U.S. Politics: Feelings Trump Facts

[Martell Spy]

Hahah. Trump, the orange Warlord of the wasteland.

 

Khizr Khan urges Senate panel to oppose Sessions' confirmation

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/khzir-khan-jeff-sessions-confirmation-233357

Paul, Trump upend GOP's Obamacare repeal plans

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/obamacare-repeal-trump-rand-paul-233351

Schumer threatens Trump Cabinet confirmation delays

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/chuck-schumer-donald-trump-cabinet-confirmation-delays-233359

[Mlle. Zabzie]

Goodlatte (who is crazy) has proposed a repeal of the Chevron doctrine (which I will shorten to "Courts will uphold regulations promulgated by an executive unless they are cuckoo bonkers").  Honestly, I personally think that Chevron deference has been taken too far, and Congrass taking back some of its powers is not a bad thing.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

10 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Goodlatte (who is crazy) has proposed a repeal of the Chevron doctrine (which I will shorten to "Courts will uphold regulations promulgated by an executive unless they are cuckoo bonkers").  Honestly, I personally think that Chevron deference has been taken too far, and Congrass taking back some of its powers is not a bad thing.

This is why I say that there is no legal recourse to oppose this.

[Martell Spy]

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/9/14206052/obamacare-replacement-mcconnell-trump

There is no “terrific” replacement for Obamacare
Mitch McConnell says Obamacare’s problem is it insures too few and deductibles are too high. So will he fix it?

[HoodedCrow]

Mitch McConell's wife is nominated for Secretary of Transportation. Payoff. Congress gets ready for improving derelict road system in US. 

Trumps Son In Law, Kuchner, Ivankas husband is made special advisor. Ivankavgoes to visit Putins girlfriends daughter for laughs.

[LongRider]

5 hours ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Or not...

Maybe they'll be an ark and their god will save them.  Or something.

I thought the ark is in Kentucky!  Shows you what a West Coast heathen knows. 

[LongRider]

The Orange Shit Thing is Making America Great Again, one firing at time:

Quote

When President-elect Donald Trump officially takes over the White House in two weeks, his inaugural parade will be missing the legendary voice of 89-year-old Charlie Brotman, the announcer of every inauguration celebration since Dwight Eisenhower in 1957.

Brotman, who learned last week that he’ll be replaced by a younger, vocal Trump supporter, said he was “heartbroken” about the inauguration committee’s decision.

“I was destroyed,” he told local Washington D.C. news station WJLA. “I’ve been doing this for 60 years.”

Keepin' it classy, Mr. Shit Thing, keeping it classy. 

[Mexal]

I'm sensing a theme...

 

[LongRider]

Apparently, she's done this more than once;

Quote

Monica Crowley, President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for a top National Security Council job, plagiarized numerous passages in her Ph.D. dissertation, Politico Magazine has found.

An examination of the dissertation and the sources it cites identified around more than a dozen sections of text that have been lifted, with little to no changes, from other scholarly works without proper attribution. In some instances, Crowley footnoted her source but did not identify with quotation marks the text she was copying directly. In other instances, she copied text or heavily paraphrased with no attribution at all.

 

This finding comes on the heels of CNN’s Saturday report that Crowley, the conservative author and commentator whom Trump tapped as senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, plagiarized more than 50 passages in her 2012 book What the (Bleep) Just Happened, copying directly from conservative columns, news articles, Wikipedia and in one case a podiatrist’s website.

This from the article linked in the tweet Mexal quoted above.  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/monica-crowley-plagiarism-phd-dissertation-columbia-214612

[Martell Spy]

5 Senate Republicans seek to slow down Obamacare repeal

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/5-senate-republicans-seek-to-slow-down-obamacare-repeal-233387

[Tempra]

2 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Goodlatte (who is crazy) has proposed a repeal of the Chevron doctrine (which I will shorten to "Courts will uphold regulations promulgated by an executive unless they are cuckoo bonkers").  Honestly, I personally think that Chevron deference has been taken too far, and Congrass taking back some of its powers is not a bad thing.

Sounds great.  Maybe after warming up with an easy issue like replacing Obamacare, Congress can get to work on fixing the administrative state.

Out of curiosity, what do you imagine "Congress taking back some of its powers" entails?  I don't think overrturning Chevron, by itself, would change much.  Agencies are subject matter experts and courts are not.  The courts will still look to agencies for guidance and, most likely, follow their determination whether done under the guise of a de novo review or deferring to the agency's reasonable interpretation.

If Congress has an issue with agency rulemaking, it could simply write complete statutes in the first place...

[MerenthaClone]

9 hours ago, Fez said:

Fun!

 

There's been a lot of focus on how conservative the Trump administrative is looking, but let's not forget how shockingly incompetent it is probably going to be (based on the campaign and the transition efforts). In a lot of areas this won't matter too much, things will muddle along, but then there's this kind of thing where it could have terrifying impacts. In the short-term this won't affect current US nuclear capability, since the chain of command is all military up to the President, but it could have long-term consequences that severely damage US capabilities. And this appears to be going on at all agencies across the government.

How did you miss the part where the source in the organization responsible for the maintenance of our nuclear weaponry said “I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very very fucked"

Those are not words I want associated with a nuclear arsenal ever.  

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

5 Senate Republicans seek to slow down Obamacare repeal

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/5-senate-republicans-seek-to-slow-down-obamacare-repeal-233387

This is huge.  While some large number of Republicans are down to repeal and replace there are now arguably 8 GOP Senators who are balking in one form or another.  All of the sudden it's looking repeal might not happen. GOP governors are putting pressure on DC Republicans too since the Medicaid expansion is such a success everywhere it's implemented.  

[Martell Spy]

Quote

This is huge.  While some large number of Republicans are down to repeal and replace there are now arguably 8 GOP Senators who are balking in one form or another.  All of the sudden it's looking repeal might not happen. GOP governors are putting pressure on DC Republicans too since the Medicaid expansion is such a success everywhere it's implemented.  

Yep, and insurance companies and the hospital lobby. This could go several ways. Trump might weigh in more clearly at some point. There could be repeal and replace over a year, or repeal and an insurance company and hospital bailout/stabilization. It's all pretty bizarre.I would find it highly unlikely some kind of repeal doesn't happen this year though, but what is on the chopping block may be in question now.

[Martell Spy]

Quote

"I do not take lightly the decision to testify against a Senate colleague. But the immense powers of the Attorney General combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience," Booker said. "Sen. Sessions' decades-long record is concerning in a number of ways, from his opposition to bipartisan criminal justice reform to his views on bipartisan drug policy reform, from his efforts earlier in his career to deny citizens voting rights to his criticism of the Voting Rights Act, from his failure to defend the civil rights of women, minorities, and LGBT Americans to his opposition to common sense, bipartisan immigration reform.”

In a First, Sitting Senator Cory Booker Will Testify Against Colleague Jeff Sessions Nomination

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/09/cory_booker_to_testify_against_jeff_sessions_attorney_general_nomination.html

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

42 minutes ago, Triskan said:

This is huge.  While some large number of Republicans are down to repeal and replace there are now arguably 8 GOP Senators who are balking in one form or another.  All of the sudden it's looking repeal might not happen. GOP governors are putting pressure on DC Republicans too since the Medicaid expansion is such a success everywhere it's implemented.  

I'm beginning to get the impression that if they can just change the name or somehow claim ownership of it, they won't feel any need to repeal it. Or at least the vast majority of it.

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

I'm beginning to get the impression that if they can just change the name or somehow claim ownership of it, they won't feel any need to repeal it. Or at least the vast majority of it.

Changing the ownership alone won't help. There are real, serious problems with ACA -- certain people definitely benefited, but many others got hit and some got hit quite hard. Take a look at the first page or two of this thread where, before the discussion devolves into the usual partisan bickering, people point out quite a few practical problems. Furthermore, it is not obvious how to keep the vast majority of it: now matter what you change, either a numerous group (the poor or the middle class) or a powerful one (the insurance industry or the medical industry) loses money.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

1 minute ago, Altherion said:

Changing the ownership alone won't help. There are real, serious problems with ACA -- certain people definitely benefited, but many others got hit and some got hit quite hard. Take a look at the first page or two of this thread where, before the discussion devolves into the usual partisan bickering, people point out quite a few practical problems. Furthermore, it is not obvious how to keep the vast majority of it: now matter what you change, either a numerous group (the poor or the middle class) or a powerful one (the insurance industry or the medical industry) loses money.

I'm not suggesting it's perfect or that there aren't problems with it that need to be fixed. I have little faith that the GOP or the Trump administration will manage to offer sensible solutions or edits to it that would improve it much. What I'm suggesting is that despite nearly 6 six years of constantly griping about it, and posturing to repeal it, that they are finding out that a fair percentage of their constituency actually likes it. That they might be better served to co-opt it in some manner than they would to repeal it.

[Altherion]

16 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

I'm not suggesting it's perfect or that there aren't problems with it that need to be fixed. I have little faith that the GOP or the Trump administration will manage to offer sensible solutions or edits to it that would improve it much. What I'm suggesting is that despite nearly 6 six years of constantly griping about it, and posturing to repeal it, that they are finding out that a fair percentage of their constituency actually likes it. That they might be better served to co-opt it in some manner than they would to repeal it.

A non-trivial fraction of their constituency certainly benefits from ACA, but a substantially larger fraction was harmed by it. I do not see how to spin co-opting into anything but the obvious betrayal that it is and without the people who would feel betrayed, the Republican party would barely be a national one anymore (most people who like ACA are Democrats for other reasons and will not change parties even if the Republicans adopt it verbatim).

That said, the Republican party is certainly between a rock and a hard place in this situation. The only meaningful solution anyone could come up with in that thread is some variation of single payer and I have a hard time seeing Republicans going for that. Although... Trump did run on a platform of universal health care way back when he was a third party candidate. It would be absolutely hilarious if he decides to go back to that.

[DireWolfSpirit]

U.S. Healthcare costs started exploding upward around 1980 and have steadily trended up for a generation now. http://ritholtz.com/2010/12/u-s-health-care-costs-since-1980/

^^^ At only two points since the Reagan administration, have the costs plateaued, during the Clinton terms and during the Obama terms. The fact of the matter is that during GOP leadership healthcare costs have exploded, during Democratic leaderships the costs have slowed or stayed flat. The chart aint lying. Voters who believe the Republicans are going to decrease the costs of healthcare are delusional.