Apparently, Al Franken thought this was funny.
Some possible topics — but as always, feel free to introduce your own:
- Wal-Mart Posts Strongest U.S. Sales in Nearly a Decade — So that’s who’s been doing so well in this economy. Sorry if you can’t pull up the story; I don’t have access to WSJ these days, either. But what I could see said this was the retailer’s “strongest quarterly U.S. sales growth in nearly a decade” and that it was “boosted by a big jump in ecommerce and strong store traffic.”
- After Tokyo Commuter Train Leaves 20 Seconds Early, Company Apologizes — Yeah, we get it — yours is a very conscientious culture. But come on; lighten up. You’re forgiven (even though, in my book, leaving early is way worse than waiting a minute).
- Senate bill would cut taxes for millionaires but hike them for the poor, working class — That’s according to the official assessment by the Joint Committee on Taxation.
- Senator Al Franken Apologizes After Groping Accusation — You know, I still haven’t adjusted to the idea of this guy being a U.S. senator. The above photo fits more closely to the way I think of him than his serious senator photos.
- Four Women Accuse Moore as Campaign Pushes Back — Four more that is, bringing it to nine. Who knew there were so many lyin’ women in Alabama? That Bernie Bernstein must be running out of money about now, huh? Of course, this leaves Moore WAY short of Donald Trump’s 16, but then, Trump is the Man… I guess I shouldn’t joke, since there are people reading this blog who actually think that way, which is no laughing matter.
Related Posts
It’s not just Wal-Mart. Amazon, Apple, hotel chains like Marriott are all doing well. When hotel chains do well, that is a sign that the economy is cooking. High occupancy rates combined with higher room rates = huge revenues. If you want a leading indicator of when the economy is turning down, watch those stocks.
And before watching those stocks, watch the room rates oscillate.
The hotel industry is tough to figure out though; high barrier to entry areas are the ones most sensitive to economic change (since they are usually where business gets done), while on the other hand, hotels in easy to compete with locations constantly fight new construction vacancy pressure for their more steady occupancy loads.
1. Ironic isn’t it? Republicans can’t get anything passed and the economy prospers. Perhaps doing nothing is a good strategy when nothing needs doing.
That’s what I said during the whole Obama administration. Doing nothing was his best accomplishment.
4. Sad to see Franken has a creepy side. No Democrats will defend this. Not even Franken. Not too many defending Moore any longer. Ditto Cosby, Weinstein, Weiner, Spacey or any other creeper out there. The lone exception seems to be Donald Trump. Why is that?
Franken should go. He tongue kissed her without her consent after objections. There is literal photographic evidence of him sexually engaging an unconscious woman (even if it was meant as a joke, there was an obvious fixation there). If the left is going to take a zero tolerance stance, it has to take a zero tolerance stance here. Not taking that stance would be hypocrisy.
If it were a case of slapping a woman’s bottom in 1974 I could give it a pass. It was a different time, right? Instead it was 2006, the same year as the Abu Ghraib photos. It was a time when the world clearly knew better.
Who, oh who would those people in Minnesota vote into office next? Is PeeWee Herman from Minnesota? Maybe Jesse Ventura would be available.
JesseS I’ll trade you Al Franken for Donald Trump. Given the allegations against Trump are worse than against Franken that is a just outcome.
I get the feeling you think I’m looking at this from a left/right standpoint and I’m just regurgitating right-wing talking points. Here is my deal, modern progressivism takes a 100% zero tolerance stance on things like unwanted sexual advances, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual assault, and rape. I’d say it can be a scorched earth view at times with a very sharp and very broad sword getting flung around, but whatever –it’s the way we’ve culturally decided to move forward on this.
Granted I think the near future isn’t going to be terribly comfortable for straight white men, but in the long term it will be worth it. We have a long way to go until this starts to get stupid and someone claims sexual harassment in the public sphere when a man clicks the “like” button on a woman’s dating site profile without getting her written permission first (though I’d imagine the alt-right and 4Chan are already working on that sock puppet and the cultural far-left will be more than happy to assist with gasoline and matches). Until then there is a lot of really, really messed up stuff we men need to be taken to task for.
Now isn’t the time to say, “This reaction is too much”. Now is the time to say, “Heads must roll, even if it’s my own”. The price of that very sharp and very broad sword is that it can just as easily be wielded by the right to take down any kind of misconduct on the left. I can live with that. No mercy. No quarter.
Is this an obvious hit on Franken by the right? Of course! Does that matter? No.
Do I wish progressivism hadn’t have forged such a deadly weapon, in much the same way a racist deserves no quarter in the modern world (and it’s very easy to define anyone as racist)? That’s irrelevant at this point.
Franken should resign. Moore should be in prison. Trump should be impeached. It’s that simple.
“(even though, in my book, leaving early is way worse than waiting a minute)”
The Blue Peter had been hoisted, and we were about to miss our tide. There was not a moment to lose, for all love’s sake. We could not tarry a moment longer for stragglers.
And the admiral had impatiently fired a gun…
The Blue Peter? I could make a further comment but it wouldn’t be approved.
The Blue Peter, as people familiar with naval history know, was a flag that ships would fly, back in the days of sailing ships, to let everyone ashore know that the ship was about to weigh anchor and depart. It was a signal to any crewmen still ashore that they needed to come aboard RIGHT NOW…
Okay, I thought it had something more with men being at sea for six months.
Actually, that’s why it’s so hard to get them back to the ship once they go on liberty.
Sometimes the Blue Peter wasn’t enough, and squads of marines had to be sent ashore to get them…
On the Franken thing, it’s really in poor taste, but it’s not a real grope, it’s a pretend grope. She’s wearing a flak vest which has an armor plate in it.
But yeah, he shouldn’t have done that. Luckily, he’s a Democrat, so it won’t be a big deal. It’s not like he said “Binders full of women” while being a Republican.
It’s not only wrong to bind women, but even to speak of it!
“On the Franken thing, it’s really in poor taste, but it’s not a real grope, it’s a pretend grope. She’s wearing a flak vest which has an armor plate in it.”
Okay… she’s your daughter, wife, sister… still feel the same way? He may not have felt anything but she did.
Right, that’s why I said it’s in poor taste. It’s using bad judgment and not thinking about the consequences of actions, which is something I expect out of teenagers. But it’s not something I would get that bent out of shape over.
Caveat: If this was a family member of mine, my indignation would be proportional to the level of anger felt by my family member.
And as a wise man once said: Never take sides against the family.
… EVER.
Really?
Seems to me that’s how we end up with the Hatfields vs. McCoys.
Seriously? Donald Trump has been given a free pass for his numerous groping incidents. I could elaborate for many paragraphs on how the Democrats catch far, far more flak than Republicans in scandaland. But what’s the point, conservatives prefer alternate fact over reality.
Y’all, I feel bad I didn’t have any local items for this thread. Maybe y’all can suggest something.
I mean, I made the effort the last couple of posts, but no one was interested.
But I wasn’t just doing affirmative action there. Those posts — about McMaster clinging to Trump, and Ms. Templeton to Bannon — reflect a serious concern.
These people are not by nature extremists — at least, they didn’t used to be. McMaster was THE establishment Republican in the 2010 race, long before he went Trump. In that same year, Catherine Templeton voted for Vincent Sheheen.
And yet they’re both running so hard out into right field — and beyond, up into the cheap seats in the bleachers — that the Republicans simply don’t have a viable mainstream option.
And since Republicans generally win these elections, that’s very bad news for South Carolina…
Local item: The Free Times and The State have been writing stories about how the block of Main Street (around the corner from my law office on Blanding) is the “hot block”. Yeah, I’m cool like that.
“And since Republicans generally win these elections, that’s very bad news for South Carolina…”
Brad, your Democrat is showing…
Nope. I just stated a fact. Since Republicans usually win elections here, it’s very bad for us if all the Republican candidates start going off the deep end. We need some Republicans like Carroll Campbell, and look at what we’re getting now…
Well you could reach out to “Tumpy” Campbell, didn’t he try to run for office but was humiliated because he had absolutely no political experience?
Donald o Trump says ” who the heck needs political experience?”
The fake sex scandals have gone over the top; who cares…It’s like Carlos Castenada or something, gee whiz…, but Mea Culpa to Doug for that time on the bus…
Steve Benjamin banning bump stocks from city limits. So does this mean I can now shoot rifles within city limits as long as they don’t have a bump stock?
The biggest story of the week by far is the Trump administration lifting the ban on the importation of elephant heads. There needs to be a special place in hell for people that encourage the senseless slaughter of these semi-endangered animal.
Well that’s a lot of fake news. They lifted the ban from one country under specific guidelines that were established years ago based on the conservation measures in place. Zimbabwe met the guidelines. Hunting to control animal population is valid. And the money that goes into the poorest countries in the world to provide safari services is welcomed there.
Always predictable in your utter bias.
What an absolutely disgusting thing to defend. There are far better ways to manage elephant populations, if that is even a problem, than to allow spoiled rich kids like Donald Jr. to cravenly slaughter these magnificent animals in order to satisfy some sick kind of fetish. There has been a substantial black market for animal tusks of all kinds that needs to be discouraged. Anything that imbues this kind of activity with some sort of false validation is both inappropriate and counter to proper conservation efforts.
It’s done in the U.S. for wolves, bear, and bison… are you suggesting those programs for controlling the size of packs and herds are also disgusting?
If you want to blame anyone, don’t blame Trump. Blame the bureaucrats in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who have established the policies that allow it. Unless you seriously think that Trump sits around in his spare time coming up the endangered species regulations.
bud you don’t have the first clue as to how this works. The animals selected for culling are ones that are old, of no use to the maintenance of the herd, animals kicked out of the herd, troublemakers that hurt others in the herd, etc… They don’t just let a hunter come in and pick and choose which one they want to shoot… well they may for things like water buffalo or zebras where there are hundreds of thousands. For animals like elephants, lions, giraffes, etc… they tell you which one to shoot. I know a guy who went on a lion hunt (not the shooter), he said it was more like putting it out of it’s misery than hunting. The tens of thousands of dollars are put back into the preservation, to hire guards who keep poachers out and the meat is used to feed locals.
You state there are far better ways to manage these populations… please elaborate.
Yeah, Doug’s right about this. Managed hunting reduces the pressure on land being converted from its natural state to cattle ranching or agricultural cultivation. If you want to preserve Africa in its natural state, rather than having it converted to farmland, you need to provide incentives to do so.
In the absence of any regulated and managed hunting, landowners and the local population see wildlife as threats and are going to kill them. Without any stake in the conservation of wildlife, there’s no reason that the locals are going to conserve the population of lions and tigers. You know, because wild tigers and lions are sort of dangerous.
However, managed hunting puts money in the pockets of landowners and probably also raises the standard of living for nearby rural people who will see ancillary economic benefits. It also encourages the conservation and incentivizes the managed growth of the wildlife population. If people are going to pay $50,000 – $60,000 to come hunt a lion or tiger, it’s going to encourage the African government and population to protect these animals.
In a well-managed system, money from the hunting licenses would go towards managing the animal population, paying game wardens to protect against poachers, and otherwise benefit the country without hurting the animal population. For example, if you have an older lion that is no longer breeding, that would be an appropriate animal to issue a license for.
You’ve got to get a handle on corruption in the licensing system, and manage the amount of licenses given, but if done correctly, it can be a benefit for the people, the animals, and the hunters.
The right answer is smart policy and good management.
The problem isn’t too many elephants but too many people encroaching on their habitat. The African elephant population is perhaps 10-20% what it was in 1900. What is desparetly needed is an aggressive birth control program for Africa. We don’t need to return to the barbaric days of importing elephant heads.
Sounds like we have the potential for a different type of bounty hunting opportunity.
“What is desparetly needed is an aggressive birth control program for Africa. ”
You do know that making that statement in these days could be considered a racist statement.
Yes, it certainly could. But then, there’s always been that element among the population-control folks, going back to the heyday of eugenics.
In Bud’s case, though, we know it’s not racism — he’s against ALL kinds of babies being born in numbers he regards as too large…
Those babies are just lucky, they didn’t earn the right to be born.
Agree with you bud. The elephant decision is stupid and now will be reversed.
Grope, grope, harass all over the headlines. Plans to stiff the main body of citizens in the tax bill, obliterated by the distractions. I’m not a groper; I’ve never been a groper, but it doesn’t rise (or sink) to the level of hoodwinking the country to fatten the already fat cats. Of course, the country and press will continue to neither seek out the facts nor prominently expose the facts regarding the tax bill as long as there’s sex to talk about.
Hey, I had the tax bill on the list! Have to admit, though, I didn’t care much about it until, totally gratuitously, they threw in the thing about removing the healthcare mandate. They must have sat around thinking, “How can we completely tick Brad off?” Well, they had to reach; they had to go completely off the rails, but they found a way…
How about those trains?
Karen, you’re right! That’s a good local story I overlooked…
I’ve lived in the area for nearly 25 years, this has been going on the entire time I’ve lived here… why is it suddenly a problem now?
First, it’s always a problem.
But it’s a big topic right now because a couple of days ago there was an extreme incident in which trains backed up traffic for a couple of hours. One woman said she was stopped at 7:45, and the blockage didn’t end until 9:30…
I thought there were laws on the books where a train couldn’t block an intersection for a period of time… like an hour. If they blocked it for two hours, then issue a ticket to the railroad.
Right. And apparently they are not being enforced…
Call the Mayor’s Office. They’re most likely there banning things that aren’t currently an issue in the city.
That’s one of big pet peeves. We go on and on about widening some road but the trains continue to plague traffic around Williams Brice Stadium. The ultimate solution would be expensive but well worth it.
Ok, why the moderation over a very tame agreement about the trains?
“Williams.” There was a troll who for a time called himself “William”…
I’m all for it, it’s a city street, as long as the city taxpayers foot the bill I don’t have a problem.
Actually, the roads are state highways. You’ll chip in your share; just as it should be.
Does that change your opinion of the need to deconflict the rails?
Assembly Street is a state highway? Well I guess I learned something today. The thing I know is the engineer who designed this is an idiot for not putting in an overpass on one of the busiest streets in the city.
So what was there first, the street or the track?
Most significant thoroughfares you travel on in SC are state-owned. This is the Legislative State. Very little is controlled by local government….
I don’t live in Columbia. But in multiple visits there, I’ve always found it strange that trains still rumble right through downtown the way they do. You don’t see that in Greenville or Spartanburg or, so far as I know, Charleston. Even most of the small towns that used to have tracks running right through the middle of them don’t any more. Why is Columbia still so small town that way?
I remember remarking to my wife back in the 1970’s that if those trains were in a city up north, somebody would blow up the tracks. It’s a shame to disrupt traffic in a major city the way they do. Glad some officials are getting involved at least in the complaining. It’s likely a part of a grossly underdeveloped infrastructure in a tax-averse state.
This reminds me of the developers whining about the chicken plant in West Columbia. Who was there first? The railroad tracks or the developers around the tracks?
Secretary of State office in South Carolina “forgot” to attach state seal to bills for years making them constitutionally invalid.
Cue bud saying this level of incompetence goes on in the private sector in 3..2..1
Not to disappoint, of course it does. Doug do you have nothing better to do than sit around finding anything wrong about government? In my own personal experience I can say the list of incompetence I come across daily in the private sector far exceeds that of government.
Give me a comparable situation to this major screw up that resulted in government employees from being fired. The Secretary of State should resign for this mistake made over YEARS on his watch. And whoever was responsible for affixing the seal to the laws should be fired. Think it will happen?
And I don’t have to sit around looking for these stories. They happen every day with pretty much every government agency I come in contact with. At least in the private sector, I get a mix of good and bad.
The only difference, is in the private sector these people get fired and the business goes under when this type of stuff happens. In government, it gets swept under the rug and the guy gets promoted.
You mean like with the nuclear plant mess, where the head of the public utility was pushed out immediately and the private utility guys managed to hang on for another couple of months? Like that?
Sometimes a bigwig gets “fired”. But invariably they land with a golden parachute.
Lillian McBride. Case closed.
Harvey Weinstein.
Lillian McBride is a perfect example of a serious flaw in governmental structure — one I’ve been going on about, specifically, since 1991.
You know why it doesn’t change? Because the public doesn’t demand it. Why? Because the public doesn’t understand the issue. So lawmakers say, “Not one of my constituents has ever said a word to me about getting rid of special purpose districts. My constituents want me to do something about X or Y or Z, and THAT’S what I’m going to apply myself to…”
And the public gripes and moans, and think this is just “the way government is.” But that’s not right. With the election commission and the recreation district, we’re talking about a specific design flaw that could be fixed if we just did away with all single-county SPDs. (Multi-county ones, such as the one that runs the zoo or an airport, can actually make some sense, since there’s a need to administer them across jurisdictions.)
There ARE things wrong with our democracy. And one of them, in certain instances, is that it’s become too democratic. Lawmakers run around trying to address whatever stupid thing the public is upset about today, and it never has to do with the basic structure of governmental entities.
That’s why I’m really pleased when I run across a lawmaker, or a candidate, who seems to get it. It’s why I was so pleased with my new representative, Micah Caskey (and why I decided not to run against him). For that matter, the guy he beat in the primary runoff would also have been good — Tem Miles. If anything, Tem was even more interested in addressing fundamental structural problems in government than Micah.
I don’t know why it works that way, but it’s something I noticed almost every election cycle when I was doing endorsement interviews at The State: A small handful of districts seem to attract more than their share of good candidates, while others struggle to come up with even one….
But I digress…
As made famous by That 70’s Show, “BURN!!!”
“the private utility guys managed to hang on for another couple of months”
You mean 30-60 days? OMG!!! The outrage!!!
Which was more accountable — the public utility or the private one?
Public, they’re civil servants servicing the public… or at least that’s what they like to tell us. Just one level below sainthood.
Keep the trains but get rid of The Vista!
I would have been trapped in here (the Olympia area) for those 2 hours had I been in here at that time. We had trouble getting back in around 9:15. What if there had been a fire, or a medical emergency? Perhaps someone could have gotten in by taking I-77 to Bluff, and coming in that way, unless of course the train that runs by Olympia school was stopped and waiting for the tracks to clear. Maybe they’ll do something once they realize that they now have a whole bunch of college kids who could be trapped.
Assembly street isn’t the only route into the Olympia area. Also if necessary the police/fire department can notify the train crew and require them to uncouple to let emergency traffic pass.
Try having Huger, Assembly Whaley, and Rosewood all blocked at once. If you were having some type of CVA would you care to wait until they uncounted cars to get help?
“Try having Huger, Assembly Whaley, and Rosewood all blocked at once”
How long is this train?
I think what happened this week is that one train was blocking another at a place where their tracks crossed, so it blocked a lot of streets…
One train blocking another train? Barring some sort of emergency/breakdown, that seems like some poor planning on the part of the train people.
Caveat: My train experience is limited to setting up the model train that goes around the Christmas tree.
My grandson could show you how to set it up so that one blocks the other. You have to do that if you’re going to do any “crashing and booming,” which he’s definitely going to do.
My understanding is that two trains left their separate yards at about the same time, and there was no traffic coordination…
Here’s what The State reported:
What’s he asking for this Christmas? Henry (six years old) is asking for a telescope.
I’m not sure. I know my Dad’s already gotten him something I think he’ll like. I don’t know if he’s totally focused on the Christmas thing yet. First there’s his sister’s birthday in early December, then I guess they’ll be thinking more about Christmas…
One train blocking another train? Barring some sort of emergency/breakdown, that seems like some poor planning on the part of the train people.
In Doug world someone will surely get fired since these are private companies.
If you think it’s hard to fire family members working in the same state agency, try watching the fiasco that is trying to fire family members working for the same private company- wowza……………
How come Bryan is so much cuter than Micah?
my xmas train set got boring so we put encyclopedia volumes under the track until the transformer started smoking…
Ron Aiken takes job, suspends blogging. See his site.
Yeah, I heard about that. Joel Lourie mentioned it to me the other day, and he was sorry to see it.
Here’s the link.
I hope Ron found a good gig…
88 year old John Conyers, the longest serving Democrat member of the House, has now been exposed as another serial sexual harasser.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/11/21/conyers-sexual-misconduct/883902001/
The story reveals numerous payoffs – including paying one woman as a staff member who didn’t work rather than pay her out of funds set aside by Congress for harassment claims.
He should be gone from office TODAY. But instead all we will hear is “Trump”.
And Nancy Pelosi’s response – “Huh? What? Who?”
Conyers is a freak and so is Putin’s boytoy.It’s a sick world(Charlie Rose,too),I’m a lucky guy…
“But instead all we will hear is ‘Trump’.”
Really? Where have you been? To whom are you listening? All I’ve been hearing about the last couple of days has been Al Franken and Charlie Rose. Oh, and Glenn Thrush.
I’m not following what you’re saying at all.
Of course, if we WERE hearing more about Trump (also, incidentally, a “serial harasser” by his own word) that would be appropriate, since he’s in far more of a position to do harm in this world than this Conyers guy.
Oh, and you meant “DemocratIC,” as in “longest-serving Democratic member of the House,” or if you prefer, “longest-serving Democrat in the House.”
When you misuse “Democrat” that way you sound like a Republican — it’s almost like a password they use to recognize each other — and I know you’re not one of those…
Brad… we all know what he meant, if all you have is a grammatical statement keep it to yourself.
Sorry, but I’m going to point that out every time I run across it. It’s one of those things I hate like using “impact” as a verb — which, by the way, The State did today in a headline on the front page. Arrrggghhhh!
I am not impacted by youre grammer enforcement. Their ain’t no problem with what I rote.
Well me and Brad do have a disagreement on how me don’t care, as long as he doesn’t do it to I, me doesn’t care.
Like… like why don ‘t you like do a story on that word and like how it’s used in like today’s everyday conversation.
He thought if Strom Thurmond could get away with it he could too.
Why do we have 88 year old people running this country?
Because there is no IQ test required to vote.
So they can get laid