You know what ELSE I think Sessions has forgotten? His Twitter account, which is where I found this picture. He hasn’t Tweeted since 2014…
I hate doing back-to-back open threads; I like to give y’all some leavening in between, but it’s been a busy day, and this is all I have time for, and y’all aren’t paying for this, so quit yer bellyachin’…
- Senate GOP to add repeal of Obamacare insurance mandate into tax bill — OK, I thought this was dead. Like, three or four times dead. Rotting. Moldering. Did it not get a stake in its heart? Who was supposed to have the wooden stake and drive it in? Somebody is not getting the job done…
- Sessions Denies Lying Under Oath About Russia Contacts — You see, he just forgot (as he does so often) about that meeting with his aide who wanted to get Trump together with the Russians. Yeah, forgot — that’s the ticket! Oh, by the way, you know how many meetings we now know about between Trump and Russians? 30. Three-zero. Also…
- Donald Trump Jr. communicated with WikiLeaks during 2016 campaign — Wikileaks was like, Why don’t y’all Tweet about what we’re doing to Hillary? and Trump Sr. tweeted minutes later. Then they said, Why don’t y’all Tweet the link, too? And then Trump Jr. tweeted the link. Not that it’s collusion or anything, right? And the Russians weren’t behind Wikileaks, right? And the check is in the mail…
- Senate committee questions Trump nuclear authority — While others lead with other stuff, BBC is leading with this. I guess they think nothing is more important than making sure somebody keeps the really dangerous toys out of Trump’s hands. You know what? The thought of Trump having the power to use WMD could tempt Iraq to invade us — with our erstwhile allies cheering them on…
- Catherine Templeton: ‘Henry ain’t Trump!’ — Looks like this GOP primary is a contest to see who can bring the most crazy. What else can you say about a competition in which you try to score points by saying your opponent is no Donald Trump?
Related Posts
With all the GOP bashing, I’m wondering if you didn’t turn the blog over to bud today.
Nope. It’s not about the GOP. It’s about the national crisis that is Trump.
Now if it was Bud, it would be about the GOP…
GOP = Party of Trump
The evidence mounts daily that that is the case. GOP senators are calling for Moore to quit AL senate race because they believe his 5 accusers. But defend Trump from hi 16 accusers. It just isn’t tenable to argue the GOP and Trump are somehow different.
“It’s about the national crisis that is Trump.”
Yeah, the guy who just completed an international trip without incident — and successfully working the diplomatic channels to help get three UCLA basketball players released from custody in China.
What’s the latest crisis anyway? I lose track of them all. Everything’s crashing down around us, panic in the streets, riots, civil war…. or was it just a silly tweet?
What’s the latest crisis anyway?
Long waits at the airport 🙂
I know you are pretty much in a jet-set bubble that inoculates you from real problems that are afflicting real people but just go ask the people of Puerto Rico how well things are going in their lives thanks to the Trump administration’s incompetence. Go ask the men and women who served in the armed forces who are at risk of being deported because they were born 20 years ago in Mexico how that’s working out for them. Ask the millions of people who are on the verge of losing their health insurance because of Trump how they are coping. Or ask the Muslim American citizens of this country how much they enjoy the increased violence against them because of Trump egging them on. In general violent crime is up after dropping for 20 years. Indeed the damage Trump is doing is start to show up in many real ways to people across this country. And for all of us the threat of nuclear war is becoming a real thing. It’s not just about middle school level tweets anymore. It has become real.
Ha ha.. “jetset”. No, some of us just have jobs that take us different places in the country so we can get a clearer picture than what MSNBC feeds us. If you think flying from Columbia to Charlotte to Pittsburgh and back every week, sleeping in a Hampton Inn, eating at cafeterias and fast food places is the jetset, then that pretty much explains your hatred of anyone who has a job that pays more than $50K a year.
I keep forgetting how beautiful things were just one year ago in the country. We had just ended an eight year period without anything but peace and happiness. You forgot to mention the nut who shot up the Republican softball practice (fueled by Rachel Maddow’s tripe) or the guy who sneak attacked Rand Paul the other day and broke six of his ribs. Those were Trump’s crises too I suppose.
Keep believing the hype. I’m sure it will lead to a better life.
That Doug is a real International Man of Mystery. Rides around in his own 747. Yeah, baby, yeah! 🙂
“What’s the latest crisis anyway?”
You might have missed it, but about a year ago, one of the most notorious idiots in America, a guy who’s been a punch line since the ’80s, was elected president of the United States.
Sorry to break the news…
What was your analysis of his recent Asian trip? Did he do anything that was representative of a notorious idiot? Did he accomplish anything that could help the U.S. from a trade or jobs perspective?
I know there were a lot of liberal hacks who attempted to make a big deal about him feeding some fish in a koi pond until it was revealed that he was just doing what the Japanese PM had done first. But that’s where we’re at now — every word and action is fodder for outrage, ridicule, and gloom-and-doom forecasts.
First, he starts out in a hole, because he already trashed our leadership in the region with his reckless abandonment of TPP.
So whatever he did (and I wasn’t paying much attention), we’re still in the hole compared to a year ago. Anything he accomplished on trade must be reckoned against that huge deficit.
As for the problems — well, they all have to do with words (because a president’s failures and successes DO usually have to do with words), so you will dismiss them all.
OK, I’m tired now. Those are just some things that pop into my head without doing any digging…
Just a couple of thoughts. Trump is no bed of roses but criticism over feeding fish? To co-opt the football program segment, “C’mon Man!” kinda fits the bill for the press criticism on this one.
As for the idiots trying to repeal ACA and the new budget fallout, all I can say is if Medicare is affected to the degree it might be and the funding is cut by billions, there won’t be a Republican who is safe in 2018 or 2020. Medicare and Social Security are programs we pay into from our paychecks or pay our taxes. Neither one is free in spite of Republican efforts to portray them as such. If Republicans are so thick headed and hell bound to repeal ACA, then by damn, come up with something that works for ALL of the country, not just the privileged. On the other hand, Democrats are enjoying sitting back and watching Republicans and Trump do irreparable damage to this country. With leaders in power like Pelosi and Schumer, they are no better than McConnell and Ryan. We need better leadership on both sides willing to actually reach across the aisle for the people of this country, not just for special interests and whatever social injustice is popular at the moment.
On the other hand, Democrats are enjoying sitting back and watching Republicans and Trump do irreparable damage to this country.
-Bart
Huh? Who’s enjoying any of this? I’m horrified. But let’s be real, Democrats are helpless to do anything. Granted the Dems are pretty lame but at least they hold the moral high ground. The competency high ground on the other hand, about a tie. Still, the Democrats are our only hope. The GOP is just a craven band of robber barons intent on shoveling all the nation’s wealth to a handful of very undeserving plutocrats. The only question is whether we become a Theocracy, Plutocracy, Kleptocracy or Oligarchy. Or perhaps some combination.
Hey, I’m only posting something from an article I read. Can’t recall which one at the moment but it did address the fact that Democrats are going silent and just sitting back waiting for Trump and the Republicans implode. It is not a bad strategy. If you see your opponent self-destructing and want to win, why say one word that could come back to bite you in the rear later on?
“The GOP is just a craven band of robber barons intent on shoveling all the nation’s wealth to a handful of very undeserving plutocrats.” C’mon bud, you sound like the official Communist party line lemming.
So the Democrats are going with the old “do nothing strategy”… that always works out so well.
What do you want them to do, Richard?
Isn’t that what we pay them to decide?
I don’t see them doing nothing. They are doing what they can. After all, none of Trump’s major initiatives have passed the REPUBLICAN led Congress. Of course that is because of Trump’s own incompetence as much as anything.
They just voted in unison to deny Trump’s 36 year old federal judge nominee (a man that failed to acknowledge on required disclosure forms that his wife works in the White House) a judgeship.
A man that has never tried a case, and who unanimously failed the bar association screening process which is non partisan. (Plenty of Republicans sail through the screening wth no issues.)
They just voted in unison to deny Trump’s 36 year old federal judge nominee (a man that failed to acknowledge on required disclosure forms that his wife works in the White House) a judgeship. A man that has never tried a case, and who unanimously failed the bar association screening process which is non partisan. (Plenty of Republicans sail through the screening wth no issues.)”
I heard about that. I can say that everyone in my law firm all passed the bar on the first try, and we’ve tried lots of cases, jury and non-jury. Feels crazy that people less qualified that me (and I’m not qualified) are getting nominated for the federal judiciary.
Don’t sell yourself short Bryan. No doubt you’d vote the wrong way on some issues 🙂 but you’d take the job seriously and render a well thought out decision. Isn’t that all we can ask of any court judge?
I’m not all about the ABA – it’s a trade group after all – but when they say one of their members is unfit to serve, I see no reason not to listen to that expert opinion.
Given what is going on, it made no sense for the GOP to party-line vote through an unqualified candidate who flat out lied on his application (simply having your wife serving in the White House alone ought to be a disqualification as I think about it) is an easy one to vote down. There are plenty more candidates for a federal judgeship; this isn’t a difficult position to fill. Now, they have opened themselves up again – needlessly – to broad derision. It’s becoming a seriously corrosive problem for the GOP and one that looks as though it is going to play itself out in a major rout over the next 18 months.
I agree that there are plenty of great lawyers out there who would make outstanding jurists. It’s a pity that the federal judiciary has become such a political football for the two parties that we can’t fill the existing vacancies on the federal bench in an orderly fashion.
It also extends to US Attorneys. I mean, SC still does’t have a full-time US Attorney. No one has even been nominated yet, and we’re over a year past the election.
“A man that has never tried a case, and who unanimously failed the bar association screening process which is non partisan. (Plenty of Republicans sail through the screening wth no issues.)”
Sounds like a man who has common sense and can make a rational decision.
Wow. Is that what you actually think?
If so, that goes a LONG way toward explaining Trump…
Do you over-rationalize everything you read?
No, not OVERly — at least not for someone who has spent most of his life in jobs in which it was essential to catch flaws in copy, and to look for things to offer opinions about. I read carefully and critically, for connotation and style as well as denotation. My mind is always going, “What conclusions, or fresh questions, might be drawn from this?”
You can’t read copy too carefully. My only worry is getting tired or in too much of a hurry and letting things get by me — which I sometimes do, here on the blog (not having anyone to edit me before publication), and I hate that.
But the world is like that for everybody now. For instance, you wouldn’t expect to find basic writing errors in Vanity Fair. But this morning, I ran across a sentence describing Sheldon Adelson as “Adelson, the casino billionaire and wealthy Republican kingmaker…”
Really? He’s a wealthy billionaire, instead of the other kind?…
Claus 2
I’d say a man that doesn’t disclose on required disclosure forms that his wife is a White House lawyer isn’t rational and doesn’t make much sense.
Examining that “plutocracy” quip in light of the proposed house tax bill and its partner from the senate yields some interesting thought.
Corporate tax rate cut to 25% – cost 1.5 trillion over 10 yrs
25% top rate for “pass through” businesses – cost 596 billion
Estate tax repeal – cost 150 billion (Affects only estates over 5.25 million)
Repeal Alternate minimum tax – cost 695 billion
Lower top income tax rates on income up to 1 million and preserving top capital gains rate at 20%
Who benefits mostly from those above?
What does it give the bottom 95%?
12K/ 24K standard deduction for singles/couples cost 9.21 billion
Raised child tax credit and “family credit – cost 430 billion (tough stuff if you’re childless)
The bottom 95% get a good share of these.
But let’s see what they claw back.
Eliminate personal exemption (currently just over 5k each filer) – take back 1.6 trillion
Repeal deductions for state taxes, property taxes, casualty losses, medical expenses – grab 1.3 trillion
Small amount, but telling – if your employer builds a gym for employees, or pays for parking or transportation, he can’t deduct it.
The big kicker – adds 1.4 trillion to the national debt over ten years. Sets up more of the debt driven poor-mouthing Republicans use to try to cut Social Security and Medicare (by raising ages), cut Medicaid, cut anti poverty grants, and other needed programs.
Mnuchin and Mulvaney (and Cohen, too) are going to find their pandering to the 1% has a very serious populist problem…
When you craft a package that is so completely lop-sided in who it rewards and who it punishes – as in 95 out of 100 voters – it makes sense to pull your head out of your spreadsheet to evaluate your probability of success.
They remind me of nihilists; certainly of people for whom the guillotine was invented in another age…
“The big kicker – adds 1.4 trillion to the national debt over ten years. ”
1.4 trillion over 10 years? Why if we put Obama back in office he could do that in 1-2 years tops.
Typical nonsense line. Obama’s tenure actually cut the deficits to less than half of what they were in 2009, from about 1.2 T to about 450 B. When you inherit a deep recession, 2 wars, and a ridiculous tax structure, that’s remarkable progress. The idea of Obama as a proliferate spender is more than a myth, it’s a lie.
Deficit vs. debt, he’s talking about adding to the national debt not the budget deficit. The 1.4 trillion is a one time expense.
Moderation again?
I don’t know what that was. Maybe it was all the numbers. Maybe the algorithm has learned I’m not a numbers guy.
Seriously, I can’t tell. I don’t see any red-flag words, and there are no links. Sometimes having two or three links gets you held…
After how many years you’d think I’d be off moderation… but apparently that’s not to be. My posts may be seen in a few minutes, days later, or never.
How many years has it been?
Depends on under which name he’s posting, no?
I’m thinking about changing my user name from Claus2 to Mark Stewert.
Probably two.
Because Claus and Claus2 is so difficult to distinguish between. If you remember it got to the point where none of my messages were even showing up for moderating.