Tag Archives: Ann Wagner

Ann Wagner, you can’t honor MLK with the same lips that praise Donald Trump

15 Monday Jan 2018

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Gotta hand it to Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2). She’s making a serious effort at cultivating the two-faced look (and, no, I’m not talking about her Afghan-hound hairstyle). Today is Martin Luther King Day. On this day many Americans honor one of the leaders who helped crush the American apartheid that prevailed for almost a hundred years after the end of slavery – and who gave his life for it. King, one of the most profound of American thinkers and orators, would now be 89 years old had the remaining years of his life not been stolen from him at the age of 39 by racist America.

Wagner is making it clear that she wants in on the MLK party – which is to say, she doesn’t want to be tarred with the brush of GOP racism. Her official Website refers us to Facebook and Twitter posts encouraging us to read some of MLK’s “writings” available on the King Center Website, a seemingly reverent nod in the right direction. Enough to let us know that she’ll put in an appearance at the party without staying long enough to overmuch alarm the basest part of the GOP base.

But if Wagner wants in on this party, she’s failed to pay the price of admission. On those same Twitter and Facebook accounts there’s not a word about the most recent obscene, racist ramblings of the president she has enthusiastically supported. In fact, she has described the experience of working with him as “amazing,” and has emphasized her close relationship and identification with him:

Wagner was quick to speak to the commonalities between her and the President, and she also complimented him on what she sees as the president’s best attributes in office. “I’ve seen the strength and the leadership that he brings to the table and a negotiation skill that really puts him in the center of things.” Wagner said. “He wants to be an agent for change, he is a disrupter… We’ve really gotten along well, he and his entire team”

Nevertheless, Wagner has tried to keep her feet out of Trump’s overtly racist mud – and, in so doing, has put herself into a bad spot. As she herself proclaimed after Trump’s infamous Charlottesville equivocation, “leaders must call out Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and fascists by name.”

So, Annie, we’re waiting for you to call out this particular white supremacist – and arguably, fascist – by name.” And we know you know his name. Unless, that is you and he have more “commonalities” than you want us to know about. Which is is?

Ann Wagner says her DNA makes her destroy citizen protections

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

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GOP Rep. Ann Wagner must have a fixation on The Wizard of Oz because she spends lots of time creating straw men – and like the straw man in the story, they are all equally brainless. Witness her comments justifying President Moron’s efforts to rescind climate and consumer friendly regulations enacted during the Obama years:

“Everyone pays for the cost of compliance by government overreach, and it was on steroids during the Obama administration,” said Wagner, who said that an aversion to government regulation had been in “my DNA” since she was 12 or 13 and she saw her father and mother have to replace a new sign in their carpet store because it was a few inches too wide.

My heart breaks. The sheer inconvenience of all that overreach. Just imagine having to get a new sign.

Of course, my heart also nearly broke when my husband and I finally faced up to the fact of my 84 year old mother-in-laws’ increasing dementia and took over her finances. Imagine our surprise when we examined investments sold to her by her long-time (small) bank and learned that not only was she being sold highly risky securities, but that they were being sold over and over (the technical term is “churned”), generating comfortable commissions for the financial “advisor.” That discovery was nothing, though, compared to the statement she had been given to sign asserting that she had sufficient expertise to understand the risks of the investments made in her name. Bear in mind that this was a woman who couldn’t understand her electric bill – and who insisted that the banker in question took good care of her investments because she, the banker, was a “vice-president” and such a friendly woman who appreciated my mother-n-law’s long history with the bank.

Ann Wagner worked hard to dismantle the fiduciary regulations promulgated during the Obama years that would have insured that this type of behavior was unthinkable. Of course, to hear her tell it, she was actually insuring that elderly investors could get financial advice – advisors might chose, she implies, to refuse to work with such folks if they can’t fleece them.

Wagner’s ecstatic about Trump’s efforts to neuter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – an agency that saved consumers billions over the past few years, but got under the skin of the big bankers for whom Wagner is the main Girl Friday in Congress. She’s been one of the most enthusiastic congressional cheerleaders for dismantling the Dodd-Frank bill that created the agency. I didn’t, however, hear anything from our gal in D.C. when my 401(k) lost half its value in 2008 – thanks to the unregulated shenanigans of those very bankers. Evidently her DNA doesn’t permit her to consider problems bigger than daddy’s store’s sign.

Then, of course, there are the regulations proposed by Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Rolling back rules that would lessen harmful emissions will, of course, have devastating effect on efforts to slow and mitigate climate change. But that’s long-range stuff. Republicans like Wagner don’t have any use for that type of long term thinking – there’s no money in it after all.

But let me tell you a story that has implications for short as well as long range issues if these rules are successfully weakened. Fifteen years ago, when I announced my upcoming move to St. Louis, a colleague told me to be sure, when we bought a house, to buy on the east side of the Mississippi or far out in the West County. The reason: pollution. He explained to me that St. Louis is located in the center of a bowl shaped area with higher ground east and west. Pollution tends to settle in the city and its near suburbs, especially in warm weather. This gentleman had formerly worked in St. Louis and sold his house to move further out into the western higher suburbs – he eventually left the St. Louis region altogether to take a lower paying job – after the birth of a child who suffered from cystic fibrosis. His family and their doctors believed that it was literally a matter of life and death for the child given the pollution levels in the city.

Somehow, when it comes to regulation, Rep. Wagner’s parents’ sign doesn’t seem nearly as dire as the respiratory plight of folks in St. Louis which has ranked high on the list of most-polluted cities for many years (although data was not available for the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2016 Report). Yet I’ve heard not a word of protest from Rep. Wagner as our intrepid President King Moron and his minion at the EPA, Scott Pruitt, try to undercut the Clean Power Plan.

Of course, there are probably some regulations that go too far. But shouldn’t our Congresspersons be going after those specific rules rather than than whole classes of rules that protect our health and financial well-being? Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill certainly seems to be able to hone in on real overreach when it happens without doing harm to regulations essential for our well-being:

… Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is trying to repeal a rule requiring a magician from Springfield, Mo., to register his rabbit with the federal government and to have a disaster evacuation plan for the bunny. “I am not against getting rid of regulations that make no sense and make businesses jump through hoops that aren’t necessary, […] But I am not going to let them dismantle the EPA. I am going to do everything I can to fight Scott Pruitt because they are nominating people (to administer federal environmental programs) that can’t cite one clear air regulation they agree with.”

So if Senator McCaskill is capable of making such critical distinctions, why can’t Rep. Wagner and her pals? Does she have to insult our intelligence by claiming that all regulations are equal?

Perhaps The Wizard of Oz does really give us the answer to what’s going on in the mind of Republicans like Wagner. Not only does it feature a brainless straw man, but he’s enabled by a heartless tin man and a cowardly lion. Kinda like Wagner’s Republican party under Trump: brainless, heartless and, most importantly, cowardly folks who jump when their donors crack the whip.

Sam Graves pities poor multi-millionare farmers decimated by the estate tax

20 Monday Nov 2017

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Missouri Rep. Sam Graves (R-6), as behooves the offspring of a farm family, couches his defense of the provision of the GOP tax-cut-for-the-rich bill that would repeal the estate tax in terms of farmers. But before I get to that defense, it’s important to note that Graves seems to be a little confused about the meaning of words. He somehow thinks that the estate tax amounts to double taxation on the person who dies – rather than a one-time tax levied on the folks receiving a hefty gift they almost surely did not work for or earn. And BTW, big gifts are taxable even when the giver isn’t dead.

But he’s right about where to focus his defense of eliminating this particular rich folks’ goodie. Nobody will cry too hard if the Trump offspring someday have to pay estate taxes on what Daddy Trump represents as his billions. We all know that they’ll continue to live big no matter what – especially given the ways that Daddy is monetizing his time in the White House. But Graves knows that if his rural farming constituency thinks that the tax hurts small family farmers who receive their inheritance in the form of land, etc. rather than ready cash, they might be willing to foot the cost for Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric to buy a few more yachts, which is why he “gravely” (get it?) pronouces:

Farmers are hit especially hard by the death tax. After a lifetime of acquiring land and equipment to help provide food for the world, farmers are subjected to an additional tax on their estate when they die. The real effect of this double, and sometimes triple, taxation is felt by the late farmer’s family.

While many folks receive an inheritance in the form of a check or stocks and bonds, the family farmer passes on his life’s work and ensures that farming continues as a way of life in North Missouri and around the country.

It’s no wonder that our kids and grandkids aren’t choosing to farm when they grow up. It’s expensive enough to get a farming operation off the ground, much less keep it in the family after giving part of it to the government.

Could get a farmer all fired up and maybe even willing to overlook all the ways that the GOP tax plans will shaft the middle class – even middle class farmers. Except for one thing: Graves is playing fast and loose with the facts. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “only 50 small farm and small business estates in the entire country will pay any estate tax in 2017 […] and they’ll owe less than 6 percent of their value in tax, on average.” Nor, as the CBPP further notes, will paying that tax force farming heirs to sell the family farm:

The estate tax affects so few small farms and businesses because the first $5.49 million of assets per person ($10.98 million per couple) are entirely exempt from it. Moreover, most farmers and business owners with estates large enough to owe the tax have sufficient liquid assets (such as bank accounts, stocks, and bonds) to pay the tax without having to touch other assets or liquidate their farm and business, a 2005 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study found. Today’s estate tax rules are even more generous than those CBO assumed in its analysis. Special estate tax provisions also allow estate tax filers to spread their payments over a 15-year period at low interest rates.

While doing next to nothing for family farms, repeal would provide a windfall to the wealthiest 0.2 percent of estates — the only ones large enough to pay the tax. A repeal proposal recently reintroduced in the Senate would provide the 0.2 percent of wealthiest estates with an average tax cut of more than $3 million in 2017. Roughly 330 estates worth more than $50 million would get more than $20 million apiece in tax cuts, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates. The proposal would also cost $269 billion over the decade, expanding deficits and adding to pressure for cuts in federal programs.

I’d say that somebody ought to tell Rep Graves to get his facts straight, but there’s that part of me that wonders what the point would be. We’ve seen his colleagues spin whopper after whopper to try to sell us on a tax cuts for their donors. Is it Graves fault that the best he can do is that old swampland special, the farm estate tax canard? It may even do the job it’s designed to do. After all, for many Trump voters who believe he/she knows from whence emanates all fake news, it probably still has currency.

At least Rep. Graves isn’t resorting to claims like those made my my Representative, Ann Wagner (R-2), that raising taxes on the middle class, cutting funding to programs that benefit the middle class, while giving a big regressive tax cut to the wealthiest of the wealthy will somehow help a “single mother of two.” Of course, there’s nothing to stop an unmarried Paris Hilton clone from giving birth twice. It could even happen on a lavish country estate that qualifies as a “family” farm.

Ann Wagner wants us to know that when the GOP tax cuts beggar us, we can still get an adoption credit

18 Saturday Nov 2017

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Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2) voted for the House GOP tax cut sham bill. And she’s flaunting that fact. She thinks we’re stupid.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Annie to come clean about what she actually voted for – there’s lots of undeniable details that she will try to deny apparently doen’t want you to know.

First, this bill is a veritable cornucopia of goodies for the 1%. It gives big tax cuts to rich folks – some permanent since it abolishes the estate tax, the Alternative Minimum tax that insures rich folks pay some taxes, and changes rules for pass-through income and investment income. It cuts corporate tax rates permanently from 35% to 20% without closing many of the loopholes that allowed most big corporations to actually pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 0 – 18%. Can you imagine how much less they’ll pay since they”ll be applying a plethora of tax breaks to an even lower rate?We’ll probably end up paying them.

Second, although the bill does give a few breaks to middle and lower income taxpayers with one hand, it mostly takes them away with the other. Many of the deductions and credits that are eliminated under the rubric “simplification” are those relied upon by middle class families. Some middle income earners will see higher tax bills right away, but even those who end up with a lower tax bill now may ultimately end up getting the shaft. GOPers usually neglect to point out that many of the goodies designated for the middle class are, for the most part, temporary.

Oh – crucial fact, given Rep. Wagner’s former concern for the national debt – the sham tax cut bill also adds $1.5 trillion dollars to the deficit. That’s why middle class folks don’t get permanent tax cuts and lose lots of exemptions and tax breaks they rely on – they can’t let that deficit go past the aforementioned $1.5 trillion and still pass the bill with only GOP votes.  It’s all smoke and mirrors (albeit thin smoke and murky mirrors) that lets rich investors make out like the proverbial bandit on the backs of those of us who aren’t rich enough to invest in a pet congressman. Or woman.

It’s hard to touch on all the mischief the sloppily written grab-bag of crony pleasing giveaways manages to do in its effort to please the more vicious members of the far right. It does away with the individual mandate of the ACA, a feature that will likely result in premium increases for all of us and eventually deprive 13 million people of insurance coverage. In a bid to convince dumb-as-dirt evangelicals (i.e. those who still try to excuse Roy Moore) that big gifts to GOP cronies a good thing, it does away with the provisions of the Johnson Amendment that stipulated that churches could retain tax-exempt status only by refraining from political advocacy from the pulpit. Now thanks to the corrupt GOP, we get to subsidize the efforts of some more authoritarian religious types to impose their religious views on the rest of us.

Another thing Republicans like Wagner aren’t telling us is that sooner rather than later, there will almost certainly be a $25 billion cut to Medicare:

Thanks to laws created by the Tea Party’s infamous 2010 sequester showdown over government spending, automatic cuts spring into action anytime Congress passes a bill that balloons the federal deficit, as the tax bill would. The approximately $136 billion in cuts spurred by the GOP tax bill would hit a number of government programs—including farm subsidies and the Border Patrol—but would cut most deeply into Medicare. Medicaid, Social Security, and food stamps are protected.

So if Wagner’s keeping quiet about what the GOP tax sham bill really does, what has she actually said about this travesty to justify her vote? Two words: mendacious fantasy (a.k.a. lies). Here’s an excerpt from her floor speech (I assume that the presentation of the word “yes” in all capitals means that our Annie is still screeching every time she votes for something that is bad for her constituents – her tell maybe? :

I vote YES to fix our broken tax system; I vote YES to help reignite the American economy; I vote YES to make it a little bit easier for that single mother of two, that firefighter, that teacher, shop owner, family of four, that Veteran; I vote YES for bigger paychecks, better savings and a more secure future. I ran for Congress to fight for the people of Missouri and to ensure that every hard-working American can realize their own American Dream,”

Broken economy? Not to hear economists tell it. And that nonsense about cutting corporate taxes to fix this “broken economy,” create jobs and raise wages? No one believes that trickle-down nonsense anymore. For example, when asked recently to affirm that the tax cut would inspire them to invest more, even a panel of CEOs of major companies bluntly shot that idea down. As for rich-folk goodies like eliminating the estate tax, write-offs for private jets? Like to hear how Wagner thinks that’ll help that “single mother of two” that she’s so worried about.

But hey! Annie’s has got a middle-class card up her sleeve. In her latest email newsletter she enthused about one feature of the bill that she voted for in particular: “This bill also protects the Adoption Tax Credit which I fought to protect. For decades this pro-family provision has helped provide children with loving families and stable homes.”

So that leaves us with the Adoption Tax Credit.  All this misery, but we get to keep a small-potatoes adoption tax credit that wouldn’t be in danger if Rep. Wagner and her GOP pals didn’t desperately need to please their donors in order to keep the money flowing.

Whoopee!

CORRECTION: The House Bill that Wagner voted on did not, as implied above, eliminate the ACA’s individual mandate – that provision is currently only included in the Senate version although many GOP House members have indicated that they will support its inclusion in the final legislation.

Taking Missouri Blue – which means no more Ann Wagner.

11 Saturday Nov 2017

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The scuttlebutt is that Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2) is considered “vulnerable” in 2018. It would be a truly marvelous feat to finally dump this classic, hypocritical pearl clutcher who, despite her delicate GOP country club sensibilities, has developed into a colossal President Moron Vulgarian suckup – because who else will help her so vigorously and uncritically in her heartfelt crusade to save wealthy financiers any monetary grief. And how are we going to do it the dumping? We need to prove to the national party financial apparatus that we deserve the resources to do the job. And we do that by mounting a full-bore, hard campaign after we Democrats have chosen one of the excellent candidates who have come forward to contest the seat.

A Forum held last Wednesday allowed many in the 2nd district to get their first look at the likely challengers, Kelli Dunaway, Bill Haas, Mark Osmack, and Cort VanOstran, all together in one place. If you couldn’t make it, here’s a link to video of the Forum.

The Forum was sponsored by the Missouri 2nd District for Change, an organization that is dedicated to getting a the district representation that is actually responsive to the needs of its voters – not Ann Wagner’s cronies. They’ve held several “town halls” to which Wagner has been invited, but, naturally, refused to attend. If you aren’t already part of the group, check out their Facebook page.

And here’s a link to an excellent partial write-up of the proceedings which is particularly concerned with the “bombshell” dropped by contender Kelli-Dunaway, who, after making an excellent case for her candidacy, withdrew for reasons that ought to make us all fighting mad.

Time permitting, after I’ve had a chance to review the video, I’ll post my reactions to what the candidates said and didn’t say – in case anyone is interested.

Much hilarity ensues

25 Wednesday Oct 2017

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Today, via Representative Ann Wagner’s (r) non-Congressional Twitter account:

Ann Wagner‏ @AnnLWagner
I refuse to stand by as Satanists challenge the sanctity of life. Add your name if you stand in support of #LIFE [….]
4:06 PM – 25 Oct 2017

The link goes to Ann Wagner’s campaign web site:

Satanists have teamed up with the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in Missouri to roll back the rights of the unborn. Help Ann fight back – add your name now to stand up for life.

Some of the responses on Twitter:

FOH. I don’t want to hear one word about the “sanctity of life” from the same crowd that refuses to do anything about mass shootings.

All hail the forced birth party! #forcedbirth

The Satanists have higher principles than you so-called Christians.

Pseudo-Christians.

Apparently the real Church of Satan issued a statement:

We have nothing to do with this. Our statement: [….]

Nah. Even If I have to stand with satanists to protect a woman’s right to control her own health & reproductive choices, I will.
Hail Satan!

I support criminal investigations of all miscarriages too. Let’s get this ball rolling

Whatever drugs you’re currently taking need to be shared Ann.

I’m at Planned Parenthood right now, waiting for my annual exam. No Satanists here, as far as I can tell? You might want to visit sometime.

In the lobby there are several young women, one man, all the chairs are kinda dilapidated. No pentagrams, but there is a Rolling Stone issue

There are nice prints of flowers on the wall. Maybe the dance music on the radio has satanic lyrics if you play them backwards?

They are running a candy sale fundraiser (perhaps to help fund new chairs?). Perhaps M&Ms are a tool of Satan.

“Satanists”? Oh please.

hey, YOURE the one who wanted to give churches power to make decisions for individuals. Reap what you sow

Girl, what in God’s name are you talking about??

Ma’am put down the spray bottle of vinegar & step away from the tinfoil.

You are no better than Todd Akin was. I’m ashamed you represent my state.

Looks like somebody has been reading Brietbart

Hahaha. Silly person.

Hey we’re pretty nice heathens when you get to know us.

Nice bogeyman ya got there, Ann.

You simply are not capable of rational thought are you?

What on earth?

What the hell are you talking by about?

We see what you did there.

You do know that part of your brain can be used reasoning. Give it try.

Seriously?? Just stop.

Clearly, “sanity” is an imaginary concept, in your bunch! Whee-ooh, whee-ooh, that signpost up ahead, you’re lost in the Twilight Zone!

If this is your Halloween tweet, it’s scaring the bejeesus out of me. Get help!

This is a joke, right?

Um, probably not.

There are no words. Get help.

uhhh… don’t look now…but I’m pretty sure you’re completely insane.

What in the holy hell are you talking about? My word lady take a breather.

Satan is behind cutting off healthcare for millions of children too.

you seem fun.

Did you hit your head?

Lady, you cray.

My god, you’re a whack job.

What is wrong with you?

Geezus you’re a complete nutcase

Delete your account

I see that avoiding town hall meetings have driven you insane. #UnfitForOffice

You are friggin insane!!!

You are a complete loon

You seem quite stupid.

Wagner and Hartzler insult those who died in Las Vegas

05 Thursday Oct 2017

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Okay. This is good. We have a gun massacre – more than fifty dead and nearly 500 wounded. A clean, white, gun “enthusiast” (authorities found more than 40 guns in his hotel room, car, etc.) goes bonkers and gears up multiple automatic weapons in his hotel room to shoot concert-goers from on-high like they’re fish in a barrel. Additionally, as far as mass shootings go, we have a twofer – three killed, two wounded in another shooting spree in Lawrence, Kansas on the same day. Of the two, only the first massacre elicits big news coverage – mass shootings have become so run-of-the-mill nowadays that there has to be a big body count before anyone notices.

Do these events possibly suggest that we’ve got a problem with guns in the U.S.? That maybe we shouldn’t be quite so permissive when it comes to what are, when all is said and done, potential instruments of death? And maybe our elected representatives should take some time to address this issue?

Well, if you said “yes” to these questions, you’d be all on your lonesome, at least if you were a member of the GOP Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives. Not that these folks don’t care about life. Nosiree. They care so much about life that the use of guns to deprive so many of that state of being just shored up their resolve to enact even more restrictions on, wait for it, abortion:

As we mourn the lives lost in Las Vegas this week, and welcome Whip Scalise back to Capitol Hill, we are reminded just how precious life is. This message weighed heavily on the hearts of House Republicans as we spoke of the potential of life — especially lives cut short through abortion.

The House passed a so-called fetal-pain bill, Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36), that, adhering to the best junk science ideology can compel, declares that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks – even though all major U.S. and international medical societies, such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have gone on the record that, although a fetus can respond reflexively to stimulation much earlier, the essential components of the cerebral cortex have not developed sufficiently to permit the experience of pain until at least 26 weeks.

No surprise to Missourians, our local GOPers were among those so overcome by antics of a shooter in Las Vegas that they just had to put in jeopardy the lives of women who have potentially life-threatening, problematic, late term pregnancies – because the largest number of late term abortions, a procedure that is exceedingly rare to start with, is a due to just such complications. Among those Missourians who offered especially emotive support for the bill were Reps. Ann Wagner (R-2) and Vicky Hartzler (R-4).

Hartzler goes all the way with junk science declaring, in opposition to all reputable evidence, that “babies at this age are hypersensitive, feeling pain more acutely than you and me.” But, hey, this is the lady who thinks that our toasters are rigged by the Chinese to spy on us. Of course, this begs the question of why we allow someone incapable of evaluating evidence to make laws that depend on competent evaluation of evidence.

Wagner also embraced the dishonest crazy, but did so with real sophistic flair, detailing the developmental progress of her incipient grandchild, and slipping into the catalog the assumption that the stages of development she listed somehow entailed the capacity to feel pain at 20 weeks:

… Today, we know so much more. We know that, after 3 weeks, my granddaughter had a heartbeat. After 7 weeks, she began kicking her mother, like any good Wagner child would. By week 12, she could suck her thumb, and at week 20, my granddaughter knew the sound of her mother’s voice and could feel pain.

Somebody tell these ladies that guns cause pain and death too. And it’s real pain, the kind that hurts, as opposed to fantasy pain hypothesized by junk science quacks (or hacks who are in it for the money), who’ll pretend that reflexive stimulation equal pain and lie about the fact that the anesthesia used during fetal surgery prior to 26 weeks is strictly used to insure the comfort of the fully developed mother who can actually feel pain.

If these nice Republicans ladies are so concerned about pain and death, real pain, that is, there’s lots they can do about it. But somehow, I don’t think I’ll see either Wagner or Hartzler make a stand even for something as minor as an assault weapon ban. Indeed, I believe that both opposed renewing such a ban when the chance came up again in 2013. Both lawmakers also opposed legislation that would have blocked those on the terrorist watch-list or individuals certified mentally ill from buying guns.

They tell us that they are so concerned about, and so venerate life that murder by means of assault weapons – modified to perform like fully automatic guns – moved them to do nothing more than to restrict the right of women and their doctors to address their own, private reproductive health. And at the same time they can’t even manage to talk about the realities of gun violence. On top of that insult to both the dead and the survivors of the Las Vegas massacre, they insult the rest of us with lies, repeated over and over again in the face of contrary evidence, to justify banning so-called late-term abortions. And yet, both congresswomen have served multiple terms. What gives?

 

Ann Wagner hopes we won’t notice that gun violence involves guns

02 Monday Oct 2017

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In the wake of one of the largest mass shooting body counts in U.S. history, I expect lots of the NRA’s pet GOPers will be lying low if Rep. Ann Wagner’s (R-2) response is any indication. She opened her email constituent newsletter today with a brief nod in the direction of the massive overnight slaughter of concert goers in Las Vegas. In the process, she scored a rightwing trifecta. She addressed gun violence without mentioning guns, shifted the attention to “first responders,” rather than victims, and managed to get the flag into the mix. She hit all the major pander points and avoided the real issue, all in just three casual sentences:

As the tragedy in Las Vegas continues to unfold, my prayers are with the victims and families impacted by this senseless act of violence. Were it not for the swift and heroic actions of first responders and everyday Americans, this horrific moment could have been even worse. Here at the Capitol, flags are at half-staff in memory of the victims of this tragedy.

It’s probably wise, though, that Wagner keep her profile low when assault weapons such as the automatic or semi-automtic weapon that officials tell us were used in the Las Vegas masacre are involved. A ban on the sale of such weapons expired in 2004, ten years after its adoption in 1994, after having survived numerous constitutional challenges. Since then, there have been several efforts to renew the ban, all of which have been deep-sixed by the NRA via its GOP congressional proxies – including Ann Wagner.

I don’t know about you, but expressions of condolence and dismay about “senseless acts of violence” from sanctimonious hypocrites like Wagner, one of the very people who helped put instruments of violence in the hands of terrorists and the mentally ill make me want to spit.

Speaking of wanting to spit, Wagner’s circumspection mirrors that of White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Saunders who brushed off questions about what we can do to stem gun violence by indicating that “it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don’t fully know all of the facts or what took place last night.”

What’s that? We don’t know what took place last night? Somebody tell Huckabee Sanders that automatic or semi-automatic guns were used to kill over 50 people and wound over 500 more. If now is not the time to discuss policy, when will it be time? How big does the kill have to be?

While you’re at it, tell Ann Wagner that refusing to use the word “gun” or assault weapon” won’t alter the facts. If she really has concern for those first responders she praises, she’d be willing to do something about the proliferation of automatic weapons that put them in special jeopardy. I have already accepted the fact that it may be too much to ask that she show concern for the rest of us.

Nor does it help to resort, as Huckabee Sanders did, to tired and long-discredited NRA pivots that are commonly used to distract our attention from the pertinent topic. She actually had the effrontery to suggest that we know that regulating guns is ineffective because Chicago has strict gun laws and still has violent crime – while ignoring the gun-flush jurisdictions that surround and supply guns to the city, the so-called iron pipeline that enables the violence endemic to many impoverished U.S. cities.

Things we actually do know about the issue at hand right now: Guns enable violence like nothing else. Reasonable regulation of guns does not necessarily impinge on 2nd amendment rights. Gun regulations need to be national in scope if they are to be effective (no more iron-pipelines). Assault weapons have no place in civilian life; they are for killing, not hunting, or casual self-protection. Some people, suspected terrorists, the mental unstable, felons, should not be able to buy guns at all.

Lawmakers are accessories to crime if they refuse to acknowledge these facts and do what is necessary to keep us safe because they’re afraid to alienate extremist gun nuts or they love the handouts they get from the NRA . Everyone of them has blood on their hands.

Lowering the flag to half mast is a nice gesture of respect, but it doesn’t address the needs of Americans who have been put at risk by pandering politicians like Ann Wagner

It’s all about the emails – or, if you’re Jared Kushner, not so much

25 Monday Sep 2017

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I’m willing to bet that you remember all about Hillary Clinton and her email. And most of you remember that despite several “investigations” by Congress and the FBI nobody could substantiate claims that she did anything untoward – although James Comey, then the Director of the FBI, did give her a schoolmarmish lecture about seemly behavior or something along that line, and later made a feint in the direction of “reopening” the investigation upon the “discovery” of some additional emails that were also very quickly found to be inoffensive, but which many believe created a false impression of wrong-doing that cost Clinton the election.

I’m also willing to bet that you also remember all the Republicans who couldn’t constrain their concern about what they pretended to think was an earth-shaking matter, or, at least, what they wanted us to believe was a big bad no-no that deserved a serious hand-slapping. And, of course, Missouri’s GOP delegation were more than happy to join the feeding frenzy. A few examples:

Rep. Billly Long (R-7) got mightily exercised when the FBI investigation failed to find evidence of criminal wrongdoing:

The American people deserve better than a justice system that looks the other way rather than demanding honesty at federal agencies,” said Rep. Long.“Director Comey said point-blank that former Secretary Clinton recklessly stored and transmitted classified information, and it’s unthinkable that such brazen carelessness with our secret national security data could avoid justice.

GOP Senator Roy Bunt made some gleefully stern comments about Comey’s email Hail Mary :

From day one, it has been clear that Secretary Clinton did not take her national security clearance seriously,” […]. “The law establishes a standard that national security material cannot be handled carelessly. I have serious questions about the way the FBI has handled this case up to now. The immunity given, the potential evidence that was allowed to be destroyed, and political support for the spouse of a senior FBI official are all very concerning. The FBI needs to set a better standard as they reopen this case.”

Blunt’s over-the-top  I-told-you-so was echoed by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2), who was fairly salivating at the prospect of seeing a hard-working public servant punished for … something:

Secretary Clinton’s reckless mishandling of classified information proves that she cannot be trusted with the support of Missouri families. I am hopeful that this most recent probe by the FBI will be conducted fairly, swiftly and more thoroughly than the previous investigation.

Well guess what? We now have an opportunity to see just  how seriously these self-righteous hacks really take a similar case where private email accounts have been used by the President’s capos to avoid public scrutiny. We’ll find out just who, if anyone in Missouri’s GOP delegation, has enough integrity to hold the apple(s) of Trump’s eye to the same standard with which they beat Hillary Clinton over the  head.

It seems that son-in-law-in-chief and presidential advisor, Jared Kushner, set up a private email account during the transition upon which he has since conducted official business in preference to his official White House account. We are assured that while he used the account to exchange “emails with senior White House officials, outside advisers and others about media coverage, event planning and other subjects,” he did nothing wrong. Of course, we’ll just have to take the White House’s word about that since the folks there aren’t inclined to hand the emails over. And we’re also supposed to trust their assurances that these emails will be preserved as required by law.

Gee, if Clinton had only known that all she had to do was to say that she’d done nothing wrong she could have saved herself a world of hurt. Or maybe not. Clinton is a Democrat. And a woman. And smarter and kinder than the sleaze bag Republicans put into the White House. All hanging offenses to  the members of the old, white, male cadre the GOP mostly represents.

Actually, use of private emails seems to be ubiquitous in Trump’s White House. Next time he tries to revive the “lock her up” business, remember that in addition to Kushner, White House officials Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon also used private email accounts to conduct their business.

Of course, we’ve known for some time that VP Mike Pence not only used private email to conduct state business in Indiana, but was actually hacked. Pence, interestingly enough,  said nary a word about his transgressions during the campaign when he and Cheeto-in-Chief went off on Clinton’s emails.

But no matter. Because nowadays, given the way the cookie crumbles, the ball bounces, the mop flops, and the tail wags, we’ll wait a long time before we hear a peep from our otherwise truculent Republicans about private emails being used to evade the attention of a public that said GOPers and the Ritchie Rich-pants in the white House are determined to well and truly fleece.

We need to remind them that Karma’s a bitch, the wheel of fortune turns, and the handwriting is on the wall.

Luetkemeyer, Wagner want to help Equifax roll consumers

20 Wednesday Sep 2017

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Immediately after the recent Equifax hack that potentially put close to 150 million Americans at risk for identity theft, I wrote about how the event proved that Rep. Ann Wagner’s (R-2) bias against any regulation of the financial industry, and especially her vendetta against the oversight role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was contrary to the interests of the everyday Americans she ostensibly serves. Surely, I thought, these folks can be made to realize that enabling more disaster in the wake of disaster may be going just a bit too far.

Well no. The concept of wise stewardship always seems to  be too difficult for the Republican brain, as evidenced by this little financial tidbit in the LA Times:

Even as millions of consumers grapple with fallout from the Equifax data breach, Republican lawmakers are quietly backing legislation to deregulate credit agencies and make them even less accountable for wrongdoing.

Bills are pending in Congress to limit class-action damages for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and to give credit agencies more latitude in profiting from identity theft protection products.

The legislation is part of sweeping efforts by Republican lawmakers to reduce oversight of banks and other financial-services firms, and to cripple or eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has notched a successful track record of holding industry players accountable for unfair and illegal practices.

And who’s the engineer steering this “quiet” anti-citizen effort? Why no one other than Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-3), a member, along with Rep. Wagner, of the House Financial Services Committee, and Chair of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, which just held hearings on the proposed legislation – possibly inspired by successful , and, for the profitable credit reporting agencies involved, expensive, oversight exercised by the CFBP in the recent past. Luetkemeyer declared that the new legislation would ” streamline regulatory requirements and eliminate inefficiencies” and “better allow financial companies to serve their customers.”

Sadly for Luetkemeyer’s credibilty, the response of the LA Times reporter, David Lazarus, is closer to the truth when he observes that what “the legislation would do is reward credit agencies with greater regulatory elbow room and diminished accountability for screw-ups.” As far as I’m concerned, they’ve got far too much of that elbow room already – as Lazarus notes:

Consumer advocates say the Equifax breach should serve as a wake-up call for Americans that the three leading credit agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — are focused primarily on earning cash from people’s personal information, not keeping such information under lock and key.

“Consumers are not customers of these companies — they’re commodities,” said Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. “We have no say over what they do with our data.”

There are, of course, Democrats on on the Financial Services Committee and its various subcommittes; Missouri Rep. Lacy Clay (D-1) serves on Luetkemeyer’s subcommittee, for example. But they’re there as representatives of the minority party in a congress which Republicans have publicly determined to run solely in service of Republican druthers, and, given the amounts of cash that the financial industry throws at sympathetic members of these plum committee posts, the Democrats are not likely to be heard if they do stand up. Same reasons hold when considering the inevitable death march of a Democratic bill offered in response to the Equifax farce, the Freedom from Equifax Exploitation Act.

Actually, the proposed Democratic legislation, mild as it is, probably doesn’t go nearly far enough. Michael Kevin Drum who has long noted the essentially abusive nature of our credit reporting system and urged greater regulatory oversight of the credit reporting agencies, observesd last week that:

… The credit reporting agencies have gotten away forever with treating consumers like bothersome children: screwing up their credit records, ruining their lives, making it deliberately difficult and expensive to lock accounts, and making money off the whole thing by offering “insurance” against problems that they themselves cause. Someone in Congress who allegedly cares about ordinary working folks should introduce a bill to regulate the hell out of these folks. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s hard to think of any industry that more richly deserves it.

Well somebody in Congress does care – Democrats mainly – but a fat lot of good it’ll do us. Because financial industry toadies like Luetkemeyer and Wagner are sitting pretty in their well-funded catbird seats and they aim to keep that campaign cash cushion well-padded.