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

Prominent civil rights advocate Newt Gingrich

Interesting if true...

BREAKING: #Haiti held emergency high court session that resulted in an agreement to unseal and release information within ex-dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's indictments relating to #MoneyLaundering via Trump Tower condo.

More background here → https://t.co/Wb4iLQMgm9 https://t.co/I1TU2uMBqE

— Bandit Aléatoire (@BanditRandom) January 15, 2018

On very related note, check out Elizabeth Hinton’s From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America is a great recent book that covers, among many things, how ‘70s “colorblind” policy still managed to jail a far larger portion of black folks.

to unseal and release information within ex-dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier's indictments relating to #MoneyLaundering via Trump Tower condo.

This would be an interesting development if every country the idiot badmouths just opens up the file cabinets to dump all records on related business dealings.

It won’t change the polls, of course, but hopefully it would add more avenues of investigation.

here is something you can't understand -- how i could just be a republican and expect deferential treatment, man

This is a rather interesting combination of report and outlet.

U.S. counterintelligence officials warned Kushner about Wendi Deng Murdoch https://t.co/5vPc0aMnY1

— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 15, 2018

fuck yeah let’s all get paranoid about china and russia now

Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018

once again, i wonder if he's aware that the govt shutdown doesn't mean that the military shuts down

he is not.

exciting new technology allows us for the first time ever to take a glimpse inside the president’s brain

https://www.doctorramey.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Dontknowdontcare.jpg

has any pundit or politician made an effort to remind everyone that DACA was an executive action, and that if Idiot wanted DACA he could bring it back tomorrow?

another fun-filled day of Trump trying to play Checkers on a Backgammon board

is anyone surprised

WASHINGTON — The most significant attempt to loosen rules imposed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis is underway in Congress as the Senate looks to pass legislation within the next month that would roll back restrictions on swaths of the finance industry.

...The bill would allow hundreds of smaller banks to avoid certain elements of federal oversight, including stress tests, which measure a bank’s ability to withstand a severe economic downturn. Under current law, banks with assets of $50 billion or more are considered “systemically important financial institutions” and therefore governed by stricter rules. The bill would raise that threshold to institutions with assets of $250 billion or more, leaving fewer than 10 big banks in the United States subject to the stricter oversight.

Banks with assets of $50 billion to $100 billion would be immediately freed from those requirements. Financial institutions with $100 billion to $250 billion in assets, such as BB&T and American Express, would no longer be subject to tougher rules after 18 months, although the Federal Reserve would retain the authority to periodically conduct stress tests on those firms.

...The bill that is working its way through the Senate was brokered primarily by Senator Mike Crapo, the Idaho Republican who chairs the banking committee, and moderate Democrats such as Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Senator Jon Tester of Montana, Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. Eleven Senate Democrats are co-sponsoring the bill, making its passage in the Senate likely.

This is why people don’t vote

has any pundit or politician made an effort to remind everyone that DACA was an executive action, and that if Idiot wanted DACA he could bring it back tomorrow?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, January 15, 2018 7:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This would undermine his stated reason for rescinding the order (that it's not in the purview of POTUS). Not that he wouldn't deny that and anybody would GAF

your Senatorial #Resistance in action on financial regs

One of Vladimir Putin's principal geo-strategic goals has been to get the mighty Ben Cardin out of the Senate. He's been plotting to do this for years, and finally devised the can't-miss scheme: he recruited a young trans woman with felony convictions for leaking to primary him.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 15, 2018

once again, i wonder if he's aware that the govt shutdown doesn't mean that the military shuts down

which expose the whole shutdown thing as bullshit. It's not a government shut-down, it's a government lockout against selected federal employees.

The stupid GOP is constantly harping about the size of government, constantly trying to cut programs, just cut over a trillion dollars from the budget and works for a president whose minions are decimating government agencies across the board. Toss in that DACA can be solved in a second by executive order and yeah, fuck it, who are they to argue against a government shutdown? Bring it on. I just want the Dems to control the message, which should be some variation of the above.

The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

once again, i wonder if he's aware that the govt shutdown doesn't mean that the military shuts down

That's what I mean. If they're not the Dems really need to get out there and take control of this before his the bullshit he's floating sinks in. They need to say a shutdown doesn't involve the military, they need to say he cancelled DACA, he could bring it back today.

who's "they"

"shithouse" was involved in a political scandal when then Governor Schaeffer called the Eastern Shore of Maryland a shithouse. It's not a great defense.

― Three Word Username

maybe he was trying to say the eastern shore of maryland was built like a brick shithouse. that's a compliment, isn't it?

The Eastern Shore is mighty mighty.

xpost They is the Dems.

the Secretary of Homeland Security just testified under oath that she does not know whether Norway is predominantly white

"i mean, i guess they're NORWEGIAN if that's what you're asking"

Why should the head of the DHS have to know or understand anything about the world outside of the homeland? These people with all of their 'expectations'! I tell ya! Sheeeeeesh!

'Look, I only know there's a country called Haiti because the president made reference to it. I'm only concerned about whatever's happening within these borders, not in Haiti or Nordway or Hoth or wherever.'

It's cold in Norway. The people are all bundled up. No way to tell what race they are.

I don't know or care if Norway is white, black, brown, yellow or purple. our policies are color-blind.

More importantly, DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen doesn't know if Norway is predominantly white.

Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen
Kirstjen Nielsen

I know casting Idris Elba as Heimdall in the Thor movies confused some people, but just maybe glance at some family photos, Kirstjen Nielsen?

in her defense:

Nielsen (surname) Nielsen Danish pronunciation: [ˈnelsn̩] is a Danish patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Niels, Niels being the Danish version of the Greek male given name Νικόλαος, Nikolaos (cf. Nicholas).

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/steve-bannon-mueller-russia-subpoena.html?_r=0

Some interesting meat in that report.

Some legal experts said the subpoena could be a sign that the investigation was intensifying, while others said it may simply have been a negotiating tactic to persuade Mr. Bannon to cooperate with the investigation.

These can both be true, nytimes.

Bannon + "interesting meat" = uh...

rancid meat more like

WATCH: Sen. Orrin Hatch removes a pair of glasses he's not wearing pic.twitter.com/QXCCb4RHzn

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 16, 2018

It must be true:

Sen. Graham: Last Tuesday we had a president I was proud to golf with and wanted a bipartisan solution on immigration.

"I don't know where that guy went. I want him back."

— Evan Wilt (@EvanWilt_) January 16, 2018

In the hallway, @LindseyGrahamSC continues his criticism of White House on immigration: "I don't think the president was well served by his staff...I think General Kelly is a fine man, but he's also part of the staff."

— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) January 16, 2018

lindsey can’t be that stupid... can he?

Give me one good reason to say why he can't be that stupid.

he's a "wit"

THREAD: Why did Mueller subpoena Bannon to testify before the grand jury? How is that different from an informal interview with investigators? (Short answer: He likely wants to question Bannon without Bannon's attorney present.) https://t.co/b0hS0YmzPZ

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 16, 2018

haven't read the thread and Ronaldo knows more than I know, but also apparently a grand jury is where you go when you know something you think the subject doesn't know you know, to catch them in lies.

also, strategically, if they subpoena him he can claim he had no choice.

Renato, that is. xpost

fascinating observation made elsewhere that Bannon went into the house intelligence interview knowing he had been subpoenaed but it is more than possible the currently sequestered house intelligence people didn't know he'd been subpoenaed and may in fact find out at some point during the interview.