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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:39 pm 
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arcosh wrote:
Or they could try to go for a "repeal as soon as the replacement is there" law or something like that. Soemthing that does effectivly nothing but with a lot of handweaving you can check the item on your list.


The reactionary wing of the various Republican caucuses would never go for it unless there was enough damage involved that the least reactionary wing would never go for it (which sounds awfully familiar). I think McConnell is now desperate to simply get anything at all up for a vote so he can check the 'got something voted on' box, after which they desperately try to make at least some headway with Kea's first option. With McCain gone, I tend to wonder if he'll even get that far.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:23 pm 
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The Russia plot is thickening, yet again.

So remember how that lawyer Donnie Jr. met with was lobbying to repeal the Magnitsky Act? She works for a russian firm called Prevezon. The reason there's a Magnitsky Act is because Putin offed a journalist who uncovered a massive tax fraud scheme in Russia, so the US imposed sanctions to punish him. One of the companies involved in that scam was Prevezon Holdings, which was also being investigated in the US for laundering money through New York real estate.

Hmmmm. *waggles eyebrows*

So just after Trump becomes president, Trump fires the New York Attorney General Preet Bhahara and the case Bhahara had been building against Prevezon for years gets dropped. Apparently they were just about to go to court, they had flown in witnesses from Russia to testify, when suddenly, never mind, we quit, everybody go home now.

In other news, Donnie Jr., Kushner and Manafort have been summoned to Congress to testify. Part of me is wondering whether one of these chuckleheads is dumb enough to either incriminate or obviously perjure themselves under questioning. It can't be that easy, right? A girl can hope.

Also, Robert Mueller has just subpoenaed a bunch of Donald Sr.'s financial records from Deutsche Bank, the only bank still willing to lend him money.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:54 pm 
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There's an interesting video on the BBC web site right now about McCain voting against the latest effort to kill the ACA. Long story short, it seems some of the non-Republicans were considerably less surprised than they might have been by his vote (or were amazingly perceptive and quick on their feet). One wonders if McCain, who thought for himself so infrequently that now he is the ruler of the Queen's Navy, decided that with little to lose now was the time to make his respect for Trump manifest and dropped a few hints ahead of time.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 1:00 am 
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I was prepared to be really disappointed in McCain, glad to see he finally found his spine.

And man, the Trump Show has just gone completely insane between Trump's open feud with Sessions, Scaramucci's antics and Priebus getting fired. They're obviously panicking. And when they panic, they hurt people in the real world. When In Doubt, Screw Somebody Over To Make The Base Cheer. Yay police brutality and down with transgender folks in the military.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:04 am 
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Weremensh wrote:
There's an interesting video on the BBC web site right now about McCain voting against the latest effort to kill the ACA. Long story short, it seems some of the non-Republicans were considerably less surprised than they might have been by his vote (or were amazingly perceptive and quick on their feet). One wonders if McCain, who thought for himself so infrequently that now he is the ruler of the Queen's Navy, decided that with little to lose now was the time to make his respect for Trump manifest and dropped a few hints ahead of time.


You didn't need to be that close - he had said in advance he would not vote for the bill as written.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 2:05 am 
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He's really ramping up the bigotry and fear. Going after affirmative action and legal immigration in the same week. And scaremongering about crime. Definitely panicking.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:36 am 
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Fivethirtyeight has a very depressing map of the 2018 mid-term elections. The Democrats are at a serious disadvantage.

In the senate, 25 out of 48 of the Democrats' seats but only 8 of the Republicans' 52 seats are scheduled to be up for grabs next year. The Democrats have to defend over half of their seats. The Republicans have to defend less than 1/6th of theirs.

Which is probably why the health care repeal debacle was allowed to drag on for so long before John McCain killed it. Mitch McConnell probably figured that with only 8 seats to defend, his party's chances of offsetting any lost moderates were pretty good. They are as close to playing politics in God mode as it is possible to be. (It's amazing that they are still making a hash of it).

The House map is slightly less dire but they still have to contend with gerrymandering, the fact that liberals are too geographically clustered together in urban areas, and Republican voter disenfranchisement efforts. Fivethirtyeight calculates that it's possible for the Democrats to win every district that voted for Clinton and every single swing district that went narrowly for Trump, and STILL not win a majority. They might even lose seats in the Senate.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 3:04 am 
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What Is ‘Whataboutism,’ And Why Is It Suddenly Everywhere?
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Analysts have been dinging Trump for whataboutism for months, particularly in recent weeks. In fact, during a press conference on Tuesday, Trump spouted a textbook example of the practice. In addressing his tepid, vague denunciation of the protests that led to fatal violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, he responded, “What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right? ... You had a group on one side that was bad. You had a group on the other side that was also very violent.” That is to say, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members may be bad, but people on the other side have also done bad things. What about them?

An interesting read that highlights more parallels between Trump and Putin.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 2:12 pm 
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Bannon is out!

Who knows what target he's going to aim Breitbart at now. And will the angry right-wing internet yahoos follow him or stick with Trump? There's gonna be some 'splosions.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 10:16 pm 
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Feel like this is the beginning of the end. Fox News couldn't scare up a single Republican to defend the Prez on air. And Bannon, in some ways, was even scarier than Trump, or at least he started out that way. I could see him potentially turning on Trump in a big way if he feels betrayed.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 10:29 pm 
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kitoba wrote:
Feel like this is the beginning of the end. Fox News couldn't scare up a single Republican to defend the Prez on air. And Bannon, in some ways, was even scarier than Trump, or at least he started out that way. I could see him potentially turning on Trump in a big way if he feels betrayed.

I think that's already started. Breitbart is gearing up to fight him over this decision, it looks like.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:27 pm 
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Kea wrote:
Which is probably why the health care repeal debacle was allowed to drag on for so long before John McCain killed it. Mitch McConnell probably figured that with only 8 seats to defend, his party's chances of offsetting any lost moderates were pretty good. They are as close to playing politics in God mode as it is possible to be. (It's amazing that they are still making a hash of it).

At this point there are really only four seats in play in the Senate, two on each side (given how many are involved, the Republicans are really doing very badly here). What with trying, but failing, to strip health care from so much of their base it could easily be worse for them in the than the current polls suggest. We'll find out when they have actual opponents.

Going forward there's really no way the Congressional Republicans can look good any time soon; no accomplishments the masses would really be impressed by are in the offing (barely succeeding to keep the government open, at best, just isn't all that epic). Set against that there are dozens of potential disasters looming that they lack the competence and collective desire to successfully resolve; any one of them could ensure a wave election in either house.

As for Bannon, pseudo populism, and racism, eh. The GOP is the dog whistle avowed party of institutional racism and has been for 50 years now. They're much too unpopular to win elections if they stop so they won't even try. So long as they can keep the rich from paying taxes on their massive government handouts, it's all good.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 12:51 am 
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kitoba wrote:
Feel like this is the beginning of the end. Fox News couldn't scare up a single Republican to defend the Prez on air. And Bannon, in some ways, was even scarier than Trump, or at least he started out that way. I could see him potentially turning on Trump in a big way if he feels betrayed.

I don't know what, but Bannon is up to something. He must have known he was on the way out for a little while now and was laying the ground for his next move. If Charlottesville had anything to do with his departure, it was just a pretext. He already wasn't getting along with Kushner and the more bog standard business Republicans in the Trump administration. He was leaking furiously to the media. And Trump has been jealous of him ever since the media called him "President Bannon".

I think he's going to use his return to Breitbart to try to take down Kushner. I also bet that he's going to support fringe candidates to primary Republican Congresscritters from the right. What I'm not sure about is whether he is going to maintain some "our King is being misled by corrupt advisers" schtick or turn against Trump himself.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:35 pm 
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Kea wrote:
What I'm not sure about is whether he is going to maintain some "our King is being misled by corrupt advisers" schtick or turn against Trump himself.


This might answer your question:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... 97e215ce84

Bannon's ego is too big. He doesn't want Trump to succeed without him. He'd rather see his agenda go down in flames than admit he isn't the kingmaker.

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 Post subject: Re: Trump.
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 4:57 am 
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I figure he's gone back to doing what he's good at. He's a bomb-thrower. He can't govern.

But here's how I think he's still dangerous. He's going to make himself the new Rush Limbaugh - the guy that almost all Republican politicians have been afraid to offend for years for fear of alienating the base. He's going to try to replace orthodox Republican free-market ideology with his brand of nationalism.

He's figured out that consistent ideological beliefs don't matter as much to the base as having a chance to express their resentment and cheer for their team. Business Republicanism only appealed to the base insofar as it allowed them to look down on undeserving handout-receiving moochers. Nobody besides millionaires really thinks tax cuts for millionaires is a great policy idea. A good chunk of Tea Partiers probably never really believed in libertarianism. (Hence, "Get your government hands off my Medicare!") It was just a convenient cudgel to wield against Big Government Obama and a badge of conservatism. So as long Bannon keeps riling up the base with angry rhetoric, they'll agree with whatever position he presents as the right-wingiest of right-wing positions.

I bet his ideal is to see the Freedom Caucus primaried from the right by a bunch of Nigel Farage and Marine LePen imitators. So Trump might go down, but Bannon thinks he can be replaced with a more competent version.

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