U.S. Politics: Alabama Jones and the Template of Doom

[LongRider]

27 minutes ago, Morpheus said:

Trump's lawyers know the emails were legally obtained, the complaint is pure optics, they are gathering a bullshit list of grievances including those texts to discredit Mueller and potentially to try and give Trump cover if he does fire him.

Trump et al. are pathetic.

Quote

Officials of President Trump's transition team plan to ask Special Counsel Robert Mueller to return "many tens of thousands" of transition emails they contend were unlawfully provided to him. But the prosecutor's office says emails being used in the investigation were properly obtained.

https://www.axios.com/new-trump-officials-demand-mueller-return-thousands-of-emails-2518147669.html

[Which Tyler]

Since when has anyone on Team Trump given a damn about telling the truth?

As above, this is just building up a list of imagined grievances to prepare his base for what's to come, and get them inside in advance.

[maarsen]

3 hours ago, GAROVORKIN said:

If Trumps tax plan ends up working out  and  the stock market and the economy keeps on going the way it's going . It's possible that  the Republican might end up retaining control of both the House and the Senate.  

   A do nothing president and a can't do anything congress are not responsible for any economic progress. Anything done, economically speaking , takes about a year to 18 months to have an appreciable effect on the economy. Obama's administration takes any responsibility for present circumstances. The inevitable crash coming from Trumps's policies will be his to own, assuming he actually has any coherent economic decisions to make. Incoherent ones are a different story. As for your congress, I guess they are making sure they pay themselves first and get out before the cheques bounce.

[maarsen]

38 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Trump et al. are pathetic.

https://www.axios.com/new-trump-officials-demand-mueller-return-thousands-of-emails-2518147669.html

I guess getting them through proper channels involves Wikileaks and Russia?

[LongRider]

6 minutes ago, maarsen said:

I guess getting them through proper channels involves Wikileaks and Russia?

Yes.  Then denying that happened on Fox News. 

[Martell Spy]

Certainly, there is going to be some elephants eaten.

http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/12/13/grover-norquist-tax-reform-gop

Grover Norquist: GOP Tax Bill Is Good Enough For Now (He's Planning to 'Whine Later')
Q&A with the president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Quote

 

Norquist: You put your finger on the answer to the previous question but you needed to listen more carefully to Donald Trump which is not always what I'd advise somebody to do. In this case, Trump has said during the campaign, we're not going to touch Social Security. Pretty easy promise to make since it takes 60 votes by law to do anything, we don't have 60 votes. Two, that he wouldn't touch Medicare which is a mistake but I understand the argument, I don't need this headache. I don't need somebody being able to suggest ...

Gillespie: Between Medicare and Social Security, that's and increasing percentage of government spending.

Norquist: But here's what's on the table and here's what happens in April of this year. Not in some far off time. April of this year, we're going to do tax cuts, that's the reconciliation package this year, passed in December of 2017. April 2018, we're going to do welfare reform. Welfare, TANF is a very small number. We're going to add food stamps, a very small number, well 75 billion or so. It's not too small. And we're going to add in Medicaid which is a quarter of all state and local budgets. And take those together and probably also what's left of Obamacare in terms of spending and block rent those to the states and limit their growth to below the way it's growing now. So that you out 10 years or whatever, ask Peter Farrar what the numbers are. He says in a matter of 20 years it's trillions of dollars that you get just from taking the rate, bringing it down a little bit.

Gillespie: By the same token, Medicare and Social Security spending are going to go up. They're already effectively running deficits so we're going to need more taxes if we don't change their benefit forecasts.

Norquist: How do you eat an elephant. One bite at a time. If you do this and make it work, I believe you can. We did it with welfare reform with Clinton. This is what we're going to shove down the Democrat's throat.

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Mueller Team Pushes Back, Denies Accusation it Unlawfully Got Trump Transition Emails

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/12/robert-mueller-team-pushes-back-denies-accusation-it-unlawfully-got-trump-transition-emails.html

[Zorral]

Quote

Gillespie: Between Medicare and Social Security, that's and increasing percentage of government spending.

Yah, because there isn't any government spending for anything else, except the military . . . maybe?  And building preposterous monuments to the Glory of the Turd in Jerusalem and prototypes of Walls to Keep the US People From Gettin' The Hella Outta Dodge -- cCoz you gotta have tax payers to squeeze to pay for the Glorious a$$hole$ who brilliantly stole and destroyed the nation -- and other such expenses.

 

[Martell Spy]

11 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Yah, because there isn't any government spending for anything else, except the military . . . maybe?  And building preposterous monuments to the Glory of the Turd in Jerusalem and prototypes of Walls to Keep the US People From Gettin' The Hella Outta Dodge -- cCoz you gotta have tax payers to squeeze to pay for the Glorious a$$hole$ who brilliantly stole and destroyed the nation -- and other such expenses.

 

Well you gotta keep paying for the military. After you cut all government services and lower taxes for the wealthy, while keeping middle class taxes around the same rate, you're going to need the military to keep order. Also, the nice thing about the Wall, is you can use it to keep people inside of this hellhole you've created. They're thinking long-term, basically.

[LongRider]

6 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Also, the nice thing about the Wall, is you can use it to keep people inside of this hellhole you've created. They're thinking long-term, basically.

Wall won't do a bit of good unless it's built.  

[Martell Spy]

Jesse Watters Says We May “Have a Coup On Our Hands in America’

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/jesse-watters-says-we-may-have-a-coup-on-our-hands.html

[LongRider]

10 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Jesse Watters Says We May “Have a Coup On Our Hands in America’

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/jesse-watters-says-we-may-have-a-coup-on-our-hands.html

I thought the word was we had a coup on our hands when Obama was elected and reelected.  Whatever happened to that?

[Morpheus]

Hold the president accountable for crimes, add some large scale obstruction of justice, and baby, you got a coup goin!

[denstorebog]

So do people still think Mueller won't be fired? On one hand, some WH spokesperson confirmed today that it wasn't on the table. On the other ... it just really feels that way now. Market developments indicate that a lot of people think the same thing, with the odds going way up in the last days,

[Morpheus]

5 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

So do people still think Mueller won't be fired? On one hand, some WH spokesperson confirmed today that it wasn't on the table. On the other ... it just really feels that way now. Market developments indicate that a lot of people think the same thing, with the odds going way up in the last days,

I think they are looking for an easy out, state media is helping them, the House is ready to back the move and the Senate looks to be coming around if Cornyn is any indication of Republican mood. 

[Dr. Pepper]

He's totally going to be fired.  It's clear he has something, Trump is scared.  They've done so much that they've tainted the investigation no matter what the outcome.  If no charges against Trump and co, then they've set it up to claim Mueller's team had too much bias and the investigation failed.  If charges against Trump and co, they've set it up to claim Mueller's team had too much bias and the results are wrong.  There's no win here except for Dear Leader to fire him and get his own cronies in there to just come out and say that nothing happened end of story.  

[Mexal]

19 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

So do people still think Mueller won't be fired? On one hand, some WH spokesperson confirmed today that it wasn't on the table. On the other ... it just really feels that way now. Market developments indicate that a lot of people think the same thing, with the odds going way up in the last days,

We'll see. They still have to fire Rosenstein first.

[OldGimletEye]

On 12/17/2017 at 11:59 AM, Martell Spy said:

Certainly, there is going to be some elephants eaten.

http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/12/13/grover-norquist-tax-reform-gop

Grover Norquist: GOP Tax Bill Is Good Enough For Now (He's Planning to 'Whine Later')
Q&A with the president of Americans for Tax Reform.

 

 

Quote

Gillespie: Between Medicare and Social Security, that's and increasing percentage of government spending.

Norquist: But here's what's on the table and here's what happens in April of this year. Not in some far off time. April of this year, we're going to do tax cuts, that's the reconciliation package this year, passed in December of 2017. April 2018, we're going to do welfare reform. Welfare, TANF is a very small number. We're going to add food stamps, a very small number, well 75 billion or so.

Well it’s nice to see the Republican Party admit what TANF and what SNAP cost per year. Because they cost us very little.

But, the Republican Party’s dumb ass base believe both these programs are breaking the bank. They are not.

Quote

Gillespie: Between Medicare and Social Security, that's and increasing percentage of government spending.

Okay this is a standard Republican tactic. To always talk about “Social Security and Medicare” to suggest they have the same set of issues. It’s a dirty trick and it’s pretty dishonest and slimy. Social Security is a relatively and easy fix, particularly if you’re talking now about the 3.0 real GDP growth the Republican Party keeps promising.

Now it shouldn’t be a secret that Medicare is the thing that is the problem but that’s because according to the CBO healthcare spending is supposed to grow about a percentage point faster than GDP growth. Solve that and you solve a whole bunch of issues. And there are very good reasons that the American medical system is grossly inefficient and unfair.

Now it would seem since the Republican Party’s promised growth of 3.0 you could reduce the growth of medical spending and people wouldn’t be worse off.

Seems like the Republican has solved both our Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid issues with their tax plan!

Quote

And take those together and probably also what's left of Obamacare in terms of spending and block rent those to the states and limit their growth to below the way it's growing now.

Yeah well its seems like TANF got all fucked up with conservatives block grant idea. And then I could see this becoming a real disaster in Republican controlled states. I guess block heads like block grants.
 

Quote

Gillespie: By the same token, Medicare and Social Security spending are going to go up. They're already effectively running deficits so we're going to need more taxes if we don't change their benefit forecasts.

Why oh why won’t Republicans just admit that this isn’t about Fiscal Responsibility and things like Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid is just too socialist for their taste. Why can’t we have an honest conversation about this?

Quote

Norquist: How do you eat an elephant. 

I think to the way to destroy libertarianism is to bash one libertarian moron at time.

Quote

We did it with welfare reform with Clinton. This is what we're going to shove down the Democrat's throat.

Let's just hope the Democratic Party takes Norquist's libertarian bullshit and jams it right up his ass.

[Martell Spy]

SundayReview | EDITORIAL
The Tax Bill That Inequality Created

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/opinion/sunday/tax-bill-inequality-created.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

[Altherion]

28 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

SundayReview | EDITORIAL
The Tax Bill That Inequality Created

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/opinion/sunday/tax-bill-inequality-created.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

The New York Time editorial board has finally decided to state the obvious, has it? I wonder how long we have to wait for them to also propose a solution...