Embracing Your Inner Fascist

While I'm busy not watching the GOP debate tonight, here's a look at the kind of Iowa voter backing The Donald, and yep, he's everything you think he is.

Bruce Goacher, a repo man in a camouflage cap and oil-smudged jacket, praised Donald Trump as he drove his flatbed through Davenport on his way to seize a delinquent borrower’s car. 

Trump’s call for barring Muslims from entering the United States may have sparked an international uproar, but it only reinforced Goacher’s support for the Republican Party’s top contender for president. 

“He says let’s not bring nobody here until we get to the bottom of it,” Goacher said Tuesday over the rumble of the tow truck’s engine. “I agree 100 percent.”

Men like Goacher are the main reason Trump has sustained his lead in the Republican presidential race for six months. Poll after poll has found that white men with no college degree are among the New York tycoon’s most avid supporters.

Angry middle-aged white guys are pissed, America.

And they vote.

To Goacher, Trump’s swagger and blunt talk of a more forceful America offer hope in dangerous and unstable times. He admires Trump’s “no-bull attitude.” 

“I think he’s writing all his own stuff, ’cause it’s too off the wall for anybody to write something like that,” he said the day after seeing Trump at Davenport Speedway, where Goacher used to race stock cars. 

As for Trump’s agenda, Goacher likes it all, starting with immigration. “He’s not going to deport everybody — just illegals,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that.” Echoing Trump, he said some were “robbing and killing to survive.” 

Goacher mentioned a local company that charges “8, 10 grand” to replace a roof. “OK, there’s a boatload of Mexicans come by, and you can get it done for 2 or 3 grand. They’re not from here. That’s hurting the businessperson that’s here.” 

As a successful owner of a tow truck company, Goacher sees some of himself in the former star of The Apprentice. When repossessing a car, it’s best to dodge contact with the owner, Goacher explained. But when it’s unavoidable, the ability to size people up quickly is essential. 

“It’s either that or get screwed,” he said. “I can look at somebody, in 30 seconds of talking to them, I can tell you whether they’re a con … or they’re a pretty decent person.” 

Trump, he said, uses a similar talent on a grander scale. “He thinks a lot like me.”

Angry Middle-Aged White Guy now finds himself in a country with a black president and same-sex marriage, where being a 56-year old repo man with a tow truck doesn't exactly make you super rich.

But he knows who to blame, Mexicans and Black Lives Matter and feminism and gays and he'll be damned if he doesn't use what's left of his power to smash those groups flatter than a pancake so he's still king of the hill.

Trump's his man.  Laugh all you want to, poke all the fun in the world at him, but guys like Bruce here and his buddies are goddamn sure they're gonna vote in November.

Oh For Pete's Sake, Baseball!

It's official: the talk here in Cincy is all about how baseball's new commissioner Rob Manfred will continue Charlie Hustle's lifetime ban on baseball.

The decision by Manfred, who succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner last January, comes less than three months after he met with Rose, 74, at Major League Baseball’s headquarters on Park Avenue in Manhattan to discuss his latest bid for reinstatement.

It was the third time that Rose had appealed the ban, which was first instituted in 1989 after an investigation by baseball, known as the Dowd Report, concluded that Rose had bet on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds and that some of the bets had been placed on his own team.

In a report that accompanied Manfred’s decision to uphold the ban, he said Rose informed him at their September meeting that he had continued to bet on baseball, which he can legally do in Las Vegas, where he lives.

That disclosure clearly concerned Manfred. So did what Manfred described as Rose’s inability, at the meeting, to admit that he not only bet on games as a manager but also as a player. Manfred said that recently obtained evidence in that regard — a notebook containing records of bets Rose placed on games in 1986 — contradicted statements Rose made about betting during their meeting.

He also said that Rose, at the meeting, could not seem to remember other facts concerning his betting habits as a player.

“In short,” Manfred concluded in the report, “Mr. Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing, so clearly established by the Dowd Report, or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent ineligibility in 1989.”

But...and this is a BIG but...there is hope for Cooperstown, still.

However, in his report, Manfred did distinguish between the continued ban on Rose and his eligibility for the Hall of Fame, noting that as commissioner he did not have the authority to determine whether Rose belonged in Cooperstown or not.

“In fact, in my view, the considerations that should drive a decision on whether an individual should be allowed to work in baseball are not the same as those that should drive a decision on Hall of Fame eligibility,” Manfred wrote.

Any debate over Mr. Rose’s eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum,” Manfred added. 

In other words, the Baseball Writers Association of America are the ones who determine who gets into the Hall, and Manfred is clearly tossing that baseball-shaped grenade into their camp to deal with it.   They voted to ban him from eligibility nearly 25 years ago, so Rose needs to take that up with them.

Whether or not the BBWAA will take another vote in order for Rose to get a shot at the Hall, who knows, but at this point it looks like at least MLB isn't going to budge.  I can't imagine the writers doing it either.

I wouldn't hold your breath for Rose to get in anytime soon.

 

The Worst Accountants On Earth

It's nice to be a federal legislator, especially a US Senator, because whenever you get caught taking too much in bribes lobbyist contributions you can always call a mulligan.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker had not properly disclosed millions of dollars in income from real estate, hedge funds and other investments until last Friday, according to a Sunday evening report from The Wall Street Journal. The Republican senator said these were oversights he has since corrected.

“I am extremely disappointed in the filing errors that were made in earlier financial disclosure reports,” the Tennessee Republican told the Journal in a statement, after the newspaper had queried his office about his past financial reports that it said contained irregularities.

Corker, who is the third-ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, did not properly disclose at least $2 million in income from investments in three separate hedge funds in Tennessee, as well as millions of dollars in income from commercial real estate investments because of an accounting error, and millions of dollars in various other assets and income from transactions.

According to the report, Corker filed amendments to his previous personal financial reports on Friday.

“After completing a full, third-party review, we have corrected this oversight,” Corker said in his statement to the newspaper, adding that he had hired an accounting firm after the Journal began making inquiries.

Now, if you and I failed to disclose millions of dollars in income over seven years, the IRS would have put you away for tax fraud.  But he's a Senator, and a powerful one, so the rules don't exactly apply, do they?

"Filing errors" for the goddamn win.

StupidiNews!

• Saudi Arabia is forming a coalition of Sunni Muslim nations to band together to fight terrorism across Asia and Africa.
• Seattle's City Council unanimously passed legislation to allow Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize, something the ride-sharing companies say is illegal under federal law.
• President Obama is expected to approve the sale of Perry-class guided missile frigates to Taiwan before the end of the year, a move China calls "interference" in its internal affairs.
• Star Wars Episode VII is expected to open in more than 4,100 theaters in December, a record for the holiday season, and to have the largest box office opening weekend in history this week.
• Concerned that their internal batteries may overheat and catch fire, airlines are now banning "hoverboard" devices from all flights.