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Monthly Archives: February 2020

38% of Americans are irredeemably stupid

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Corona beer, Corona virus, COVID-19, Eye sea stoopit peeple, Indiana, Jerome Adams, Mike Pence, pandemic, Surgeon General

Anyone remember Ayds?

…38% of American beer drinkers surveyed this week said they wouldn’t buy Corona ‘under any circumstances’ at the moment. It’s worth noting that, among regular Corona drinkers, only 4% said they would now refrain. Yet 14% of the Corona drinkers admitted they would not order the brand in a public place, found the survey, conducted by 5W Public Relations. Sixteen percent of the beer drinkers surveyed by 5W were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the coronavirus, according to the publicity agency…

And, through official channels:

U.S. Surgeon General @Surgeon_General
Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!

They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!
[….]
6:08 AM · Feb 29, 2020

Think about that for a second. We’re told masks aren’t effective for the general public, but there’s a shortage, so we need them for our health care workers, because masks are effective.

The Surgeon General of the United States obviously believes the American people are irredeemably stupid.

Dr. Jerome Adams is the 20th Surgeon General of the United States….Dr. Adams is also the former Health Commissioner of Indiana, where he led the State’s responses to Ebola, Zika, and to the largest ever HIV outbreak in the United States related to injection drug use….

Current Vice President and former Indiana Governor Mike Pence (r) is “in charge”. None of this inspires confidence.

Bad combover. Check. Too long red tie. Check. Orange spray tan. Check. Tiny hands. Check. Cluelessness. Check…

It’s on the tip of his tongue

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Charles P. Pierce, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, misogyny, social media, Twitter

Reported today:

Charles P. Pierce @CharlesPPierce
Somebody a’skeered.

[….]
Trump on Warren: “She’s not dumb, but she’s just so damn mean”
[….]

7:00 AM · Feb 29, 2020

I smell fear.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2019 file photo].

Campaign Finance: They ain’t Bogartin’ the money…

28 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

campaign finance, initiative, legalization, Marijuana, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission in support of a marijuana legalization initiative:

C190985 02/28/2020 Missourians for a New Approach New Approach PAC PO Box 190201 St Louis MO 63119 2/28/2020 $260,000.00

C161165 02/28/2020 New Approach PAC New Approach PAC PO Box 33601 Washington DC 20033 2/28/2020 $210,000.00

[emphasis added]

Earlier this week:

161165 02/26/2020 New Approach PAC New Approach PAC PO Box 33601 Washington DC 20033 2/25/2020 $100,000.00

C190985 02/27/2020 Missourians for a New Approach New Approach PAC PO Box 190201 St Louis MO 63119 2/27/2020 $36,500.00

[emphasis added]

Who get’s what?

Previously:

Something to look forward to (January 1, 2020)

Campaign Finance: the wildwood flower (January 30, 2020)

Campaign Finance: smoke ’em when you get ’em (February 18, 2020)

Making the Stock Market Great Again

27 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Donald Trump, economy, stock market

“Make America Great Again” – in Russian.

This afternoon:

Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto
The Dow closed down 1,191 points, or 4.4% – the worst one-day point drop in history. The index has lost 3,226 points this week.

The S&P 500 finished down 4.4% – the worst one-day percentage drop since August 2011.

It was the sixth straight day of losses for the Dow & S&P
3:23 PM · Feb 27, 2020

Now what?

Bad combover. Check. Too long red tie. Check. Orange spray tan. Check. Tiny hands. Check. Cluelessness. Check…

The First Day of Candidate Filing – 2020

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

From the Missouri Secretary of State:

UNOFFICIAL Candidate Filing List
2020 Primary Election
[….]
Ballot Placement: First day filers (2/25/2020) selected a number by random drawing to determine their placement on the primary ballot. After the first day, all candidates are placed on the ballot in order of their filing.
All Candidates and parties are listed in ballot order.
(Name, Mailing Address and Date/Time Filed as of 2/26/2020 6:03:03 a.m.)

Governor Mike Parson (r) [2018 file photo].

A sampling:

Governor

Republican
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Raleigh Ritter 4476 FIVE MILE RD SENECA MO 64865 185 2/25/2020 12:09 p.m.
Mike Parson 1458 E 464 RD BOLIVAR MO 65613 348 2/25/2020 10:44 a.m.
James W. (Jim) Neely PO BOX 343 CAMERON MO 64429 477 2/25/2020 1:09 p.m.

Democratic
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Nicole Galloway 505 W STEWART RD COLUMBIA MO 65203 646 2/25/2020 11:14 a.m.
Jimmie Matthews 5935 LILLIAN AVE ST LOUIS MO 63136 861 2/25/2020 9:49 a.m.
Antoin Johnson 12200 BARCELONA AVE ST LOUIS MO 63138 989 2/25/2020 9:09 a.m.

State Auditor Nicole Galloway (D).

Uh, where’s Eric Greitens (r)?

Attorney General

Republican
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Eric Schmitt POST BOX 220722 KIRKWOOD MO 63122 502 2/25/2020 10:58 a.m.

Democratic
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Rich Finneran PO BOX 592 ST LOUIS MO 63188 200 2/25/2020 12:29 p.m.
Elad Gross 5653 SOUTHWEST AVE ST LOUIS MO 63139 220 2/25/2020 8:32 a.m.

Elad Gross (D) [2020 file photo].

Jill Schupp (D) [2016 file photo].

U.S. Representative – District 2

Republican
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Ann Wagner 313 ST ANDREWS CT BALLWIN MO 63011 677 2/25/2020 8:11 a.m.

Democratic
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Jill Schupp 418 N MOSLEY RD ST LOUIS MO 63141 553 2/25/2020 8:21 a.m.

Libertarian
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Martin Schulte 15579 CLAYTON RD BALLWIN MO 63011 414 2/25/2020 1:10 p.m.

Lindsey Simmons (D) [2020 file photo].

U.S. Representative – District 4

Republican
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Neal Gist PO BOX 1130 LAURIE MO 65038 857 2/25/2020 9:25 a.m.

Democratic
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Lindsey Simmons PO BOX 413 HALLSVILLE MO 65255 840 2/25/2020 9:39 a.m.

Libertarian
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Robert E Smith 818 N MAIN ST NEVADA MO 64772 250 2/25/2020 3:43 p.m.

Where’s Vicky (r)?

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) [2017 file photo].

U.S. Representative – District 5

Republican
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Clay Chastain 421 LEE ST. BEDFORD VA 24523 43 2/25/2020 10:51 a.m.

Democratic
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Emanuel Cleaver II 8217 E GREGORY BLVD KANSAS CITY MO 64133 518 2/25/2020 8:23 a.m.
Maite Salazar 4228 MONTGALL AVE KANSAS CITY MO 64130 785 2/25/2020 1:42 p.m.

Kathy Ellis (D) [2020 file photo].

U.S. Representative – District 8

Republican
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Jason Smith PO BOX 1324 CAPE GIRARDEAU MO 63702 427 2/25/2020 8:18 a.m.

Democratic
Name Mailing Address Random Number Date Filed
Kathy Ellis 208 BARRINGTON PL FESTUS MO 63028 73 2/25/2020 10:02 a.m.

The last day for candidate filing is March 31, 2020.

What access to $50,000,000,000.00 or $60,000,000,000.00 gets you

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

"Little" Tuesday, campaign finance, mail, Mike Bloomberg, missouri, president, Primary

The Missouri presidential preference primary will take place on Tuesday, March 10th, a week after “Super” Tuesday. Here in west central Missouri we’ve received our first piece of campaign mail.

Slick.

“…He’ll be president for the entire country…” Uh, that’s how it used to work.

It is a Democratic Party primary. But, since voters in Missouri don’t register by party, any voter can pull a Democratic Party primary ballot.

So much for the Donald’s leading economic indicator…

25 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

CDC, Coronavirus, Donald Trump, Jason Kander, pandemic, Public Health, social media, stock market, Twitter

Jason Kander (D) [2016 file photo]

Yesterday evening:

Jason Kander @JasonKander
The President trying to prevent the stock market from contracting coronavirus is the natural extension of believing corporations are people.
6:56 PM · Feb 24, 2020

The people haven’t been doing so well for the past two days.

4:01 pm: Dow drops 3%, bringing 2-day point loss to 1,910

Major averages slid on Tuesday, accelerating Monday’s sharp losses. The Dow fell 879 points, or 3.15%, the S&P 500 dropped 3.03% and the Nasdaq fell 2.77%. The U.S. 10-year treasury yield fell to its lowest level on record as the growing number of coronavirus cases outside of China continued to roil the markets, and investors[.]

Bad combover. Check. Too long red tie. Check. Orange spray tan. Check. Tiny hands. Check. Cluelessness. Check…

Now what?

Rep. Jason Smith (r): talk, talk, talk

24 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Healthcare, social media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

8th Congressional District, ACA, chutzpah, gaslighting, health care, Hypocrisy, Jason Smith, missouri, Obamacare, social media, Twitter

Chutzpah, too.

Rep. Jason Smith @RepJasonSmith
For our community, access to care isn’t just a talking point – it’s a matter of life or death. Last week, I continued my fight for rural healthcare and met with Director Carroll of the @ONDCP and @GovParsonMO for a roundtable in Cape Girardeau.
[….]
9:49 AM · Feb 24, 2020

Hypocrisy, they think it’s a good look.

The replies, as always, are priceless:

You have devoted your entire career, both in the Missouri General Assembly and in the Congress, to blocking healthcare for working people in your District. Besides the health effects, your actions have resulted in closed hospitals in your District.

you’ve been active in preventing access.

You want to protect folks with pre-existing conditions — but at a higher price for them. Currently the ACA which you oppose makes it illegal to consider pre-existing conditions in pricing. So you want to repeal the ACA to change that? Why? Keep your filthy hands off the ACA.

How about helping Missouri expand Medicaid to save rural hospitals. It was Gingrich’s and Heritage’s plan. Time to stop being stupid because of Obama. He’s done. You can try thinking with you own brain now. 36 states accept our federal expanded Medicaid dollars. And Gov. Pence.

You voted to kill my insurance.
#shuttheFupyouliar

Yes Jason, it can be life or death, but your voting record tells a different story than this talking point.

Oh please. You voted to take away healthcare from Missourians

Um… @RepJasonSmith voted against ACA – the exact opposite of which you are telling people today. What’s up with that?

Medicaid expansion would automatically cover 200,000 more Missouri residents and save us $100 million! The feds cover 90% of the cost. [….]

At this point you’re just punking us.

Getting scared, bro? Remember when you celebrated voting to repeal the ACA with no replacement? Yeah, I do. Y’all brought beer in to celebrate. You’ve been fighting to TAKE AWAY healthcare, you lying PoS.

Three down. Fifty-four or so to go.

23 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in media criticism, meta, social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

blogging, facebook, media criticism, meta, president, primaries and caucuses, social media, Twitter

Primaries and caucuses that is.

Over the years on the social media platforms I use I restrict who and what I follow to the point that I know the vast majority of people who I encounter (read) to a few degrees of separation and/or I am fairly certain they’re real people.

And, I post on Show Me Progress. When someone comments here it is held until I approve it. Since I hold the keys to the shop I see all of the background information not available to the casual user, which includes the posting IP address and the commenter’s e-mail address. Again, I can ascertain if a comment comes from a real person with a fair degree of certainty.

In 2016 (see below) I wrote about the disaster that was the Missouri State Democratic Convention. That drew interactions and comments from Bernie Sanders supporters that ranged from polite condescension to outright hostility. Nothing, really, about party unity.

Now in 2020, at this point in the presidential nominee selection process after the Nevada debate and the question about having a plurality of delegates, not a majority, posed by NBC’s Chuck Todd (I know, he’s useless), I started seeing posted material from Bernie Sanders supporters, contrary to the DNC 2020 rules which all the candidates and their campaigns know, that the candidate with a plurality (if no one has a majority on the first ballot) should feel entitled to the nomination on the second ballot.

The last multiple ballot nomination at a Democratic convention took place in 1952.

Back to 2020. In my comments on various discussions about the issue I have pointed out that if no candidate achieve 50% + 1 on the first ballot, that’s what the subsequent ballots are for (and those ballots include “uncommitted” PLEO delegates).

Nothing has changed from 2016. In these various venues I have encountered self-identified Bernie Sanders supporters who have responded with comments, again, that range from polite condescension to outright hostility. One accused me of possessing a “broken centrist brain.” Heh.

There was one prominent exception. One. This person wrote, after I invited them to read my 2016 account and the subsequent comments on Show Me Progress: “…thanks to the link to your report on the state convention in 2016. I don’t dispute anything in it. You did a good job of reporting. I will say that I have put considerable effort into figuring out what to do with the ‘car we caught’ that day…”

So, here we are, four years later, in two caucuses and one primary out of 57, and very few people have learned any lessons from 2016.

I have no confidence that enough people will do so in time so that we can save ourselves.

Senator Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].

Vice President Joe Biden (D) [2013 file photo].

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) [2019 file photo].

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro (D) [2013 file photo].

Former Congressman John Delaney (D) [2019 file photo].

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) [2019 file photo].

Marianne Williamson (D) [2019 file photo].

Congressman Seth Moulton (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Bernie Sanders [2016 file photo].

Congressman Tim Ryan (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Cory Booker (D) [2019 file photo]

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2019 file photo].

Three down. Fifty-four or so to go. Still.

Old media is ready to wrap up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

I suppose in the 2020 November General Election I could attempt to write in “Jill Stein,” just for the irony of it.

Previously:

Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)

And we shall know them by their whiny, poorly written, rhetorically deficient, bullshit press releases (August 13, 2018)

A text from Bernie 2020 (December 18, 2019)

Nevertheless, she persisted (February 20, 2020)

You know, your candidate is kind of okay, but too many of his true believers are real assholes (February 20, 2020)

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (r): Rule of Law, meh…

22 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Jay Ashcroft, missouri, Secretary of State, voter ID, voter suppression

“…I don’t care what the Supreme Court says…”

Voter suppression.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (r) [2019 file photo].

Last night, in Springfield.

With promise to revive voter ID, Ashcroft announces 2020 re-election bid
[….]

Ashcroft’s vow comes a month after the Missouri Supreme Court struck down the law, which required people with non-photo IDs such election cards or bank statements to swear they were who they said they were before voting.

The court said the scheme was “misleading,” “contradictory” and unconstitutional.

But Ashcroft hasn’t given up.

[….]

“I don’t care what the Supreme Court says,” he said. “You all should make the decision, the people of the state.”

It’s not clear it will work. High court judges considered an idea similar to what the bill proposes and called it “nonsensical” last month.

[….]

Such respect for the rule of law. It runs in the family.

Previously:

Finally, documentation of voter impersonation fraud in Missouri. Zero. (August 12, 2012)

Secretary of State Jason Kander (D): with Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC on voter ID (February 9, 2014)

Jay Ashcroft’s (r) voter photo ID tour – Warrensburg – June 16, 2017 (June 16, 2017)

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