I know you all will find it hard to believe, but both the President and Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lied about what was in the compromise immigration and border security bill that was negotiated between Senator McConnell, the Vice President, and Jared Kushner. It is not a combination of The Bridge Act for the Dreamers for three years, a renewal of the Temporary Protected Status Program for three years, funding for a variety of border security initiatives, and funding for about 200 miles or so of the Maga-Dope Line/the President’s border wall. Rather it is a simple three year DACA extension with none of the Bridge Act language, the Temporary Protected Status Program fix for three years isn’t actually a fix or for three years as it excludes all African countries, funding for the various border security initiatives and the Maga-Dope Line, and a major revision to the Immigration Act that narrows and restricts asylum.
The bill that McConnell will bring to the floor outside of regular order – no committee and/or sub-committee drafting, markup, debate, and/or vote – appears to have been written by Stephen Miller. This bill doesn’t even temporarily free the hostage that the President himself took, instead it continues to hold them hostage and it takes new ones and kills them. On Saturday I wrote that neither the President nor Senator McConnell could be trusted to negotiate in good faith. The bill that McConnell is going to bring to the floor is a prime example of why they can’t. I’m relatively sure McConnell agreed to this so that he can use it to provide the President with more ammunition to blame the Democrats. I would be very surprised if he releases any of the members of the GOP caucus in the Senate from the whip with the exception, perhaps, of Senator Murkowski. The point of this exercise appears to be:
- Make it look like like Mitch McConnell is actually doing something.
- Set up a vote on a bait and switch bill where all the Democrats vote no, all the Republicans vote yes, so the bill dies because it can’t clear the 60 vote cloture threshold.
- Blame Democrats for being unwilling to meet the President halfway, accept a compromise offered in good faith, and, as a result keep the government shutdown.
- Continue to blame the shutdown on Democratic intransigence.
- Continue to work the political reporters in the news media so they won’t report on this accurately because the granular details are boring.
- Allowing McConnell to escape any blame and be rewarded once again for being an unfaithful interlocutor who has no compunction, and faces no consequences, for breaking every norm, violating every tradition, and stretching every rule and law to breaking in order to achieve his own objectives.
Here are the granular details:
https://twitter.com/TheToddSchulte/status/1087537841478008832
https://twitter.com/TheToddSchulte/status/1087543468405284864
https://twitter.com/TheToddSchulte/status/1087553114755031040
https://twitter.com/pwolgin/status/1087540774202425346
Under the so-called "compromise" bill, only 50k Central American Minors allowed to apply for asylum each year, and only 15k asylum applications can be granted. AND it wouldn't be done by immigration judges, it would be a totally nonreviewable DHS decision. And no judicial review!
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
Oh wow, and limits on the right to counsel! The Secretary of State is required to ensured that covered CAMs are permitted to apply at in-country processing centers, but says only UACs would be guaranteed a right to have an attorney present. pic.twitter.com/mUyC1Lxeyk
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
Now that the bill text is out, Democrats should see almost immediately that the President's claimed "compromise" is a complete joke. This bill would be one of the single-biggest dismantling of America's systems of humanitarian protections ever. It's Stephen Miller's dream bill.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
And there are some "fun" new grounds for having an asylum declared frivolous, inc:
1. You filed the application "in whole or in part" to obtain work authorization or be placed in removal proceedings.
2. You filed the application to delay removal.Just… wow. pic.twitter.com/Rf0J6tAqR6
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
Oh, and if you ever want to withdraw an your asylum application, you'll be deemed to have filed a frivolous application unless you WAIVE ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS AND TAKE VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE.
That would be a wild change that would cause HAVOC in the immigration courts. pic.twitter.com/hg9faS5CVN
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
The bill also adds new criminal bars on asylees and refugees adjusting to permanent resident status. No longer does the green card process adhere to the normal process with standard grounds of inadmissibility. Now it's conviction for "a felony." Even with zero jail time. pic.twitter.com/s5ENZd3xQr
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
And here the bill guts the Trafficking Victim's Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) by allowing the government to forcibly return unaccompanied children if they ask for asylum, unless it's "more probable than not" that they'd win asylum, or be trafficked. A high standard! pic.twitter.com/acmi6qG7jw
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
And that's it; the last part of the asylum section are just technical amendments, nothing else. I left out some other minor changes that are weird and awful. And, fair warning, I may have made a mistake or two in my haste (hope not). But wow, this bill is not a "compromise."
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
Importantly, both withholding of removal and CAT protection are (1) harder to win, and (2) provide no path to permanent resident status and eventually citizenship. They're orders of removal with an agreement not to carry them out for now, plus (most of the time) a work permit.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) January 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/matt_cam/status/1087570341667397633
Under current law such kids aren’t barred at all from requesting asylum and they are placed in removal proceedings and can request asylum affirmatively. /2
— Tom Jawetz (@TomJawetz) January 22, 2019
The bill earlier creates a complete #AsylumBan for all children from Northern Triangle countries who arrive in the US and request asylum. Theyd be barred from eligibility under 208 so by definition it would never be more probable than not that they’d establish eligibility. /4
— Tom Jawetz (@TomJawetz) January 22, 2019
Not an asylum change but a #TPS change: the bill says in the future only people who are lawfully present can get Temporary Protected Status.
What does that mean?
— Tom Jawetz (@TomJawetz) January 22, 2019
There is no way any Democratic senator can vote for this. What remains to be seen is whether McConnell can successfully pull this off. We won’t know until there is an actual vote and we see how the politics reporters cover it. But if the past decade is any indicator he most likely can. Better start calling your senators!
Open thread.
rikyrah
OF COURSE, IT’S A PHUCKING LIE!!!
What did anyone expect?
NO NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS!!!
The Moar You Know
Please don’t tell me that anyone thought this would be a serious offer.
I’ll tell y’all right now, the government is going to stay closed until this coming October, when we really do run out of money to pay for anything.
randy khan
@The Moar You Know:
Even as originally reported it wasn’t a serious offer. But this makes it incredibly obvious.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: March. Mulvaney and his former Freedom Caucus cohorts will tell the President that it isn’t a problem if the US breaches the debt ceiling and defaults on the debt.
zhena gogolia
I’m sure Vladimir Vladimirovich is very happy.
zhena gogolia
I saw something on a tweet (so it must be true) that Elaine Chao (Mrs. McConnell) is using her position as Transportation Secretary to shield her family from oversight. Or something. Have you heard this, Adam?
OzarkHillbilly
As was obvious from the moment they announced a “meeting” between themselves. Their idea of compromise is “death to all they don’t like.”
Kenneth Kohl
Adam, thanks for breakdown of this travesty.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: I haven’t, but it wouldn’t surprise me. It may work on the Senate side as McConnell controls what the committees do. It will no longer work quite as well on the House with the Democrats in charge.
randy khan
I do hope that everyone is calling their Senators about this. I’ve called mine. (Not that they probably needed any prodding, but even the folks on the side of goodness and light like to hear that their constituents agree with them.)
jl
Thanks for an important and informative post. Judging from past, corporate media, and PBS and NPR, desperately want to cover for McConnell, and keep bothsidesdoit narrative going. Dems need to be aggressive in pointing out dishonesty. Dems should know what they are dealing with. I hope Pelosi’s much (IMHO) improved clarity and force holds up over next day or so.
Paul W.
A little bit much on the detail, but thanks for placing here to see. Honestly, we knew it was going to be a bad deal that would likely give us nothing to show in 6 months or less when Trump changes the terms. But the terms that ARE set here are disgusting and vile to the extreme, and a backwards slide in how we deal with immigration.
No surprise really, the only thing I actually care about is if McConnell and Trump blew their load on this. Once the media get raked over the coals for calling this an “offer” that we can take seriously, are they going to be so quick to give a platform to this shit? As far as I can tell, this puts a temporary pause on Trump’s slide in the polls, but does not change who votes blame for what is happening.
Am I wrong?
Mr. Mack
Hey guys just wanted to take advantage of the open thread to thank y’all for the well wishes prior to my treatment. I have finished radiation and chemo and now it’s about healing from those two horrors and re-learning how to eat. Anyway, thanks again!
JMG
This proposal is aimed at one small but influential group of Americans, the lazy justly underpaid sods who write TV local news scripts and who will never ever not describe the bill as a compromise because they are never ever gonna read it. Applies to cable news, too.
Betty Cracker
As terrible as we figured — maybe even worse. I’ll call my asshole Republican senators, not that it’ll do any good. But another thing we might want to do is contact any MSM figures who try to characterize this as a serious proposal. Working the refs has paid off for the right.
catclub
If my version of BJ were optimized for my desktop screen, it would put all those twitter quotes into two columns.
Then they would only be half as wasteful of space.
dmsilev
From a purely political perspective, this is kind of stupid. It’s so bad of a bill that anybody taking five seconds to look at it will laugh at the idea of it being a “compromise”. They would have been much better off crafting a bill that accurately reflected what Trump claimed over the weekend. It still wouldn’t have been much of a compromise, but it would have at least had the facade of such.
catclub
Can I vote for Maga-Nope Line?
dexwood
Monsters, ghouls, and traitors spewing lies with every exhalation.
Betty Cracker
@Adam L Silverman: It wouldn’t surprise me. The prospect of a plane crash or massive ecoli outbreak wouldn’t trouble these sociopaths.
Central Plannin
I think I might actually hate the Rs involved with this.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Not surprised, go read that McConnell editorial in the Washington Post – he basically takes last November as a mandate for the GOP because the Republicans gained a seat in the Senate.
Frankensteinbeck
The existence of this bill means McConnell is feeling the heat and needs to turn it back on Democrats. But they can’t help themselves, and this shit bill is going to do nothing for him. If anything, it may make the spotlight on him worse. Congrats, Mitch, you played yourself by demanding Trump give you a bill without telling him what to put in it.
Central Planning
FYWP for not knowing I am me when missing the trailing g.
TaMara (HFG)
Cory Gardner is in serious trouble already. If he votes for this, he might as well skip 2020 to spend more time with his family.
dmsilev
@TaMara (HFG): Should we feel sorry for his family in that case?
rikyrah
I do appreciate this post Silverman, because we do need to spread the word about this. Especially the specifics
gwangung
@Betty Cracker: I can see them TRYING to suppress or downplay it….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Remember, trump is very concerned about gangs and crime
and of course, the FBI Agents Association was feeding Giuliani talking points that helped drive Comey to blunder into the campaign’s October pseudo-surprise
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
I believe it, which is why whatever Democrat oversees the Department of Transportation should investigate NOW.
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): Doesn’t mean I’m not going to contact him about it, tho’!
Adam L Silverman
@jl: The MSNBC coverage is, as I type this, completely free of any details of what is in the bill and all about the optics, the horse race, the politics.
Miss Bianca
@Mr. Mack: In the blizzard of bad, I am going to stop to notice the nugget of good. Yay for you!
Adam L Silverman
@Paul W.: The news media will continue to do what it does until something tragic happens. Then they’ll do more of it.
And yes, you’ve got the details correct.
Anonymous At Work
And here, I thought Trump and Miller were going to ignore the 20th Anniversary of The Sopranos…Loan-Sharking and Protection Rackets galore.
Adam L Silverman
@Mr. Mack: Glad to hear you’re doing well!
CaseyL
I’ve called my Senators, thanking them for standing firm and asking them to continue to do so, and vote No on this if it comes up on the floor.
Van Buren
I’m sure CNN will present all this to their viewers, they’re so good at breaking things down. And then everyone will see what a travesty it is, and Trump will be shamed into ending this farce.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: Agreed. If they were smarter, they’d also try to exploit fault lines in the opposition. Sounds like this monstrosity is more likely to unify Dems and maybe peel off a Repub or two.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: You could vote nope on Maga-Dope. How’s that?
Adam L Silverman
MSNBC just reported that the President will deliver the State of the Union next week, they just haven’t decided where he’s going to deliver it yet. And the speechwriters, aka Stephen Miller, are working on different variations depending on whether it is given at the Capitol or at another site.
MattF
I’ll note that there were dueling headlines in the NYT and WaPo yesterday afternoon– NYT said McConnell was ‘cornering’ Democrats and WaPo said Trump supporters were changing their minds. I didn’t read either article, because why bother?
NYT article and headline have disappeared this morning in dead tree edition, WaPo article is the lead.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you, Adam, for the heads-up. I phoned my senators and my rep, and left a message of support on Speaker Pelosi’s office voicemail.
Current events are not always accurate predictors of outcome. In January 1973, things looked pretty good for President Nixon and his co-conspirators.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: This March or March 2020? I take it for granted we are going to have a default. They’ve wanted that forever. Wasn’t aware the debt ceiling thing was so soon, if it is indeed March 2019. Better do my overseas buying while we still have a working dollar.
Bill Arnold
Thanks very much for this post. Astonishingly, stupidly worse than I though. The media is key key; they are the ones that need to be worked, hard. They need to be pissed off that they were manipulated into thinking that this is an actual compromise. (Need to actually read it TBH, but it sure does sound like S. Miller had a lot of input.)
Miss Bianca
@Paul W.:
Hope you don’t mind, I am swiping this part for my communique to Sen. Gardner.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MattF: this is the only headline I see on the WaPo’s digital front page about the shutdown– does that vary according to your region, or reading history or whatever dark magic the internet gremlins do?
and their most-read story is about that new book that talks about a White House “out of control”, the latest one
guachi
There isn’t a lick of compromise in this bill.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman:
In a field, yelling at clouds.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: Next debt ceiling increase needs to be voted on in March 2019.
The Moar You Know
@Paul W.: The media is reporting this as a serious offer and we will not be allowed to call it anything else.
Dems will be blamed for refusing Mr. Trump’s very, very generous offer, with no details reported, because journalists can’t understand the details of anything – a fatal flaw of the profession.
catclub
@Frankensteinbeck: @TaMara (HFG):
The key is if some GOP senators vote against it. We shall see.
Dan B
Mc Connell seems to be debating immigration in the MSM. Since thus bill is designed to eliminate immigration / asylum by its sheer heartlessness how should the Democratic party respond. What is the way to get the attention of citizens, especially those who vote and those who donate? Is it to hammer the message that this bill would throw children back to the gangs they are fleeing – that it would increase the power and reach of those gangs? This would put “Central American gangs” part of the message. Or would a story about an immigrant girl change enough hearts to provide pushback?
catclub
@Adam L Silverman: There is no hope. Throw me a better rope.
CatFacts
Greetings from a longtime lurker!
I like rikyrah’s idea about oversight on Chao. Might be worth calling representatives to encourage that. McConnell may not care about standard-issue bad press, but I suspect sunlight on his family business might be a pressure point.
Mike J
@rikyrah:
This is obvious to decent people. The problem is the same that other types of terrorists have. If they were asking for a million dollars and a helicopter and the cops said that they would discuss how much they were willing to pay only after all the hostages had been freed, everyone would see that it would be silly to free the hostages. Trump wants massive immigration restrictions and knows that absolutely none of them will pass the house. Having the government shut down is his only chance to have any policy wins for the last two years of his administration. He’s not going to go down easy, but Dems need to hang tough. Trump is an existential threat to the country.
Ksmiami
fuck Mitch McConnell – I hope he dies in a fire.
catclub
@Bill Arnold: I think the Democrats are saying these are all things that can be discussed after the Government is open. And they need that message discipline that we here do not have to exercise. The ONE message is:
“This can be discussed AFTER the government opens. It is pointless therefore to discuss the merits and demerits of this bill BEFORE the government has been re-opened.”
Paul W.
@Miss Bianca: Go ahead! The Senate is the weak point in all of this, such as it is…
kindness
This Administration is full of horrible people. They all deserve to be put up against a wall. More and more I’m beginning to think the French weren’t wrong about how they handled their revolution.
catclub
@kindness:
The worst possible way, except for all the others.
Frankensteinbeck
@catclub:
I’m not sure of that. I think even the senators who are scared will want to vote for this bill and pray it turns around public perception. There are no real downsides to voting for it. It won’t make them look LESS willing to make a deal. It’s the Republican Party as a whole, Mitch McConnell, and Trump who look unwilling to reopen the government just by offering this shit sandwich instead of compromising.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’m watching to see how the Dems do getting their message out.
Look, we all know McConnell would prefer to block every bill out of the Democratic Congress for the next two years, and plenty of people here have been moaning and groaning that he would in fact do that, successfully. I took “he will crack eventually and stuff will get through” in the pool.
The fact that he feels the need to have ANY bill means he’s beginning to feel the pressure. The fact that he needs to appear to act is IMHO a very different stance from his feeling like he can smugly announce that he is not and will not act on any budget without consequences.
This is just the start. There’s a lot more pain for the country to get through, and a lot more pain McConnell has to feel before we crack him. But I still think that point is coming.
Also: Mueller, and Cohen’s testimony. I believe, again as most of us do, that McConnell is deeply corrupted by Putin. Mueller has whatever that is. Cohen is going to throw gasoline on the Trump dumpster fire, and some of that may burn McConnell as well. I’m looking at both of those as nice hot sources of McConnell-related schadenfreude to come in February.
Also, too, some of the very-pissed people who are suffering from the shutdown are RWNJ’s. They’re going to add to that pressure, though their pressure won’t be in the form of “stop breaking the country” it will be “please fix it for me, and the hell with everybody else”.
West of the Rockies
@Ksmiami:
May he bake in his own shell.
MattF
Somewhat OT. Giuliani, in an interview said (and I quote) “I have been through all the tapes.” Tapes? TAPES? TTAAPPEESS???. He tried, a little later, to retract.
Adam L Silverman
@MattF: Yep. And what is unclear is whose tapes? Tapes the President made? The tapes Michael Cohen made? Exactly how would Rudy have gotten access to the latter?
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman:
So, the variations presumably comprise (a) complaints about how unfair it is that he was blocked from the Capitol and (b) whether to be 99% or 98% foam-flecked anti-immigrant.
Miss Bianca
@Paul W.: Here’s what I just faxed to Gardner (and then a variation on this theme to Bennett, urging him to get together with his Democratic colleagues to denounce this bill for what it really is):
Dear Senator Gardner,
I urge you to stand firm in opposition to the so-called “compromise” immigration and border security bill that was negotiated between Senator McConnell, the Vice President, and Jared Kushner. It is, unsurprisingly given the sheer amount of bad faith the President has exhibited so far on the subjects of immigration and border security, not what it claims to be. It is not a compromise at all, but a doubling-down on a racist, cruel, and exclusionary vision of what President Trump, egged on by Stephen Miller, wants immigration and asylum to the United States to look like: whites only, and minorities and political refugees be damned. It is a lie, and it is so blatant a lie as to be insulting to your intelligence, and the intelligence of your constituents.
Honestly, we knew it was going to be a bad deal that would likely give us nothing to show in 6 months or less when Trump changes the terms. But the terms that ARE set here are disgusting and vile to the extreme, and a backwards slide in how we deal with immigration.
Set an example of courage for your Republican colleagues in the Senate. Vote “NO” on this bill, and send a message to Senate Majority Leader McConnell, that he must insist on good-faith negotiations – or, better yet, since President Trump has repeatedly proven himself incapable of good-faith negotiations, tell him to bring back the bill that the Senate passed at the end of 2018, put it on the President’s desk, and tell him to sign it, or be prepared for an override vote if he vetoes it.
Do not stand for this travesty. Do not allow federal government workers to be held hostage to the vicious racism and ignorance of President Trump. Vote NO on this bill.
Regards,
FelonyGovt
I’ve seen some suggestions on Twitter recently that specific information connecting McConnell to Russia that is about to come out. But I’m not sure if this is real or more likely, more from the kind of Twitter denizens who are always teasing the next smoking gun and never actually have anything.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: Maybe Rudy watched All The President’s Men last week and given his well-known difficulties in separating fact and fiction…
Expect to hear about an 18 1/2 minute gap in the tapes any time now.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: From the follow on reporting about ten minutes ago one of the drafts is if he does the State of the Union at one of his rallies versus if he does it at the Capitol.
Crosspalms
Who is this bill supposed to be a compromise with — Ann Coulter? Satan?
Adam L Silverman
@FelonyGovt: The donations to his Leadership PAC have been out for well over a year.
laura
The vileness of this administration finds new, uncharted depths each and every day.
We should send the Statue of Liberty back to France until such time as we can earn its return.
I keep thinking about the lyrics to Lou Reed’s Dirty Boulevard.
Johnnybuck
I think it’s important for the Democrats to message that they won’t discuss any movement forward while the Government remains closed. I think the most important point to make is that shutdowns are NOT normal, and non-negotiable. If they can win on this point, it might break a fever that Washington has been running since Newt started this “no compromise” bullshit 25 years ago.
or not
MattF
@Crosspalms: Those baby blood typewriter ribbons are expensive!
Mart
@Adam L Silverman:
Well I just heard on the radio hourly news update that Dems are still unwilling to compromise even though the bill offers the DACA protection they desired. So that has to be the whole story.
Adam L Silverman
And McConnell did what I predicted on Saturday. He just gave his daily speech exhorting the Democrats to put country ahead of party, take yes for an answer, and pass this bill because it is the only bill on the floor that can pass because it is the only bill that the President will sign.
Adam L Silverman
@Mart: Yep.
VeniceRiley
In racism news: Wohl has prodded Chris Cuomo into asking for Harris’ birth certificate.
Miss Bianca
@Johnnybuck: Yep. I agree.
Mike in NC
Trump and Miller want an end to immigration. End of story.
joel hanes
@zhena gogolia:
Elaine Chao
google search string
elaine chao family shipping government
will turn up a variety of sources that substantiate and flesh out the accusations you heard
They’re all fucking looters. All of them.
schrodingers_cat
@Mike in NC: They want more than that. If Ds give in, it is a message to all immigrants that you are no longer safe here. Their demands are not going to stop with refugees and asylum seekers.
Shana
@Mr. Mack: Wonderful to hear that.
Adam L Silverman
@VeniceRiley: Cuomo actually fell for that? From Wohl? Oy vey.
Cheryl Rofer
KInd of interesting that Trump’s and Stephen Miller’s racism is stranguling military recruitment.
catclub
@MattF: this came right after someone said that Giuliani’s job is to pre-break all the bad news, so that when it comes, he and others can say, “that is old news, a nothingburger we have already discussed,” even though it never really is a nothingburger.
So, tapes are the new nothingburger. interesting.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Is there anything individuals can do to change the behavior of these media morons? Like confronting the people who decide how news stories are presented? Who write the headlines?
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: Its not so surprising if the objective is to hamstring the United States. All of T’s actions make sense viewed from that perspective.
He does what Putin wants.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Cheryl Rofer:
Oh, they’re just fucking pleased they’re kicking out thousands of trans service members because the fascist assholes on the Supreme Court said the ban is a-ok. Fuck them.
Cheryl Rofer
Laura Ingraham reports that the Covington Catholic bullies have been invited to the White House by the Bully in Chief.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Cheryl Rofer:
WHAT!? Oh my fucking god! Does he want somebody to try to kill him? If he keeps this divisive shit up, somebody’s going to eventually try and succeed.
This is by no means an endorsement of such a thing, but Jesus fuck, this guy is an unimaginable asshole!
gene108
It’s just like the last time they wanted to “compromise” on immigration to appear to give Dems something, in return for Wall funding. They came up with a shit ton of ways to curb legal immigration.
They are doing it again.
They just need to come out in the open and say “we are racists. We do not like non-whites, even if the Latino is white, we don’t like them” and be done with it.
All this bullshit around the fact they are motherfucking racists is getting tiresome.
catclub
@gene108: Trump is a terrible negotiator, and particularly bad if he has to deal with the same person more than once. All the tricks he learned in his business are useless for a second negotiation. In DC, all he deals with there are the same people over and over again.
he has thrown away that $25B for the wall because somebody else would get something they wanted in the deal.
ZeeLizzee
@Adam L Silverman:
You recently posted asking “What would Trump do differently if he were a Russian Asset”. But what would Mitch McConnell do differently? Is there any one person more responsible for tearing up the rules and norms of a governing body than Mitch McConnell? Is there anyone who covers for Trump more than Mitch McConnell?
catclub
@dmsilev: Alexander Butterfield… Rose Mary Woods… Judge John J Sirica… Senator Sam Ervin
(back in the day NC senators were not Jesse Helms and clones) memorable names.
catclub
@ZeeLizzee:
There are fewer committees in the senate that are explicitly going after Mueller, compared with the pre-2019 House.
McConnell has not brought up votes to protect Mueller, but also has not obviously encouraged Trump to get him fired.
For instance, the story that they could not replace Jeff Sessions in 2018 if he were fired, came from the Senate. I think it was bogus,
but McConnell could have made more statements that a firing would be fine with him, and a new AG could be approved in the Senate.
so those are three things McConnell the Russian agent might do that have not been done.
rikyrah
@Mr. Mack:
Sending you positive thoughts!
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: There is very little that can be done.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: The question is will they be fed better than the Clemson football players.
Adam L Silverman
@ZeeLizzee: But McConnell has been doing this for a very long time. McConnell only carries about two things: 1) removing all campaign finance limits and restrictions and 2) packing the Federal courts with Federalist Society approved nominees who will ensure, regardless of where Americans actually are politically, socially, religiously, and/or economically, that the US is a conservative (as defined by McConnell) state and society. That’s all he wants and he is perfectly happy to destroy everything in order to achieve it.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
What? Not even blackmailing/doxxing these people and ruining their lives? //
Not that I endorse such a thing.
Persistent Illusion
@TaMara (HFG): Your lips to the Goddess’s ears. He’s an awful legislator and an asshat to boot.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You want to blackmail and/or dox reporters? I think you need to step back, maybe take a break, go for a walk, go to the gym, play with your dog or cat a bit if you’ve got pets, reevaluate some things, and then reconsider what you just posted as a comment.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
I was kidding. I wasn’t being serious.
Bill Arnold
politico.com/story/2019/01/22/republican-spending-bill-asylum-restrictions-1103837
Politico, so it will be noticed
The Pale Scot
@Adam L Silverman:
Ceiling is 03/01, the Treasury can cook the books to stretch it out a couple of months.
Brexit happens 03/29, Interesting. I try hard to keep my paranoia reined in. But the same consultants, financiers, money sources keep popping up in both stories. If the government stays closed, the SEC, FDIC and other watch dog agencies are going to start losing their best and brightest. If, as seems likely, the UK withdraws from the EU without a transition deal, markets are going to twitch at the exact moment the US government is closed or the savviest watchdogs are gone and haven’ been replaced yet. It’s like SPECTRA is real. If either thing happens the world economy could manage. Both? I don’t know
Adam L Silverman
@The Pale Scot: SMERSH SPIYONIM.
The Pale Scot
@Adam L Silverman:
Does VVP have a white cat? Where are the extinct volcanoes in Russia?
SPIYONIM???
errg
@Adam L Silverman:
This is why I can’t stand watching any mainstream news. Even the supposed good ones (NPR, MSNBC) are 95% horserace bullshit.
Bill Arnold
From thread below;
politico.com/story/2019/01/22/republican-spending-bill-asylum-restrictions-1103837
Politico, so it will be noticed
Also, many reporters pay attention to their twitter feeds and in particular to tweets directed at them.
(Also, they might notice if their name is mentioned; google is a thing. :-)
Redshift
Hey, guys, Covington Catholic is having a rally against racism, so that should take care of that problem, right?