Donald Trump reviews his first 100 days in office. Watch an all-new episode of #TheSimpsons this Sunday at 8/7c on FOX. pic.twitter.com/rDtvNgusFs
— The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) April 26, 2017
In a fight between the Notorious RBG and Princess Ivanka, I know *I* wouldn’t bet on the nepotist! Small ray of sunshine, if we can keep it, per the Washington Post:
Congressional negotiators reached an agreement late Sunday on a broad spending package to fund the government through the end of September, alleviating fears of a government shutdown later this week, several congressional aides said.
Congress is expected to vote on the roughly $1 trillion package early this week. The bipartisan agreement includes policy victories for Democrats, whose votes will be necessary to pass the measure in the Senate, as well as $12.5 billion in new military spending and $1.5 billion more for border security requested by Republican leaders in Congress…
The new border-security money comes with strict limitations that the Trump administration use it only for technology investments and repairs to existing fencing and infrastructure, the aides said…
Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) boasted that they were able to force Republicans to withdraw more than 160 unrelated policy measures, known as riders, including those that would have cut environmental funding and scaled back financial regulations for Wall Street.
Democrats fought to include $295 million to help Puerto Rico continue making payments to Medicaid, $100 million to combat opioid addiction, and increases in energy and science funding that Trump had proposed cutting. If passed, the legislation will ensure that Planned Parenthood continues to receive federal funding through September…
And while we’re speaking about winning, here’s a question from last Friday, from commentor Oldster:
Can I request a thread on the successes of the First Hundred Days?
I don’t mean *that* asshole’s successes. He has not had any (aside from looting the Treasury).
I mean the successes of the Resistance.
We cannot sit on our laurels, by any means. But we have done a lot better than I thought we would.
We have fought a lot harder, prevented more damage, and gummed up the wheels of the Republican death machine far more successfully than I thought we could. The future still looks far worse than it did on November 7. But not as bad as it looked on November 9.
And that’s something to celebrate!
What successes from the last hundred days would you celebrate? And what’s on the agenda for this week?
Final Tally: Trump said 488 lies or misleading statements in 100 Days. This. Is. Not. Normal. https://t.co/h5WckV2Utk
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) April 30, 2017
Finally, a First Hundred Days record that President Trump can legitimately claim! https://t.co/YbWG0MY9A2
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) April 30, 2017
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Betty Cracker
Did anyone see Booman’s post about how screwed the Trump admin already is? Booman, who usually has a better grasp on how congress functions that most, theorizes that Trump has boxed himself in but good already and will basically be spinning his wheels from here on out. Damn, I hope he’s right!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
Dems also saved miners benefits, for which they will get zero credit.
Elizabelle
@Baud: First I’ve heard of saving the miners’ benefits.
We should talk it up, and how it happened, if the fucking Vichy press won’t. Linky?
OzarkHillbilly
The now record breaking 500 year flood just 16 months after our last record breaking 500 year flood has us confined to a very small part of the Ozarks. The wife can not get to STL for work. We can’t even get to Sullivan for the Woofmeister’s vet appt. today. Not sure if I will be able to make it to my buddy’s place at all this week for work. Certainly not before Wednesday.
Baud
@Elizabelle: Who’s “we”? Miners won’t believe Dems. They’ll credit Trump.
Vox
http://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2017/4/30/15496696/congress-just-reached-a-funding-deal-to-keep-the-government-open
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Most elaborate hoax ever.
BlueDWarrior
@Baud: It absolutely galls me (not baffles, I understand why, mostly) that people can see the Democrats proposing and fighting for A, and Republicans proposing and fighting for B, and will steadfastly think that Democrats are after C,D, and E, and Republicans are responsible for A.
It goes to show that if you are truly committed, you can make yourself believe anything.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
Get one of those amphibian cars – you’ll be fine!
HeleninEire
Good morning, all. A bank holiday (May Day) here in Ireland. A beautiful 60ish degrees. Headed over to Phoenix Park for a day of deer spotting (yes – the park is so big that deer live in the wild there even though it’s a thoroughly urban park) and then maybe down the street to the Museum of Modern Art. Haven’t been there yet; not sure how I’ve missed it. I’m not even sure if it will be open today but….nothing ventured…!
Everyone have a great day.
Elizabelle
@Baud: We could put that info up on Facebook. Short and sweet. Not buried in all the rest of the budget details.
ETA: And I wonder if newspapers in the mining states would ever print out of town letters applauding the Democrats for sticking up for the miners. It’s possible some newspaper editors, living in the real world, might relish printing those letters.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
And therein lies the problem. By doing what is right they save the GOP from themselves. The assholes that voted for motherfuckingtrump will not feel the full force of the pain he would have caused & they will continue along believing he is not so bad. It is not nice I know but I really wish the Dems had just stood back & allowed these bastards to do their worst & inflict so much pain on their voters that, just maybe, it would finally dawn on the morons that maybe it is not the black or brown that is the enemy but the GOP.
Baud
@BlueDWarrior: That’s how I’ve learned to believe in myself, by ignoring all the evidence.
Baud
@Schlemazel: Manchin would have been blamed.
Baud
@Elizabelle: If only we had an outreach coordinator who was well liked in coal country…
Oh well…
F
How about this? Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is retiring.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’ve thought about it but the gas mileage is horrible.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Nah, he could tour the mining areas before the vote & say he was fighting to save it but that the GOP controls everything & there is only so much he can do.
Plus this is bigger than just mining, it is everything the GOP wants to do to their poor voters
oldster
In another edition of Take Your Allies Where You Find Them:
https://www.chausa.org/newsroom/news-releases/2017/04/26/proposed-house-action-threatens-health-coverage-for-millions
The Catholic Health Association of the USA, the lobbying group for Catholic Hospitals, has come out with a blistering denunciation of Zombie Trumpcare 2.0. Every paragraph is quotable, and every paragraph is spot on:
“It is critically important to look at this bill for what it is. It is not in any way a health care bill. Rather, it is legislation whose aim is to take significant funding allocated by Congress for health care for very low income people and use that money for tax cuts for some of our wealthiest citizens. This is contrary to the spirit of who we are as a nation, a giant step backward that should be resisted.”
My wing-nut congressman here in the Southern Tier claims to care about his Catholic upbringing–that, and not his transparent misogyny, is his excuse for opposing abortion rights.
Now that Sister Carol Keehan, President of the CHAUSA, has told him to vote “no” on Zombie TrumpCare 2.0, I am looking forward to calling his office and telling him to read her words of wisdom.
(And thanks for mentioning me on the front page, Anne! I feel famous, for a day!)
RedDirtGirl
@HeleninEire: Have a great day! Missed your report on the blind date. How’d it go?!?!
Elizabelle
@RedDirtGirl: Thanks for asking. I’m curious too! Helen??
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: Well the Republicans, they of House and Senate majorities and supposedly occupying the White House at present, needed DEMs to sign on to this budget deal. They couldn’t do even this by themselves.
Kay
There has to be a rule or law against this, right? Ivanka can’t actively promote Trump properties while assistant to the President?
These conflict and ethics rules are either a complete joke or there’s no one to enforce them.
rikyrah
What about the debt ceiling?
OzarkHillbilly
@oldster: And thanks for mentioning me on the front page, Anne! I feel INfamous, for a day!
FTFY, free of charge. ;-)
debbie
@Baud:
It’s enough for me that there’s no money for a physical wall and that the block grants will still go to sanctuary cities. i cannot wait for the twitterstorm.
Baud
@rikyrah: Later.
oldster
@Betty Cracker:
I liked reading Booman’s piece, and I pray it will go from his mouth to the Noodly One’s Appendages.
But a central part of his story is Republican disunity, and I worry that that is a frail reed to rest our hopes on.
Yes, the Republicans are divided now, and at the ideological level they will be divided for a long time.
But fear and self-interest will unite them. Fear when they realize that their own seats are in jeopardy. Self-interest when they see that the entire US Treasury is there to be looted.
So far, they have been able to come together on Zombie TrumpCare, and their failure is a blessing for the country. But on taxes, they will probably push through a budget-buster that showers the Mercers and the Trumps with multiple trillions of dollars. And as the mid-terms get closer, they will start voting together out of sheer necessity.
Sure, there are ideologues in the Republican caucus. When trivial things like the lives of Americans are on the line, they will be divided by their so-called “principles”. But when their own lives are on the line, they will revert to being Republicans, first, last, and always. And when they rediscover their unity, our job will get a lot harder.
HeleninEire
@RedDirtGirl: @Elizabelle: The beginning went well. He was a smart guy, semi retired and now working p/t for a fabulous non-profit that provides comprehensive in-home services to the elderly and terminally ill. So far so good, right?
Well, at one point he wanted to talk US politics. I nicely said “Nah, I need a break from that.” He just ignored my request and proceeded to tell me that that Trump should be given a chance.
GOOD NIGHT, ASSHOLE!!!!!
The End.
oldster
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hey, it’s not like there’s some *other* kind of famous I was going to be. I’ll take what I can get.
Elizabelle
Note also: Trump requested a 31% cut in EPA funding.
The Democrats gave him 1%. One whole percent in cuts to EPA funding.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Yes, there must be rules in place about this phuckery ??
Patricia Kayden
@Schlemazel: Or maybe Democrats could do a better job at getting the message out into the public that they saved health benefits for miners. Republicans have no problem getting their message out. I’m not sure why our side isn’t able to do the same. There are so many public forums that Democrats could use to toot their own horn and they need to be using all of them between now and next November.
rikyrah
@Baud:
I know..no credit ??
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Go Dems!! Go Pelosi!! They’re doing great given that they’re in the minority. Now they need to make more noise about getting a special prosecutor assigned to investigate Russia’s interference with our last election.
rikyrah
@HeleninEire:
Sounds like a beautiful day ??
OzarkHillbilly
@oldster:
Don’t we all.
rikyrah
@F:
Find a young Hispanic in the mold of Ossoff, and we can win that seat.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Not only that, but Duterte appointed the CEO of the company that licensed Trump’s name for the real estate property and other branding schemes in the Philippines as a special envoy to the U.S. shortly after the election. They aren’t even trying to hide the corruption.
debbie
@Baud:
You can’t do anything about the past, but don’t you think Trump will motivate them to get out and vote?
Patricia Kayden
@Kay:
Or they could be both a complete joke and no one is there to enforce them. It’s as if Trump really can get away with shooting someone in 5th Avenue in NY in public. His regime is awash with ethical violations which barely get a peep out of the media. Yet we’re supposed to be in a tizzy over President Obama getting paid for a speech.
RedDirtGirl
@HeleninEire: Lord love a duck! Even in Ireland? You could have had that date over here!
Baud
@debbie: No.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
OT into my favorite story of the year:
“Customs has the area on lockdown because Billy [McFarland] has not paid customs duty taxes on the items that he imported,” the Bahamas government said. “He and his staff have left the items with a security company guarding it.”
Also, some ripped off attendee has ALREADY named themselves a plaintiff in an efiled class action suit – and the value will probably go way up, as those cash-preloaded wristbands enter the accounting (“cashless society” for that festival – so novel, so much tech!).
McFarland is a douchey con artist on his way to the Presidency of these United States and probably judgment-proof, but JaRule had best be moving his assets offshore, because the lawyers for attendees, vendors and credit card processors are coming like a zombie horde in The Walking Dead.
It’ll be a shitshow I can enjoy for months!
OzarkHillbilly
Well, it’s not Jack the Ripper, the Green River Killer, or the Boston Strangler, but it is notoriety, of a sort. Still, I’m not sure the “Spokane Spanker” is going to give him a lot of prison cred.
debbie
@Baud:
That’s very bleak, but I do believe you’re wrong.
rikyrah
@oldster:
The so-called moderates were able to hide when the Dems controlled the Senate and when 44 was President.
Now that they control everything, their sociopathy is out for display.
23
That is the number that I keep in front of me. The 23 GOP Reps from districts that Hillary won. The sociopathy of the ZEGK and the Koch brothers will get them thrown out of office. There’s not a damn thing that the GOP wants to do that is popular. They need Trumpcare because it’s a tax cut bill disguised as a healthcare plan… that is why they are desperate for this.
Keep the fight going.
Betty Cracker
@oldster: Agreed. We can’t count on Republican incompetence and overreach forever, even with the most incompetent and overreaching Republican CiC in history in the WH.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Glad you and yours are okay. Did the rains stop like they predicted?
HeleninEire
@RedDirtGirl: Well, funnily, maybe not. I do not know what’s going on, but somehow, through some divine intervention, I have had more dates here than I had in 10 years in NY. I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. The Irish are so friendly that everyone talks to me just because. I’ve made a lot of friends just by striking up a conversation with the person sitting/standing next to me. And also, I am so thoroughly happy here that I am definitely sending out that vibe. Everyone wants to be my friend!
So, yeah I’m over Trump boy and have moved on. There are 4.5 million more Irish for me to meet!
Baud
@debbie: I hope so too. But Trump didn’t hide his anti-environmentalism. And as we saw with Obama’s speech, there’s still a big industry committed to denigrating Dems.
billcoop4
@rikyrah:
We need at least 7 more than those 23. 30 should be our number. 23+7+more.
BC
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Apparently it’s not a real Ayn Rand quote, but this really is the question. They will profit off the Presidency until someone stops them.
This isn’t just Donald Trump. Ivanaka and Kushner are adults. They are choosing to do these things. At any time they could show some restraint. They choose not to.
rikyrah
Any polling in the Ossoff race? What kind of help is he getting?
What about the Montana race?
gene108
@oldster:
There is no ideological divide. They just don’t agree on whether they should kill us all by depriving us of healthcare or subjecting us to unsafe levels of pollution or crush us economically by deregulating Wall Street.
@Schlemazel:
The problem is you recreate a 2010 scenario. Yes Republicans fucked things up between 2001-2007, and fucked things up so badly everyone felt the pain, but the Democrats could not clean things up fast enough and got blamed for not being miracle workers.
Angry voters will keep throwing the bums out mindset going until things improve. Democrats benefited from this in 2006 and 2008, but got burned in 2010.
People do not attribute blame or success in a rational manner. There’s no guarantee they would not turn on Democrats, after they voted out Republicans.
debbie
@Baud:
And we also saw how many came out to the marches. It takes much more effort to get oneself to a march than to a voting poll.
Eric S.
Jumped straight to the bottom to comment … National Day of Loyalty?
I’ve got my March For Science resistor t-shirt on which is a little passive. Later I plan to donate s few sheckles to Planned Parenthood today.
Lurking Canadian
@Kay: It is both. The rules are a joke, and enforcement is whatever is less than lax.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: That Booman column is encouraging. The country is screwed, of course, but less so than it would have been if Trump were competent.
Baud
@debbie: We’ll see. Supposedly, people are “woke” now. It’s all hypothetical until there is an election.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: They stopped about noon yesterday. I’m not sure when the rivers are going to crest here, late today or tomorrow I think. Going to be a few days later up in STL. Both the Big River and the Meramec are at record levels and at and below their confluence at Eureka things are going to get really ugly.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Don’t sell yourself short, Ozark! You’re ALWAYS infamous to us.
Hugs from all of us! (I know you’d rather we send you water wings, but there’s only so much we can do.)
Betty Cracker
@gene108:
I believe this is more true than is generally acknowledged, which is why it makes me nervous when folks propose sweeping changes to party platforms after a loss.
gene108
@Patricia Kayden:
Billionaires like Murdoch, Koch brothers, the Mercers, Mellon-Scaife, et. al. have spent billions, over the last 40+ years, to hijack the media.
There are no liberal billionaires. Period. No one on our side of things has the cash to compete, with people who can start think tanks, newspapers, and TV networks and not be bothered, if they make or lose money, so long as they can push right-wing propaganda.
mai naem mobile
I happened to turn on MSNBC when they were replaying MTP. The panel q was about how the Dems had screwed up and were screwing up by not offering an olive branch to Dolt 45. Seriously ? These mofos never said anything about the GOP saying ‘Noooo’ to everything but OMG if the Dems do it it’s a failure. The only one who pushed back mildly on that was April Ryan. Go fuck yourselves.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s just another case of some black guy getting welfare, when that money could be making some more-deserving WWC voters less economically anxious. AND he took a vow of poverty, the hypocrite.
Right, Van, you fucking moron?
OzarkHillbilly
Off the “Trump/GOP suck” topic I give you “out of control Prosecutors in Orleans Parish suck donkey D” topic: Prosecuted by her legal counterpart: ‘It destroyed my life in so many ways’
Public defender Taryn Blume was shocked to find that she was facing criminal charges – charges initiated by her adversary in the DA’s office. In New Orleans, it’s become a disturbing pattern
Due process? HA!
satby
Good morning rikyrah and everyone else. We have more rain on the way but only scattered high water in roads, no real flooding yet. Had the sewers back up in the store yesterday at work during the height of the rain, but it drained back down soon after the rain stopped. Seems like the area around South Bend isn’t in serious flood danger right now, but there’s potentially three more days of rain predicted.
Not at all looking forward to work today, the office manager will be in. I emailed her a no yesterday and told her to call me or text me on my phone if she wants to contact me because I didn’t use and was deleting the Messenger off the one tablet it was on. So if course it looks like she sent at least two more messages that way when I go on FB. I had a talk with the doctor last week about the manager, because most of the staff is ready to quit and thought she should know. I suspect my nemesis may have gotten wind of that, or figured it out. So high school, and at 62, not (never was) my thing.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Banana republic gettin’ closer.
THIS is what Shakespeare was talking about when he wrote ”The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” in Henry VI.
Elizabelle
@satby: Was the doctor non-comittal, or did she take an interest?
Good luck. Time to send that manager to some other endeavor. She’s toxic, and losing it.
Woodrow/Asim
@rikyrah: In a funding email Ossoff was up by 2 right at the start of the runoff, I’ve not seen anything since (unsurprising, given the scale of the election.)
I think the last-minute turn in the MT election makes polling unlikely, esp. since the mail-in votes get sent today if I recall correctly.
Mike in DC
Has a date been set up for a march for a special prosecutor and independent commission /joint select committee investigation into the Russia stuff? Because I would show up for that, and I’m a pretty lazy activist.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: We have a Constitution, if we can keep it. (apologies to Ben Franklin)
gene108
@Woodrow/Asim:
Is the turn good or bad for Quist?
satby
@Elizabelle: the doctor was very interested, but the manager has been with her a long time. I don’t envy the doctor, she’s the most low key sweet person I’ve ever known. People drive over from Chicago and Iowa (!) just for appointments with her. The office manager is a sad situation really: she’s 71, recently lost her most of eyesight in one eye, and I guess still has to work because she and the hubby like to shop. I’m reluctant to force a showdown that threatens her job because I have no intention of staying years there in the first place. My goal was a year or so when I started, because I can’t wait to be retired!
bemused
@mai naem mobile:
What a ridiculous, pointless discussion. The only olive branches pres Fubar would respond favorably to is constant ass kissing assuring him that he is the most brilliant, awesome, incredible person on earth. He’d quote the ass kissers and call them great people and the flake would still be riding the crazy train. I don’t think there are any persuasion tactics that work with a no-attention span, extremely irrational and narcissistic person like him, temporarily at best.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused:
I have to disagree with this part. He would MISquote the ass kissers just because he can’t help himself, lying is what he does.
efgoldman
@gene108:
No you don’t, because if voters or angry or disillusioned, or just because, they vote against the president no matter who controls the house or senate.
ETA: Only 448 lies? They must count each one only once.
OzarkHillbilly
Police kill suspect in fatal San Diego pool party shooting
I’m a little surprised they shot him. He was a white man who had just shot 6 blacks and 1 Latino who were having too much fun.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Heh, true. He’d embellish the hell out of the quotes. Heck, he’d make up adoring, gushing quotes as he had done many times.
efgoldman
@bemused:
And he’s pass out electoral maps showing all the empty acres and cows that voted for him.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: And pictures of the enormous crowds at his inauguration.
Elizabelle
@satby: Thanks for the answer. What an HR headache for your doctor. Le sigh.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Most office situations suck, in my experience. There always seems to be at least one sociopath or mean person, who is protected by the higher-ups. I finally gave up and am living off of savings and my pittance as adjunct faculty at the local community college. Wishing you luck!
Jeffro
Trump’s PA rally and his invitation to Duerte should serve as reminders that no matter how inept he is, how impotent he is, how moronic he is…he’s still dangerous. He is more than willing to whip his supporters into a frenzy and set them loose on their fellow Americans. He’s more than willing to cozy up with murdering dictators. And of course the grift will continue non-stop.
I know we are getting good at calling our members of Congress…and we’re damn sure good at marching…until some FBI indictments start dropping, or the IC breaks some conclusive evidence, or until 2018 gets here, we’d better keep it up, all of it , calls and marches. And donations, too.
rikyrah
This week is key
https://mobile.twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/858825977258004481
rikyrah
Police kill suspect in fatal San Diego pool party shooting
By GREGORY BULL Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police shot and killed a 49-year-old man suspected of shooting seven people Sunday at a birthday pool party in an apartment complex near the University of California, San Diego, authorities said.
Authorities said the suspect, a white man identified as Peter Selis, shot four black women, two black men and one Latino man, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/2plxCfS).
Rikky Galiendes, 27, heard gunshots around 6 p.m.and went to look outside his sixth-story apartment when he spotted a man bleeding and running near the pool below. Galiendes told The Associated Press that he called out to ask if the man needed help when his roommate grabbed him, yanked him down and then pointed toward a man sitting in a chair with a gun.
“When we looked over the balcony, he was just sitting down with a gun on his lap,” Galiendes said. “He was calm, you know. I mean from my perspective, the guy was ready to do whatever he was going to do. He shot at people having a good time and having a party.”
Galiendes and his roommate ran back inside and called police. They stayed indoors until neighbors yelled that it was safe to come out. Galiendes said it was a horrifying scene.
rikyrah
@oldster:
This needs to be spread far and wide and repeated endlessly on a loop.
rikyrah
Can someone confirm if the exemption for MoCs & staff is still in MacArthur amendment?
cc @ASlavitt @sarahkliff @TopherSpiro
— Andrew Armstrong (@typeting) May 1, 2017
Yes, Zombie Trumpcare is so bad Republicans still don’t want it for themselves. https://t.co/da2HFzGq0a
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) May 1, 2017
rikyrah
While mainstream media has been obsessed with Trump’s latest hijinks, Ben Carson has been doing serious damage https://t.co/n1uUXP1Uux pic.twitter.com/sZyiLs1Zku
— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 1, 2017
rikyrah
Gov’t $ pkg has no money for wall, nor cuts $ for sanctuary cities. No Planned Parenthood cut. No non-defense cut.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 1, 2017
Pelosi: ‘We have eliminated more than 160 Republican poison pill riders…The omnibus does not fund Trump’s immoral and unwise border wall.’ pic.twitter.com/fb2R3GZObV
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 1, 2017
Schumer: “The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren’t used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders…” pic.twitter.com/EjAkKPDPC9
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 1, 2017
rikyrah
How Trump changes his mind (or how his aides do it for him)
04/28/17 12:57 PM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump’s difficulties with the presidential learning curve are well documented. He didn’t realize health care policy was “complicated”; he didn’t know there are limits to China’s influence over North Korea; he didn’t understand how much he likes various policies he campaigned against; he had no idea being president would be so difficult; the list goes on.
It’s worth pausing, though, to appreciate how Trump changes his mind about things. For example, the president apparently overhauled his entire understanding of Asia-Pacific after “listening for 10 minutes” to China’s Xi Jinping.
And what about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which the American president was poised to abandon tomorrow? Trump gave up on his plan and explained his reversal yesterday, saying he spoke with Canadian and Mexican leaders on Wednesday, and they asked him not to walk away from the policy. “I like both of these gentlemen very much,” he said.
………………………………
The Washington Post offered a behind-the-scenes peek on how the president’s team convinced him to change course.
rikyrah
White House is looking at changing laws that protect U.S. press
05/01/17 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump’s hostility towards journalism isn’t exactly new, but there have long been questions about what, if anything, the Republican intends to do about it.
About a month ago, while whining on Twitter about the New York Times, the president asked rhetorically whether it’s time to “change libel laws,” presumably to allow Trump to target news organizations he doesn’t like in court.
The bluster wasn’t followed by any presidential actions, so the tweet came and went fairly quickly, but the subject returned to the fore yesterday when White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus talked to ABC News’ Jon Karl.
rikyrah
Trump’s foreign policy sinks even lower with invitation to Duterte
05/01/17 08:30 AM—UPDATED 05/01/17 09:01 AM
By Steve Benen
Just over the last couple of weeks, Donald trump has congratulated Turkey for abandoning democracy, offered tacit support for a fascist presidential candidate in France, and publicly praised North Korea’s communist dictator.
What could the Republican president do to make matters worse? He could embrace the murderous autocrat who leads the Philippines.
RandomMonster
@Betty Cracker: Thanks for sharing that, Betty — improved my mood this morning!
rikyrah
Asked about health care, Trump trips over his own ignorance
05/01/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 05/01/17 08:55 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump recently noted that he’s been working on health care for most of his presidency, which is true to the extent that he’s tried to push a bill through Congress. But what Trump hasn’t done is learn anything about the issue, the debate, or the legislation he’s eager to sign.
Yesterday, for example, the president appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and host John Dickerson did his best to ask Trump to explain the plan the White House is championing, with a particular emphasis on one of its most controversial provisions. The president argued:
“Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I just watched another network than yours, and they were saying, ‘Pre-existing is not covered.’ Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I mandate it. I said, ‘Has to be.’”
When Dickerson pressed Trump on whether he’s prepared to “guarantee” protections to those with pre-existing conditions, the president replied, “We actually have – we actually have a clause that guarantees.”
There is no such clause. The Republican bill guts benefits for consumers with pre-existing conditions, clearing the way for states to do the exact opposite of what Trump said yesterday. (GOP leaders have been reduced to telling worried lawmakers that most states won’t take advantage of the option, but under the Republican blueprint, the financial pressure on states to roll back protections like these would be significant.)
rikyrah
Trump’s tax plan ‘would be Kansas on steroids’
04/28/17 04:55 PM
By Steve Benen
Shortly after the 2012 elections, with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) radical economic experiment already underway, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of his former colleague’s plan, “This is exactly the sort of thing we want to do here, in Washington, but can’t, at least for now.”
The Republican senator was referring, of course, to President Obama standing in the way of Congress imposing a Kansas-style experiment on the entire country.
That’s no longer a concern for GOP policymakers. On the contrary, with Donald Trump in the White House, McConnell’s dream of bringing Brownback’s Kansas experiment to the nation is now possible, and the administration’s ridiculous new tax outline suggests many Republican officials intend to follow Topeka’s lead.
With this in mind, the Kansas City Star’s editorial board offered some worthwhile advice this week.
bemused
@efgoldman:
He’ll have his coffin shellacked with those maps.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/28/17
Best New Thing: Karen Handel’s accidental b-roll audio
Rachel Maddow shares some of the audio that was (presumably mistakenly?) left on a large collection of b-roll video of Georgia Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel.
rikyrah
‘It always bothers me when members of a family, who have never been elected, show up suddenly as official state representatives’, says Mr Gabriel – I couldn’t agree more!
German minister just said what no foreign politician dares to about Ivanka Trump https://t.co/i9RWv64DSQ
— Donna NoShock (@NoShock) May 1, 2017
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/28/17
Trump team did vet Flynn, hired him anyway: NBC News
Rachel Maddow reports a scoop from NBC News that the Donald Trump transition team and the White House did do a background check on Mike Flynn. Also, a source tells NBC News they were aware of Flynn’s business ties to Turkey, but hired him to be Trump’s National Security Adviser anyway.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/28/17
Russian pro-democracy movement resists Putin’s oppression
Vladimir Kara-Murza, vice-chairman of Open Russia, an international Russian pro-democracy movement, talks with Rachel Maddow about the risks of opposing Vladimir Putin in Russia and the resilience of Russia’s pro-democracy, anti-Putin movement.
rikyrah
Another Brick in the Wall: The End of Black and Latino Republicanism
by D.R. Tucker
April 30, 2017 11:00 AM
Remember Marco Gutierrez, the right-wing hack who hitched his sorry star to Donald Trump last year? Gutierrez gained infamy when he told MSNBC’s Joy Reid:
What the truck? We don’t hear much from Marco anymore, nor do we hear much about the right-wing efforts to lure Latinos into the Republican Party: Donald Trump’s antics have effectively killed that project dead. Good.
It wasn’t that long ago when right-wing operatives were promoting the dubious idea that African-Americans and Latinos were “natural conservatives” who were “trapped” inside the Democratic Party. It would only require some effort to get them voting the right way, these operatives insisted, as they rewrote history in an effort to achieve their goal (remember the old “Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican” BS?).
One can debate when this bizarre project unofficially ended: the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the right-wing revolt against immigration reform in 2007, and the right-wing media infrastructure’s embrace of George Zimmerman as a folk hero for taking Trayvon Martin’s life in 2012 are all sound choices for the de facto end of this weird operation. Of course, the official end of the GOP’s attempt to attract the support of anyone besides rural whites and billionaires was November 8, 2016.
In light of this reality, Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX)–an African-American Republican who represents a heavily Latino district–is a man without a real political home:
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, if Rancid Prickus and his boss, Teenius Dickus, have their way, you won’t be allowed to say that.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SFAW:
Nor you that.