Daily Kos

This Week in Statehouse Action: Beach Weak edition

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 3:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 15:01

1st August 1913: A couple relax in their deckchairs on the beach at Great Yarmouth. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) — Republicans: About as much fun as sand in your long, dark beach socks

Here’s hoping you’re having a lovely Independence Day week! But statehouse action takes NO vacations (although sometimes a vacation turns out to be statehouse action—just ask Chris Christie about his little beach getaway while New Jersey’s government was shut down), so slather on some sunscreen and soak it in.

Virginia (Beach) is for lovers: Everyone knows (right? right???) that the Commonwealth will elect a new governor and that all 100 House of Delegates seats are on the ballot this fall.

A race that’s getting decidedly little attention, however, is the contest for attorney general.

Campaign Action

Current Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring is running for re-election (fun fact! governor is the only office in Virginia that can’t be held for consecutive terms), and he’s being challenged by Some Lawyer John Adams (no relation ..?).
In a recent Q&A, this first-time candidate for anything gave what I’m officially dubbing TWISA’s Quote of the Week (Weak?):

Unlike a lot of other offices people run for, attorney general is a real and serious job ….

How about me? I’ve been a lawyer my whole life … I can run things. Why don’t we try that?

Okay!

Oh, and this John Adams used to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and worked on the infamous Hobby Lobby case. Adams was not on the side that supported keeping an employer out of a woman employee’s reproductive healthcare decisions.

Broker, mobster, fraudster and Trump associate Felix Sater agrees to cooperate with investigation

By Mark Sumner

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 2:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 14:31

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 21: A view of the Trump SoHo hotel condominium building, February 21, 2017 in New York City. The development of Trump SoHo, completed in 2010, was constructed in partnership with the Bayrock Group, headed by former Soviet official Tevfik Arif. Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman, also worked for Bayrock Group during the development of Trump SoHo. Despite repeated claims that he is not involved in any business deals with Russia, President Trump's ties to the country continue to be scrutinized. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — Trump SoHo, constructed in partnership with the Bayrock Group, headed by former Soviet official Tevfik Arif and Felix Sater

This is news that is likely to be heard wherever Donald Trump is staying tonight.

… Russia-born real estate dealmaker Felix Sater, who allegedly has organized crime links, had agreed to assist in an international probe into a Kazakh family’s real estate dealings in the U.S.— including one of Trump’s most famed properties, the Trump SoHo in downtown New York City.

Donald Trump’s relationship to former Bayrock executive Felix Sater is both complicated and deep. A decade ago, Trump was nursing a fresh bankruptcy and had burned so many bridges that legitimate sources wouldn’t lend him a dime.

By the 2000s, the property developer and casino owner with ready access to the capital markets and the biggest New York banks was no more.

Donald Trump, pretend real estate guy, did his pretending at the Trump Soho—a building actually constructed by a Kazkh oligarch and a company called Bayrock, where the number two guy was Felix Sater.

As a principal in the Bayrock Group, which worked with both Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump on a number of real estate deals between 2002 and roughly 2011, Sater worked to construct the Trump SoHo, Bloomberg reports. Sater has also previously claimed to have links to both the Kremlin and Russia’s KGB, the older version of Russia’s top security and intelligence services—now the FSB and SVR.

For Sater, the KGB isn’t even the most sordid part of his past—a past that features a stint as a mob informant.

Republican agenda sucking wind with only 30-some work days left in fiscal year 2017

By Kerry Eleveld

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 2:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 14:01

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan(L) R-WI listens while Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the press after meetings with US President Donald Trump at the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

About a month—that's how long is left on the Senate’s 2017 calendar to accomplish just a few teensy-weensy items Republicans have been salivating over for years: stripping tens of millions of Americans of health care, slashing taxes for millionaires and billionaires, overhauling the entire tax code. Man, how long they been promising to do all that if only voters would put them in the seat of power?

And then there's the basic functions of government: providing a budget, keeping the government open for business, raising the debt ceiling so the U.S. doesn't default and entirely trash our debt rating.

It all seemed so obvious just six months ago with Paul Ryan's cheery can-do attitude alongside Mitch McConnell's dour-but-steady guidance. But suddenly the walls are closing in—so much so that even members of McConnell's own caucus are begging him to forego their August recess. The NYT writes:

“Our current Senate calendar shows only 33 potential working days remaining before the end of the fiscal year,” a group of 10 Republican senators wrote on Friday in a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, highlighting the deadline at the end of September. “This does not appear to give us enough time to adequately address the issues that demand immediate attention.”

The Republican Party is under intense pressure to achieve something of consequence in that limited time in order to legitimately claim that the first year of the Trump administration has been a success. So far, the ambitious agenda has stagnated without a signature achievement.

Hallelujah to that. With any luck, getting a healthcare vote will swallow the rest of July and still come up short. Then before Republicans can so much as utter the word “taxes,” they'll be hit with an all-consuming debt-ceiling crisis since Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin has been lobbying them to lift the borrowing limit before the end of July. Of course, that crisis will be intensified by the House maniacs' desire to tie a debt ceiling vote to spending cuts in the 2018 budget.

With an all-out GOP slugfest between the deficit and defense hawks and the handful of more moderate Republican senators who simply want to prove they can perform the minimal functions of government, lawmakers will likely manage to avert a debt ceiling disaster by the end of September, leaving no time to accomplish any other legislative goals before the end of the fiscal year.

Conservatives start drawing their Trumpcare lines in the sand, McConnell concedes he's got trouble

By Joan McCarter

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 1:31 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 13:31

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 20: Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, left, speaks with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as they leave the Senate floor following the cloture vote on the "American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015" on Wednesday, Jan. — Ted Cruz and his best buddy, Mike Lee.

Campaign Action

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has, by some interpretations, admitted both that Obamacare is not dead, as his president and many of his fellow Republicans keep insisting. He's even conceding—apparently not as a threat this time—that working with Democrats to stabilize the insurance markets would be necessary. That's if "my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement." That's as close as he's come to yet to acknowledging the reality of both Obamacare and the problems he's having with his conference.

That "adequate" part is going to be in the eye of the beholder, but it got much more complicated Thursday by the hard-line stance Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has decided to take on the bill. Lee is best known as Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) faithful sidekick, and he's sure playing that role this week, saying that he will not vote for a bill that doesn't have Cruz's high-risk pool scheme included.

"The entire bill is unacceptable without the Consumer Freedom Option," Conn Carroll, Lee's spokesman, wrote in an email. This proposal would allow insurers to sell health plans that don't comply with Affordable Care Act rules, like pre-existing conditions protections or essential health benefits, as long as they also sell plans that meet all of those rules. Critics from both parties say this could make it harder for people with pre-existing conditions to get coverage.

That's a marginal position among Senate Republicans, where one Republican staffer says it would be generous to think that the Cruz proposition would get 15 votes.

We're getting much closer to beating this thing. It's all about keeping up the pressure.

We delayed Trumpcare—for now. But the GOP leadership is hell-bent on denying health insurance, and is working hard to coerce Republican senators. We need 3 Republicans to stand firm. Call your senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them “NO DEAL.” Then, tell us how it went.

New study finds Latinos have helped keep America's economy great

By Gabe Ortiz

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 1:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 13:01

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 18: A demonstrator wears a Trump campaign-style hat that bears a pro-immigrant message during the Immigrants Make America Great March to protest actions being taken by the Trump administration on February 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Protesters are calling for an end to stepped up ICE raids and deportations, and that health care be provided for documented and undocumented people. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

According to new research from the nonpartisan Latino Donors Collaborative, the nation’s 55 million Latinos—this includes immigrants and the U.S.-born—represented more than $2.1 trillion of our $18 trillion gross domestic product in 2015, with researchers estimating that by 2020, Latinos will represent nearly a quarter of the GDP. “If the U.S. Latino GDP was considered an economy of its own,” notes the study, “it would have been the seventh-largest in the world in 2015—just behind France and ahead of India”:

"We are excited to have statistical evidence that proves what Latinos living in the U.S. have always known to be true: we are a hard-working, productive, and essential part of American economic growth and American society," said Ana Valdez, executive director of the Latino economic advocacy group.

Critical to this economic growth are the 800,000 Latinos who turn 18 every year and are making the workforce more Latino as white Baby Boomers retire. “Latinas are leading the business growth and entrepreneurship in the United States,” noted Marlena Fitzpatrick last year, with Latinas “launching new businesses at three times the national rate.”

In fact, Latina-owned businesses created 550,400 jobs and contributed over $97 billion in revenues to the U.S. economy in 2015. Yet we still have a way to go to ensuring Latinas (and Latinos) are able to reach their full economic potential. Only about 1% of all Latino-owned businesses created between 2007 and 2012 in the U.S. received venture capital or angel investments. Furthermore, particular cultural traits, like fear of rescinding ownership of an established family business, may slow down the smooth sailing cruise to self-creating work. A recent study from Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that Latino businesses could have generated an additional $1.4 trillion in 2012 if they had been of equal average size to non-Latina(o) businesses.

Federal ethics chief who dogged Trump resigns: 'It’s clear there isn’t more I could accomplish'

By Kerry Eleveld

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 12:41 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 12:41

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - SEPTEMBER 06: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pauses during a campaign event September 6, 2016 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Trump participated in a discussion with retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Walter Shaub, who has been a persistent thorn in Trump's side on all things ethics, announced his resignation Thursday from his post as the federal government's ethics watchdog.

Shaub is stepping down as director of the independent Office of Government Ethics (OGE) six months early, writes the Washington Post:

Walter M. Shaub Jr. repeatedly challenged the Trump administration, publicly urging President Trump to fully divest from his business empire and chastising a senior Trump adviser for violating ethics rules. His outspokenness drew the ire of administration officials and earned him near-cult status among Trump’s opponents. Fans started a Facebook page in his honor, and his name has occasionally appeared on posters at anti-Trump protests. [...]

In an interview, Shaub said he was not leaving under pressure, adding that no one in the White House or the administration pushed him to leave. But the ethics chief said he felt that he had reached the limit of what he could achieve in this administration, within the current ethics framework.

“It’s clear that there isn’t more I could accomplish,” he said.

In his resignation letter, Shaub praised his colleagues at OGE, saying it was his "great privilege" to work with a group of individuals so committed to "protecting the principle that public service is a public trust" and requiring that government officials "place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws, and ethical principles above private gain."

Shaub also appears to believe that the office he lead doesn't have nearly enough tools to accomplish those goals in an administration that has flouted ethics rules and sneered at Constitutional obligations at every turn. In his new role as senior ethics director at the Campaign Legal Center, Shaub said he hoped to put more muscle behind government ethics programs.

“In working with the current administration, it has become clear that we need to strengthen the ethics program,” he said.

Trump's voter suppression commission wants to store your voting data on White House computers

By Laura Clawson

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 12:21 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 12:21

BEDMINSTER TOWNSHIP, NJ - NOVEMBER 20: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump and Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, shake hands following their meeting with president-elect at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — Donald Trump and Kris Kobach

Campaign Action

Kris Kobach, Donald Trump’s voter suppression vice chair, had to reply to a lawsuit on Thursday and in so doing offered up some new information about the commission he helps head and his quest for state data on every voter in the country. Here’s the most important part:

... the White House is using a website for data transfers operated by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center. Once states upload data to that site, “commission staff will download … the files … onto White House computers. As this is a Presidential advisory commission, the White House is responsible for collecting and storing data for the Commission.”

Is the rationale that Russia wouldn’t bother hacking their puppet president, or that this way it’ll be easier to transmit the data straight to Putin?

The theory, as laid out in Trump’s executive order establishing the commission, had been that the General Services Administration would staff it and provide things like data storage, but apparently someone decided that the quest to find “proof” of Donald Trump’s view that he totally would have won the popular vote if it wasn’t for all those darned illegals should stay in-house. Nothing suspicious about that, eh?

Midday open thread: Hollywood, Fla. to dump Rebel street names; SpaceX launches 3 rockets in 12 days

By Meteor Blades

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 12:01 PM PDT

2017/07/06 · 12:01

Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Super-Fun-Pak Comix, feat. The Nature of Reality & more:

Cartoon by Ruben Bolling -- Super-Fun-Pak Comix, feat. The Nature of Reality & more

• An Activists’ Calendar of Resistance Events
• Indivisible’s list of Resistance Events & Groups

• SpaceX launches three Falcon 9 rockets carrying satellites in a 12-day stretch: The Friday, June 23 launch from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida put a communications satellite into orbit. The Sunday, June 25 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California put up 10 Iridium satellites. SpaceX had put up the first batch of 10 in January. And on Wednesday, July 5, with another launch from the Florida center, the Falcon 9 put the heavy Intelsat 35e satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit, 22,300 miles above the Earth. It was the 10th SpaceX launch this year, two more than the record-breaking eight the company launched in 2016. The June 23 mission marked the second time a used booster rocket has been launched. That is a key aspect of SpaceX’s mission to greatly reduce launching costs by repeatedly flying the same rockets and returning them intact to Earth instead of tossing them away like a single-use disposable lighter, as has previously been the case since humans starting sending things into orbit. The June 25 mission launched a never-before-used booster rocket that SpaceX then recovered in one of those compelling Buck Rogers-style landing spectacles. The company has now made such recoveries on land or a droneship 13 times. The July 5 Falcon was not recovered, however. Because the Intelsat 35e satellite is heavy, and its high orbit required more fuel than a usual launch, there wasn’t enough left to bring the rocket back down.

•

When Antarctic's Larsen C ice shelf breaks off, it will contain enough ice to cover all 50 states 4.6-in. deep. https://t.co/CObDvKLM11
— Meteor_Blades (@Meteor_Blades) July 6, 2017

• Congressman says he’s sorry for making and posting Auschwitz video on YouTube and Facebook. Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins has removed the video containing political rhetoric that the director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said was inappropriate at Auschwitz. Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum said the former Nazi death camps should not be used as a stage.

• On this date in 1944, 167 people were killed in the Hartford, Connecticut, circus fire: There were 7,000 predominantly women and children spectators in the Big Top tent of the traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus that hot summer day. The dedicated train that had delivered the circus to town on July 5, was so late that two of the day’s three performances had to be canceled. Circus superstition considered that bad luck, and many performers and other circus employees were expecting trouble. To provide waterproofing, the canvas tent had been coated with nearly a ton of paraffin wax dissolved in thousands of gallons of gasoline. [What a great idea!!]Twenty minutes into the matinee performance on July 6, a fire started. Melting paraffin fell on many spectators, burning them. Within eight minutes, the tent, which was basically a candle ready to be lit, had collapsed on spectators who had not yet been able to escape. At least 500, perhaps as many as 700, suffered non-fatal injuries. An investigation never proved one way or another how the fire started, and a teen-ager who confessed to arson later recanted and was never charged.

• Secretary of State Tillerson to receive a lifetime achievement award: The Dewhurst Award, the highest honor of the World Petroleum Council, will be presented to Tillerson at its World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul in recognition of his 41 years climbing the corporate ladder at ExxonMobil.

• Hollywood (Florida) dumping Rebel street names: The city’s governing commission voted to go ahead with plans to change streets named after Confederate generals. These, notes The Root, “lie in the heart of the city’s African-American neighborhood.”

• ADP reports a net gain of 158,000 private-sector jobs in June. Government report due Friday. The ADP jobs report released today on private sector employment came in well below the forecast of 185,000 new jobs. ADP numbers are notorious for not meshing with the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report, and in recent months the differences between the two surveys have been more extreme than in the past, so today’s undershot of the forecast may or may not be a bad sign. But if the forecast consensus for the government survey is as far off in the same direction as the ADP forecast consensus, tomorrow will mark the fourth month of lower job gains. Average monthly gains tallied in the BLS reports have been trending downward since 2014.

On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Trump, the least funny Polish joke ever, seeks rebranding deal on Obama’s ISIS plan. Greg Dworkin finds the upside of election news, the Kobach Kommission kollapse, and Ted Cruz’s resurrection. So, what happens if they really do prove collusion? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Trump bows to Russia on Syrian conflict and election interference ahead of his Putin meeting

By Kerry Eleveld

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 11:21 AM PDT

2017/07/06 · 11:21

US President Donald Trump (R) listens to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (C) during a meeting with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center in Riyadh on May 21, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Trump confer.

Donald Trump and his minions are really rolling out the proverbial red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in advance of Trump's Friday meeting with him at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Russia was so pleased with Trump's assertion Thursday that Russia "could well" have hacked the U.S. election but "nobody really knows for sure," a Kremlin spokesman responded to the speech by urging that people "please note the nuances" of what Trump said. Moscow may as well have said, "Please note the talking point we gave Trump."

The Trump administration is also striking a conciliatory tone on the Syrian conflict, where Russia has worked assiduously to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. After finding Assad's use of chemical weapons on his own people several months ago so objectionable that Trump green lit a U.S. air strike in Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is now offering to work with Russia to stabilize the region. The AP writes:

In a statement Wednesday , Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. is open to establishing no-fly zones in Syria in coordination with Russia as well as jointly setting up a truce monitoring and humanitarian aid delivery mechanism. [...] But he stressed that Russia has to play a constructive role.

“While there are no perfect options for guaranteeing stability, we must explore all possibilities for holding the line against the resurgence of ISIS or other terrorist groups,” Tillerson said. “The United States and Russia certainly have unresolved differences on a number of issues, but we have the potential to appropriately coordinate in Syria in order to produce stability and serve our mutual security interests.” [...]

Tillerson added that Russia has “an obligation to prevent any further use of chemical weapons of any kind by the Assad regime.”

Now there's a statement with real teeth: Telling Russia that they are "obligated" to do the right thing. Let's remember that just three months ago following Assad’s chemical attack that killed dozens of Syrian civilians, Tillerson took to saber rattling, saying that he saw "no role" for Assad in Syria and adding a few days later that his rule was "coming to an end."

Politics in Texas provide insight into how the rest of the nation can go and it's downright scary

By Kelly Macias

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 11:01 AM PDT

2017/07/06 · 11:01

AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 22: Members of The Syrian People Solidarity Group protest on November 22, 2015 in Austin, Texas. The group was protesting Texas governor Greg Abbott's refusal to allow Syrian refugees in the state. (Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images) — Texas voters need to wrestle control of their state away from the Republicans who are intent on destroying people's lives.

For those of us who are not from or do not live in Texas, it can seem easy to make a joke out of its politics and people. There are some incredibly strange, downright bizarre and very scary aspects to the world of politics in the Lone Star state but there is no denying its complexity or its political influence on the rest of the county. What’s really intriguing is how the state was once controlled by Democrats but for the last forty or so years has been in the hands of conservative Republicans—many of whom do not represent the will of the changing demographics of the state. And as Republican politicians in Texas continue in their quest to ruin as many lives as possible because they think their religion demands it, it has scary implications for the people of the state, of course, but also for rest of the country.

"What happens in Texas doesn't stay in Texas. ... Texas is a behemoth and it has an outsize influence on the direction of America and we have a responsibility, I think, as Texans to make sure that we take care of our state in a way that would enable us to be the proper custodians of the future of America."

It’s great to hear a Texan acknowledge this. Because their legislators are truly out of control right now and getting worse. Reproductive health, health insurance and education are just a few of the issues currently at stake. Voters need to seriously consider what’s good for them and the rest of the nation when choosing politicians and choose wisely.

The long-term goal of cultural conservatives is to cut off access to abortion in Texas, to end state subsidies for birth control, and to gut state funding for Planned Parenthood—which, in 2011, served sixty per cent of the health needs of low-income women in the state. The legislators slashed the family-planning budget from $111.5 million to $37.9 million. Eighty-two family-planning clinics subsequently shut down.

Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation, and, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, about seventeen per cent of Texan women and girls live in poverty. After the family-planning budget was cut, there was a disproportionate rise in births covered by Medicaid, because so many women no longer had access to birth control. By defunding Planned Parenthood, the legislature also blocked many women from getting scans for breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Trump's team forgot to book a hotel, so they're crashing on Hamburg's couch for the G20

By Hunter

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 10:41 AM PDT

2017/07/06 · 10:41

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 23: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a signing ceremony for the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 in the East Room of the White House June 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Trump credited Congress and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin for getting the legislation into law. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) — Imagine when he finds out every other world leader is staying in a nicer place than he is.

One of the reasons to doubt that Team Trump is recording anybody's White House conversations is that the entirety of Team Trump, collected, could not find their own behinds with two hands, a full-length mirror, and five certified behind-finding dogs.

White House officials apparently waited too long to book accommodations for President Trump, leaving him without a hotel in Hamburg, Germany, as world leaders converge for the G20 summit. [...]
The Hamburger Abendblatt, a local news outlet, reported that the US government wanted to accommodate Trump in the Four Seasons, but it was already booked. In fact, it turns out that every luxury hotel in Hamburg was reportedly booked by the time the Americans called, leaving Trump, who is associated with an empire of hotel properties, scrambling for a place to stay.

As a result of this apparent goof—which will no doubt result in a very, very crabby Trump during his G20 meetings—Donald will now apparently be staying in the city of Hamburg's Senate guest house. It is quite nice, we presume, but it is not the Four Seasons and probably has very little to no gold-plated plumbing of the sort Donald is accustomed to. BuzzFeed does not mention whether Donald will be paying them, and we have no current estimate how how much the threat of nuclear war may or may not hinge on Donald Trump liking the guest house mattresses.

That's right. The "most powerful nation on earth" forgot to book a place to stay and is crashing on Hamburg's couch for the duration of their important meetings. He'll probably rifle through the medicine cabinets and make off with the towels. He seems like a towel-stealer.

Rick Perry illuminates thirty years of conservative economics in one brilliant statement

By Mark Sumner

Thursday Jul 06, 2017 · 10:20 AM PDT

2017/07/06 · 10:20

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 28: Energy Department Secretary nominee Rick Perry arrives to a joint session of the U.S. Congress with U.S. President Donald Trump on February 28, 2017 in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Trump's first address to Congress is expected to focus on national security, tax and regulatory reform, the economy, and healthcare. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Finally. Someone has explained why conservative economics have been failing ever since Ronald Reagan convinced George H. W. Bush to shut up about the voodoo.

DOE Rick Perry at coal plant:"HereÃ¢ÂÂs a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow."
— Taylor Kuykendall (@taykuy) July 6, 2017

Yes. There is a excess supply of coal in the Untied States. And by the rules of Republican economics, these heaping piles of oxidizing rock will, with a high five from the invisible hand, create demand! Where this demand will come from, without additional plants to burn the coal, and with the only “clean coal” plant in America just deciding that it won’t burn coal after all? No one knows. But it has to happen because … supply.

In explaining this supply generates demand rule, Rick Perry has given joy to every thirty-year old still harboring a box of pogs, every fifty year old still hanging on to those indie comics, and that guy you know who is right now filling up a warehouse with fidget spinners.

Never let it be said that Republicans can’t bring hope. And honestly, it makes far more sense than Trump’s proposed tax policy.

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