Today's Cartoon - We'll Be Winning So Much, It'll Hurt

(click on image to enlarge)


(Ruben Bolling, via Daily Kos)

See post below.  Budget summary here.

Quote Of The Day - The Forgotten Man Remains Forgotten By Trump

"It’s a very strange moment. Trump and Bannon are happy to expand the reach of the state when it comes to policing, immigration enforcement, executive-branch meddling in the work of investigative agencies, and the browbeating of individual companies that offend the president in one way or another. The parts of government they want to dismantle are those that stand on the side of citizens against powerful interests." -- E.J. Dionne, Jr., on the dangerous government "deconstruction" goal of neo- fascist dimwit Donald "Rump" Trump's commander- in- chief Steve "Loose Cannon" Bannon, expressed at the recent gathering of loons known as CPAC. This is how far right "populists" propose to help the "forgotten man."

Trump And Labor: Punching Down

Nothing better reveals the sociopathy of neo- fascist champion of  The Forgotten Man Donald "Rump" Trump than his recent thin- skinned tirade against union official Chuck Jones and his nominee for Labor Secretary.  

Chuck Jones is the head of United Steelworkers local 1999 at the Carrier Corp. plant in Indiana where Rump, after extorting parent company United Technologies, made a big show of "saving" jobs that were being off- shored to Mexico.  Mr. Jones incurred the shitgibbon's wrath by simply pointing out what Rump does so casually -- lies:

At the Dec. 1 meeting, where Trump was supposed to lay out the details, Jones hoped he would explain himself. 

“But he got up there,” Jones said Tuesday, “and, for whatever reason, lied his a-- off.” 

In front of a crowd of about 150 supervisors, production workers and reporters, Trump praised Carrier. “Now they’re keeping — actually the number’s over 1,100 people,” he said, “which is so great.”  (our emphasis)

As has been pointed out by others (including Carrier), the actual number of jobs "saved" for now (730) is much less than those Carrier still intends to send to Mexico (1,253).

But Rump, the little guy's champion (who has eschewed intelligence briefings and continues to promote his various business enterprises worldwide), still had time for a little punching down, via his small, delicate fingers:

Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016

Lectured Rump, whose line of over- priced clothes are made in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Honduras, among his other off- shore ventures.  What a cocksplat.

Once Rump's Stormtrumpers got the green light from the shitgibbon, Jones started receiving calls threatening himself and his family. Clearly, thanks to Rump and his knuckle- dragging legions, Jones won't be a Forgotten Man.

On a broader front, Rump continues to populate his Cabinet with people openly hostile to their departments' missions.  The most recent is Labor Secretary designate Andrew "The Putz" Puzder, CEO of fast food chains Hardee's and Carl's Jr., who makes an estimated $4 million a year.  What are the hallmarks of Puzder's labor philosophy (our emphasis throughout)?

On policy questions, he has argued that the Obama administration’s recent rule expanding eligibility for overtime pay diminishes opportunities for workers, and that significant minimum wage increases would hurt small businesses and lead to job losses. 

He has criticized paid sick leave policies of the sort recently enacted for federal contractors and strongly supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he says has created a “government-mandated restaurant recession” because rising premiums have left people with less money to spend dining out. 

Speaking to Business Insider this year, Mr. Puzder said that increased automation could be a welcome development because machines were “always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall or an age, sex or race discrimination case.” 

And on the political incorrectness front, Mr. Puzder’s company, CKE Restaurants, runs advertisements that frequently feature women wearing next to nothing while gesturing suggestively. “I like our ads,” he told the publication Entrepreneur. “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American.” [snip]

Though he did not explain what a “rational” increase would entail, he opposed the Obama administration’s efforts to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25, where it has stood since 2009. That is far below the $15 per hour that many advocates have called for and that a variety of cities and states have enacted in recent years, albeit on a gradual timetable.  

Now there's a real champion of The Forgotten Man! Does he also favor repealing child labor laws?

And what of Puzder's character?

Andrew Puzder, the St. Louis attorney who rose to become CEO of Carl's Jr. and now stands as Donald Trump's pick to be Secretary of Labor, was accused of abuse by his first wife in the 1980s — with police twice summoned to the couple's home. (Ed.: the ex- wife has since walked back claims of abuse)

And what was he up to at the time all this marital bliss was happening?

... The Wash U law graduate was best-known as an anti-abortion crusader who'd authored the Missouri law imposing serious restrictions on using any state funds or facilities for abortion or related services. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in a landmark case, Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, not long before the RFT aired Henning's explosive claims. 

Puzder was also serving as the chair of then-Governor John Ashcroft's Task Force for Mothers and Unborn Children. He offered to resign the post in light of the RFT story, according to a July 29, 1989 front page story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I wouldn't want this to hurt the pro-life movement," he told the daily. "I wouldn't want this to hurt the task force, and, particularly, I don't want it to hurt my family." 

An ardent defender of women's rights, obviously, who'll be in charge of the Women's Bureau at Labor.

Those in the white working class who voted Republican will soon unfortunately be tested by H.L. Mencken's dictum that, "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."  Unfortunate, too, that others who had the sense not to vote for the oppressors will suffer as well.

Tweet Of The Day - The Forgotten Man Forgotten Again

In news that you will only see buried deep inside America's newspapers and otherwise not worthy of mention on cable:

Actual details of Carrier deal finally released:

1. 1253 factory jobs moving to Mexico

2. 730 jobs staying in Indianapolis

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 6, 2016

That neo- fascist con artist Donald "Rump" Trump sure knows how to cut a deal to help out The Forgotten Man!

BONUS:  But, as Steve M. points out, Rump's grift is selling with the American peeps.

Trump's Cabinet Of The Forgotten Man (UPDATED)

Just for fun, let's rundown the net worth of neo- fascist plutocrat Donald "Rump" Trump's future Cabinet of the Forgotten Man *:

-- Education Sec. Betsy DeVos: $5.1 billion;

-- Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross: $2.9 billion;

-- Treasury Sec. Steve "27 Cents" Mnuchin: $40 million;

-- Energy Sec. (rumored) Harold Hamm: $15 billion;

-- OMB Dir. (rumored) Gary Cohn: $175 million;

-- Transportation Sec. Elaine "Wife of Mitch McConnell" Chao: $22 million;

-- HHS Sec. Tom Price: $14 million;

-- Labor Sec. (rumored) Andrew Puzder: $4 million (annual salary);

-- Commerce Dep. Sec. Todd Ricketts: $1 billion

That's some hardscrabble folks you got there, you betcha.  And we don't even list potential Secretary of State candidates Willard "Mittens" Romney ($250 million) or Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9/11" Giuliani ($45 million).

* The Forgotten Man of FDR's formulation having given way to Rump's vow on election night that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”  Obviously he meant the forgotten plutocrats of America.

UPDATE:  Let's hear it from one of Rump's well- heeled supporters --

Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson was feeling happy Wednesday morning. 

After Donald Trump ridiculed Wall Street on the campaign trail, the President-elect tapped former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive Steven Mnuchin to be his Treasury secretary and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross to lead the Commerce Department. Trump even met with Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn inside Trump Tower. 

It would suit Tilson just fine if voters who backed Trump because he promised to rein in Wall Street are furious now that he’s surrounding himself with bankers and billionaires. 

“I can take glee in that -- I think Donald Trump conned them,” said Tilson, who runs Kase Capital Management. “I worried that he was going to do crazy things that would blow the system up. So the fact that he’s appointing people from within the system is a good thing.” (our emphasis)

The grift worked!  Suckers!