US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

wow he’s really putting the pressure on

he is very energetic, exceptionally healthy, the best athlete

times like this i completely understand the desire many have to force him into a real interview, with someone asking real followups, and pointing out holes in the narrative. not because i believe he would crack and his presidency would end, just that it's soooo fucking frustrating that he can just nakedly lie, all the time, about every single thing, spin a totally different history of things that happened in public view mere days or weeks ago. the DACA crisis is trump's doing! and there was a bipartisan deal on the table the day before yesterday, and he killed it! i mean this is on the level of saying hillary started the birther movement and trump ended it. things that are actually outright the opposite of what happened, and everyone knows this. i know i know, not news. just some days it flattens me more than others.

Possibly some sort of interview could be arranged, perhaps Hannity would do it, or maybe someone on the 700 club is free

They've been wanting to trap the Dems on DACA for a while now, and in all honesty it could work. Those few conservatives I follow on twitter have really torn into it as well. All Trump had to do was explain that Dems weren't willing to include 'sensible' border control in a BiPartisan deal. Instead he yelled 'shithole' like the toddler he is. No disrespect to toddlers.

it has less credibility when the stuff in the deal (which is still xenophobic security-state nonsense obv) was apparently good enough for the congressional republicans in the room. not to say the propaganda won't work but it would be a more coherent effort if they could all get on the same page.

Yup

"was apparently good enough for the congressional republicans in the room" I thought the issue was Cotton though, who just fucking showed up at this meeting out of the blue and probably tanked it before Flake and Durbin came in the door

i would happily take the jail time for the opportunity to physically assault Tom "Cotton"

I thought the scuttlebutt was that Stephen Miller kept adding aggressive language to proposals that screwed everything up.

graham, sorry, not flake.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/12/politics/immigration-meeting-donald-trump/index.html

"When Cotton arrived at the West Wing reception area Thursday, he found Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, waiting to brief Trump on their bipartisan immigration negotiations. He also found fellow immigration hardliner GOP Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, who was also called by Trump's aides to brief the President.

Durbin and Graham arrived at the White House believing they would be meeting privately with Trump, a source familiar with the situation said, and were surprised to see the others.

Once the meeting got underway, it was clear Trump wasn't in the mood to entertain the plan being offered by Durbin and Graham, which would have increased border security funding, allowed for a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship for some young undocumented immigrants and provided protections for individuals with Temporary Protected Status from countries such as El Salvador and Haiti."

dunno, miller or someone got to trump after he said he'd be willing to sign whatever they put in front of him the day before.

yeah seems clear that one of the eight or nine rival shadow presidents saw an opening to torpedo the entire business, on the "whoever he's spoken to most recently" principle. get the hard-liners in the room and he'll forget all about his desire to be a big beautiful deal-maker.

beat the press:
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/

Walmart Closes 63 Stores In Response to Republican Tax Cut

Actually, we don't know the extent to which the tax cut was a factor in Walmart's decision to close 63 stores, as it announced it was doing yesterday. Nor do we know the extent to which the tax cut was responsible for the increases in wages and benefits that the company also announced yesterday, although the company did claim a direct relationship in this case. Walmart's competitors, like Target, had been raising wages months before the tax bill was even public, so it is entirely possible that Walmart would have been forced to raise pay due to a tighter labor market, even if there had not been a tax cut.

It is worth noting that by Walmart's own estimate the pay increases will only cost it $300 million a year. This is roughly 15 percent of the $2 billion a year that it should save from the tax cut. This is in line with most economists estimates of the share of the tax cuts that would go to wages. By contrast, the administration had claimed that the wages would rise by more than the full amount of the tax cuts, although this impact would only be seen after a number of years as increased investment led to higher productivity.

Pareene: https://splinternews.com/democrats-condemned-trumps-language-and-signed-on-to-hi-1822040155

...Democratic leadership has completely conceded, rhetorically and politically, that this is now the “middle ground.” The fact that hardliners would prefer an even more extreme policy is all the justification they need. Seriously, this is their rationale (from The Politico):

Key Democrats are sympathetic to the furor from their left flank but aware something needs to pass Congress that can win Trump’s signature. Senate negotiators believe their emerging agreement — which they say they’re getting close to finalizing — will lose votes from the right and left, representing true concessions from both parties.

“Both Tom Cotton and the Congressional Black Caucus will oppose our deal, so it is, by definition, bipartisan.” This is how a far-right policy becomes centrist, in less than a year. And this is how Democrats are negotiating with a historically unpopular president, in a midterm election year, on an issue on which they held an immense amount of leverage just a month ago.

chelsea for president, obv

🚨 Per FEC filings, @xychelsea is running against Ben Cardin for Maryland Senate this year. https://t.co/MrQIs0Znzr pic.twitter.com/8Gw7vtVtc2

— David Pontious (@DavidPontious) January 13, 2018

YES

was just gonna post that!

also, so this false alarm missile warning...

just a very normal all-caps text alert warning the people of hawaii of an incoming ballistic missile attack, nothing to see here

i have to admit i'm curious about how many people who saw the Hawaii alert actually heeded the warning to take shelter. there must not be too many opportunities to see how people respond when they're told by authorities that an incoming missile is real and not a drill.

my question would be where the fuck do u expect me to take shelter

*shriek*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-x5KtE9mg

xpost In a volcano, obviously.

1) You know if Manning won the GOP would make a big deal and refuse to seat her.

2)

And this is how Democrats are negotiating with a historically unpopular president, in a midterm election year, on an issue on which they held an immense amount of leverage just a month ago.

Dems I suspect are kind of screwed here thanks to asshole's scuttling. He basically has backed them into a corner and forced them to compromise for something much shittier or force a shutdown. And the Dems know that is a huge gamble that can go either way, even if it's hung around their necks. And I do I keep hearing them say, oh, the GOP is the party in power, any shutdown would be their fault. But um no, if the GOP remains unified in favor of an unpalatable hardline bill and the Dems don't go for it, it's would be the Dem's fault.

regardless of who is perceived for causing the shutdown, i'm not as confident as i was even a couple years ago that the american public really cares that much about the entire issue. left-leaning voters surely care about it much more than right-leaning people. to the degree that my cynical last breaths are true, that's an advantage for republicans in this negotiation.

republicans control the entire government. whatever 'bad things' happen are their fault. even johnny and brenda redneck get that

i mean do they tho

they don't because no one is called that

jo and joe sixpack

If everyone in the GOP votes for something but they don't get the 5 or whatever Democratic votes they need, that is not the GOPs fault. Dems might be right, but how is that not obstructionism? I mean, I'm cool with a shutdown, but I don't think the Dems will win the messaging game.

if the republicans hold all the cards, they can compromise enough to get votes. if not, that's not the dems' fault

If they have to compromise, then they clearly don't hold all the cards, though...

"we don't have enough of a monopoly on power" / republicans shut down the government how many times under obama and they still can't take responsibility for jack shit

i really am not buying the "someone hit the wrong button" explanation. like I feel like if it was that simple to fuck up this would happen more often.

not that I Think there really was a missile that somehow got diverted, just...weird explanation

Maxine Waters, John Lewis, and Earl Blumenauer, are all boycotting the SOTU

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/democratic-lawmakers-boycotting-trump-state-of-the-union

their loss, they are going to miss the moment when he becomes presidential.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTXUgpoXkAUQfwD.jpg:large

Our fearless media

@realDonaldTrump last week I told you on phone that I love you like a brother. In that spirit I ask you to apologize for your unfortunate remarks. I’m in hospital getting back surgery My skilled compassionate nurse is from #Kenya She told me how you’d hurt her family’s feelings.

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) January 13, 2018

and so trump vowed to maintain his silence and to never, ever apologize - until geraldo rivera stepped forward and made a heroic request.

p4reene piece makes it clear that Clintonism is still steering the Dem ship

fuck this shithole country

my fucking Cub Scout troop could've out-negotiated the congressional Dem leaders

Why the hell is Manning running against Cardin?

I'm not sure. She won't win, but maybe she's just trying elevate a message.

Like, Cardin's a decent Senator. I've got no complaints. Go somewhere else and pull that shit.

Utah?

'decent' senators can defend their records, then

Move, bitch

Lol. Damn.

the enemy of the Security State IS my friend

blow everybody's cover everywhere (ie, die, bitches)

hm

Morbs, did you watch I, Tonya or something tonight?