Russian accounts faked American identities and left comments to influence a process whereby the government solicited input from Americans.
This sentence also describes Russian meddling in the 2016 election; not just Russian meddling in the net neutrality decision. If the latter is unacceptable, the former should be as well.
But I'm nitpicking on that point, and I think you're very right about the campaign finance violation being an easier story to "muddy." The more complex and subtle the crime, the easier it is to obscure the truth and confuse the audience.
Still, I think the details of the story matter very little for this purpose--we're talking about an administration that has been publicly demonizing the Russia investigation based on nothing for two years, and which has routinely denounced objective facts as "fake news." A lot of people accept this alternate reality. We just don't know how durable that belief is.
I think the resolution of this affair will depend less on "what the facts are" and more on "do people care what the facts are?"
Note also that communicating with foreign people - even Russian ones - is not a crime. If the evidence comes out that Trump was indeed "colluding" to... get himself elected? Again, it's going to be weak sauce, and might not involve criminal liability at all. The chance that it rises to the level of actual treason seems extremely remote. And the chance of finding a clear quid-pro-quo (whatever happened to the Rosneft sale?) seems equally remote. So you're going to hear a lot of Republicans asking questions like: "So what?" "Who cares?" What's actually at stake?
Butina pleads guilty and admits to trying to infiltrate and influence the NRA and other American conservatives... smart Republicans should/will take a stance of "So what? If she thought she could influence me, she was wrong. My patriotism is unimpeached. I believe in the 2nd Amendment and if someone wants to express support for that I'm not going to turn them away. If they turn out to be foreign agents, there's no harm done, because they would have failed in whatever they were trying to do."
SO what is at stake here? "Influencing" public opinion with Facebook posts and fake news? If public opinion is facile enough to shift in response to that stuff, that's really pubic opinion's fault. We can't stop misleading ads or publications.
Russian accounts faked American identities and left comments to influence a process whereby the government solicited input from Americans. And it very conveniently supported an unpopular position, and gave cover for a bad actor to enact a policy that was manifestly contrary to the public good and public desires. This is what's at stake: policies being boosted - successfully - by actors outside the country who are not supposed to be able to influence policy. Forget "collusion." Even tolerating this kind of thing is unpatriotic, and the pressure should not be let up on people like Trump and Pai who blithely enable or encourage it. To me this is the real issue when it comes to "Russian interference."
Collusion is not necessarily a crime. Covering it up is. Also, candidates are enjoined from accepting help from a foreign power. You may not think it's a crime, but it is. And Trump didn't admit to it- another crime. Republican lawmakers may say, "Who cares?" American citizens care. Republicans who remember when they were the party of law and order care.
Russian accounts faked American identities and left comments to influence a process whereby the government solicited input from Americans.
This sentence also describes Russian meddling in the 2016 election; not just Russian meddling in the net neutrality decision. If the latter is unacceptable, the former should be as well.
But I'm nitpicking on that point, and I think you're very right about the campaign finance violation being an easier story to "muddy." The more complex and subtle the crime, the easier it is to obscure the truth and confuse the audience.
Still, I think the details of the story matter very little for this purpose--we're talking about an administration that has been publicly demonizing the Russia investigation based on nothing for two years, and which has routinely denounced objective facts as "fake news." A lot of people accept this alternate reality. We just don't know how durable that belief is.
I think the resolution of this affair will depend less on "what the facts are" and more on "do people care what the facts are?"
Again, we go back to the first real act of this Administration, a seemingly trivial matter of lying about photographic evidence of his inauguration size. The intent here was never really to prove the size of the crowd was bigger than it was. The intent was the lay the ground for everything that would come after. The inauguration-size controversy was Trump and those who work for him saying "reality is whatever we say it is, evidence be damned". The aim was not just a lie in a specific instance, but to obliterate the idea that objective truth even exists in any situation, no matter how obvious the lie is. And, for the most part, it has worked. At least 30% of the voting public will NEVER think he did anything wrong no matter what comes forward. This is coincidentally about the same amount of people who supported Nixon right up to the moment he took off in the helicopter. As I have been saying for some time, I fully expect a full-on campaign in the right-wing media retroactively saying Nixon did nothing wrong before this is all over.
Bear in mind, the crux of the Russia probe lies in the THEFT of emails from a political opponent. It's not much different than what the Watergate burglars did, simply for the electronic age, and the fact that it was facilitated not by a group of low-level thugs in the White House, but a hostile foreign power.
So, Manafort secretly told the President to publicly attack Mueller and Comey, to criticize the Obama administration because of the FISA warrant thing, to accuse the DNC of colluding with the Ukrainian government during the campaign, and to attack Clinton and the Steele dossier. Trump certainly didn't need Manafort to tell him to do all of those things (especially attacking Mueller and Clinton), but it's notable that a multiple felon and foreign agent like Manafort has helped develop the Trump administration's attack strategy on law enforcement.
Here's an interesting story about the background to the current 'yellow vest' protests in France. Those protests have no specific goals and no clear leadership and the story draws a parallel with the founding of En Marche (Macron's political party) that tapped into the same cross-party dissatisfaction and desire for a voice.
For a while now Macron has been failing to be the voice of the people. That's partly down to policy, for instance the tax changes that primarily benefited the very wealthiest:
It's also though a reflection of his apparent lack of empathy for the ordinary people that put him into power in the first place.
So, Manafort secretly told the President to publicly attack Mueller and Comey, to criticize the Obama administration because of the FISA warrant thing, to accuse the DNC of colluding with the Ukrainian government during the campaign, and to attack Clinton and the Steele dossier. Trump certainly didn't need Manafort to tell him to do all of those things (especially attacking Mueller and Clinton), but it's notable that a multiple felon and foreign agent like Manafort has helped develop the Trump administration's attack strategy on law enforcement.
While Manafort's basic attack strategy was probably what Trump would have done anyway, he does seem to have been the specific source of the plan to discredit the DNC by suggesting they were colluding with the Ukrainian government to influence the 2016 election - that plays into the "it might technically be a crime, but everyone does it" line. There's no evidence of any such collusion, but the involvement was mentioned in one post recently as a reality - showing that the plan to muddy the waters has had some success.
No wonder Republicans were pushing for the tax bill. It was a backdoor policy to make Obamacare unconstitutional since they couldn't find a way to repeal it any other way.
Kinda strange that the previous bill, already passed, and scrutinized to death is the one considered unconstitutional and not the one that actually caused the constitution to be broken. Although this judge seems to be a partisan hack.
With the supreme court now packed with conservatives, it might seem this ruling will stand. If it does, look for this tactic to be deployed on future laws.
In Michigan the outgoing GOP govenor signed initiatives that were repealed in a sneaky evil GOP way. There were ballot initiatives for a minimum wage increase and sick time that were supported by hundreds of thousands of voters and were going to make it on the ballot and probably pass so the GOP instead passed laws approving those measures so they wouldn't end up as ballot measures. After the election they've repealed the increases. If the measures had been approved as ballot measures, they would not ahve been able to repeal them but because they passed them through the legislature the repeal threshold was lower.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Michigan
Rudy Guiliani, the President's lawyer said of the felonies committed by the President and Michael Cohen : “Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed… This was not a big crime,” Giuliani told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
Except the GOP basically did rob all Americans by stealing the Presidency through crimes.
Republicans across the nation are destroying America.
They are destroying what makes America great.
They are trying to turn us into Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Russia and any one of the other one party states. They hate democracy. They don't care about voters. They are stealing power (and money) from regular americans.
America is under attack folks and the assailant is coming from inside the house.
I'm not sure I understand the striking down of Obamacare due to the new tax law. If the new tax law made a previously constitutional Obamacare unconstitutional, wouldn't the tax law be struck down instead of the ACA?
In Michigan the outgoing GOP govenor signed initiatives that were repealed in a sneaky evil GOP way. There were ballot initiatives for a minimum wage increase and sick time that were supported by hundreds of thousands of voters and were going to make it on the ballot and probably pass so the GOP instead passed laws approving those measures so they wouldn't end up as ballot measures. After the election they've repealed the increases. If the measures had been approved as ballot measures, they would not ahve been able to repeal them but because they passed them through the legislature the repeal threshold was lower.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Michigan
I don't understand what kind of a mindset would let Rick Snyder think this was okay. Opposing minimum wage increases and sick time is one thing, but deliberately passing a law just so it's easier to repeal after an election because you don't want it to show up on the ballot and let voters vote on it directly... that's just trying to keep voters from getting in your way. If your ideas are so great, you don't need to use underhanded tactics to make them a reality.
This is ALL the inevitable end-game of policies Republicans have been pushing for 30+ years. Let's look at JUST today and review: Scott Walker signs the bill that essentially invalidates the votes of every non-Republican voter is Wisconsin. Lindsay Graham becomes the living avatar of hypocrisy by going on FOX News and pretending like he didn't make the exact opposite arguments about impeaching Clinton as he is in defending Trump now. We've officially reached the "he broke the law and we just don't give a shit" phase of the Presidency, where it will sit until it ends or is stopped. The votes in Wisconsin and Michigan, BESIDES curbing the powers of newly elected leaders for no other reason than they are Democrats, also reduce early voting from 6 weeks to 2 in Wisconsin (what possible reason is there for this??) and in Michigan, as mentioned, the cynical gamesmanship to make sure workers can't get paid more or even have.....more sick leave. Jesus Christ.
And on top of all that, they STILL want to make sure they can take away health care from as many people as possible. Because it is DAMN clear in the Michigan/Snyder episode and the never-ending attempt to strip healthcare from anyone they can that the only thing Republican lawmakers believe about poor or middle class people is that they haven't yet been inflicted with sufficient enough suffering that will inspire them to become rich instead.
Looking at the media reports on the striking down of the Affordable Care Act, I was struggling to understand the legal justification for the ruling. I hence tracked down the ruling itself to see what it said. In essence the rationale for the ruling is as follows: - the Constitution greatly limits the power of the government to require people to do anything (there are much greater powers to require people not to do things). - SCOTUS has previously considered the issue of Obamacare and ruled that the Constitution does not permit the government to require the purchase of insurance. However, by a majority of 5:4 they ruled that it was permitted to levy a penalty on those that did not purchase insurance - on the grounds that was a tax. - in making that judgment SCOTUS set out certain features to determine whether something is a tax. Those include the essential requirement that it must produce at least some revenue. - the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the penalty for not purchasing insurance to zero (with effect from 1/1/19). - that Act was passed through a process of budget reconciliation, which limits the ability to change laws. Under that process it would not have been possible to abolish the requirement to purchase insurance, but, as the penalty under that requirement was a tax, it was possible to reduce the rate charged for that penalty to zero. - under that new rate the penalty will no longer produce any revenue and can therefore no longer be regarded as a tax. That makes it unconstitutional. - the remainder of the Affordable Care Act is so bound up with the individual mandate that it's not possible to strike out just the latter aspect. Hence the entire Act is declared to be without effect.
The judge had been asked to make an injunction against the Affordable Care Act, but declined to do that - making a declarative judgment instead. Effectively that means there will be no immediate change in the implementation of the law - the decision will be kicked up to a higher court. The White House has confirmed that is its understanding.
At first glance the ruling seemed bizarre to me, but following through the logic of the above steps I can understand why it was made. I don't think it should be upheld because some of the logic used is pretty tortured: - a penalty can be treated as a tax (OK) - Congress can use tax powers to reduce the penalty to zero (OK) - reducing the rate of a tax to zero means it is no longer a tax even if the law is otherwise unchanged (not OK) I think there's a decent chance this decision will be upheld by SCOTUS though. Even though the ruling doesn't pass the common sense test, in a court increasingly influenced by those that believe the Constitution should be interpreted literally common sense results are far from guaranteed. One potential saving grace could be if Trump continues his assault on the judiciary - that could give SCOTUS the minor push needed to depart from this decision as a means of establishing their independence.
I'm sure all the people who have pre-existing conditions who will no longer be able to get coverage if the law is invalidated will take alot of comfort in the legal theories of conservative think tanks and Federalist Society judges that have been packed on the nation's courts. Not that they'll have the chance, since some of them will just die. It's a party that has been overrun at every level by complete sociopaths. Shit, we haven't even gotten into the 7-year old girl who died of dehydration after being in the custody of the Border Patrol for half a day. Because god forbid you offer water or medical care to a dying child if they are a parasitic immigrant, who, as Tucker Carlson literally said on his show last night are making the country "dirtier".
Can the newly elected Democratic house just not pass a bill that puts the tax back on to the ACA? Maybe dangle a % for % for Trump's wall or some other stupid compromise.
Can the newly elected Democratic house just not pass a bill that puts the tax back on to the ACA? Maybe dangle a % for % for Trump's wall or some other stupid compromise.
So you're in effect arguing that Democrats should reward the GOP for their non-stop assault ACA?
Can the newly elected Democratic house just not pass a bill that puts the tax back on to the ACA? Maybe dangle a % for % for Trump's wall or some other stupid compromise.
Every second of a Democratic Administration or Congress since the year 2008 has been spent cleaning up the mess the GOP left for them or simply holding the fort against them trying to rewind the country back to the 1950s. This particular Congress coming in in the House is nothing but a bulwark against them completely unraveling the social safety net.
The Republicans have no health care plan. No one has seen it, no one even claims it exists. The plan is "we're gonna replace it with something great", which is sort of like me saying "I'm gonna be an NBA All-Star next season". Their plan is "don't get sick". If you do happen to get sick, have alot of money. That's it. There is nothing else. The keep talking about how they want to protect pre-existing conditions because they KNOW the public is nearly universally for doing so, yet they've been looking to axe the law that already ensures this is the case. Through legislation, through the courts, any way possible. Again, they have no plan to do so. They have no intention of doing so.
We've been arguing about this damn law for almost a decade, it's been challenged left and right in the courts already, it's been neutered so much from it's original intent that it's effectively less than half of what it could/should have been as a result of court challenges like this, poison pills from Marco Rubio, and Republican governors not offering citizens of their state the Medicaid expansion for purely political purposes. They spent the entirety of 2017 trying to destroy it (which even more than Trump is why they got their asses handed to them in the House). They just.....won't......stop.
It would be one thing if there was even a page one of the GOP replacement plan, or a compromise plan. But that isn't what they do. They hate government, thus they aren't interested in actually governing, which is what this would require. Trying to destroy a law like this without a replacement ready to go from day one is not a justifiable political position, it's just a move to inflict suffering on people who don't have alot of money. Period, full stop. They hate poor people. HATE them. They don't care if they live, die, or anything in between. They had a f*****g beer blast in the Rose Garden after the House voted to rip the health coverage away from 24 million people, and it only didn't take place because of John McCain's personal vendetta against Trump for insulting his war record. Barring that, it probably would have happened already.
I will say this. If this ruling is successful in getting rid of the law, then there can be absolutely no compromise on healthcare from the left in this country anymore. As I have said over a dozen times, Obamacare WAS the compromise. It was a conservative plan from a conservative think tank. Obama deliberately choose the most conservative plan for universal coverage he could get his hands on so it could gain some bipartisan support. He got none. It was a noble effort, but Obama didn't realize until sometime around 2006 just what kind of cynical bastards he was dealing with on the other side, which was his greatest flaw. So fine.....try to get rid of the ACA again. But if it falls, know this: nothing else but Medicare for All is on the table going forward if that is the case.
The healthcare policy of this country is a goddamn joke. It's an immoral cesspool of greed. Obamacare was a band-aid that accomplished what it could. It was a good faith effort to do SOMETHING about an immoral industry sucking the life out of the citizens of this country like a parasite. So fine. If the conservative political movement in this country can't even accept a plan that comes from their own side of the aisle as a compromise, then no quarter should be given. If the ACA is destroyed, then private health insurance itself must also suffer the same fate. Every international poster here thinks our healthcare system is INSANE, almost to a person. They aren't irrational people. What should that tell the rest of us??
I'm not sure I understand the striking down of Obamacare due to the new tax law. If the new tax law made a previously constitutional Obamacare unconstitutional, wouldn't the tax law be struck down instead of the ACA?
In Michigan the outgoing GOP govenor signed initiatives that were repealed in a sneaky evil GOP way. There were ballot initiatives for a minimum wage increase and sick time that were supported by hundreds of thousands of voters and were going to make it on the ballot and probably pass so the GOP instead passed laws approving those measures so they wouldn't end up as ballot measures. After the election they've repealed the increases. If the measures had been approved as ballot measures, they would not ahve been able to repeal them but because they passed them through the legislature the repeal threshold was lower.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Michigan
I don't understand what kind of a mindset would let Rick Snyder think this was okay. Opposing minimum wage increases and sick time is one thing, but deliberately passing a law just so it's easier to repeal after an election because you don't want it to show up on the ballot and let voters vote on it directly... that's just trying to keep voters from getting in your way. If your ideas are so great, you don't need to use underhanded tactics to make them a reality.
There are a lot of things that would be totally irresponsible to bring to the people for a direct vote via ballot measure. The Republicans here in Michigan think the minimum wage hike was one of them. The way it was bypassed is perfectly legal and is likely a backdoor left in place for just such a circumstance. Interestingly, no shenanigans were used to scuttle the marijuana ballot measure, even though Republicans were against that by and large also.
Woke up from another nightmare of Trump. This time, he tried to grab my ladyparts, and I punched hin in the face and kneed him in the "pubes". Felt horrible when I woke.
And woke to more Trump news.
Federal judge in Texas strikes down Affordable Care Act
No wonder Trump freaked—federal prosecutors know exactly who hatched the hush-money scheme
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1819053/-No-wonder-Trump-freaked-federal-prosecutors-know-exactly-who-hatched-the-hush-money-scheme?detail=emaildkre There's a reason Donald Trump woke up Thursday morning spewing Twitter trash about "never" directing his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to break the law and later showed up at a Fox interview, pro-Trump news clips in hand, and started reading from them after being asked about hush-money payments made to two women. Here's what Trump had been chewing over for nearly 24 hours: federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York know that Trump was in the room in August 2015 when Cohen and American Media Inc. chief David Pecker hatched a scheme to keep Trump's affairs out of public view during the campaign.
Scott Walker signs lame-duck legislation without vetoes curbing his Democratic successor's power
Kentucky's Republican governor melts down over prospect of robust investigative journalism
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818921/-Kentucky-s-Republican-governor-melts-down-over-prospect-of-robust-investigative-journalism?detail=emaildkre Kentucky's maniac Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is publicly freaking out over the news that ProPublica, what he calls "a left-wing activist group funded by the likes of George Soros" (yes, that's the sound of a dog whistle) is partnering with the Louisville Courier-Journal for a year-long investigative reporting project into a state government program. The best part (besides the ratio Bevin racked up with his tweet) is the response from ProPublica. "You asked who @ProPublica is," they respond. "We thought we’d give you some answers. Like everything we do, they are, you know, actually accurate." They start out saying that they're "thrilled to be partnering w/ the fine folks" at the Courier Journal, one of 14 newsrooms they'll be partnering with over the next year. And they say the "paper's reporting project is [very] promising." That'll trigger Bevin. They also don't let his calling out of Soros slide, saying "We noticed you mentioned two of our donors – who just happen to be Jewish." As for those donors, they had 34,000 of them last year, and Soros's Open Society Foundations provided "less than 2 percent of our revenue." They go on to point out that "we believe in evidence. Hard, indisputable evidence. Carefully gathered and precisely told." That's perhaps why, they say, "our peers have given us 4 Pulitzers, 3 Peabodys, 2 Emmys, 6 Polks, a duPont and a National Magazine Award." Zing. They also let Bevin know that "We'll be in touch with questions and would love *your* answers." In a P.S., they point out how the Courier Journal has "been doing lots of good work, like this recent story about how @GovMattBevin hired a buddy for a govt job and then gave him a $215,000 raise." That points to this investigation into the hiring and massive salary hike for his "old army buddy and longtime business associate" Charles E. Grindle, who got the 134 percent increase in his salary in August, after he'd been in the job for less than a year. Note, his annual salary isn't $215,000. That's how much his raise was, coming "four months after the passage of a state budget that included no pay increases for more than 42,000 Kentucky public school teachers and most of the state's nearly 30,000 state workers." LOL! Someone is afraid his dirty laundry is going to be hung out to dry for everyone to see...
Trump claims undercut his own alibi on Cohen by claiming he was 'mostly PR'
FOX News End of Year Poll Has Bad News for Donald Trump on Nearly Everything
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1819003/-FOX-News-End-of-Year-Poll-Has-Bad-News-for-Donald-Trump-on-Nearly-Everything?detail=emaildkre Consequently, it isn't difficult to see why the American people regard him so poorly. Even as recorded by the latest survey conducted by Trump's favorite cable "news" network, Fox News, the outlook is affirmatively negative. Perhaps that's one reason that Trump told Fox's Harris Faulkner in an infomercial (aka interview) Thursday morning that "Fox has always given me a bad poll." In this one Trump's overall approval numbers are in the toilet. The poll had forty-six percent approval for the President, and fifty-two percent disapproval. That includes forty-two percent strongly disapproving with only twenty-seven percent strongly approving. Nevertheless, the Gaslighter-in-Chief pretended to be thrilled with these results. He told Faulkner they were incredible considering all the bad press he gets. The poll also showed Trump underwater on most specific issues, including border security (46-49), immigration (43-53), trade (40-47). and on the issue voters cited as most important, healthcare, the President is behind by twenty-three points (33-56). In addition, a whopping sixty-seven percent of respondents said that they believe that "Trump puts his personal business interests ahead of the interests of the American people" always, often, or at least sometimes. Compared to only twenty-eight percent who said rarely or never. And when asked if they would vote to reelect Trump in 2020, thirty-eight percent said they would, while fifty-five percent said they would vote for someone else. By nineteen points those polled said that they approve of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation (56-37). So Mueller's approval is ten points higher than Trump's. What's more, they say that the Trump campaign did coordinate with the Russian government during the 2016 election (48-37). And on FOX news, no less! Things are getting DIRE for Trump.
More cracks in the MAGA wall: doubts of 'diehard online influencers' have top GOP officials worried
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/12/1818774/-More-cracks-in-the-MAGA-wall-doubts-of-diehard-online-influencers-have-top-GOP-officials-worried?detail=emaildkre Per Mike Allen at Axios, a “reality tremor” caused by the specificity of the revelations in last Friday’s sentencing documents is hitting the right-wing world (which apparently didn’t detect the catastrophic reality earthquake the rest of us did) (emphasis added): Some top officials are suddenly much more attuned to the political fallout from the Mueller investigation and are growing more anxious about Trump's re-election prospects, according to people close to the president. [...] One Trump loyalist said after a day of conversation with "hardcore MAGA [Make America Great Again] online influencers": "These are the people most predisposed to believing the 'witch hunt' rhetoric, but they are now expressing real concerns." Even these diehards "start looking at the legal stuff and have a hard time dismissing it all," the loyalist said. "I think SDNY [the Southern District of New York, where prosecutors said Trump directed Michael Cohen to make hush-money payments to women] has changed people’s perceptions. ... That’s viewed as a greater potential threat to Trump directly than Mueller. 'Collusion' is still met with eye rolls." "And even MAGA loyalists are asking why Trump feels the need to go on Twitter with bizarre legal explanations that don’t seem to help."
Mattis has perfect answer for reporter questioning if he is leaving the Trump administration.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818860/-Mattis-has-perfect-answer-for-reporter-questioning-if-he-is-leave-the-Trump-administration?detail=emaildkre At one point, Baier asked Mattis if he had any plans to leave the administration, and Mattis’ response was BRUTALLY honest. “Well, if I did, Bret, you wouldn’t be the one to know.” *nervous laugh* Mattis elaborated on that, and it was fantastic. “But, ladies and gentlemen, let me explain something. When the president of the United States, Republican or Democrat, male or female, none of that matters — when the president of the United States — and I’ve never met Mr. Trump until I met him as president elect when he called me back for a job interview — when the president of the United States asked you to do something in America, you just do it, to quote Nike — just do it. Don’t get caught up in the Hamlet, wishing and wondering and ringing your hands or something like that, and say, to do or not to do, or whatever, just do it. Get up, go up, do your job to the best of your ability, uphold the Constitution, give the president your best military advice, in my case,” he said. “But, you know, we’ve got to get back to the point where service in this country is something you do,” he continued. “I mean, to tell you the truth, the only reason I’m back in this low-paying outfit — (Laughter.) — is because I love the troops, because I learned to hate mine fields at age 21, but I love guys so valiant they would go through looking for something they didn’t want to find, because they didn’t want their buddy behind them to step on it, and the other reason is I’ve got a love affair of the U.S. Constitution. I’ll just leave it at that.”
U.S. intelligence is frustrated that Trump can’t comprehend even dumbed-down reports
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818994/-U-S-Intelligence-is-frustrated-that-Trump-can-t-comprehend-even-dumbed-down-reports?detail=emaildkre One of the reasons that you want intelligent leadership in a president is because running and delegating, and making strong and informed decisions, are about 98 percent of the job.* President Donald Trump has boasted about his high intelligence in the past. Sadly, anything Trump boasts about is proven to be 100 percent false. In fact, there’s a more than good chance that if Trump boasts about something, he’s actually performing on the opposite end of the spectrum from that thing. On Wednesday the Washington Post published a report that included comments made by members of the United States intelligence community. In it, they lament the growing distance between our country’s commander in chief and the people charged with collecting the important information needed to make decisions concerning national security. The intelligence community’s frustration with the orange dummy has led many to reportedly search out anyone in the White House not named Trump, in the hopes of warning policymakers about things anathema to Donald—like information and facts. The President’s Daily Brief (PDB), a document that for decades has been drawn up specifically for the commander in chief, “has become more important for Cabinet-level officials than the president,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who until earlier this year was involved in drafting such documents. The official, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Trump’s ascension to office has meant that the people putting together reports for the head of the government find themselves trying to dumb them down into a more USA Today-friendly set of “bullet points and images or graphics.” But even that is too much “reading” for Trump, and since the beginning of the year, reports have filtered out from the White House that even the PDB gets zero attention.
Read 'em and weep: Sean Hannity's now deleted tweets about his kind of, sort of lawyer Michael Cohen
I'm not sure I understand the striking down of Obamacare due to the new tax law. If the new tax law made a previously constitutional Obamacare unconstitutional, wouldn't the tax law be struck down instead of the ACA?
In Michigan the outgoing GOP govenor signed initiatives that were repealed in a sneaky evil GOP way. There were ballot initiatives for a minimum wage increase and sick time that were supported by hundreds of thousands of voters and were going to make it on the ballot and probably pass so the GOP instead passed laws approving those measures so they wouldn't end up as ballot measures. After the election they've repealed the increases. If the measures had been approved as ballot measures, they would not ahve been able to repeal them but because they passed them through the legislature the repeal threshold was lower.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Michigan
I don't understand what kind of a mindset would let Rick Snyder think this was okay. Opposing minimum wage increases and sick time is one thing, but deliberately passing a law just so it's easier to repeal after an election because you don't want it to show up on the ballot and let voters vote on it directly... that's just trying to keep voters from getting in your way. If your ideas are so great, you don't need to use underhanded tactics to make them a reality.
There are a lot of things that would be totally irresponsible to bring to the people for a direct vote via ballot measure. The Republicans here in Michigan think the minimum wage hike was one of them. The way it was bypassed is perfectly legal and is likely a backdoor left in place for just such a circumstance. Interestingly, no shenanigans were used to scuttle the marijuana ballot measure, even though Republicans were against that by and large also.
Yeah, because raising the minimum wage from $9.25 to $12.00 over the course of the next 4 years would have surely caused the State to fall apart, but spreading it out over the next 12 years won't?? However, that is far less important than the provision that no longer ties it to inflation, which effectively means there will be no increase AT ALL when that is factored in. When I wrote my posts about business owners being the only people treated with any kind of deference in this society, THIS is exactly the kind of shit I am talking about. Who was the first person to praise this and the reduction of sick leave by 35 hours a year?? The head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. But again, the real problem with the labor market is clearly millenials not showing enough respect for their employers when they quit. It is also a HELL of a position for Republicans, who CONSTANTLY talk about how the more local government is the more representative it is, do an obvious run-around in regards to a direct ballot measure. They believe no such thing, only when it suits their narrative.
I'm not sure I understand the striking down of Obamacare due to the new tax law. If the new tax law made a previously constitutional Obamacare unconstitutional, wouldn't the tax law be struck down instead of the ACA?
In Michigan the outgoing GOP govenor signed initiatives that were repealed in a sneaky evil GOP way. There were ballot initiatives for a minimum wage increase and sick time that were supported by hundreds of thousands of voters and were going to make it on the ballot and probably pass so the GOP instead passed laws approving those measures so they wouldn't end up as ballot measures. After the election they've repealed the increases. If the measures had been approved as ballot measures, they would not ahve been able to repeal them but because they passed them through the legislature the repeal threshold was lower.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Michigan
I don't understand what kind of a mindset would let Rick Snyder think this was okay. Opposing minimum wage increases and sick time is one thing, but deliberately passing a law just so it's easier to repeal after an election because you don't want it to show up on the ballot and let voters vote on it directly... that's just trying to keep voters from getting in your way. If your ideas are so great, you don't need to use underhanded tactics to make them a reality.
There are a lot of things that would be totally irresponsible to bring to the people for a direct vote via ballot measure. The Republicans here in Michigan think the minimum wage hike was one of them. The way it was bypassed is perfectly legal and is likely a backdoor left in place for just such a circumstance. Interestingly, no shenanigans were used to scuttle the marijuana ballot measure, even though Republicans were against that by and large also.
Yeah, because raising the minimum wage from $9.25 to $12.00 over the course of the next 4 years would have surely caused the State to fall apart, but spreading it out over the next 12 years won't?? However, that is far less important than the provision that no longer ties it to inflation, which effectively means there will be no increase AT ALL when that is factored in. When I wrote my posts about business owners being the only people treated with any kind of deference in this society, THIS is exactly the kind of shit I am talking about. Who was the first person to praise this and the reduction of sick leave by 35 hours a year?? The head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. But again, the real problem with the labor market is clearly millenials not showing enough respect for their employers when they quit. It is also a HELL of a position for Republicans, who CONSTANTLY talk about how the more local government is the more representative it is, do an obvious run-around in regards to a direct ballot measure. They believe no such thing, only when it suits their narrative.
I was just reporting the 'why'. Whether or not you or I agree with them, they think it's the greater good. Conservatives are not bigoted assholes who want to fuck over poor people for the fun of it (despite what many of the folks on this forum seem to think). They want the same things you all want but they want to give people the ability to earn it themselves rather than having things given to them. It can be brutal, yes, but their philosophy tends to think in terms of individuals rather than groups. That is also why they distrust powerful government.
Neither side ever gets the opportunity to test their theories over any appreciable length of time so I'm resigned to the fact that no political or economic theory will ever be proven one way or the other...
By the way, am I the only one who can't help snorting every time I hear, "Mr. Pecker"? It totally reminds me of one of the funniest scenes from the original Ghostbusters!
By the way, am I the only one who can't help snorting every time I hear, "Mr. Pecker"? It totally reminds me of one of the funniest scenes from the original Ghostbusters!
No, you're not. It's even funnier is that he was friends with Trump and covering up his escapades with hts... pecker.
By the way, am I the only one who can't help snorting every time I hear, "Mr. Pecker"? It totally reminds me of one of the funniest scenes from the original Ghostbusters!
By the way, am I the only one who can't help snorting every time I hear, "Mr. Pecker"? It totally reminds me of one of the funniest scenes from the original Ghostbusters!
I'm surprised people aren't making endless puns
I think it's just too easy. No originality points for hitting softballs like that!
By the way, am I the only one who can't help snorting every time I hear, "Mr. Pecker"? It totally reminds me of one of the funniest scenes from the original Ghostbusters!
By the way, am I the only one who can't help snorting every time I hear, "Mr. Pecker"? It totally reminds me of one of the funniest scenes from the original Ghostbusters!
Comments
But I'm nitpicking on that point, and I think you're very right about the campaign finance violation being an easier story to "muddy." The more complex and subtle the crime, the easier it is to obscure the truth and confuse the audience.
Still, I think the details of the story matter very little for this purpose--we're talking about an administration that has been publicly demonizing the Russia investigation based on nothing for two years, and which has routinely denounced objective facts as "fake news." A lot of people accept this alternate reality. We just don't know how durable that belief is.
I think the resolution of this affair will depend less on "what the facts are" and more on "do people care what the facts are?"
Bear in mind, the crux of the Russia probe lies in the THEFT of emails from a political opponent. It's not much different than what the Watergate burglars did, simply for the electronic age, and the fact that it was facilitated not by a group of low-level thugs in the White House, but a hostile foreign power.
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/14/18140744/paul-manafort-trump-russia-mueller-investigation
For a while now Macron has been failing to be the voice of the people. That's partly down to policy, for instance the tax changes that primarily benefited the very wealthiest:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-federal-judge-in-texas-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional-following/
No wonder Republicans were pushing for the tax bill. It was a backdoor policy to make Obamacare unconstitutional since they couldn't find a way to repeal it any other way.
Kinda strange that the previous bill, already passed, and scrutinized to death is the one considered unconstitutional and not the one that actually caused the constitution to be broken. Although this judge seems to be a partisan hack.
With the supreme court now packed with conservatives, it might seem this ruling will stand. If it does, look for this tactic to be deployed on future laws.
Trump's celebrating because kicking people off of healthcare is great, right.
So the GOP basically screwed over Americans with health insurance.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/texas-aca-lawsuit/index.html
-----
In Michigan the outgoing GOP govenor signed initiatives that were repealed in a sneaky evil GOP way. There were ballot initiatives for a minimum wage increase and sick time that were supported by hundreds of thousands of voters and were going to make it on the ballot and probably pass so the GOP instead passed laws approving those measures so they wouldn't end up as ballot measures. After the election they've repealed the increases. If the measures had been approved as ballot measures, they would not ahve been able to repeal them but because they passed them through the legislature the repeal threshold was lower.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Michigan
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/business/article223119760.html
------
Scott Walker signed into law the GOP power grab overturning the will of the voters by stripping power from the incoming govenor and attorney general.
So the GOP basically screwed over citizens in Wisconsin.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/us/wisconsin-governor-scott-walker.html
------------
Rudy Guiliani, the President's lawyer said of the felonies committed by the President and Michael Cohen : “Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed… This was not a big crime,” Giuliani told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
Except the GOP basically did rob all Americans by stealing the Presidency through crimes.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/giuliani-argues-trumps-alleged-crimes-were-not-big
-------------
So to sum up:
Republicans across the nation are destroying America.
They are destroying what makes America great.
They are trying to turn us into Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Russia and any one of the other one party states. They hate democracy. They don't care about voters. They are stealing power (and money) from regular americans.
America is under attack folks and the assailant is coming from inside the house.
And on top of all that, they STILL want to make sure they can take away health care from as many people as possible. Because it is DAMN clear in the Michigan/Snyder episode and the never-ending attempt to strip healthcare from anyone they can that the only thing Republican lawmakers believe about poor or middle class people is that they haven't yet been inflicted with sufficient enough suffering that will inspire them to become rich instead.
- the Constitution greatly limits the power of the government to require people to do anything (there are much greater powers to require people not to do things).
- SCOTUS has previously considered the issue of Obamacare and ruled that the Constitution does not permit the government to require the purchase of insurance. However, by a majority of 5:4 they ruled that it was permitted to levy a penalty on those that did not purchase insurance - on the grounds that was a tax.
- in making that judgment SCOTUS set out certain features to determine whether something is a tax. Those include the essential requirement that it must produce at least some revenue.
- the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the penalty for not purchasing insurance to zero (with effect from 1/1/19).
- that Act was passed through a process of budget reconciliation, which limits the ability to change laws. Under that process it would not have been possible to abolish the requirement to purchase insurance, but, as the penalty under that requirement was a tax, it was possible to reduce the rate charged for that penalty to zero.
- under that new rate the penalty will no longer produce any revenue and can therefore no longer be regarded as a tax. That makes it unconstitutional.
- the remainder of the Affordable Care Act is so bound up with the individual mandate that it's not possible to strike out just the latter aspect. Hence the entire Act is declared to be without effect.
The judge had been asked to make an injunction against the Affordable Care Act, but declined to do that - making a declarative judgment instead. Effectively that means there will be no immediate change in the implementation of the law - the decision will be kicked up to a higher court. The White House has confirmed that is its understanding.
At first glance the ruling seemed bizarre to me, but following through the logic of the above steps I can understand why it was made. I don't think it should be upheld because some of the logic used is pretty tortured:
- a penalty can be treated as a tax (OK)
- Congress can use tax powers to reduce the penalty to zero (OK)
- reducing the rate of a tax to zero means it is no longer a tax even if the law is otherwise unchanged (not OK)
I think there's a decent chance this decision will be upheld by SCOTUS though. Even though the ruling doesn't pass the common sense test, in a court increasingly influenced by those that believe the Constitution should be interpreted literally common sense results are far from guaranteed. One potential saving grace could be if Trump continues his assault on the judiciary - that could give SCOTUS the minor push needed to depart from this decision as a means of establishing their independence.
Maybe dangle a % for % for Trump's wall or some other stupid compromise.
You can't negotiate with terrorists.
The Republicans have no health care plan. No one has seen it, no one even claims it exists. The plan is "we're gonna replace it with something great", which is sort of like me saying "I'm gonna be an NBA All-Star next season". Their plan is "don't get sick". If you do happen to get sick, have alot of money. That's it. There is nothing else. The keep talking about how they want to protect pre-existing conditions because they KNOW the public is nearly universally for doing so, yet they've been looking to axe the law that already ensures this is the case. Through legislation, through the courts, any way possible. Again, they have no plan to do so. They have no intention of doing so.
We've been arguing about this damn law for almost a decade, it's been challenged left and right in the courts already, it's been neutered so much from it's original intent that it's effectively less than half of what it could/should have been as a result of court challenges like this, poison pills from Marco Rubio, and Republican governors not offering citizens of their state the Medicaid expansion for purely political purposes. They spent the entirety of 2017 trying to destroy it (which even more than Trump is why they got their asses handed to them in the House). They just.....won't......stop.
It would be one thing if there was even a page one of the GOP replacement plan, or a compromise plan. But that isn't what they do. They hate government, thus they aren't interested in actually governing, which is what this would require. Trying to destroy a law like this without a replacement ready to go from day one is not a justifiable political position, it's just a move to inflict suffering on people who don't have alot of money. Period, full stop. They hate poor people. HATE them. They don't care if they live, die, or anything in between. They had a f*****g beer blast in the Rose Garden after the House voted to rip the health coverage away from 24 million people, and it only didn't take place because of John McCain's personal vendetta against Trump for insulting his war record. Barring that, it probably would have happened already.
I will say this. If this ruling is successful in getting rid of the law, then there can be absolutely no compromise on healthcare from the left in this country anymore. As I have said over a dozen times, Obamacare WAS the compromise. It was a conservative plan from a conservative think tank. Obama deliberately choose the most conservative plan for universal coverage he could get his hands on so it could gain some bipartisan support. He got none. It was a noble effort, but Obama didn't realize until sometime around 2006 just what kind of cynical bastards he was dealing with on the other side, which was his greatest flaw. So fine.....try to get rid of the ACA again. But if it falls, know this: nothing else but Medicare for All is on the table going forward if that is the case.
The healthcare policy of this country is a goddamn joke. It's an immoral cesspool of greed. Obamacare was a band-aid that accomplished what it could. It was a good faith effort to do SOMETHING about an immoral industry sucking the life out of the citizens of this country like a parasite. So fine. If the conservative political movement in this country can't even accept a plan that comes from their own side of the aisle as a compromise, then no quarter should be given. If the ACA is destroyed, then private health insurance itself must also suffer the same fate. Every international poster here thinks our healthcare system is INSANE, almost to a person. They aren't irrational people. What should that tell the rest of us??
And woke to more Trump news.
Federal judge in Texas strikes down Affordable Care Act
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/14/1819258/-Federal-judge-in-Texas-strikes-down-Affordable-Care-Act?detail=emaildkbnI see this was mentioned before. I hope something can be done about this.
No wonder Trump freaked—federal prosecutors know exactly who hatched the hush-money scheme
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1819053/-No-wonder-Trump-freaked-federal-prosecutors-know-exactly-who-hatched-the-hush-money-scheme?detail=emaildkreThere's a reason Donald Trump woke up Thursday morning spewing Twitter trash about "never" directing his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to break the law and later showed up at a Fox interview, pro-Trump news clips in hand, and started reading from them after being asked about hush-money payments made to two women.
Here's what Trump had been chewing over for nearly 24 hours: federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York know that Trump was in the room in August 2015 when Cohen and American Media Inc. chief David Pecker hatched a scheme to keep Trump's affairs out of public view during the campaign.
Scott Walker signs lame-duck legislation without vetoes curbing his Democratic successor's power
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/14/scott-walker-signs-lame-duck-bill-curbing-powers-his-successor/2238900002/?fbclid=IwAR0rAKHL081-ozrbjWXDhffLWnMdkaEfg9IAeuAG7tCVstDPA3hscmmrW3kWhat if the new congress votes to overturn those legislations passed in the lame-duck session? And passes a further law saying that if an outgoing legislature votes to do something like this in the future, it will be considered null and void?
ACLU threatens lawsuit after Florida GOP tries to delay implementing voting rights ballot initiative
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1810606/-ACLU-threatens-lawsuit-after-Florida-GOP-tries-to-delay-implementing-voting-rights-ballot-initiative?detail=emaildkreAnd here we see the GOP dragging their feet. Let the ACLU sue them blind.
Mueller moves beyond Russia: Sources indicate the special counsel investigation is 'going global'
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818975/-Mueller-moves-beyond-Russia-Sources-indicate-the-special-counsel-investigation-is-going-global?detail=emaildkreI'm guessing this means Saudi Arabia
Kentucky's Republican governor melts down over prospect of robust investigative journalism
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818921/-Kentucky-s-Republican-governor-melts-down-over-prospect-of-robust-investigative-journalism?detail=emaildkreKentucky's maniac Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is publicly freaking out over the news that ProPublica, what he calls "a left-wing activist group funded by the likes of George Soros" (yes, that's the sound of a dog whistle) is partnering with the Louisville Courier-Journal for a year-long investigative reporting project into a state government program. The best part (besides the ratio Bevin racked up with his tweet) is the response from ProPublica.
"You asked who @ProPublica is," they respond. "We thought we’d give you some answers. Like everything we do, they are, you know, actually accurate." They start out saying that they're "thrilled to be partnering w/ the fine folks" at the Courier Journal, one of 14 newsrooms they'll be partnering with over the next year. And they say the "paper's reporting project is [very] promising." That'll trigger Bevin. They also don't let his calling out of Soros slide, saying "We noticed you mentioned two of our donors – who just happen to be Jewish." As for those donors, they had 34,000 of them last year, and Soros's Open Society Foundations provided "less than 2 percent of our revenue." They go on to point out that "we believe in evidence. Hard, indisputable evidence. Carefully gathered and precisely told." That's perhaps why, they say, "our peers have given us 4 Pulitzers, 3 Peabodys, 2 Emmys, 6 Polks, a duPont and a National Magazine Award." Zing.
They also let Bevin know that "We'll be in touch with questions and would love *your* answers." In a P.S., they point out how the Courier Journal has "been doing lots of good work, like this recent story about how @GovMattBevin hired a buddy for a govt job and then gave him a $215,000 raise." That points to this investigation into the hiring and massive salary hike for his "old army buddy and longtime business associate" Charles E. Grindle, who got the 134 percent increase in his salary in August, after he'd been in the job for less than a year. Note, his annual salary isn't $215,000. That's how much his raise was, coming "four months after the passage of a state budget that included no pay increases for more than 42,000 Kentucky public school teachers and most of the state's nearly 30,000 state workers."
LOL! Someone is afraid his dirty laundry is going to be hung out to dry for everyone to see...
Trump claims undercut his own alibi on Cohen by claiming he was 'mostly PR'
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818961/-Trump-claims-undercuts-his-own-alibi-on-Cohen-by-claiming-he-was-mostly-PR?detail=emaildkrePR like, paying off women Trump slept with so it wouldn't affect his Presidential bid?
US returns child to asylum seeker months after accusing him, without evidence, of being gang member
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818912/-US-returns-child-to-asylum-seeker-months-after-accusing-him-without-evidence-of-being-gang-member?detail=emaildkreThe government should be made to apologize to this guy, and he should sue Trump and the government entities who did this.
FOX News End of Year Poll Has Bad News for Donald Trump on Nearly Everything
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1819003/-FOX-News-End-of-Year-Poll-Has-Bad-News-for-Donald-Trump-on-Nearly-Everything?detail=emaildkreConsequently, it isn't difficult to see why the American people regard him so poorly. Even as recorded by the latest survey conducted by Trump's favorite cable "news" network, Fox News, the outlook is affirmatively negative. Perhaps that's one reason that Trump told Fox's Harris Faulkner in an infomercial (aka interview) Thursday morning that "Fox has always given me a bad poll." In this one Trump's overall approval numbers are in the toilet. The poll had forty-six percent approval for the President, and fifty-two percent disapproval. That includes forty-two percent strongly disapproving with only twenty-seven percent strongly approving.
Nevertheless, the Gaslighter-in-Chief pretended to be thrilled with these results. He told Faulkner they were incredible considering all the bad press he gets. The poll also showed Trump underwater on most specific issues, including border security (46-49), immigration (43-53), trade (40-47). and on the issue voters cited as most important, healthcare, the President is behind by twenty-three points (33-56).
In addition, a whopping sixty-seven percent of respondents said that they believe that "Trump puts his personal business interests ahead of the interests of the American people" always, often, or at least sometimes. Compared to only twenty-eight percent who said rarely or never. And when asked if they would vote to reelect Trump in 2020, thirty-eight percent said they would, while fifty-five percent said they would vote for someone else.
By nineteen points those polled said that they approve of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation (56-37). So Mueller's approval is ten points higher than Trump's. What's more, they say that the Trump campaign did coordinate with the Russian government during the 2016 election (48-37).
And on FOX news, no less! Things are getting DIRE for Trump.
More cracks in the MAGA wall: doubts of 'diehard online influencers' have top GOP officials worried
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/12/1818774/-More-cracks-in-the-MAGA-wall-doubts-of-diehard-online-influencers-have-top-GOP-officials-worried?detail=emaildkrePer Mike Allen at Axios, a “reality tremor” caused by the specificity of the revelations in last Friday’s sentencing documents is hitting the right-wing world (which apparently didn’t detect the catastrophic reality earthquake the rest of us did) (emphasis added):
Some top officials are suddenly much more attuned to the political fallout from the Mueller investigation and are growing more anxious about Trump's re-election prospects, according to people close to the president. [...]
One Trump loyalist said after a day of conversation with "hardcore MAGA [Make America Great Again] online influencers": "These are the people most predisposed to believing the 'witch hunt' rhetoric, but they are now expressing real concerns."
Even these diehards "start looking at the legal stuff and have a hard time dismissing it all," the loyalist said.
"I think SDNY [the Southern District of New York, where prosecutors said Trump directed Michael Cohen to make hush-money payments to women] has changed people’s perceptions. ... That’s viewed as a greater potential threat to Trump directly than Mueller. 'Collusion' is still met with eye rolls."
"And even MAGA loyalists are asking why Trump feels the need to go on Twitter with bizarre legal explanations that don’t seem to help."
Mattis has perfect answer for reporter questioning if he is leaving the Trump administration.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818860/-Mattis-has-perfect-answer-for-reporter-questioning-if-he-is-leave-the-Trump-administration?detail=emaildkreAt one point, Baier asked Mattis if he had any plans to leave the administration, and Mattis’ response was BRUTALLY honest.
“Well, if I did, Bret, you wouldn’t be the one to know.”
*nervous laugh*
Mattis elaborated on that, and it was fantastic.
“But, ladies and gentlemen, let me explain something. When the president of the United States, Republican or Democrat, male or female, none of that matters — when the president of the United States — and I’ve never met Mr. Trump until I met him as president elect when he called me back for a job interview — when the president of the United States asked you to do something in America, you just do it, to quote Nike — just do it. Don’t get caught up in the Hamlet, wishing and wondering and ringing your hands or something like that, and say, to do or not to do, or whatever, just do it. Get up, go up, do your job to the best of your ability, uphold the Constitution, give the president your best military advice, in my case,” he said.
“But, you know, we’ve got to get back to the point where service in this country is something you do,” he continued. “I mean, to tell you the truth, the only reason I’m back in this low-paying outfit — (Laughter.) — is because I love the troops, because I learned to hate mine fields at age 21, but I love guys so valiant they would go through looking for something they didn’t want to find, because they didn’t want their buddy behind them to step on it, and the other reason is I’ve got a love affair of the U.S. Constitution. I’ll just leave it at that.”
U.S. intelligence is frustrated that Trump can’t comprehend even dumbed-down reports
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818994/-U-S-Intelligence-is-frustrated-that-Trump-can-t-comprehend-even-dumbed-down-reports?detail=emaildkreOne of the reasons that you want intelligent leadership in a president is because running and delegating, and making strong and informed decisions, are about 98 percent of the job.* President Donald Trump has boasted about his high intelligence in the past. Sadly, anything Trump boasts about is proven to be 100 percent false. In fact, there’s a more than good chance that if Trump boasts about something, he’s actually performing on the opposite end of the spectrum from that thing.
On Wednesday the Washington Post published a report that included comments made by members of the United States intelligence community. In it, they lament the growing distance between our country’s commander in chief and the people charged with collecting the important information needed to make decisions concerning national security. The intelligence community’s frustration with the orange dummy has led many to reportedly search out anyone in the White House not named Trump, in the hopes of warning policymakers about things anathema to Donald—like information and facts.
The President’s Daily Brief (PDB), a document that for decades has been drawn up specifically for the commander in chief, “has become more important for Cabinet-level officials than the president,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who until earlier this year was involved in drafting such documents. The official, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Trump’s ascension to office has meant that the people putting together reports for the head of the government find themselves trying to dumb them down into a more USA Today-friendly set of “bullet points and images or graphics.” But even that is too much “reading” for Trump, and since the beginning of the year, reports have filtered out from the White House that even the PDB gets zero attention.
Read 'em and weep: Sean Hannity's now deleted tweets about his kind of, sort of lawyer Michael Cohen
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/13/1818931/-Read-em-and-weep-Sean-Hannity-s-now-deleted-tweets-about-his-kind-of-sort-of-lawyer-Michael-Cohen?detail=emaildkreSean Hannity can delete his tweets, but nothing really goes away on the internet. And Cohen's tweets on Sean Hannity are still up!
Noted Racist Tucker Carlson Says Immigrants Make America "Dirtier".
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/14/1819097/-Noted-Racist-Tucker-Carlson-Says-Immigrants-Make-America-Dirtier?detail=emaildkreJust another reason I dont listen to the racist scumbags at Fox News
Mueller asks to interview Trump in-person because written responses were ‘not enough’: report
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/mueller-asks-interview-trump-person-written-responses-not-enough-report/?fbclid=IwAR1cUmO0GoqoBNjEwX7fStKLNK9BxLiMyhKu_vKt-KBMoErTCUI0OvJn150#.XBRdu2rL4vA.twitterWatch Trump initiating his whine/cry/pout sequence in 3...2...1... And cries of "Witch Hunt!" of course.
Trump inauguration was crawling with Russians, and the FBI was watching
https://nypost.com/2018/01/21/trump-inauguration-events-were-crawling-with-russians-and-the-fbi-was-watching/?fbclid=IwAR2g0AWgVblwMKwqWSrkUKHOo614cCiBq4YXSbaMa_xxb_VOZ69GtooVSyAGood that the FBI "Feebs", were watching...
Finally, I'll end on some wonderful news, and a great idea...
Democrats propose funding teacher pay raises by canceling tax cuts for the wealthy
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/democrats-propose-funding-teacher-pay-raises-by-canceling-tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy?fbclid=IwAR36sA4PcPgySsupeSD5CZ1Mx8dK6xRFSwvbuaRIAvtTLHkqzSgB2VHihlMI'd be all for this! We pay our teachers salaries that should be criminal. Let the wealthy pay for them to get more money!
Neither side ever gets the opportunity to test their theories over any appreciable length of time so I'm resigned to the fact that no political or economic theory will ever be proven one way or the other...
Edit: Can't resist one: "This man has no dick!"
(See, it's just too easy!)