wrong, And You Should Feel Bad

Not to pick on Political Animal, because the wonderful Digby is bad about this, too, but C'MON, MAN!

The Obama administration continues it’s progress on the Clemency Initiative.

The grammatical translation of that sentence is "The Obama administration continues it is progress on the Clemency Initiative."

"It's" is the only apostrophe s spelling that does NOT indicate possession.  "It's" always - ALWAYS - means "it is."

To state the possessive of it, add s.  No apostrophe.

"... continues its progress ..."

Obeying god

And "religious freedom" bills will let her walk.  
 

Divine Irony:

(Source: fuckyeahreligionpigeon)

Here come the christian moderates and liberals now: "Oh, that's just her expression of faith. She wouldn't really do it." Despite the mountain of bodies of dead children killed by parents so certain that's what their invisible sky wizard really wants.

Fuck Outreach

They have the right to vote (though they would deny that right to everybody who doesn't look and think like them) and they have the right to say whatever they want (ditto.)

 

But they do not have the right to our toleration, forgiveness or acceptance.

 

They are trump voters and thus beyond the pale.

Bob Cesca, who has been covering the right for a while:

Sure, everyone has understandable grievances. It doesn't mean that Trump voters are sensible and responsible people deserving of the benefit of the doubt. We all hate traffic; we all hate paying taxes; we all think our voices aren't being heard by leadership; we all want more than we have; we all think presidential elections are too long. If we really want it, it's easy to find common ground between you and the worst of the worst. But why the hell would we want to find common ground with people who are inconvincible and completely destructive in their choices -- destructive to my life and yours? I'm sure there are sex offenders who get pissed off about long lines at the grocery store or, if they're civic-minded, they might hate gerrymandering. That doesn't mean they're worthy recipients of an olive branch.

I'll fully acknowledge that I have a deep and entrenched biases against Trump supporters. This includes the rednecks, the white suburbanites, the non-college educated laborers, the grandparents and various points between. Some are worse than others, of course. There are the racists, the woman-haters, the xenophobes, the Second Amendment Solutions people, and there are more than a few Trump people who simply want to watch the world burn. The thru-line that binds all of Trump's demographic subgroups is that they believe this third-world dictator-in-waiting is worthy of being president -- that he'll "make America great again." They're ebulliently voting for candidate knowing that he'll be a berzerker-in-chief, inciting havoc in everything he touches. 

They've listened to his words just like you have. They've heard him discussing the possibility of using nuclear weapons; they've heard him threaten war in Iran; they've heard him threaten journalists with lawsuits and imprisonment; they've heard him parrot many of Alex Jones' conspiratorial, exploitative gibberish; they've heard him accuse the first female nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, of not looking presidential because she's a woman; they've heard him play games with our democratic process, disrespecting it unlike anyone who's come before; they've heard him denigrate and insult POWs and war heroes; they've listened to all of it, and yet they're more convinced than ever that he'd be a great president. Worse, they've cheered for and repeated every last word of it.

They're completely deranged.

All told, they're willing to let millions upon millions of people die or lapse into poverty by electing the most dangerous candidate to ever make it this far. They're willing to sacrifice our democratic way of life without fully understanding the long term damage to the republic he's already manufactured.

We're supposed to seek communion with these horrible people?

Bullshit.

This isn't just about racism or misogyny. This is about 40 percent of the voting public believing, in some cases as a matter of providence, that this unapologetically malevolent circus peanut, with all of his childish outbursts and catastrophically unpredictable psychoses, is the most qualified American to hold the office. It's a staggeringly bizarre point-of-view revealing a deep sickness among nearly half of all voters. It represents a willingness to hubristically embrace ignorance, incompetence and lies as political dogma. And knowing how many Americans and non-Americans alike will be irreparably harmed by the votes of these Trump supporters with whom we're supposed to find common ground, it's impossible to see any other course of action beside vigorously marginalizing them while working with reasonable members of both sides to return the process to the grown-ups.

Knowing what we know about Trump voters, there's no indication that they're willing to accept or reciprocate the outreach. It's wasted time. It's fighting that alt-right Twitter troll with the egg avatar and "Deplorable" in their handle. They're irredeemable, and they don't deserve your sympathy, especially knowing how they clearly don't give a shit that you'll lose your healthcare, or that you'll be forced to birth your rapist's baby. They don't care that your sons and daughters will be sent to fight an overseas war because the Shah of Whatever insulted Trump's tiny fingers. They don't care that merely by supporting Trump they've done severe damage to the rules and traditions that bind our constitutional system together. 

Some people are simply unworthy and disqualified from being taken seriously. It's both surprising and not surprising at all that certain lefties in the media and elsewhere believe they should be.

Verdicts A Whiter Shade of Pale

Charlie Pierce:

There is a cruel, stupid irony about living in a country when, on the same day, a bunch of gun-toting rubes who have less understanding of the Constitution than a wombat does of nuclear fusion get acquitted after an armed takeover of federal property in Oregon while, half a country away, peaceful protesters doing nothing but praying on land to which they have a right guaranteed by treaty get rousted, roughed up, and hauled away by a militarized police force acting largely at the behest of a private company. For those of you who are sorry you missed the last Gilded Age, hang in there. You're going to get your wish fairly soon.

The white privilege embedded in the two competing narratives is almost too garish to contemplate, and it is beyond argument.

No Health Insurance? Blame Bevin

Fucking over defenseless Kentuckians is not the only reason Bevin took away the health insurance of hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians.  Now he gets to run for president on the platform of actually killing Obamacare in Kentucky. 

John Cheves at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration says it expects a smooth transition Nov. 1 as open enrollment begins for health insurance and Kentuckians looking to buy coverage in 2017 switch from the state exchange, which Bevin is closing, to the federal exchange.

However, health care advocates worry that some people will be left behind. They say the state’s Kynect.ky.gov was a one-stop website that allowed people to shop for insurance and either be approved for a private plan — possibly with tax credits to make the plan more affordable — or be enrolled in Medicaid if they were near or below the poverty line, usually in one sitting.

The federal website HealthCare.gov could require multiple sessions and an indefinite waiting period while applications are processed, and applicants will be sent to a state-run public benefits website, Benefind.ky.gov, if they are found to be eligible for Medicaid.

“What we’ve seen in Kentucky is tremendous success with Kynect,” said Emily Beauregard, executive director of Kentucky Voices For Health. “It’s not going to be nearly as simple with HealthCare.gov. Delays with application transfers and error messages have been a significant problem in some of the states that have been using HealthCare.gov already.”

Advocates also praised Kynect because it came with an advertising campaign to promote it and employed more than 500 navigators, called Kynectors, who went into communities and walked people through the application process.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article110773902.html#storylink=cpy

Gov. Fascist Dictator Declares Self Above Law

Scratch that.  It's Gov. Screaming Toddler whose only response to be caught in a crime is to scream "you can't do that! Mommmmmmmmyyyyyy make them stop!"

Yes they can do that and yes they are doing exactly that.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin said Thursday a special House committee does not have the authority to investigate his handling of a multimillion-dollar road project in Jessamine County and summon witnesses for testimony under oath.

Bevin’s general counsel, Steve Pitt, informed the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Jim Wayne of Louisville, of the governor’s opinion in a two-page letter Thursday. Pitt also told Wayne in the letter that two Transportation Cabinet employees will not be testifying at a scheduled meeting Friday of the House Investigatory Committee on Executive Actions.

Wayne said he was studying Pitt’s letter and would not comment on it until Friday’s meeting.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, appointed the panel earlier this month to investigate claims that Bevin delayed an $11 million extension of East Brannon Road in Jessamine County as political retribution against Democratic Rep. Russ Meyer of Nicholasville for not switching political parties last December.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article110893682.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article110893682.html#storylink=cpy

Taliban Matt Hits the Burka Trail

Skirts below the knee?  Are you fucking kidding me?

Let's see if we can figure out the real goal here.

Shame female employees?  Check.

Shame low-paid employees who can't afford the new fascist "professional" look?  Check.

Vague guidelines that make it easy for Bevin appointees to fire non-repug, non-freakazoid, non-white, non-straight and non-male employees without just cause?  Check.

From the Courier:

No flip-flops. No bare midriffs. No camouflage. And watch the hemline on that skirt.

Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is rolling out a new dress code for state workers, but some departments' individual tweaks to the rules – including a ban on  "extremely low necklines" – are raising eyebrows at the state workers' association.

Employees recognize that employers have the right to set standards, said David Smith, executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees, but who's to say what the proper length for a dress is? "You're dealing with a fashion issue, and fashion changes," he said.

Personnel Cabinet Secretary Thomas Stephens said in a recent memo announcing the new guidelines that the executive branch's roughly 31,000 employees should maintain "a neat, professional appearance" because they represent the commonwealth.

SNIP

However, agencies are free to tweak their dress codes since different departments do different kinds of work, and people can request accommodations if they have a medical, religious or disability-related need. Violations could result in employees being asked to leave the premises or being subjected to disciplinary action, including possible dismissal.

Stephens also is instituting several additional rules that only apply to the Personnel Cabinet's 206 employees.

Personnel Cabinet employees can wear casual dresses and skirts only if they are knee-length or longer and cannot wear spaghetti-strap dresses unless they're covered by a sweater, according to an early-October memo from Stephens. Tops with "extremely low necklines" are prohibited, as are pajama pants, exercise pants, camouflage-patterned clothes and shorts. Men must keep their dress shirts tucked in, although polo shirts don't have to be.

Smith said the association has members who work in every state cabinet and every state agency, and some employees – the majority of whom have been women so far – have reached out with concerns about the new dress codes.

SNIP

And the Personnel Cabinet cannot oversee how each agency and manager enforces these rules, Smith said. Supervisors potentially could use a dress code violation as an excuse to discipline or fire someone they dislike.

"Is it too interpretive, and do we believe it could cross a line? Absolutely," Smith said.

If someone has religious or personal views about what is modest or appropriate and what isn't, those ideas shouldn't be forced on employees, he said.

He also said state workers may have to buy new clothes to meet their agency's dress code if, for example, their skirts fall above the knee. Employees will make an effort to meet whatever requirements their agencies institute, Smith said, but professional clothes can be expensive.

Especially for employees hired since Governor Fascist Dictator cut the state employee minimum wage from $10.10 to $7.25 about 10 seconds after he was inaugurated.

The Right Is A Hoax

It always has been.  Trump has just carried it past its logical extreme.

D.R. Tucker at Political Animal:

It is not “liberal elitism” to declare that those who think chasing Mexicans and Muslims out of the country, repealing Obamacare, rolling back civil rights protections and cutting taxes for billionaires will lead to widespread prosperity are factually off-base. It’s basic common sense.

Trump made it this far because he understood that mainstream-media entities would not call stupidity by its name. He made it this far because he understood that there are millions of Americans who still, after all these decades, don’t understand that the Right–all of it–is a hoax, a scam to separate suckers from their money and their dignity. He made it this far because he understood that there are plenty of citizens who will fall for the simplest of cons–and that the Fourth Estate won’t even attempt to tell those citizens that they are just marks for the con.

The marks will continue to be played for suckers even if Trump loses by a significant margin. They will continue to demonstrate their limitless intolerance. They will continue to attack elected Republicans they regard as not being hateful enough. They will continue to denigrate our democracy…and they will continue to slow down our march towards progress.

So beating Trump is not enough.  Exposing and defeating the right-wing hoax is the goal.  And that will take a lot more work than just winning elections.

Defending Your For-Clinton Vote

There are literally no persuadable voters in this election, so trying to pull repug voters over to the dem side is a waste of time and energy.

Preventing Trump from getting within a light-year of the presidency is more than sufficient justification for a vote for Hillary Clinton, but if you need to defend your vote from a positive perspective, Political Animal has what you need:

Clinton has a whole array of proposals that would actually benefit white middle and working class Americans.

If you are unemployed, she has a plan to create thousands of new jobs via an investment in infrastructure.

If you aren’t earning enough money to make ends meet, she wants to raise the minimum wage.

If you want to go to college or are weighed down with college debt, she has a plan to make college debt-free and to allow former students to refinance their debt.

If you are elderly and trying to make it on Social Security alone, she has a plan to shore up the Social Security Trust Fund and increase benefits to the elderly poor.

If you are raising a family or taking care of elderly relatives, she has a plan for paid family and medial leave.

If you need affordable child care, she has a plan to make pre-k universal and ensure that no one pays more than 10% of their income on high-quality childcare.

If you are living in poverty, she has a plan to change the refundability threshold of the child tax credit.

If you live in coal country, she has a plan to revitalize your community.

Beyond that, a President Clinton would continue the executive orders issued by President Obama on things like overtime pay and the fiduciary responsibilities of investment advisors.

How to Rig An Election

Sure, it'll be easy!

Shakezula at LGM:

As CrunchyFrog demonstrated last night, it wouldn’t.

I know they’re all grifters, but man are they stupid, too. He actually thinks that Democrats are bussing (sic) in black people to vote multiple times in different precincts. This reminds me of an article once by a journalist who went undercover for a few months as a car salesman. He had the usual exposes about the car dealership industry, but one side comment was about how every sales dude (almost always dudes) was also involved in some multi-level-marketing scam or another and how their best customers were the other sales dudes. Gullible is as gullible does.

Regarding the black voter busing scheme. Let’s think about this logically (not possible for the GOP, I know, but bear with me). If I were running such a scheme what would I have to do to make an effective dent in the results? As a starting point, a lot of Colorado wingnuts think that Obama won there in 2012 by cheating. He won by 138k votes, so let’s use 140k votes as a starting point. So let’s say I have a bus full of black voters – say 66 people (common capacity limit on school buses). So if every bus is filled to near capacity that’s about 2200 bus-visits to the polling stations. How many polling stations can a given bus hit in a day? Well, your typical precinct has 2-3 people checking voters in and each one processes about 2 per minute, so that’s over 30 minutes just to check in (of course there will be other voters, too), plus time to drive between precincts. Seriously, if you are counting on more than 10 precincts per bus per day you’re going to be disappointed. So that’s 220 buses chartered for the day, and a total of about 14k fraudulent voters.

Holy freaking crap. The logistical problems of arranging that many fraudulent voters, ALL of whom are risking felony sentences and NONE of whom have ever talked about it to anyone. Now plan to arrange for 140k fake registrations using the matching photos for each person and arrange it so that the manager of each bus makes sure that every voter gets the exact fake ID for each precinct. And NO MISTAKES – remember no one has ever been caught doing this because Democrats, who are inept in government, are utter geniuses when it comes to vote fraud. So that means there NEVER can be a situation where a fake voter encounters a registrar who says “Hey, I live on that street, I’ve never seen you” or similar.

By the way, the absolutely easiest logistical part of this scheme is arranging for photo ID. Assuming you have that many people willing to commit felonies for whatever you are paying them and have arranged everything else in detail, getting fake photo IDs for them is simple and routine. So photo ID laws do absolutely jack shit to stop massive vote fraud – but of course that wasn’t their real intention, was it?

And when the O’Keefe’s find nothing we need not worry – all wingnuts everywhere will remain convinced that it is happening everywhere.

 No, wait - that's not the plan.  The plan is to scare so many white people about non-existent voter fraud that they install voting restrictions specifically designed to prevent all Democratic-leaning groups from voting at all.

Yeah, that's how it works. 

"Do You Think She's Going to Win?"

Yeah, yeah: one person, one anecdote, I know.  Bite me.

She glanced at my shirt as she was taking my order.  Middle-aged white woman working food service in Kentucky.

"Do you think she's going to win?" Her voice was wistful, almost pleading.

It took me a second to realize she was referring to the Hillary 2016 image on my T-shirt.

"Oh, yes she is," I said in my most encouraging voice.

"I really hope so."  She took my money and gave me my food.

"Be sure to vote!" I sang as I turned away.

It didn't hit me until later.  As bad as a Trump presidency would be for people like me, it would be infinitely worse for minimum-wage workers like the woman who had just sold me some food.

Maybe I imagined the longing and hope I heard in her voice.

But when I vote on November 8 - no early voting in Kentucky without proof you will be out of the state on Election Day - I will be voting for more than just a* historic victory for progressives, Democrats and women.

I will be voting for - and with - the ignored, unsung working poor women of Kentucky for whom Hillary is more than a symbol.


* Yes, "a historic."  "Historic" has an aspirate "h," meaning it is pronounced, not silent, and therefore takes the article "a," not "an."  "An historic" is illiterate.

Ghost Hunting

Divine Irony:

This Is What Fearless Patriotism Looks Like

Without Patriots like this, we'd still be a British colony.

Turnout. Turnout, Turnout, TURNOUT. Nothing Else Matters

So Kentucky, like a lot of other states, now boast record-high voter registration.

It doesn't matter unless all those registered voters actually get to the polls.

That's the goal now.  Forget everything else.

From the Herald:

A record number of Kentuckians will be eligible to vote on Election Day, according to Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

More than 3.3 million people are registered to vote in the November election, an increase of more than 50,000 from the primary election.

Grimes said 106,000 voters have registered since March, when the state unveiled its online voter registration system.

About 30 percent of all new voters registered online, with younger voters using the online system the most.

“I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done to launch online voter registration,” Grimes said. “It’s an enormous success in Kentucky.”

You Don't Have A Good Job Because Employers Like Jim Beam Won't Hire the People They Need

So 250 well-paid workers at Jim Beam Distilleries in Kentucky are on strike.

Not for higher pay; they're some of the highest-paid manufacturing workers in the country.

Not for better conditions; Jim Beam treats them OK.

No, they're on strike for fewer hours.

This is the dirty little secret of the recovering economy; instead of hiring all the people they really need - and paying them a living wage - employers are keeping skeleton crews and working them to death.

From the Courier:

On Saturday, employees of the Jim Beam facilities in Clermont and Boston, Kentucky, entered a strike following failed contract negotiations that they say didn't place enough emphasis on hiring more full-time employees to reduce current workers' hours.


SNIP

But Mudd said that while the employees realize they are paid well, they also feel that the company has neglected to hire the number of full-time workers needed to keep up with production demands.

"The reason they didn't do it was because the workload fluctuated so much," Mudd said, acknowledging that bourbon production is traditionally seasonal. "They always said they didn't want to hire (full-time employees) because when the workload drops off, then they would have to lay them off. But for the past two to three years, the workload has been consistently on the high side."

Remember: corporations have loyalty to no one and nothing but profits. They will sell out their employees, sell out their communities, sell out their country. Always.

And Fuck Pink, Too

The very LAST thing the fight against cancer needs is more "awareness."  Especially when that "awareness" is not only raising money not for cancer research or treatment but for anti-woman, anti-choice lobbying groups; not only pink-washing corporations seeking cover for their crimes, but also allowing the companies who actually manufacture the poisons that cause breast cancer to skate off the hook entirely.

PZ Myers:

(I)t’s as if daubing pink paint on something suddenly makes it an accomplishment in cancer research.

So we had pink drill bits. Fracking for the cure!

Pink fighter jets! Strafing and bombing for the cure!

 

They cut support for Planned Parenthood! Who needs mammograms and education when you’ve got drill bits and bullets?

Susan G. Komen has long held deep ties with right wing groups. Now we learn that another aspect of those ties is that they have scheduled major fund raising events at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Komen has held their annual “Perfect Pink Party” at Mar-a-Lago since 2011, and Trump has attended throughout the years. The AP reported today that the party is still planned for January 2017, and that the organization won’t make a final decision about whether to go ahead — or cancel and lose the deposit — until after October. Komen spokesperson Andrea Rader declined to comment beyond the AP story.

The AP also reported that two alleged instances of Trump touching women inappropriately occurred at Mar-a-Lago.

There’s also this little gem.

Nancy Brinker, who is the founder and chair of Global Strategy for the Komen Foundation [but who is currently on leave] endorsed Trump earlier this year.

Trump’s support among women is dismally low — this is a thug who thinks women need to be punished for getting an abortion — and yet Komen doesn’t think this is enough of a problem that they should distance themselves from him.

I’ll never donate to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and I don’t see how they can stop their slide into irrelevance at this rate. I’m just waiting for the Republicans to slap a coat of pink paint on their logo to show that they are pro-woman. It’s the least they could do.

No Quarter

I want to know if the bleeding hearts dems who handed $13,000 of their own hard-earned money to the racist motherfuckers of the North Carolina GOP have ever actually met a trump voter.  Or an actual repug.  Because those of us who have know better.

Rude Pundit:

So we're facing a party that is trying to prevent people from voting, with a nominee that is actively inciting people to possible violence in order to undermine the very democracy that got him this goddamn far, and has elected officials who have made it their jobs to simply undo the will of the majority of Americans. I ain't playing nice with shitheels and ratfuckers, and I won't abide pompous blowhards and the fools who follow them.

State Employee of the Year: Trans Pride FTW

Not for his courage in making his transition public, although here in the bibble belt that deserves its own prize, but for how and where and in whose face he did it.

Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

Meanwhile, he said he has filed more grievances with the cabinet over retaliation he alleges occurred after he filed his first complaint. Guy alleges he was given extra work assignments after he filed the complaint and criticized for wearing a T-shirt to work that read "This is what Trans looks like."

Guy said he believes his T-shirt upset supervisors because he wore it work on 

Wait for it.

the day Gov. Matt Bevin visited the office.

No, they won't dare fire him for filing grievance now.  They'll fire him for violating the dress code.

Ehtical Morality

Divine Irony:

(Source: forthelove-ofscience)

KY Supreme Court Reviews Criminalizing Poverty

The technical issue is whether Lexington's disgusting law banning panhandling violates the First Amendmebant protection of free speech. But the real issue is why we are turning poor people into criminals instead of, you know, lifting people out of poverty.

From the Herald:

Lexington’s controversial ordinance to ban panhandling should be declared unconstitutional because it singles out only one type of speech — begging on streets and intersections —and not others, such as selling Girl Scout cookies or performances by street musicians, a state public advocate told the Kentucky Supreme Court. But assistant Fayette County Attorney John Jason Rothrock told the state’s highest court that the ordinance is needed to protect the safety of pedestrians and and those in vehicles.

How do we lift people out of poverty? By giving them the money we now give to already filthy rich people.

Done.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/#storylink=cpy

The Pure Distillation of Republicanism

Do not let the repugs in your life get away with repudiating the Orange Menace. He is their creation. They are to blame. The repug party is now and forever more the Trump Party.

 

Steve M:

Donald Trump is the real Republican Party stripped of phony civility and fake high-mindedness. He represents his party better than John McCain and Mitt Romney ever did. He's the genuine article. If you're shocked by his campaign, you've had your head in the sand for a long time.

And that's because, as Tristero writes:

Paul Krugman, in the wrap up to today's column:

Assuming that Mr. Trump loses, many Republicans will try to pretend that he was a complete outlier, unrepresentative of the party. But he isn’t. He won the nomination fair and square, chosen by voters who had a pretty good idea of who he was. He had solid establishment support until very late in the game. And his vices are, dare we say, very much in line with his party’s recent tradition. 

Mr. Trump, in other words, isn’t so much an anomaly as he is a pure distillation of his party’s modern essence. 

[Emphasis added.]

Absolutely true. He is the ultimate standard bearer for modern Republican ideas. He is also the ultimate standard bearer for modern Republican behavior, behavior which is racist, sexist, paranoid, vindictive, greedy, and takes pride in its ignorance.

Yes, he is sickening to watch, but he is not the real problem. The modern Republican party is the problem. The short term solution is to deliver a resounding national defeat to the party - and not just at the presidential level. The party has begun to realize just how disastrous this election could be:

...senior party leaders privately acknowledged that they now feared losing control of both houses of Congress.

The long-term solution will require fundamental changes to the GOP. I'm not holding my breath.

Kentucky Man Arrested for Brandishing Gun - in Florida?

Wait a minute.  Florida is the most infamous stand-your-ground state in the nation.  In Florida, you can shoot a teenager down in cold blood just for kicks and then walk.

If the kid is black.

And you are white.

Wonder what the racial breakdown was this time.

A Kentucky man made an impression in a popular Florida beach vacation spot and landed in jail.

Kendall Bryce McFarland, 19, of Russell Springs, was driving over the Marler Bridge in Destin, Fla., on Sunday morning when he allegedly started tailgating a silver Chevrolet, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News and WJHG. After he pulled up beside the couple’s car, he exchanged hand gestures before displaying a 9 mm handgun and pulling back its slide.

Sheriff’s deputies later found McFarland, and his apparently loaded gun was under the front seat, the paper reported. McFarland admitted displaying the gun but said he didn’t point it at the couple. Two of his passengers corroborated the couple’s account.

McFarland told deputies that the couple made him mad for driving too slowly, according to the Daily News and WJHG. His charges included aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed weapon.

 

Post by Northwest Florida Daily News.

 UPDATE:  There is a facebook page for a Kendall Bryce McFarland who appears to be white.  No word on the race of his victims.

Answer Yes or No

Just one question for every repug candidate - for dog-catcher on up - who is seeking your vote:

"Do you support Donald Trump?  Yes or No."

Don't let him or her utter any other syllable.  Just "yes" or "no."

Because thanks to Donald Trump and the repugs and conservatives who created him as their perfect candidate over the last 40 years, that's the only question that means anything this year.

So, Rand Paul and Andy Barr and Hal Rogers and James Comer and Thomas Massie and Brett Guthrie: Yes or No?

All the repugs running for Kentucky house and state senate seats:  Yes or No?

Rob Rothenberger, a bought-and-paid-for repug in Shelby County:  Yes or No?

And just for shits and giggles, Governor Matt Violence-n-Lawbreakin' Bevin:  Yes or No?

After Inciting Election Violence, Bevin Tells Churches to Break Federal Law

Sigh.  Just a year ago, we Kentuckians were basking in the national admiration for how Governor Steve Beshear had created the finest, most effective and most powerful state program for implementing Obamacare.   Kentucky had the biggest drop in percentage of uninsured, and we were even starting to see a drop in the generational poverty that has bedeviled the Comnonwealth for centuries.

Then we elected a new Governor. And it's back to putting duct tape on the "Kentucky" on our license plates and pretending we're from (gag!) Tennessee.

From the AP:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin urged a group of preachers to embrace political speech at the pulpit by telling them not to fear a federal law that prohibits candidate endorsements by tax-exempt churches.

Bevin called the federal law a "paper tiger" during an address to preachers at the governor's mansion last month. A group called Kentuckians Against Matt Bevin posted video captured by someone at the gathering. Bevin says no church has ever been punished under the law.

The governor calls the law "an absolute paper tiger and there is no reason to fear it, there is no reason to be silent."

The 1954 law says tax-exempt organizations, including churches, may not participate or intervene in any "political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office."

They can do political endorsements all fucking day long, Gov. Lying Coward; they just have to pay taxes for the privilege.  Just like the rest of us.

 

Charlie Pierce, as usual, nails it:

The presidential campaign of Donald Trump is most remarkable for the forces it has unleashed in the country, forces that we all thought long dead or, at the very least, tamed to the extent that polite political society never would indulge them again. For an example of how wrong we all were, and for an example of what 40 years of conservative politics have wrought on the country by believing that they could flirt with those forces without being consumed by them, you need only look down to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where Governor Matt Bevin is counseling his state's clergy to violate federal law.

SNIP
 

This is exactly the same argument that drug kingpins make to their crews regarding the federal narcotics statutes. But, whatever, it also demonstrates that, having swallowed up the remnants of American apartheid in the 1960s, the Republican party, and the conservative movement that is its only life force, never has given up on nullification, interposition, and the radical Tenther interpretation of the Constitution that lost so badly at Appomattox.

Matt Bevin is a pure product of that.

Kentucky famously never seceded from the Union or joined the Confederacy, although we kept our slaves throughout the war and were PISSED when it turned our we had to give them up just like Missi-fucking-issippi.

Governor Racist Motherfucking is doing his damnedest to get us into the modern Confederacy now.

WWJD

Divine Irony:

confrontingbabble-on:

To build a better society…takes…rational reasoning…and secular humanism…not religious fantasy…

Bevin's Personal Vote Suppression

Speaking of voting, Governor Lying Coward has been caught lying about his accomplishments.  Again.

Tom Loftus at the Courier:

 During his campaign for governor and since his election, Matt Bevin has said he supports restoring civil rights to nonviolent felons who have completed their sentences.

Yet through his first 10 months in office, Bevin has not restored the civil rights, which include the right to vote, to a single person.

Bevin’s record on rights restoration contrasts with his two immediate predecessors, according to records of the Kentucky Secretary of State, where the restoration orders are filed.

Democrat Steve Beshear issued an average of 1,190 restorations of civil rights per year during his eight years in office.

And Beshear’s Republican predecessor, Ernie Fletcher, averaged 277 restorations per year during his 2003-07 term.

“My basic reaction is outrage,” said Rep. Darryl Owens of Bevin’s failure to issue any restorations. “You have a number of people who want to vote, who have requested the right to vote, who for no apparent reason are being denied that right by the governor. It’s heartbreaking. It’s frustrating.”

No, Rep.Owens, it's not frustrating.  It's the standard unconstitutional behavior of elected repugs. 

And the reason they're denied is because Gov. Racist Motherfucker thinks they're likely to vote Democratic.

Vote, you little shits. Or Else!

Via Crooks and Liars:

Hide Your Children and Your Wallets: Bevin's Privatizers Are Coming for Them

And the fight to turn Kentucky's public schools over to privatizers far worse than the motherfuckers who run private prisons like the Spanish Inquisition begins the next round.

Valarie Honeycutt Spears at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin’s push for charter schools in Kentucky gained ground Wednesday when his appointees were among those who pressed the Kentucky Board of Education to call a work session in November to help members develop a position.

Currently, 43 states have legislation that allows charter schools, but Kentucky does not. Kentucky Board of Education members want to develop a position in advance of the 2017 General Assembly.

House Democrats in Kentucky’s legislature have previously blocked charter school legislation. Charter schools can be public or private and can take different forms. Legislation that the House blocked in 2016 called for a pilot program in Fayette and Jefferson counties. That legislation said that charter schools would be part of the state’s system of public education, but the schools would be exempt from some laws and regulations applicable to the state board of education and local school districts. Charter schools would have been tuition-free and non-profit with no religious affiliation under that proposal. 

SNIP

 Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt said he wasn’t sure that everyone was defining charter schools the same and that the board needed to have a broader conversation. He said charter schools can be effective but he’s not ready to say they are the only answer to closing achievement gaps between minority, low-income and disabled students and other students.

That is FALSE, Mr. Pruitt, assuming you are not deliberately lying through your repug, Bevin-cock-sucking teeth.

There is only one definition of charter schools and it is this: the mechanism through which public tax dollars for public education are turned over to private corporations for private profit.  No "education" involved.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article106416957.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article106416957.html#storylink=cpy

Our previous coverage of how anti-education, anti-child and anti-American charter schools are is here.

Whipping Out That Mexican Thing

OK, I admit my initial interpretation of "whipping out that Mexican thing" was ... not political, but this one from Mexican Judge Mexican Judge is perfect:

 

KY Governor Nullification Under Investigation

Thanks to Charlie Pierce for the new moniker.

 

Stopping a road project may seem like small potatoes, but it's brought down Kentucky politicians before, and the road flap may be just the beginning.  Let's hope the House dems follow the example of congressional repugs and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate right up Bevin's ass.

Tom Loftus at the Courier:

House Speaker Greg Stumbo on Wednesday appointed a special committee to investigate whether Gov. Matt Bevin's administration stopped a road project in Jessamine County this year in retaliation against the Democratic state representative who had rejected Bevin's overtures that he switch political parties and become a Republican.

Stumbo said his office's examination of records related to the project "raises serious questions as to the retaliation that may have been used by the administration" against Rep. Russ Meyer, a Nicholasville Democrat.

The House speaker emphasized during a news conference in the House chamber that the state had to pay the road contractor on that project $625,000 in damages last spring because the contractor could not begin work on the project by a deadline set in the contract.

"For some reason, $625,000 in taxpayers' money was paid for a contract which, from our investigation and our conversations with people who are knowledgeable about these matters, could have been fulfilled and gone forward with," Stumbo said.

Meyer alleged in August that Bevin had left a message threatening him and his district after he refused to change parties.

 Hey Greg: After you finish that investigation, I've got a list of Bevin crimes for you to go after:

•  Attempting the murder of 400,000 working Kentuckians by stealing their Medicaid coverage.
•  Threatening the unconstitutional elimination of state employee pensions.
•  Attempting the murder of hundreds of thousands of other working Kentuckians by killing the wildly successful kynect health insurance program.
• Inciting post-election violence, including the deaths of children.

There is more, much more to keep a determined investigator busy for years.  Where is Ken Starr when you need him?

On the Senate Repugs Who Are Sucking Trump's Tiny Dick

Via LGM, the only politician on the planet whose big bag of fucks is emptier than Barack Obama's: Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid:

Senate Republicans have put party so far ahead of country, they’ve endorsed a racist, incompetent failure who managed to lose a billion dollars in a boom year. Now they are helping Trump hide his tax returns and preventing the American people from knowing what individuals, businesses or foreign interests could have leverage over Trump.

President Abandons Kentuckians to Bevin's No Health Care for You! Plan

I don't understand.  Kentucky is the shining star of Obamacare.  The proof that it works not just to get health care to working people, but to start actually eliminating generational poverty. Without Kynect, Obamacare is just a liberal wet dream.

There is no excuse for this. But I know what's going to happen now.  Hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians will be unable to get health insurance because the mal-administration of Gov. Lying Coward will not just not lift a finger to help, but will throw obstacles in the path of anyone who tries.

We. Are. So. Fucked.

From the AP:

Federal officials have approved Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's plan to dismantle the state health exchange.

The exchange, known as kynect, was launched in 2013 and has been a way for Kentucky residents to shop for health insurance or enroll in Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act. After Nov. 1, people in Kentucky will use the federal health exchange to find coverage.

 The Courier-Journal (http://cjky.it/2dcPq3W ) said the approval was given Tuesday, but Andrew Slavitt of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department says the agency is concerned about the transition's impact on those who gained coverage through kynect. Slavitt said in a letter to Bevin that it's important the transition be clearly explained to consumers.

Bevin, a Republican, vowed to dismantle the health initiatives of previous Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat who took full advantage of federal health care law.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article105966102.html#storylink=cpy

The Ones Who Are With Her

KY GOP Rejects Candidate for Racist Posts - wait, that can't be right.

OK, who are you and what have you done with the Kentucky Republican Party?

Adam Beam AP:

The Republican Party of Kentucky has asked a state House candidate to drop out of the race after he posted several photos on Facebook depicting President Barack Obama and the first lady as monkeys.

Republican Party of Kentucky chairman Mac Brown and House Republican Floor Leader Jeff Hoover both signed the letter. It says while Dan Johnson has a First Amendment right to free speech, elected leaders "must hold ourselves and those with whom we serve to a higher standard."

"As leaders we are expected to not only understand our rights but also exercise good judgment in how we use them to express ourselves," Brown and Hoover wrote.

Johnson did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Johnson said Friday the posts were satire and that he would not drop out of the race.

The posts on Dan Johnson's Facebook page include a picture of a chimpanzee with the caption "Obama's baby picture" and a photo that had been altered to give Obama and his wife, Michelle, ape-like features. Johnson's page also displayed a photo of a young Ronald Reagan feeding a monkey with a bottle with the caption: "Rare photos of Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama in early 1962." His page also included a post calling Islam a "criminal syndicate."

Johnson said Friday "I really don't think I've done anything as someone to be a racist."

Of course not.  Why would anyone think that?

Johnson is running against the Democratic incumbent Linda Belcher.  The GOP needs that seat if they are to have any chance of taking the state House from the Democratic party.

So who put Humanity Juice in Brown's and Hoover's bourbon?

Here's Your "Religious Freedom"

It's way worse than giving bigots the right to discriminate or even break laws with impunity.  It is literally killing people. Children.

Wonkette:

Last year, when states were rushing to pass updated and expanded Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRAs), we told you that, even though they were doing it to preserve their God-given right to bash gays, the statutes were written so broadly that ALL KINDSA PEOPLE could potentially break laws and harm people, and then say “Oh, my religion says I can do this! What about my RELIGIOUS FREEDOM?”

It’s happening, loves! In Indiana, which was the epicenter of the RFRA fight, a lady and her lawyer are saying it’s OK that she beat her 7-year-old son so badly with a coat hanger that he ended up with 36 bruises, and welts so large that the child flinched TWO DAYS LATER when a teacher touched his back at school. And why is it OK? Because BIBLE BIBLE BIBLE, in your face!

An Indianapolis woman who beat her 7-year-old son with a coat hanger is citing Indiana’s religious freedom law as a defense against felony child abuse charges, saying her choice of discipline comes straight from her evangelical Christian beliefs.

The woman quoted biblical Scripture in court documents. She said that a parent who “spares the rod, spoils the child,” and: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.”

We all know child abuse is OK when you are saving your child’s soul from Sheol! And the woman, a Burmese immigrant named Kin Park Thaing, specifically said that’s what she was trying to do, by beating her son:

“I was worried for my son’s salvation with God after he dies,” said Thaing, who attends a south-side church, according to court documents. “I decided to punish my son to prevent him from hurting my daughter and to help him learn how to behave as God would want him to.”

Trying to stop your child from hurting your other child is a legitimate parental concern! But beating a kid to a bloody pulp is probably not the answer, even if you believe you’re just doing little Jesus spankings.

 

She also beat the 3-year-old child with the coathanger “before telling [the children] to pray for forgiveness.” Ayup.

SNIP

On a related note, Oklahoma also has a RFRA. Maybe this other lady, Juanita Gomez, can cite it in HER defense for why she murdered her daughter with a crucifix because she believed Satan was in her daughter’s body:

Juanita Gomez, 49, was charged with first-degree murder on Monday, Reuters reports. She claimed her 33-year-old daughter, Geneva Gomez, was possessed by the devil and allegedly punched her repeatedly to “rid Satan from her body,” court records show.

“Juanita stated she punched her daughter repeatedly and forced a crucifix and religious medallion down her throat until blood came out of her daughter’s mouth,” court documents stated, according to the Oklahoman. “Juanita saw her daughter die and then placed the body in the shape of a cross.”

Sweet Jesus, literally. Now, RFRA isn’t mentioned anywhere in Gomez’s case, and probably won’t be, because FIRST-DEGREE MURDER.

But we are just saying that RFRAs are fucked up laws, because religious freedom is super and great and American, but when you use your religion to harm SOMEONE ELSE, then your “religious freedom” can go get fucked.

 Kentucky has a law just like this.  That no one has literally died because of it is nothing but luck,  which always runs out.