The “Corporate Pass-Through Entities Enrichment and Donor Relief Act” has passed through the House like greased grain through a goose. The Senate plans to vote on it tonight, and the Scheißegibbon will undoubtedly make a big show of signing it tomorrow — with a demented “I made poopy!” smirk deforming his hideous mouthhole.
I doubt very much anything will go awry tonight in the Senate. All the shitheads are lined up in a row so far, including alleged Human Fulcrum Susan Collins. Corker has his kickback. Murkowski has her drill-baybee-drill buyoff. The bastards will likely get away with it. But if you haven’t already called your Senate creatures, call now (202-224-3121). Might do some good, can’t hurt.
Speaking of hurt, we have got to hang this shit-show of a bill around these bastards’ necks next year like a flaming fucking semi-truck tire. It’s a screw-job, and the good news is, most people already know that. So make it HURT in 2018 — that’s our task now.
Open thread, I guess. Grrr.
schrodingers_cat
All Jill Stein voters and never Hillary voters, this is on you too.
Jerzy Russian
Greased grain through a goose about sums it up.
Corner Stone
Well, on the upside, Trump now has the chance to make billions off this bill so maybe he can now resign and enjoy his money.
Mnemosyne
I’m in California, so I don’t have to worry about how my senators will vote. If I were in the DC area, this would seem like a good time for a flash mob outside the Capitol building. And a second one outside of wherever the exit is for that special subway the Congresscritters have to avoid having to face their constituents.
Yutsano
Unless the Parliamentarian gets salty. And she might. They are shoving in a bunch of shit that shouldn’t go through reconciliation.
wjs
It’s all designed to force Democrats to raise taxes and govern responsibly so Republicans can go back to pretending the deficit matters.
Corner Stone
I haven’t seen any full analysis yet, but it looks like the GOP tricked it so that it takes effect this Feb. If that’s the case, people who work for paychecks may actually see a small bump in their pay stub. Just enough to keep them scammed from being angry about what’s really happening with this bill.
PsiFighter37
This will be the quickest way to turn the vast majority of people working on Wall Street into Democrats. Most of us are wage earners that are paying NY state and NYC city taxes. I’m going to be paying tens of thousands of dollars more in taxes because of the SALT limit of $10k. The people I work with who own a house are going to get it even worse. Nobody here will tell you they want to pay more to give to fucking Steven Schwarzman and other billionaires who don’t need it.
Take my tax money and give it to the needy and to public health and education – any common good. This is simply stealing. Fuckers.
Humboldtblue
Considering a gang of dickheads passed this piece of nonsense, here’s a nice distraction if needed.
Rock out to The First Penis I Saw
JPL
hahahahaha
edited to add I’m am so stealing that
kindness
Democrats have the road map now. The next time we hold all 3 Federal offices, Democrats better not start up with ‘We need to listen to our opponents’. Screw that noise.
Just do it and do it right. The rules have changed.
Mnemosyne
@PsiFighter37:
This bill is partially designed to punish New York and California for being blue states so, yeah, it’s going to hurt Wall Streeters. The theory is, what are they gonna do, vote even harder for Democrats?
The whole country is gerrymandered, and red states are taking their revenge on blue states with this bill.
justawriter
Sigh. You know going back to Reagan and Newt, I don’t remember a major Republican initiative that didn’t make my life worse. Tripled my student loan interest, made sure I had to work a extra years to get my Social Security, bankrupted the economy multiple times, and generally worked to make the world a toxic dump for everyone. And most of my generation still votes for them. I weep my for my peers.
Betty Cracker
@Yutsano: I hope she does! I’ll miss it, if so — gonna catch the new Star Wars this evening. :)
@Corner Stone: I’ve read similar analyses, but it’s going to be a pittance for most working people, and any gains will be more than offset by insurance premium spikes and other fallout. I’m actually encouraged by the level of distrust and anger people have about this bill. It’s the most unpopular “tax reform” measure ever, and folks understand full well that almost all the benefits go to the top. Don’t know if that’ll translate into massive GOP losses next year at every level, but we should try our damnedest to make sure it does.
tobie
@Yutsano: I just called my two Dem senators to ask whether there’s any way they can have the Senate Parlimentarian rule on whether the bill can pass through reconciliation. At this point this seems like the only leverage we have.
Humboldtblue
And I’m in moderation. For the P-word that means dick?
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
I think you’ll like it. It has its flaws, but it’s a fun movie. Definitely better than “The Force Awakens.”
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Not to come off as a conspiracy theorist or anything, but do you notice that the Republicans are acting like they’ll never have to face another “free and fair” election again?
Mnemosyne
@Humboldtblue:
Yes. You can’t use the p-word because of spam comments that offer assistance for said organ.
Citizen Alan
Out of morbid curiosity, is there still an exception carved out of the pass-through income rules that prevents solo practitioner and small-firm attorneys from taking advantage of it?
tobie
@Betty Cracker: Oh, they’ll learn to hate this bill when Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are gutted, their premiums go up and the country is hit by inflation levels we haven’t seen since the days of Carter. And that’s just the most egregious stuff that will happen. I suspect wages will fall and automation will rise with this bill.
Mnemosyne
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
It’s debatable whether it’s that or this is a smash-and-grab to get everything they can before next year. A couple million in tax savings per Republican will make up for a lot of election losses, and Democrats won’t be able to retroactively change the tax law for 2018 since they won’t be sworn in until January of 2019.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
totally. “oh boy, i get a grand a year back from uncle sam! course since they blew up the insurance market, i’m paying three grand more in premiums”
JPL
@tobie: They will blame Obama. Wait until Fox news tells them how great privatizing medicare is.
Corner Stone
I read somewhere that 12 GOP Congress members from CA voted *for* this tax scam bill? What the actual…?
Sab
@Mnemosyne:For your sake as well as my own I will once again call my Republican Senator and lecture him about how a democracy is supposed to work ( rules of order, public hearings, voting in daytime and all that quaint stuff.) Won’t do any good but at least his office gets an earful. Then I will call my Democratic Senator and thank him. Also my Democratic congresscritter.
TenguPhule
@kindness:
But we must learn to co-exist with them. Or so at least one of our esteemed FPers tells me.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
They did. Their protests were as cheap as their suits.
Citizen Alan
@TenguPhule:
Not me. ” kill them all, God knows his own” is now my motto.
TenguPhule
@justawriter: And next year they’re coming for our Social Security and Medicare.
TenguPhule
If this passes, no Democratic votes for a budget.
SHUT IT DOWN.
Otherwise next leadership challenge to Pelosi and Schumer, they’re gonna find it a lot harder then previous ones.
Thoroughly Pizzled
It’s a shameful day. At least revenge will be sweet.
LurkerNoLonger
This is the most elaborately designed and constructed suicide plan. Congratulations, Republicans. See you at the polls!
TenguPhule
@Citizen Alan:
They’ll have to pass the bill before we can read it.
/I wish this was a joke.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Bring back spoilers!
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
No, he will just take this as a sign to steal even more money.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne: I thought we called a Christmas Truce on this.
Yutsano
@TenguPhule: Even though it will impact me:
No CR.
No Budget.
No Democratic votes for ANYTHING.
They want a one party government, let them.
NotMax
“And all I could say was, ‘Now what, Cat? NOW what?'”
– The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
NotMax
@SiubhanDUinne
Strictly entre nous, the ship is renamed the Mlilennium Rosebud.
James E. Powell
@tobie:
Democrats, generally, and black people, specifically, will be blamed. White suburbanites will vote Republican in even greater numbers.
Sloane Ranger
I was watching CNN and Wolf had what is probably the worse panel ever! Very serious people talking about the importance of the win for Republicans and how Democrats were playing politics with it for the mid-terms. Plus how the Thugs genuinely believed this Bill would be a good thing for the economy and believed people would come round once they saw the benefits. Not a single mention of the give always to special interests or the bribes to Congress members!
I thought that CNN was getting better but after watching that load of shit I’m not so sure anymore. They could at least have got one pundit who would put an opposing viewpoint.
Oh, and by the way, don’t worry about Medicare and Social Security, they were all reassuring each other that the Thugs would never go after those in an election year and even if they did, Trump would never sign a Bill, so just ignore Paul Ryan. Well, they might do some cutting round the edges but not enough to worry about!
These people are obsessed with the politics and don’t give a damn about the real world consequences.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: no I’m pretty sure both parties are the same.
Michael Bersin
From late September through late October my blog colleague and I had a gallery exhibit (in conjunction with the American Democracy Project) of large prints of photographs (24 x 36 and 44 x 60) we had taken at vigils, protests, marches which appeared in Show Me Progress over almost a decade. The images and the exhibit are now viewable at:
The Poetry of Protest
We plan on taking the show to other galleries. We also plan on adding more images for the foreseeable future.
Ohio Mom
In a way, I feel liberated in that I will never second guess my disgust for Republicans ever again.
I live surrounded by ’em here in the Ohio suburbs. I can’t help but interact with people I know voted for the Congressmen who are voting for this travesty. And who would/will vote for them again.
I’m not biting my tongue any more. When they make comments that show their naïveté — because most of them are clueless and don’t understand the cause-and-effect of their electoral choices — I’m letting them have it. No more coy reactions from me.
tobie
@Sloane Ranger: Political journalists focus on optics because anything else would require thinking and neither they nor their audience like to do that.
Mike J
Virginia statehouse recount. Dem up by one vote. This is for control of the legislature.
This is not one vote in the lege, or one electoral college vote. The state rides on one vote from a regular person who went and pulled a lever.
Mnemosyne
@Sloane Ranger:
I think it was Atrios who first called them “the cult of the savvy.” They treat politics like it’s a game with no real-world consequences, because they’re rich and insulated enough that they never suffer any actual consequences.
germy
tobie
@James E. Powell: I don’t hang too much hope on this but this bill could spell the end of the political career of Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, and Ron Johnson. Wisconsin is one of the 10 states with the highest income tax and in the south it has high property tax rates, too. A $10K deduction on SALT won’t cut it for middle income, suburban voters there.
NotMax
Thinnest possible of thin reeds:
With McCain and Cochran absent (AFAIK), that leaves 50. If Dems remain elsewhere, all it takes is one R to request a quorum call to bring business to a halt.
m.j.
Anus Face.
There ain’t enough bleach in the world.
Jonny Scrum-half
A possible silver lining to this passing will be that when the inevitable slowdown/crash comes there will be no way for “conservatives” to argue that it’s on anyone but them. Not that they won’t find a way to make such arguments anyway.
Yutsano
@NotMax: Wait…can’t any Senator call for that?
@Jonny Scrum-half: Everything bad in Con World is Obama’s or Clinton’s fault. Always.
And the Democrats need to challenge EVERYTHING with the Parliamentarian. The Senate is known for being slow. And Schumer et al know the tricks there.
gene108
@Mnemosyne: @Betty Cracker:
Don’t know, if I’d call “The Last Jedi” fun. Challenges some long held beliefs about success and failure. It took some chances that not everyone liked. I liked it the movie, but I didn’t feel satisfied at the end. It left more questions than answers.
It is like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, if I had to draw a parallel. There were a lot of loose ends that needed tying up, which JK Rowling did very nicely in “The Deathly Hallows”.
I hope JJ Abrams is on his game for Ep. IX.
I don’t think Disney will let him write and direct the movie equivalent of an 800 page book to tie things up.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Yes, but if one D is on the floor that would make 51, which is a quorum.
Sloane Ranger
@Mike J: Looks like a single ordinary person’s vote could have important consequences. One to remember and cite every time someone tells you they don’t vote because their vote won’t make any difference.
GOTV – it works!
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: I preferred Force Awakens. and Wall Street leaders vote pretty hard for Republicans. The employees keep forgetting they’re not the company.
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: Noticed & noted a while back.
Another Scott
@Mike J: BlueVirginia live blogging.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yutsano
@NotMax: Ohh…I wonder if the Democrats will do that now.
NotMax
@gene108
That’s 24 karat comedy gold right there.
trollhattan
Can Gott himself make a signing document large enough to contain das Scheißgobbon’s signature tomorrow? Will Pence have to steer him back to the dais to sign after he creams himself and wanders off, gloating?
Experts disagree.
Corner Stone
@germy: Every CEO who has been asked, IIRC, has said they will transfer funds to shareholders by one method or another. That’s how the CEO gets his/her golden parachute paid for. They do not get paid for percentage increase in employee wages. In fact, their main focus is the destruction of jobs.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
There is some technical BS at play here.
The IRS has said that they cannot figure out new withholding until later in January, so nothing might be available until February. With some other adjustments, the net impact might result in a modest bump, at best, for some people.
trollhattan
@Mike J: Squeeeeak!
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
I see the fatal flaw in this plan.
mike in dc
So, is this it for “shit they can get done through reconciliation, bypassing the filibuster”? Or will there be a parade of loophole-ready bullshit coming next? If the latter, abolishing the filibuster should be a priority in 2019 or 2021 at the latest. No reason to follow rules or norms if the other guys aren’t going to. Just write up and pass the entire policy agenda on day 1.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
The Walrus is Paul.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
One of the few bright sides to the impending collapse of our government and society is that we will likely never see the third film.
TenguPhule
@mike in dc:
2018 lets them start on Medicare and Social Security.
Shalimar
@NotMax: At 50-48, they can still lose one and have Pence cast the tie-breaker. I assume this meets the rules for reconciliation, though I have no clue how. That would seem to be the only hope left for stopping it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne:
A lot of the rich in those states are GOP doners. So, they likely won’t be so forth coming with their money. Then again the upper middle class and the rich are the GOP base, so WTF? This sounds like more like crazy old elder thinking “I made a mess so someone else better fix it!” kind of stuff.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Probably more than one delusional R who would salivate at the prospect of video of Dems being forcibly dragged in by the sergeant-at-arms and would consider it good P.R.
El Caganer
@TenguPhule: Co-existence isn’t a problem. Cheetahs and antelope co-exist quite nicely.
Yutsano
@Shalimar: Nope. Pence is Presider of the Senate but he is not actually a member of the Senate. Yertle needs all 50.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Oh didn’t you hear? Kevin Brady has already said they’ll need to pass a bill soon to fix the major problems in the legislation. BEFORE IT EVEN PASSED THE FUCKING HOUSE.
Betty Cracker
@Ohio Mom: Good for you. The situation demands it, IMO.
@Mike J: No shit? Amazing!
chopper
@Jonny Scrum-half:
“we were due for a recession anyway. without our wonderful tax cuts it would be way worse!”
count on it. these guys can rationalize anything with a straight face.
tobie
@Sloane Ranger: @Mike J: @trollhattan: @Another Scott: If I recall correctly, Virginia has been told by the courts that it needs to redraw its districts. With Dems in control of the governorship and the state legislature, this could mean a few new Dem congressional districts by 2018.
Brachiator
@Ohio Mom:
I think I know how you feel. I will bet that many GOP congress people have not read this bill at all, but are voting for it to give Trump a win. Those who have read it know that it is a sham, and will hurt many people. But they are intent on pleasing their plutocrat masters.
Barbara
@Mike J: While I seethe that Barbara Comstock stuck with the plutocrats to vote yes to the obscene tax bill, the fact that the Virginia General Assembly will not have a Republican majority is incredibly good news. One voter braved the ugly weather and showed up to make the difference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/democrat-wins-va-house-seat-in-recount-by-single-vote-creating-50-50-tie-in-legislature/2017/12/19/3ff227ae-e43e-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_varecount-351pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.f0cbb21e8779
ETA: Which is to say that EVERY VOTE MATTERS. If any of those voters had stayed home, the outcome would have been different.
Another Scott
@germy:
Yikes!
You know what this means. They’re expecting the TBTF Banks will be freed from the higher capital requirements of Dodd-Frank and all of the other (mild) constraints that the Democrats were able to put in place under Obama. If that happens, that means they’ll be able to leverage themselves more in search of higher (more risky) returns. It’ll be a replay of the 2000s.
Just as the Bitcoin futures exchanges are starting up. :-/
It’s never enough for these MotU monsters. Getting their huge tax cuts isn’t enough. They don’t want any restrictions – at all – on anything they do with their choke-points in the banking system.
This tax bill is just the beginning of the looting they want to do.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I hate that the words used for this vote are “win” and “victory.” This is not a contest between two sides. At least it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be governing.
Alain the site fixer
@Betty Cracker: saw it yesterday with my wife and loved it. Lots to digest, the densest and longest movie yet. Can’t wait to see it again! Enjoy it, hopefully you’ll exit the move to breaking news that the Senate vote fell apart.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I had thought Susan Collins was being extremely cynical as she pretended to be naive and stupid, but it turns out I was grossly overestimating her.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Some in the upper middle class will be taking it in the shorts. But the ultra wealthy will be making out like thieves.
TenguPhule
@chopper:
Gonna be a bit hard to cut interest rates below zero come the next economic collapse.
Barbara
@tobie: There are two districts, in particular, that are heavily gerrymandered to avoid Democratic representation. Basically, Charlottesville and Albemarle County are lumped into a district that extends from nearly the northernmost part of the state to the southernmost part of the state. That dilutes their votes with a far flung set of rural counties. Comstock’s district is also gerrymandered to bring in as much of the Shenandoah Valley as necessary to dilute voters in Fairfax County. Flipping just those two would give Virginia Democratic majority representation in Congress. The General Assembly is even worse.
Shalimar
@Yutsano: They need a majority of the votes, not a majority of the senators. Breaking a 49-49 tie is the same as breaking a 50-50 tie. If McCain and Cochran can’t vote, and another Republican votes against, it is still a tie.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hanging is not too good for her.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Sadly this has not been true for the GOP since at least Jan 20, 2009.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I think TFA was more fun, but TLJ was a better movie. You can email me if you want to get all spoileriffic and screenwriter-y. ? Also, read Film Crit Hulk’s take — I think he nails it.
@gene108:
I felt like TLJ left us in a place similar to the one that Empire Strikes Back did, and I think that’s the source of all of the kerfuffle. Kids These Days don’t remember that we had to wait 3 years to find out what happened to Han — they get instant gratification by just popping in the next DVD.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how to tie this onion to my belt.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Susie loses her halo, her mask, her dignity and her claim to respect all in one day! Her stubborn, mostly elderly female voters are forced to acknowledge that their favorite girl is the Empress with no clothes, just another Republican and not a very smart one at that.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Another way to at least slow things to a crawl is for Dems to refuse to vote. Under the Standing Rules of the Senate, Article XII, paragraph 2:
germy
WTF Is This Weird-Ass Video That Paul Ryan Posted?
Brachiator
@Alain the site fixer:
@Betty Cracker:
The Hugh Jackman movie musical “The Greatest Showman” opens tomorrow. It might get lost in the vapor exhaust of a First Order Dreadnought, but this mini sneak and trailer from Forbes makes it sound promising.
The Moar You Know
@Barbara: That is epic. Just wanna say HEY FUCKING DEMOCRATS THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A SKIPPABLE ELECTION, ESPECIALLY TALKING TO YOU DUMB FUCKS WHO DIDN’T VOTE IN 2010 AND SET THE STAGE FOR OUR CURRENT FUCKERY
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
It goes out of its way to make the original films a shaggy dog story. Its not a good film.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I wonder if she means that she’s catching shit for faking reasonableness, even though she was always going to vote R, and there are 50 other R Senators who are pure evil that don’t get the same kind of attacks on them for voting R.
Another Scott
@Shalimar: Reconciliation rules require at least 218 votes in the House and 51 votes in the Senate. A simple majority of the members – not simply of those present.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Dude, you just said you were going to stop talking about it. So stop.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: A truce is supposed to be observed by both sides.
ETA: I don’t want to talk about it, but at the same time I also don’t want to have to wade through a lot of praises for it here. Can we just stop talking about it altogether?
bemused
@Ohio Mom:
I feel the same. Anyone that starts blaming Dems and liberals to me for everything or both sides are just as bad will get an earful. I’m a senior so when cuts to Medicare get noticed by the clueless, I’m sure to hear it’s the Dems fault from some.
Jeffro
Hey – Rs are setting a nice precedent- two, actually.
1) it’s okay to use taxes to punish members of the other party (well their voters, anyway)
2) it’s okay to take from one group and blatantly give to the other, on a party line majority vote
Sounds great, Republicans! Try and guess what your rates will be in 2019 (2021 at the latest)
chopper
@Jeffro:
the GOP doesn’t believe in precedent. it’s the same reason why the next dem president is going to have to be just as squeaky clean as obama, but the GOP is still gonna investigate him/her into the ground.
Sellius
@Ohio Mom:
I keep meaning to ask you, where in OH are you?
I’m up in Miami County, north of Dayton….deep red here.
You?
Raven Onthill
@tobie: The most scary thing, I think, is that if this passes the Republicans will know they are able to pass anything at least until they are out of power (if ever.) Look for the “Kicking Puppies and Drowning Kittens” bill in 2019.
chopper
@TenguPhule:
you can’t handle people saying some nice things about about a fucking star wars movie? what the fuck kind of snowflake are you?
Betty Cracker
@TenguPhule: Y’all can agree not to discuss it with each other, but lots of us haven’t seen it yet, including me, so it’s not going to be a verboten topic on the blog. I may even start a thread on it this evening or tomorrow, complete with a hidden thread linked to an image for spoiler discussions! Feel free to give it a miss!
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
think i’m a see it tomorrow. hear it’s awesome.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Not just taxes. Any law whatsoever. Precedent is being set for political purges.
TenguPhule
@chopper: I’ve seen it. Get back to me after you see it and have spent a day or two to try and reconcile what you’ve seen.
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker: The thing I hated most about TLJ was that they finally exposed The One Weird Trick that You Will Not Believe What She Looks Like Now.
Now what am I supposed to do with all the clickbait on BJ mobile version?
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: I definitely felt that ESB vibe. The funny thing is, the movie structure & story didn’t bother me. It was strictly characters.
And I’m not a part of this truce. Don’t like something, then don’t comment. You’re grown, you can ignore it.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Go fishing?
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
If you can’t get over the fact that not everyone hates the movie as much as you did, I really can’t help you. Sorry.
chopper
@TenguPhule:
man, maybe I should stay home instead and complain about things! christ, you sound like a 13-year-old boy bitching about how girls are “gross”.
Corner Stone
The Jersey Whale is stuck in a kiddie pool filled with water and he is flailing badly on Nicolle Wallace’s show.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
We’ll have to get into it once Betty sees it and posts her hidden thread. I liked the characters and thought they all matured a lot through the course of the movie, partly through their mistakes. But we’ll put a pin in it for the moment.
ETA: Okay, one spoiler-free thing — mirrors and doubles. Every character has at least one.
chopper
@Corner Stone:
you’ll never believe what wedge antilles looks like today!
TenguPhule
@chopper: Again, watch the movie, spend a day or so to think about what you’ve seen, then come back here and try to tell me it was great with a straight face.
Chyron HR
@Mnemosyne:
Other than the all people who are too immature to appreciate the subtle hidden genius of it, and the other ones who are clearly just racists who can’t handle a movie with a Vietnamese person in it, but they don’t count.
TenguPhule
@Chyron HR: Or those of us who expect a little internal consistency and not a big fat middle finger to basic common sense.
Mnemosyne
@Chyron HR:
When the other side refers to a main character as “MaRey Sue” and whines about all of the male characters supposedly being “sensitive ponytail men,” it’s kind of hard to avoid that conclusion.
There are people with genuine beefs about the movie, because it sure ain’t a perfect film. I think those genuine beefs should wait for Betty’s hidden thread.
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: LMAO! I can SO picture that!
justawriter
If this were a bad (or so bad it’s good) summer comedy, a bunch of teenage slackers would be out getting a half dozen Republican senators so drunk they don’t show up for the vote for a month.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Chris Christie using a fawning segment with Nicole Wallace to give trump legal advice. In what I would think were very low-key, intelligent terms (if I didn’t know what a buffoonish bully was speaking), he’s telling trump to shut the fuck up and keep his head down till he knows what Meuller knows.
Sounds like the sitting governor of New Jersey spends a lot of time watching cable.
ETA: he said something while I was typing, so don’t have the exact words, but it sounds like the sitting governor of New Jersey has already signed a contract with MSNBC
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: Stop it! :-)
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: For the Nth time, I am not Cacti.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
Okay, okay. ? I’ll wait for the hidden thread.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t even know where to start when every word in the sentence is mindboggling.
mike in dc
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Unless it’s to star in “Chris Christie’s weight loss journey”, I have to throw up now.
MCA1
@PsiFighter37: Tightening the range of the AMT tentacles will help offset some of that, at least up to a certain income point. I don’t have a city tax to worry about, but a high enough salary that the AMT was costing me 5 digits a year. Combine the cutting of marginal rates (and upward movement of brackets) with falling out of the AMT regime entirely, and the latest reported iteration of this current scam bill saves me about 10 grand/yr.
And there’s a lot of room in the lower marginal rates, too, to help offset lowered deductions for SALT and mortgage interest: if you’re married filing jointly, in 2017 taxable income over 470k hits 39.6%, but if this bill becomes law everything between 400k and 600k is taxed at 35%, and then jumps to only 37% thereafter. So there’s a $130,000 band there where the effective rate is almost 5% lower under the new regime, and then it’s two and a half percent lower for eternity beyond that. I know that’s not much solace when the City of New York’s grabbing 3.5% off the top and you can only deduct 10k of that.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne: “Imagine a boot stamping on a
human faceindividual taxpayer — FOREVER!”I believe they’ve reached the point where this is their sole motivation.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne:
Purity: it’s not just for lefty politics anymore!
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wallace and Christie both know he’s a bullshit spinner. I shake my head watching people like Christie. They actually choose to make a living doing this day after day, year after year. It’s gotta be more than the money and power. They love a life of lying, double dealing, backstabbing while sucking up to trump or whoever else can help them get ahead.
Jesus, did they invite Christie for the whole damn hour!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@bemused: testing his numbers, maybe
Kathleen
@gene108: ethics tK@Raven Onthill: Nah. The Nazis loved their dogs.
Silent no more
Just saw on Twitter that 3 items don’t pass Byrd rules, so House has to re-vote tomorrow.
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I had that thought too. He’s after something in the WH?
Silent no more
Heather LongVerified account @byHeatherLong
Just In: the House has to vote on the tax bill AGAIN.
From Heather Long:
Why? Dems challenged 3 parts of bill on the Byrd Rule and they won.
The 3 issues are:
1. Using 529 plans for homeschooling expenses
2. The title of the bill
3. Part of criteria used for uni endowment tax
TenguPhule
@Silent no more: Confusion and Disarray to our enemies!
Shalimar
@Another Scott: That explains why it was so critical to get every vote in line. thanks.
Feathers
@TenguPhule: I’m going to repeat what my mother said to my brother when his kids loved the sequels. “I didn’t much like the originals, but I kept it to myself, didn’t I?”
It’s OK to hate a film, but insisting that everyone join you is a bit much. And I haven’t seen it yet. Going with the fam when I get home Thursday.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@bemused: I meant MSNBC is testing his numbers for his future career as a bloviator. Though I’d be surprised if we’ve seen the last of candidate Christie
also, too, trying to get through to trump, in re SHUT THE FUCK UP.
IANAL but it seems to me to be pretty good advice
chopper
@TenguPhule:
“Mr. Koufax, don’t you think Flanders is a big jerk?”
LongHairedWeirdo
Don’t forget: it’s the job killing, offshoring-assisting, tax giveaway to billionaires. (Or, if someone comes up with a snappier description, go for it.)
Hey, I don’t care if it’s not expected to kill a single job or penalizes offshoring – *they* aren’t constrained by the truth! But it is a giveaway to billionaires (and even mere millionaires), and it shows that the GOP thinks money earned by honest work is worth far, far, less than money skimmed from the wage pool by the wealthy.
Kirk
@TenguPhule: common sense? I thought you were talking about star wars?
TenguPhule
@Kirk: Even space opera high fantasy has to have some basic internal rules.
mike in dc
So they revote tomorrow. Probably Senate votes tomorrow too. Trump presumably signs Wednesday or Thursday, then it’s on to the CR budget bill.
Corner Stone
@mike in dc: There is still time in CA. If people can get to those 12 R Congresspeople and let them know mob style justice is waiting for them…this bill could die in the House.
Bill Arnold
@Mnemosyne:
Looking at the vote (try private window if out of nytimes quota, perhaps), I see 4 NY Republican congresspeople voted for this tax bill, but it’s all “upstate” (typically much less wealthy) districts. NY-24 voted for Clinton in 2016 according to wikipedia (haven’t confirmed).
NY-22 Claudia Tenney Y
NY-23 Tom Reed Y
NY-24 John Katko Y
NY-27 Chris Collins Y
CA-1 Doug LaMalfa Y
CA-4 Tom McClintock Y
CA-8 Paul Cook Y
CA-10 Jeff Denham Y
CA-21 David Valadao Y
CA-22 Devin Nunes Y
CA-23 Kevin McCarthy Y
CA-25 Steve Knight Y
CA-39 Ed Royce Y
CA-42 Ken Calvert Y
CA-45 Mimi Walters Y
CA-50 Duncan Hunter Y
FWIW, personally, due to the new Republican “Tax Tax” on state and local taxes (SALT), I’m taking a tax hit of about $3500 (estimated) immediately, a redistribution to Red State Rich People, first order approximation. Plus a probable substantial real estate price equity hit. Plus more when the temporary cuts expire. Plus a possible “Tax-Tax”-caused regional and maybe national recession. And this is just the selfish stuff (don’t really care personally, just offended). The real issues are elsewhere, e.g. with ACA mandate repeal, more people dying/going broke because of untreated or treated but expensive illness and no negotiated rate. (Could be wrong about this; need to read more of David’s stuff.)
I’m not sure that the Republicans truly understand the many venues available for punitive activism.
Particularly when the punishers are Wall Street types with (“it is known”:-) a well-developed ability to personally suppress empathy and compassion, and remorse. (One word: Popcorn. Just saying. :-)
Ohio Mom
@Sellius: I am in the northeast Cincinnati suburbs, sorta near Kenwood Mall, if you know where that is.
We lived in Kettering from 1998 to 2002 (the longest four years of my life) so I have some idea of what it is like where you live.
There was a Cincinnati meetup at the end of the summer. We all said we should do another one, and if we ever do, you should drive down. Or you could do a meet up in the Gem City, and we’d all drive up…
Bill Arnold
@Silent no more:
Sweet. Here’s a Reuters link for it:
House OKs tax overhaul, but stumbles on details
I was feeling resigned (and distracted by work) after the first vote – good to see it being fought, hard.
Ohio Mom
@MCA1: I see this thread came to the end of its natural lifespan while I was cooking dinner. As a result, you might not see this.
But may I suggest you take at least half of your ill gotten gain to donate to a Democratic candidate, the ACLU, or some other entity working to stem the tide of the destruction the Republicans are wrecking? Or are you some sort of show-off troll?
piratedan
@TenguPhule: easy, it was great…
I didn’t even have to pause dramatically… it’s a movie, I was entertained, ’nuff said….
evodevo
@Ohio Mom: Yes. This. Mr. Evodevo and I are surrounded by these idiots, and they are oblivious. They voted for Stump, and they still “believe”. However, I have, among some of my work colleagues and random social contacts, noted that they have figured out that they will be screwed by this tax bill. If it hurts them enough, I hope the fog lifts a little, and light dawns. I’m not holding my breath, however.
Mike Hutchison
@schrodingers_cat: Horseshit. Very tired horseshit.
SFAW
Josh Marshall suggested that the bill be referred to as a “heist.” Whether it’s “Tax Heist” or “Republican Heist” is probably immaterial. I agree with him that it’s a better label.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike Hutchison: Nope. You did this.