Trump's agenda with Xi? Who knows? https://t.co/oYeLlSuUsm
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) April 4, 2017
But since this is Lord Smallgloves’ court we’re talking about, things can always get more embarrassingly complicated. Per the NYTimes, “As Trump Meets Xi at Mar-a-Lago, There’s a ‘Wild Card’”:
… Mr. Guo Wengui is a Chinese property magnate who has been living outside the country for more than two years. In recent weeks, he has launched a broadside — in television interviews and on Twitter — criticizing the effectiveness of the Communist Party’s fight against corruption, all from the safety of financial capitals like London and New York. He is also a member at President Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, and posted photos of himself on the grounds last month with Mar-a-Lago’s managing director.
Mr. Guo’s newly public persona — more akin to a dissident Russian oligarch and highly unusual in Chinese politics — comes at an awkward time, just before China’s president, Xi Jinping, and Mr. Trump are to meet at the resort for their first summit meeting. The Chinese billionaire’s ties to the club are a new twist in how President Trump’s business interests can complicate diplomacy, in this case with arguably the world’s most important bilateral relationship…
At the very least, it would be embarrassing if Mr. Guo, who is also known as Miles Kwok, were to show up at the seaside resort during the meeting Thursday and Friday. At worst, his presence could incense Mr. Xi and the Chinese delegation. Mr. Guo left China during a corruption scandal linked to the jailing of his political patron, a top security official. Mr. Guo said his assets in China — he puts the figure at more than $17 billion — were seized…
Mr. Guo’s membership could be especially sensitive because of the lengths China’s leaders go to stamp out any political discussion that deviates from the Communist Party line, particularly remarks about the wealth of top leaders. Mr. Guo has leveled specific accusations against a former top party leader.
In two recent Chinese-language interviews and on Twitter, Mr. Guo, while highly critical of many current and former Chinese leaders, has praised Mr. Xi, or at least refrained from directly criticizing him…
China has more billionaires than any other country with the possible exception of the United States, but none as outspoken and flamboyant as Mr. Guo. He has a penchant for posting photos of himself in workout tights and camouflage, performing planks and other exercises. He sips vintage French wine in front of a picture of an aviator glasses-wearing, cigarette-smoking chimpanzee in his London office and likes to show off the private jets he uses for his frequent trans-Atlantic flights. One American who met with him described him as affable.
But Mr. Guo is anything but happy-go-lucky. He built a fortune in the Darwinian world of Chinese real estate, and people who crossed him soon rued the day. In 2006, he handed to the police a sex tape of a Beijing deputy mayor who had disputed one of his land deals. The official was imprisoned and Mr. Guo got the property, building the torch-shaped Pangu Plaza next to Beijing’s Olympic Green, a landmark during the 2008 Summer Games…
It’s like a Trollope novel, as written by John le Carre.
.
Guo Wengui, a/k/a Miles Kwok @KwokMiles – at Trump's Mar-a-Lago last month. He's a member.https://t.co/VpEX83j0Mv pic.twitter.com/wrk1ZQedqN
— Mike Forsythe 傅才德 (@PekingMike) April 4, 2017
Mike J
Anybody in China with 17billion to be siezed surely knows a lot about corruption.
Jerzy Russian
I think I have been to Mr. Kwok’s property in Beijing. Small world.
rikyrah
Their parents are bursting with pride ???
https://mobile.twitter.com/undefined/status/849617539294531584
Baud
I should have been a billionaire.
SiubhanDuinne
Somehow I have a tiny feeling that Xi’s team are slightly more prepared for this meeting than the Trumpians are.
(Snark.)
MattF
We now observe the trials and tribulations of searching for honor among thieves. At least at Versailles, the denizens followed certain traditions. At Mar-a-Lago… not so much.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
That’s cool!
cervantes
Which reminds me that the very fun day may come when Putin drops the sex tape on Orange Julius. That would be sweet . . .
Baud
.
That didn’t work
Yarrow
I don’t know anything about this Miles Kwok/Guo person, but from those photos he looks like a typical rich d-bag. And what’s he wearing? Long underwear under his shorts? Is that a thing now?
Corner Stone
There is absolutely no end of things Trump can say or do that will embarrass the entire whole fuck of the US nation at this meeting with Xi.
First of all, why would you agree to meet at a freaking golf resort in Florida? This is just demeaning for world leaders, And what happens when Trump tries his lawnmower starter style handshake and pulls Xi to the ground?
This is nothing like meeting with leaders from Canada, or Mexico, or Japan or even Germany. I am scared to fucking death.
MattF
@Yarrow: If you’re rich enough, anything you wear is a ‘thing’.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Ow!! My eyes!!
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: Why is that snark?
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: Especially since Xi does not play golf. At least with Shinzo Abe the golf was a fig leaf.
Corner Stone
@cervantes: I wonder when Pooty is going to start taking his buyers remorse seriously.
Mike J
kindness
Lord Smallgloves likes his palace intrigue (chaos) and he likes to bring his Machavellian setting to all. I bet our allies and our adversaries never planned on having to deal with this on their own doorsteps. Surprise! Trump’s gifts.
Curiously the only nation not yet raked over these coals is Russia. Gee…..I wonder why that is?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
So who’s in a better position to own all the assets of America at the end of the day? Russia or China? Or will they be content with 50/50 while the Trump family gets all the licenses for naming everything as the quid pro quo?
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow:
I guess you didn’t watch the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that just concluded?
Baud
@Mike J: Good.
Gin & Tonic
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: China. Russia doesn’t have the money.
Patricia Kayden
@Corner Stone: It’s not even normal for a President to be conducting official meetings with foreign dignitaries in his private residence. Trump is getting away with so much nonsense. And all at our expense.
Corner Stone
There is zero evidence of Ivanka Trump successfully advocating for any policy. Any policy at all. Can we please get the entire fuck over her and stop acting like she is anything but a living, breathing brand.
Major Major Major Major
Wait, a guy who had his assets seized when his “political patron” was arrested for corruption is a big critic of the ineffectiveness of anti-corruption efforts?
rikyrah
@Mike J:
HOLLERING!!!
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA H AH
dmsilev
@Mike J: It amazes me that there were/are apparently some GOP Reps who thought it was possible to vote on Trumpcare 2.0 before the House leaves on recess on Friday. Yes, let’s introduce a huge bill upending a massive segment of the economy and try to jam it through in two days. Truly, Paul Ryan is a serious policy wonk whose wonky seriousity has never before been seen.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Gin & Tonic:
Russia has the balls of over half of the members of the legislative and judicial branches in a tiny little jar in Putin’s desk drawer though.
rikyrah
@Mike J:
You mean, the 23 GOPers from districts that Hillary WON?
I don’t know WHY they’d be nervous about voting for Trumpcare.
Chet Murthy
@Corner Stone: He needs those sanctions dropped first. Gonna be a while, I think.
Baud
@dmsilev: Maybe Jared should be speaker.
schrodingers_cat
T has made the United States into a punchline for a joke. Winning!
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: No, voters did that.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Some of it. Wearing it on the basketball court as a player is a bit different from wearing it as casual wear at a fancy resort.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Voters are culpable too. Yes.
Duane
I earnestly,and sincerely,miss President Obama.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: not most of them.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: No, just enough of them.
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: Who is this “we” you are referring to? I’ve been over her as long as I can remember. She gets worse with every passing day.
clay
TPM has a good write-up about the new attempt at repealing/”replacing” Obamacare, and how facts on the ground aren’t any more favorable to Ryan/Trump than they were a month ago. But they’re gonna try anyway, and the WH wants a vote within 48 hours (HA!).
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-health-care-freedom-caucus-republicans-obamacare
My question is this… Don’t we want them to keep fucking this chicken? The more time they waste on the almost-certainly futile* attempt to get this passed in the House (much less the Senate), the less time they have to work on things that would be more likely to pass, like billionaire tax cuts. And repeated failures are simply going to further diminish Trump’s reputation as a “deal maker” who can “so easily” fix “the disastrous Obamacare”.
And I think that last point — Trump can’t do what he promised — is the main thing that’s going to hurt him with the not-overtly-racist people who voted for him.
So, yeah. Please proceed, shitbag.
*Obviously even a minuscule chance is still a chance, so we should definitely keep up the phone call and town hall pressure.
dmsilev
@Baud: Apparently we’re living inside a giant performance of _The Mikado_, with Kushner holding down the role of Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else.
Baud
@Yarrow: Her and her husband’s only job is to prevent thermonuclear war. If they do that, I’ll consider them a success.
Corner Stone
@Chet Murthy: But everything Trump is doing or has done makes it much less likely now that the sanctions will be removed. At some point Pootie has to decide to regroup and cut his losses before NK goes nuclear/gets nuked. The man wants more money and to stay in power forever. I don’t think Trump is aiding him in any way on either.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: only because they were in the right places.
The electoral college is dumb.
Baud
@clay: This version depends on “moderate” Republicans holding firm. That’s always a risk.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
s̪̭̱̼̼̉̈́ͪ͋̽̚o͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊r̼̯̤̈ͭ̃ͨ̆r̼̯̤̈ͭ̃ͨ̆y͉̝͖̻̯ͮ̒̂ͮ͋ͫͨ
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Agreed. But there’s still a lot of them.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I thought that was Mattis’s job.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: Did you take a class?
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Does Trump care about what Mattis thinks?
Chet Murthy
@Corner Stone: Oh, hm. I. Did. Not. Think. Of. That. At the point when Putin thinks he’s not getting his sanctions dropped, I guess I can see where he’d switch to Plan B: “further disrupt our adversary”. And then yeah, dropping the sextape and a buncha other incriminating evidence would be in order.
I don’t think it’ll happen, though. I think he’ll continue to work his hapless agents for as long as possible. Putin plays the long game. Think how much damage he can do if he gets just a few dozen agents spread thru the US Govt for a decade. I’d think he wouldn’t want to give up that chance.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I still don’t believe Mattis is sane. It seems like one of those things Everyone Knows™.
Baud
Kevin Costner tried to warn us in No Way Out.
Corner Stone
@dmsilev:
What is clear is that you have obviously never seen a Master Wonk at work. The level and layers of policy ZEGS is wonking at right now? A non-serious mind such as yours could not even begin to fathom.
He is so seriously wonking the needed policy wonk to pull off this serious wonk that Yoda himself now calls him his master.
If we could somehow only harness the serious wonkery he is wonking we could be energy independent in no time. But, alas, clean wonky energy is not his calling right now. He only dedicates himself to policies that help the poor, and wonks as only he can to do something serious about the poverty. For that is really what he cares most deeply about, and has driven his wonky soul lo these many years.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: It’s all relative these days.
SFAW
.@dmsilev:
He is the very model of a modern Major A-ass-hole
(And he ain’t the only one.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Not snark. I meant sarcasm.
Yeah, sarcasm, that’s it.
Brachiator
Or James Clavell’s Hong Kong novel, Noble House@dmsilev:
Does that make Ivanka Yum-Yum?
.
rikyrah
David Mack
@davidmackau
Most disturbing part of the Times profile of CNN: Kushner can’t understand why Anti-Trump voices are allowed on air.
Tom
@clay: In the words of a awesome Internet commentator of years past: “I think you’re going to need a bigger chicken.”
rikyrah
1: Breaking their promise, Republicans now want to quarantine people with pre-existing conditions in separate “high-risk pools.”
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) April 5, 2017
SFAW
@Baud:
Instead of a
bumBaud, which is what you are, let’s face it Charlie.Major Major Major Major
@Baud: so far all I know is he agreed to work for Donald Trump, which is a big mark against him.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Wow! Nice positive story, we need as many of those as we can get in these dark times.
rikyrah
Important to understand how this sort of blatant nepotism usually accompanies authoritarianism. https://t.co/nsXc0pf8lR
— Matt Duss (@mattduss) April 5, 2017
Yarrow
@Baud: That’s the job you want them to do. They may not see it that way.
MattF
@clay: TPM is good here. Noting, e.g., that any concession to the hard right earns only additional, more extreme, demands. Also, ‘moderates’ are simply being left out of any negotiations. How is that supposed to work?
ETA: Note also, that since Gohmert has joined the HFC, he’s become their spokesman. ‘Nuff said.
rikyrah
@clay:
We definitely need to run out the clock on these mofos.
so, call call call
Corner Stone
@Chet Murthy:
I keep hearing about this “long game”. Obama played it for 8 years. Putin is playing for a couple decades. Who else is playing it? Is there like an All Star game? Or Hall of Fame? If you’re playing it for 8 years are you really playing the “long game”? Can anyone buy tickets or get a PSL? Who has the concessions licensing? Is there a long game players union?
Baud
@Yarrow: Agree.
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: China. China plays the long game too. I think we need brackets.
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: yep. The senate can only do about ten things a year when the opposition is in full-on obstruction mode.
MattF
@Corner Stone: Trump’s ‘long game’ concession stands include a very special place where you can get anything gold-plated.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah:
That is what they’ve always wanted. And those pools will collapse and people will die. Fin.
Baud
@rikyrah:
I wonder who Barron will be married off to in order to seal the alligience between our two kingdoms.
Baud
In the long game, we are all dead.
Corner Stone
For God’s sake, dude. You’re the fucking POTUS. Stop this weakshit blame attempt to put Syria on Obama. Man the fuck up and deal, loser.
MattF
@rikyrah: But, but… ‘breaking their promise’ is what Republicans always do, so it’s an unfair accusation to say they’re doing it just this time.
MattF
@Baud: Smaug.
hovercraft
@dmsilev:
The villagers who are starting to recognize this are having a sad, Their brilliant blue eyed boy, who they were all counting on to lead the GOP back, is not smart, competent policy wonk they thought he was. Turns out that he was just good at producing, ahem, passing on white papers from Heritage, which upon closer examination were based on fantasy. SAD !
Iowa Old Lady
We have not yet captured a raccoon in our trap, but we did find a dead mouse in the vent in the half bath. It’s like wild kingdom.
JMG
If we are going to be led by a corrupt rich guy, can’t we sub out Trump for Mr. Guo? Seems like he’s an altogether more fun person. Smarter, too.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: You know what would help? Snakes.
Uncle Cosmo
@dmsilev:
Only in the original derivational sense of “wonk”–i.e., “know” spelt backwards. Because everygoddamnthing the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver thinks he knows is bass-ackwards. (And there is serious doubt whether in fact he “thinks” at all….)
Boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: Pitti-Sing.
hovercraft
@Baud:
Teh heh!
He’d be great at it! But I don’t think Twitler can spare him right now, what with running our entire foreign policy and still staffing the administration, all while keeping Lucretia happy, his plates a little full. When would he have time to jet off on vacation? No for now they’ll let Lil Paulie continue to flounder. Do you think for one minuet Twitler has forgotten that Paulie was against him last year? Paulie is taking a major hit with the villagers and the party, so is Twitler, but in his mind he’s always able to bounce back and keep “winning”
can Ryan?
Boatboy_srq
Mar-a-Lago. Because Camp David hasn’t been deblackified yet.
father pussbucket
First they came for the crayons …
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
n͉̠̙͉̗̺̋̋̔ͧ̊o͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊, i̞̟̫̺ͭ̒ͭͣ d̥̝̮͙͈͂̐̇ͮ̏̔̀̚ͅo͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊w̠̘̗͖̮̥ͣ̽ͫ͂n͉̠̙͉̗̺̋̋̔ͧ̊l͕͖͉̭̰ͬ̍ͤ͆̊ͨo͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊a̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍d̥̝̮͙͈͂̐̇ͮ̏̔̀̚ͅe̮̟͈̣̖̰̩̹͈̾ͨ̑͑d̥̝̮͙͈͂̐̇ͮ̏̔̀̚ͅ a̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍ k̲̱̠̞̖ͧ̔͊̇̽̿̑ͯͅe̮̟͈̣̖̰̩̹͈̾ͨ̑͑y͉̝͖̻̯ͮ̒̂ͮ͋ͫͨb͎̣̫͈̥̗͒͌̃͑̔̾ͅo͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊a̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍r̼̯̤̈ͭ̃ͨ̆d̥̝̮͙͈͂̐̇ͮ̏̔̀̚ͅ a̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍p̱̱̬̻̞̩͎̌ͦ̏p̱̱̬̻̞̩͎̌ͦ̏ w̠̘̗͖̮̥ͣ̽ͫ͂i̞̟̫̺ͭ̒ͭͣt̘̟̼̉̈́͐͋͌̊h͚̖̜̍̃͐ a̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍l͕͖͉̭̰ͬ̍ͤ͆̊ͨl͕͖͉̭̰ͬ̍ͤ͆̊ͨ k̲̱̠̞̖ͧ̔͊̇̽̿̑ͯͅi̞̟̫̺ͭ̒ͭͣn͉̠̙͉̗̺̋̋̔ͧ̊d̥̝̮͙͈͂̐̇ͮ̏̔̀̚ͅs̪̭̱̼̼̉̈́ͪ͋̽̚ o͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊f̳͉̼͉̙͔͈̂̉ b͎̣̫͈̥̗͒͌̃͑̔̾ͅi̞̟̫̺ͭ̒ͭͣz̼͖̺̠̰͇̙̓͛ͮͩͦ̎ͦ̑ͅa̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍r̼̯̤̈ͭ̃ͨ̆r̼̯̤̈ͭ̃ͨ̆e̮̟͈̣̖̰̩̹͈̾ͨ̑͑ f̳͉̼͉̙͔͈̂̉o͎̜̓̇ͫ̉͊ͨ͊n͉̠̙͉̗̺̋̋̔ͧ̊t̘̟̼̉̈́͐͋͌̊s̪̭̱̼̼̉̈́ͪ͋̽̚.
Boatboy_srq
@Corner Stone: Who do you suggest he blame? It’s not as if he will EVER admit that anything is his responsibility unless it’s gleaming and sparkly and perfect.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Obligatory
Whacking Day
Jeffro
@Corner Stone:
Speaking of kleptocracy, and Ivanka, and “branding”…how much of this $1T in “infrastructure” “spending” do we think will get skimmed off by Trumpov and his billionaire buddies?
But no worries, because
Riiiiiiight. Got it. Ivanka’s going to talk millions of American kids into vo-tech pathways, on the strength of all her awesome branding. Didn’t all her shit just get yanked from multiple major department stores chains?
It’s almost as dumb as Kendall Jenner offering a cop a Pepsi – racial animosity disappeared overnight, remember?
lollipopguild
@dmsilev: I have a little list.
Baud
@father pussbucket: Ha!
@SiubhanDuinne:
n͉̠̙͉̗̺̋̋̔ͧ̊e̮̟͈̣̖̰̩̹͈̾ͨ̑͑a̘̫͈̭͌͛͌̇̇̍t̘̟̼̉̈́͐͋͌̊
lollipopguild
@Tom: No, we are going to need a bigger hole to bury the country in.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: It would not be unreasonable to go into the meetings with a working assumption that last night’s missile test had tacit PRC approval to provide them additional leverage in Xi’s meetings with the President. We really do not have a good understanding of how that connection works, so keeping the possibility in mind would be an appropriate preparation.
hovercraft
@Yarrow:
The people who were dazzled by her looks, and gushed about how well spoken she is, and what a wonderful job she did of humanizing her father and how she would help moderate him. None of these morons have ever once explained to us how a woman who’d never had a job in government or anything remotely related to it, who grew up with a sliver spoon in her mouth, married a billionaires son and works for daddy, could help him run the fucking government of the fucking United States. This family has one skill and one skill only, they are very good at selling bullshit, period and then walking away leaving you with a steaming pile of shit while they laugh all the way to the bank.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Justice = a refreshing beverage.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: And pondering how they’re going to pay for all of this…
There was an article about an African American young woman who got accepted at all the Iveys plus several of the top tier (public Iveys) as well.
dmsilev
@lollipopguild: I’ve got a big list. A YUUUUUUGEE list, in fact.
But, truly, they’ll be none of them be missed.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
I know. She was from New Jersey, I think.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
His infrastructure plan is nothing but a privatization scheme.
The Moar You Know
Wengui is Miles Kwok? Oh man, this could his massive CF dimensions very quickly.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone:
“I hear that General Tso is doing great things, great things! And that wall… Brilliant idea, though have you considered trying Trump to do the renovations on some of the sections? What have you got to lose?”
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Can someone ask him why if being anti the president is not okay, why the fuck we had to tolerate Twitler on our TV’s for years bleating about birth certificates?
rikyrah
GOP considers ‘Zombie Trumpcare,’ which is worse than the original
04/05/17 10:48 AM—UPDATED 04/05/17 10:56 AM
By Steve Benen
Exactly one month ago tomorrow, House Republicans formally unveiled their long-awaited health care plan, along with an online Q&A about the proposal’s alleged virtues. The site asked, “Are you repealing patient protections, including for people with pre-existing conditions?”
Answering their own question, Republicans replied, “No. Americans should never be denied coverage or charged more because of a pre-existing condition.”
Of course, a lot has happened over the last month. House Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to change his “American Health Care Act” in the face of opposition from within his own party, and then change it again. The entire initiative failed spectacularly, though the Republican drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act didn’t disappear.
And so, GOP leaders continued to plot and scheme, looking for ways to alter the party’s plan to satisfy the demands of various party factions, most notably the far-right House Freedom Caucus. NBC News’ Benjy Sarlin reported yesterday on the latest iteration, which takes aim at the protections for those with pre-existing condition – the same protections Republicans vowed to keep.
The proposal the White House is floating would change all that.
To be sure, the emerging compromise – what many are calling “Zombie Trumpcare,” because it’s back from the dead – doesn’t yet exist in written form. Closed-door negotiations have been ongoing, but the talks haven’t led to specific legislative text that we can scrutinize in detail.
But we know enough to recognize that Republicans are weighing a new plan that’s vastly worse than its wildly unpopular original plan.
The new, emerging version includes all of the elements the American mainstream already opposed – taking coverage from tens of millions of people, slashing Medicaid, handing big tax cuts to the wealth – adds the elimination of essential health benefits, including maternity care, and then tops it off by scrapping the “community rating” provision of the ACA.
In practical terms, while “Obamacare” prevents insurers from charging the sick more for insurance than the healthy, the new-and-not-improved Republican plan would scrap the protection.
Some GOP officials have pushed back against this interpretation, saying Americans with pre-existing conditions would still be able to buy private coverage, but there’s no reason to take this seriously. If you were born with a heart condition, and your insurer says, “We’ll cover your heart-related ailments for $1 million,” you’ve effectively had your health security taken away.
Baud
@hovercraft: He didn’t say anti president. He said anti Trump.
Corner Stone
Bannon out at the NSC?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Bannon’s off the Security Council. I wonder whether that has anything to do with Xi coming.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: I hear that General Tso is doing great things, great things! Finally getting the credit his work deserves. Lots of people are now recognizing. Did you know him? He was Chinese, not a lot of people know that.
Here, for you – gold plated Trump brand chopsticks. Go on, give em a twirl! They’re the best, believe me.
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne:
Technically that’s a keyboard app with all kinds of bizarre characters.
Aleta
(The question was: What matters to you and why?
Stories are at Mic and at The Root.)
Boatboy_srq
@SFAW: That’s the Pirates of
PenzancePort Newark.Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: And at least five of those are breaks to go to the restroom and for afternoon naps because the average age of the members of the Senate make it not the world’s greatest deliberative body, but the foyer to G-d’s waiting room.
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
Please say that is fake. Please it cannot be real, apart from the stupidity, Panda Express sucks!
Baud
@Corner Stone:
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Hmmm. I wonder if Jared is winning the battle over Bannon for Trump’s analogue to what in a normal person would be a heart and mind.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: This kind of creative thinking is why we all supported your campaign.
rikyrah
Appeals court rejects LGBT employment discrimination
04/05/17 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Democrats in recent years have pushed repeatedly for changes to existing laws against workplace discrimination, because there’s an obvious gap. While many states prohibit discrimination against LGBT workers, federal law includes no such protections.
Employers can’t discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, religion, national origin, disability, or genetic information, but federal civil rights law make no specific references to sexual orientation or sexual identity. Democrats have championed measures like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to remedy the problem.
But in a surprising twist, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded yesterday that the law may not necessarily need improving – because existing law should already be interpreted to extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBT Americans.
Adam L Silverman
@hovercraft: It’s doctored from his Cinco de Mayo taco bowl tweet last year.
Boatboy_srq
@Corner Stone: Replace every “o” with “a” in your wonkery wonkfest and you will be far closer to the truth.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone: @the Conster, la Citoyenne:
@Baud:
ETA: Yes I thin Jared is winning, he’s getting more and more and Bannon’s been kind of pushed off to the sidelines. Twitler needed someone to blame for the TRaycare so why not Bannon?
ETA: Isn’t Twitler supposed to be a tough guy? Yet he can’t take people calling him names on TV? SAD!
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-05/bannon-removed-from-national-security-council-role-in-shakeup
He should never have been a member in the first place, of course, but for a presidency that’s not yet 100 days old, there’s been a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on. Why, it’s almost as if they don’t fully think things through.
Barbara
@Baud: According to the Washington Post he is off the NSC. Regarding Kushner and Bannon, I don’t believe anything I read, but honestly, there are not that many people who like the idea of chaos and destroying the administrative state, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Kushner and even others might get tired of his idiosyncracies. Just, for instance, I read an interview in which he said that over the last 30 years, America has basically funded investment capital that has gone to China. Okay, maybe that’s true to some degree. But how does pushing a bill that would eviscerate social programs like Medicaid and give the investor class even more money in the form of tax breaks to invest help? It seems to exacerbate the very problem that he just said he is on a mission to fix. Forget about whether I agree with how he defined the problem, even by his own definition his actions are illogical and counterproductive.
O. Felix Culpa
@SiubhanDuinne:
Chortlesnort. Bannon’s demotion couldn’t happen to a creepier guy.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: I bet McMaster told him he would leave unless Trump made changes. Probably after reading about how the guy he wanted to fire all along was feeding TS information to Devin Nunes, and perhaps because of what has been happening in NK. I would not be surprised if other departures or reassignments are imminent.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: And given that Judge Posner, the most intellectually consistent (and perhaps rigorous) conservative judge/justice and legal scholar in the US wrote a concurring opinion that shreds originalism this should be fun to watch going forward.
hovercraft
@rikyrah: @Baud:
So this shouldn’t be allowed?
Louis C.K. Opines On Trump: ‘He’s Just A Lying Sack Of Sh*t’
New Yorkers long ago sized Trump up for what he is: a bullshitter. Why much of the rest of the country overlooked the obvious remains a complete and utter mystery.
Source: The Hill
In an interview with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night’s episode of “Late Show,” C.K. ranted about various types of liars. The show tweeted out a clip with the caption “Tune in tonight to hear #LouisCK explain what type of liar our President is.”
“Someones people lie – ‘That guy lied, they found out he lied.’ Then there’s somebody who lies because they can’t quite stay inside the boundaries of truth,” he began.
“Then you have a liar, somebody who it’s almost like a problem, they lie a lot.
“Then you have a lying sack of s—t,” he said to applause from the audience, referring to the president. “That’s somebody who just they just lie, they like it — he likes it. He goes, ‘Heh heh, it wasn’t even true. Wasn’t even true. Then I said ‘they were liars.'”
“It’s just an insane. It’s just gross. He’s just a gross, crook, dirty, rotten, lying sack of s–t,” the comedian said.
Colbert pointed to someone in his audience: “Louis, there’s a guy who voted for him up there.”
C.K. said it was the voters who were the “victims of the lying.”
“Look if you voted, that’s the guy he lied to,” he said. “He didn’t lie to me. He lied to him. He didn’t lie to me. Everybody else was like ‘yeah, no that’s not true.’ But that guy bought it. “
Barbara
@rikyrah: I didn’t read the opinion but this has been the emerging doctrine for a long time. Basically, the Supreme Court has held in several opinions that discrimination based on expectations about gender norms is a kind of gender bias, e.g., that women wear skirts or keep their hair long. The expectation that women pair up with men or that men pair up with women is an expectation based on gender norms and is thus a kind of gender bias.
Major Major Major Major
On the radio just now, KQED was doing a story about a democratic primary in CA-34. One of the top two, who will be going to the runoff, is a dark horse Korean-American candidate who rode an unexpected groundswell of Asian-American support to come in second. The interview threatened to be a dumb human interest story about Asian-American representation in politics, but thankfully the interviewer was able to steer it away from that and towards a real topic by interrupting the person talking and asking instead what this election said about the national rift in the Democratic Party.
Adam L Silverman
@Barbara: There appear to be underlying reasons for this apart from the pro forma boiler plate of the reorganization statement. It remains to be seen if those reasons will be reported. Before you ask: I do not know what they are. I have speculative ideas, but I’m not going to say because they’re just semi-educated guesses.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: Judge Posner no longer thinks of himself as “conservative,” in today’s speak. LINK.
Best quote:
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s the problem with this level of stupidity and incompetence, in spite of the backlash, they could be dumb and arrogant enough to think it was a good idea to redo it. If I was thinking I would have remembered that Twitler’s been too much of a chickenshit to step back in NYC since his inauguration.
See it’s rubbing of, I’m getting dumber and more gullible ;-(
MattF
@Barbara: But there are lots of ‘idiosyncratic’ people surrounding Trump. It seems more likely to me Trump decided that because Bannon isn’t family, he can’t be trusted. And there might actually be some truth to that reasoning.
Barbara
@MattF: No doubt.
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: You know what I meant. His book review of Scalia’s book is priceless.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: Agreed…hence the “double” “air quotes”. Whatever he doesn’t just sell off, he’ll either pay the private sector 2x or 3x its usual cost to run, or run up the tab on contracting that’s 2x or 3x as much as usual, or both.
Mike in NC
Bannon yanked from NSC; ordered to take bath.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
HA HA HA HA! Oh my god, you’re RIGHT. China, buying Trump only through surrogates so far, has not yet grasped what a moron he is. Used to a system of political scheming, cut-throat ruthlessness, and corrupt autocratic power that makes Russia look tame, they still think he MUST have gotten the presidency by cunning and the goofiness is a front. This meeting is going to blow. Their. Minds. And then they’ll give him $100 million dollars and a list of foreign policy requests, and that will be that.
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: agreed. Judge Posner can be lethal.
Chris
@clay:
Not really – the longer they stay at it, the higher the chances that they’ll somehow figure out something to pass. I’d much rather have them going from TARFU to TARFU than spending enough time on one to actually potentially pass what they want.
Chris
@hovercraft:
Hey.
The Moar You Know
@LAO: No he hasn’t. He’s just frantically trying to distance himself from the idiots he so willingly climbed into bed with, in order to save his career.
Jeffro
@LAO: @Adam L Silverman:
Well, now I’ve found my reading for this evening – thank you both!
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
Coca-Cola executives are gleefully thinking that they’re headquartered in fucking Georgia and yet they still knew how dumb that Pepsi commercial is.
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: He should’ve been put on the court instead of Roberts or Alito. But the GOP and the movement conservatives wanted a political operator masquerading as a judge, not a judge.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: He’s in his mid to late 70s. He was elevated to the Federal bench a very, very long time ago. Reagan put him on the Court of Appeals in 1981.
LAO
@The Moar You Know: I disagree. If every conservative federal judge wrote an opinion like this one. Then I wouldn’t complain about the judiciary.
Moreover — unlike many judge’s, he is capable of “learning from his mistakes” ie. his 2007 voter ID decision .
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know: @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, federal judges in their 70’s… don’t need to ‘save their careers’ and have in fact had lifetime sinecures for some time.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: I know his history. I know the techbro community loves him. I don’t trust him. He still identifies as a Republican, right?
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman:
ooh, sick burn.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know:
This is the first I’ve heard of it.
TenguPhule
@clay:
No, because sooner or later they’re going to give it bird-flu which will mutate into a new zombie virus and kill us all.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
If China is smart, they’ll poison Trump at the meeting during the handshake. Something subtle that kicks in after a few hours. Otherwise they’re going to suffer several long hours of losing face with the Idiot who thinks himself king.
hovercraft
@The Moar You Know:
IANAL
He may have recently relinquished the republican moniker, but he’s what a conservative republican used to be before the Federalist started minting neanderthals to pack the court with, From the little I know Posner is not my kind of judge, but he’s not insane, and he does try for some degree of consistency, he doesn’t flip on a dime in order to side with his “side”. He is willing to acknowledge error which is rare. In our two party system with both sides getting to nominate, Posner is the type I wish we had to deal with, he can be reasoned with, Alito and Thomas have no care for the law, on;y in advancing the GOP agenda, Roberts at least has the desire to mask their inconsistencies and so tempers his actions.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: I’m not a techbro, do not attend their meetings, do not get their newsletters, though I do occasionally email with M4 and Alain. So I cannot speak in regard to the techbro thing. My understanding is he no longer identifies as either a conservative or a Republican.
sukabi
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: not so much a tiny jar as a miniature thimble.
seaboogie
@Yarrow: I dunno. Remember Cole’s inadvertent “reveal” when he was wearing shorts? ABC might find that look on him preferable to overalls, with the added bonus of wearing nothing that can be described as *pants*.
Seanly
Well, I may not have $17 billion being held by the Chinese government, but at least I don’t wear white knee high socks with knee length shorts. EDIT: I see some folks think it might be long underwear? In Florida? Okaaayyy.
Still, I may be poor & not too stylish, but I don’t look that bad.
Looking forward to being accused of being a lookist.
TerryC
@Baud: We have Mississauga rattlers in our basement but also mice, and at least two squirrel families in the walls of our 1870 farmhouse.