Sinquefield Flack Admits City/County Unificaiton Plan Is About Eliminating Earnings Tax

St. Louis Business Journals noted recently that "Republican strategist" Gregg Keller tweeted that he was in favor of the City/County unification plan proposed by right-wing millionare Rex Sinquefield's group Better Together STL because it would get rid of St. Louis's earning tax:

Earnings tax: gutted. City aldermanic system: gutted. Dozens of governmental entities: gutted. Hundreds of millions in annual governmental duplication: gutted. https://t.co/dpUp5TBNCi

— Gregg Keller (@RGreggKeller) December 30, 2018

What they didn't note, however, was that Keller is a member of the board of Rex's original right-wing think tank, the Show Me Institute. So it seems like he might have a pretty good idea of what the real intentions are behind this plan. And, of course, the earnings tax has long been a white whale for Rex, since wrecking the state economy of Kansas ceased to be amusing. And for anyone wondering just how much old Rex values independent thinking in those on his payroll, keep in mind that the muesum he bankrolls recently ran an exhibit titled, literally, "The Sinquefield Effect."

Rex Sinquefield Refers To International Master in Chess as "Some Blond"

The favorite right-wing millionare of the corporate wing of the St. Louis Democrats disgraced himself even more than usual last November by referring to Anna Rudolph, an International Master of chess, as "some blond" on the Today in Chess program. As was pointed out by many chess commentators, Rex himself has not achieved IM status.

Found it... pic.twitter.com/Ae8N0vbR2s

— Charlie the Chess Cat (@CharlieChessCat) November 11, 2018

It's just so strange that Rex engaged in such blatant sexism, since all of the St. Louis Rexocrats kept telling me that old man Rex is a committed libertarian who's, like, totally cool and compassionate on social issues even while he works tirelessly to defund state and city governments. It's almost as if he's just a typical old cranky conservative who figured out how that he can buy off unprincipled "Democrats" in order to get them to sell out the citizens of cities like St. Louis and Kansas City.

To Disincentivize Dishonesty, Planned Parenthood Should Sue

Right-wing activists released a video today dishonestly claiming that Planned Parenthood is "selling body parts" of aborted fetuses in violation of federal law. You can watch the dishonest video here and the full footage here. In the deliberately deceptive video, the video editors repeatedly refer to laws banning the sale of organs from aborted fetuses and refer to one of the undercover people as the "buyer," suggesting that they were planning a transaction with Planned Parenthood and started a twitter hashtag #ppsellsbabyparts.

However, in the full video, the faux "buyer" actually says, regarding the purpose of the meeting,  (2:27) "I wanna pick your brain..." which suggests an informal conversation rather than any plans for a transaction.  And at (4:22) the "buyer" says "I'd really like to connect with people who...they don't know that we're out there" which again clearly suggests that they are not asking Planned Parenthood to sell body parts. At no point in the video does the Planned Parenthood employee suggest that they are open to selling body parts.

Moreover, in the video, Dr. Nucatola of Planned Parenthood makes it very clear that Planned Parenthood providers are not going to be making money off of these procedures. Here's what she says at the 5:00 mark:

 Every provider has had patients who want to donate their tissue, and they absolutely want to accommodate them...they just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as 'this clinic is selling tissue. this clinic is making money off of this.' I know in the Planned Parenthood World, for example, they're very very sensitive to that and for an affiliate that's going to do that, they need to...some might do it for free...[but] they want to come to a number where it doesn't look like they're making money.  They want to come to a number that looks like it is a reasonable effort for the effort that is allotted on their part.

And during a longer conversation at the end (2:22:26-2:27:00 ), you can see that the phonies are trying to push payments, and Dr. Nucatola is giving them the message that aside from not losing money, the clinics will not do the procedures in exchange for money.  She says, at various times:

• 2:22:26: "At the end of the day, if you're going to take money out of the equation, which is what most affiliates are trying to do, how can we do this for you in the most beneficial way"
• 2:24:52 "Anything you can do to explain who's benefitting, the benevolence of what they're doing, I think that holds as much value as any cash prize." 
• 2:26:00 "Perhaps the difference is affiliates are looking to benefit in very different ways than just dollars and cents. Again, they're not going to do it in a way that costs them money. They want to break even. They want to be compensated for time and space and whatever impact that it has."

In fact, just to underlie how willfully dishonest the "Center for Medical Progress" is being, both of the "buyers" acknowledge in the video that Planned Parenthood is not selling tissue.

• Buyer #1 (1:29:05): "I never see that. I don't look at it that way.  We're not selling tissue."
• Buyer #2 (1:29:29): "The researchers are paying for procurement...they're not buying a brain."

Gawker explains the covering of expenses in more detail:

Except that, as Planned Parenthood told The Hill, its affiliates “can legally receive reimbursement from a tissue donation procedure for the ‘additional expenses related tissue donation, which can vary based on individual circumstance,’ but it does not go to staff members or providers.” These “additional expenses” might be the $10-30 it costs to transport the tissue being donated, which Planned Parenthood notes is “standard across the medical field.” And no, the patient donating the tissue doesn’t receive any financial reimbursement either.

The "Center for Medical Progress," the group behind this video, was clearly being intentionally dishonest in implying that Planned Parenthood was "selling body parts" in violation of federal law.  Planned Parenthood should sue them for everything they're worth, and should find out through the process of discovery who else was involved in this dishonest campaign.  If our legal system is even remotely adequate, this type of nonsense should be punishable to an extent that makes it clear that these dishonest tactics are not worth it.

Right-Wing Bloggers Gloriously Prove They Have No Idea How Elections Work

We all know the tea party used to go to great lengths to exaggerate the size of crowds at their events.  But even so, they were at least capable of drawing something that could legitimately be called a crowd.  That no longer seems to be the case.  Mike Flynn, a co-founder of Breitbart, ran a "campaign" for disgraced Republican Congressman Aaron Schock's vacated seat, and one of his big events was a "Flags and Fun" rally featuring Jim Hoft in the same Quincy Illinois park that had hosted several large tea party events in the past.  This time around, they couldn't even draw 50 people:

What's more, the right-wing blogosphere went all in for Flynn.  Breitbart.com, of course, wrote numerous articles attacking his primary opponent LaHood (often, unsurprisingly, without noting the conflict of interest), but that was just the tip of the iceberg.  Many (most?) rightwing bloggers billed this as an epic battle between the "grassroots" and the establishment.  And guess what?  The establishment, aka LaHood, won the primary by over 40% of the vote.  It was an absolute landslide.  It was almost as if conservative bloggers were trying to prove that they are completely beholden to the whims of the establishment GOP.  When they're not being actively propped up by Americans for Prosperity, or Fox News, or the health insurance or coal industries, they really have no ability to make much of a difference in elections, even in deep red districts like Illinois 18.

What are they up to now? Gateway Pundit Edition

Remember Jim Hoft, aka Gateway Pundit, who has repeatedly promoted white supremacist websites including the Council of Conservative Citizens, especially for their "black on white" crime stories (even long after being called out by mainstream media outlets), who deletes comments from liberals at his website but leaves up comments calling black people the n-word, animals, and crackheads, and who claims that the NAACP are "the real racists."  What has he been up to?

Sadly, even in the wake of the horrific Charleston shootings perpetuated by a deranged racist, Hoft continues to allow his website to be a hub for internet racists.  Here is a sample of blatantly racist comments on The Gateway Pundit Facebook page *after* the shooting (there are plenty more from the week before as well):

WARNING: Offensive content below

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You'd like to think that there are life events that are so tragic, so momentous that they can get even people like Jim Hoft to stop for a moment and reconsider whether they really should be using their websites to flame white racal resentment.  Unfortunately, there's not much evidence to support that hope. 

Behold: A Burnsian Masterpiece!

  Charles C Johnson Gawker Defamation Lawsuit by Milo Yiannopoulos

See also here and here.

I really hope James O'Keefe, like Johnson, will rely exclusively on his buddy Burns for legal advice.

What are they up to now? John Burns Edition

Remember John Burns, the guy who teamed up with James O'Keefe to falsely accuse Washington University of oppressing free speech, then tried to sabotage a marriage equality rally, then heroically lost a public transportation ballot initiative in humiliating fashion by claiming the Republican Mayor of Chesterfield personally ordered police to shut down a tea party protest, oh, and who helped O'Keefe come up with a plan to sexually humiliate a CNN reporter?

What's he been up to?

He's been lawyerin for Chuck C. Johnson, that's what!