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U.S. Politics: It’s beginning to look a lot like Rescission


lokisnow

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8 hours ago, lokisnow said:

I would add that both education and income are important here as well. The most educated are the most likely to vote and the most wealthy are the most likely to vote and both of these things track to being more likely to vote republican, as well as most likely to be more partisan. Since democrats have failed for half a century to actively build a Latino voter base, the wealthiest and best educated and therefore most republican are going to be a disproportionate share of the Latino electorate and they are just as unlikely to abandon trump and their party as any other republican.

If democrats registered say 5 million Latinos nationally before 2020, I think you would see a fairly massive swing in the overall partisanship of the Latino electorate, because those people available to be registered are likely to be younger, less educated and poorer and therefore much more democrat leaning.

 But that would require strategic investment and hard work and democrats don’t like doing either.

There are plenty of anecdotes of legal immigrants, of the same ethnicity and national origin as illegal immigrants, being supremely pissed off at the illegals and being more than happy for govts to crack down on and boot out the illegals. Kind of fair to be pissed off, since they went through the appropriate legal challenges, waited their turn and jumped through all of the hoops, and then finally got the chance to legitimately live the American (or whatever country the went to) dream. So why should others be able to just jump the border and disappear into the woodwork? And of course because you can't spot a legal from an illegal, everyone of that maligned ethnicity gets equally bad treatment, from some quarters, so the legals suffer from attacks (verbal or physical) because of the actions of the illegals.

A lot of legal immigrants are from the middle / upper socio-economic classes in those countries, who, like in the USA, are more likely to have been right of center / conservative type voters back in their home country, at least in those countries that were democratic.

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2 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

Anyone curious to see the full Mattis resignation letter, it's a doozy:

TLDR: "I believe in working with our historic allies and not being a useful idiot to China and Russia, so I can't work for you any more."

 

For easier reading.  It is absolutely hilarious, very very clear what Mattis thinks of Trump.

________________________________________________

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)

December 21 at 11:00 AM Sydney Time

December 20, 2018

Dear Mr. President:

I have been privileged to serve as our country’s 26th Secretary of Defense which has allowed me to serve alongside our men and women of the Department in defense of our citizens and our ideals.

I am proud of the progress that has been made over the past two years on some of the key goals articulated in our National Defense Strategy: putting the Department on a more sound budgetary footing, improving readiness and lethality in our forces, and reforming the Department’s business practices for greater performance. Our troops continue to provide the capabilities needed to prevail in conflict and sustain strong U.S. global influence.

One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense, including providing effective leadership to our alliances. NATO’s 29 democracies demonstrated that strength in their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9-11 attack on America. The Defeat-ISIS coalition of 74 nations is further proof.

Similarly, I believe we must be resolute and unambiguous in our approach to those countries whose strategic interests are increasingly in tension with ours. It is clear that China and Russia, for example, want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model — gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic and security decisions — to promote their own interests at the expense of their neighbors, America and our allies. That is why we must use all the tools of American power to provide for the common defense.

My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.

Because you have the right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department’s interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February. Further, that a full transition to a new Secretary of Defense occurs well in advance of the transition of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September in order to ensure stability within the Department.

I pledge my full effort to a smooth transition that ensures the needs and interests of the 2.15 million Service Members and 732,079 DoD civilians receive undistracted attention of the Department at all times so that they can fulfill their critical, round-the-clock mission to protect the American people.

I very much appreciate this opportunity to serve the nation and our men and women in uniform.

James N. Mattis

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one wonders if there is a realistic shot of the Dem's flipping this seat, should he retire.  one also wonders why much of congress is so damn old, and if beliefs formed back in the 70's are not a major reason for todays woes.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kansas-sen-pat-roberts-to-consider-retirement-over-holidays/ar-BBReQ6s?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=msnclassic

 

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas says he plans to decide soon whether to run for a fifth term in 2020, after he speaks with family members and supporters in Kansas over the holidays.

 

"We're going to think long and hard about it and then we'll make a decision very quickly," Roberts told POLITICO in an interview Thursday. He said he was not certain if he would make a final decision before the new Congress convenes in January, but Roberts said he expects to make an announcement "early in the year."

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2 hours ago, Triskele said:

I had a nice, deep laugh at that one.  I wish that I could remember who once wrote that "Wolf Blitzer is a speaker of words rather than an understander of words."  

It is a bit strange how the Fed keeps seeming to signal confidence while the markets keep seeming jittery.  I never give too much stock (no pun intended) in day-to-day stock market reporting, but it does seem like there's a real trend developing.  

It’s like you’re at the casino playing slots and you notice lots of people cashing out and leaving (all from the high rollers rooms) and then You notice there’s a worker going around  turning off lots of slot machines, “nothing to worry about, there’a a light on these here that won’t light on one side; so I’ll take back to my shop and fix it up there then bring it back here.” (Then he patted her head and gave her some milk and sent her to bed) and you keep putting money in the slots and high rollers keep leaving...

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Quote

 

At least 10 FinCEN employees have filed formal whistleblower complaints about the department. The whistleblowers say they tried multiple times to raise concerns about issues they believed threatened national security, but that they faced retaliation instead of being heeded. Some of FinCEN’s top officials quit in anger. One senior adviser has been arrested and accused of releasing financial records to a journalist.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/treasury-official-who-allegedly-leaked-trump-associates-bank-records-claims-she-went-to-congress-first/

 

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On 12/20/2018 at 7:33 PM, Martell Spy said:

Trump's Food-Stamp Policy Will Only Make Poverty Worse
The president wants to make it harder for jobless people to obtain food stamps.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/trump-adds-work-requirements-snap/578746/

I have one complaint about the media whenever it reports the numbers regarding SNAP.

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The Washington Post reports, which would cut an estimated 800,000 people from the program and save the government an estimated $15 billion over a 10-year window.

It would be helpful, I think if when reporting these numbers, if the overall savings was reported in the context of the overall budget. In other words, Trump's planned cuts amount to about 1.5 billion dollars per year. Now consider the fact the entire Federal Budget is about 4.0 Trillion dollars per year or thereabouts. Yeah, your saving a whole bunch of money there Trumpster.

Of course, the amount of money we spend on SNAP has been falling, since its peak after 2008, as the employment rate has recovered.  Funny how that works, even if certain sorts of people claimed otherwise.

Like say perhaps the WSJ and other assorted random conservative knuckleheads.

..................................................................................................................................................................................

On to other matters.

Conservative views about moneytary policy.

Was it due to plain old dip-shittery or was it just pure dishonesty by conservatives because they didn't happen to like who was in the White House?

Krugman:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/opinion/conservative-economics-trump.html

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I have a confession to make: I have been insufficiently cynical about modern conservative economics.

 

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I took its monetary hawkishness seriously. I thought that all those dire warnings about the inflationary consequences of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to fight high unemployment, the constant harping on the evils of printing money, were grounded in genuine — stupid, but genuine — concern.

I believed conservative's views about monetary policy was based in good faith, for the most part, in the sense they actually believed what they were saying. Sure, I thought it was pure nonsense, wrong headed, and severely damaging, but I at least believed conservatives actually believed in what they were saying.

But, perhaps they knew better and just cared more about playing team Republican.

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But it is a shock to see so many conservative voices — including, incredibly, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal — echoing Trump’s demands.

 

Quote

 Consider the case of Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board who was for a time considered a likely Fed chairman. Up until two months ago he was always for higher interest rates — but this week he suddenly wrote an op-ed article calling on the Fed to stop rate hikes.

Now why does anybody care what that clown thinks, after spending a decade being wrong about everything. His only technocratic qualification was, evidently, marrying into the right sort of people.

Quote

Trumpism, it turns out, trumps everything else — even Ayn Rand.

 

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The Orange one is the best thing ever.

And its important that people constantly remind him of that.

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/15/17123978/trump-mattis-cabinet-white-house-pompeo-cohn

 

Quote

Donald Trump really, really likes to be praised.

Recall that extremely weird Cabinet meeting last June in which Trump went around the table and allowed everyone to thank him for being so awesome and smart and focused. Words like “honor” and “privilege” and “blessing” were tossed about countless times. Trump appears to thrive on this kind of flattery.

Vice similarly reported last fall that Trump receives a folder each day (twice a day, actually) littered with glowing tweets, fawning articles, clips of positive cable news segments, and occasionally pictures of himself on TV looking ... presidential. If you want to last in this White House, you’ve got to lavish the president with adulation.

The result, increasingly, is a White House filled with sycophants.

How unusual is this in a White House? Not every administration has to be a Lincolnesque “team of rivals,” but is it dangerous to have a president who so strongly desires approval? I reached out to presidential historian Robert Dallek, the author of Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life, for answers to these questions.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing
President Trump likes to be surrounded by people who agree with him and who are willing to shower him with flattery. Is that necessarily a bad thing for presidents?

Robert Dallek
I think it impoverishes a presidency. My best example is FDR, who surrounded himself with people who argued a lot. He wanted to have them arguing because it put him in a position to decide what needed to be done. He knew how important it was to be confronted by arguments he didn’t want to hear.

 

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13 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

Anyone curious to see the full Mattis resignation letter, it's a doozy:

 

TLDR: "I believe in working with our historic allies and not being a useful idiot to China and Russia, so I can't work for you any more."

 

While on the one hand the letter is funny in its rebuke, on the other it’s quite frightening. I took it as a warning, made loudly in public, that Mattis thinks Trump is an unfit traitor.

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So if you haven’t checked the President’s Twitter feed this morning, I suggest that you do….

16 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Trump said during the campaign that he knew more than any general.

 

I guess he's the general of technology now too.....

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38 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

So if you haven’t checked the President’s Twitter feed this morning, I suggest that you do….

 

I guess he's the general of technology now too.....

Walls only work if they are manned.  To be manned we’d need people about every 100ft or so.  Over a 2000 mile border that’s around 92,000 people in three shifts a day for 276,000 people on the “border wall force”.  To pay the people standing there (just the people standing there nothing for administration or supervision), conservatively, $40,000.00 a year (just pay not counting for equipment, training, and other such) is $11,040,000,000.00 a year.

Trumpanistas are crazy.

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13 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Is that the word? Trumpanistas.

Trumpinians.

Trumpese.

Trumpites. (My choice)

I feel a vote is necessary. (Write-ins welcome)

I like Trumapnistas because the comparison with Spanish speaking Sandanistas in Nicaragua will irritate them.

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40 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Walls only work if they are manned.  To be manned we’d need people about every 100ft or so.  Over a 2000 mile border that’s around 92,000 people in three shifts a day for 276,000 people on the “border wall force”.  To pay the people standing there (just the people standing there nothing for administration or supervision), conservatively, $40,000.00 a year (just pay not counting for equipment, training, and other such) is $11,040,000,000.00 a year.

Trumpanistas are crazy.

Yeah the actual costs have never been realistic. I regret not posting it here, but I heard an analyses a few weeks back that broke down the cost per foot of what’s already been done and it was insane. $5,000,000,000.00 will only cover a few percent of what would actually be needed to build a racist wall.

(Also, for your calculations, I think it’s more like 1,000-1,200 miles of actual wall. There’s no way you could build an intact wall across the entire border).

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9 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Yeah the actual costs have never been realistic. I regret not posting it here, but I heard an analyses a few weeks back that broke down the cost per foot of what’s already been done and it was insane. $5,000,000,000.00 will only cover a few percent of what would actually be needed to build a racist wall.

(Also, for your calculations, I think it’s more like 1,000-1,200 miles of actual wall. There’s no way you could build an intact wall across the entire border).

Even then the Trumpanistas don’t think about the cost of manning and maintaining their “wall”.

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