Last Call For Good Enough For The Goose

If Missouri's restrictions on women seeking abortion are a "vital and necessary public safety issue" as Republicans insist, then the same restrictions should apply for purchasing a gun, right?

Missouri State Rep. Stacey Newman (D) has a creative idea for tackling the high rates of gun violence in her state: regulate gun purchases as tightly as abortion services. 

According to St. Louis Magazine, Newman pre-filed a bill this week that would make it just as difficult to buy a deadly weapon in Missouri as it currently it to get an abortion — including imposing a 72-hour waiting period for prospective gun buyers and requiring them to receive information about alternative to guns, like “peaceful and nonviolent conflict resolution.” 

Missouri, which is home to just one clinic that performs abortions, has some of the harshest restrictions on the procedure in the country. Patients must wait three full days before they’re allowed to end a pregnancy and make two separate trips to the state’s lone clinic. 

“It is logical we borrow similar restrictions to lower our horrific gun violence rates,” Newman said in a statement. “If we truly insist that Missouri cares about ‘all life’, then we must take immediate steps to address our major cities rising rates of gun violence.”

This is utterly brilliant, and of course it has no chance of passage, but it quite cleanly illustrates the rank hypocrisy of Republicans when it comes to "choosing life" and the massive stupidity of treating women like they need to have their little stupid minds changed by the state to dissuade them from exercising their constitutional right.

Under Newman’s proposed legislation, prospective gun buyers would be required to jump through multiple hoops before legally obtaining a firearm. 

At least 72 hours before attempting to buy a gun, they would be required to meet with a licensed physician to discuss the risks of gun ownership. After the three day waiting period, they would need to locate a licensed firearm dealer located at least 120 miles from their home, which is the average distance that women currently must travel to get an abortion. 

Before the sale, the buyer would also be required to complete several educational requirements. Newman’s bill stipulates that they must tour an emergency trauma center treating victims of gun violence, meet with at least two families affected by gun violence, and talk to two local faith leaders who have performed funerals for children who have been killed by guns. Then, before walking out of the store with their gun, they would need to watch a 30-minute video in the presence of the firearm dealer that details fatal gun injuries and review information about alternatives to purchasing a firearm.

 I'd love to see a national version of this bill introduced, again, just to make a point, but of course even Democrats fear the NRA more than they fear voters.

Fear And Loathing In Trump Vegas

The Donald notes he gets YOOOOOOOGE poll numbers after terrible things happen, because he's your go-to guy if you need to piss yourself in fear, America!

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday suggested his popularity increases after tragedies, pointing to his rise in polls after last month's Paris terrorist attacks.

Trump made the comment while pushing back on a GOP memo that scrutinizes his White House candidacy and defending his support for certain demographics, such as women, according to CNN. 

"I'm gonna get people jobs and I'm going to protect people. And that's why whenever there's a tragedy, everything goes up, my numbers go way up because we have no strength in this country, we have weak, sad politicians," the billionaire businessman told the network. 

Trump stood at 24.8 percent support in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls on Nov. 13, the day of the deadly attacks in Paris.

He ticked upward in the weeks following the attacks, reaching 27.8 percent support on Nov. 28. 

His comment follows a similar point made by a Twitter supporter, which the celebrity real estate tycoon shared earlier Thursday, that states: "His poll numbers jump every time instances like this occur."

Indeed, the latest CNN poll shows Trump way ahead now at 36% to Ted Cruz's 16%, as Dr. Ben Carson has dropped to 14% along with Rubio.   It's looking more and more like the party of abject fear and loathing wants a master debater like Trump to run things, and they might end up nominating him.

Or maybe they'll destroy him instead.

Donald Trump tapped a man to be a senior business adviser to his real-estate empire even after the man's past involvement in a major Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme had become publicly known, according to Associated Press interviews and a review of court records. 

Portions of Trump's relationship with Felix Sater, a convicted felon and government informant, have been previously known. Trump worked with the company where Sater was an executive, Bayrock Group LLC, after it rented office space from the Trump Organization as early as 2003. Sater's criminal history was effectively unknown to the public at the time, because a judge kept the relevant court records secret and Sater altered his name. When Sater's criminal past and Mafia links came to light in 2007, Trump distanced himself from Sater. 

But less than three years later, Trump renewed his ties with Sater. Sater presented business cards describing himself as a senior adviser to Donald Trump, and he had an office on the same floor as Trump's own office in New York's Trump Tower, The Associated Press learned through interviews and court records.

Trump said during an AP interview on Wednesday that he recalled only bare details of Sater. 

"Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it," Trump said, referring questions about Sater to his staff. "I'm not that familiar with him." 

According to Trump lawyer Alan Garten, Sater's role was to prospect for high-end real estate deals for the Trump Organization. The arrangement lasted six months, Garten said.

Which is a big deal because that puts Trump in bed with the mob, and the mob in bed with the Russians.  Which we've known about since 2007, raising questions about if this is the best oppo research that the GOP has on the guy.

I'm not saying he can't win, we know any Republican will get 45% of the vote minimum, even Trump.

But maybe he won't get much more than that.

Jobapalooza: Rate My Economy Edition

Another great jobs report this month, because it's nice to be reminded that under our current "terrible worst president ever" that we've had five and a half straight years of job growth.

Employers added more jobs than forecast in November, underscoring Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s confidence that the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs. 

The 211,000 increase in payrolls followed a 298,000 gain in October that was bigger than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median forecast called for a 200,000 advance. The jobless rate held at a more than seven-year low of 5 percent. 

A healthy rate of hiring has raised the odds that Fed officials will raise interest rates this month for the first time since 2006. The pace of future increases is contingent on progress toward the central bank’s inflation goal and probably depends on how quickly wage pressures mount as the job market tightens.

“It was a broad-based gain across all sectors, and that’s absolutely essential,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, whose forecast for payrolls was among the closest. The jobs report “is a bright green signal for the Fed to go ahead and move in December,” and indicates future rate increases should proceed at a “moderate pace.” 

Employee pay increased at a steady pace last month. Average hourly earnings at private employers rose 0.2 percent in November after a 0.4 percent gain. Year-over-year hourly pay rose 2.3 percent after a 2.5 percent gain a month earlier.

Unemployment down, wages up, and it looks like the Fed is finally going to start getting us out of zero percent interest rates.  How much of a rate hike in December, we don't know, but the US economy is now sailing along.

That does mean however that as the Fed slows down the economy a bit, that it could have effects on the 2016 election. Whether or not raising interest rates will be enough cover if job numbers go negative, well that's up to Janet Yellen and crew, right?

We'll see.

StupidiNews!

• As expected, Senate Republicans used budget reconciliation to get the 51 votes needed to defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, but the bill is expected to be vetoed.
• Los Angeles County will not prosecute a California Highway Patrol officer seen on video beating a 51-year-ol black woman, calling the violence "legal and necessarily".
• Defense Secretary Ash Carter says the Pentagon will open all military combat roles to women who can qualify for the physical training standards.
• Restaurant industry groups have immediately sued New York City over new sodium warning guidelines for large fast food chains, calling the measure "arbitrary and capricious".
• Several New Jersey cities are demanding an investigation into Verizon, saying the company has neglected to maintain copper landlines in areas where there isn't fiber optic infrastructure.