A rarity here: I’m gonna use this thread to applaud a member (sort of) of the Trump administration: Louise Linton owned up to her shit today, in what I thought was a classy style:
Might be all talk, but anymore I’ll take it.
After watching people like Sessions and his ilk any humility even if it’s false is good to see.
The current limit of a million appears to have had little effect on the skyrocketing number of over $1 million homes in the SF Bay Area (my guess is over 25% today)
You have to remember they wouldn’t just eliminate the MID and charitable deductions in a vacuum. It would be coupled with something like lowering the rates, e.g. moving the 25% bracket down to 20%. Or my preferred solution which is to dramatically increase the standard deduction from $6350/person to something like $10K-$12K which would not only lower middle-class taxes but also make filing taxes significantly easier for tens of millions of Americans, since there wouldn’t be a need to itemize deductions.
If the impact of the tax reform was to lower real estate prices in the SF Bay Area, I think making Pelosi constituents poorer would be a huge feature for Republicans.
I’d be more inclined to take that at face value, if she hadn’t gone on the tirade against those who called her on her shit afterward.
I’d be more inclined to think that her initial response was driven by emotion and anger and her new response represents what happened when she had a chance to sit down and really think about what an insufferable ass she had been.
If you read the article, it does seem genuine understanding that she was acting like a complete ass. From the actual interview:
LL: I want to say I concede completely to the comments of my critics. My post itself and the following response were indefensible. Period. I don’t have any excuses, nor do I feel any self-pity for the backlash I experienced. I sincerely take ownership of my mistake. It’s clear that I was the one who was truly out of touch and my response was reactionary and condescending. …
LL: I’ve had torrents of social media criticism before and never really responded. I don’t know why I did this time, but I really regret it. I wish I could take it back, but all I can do is learn from this and turn my focus to things that actually matter and place my energy behind causes I care about.
… I one hundred percent embrace the comments of my critics and I concede wholeheartedly that the post was boastful and materialistic and my response was extremely thoughtless. I should have known better than to be so insensitive.
WL: Did you feel the criticism was overblown?
LL: No. I feel like I deserved the criticism and my response is ‘thanks for waking me up quickly and for turning me back in the right direction.’ My response is, ‘I’m sorry.’‘
Whether it’s sincere or not, that’s how you do an apology. No “I’m sorry if you were offended” bullshit here.
… She said this in a glamor photo shoot showing her in “the ‘Brielle’ ball gown with textured beading and illusion sleeves” and posing with her “rescue Chihuahua” for a DC area high-society magazine.
She’s certainly self-aware:
Q: Are you concerned that people are going to criticize you for wearing a gown on a magazine cover just after you were likened to Marie Antoinette?
A: Yes. And I know that they will … I see the irony in making an apology in a ball gown!
Mind you, Marie Antoinette (who, contrary to legend, did not say, “Let them eat cake”) was also self aware. For what it turned out to be worth.
Fuck her. She showed her true colors.
I’m not saying she’s an Austrian plant, but hurf durf I don’t have a good joke to follow up the Marie Antoinette comparison, as otherwise apt as it may be.
That was my take on it at the end of the day. There wasn’t any waffling, just: “I’m a huge tool and I’m sorry.”
I’m sure she’s still a terrible person.
Her husband is far worse. The sheer arrogance of flying on the taxpayer’s dollar to watch the eclipse with his past. . .makes you understand why the French mob roamed the countryside and burned these fuckers and their mansions down.
An apology is cheap. While her apology wasn’t as hamhanded and tone deaf as what we’ve come to expect from people like Trump, it’s still just words.
If she actually does some shit to be less of an asshole, actually starts spending her wealth to help other folks instead of just buying tons of designer garbage to tag in instagram pics, then I’ll think better of her. But for now? I’m pretty sure she’s still a fucking asshole.
The Deep State is at it again.
On Monday, the right-wing radio personality delivered a customarily freewheeling monologue in which he seemed to suggest that hurricanes were a liberal conspiracy intended to convince the public that climate change is real.
On Monday’s program, Limbaugh said that “there is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it. You can accomplish a lot just by creating fear and panic. You don’t need a hurricane to hit anywhere. All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.”
And now Jose is on the way! Though with DACA ending Jose probably won’t make it into the US.
“You don’t need the hurricane to hit anywhere…”
Uh, but that last one actually did hit Texas… and it kind of fucked everything up.
Of course you’d say that. Liberal hippie fake news communist!
Wait - did they build the wall, yet?
Well obviously we can’t build it until we’ve deported all 800,000 of those bad hombres and hombrelitas.
Of course! We need to deport them to make the jobs to create the wall. It’s all making sense, now!
The irony of Rush Limbaugh accusing others of creating fear and panic to advance an agenda is galling. Not surprising, but still galling.