The Trump Presidency – 2016

[RainMaker]

So the new AG committed perjury about his contact with a Russian spy.

Why do so many of these people have contact with Russian spies and lie about it? Like if it's on the up and up, no need to lie.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

So the new AG committed perjury about his contact with a Russian spy.

Why do so many of these people have contact with Russian spies and lie about it? Like if it's on the up and up, no need to lie.

Have you ever heard of a non-CIA type American citizen having contact with a Russian spy and been on the up and up? My question is why are they coming into contact with Russian spies, period? Just more of the same BS cloak and dagger shit.

I would have more respect if the admin just came straight out with their shady shit, say why they're doing it and own it. So long as it's not illegal (or at least quasi-legal) and is arguably in the interests of the country, I can at least accept the actions, even if I may not agree with them.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Repeal ... without replacing.

Gosh, that would just break my fn heart.

#briarpatch

and then the folks who lose their access to health care after the Medicaid expansion goes away (never mind red state folks who have been getting subsidies the last 7 years) revolt, elect Democrats, and we wind up with single payer health care.

Is an actual, literal, government takeover of the health care industry what you want?

Because giving insurance access to folks who were previously prevented from getting anything like affordable health care because of pre-existing conditions and then taking that access away is how you get single payer health care.

And possibly also deaths due to lack of access to health care that needn't have happened otherwise, but we all know how few fucks you give about THAT.

[Ben E Lou]

Numerous reports that sources inside the White House indicate that the new version of the immigration ban is ready, but signing is delayed so that Trump can enjoy the positive news cycle from his speech and so that the new order can have its own publix "moment." If this is true, it kinds undermines that whole "urgent national security" thing...

[Ben E Lou]

On the Sessions thing, does anyone have a link to video of the actual question he was asked (and perhaps the few minutes immediately beforehand?) I'm asking because it sounds like the his defense of the answer is "I met with him as a Senator, not a campaign surrogate."

[digamma]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

On the Sessions thing, does anyone have a link to video of the actual question he was asked (and perhaps the few minutes immediately beforehand?) I'm asking because it sounds like the his defense of the answer is "I met with him as a Senator, not a campaign surrogate."

That's very definitely the defense.

Here's the description of the exchange with Franken, which is generally consistent across publications (this from WaPo):

At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.

“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

[PilotMan]

If you or I used any kind of defense like that in the workplace we'd be held accountable. The boss would see through that line of defense and reject it immediately.

[JPhillips]

I'm so old I remember when Sessions voted to impeach a president for lying under oath.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

I'm so old I remember when Sessions voted to impeach a president for lying under oath.

Yeah, but that was about sex outside of marriage. Way more germane to national security than speaking with spies.

Jeff Sessions Calls For Bill Clinton's Prosecution Over Perjury Allegations in 1999 - YouTube

[Atocep]

Trump can now claim credit for Kaepernick's announcement that he'll stand during the national anthem.

[JPhillips]

Senior administration official says White House learned of Sessions’ contacts with Russian ambassador from press reports

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 2, 2017

Is there anyone that trusted Trump that hasn't eventually been fucked over?

[Easy Mac]

So Sessions said he and his staff decided Monday that they were going to discuss the probes today if needed. It just so happens that last night the story about his contacts with Russia broke. That seems likely.

And why has he been saying for a month that he saw no reason to recuse himself and would reconsider if necessary. He knew about these contacts presumably before the press did, you know, when they happened.

[CrescentMoonie]

Ryan Zinke won the day.

[NobodyHere]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politi...ill/index.html

This is one of the times I like Rand Paul.

However that said I am not a fan of his particular plan to repeal and replace the ACA.

[JPhillips]

In the past 24 hours or so we've learned Sessions met with Kislyak twice during the campaign. Carter Ash and JD Gordon met with Kislyak at the RNC. And Kushner and Flynn met with Kislyak at Trump Tower after the election.

Maybe someone should ask Paul Ryan about his statement from a couple of days ago:

"We have seen no evidence so far based upon the investigations that have already been conducted," Ryan told reporters when asked if he was confident that Trump aides were not communicating with Russian officials.

[RainMaker]

Sessions was pretty tough on Russia a year ago. Said there would be a high price to pay for their actions. Now says the opposite. Russia turned him into their bitch awfully quick.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Are you seriously saying that 20,000 pages is transparent?

The house had a month to look it over. If I remember correctly, there was a real push to get this through the house. So, yes, it was shoved down their throats. 20,000 pages to be read and studied in a month? I guess your D congressmen are all geniuses.
And is 6 months really enough time? And how would it have been stopped? The House had already approved it.

Yes, it was shoved down our throats. And no, it was not transparent.

You must be real pissed about this I guess.

Log In - New York Times

[tarcone]

Yep. Not a way to do these things. Why play these silly games? I am getting tired of the oneupsmanship of these idiots in congress.

I wish regular people could run for national offices. While I know they can, it is difficult if they are not part of the system. Or have deep pockets.

And that huge loophole is going to kill this act.

So disappointed in this. When do the citizens of our country come first? All of us, not the illegals, not the rich, just us regular old middle class working stiffs.

[RainMaker]

I don't know how we can blame politicians on this one. We elected them. Republicans were clear they wanted to repeal Obamacare. They were clear they wanted to give massive tax cuts to the rich. They were clear they wanted to raise expenses on the middle class.

The bill is secret because people are going to be paying more or flat out losing their coverage. They know it's going to make people angry. But the tax cuts for the rich were the priority in this. Everything happening is exactly what they told us they wanted to do.

[JPhillips]

Everything is a con.

The Keystone XL Pipeline will not be subject to President Donald Trump's executive order requiring infrastructure projects to be built with American steel, a White House spokeswoman said today.

[JPhillips]

A Biden family associate confirms Hunter and Kathleen Biden are no longer together and that Hunter is indeed involved in a romantic relationship with his sister-in-law.

That would be the widow of his dead brother.

Ewww.

[stevew]

Ehhhh. I saw something on Extra about that and it wasn't nearly as creepy as it sounds.

[bronconick]

As a reward to the loyal voters of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that delivered him the election, Trump's proposed budget cuts the amount of money spent on Great Lakes pollution clean-up from $300M to $10M.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by stevew

Ehhhh. I saw something on Extra about that and it wasn't nearly as creepy as it sounds.

No getting around it, still pretty ewww.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by bronconick

As a reward to the loyal voters of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that delivered him the election, Trump's proposed budget cuts the amount of money spent on Great Lakes pollution clean-up from $300M to $10M.

That $290 million should cover his weekend vacations for the next 4 years.

[molson]

I doubt many of Trump's supporters are disappointed he's not protecting the environment more.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by Edward64

No getting around it, still pretty ewww.

Not defending nor do I know how it is related to Trump's presidency, but I think this probably occurs more often than you might thing (though still not frequently). You can see it develop from a legitimate need a shoulder to cry on, help around the house, etc. Still a little uncomfortable for sure.

[digamma]

If nothing else he's a supreme twitter troller.

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by digamma

If nothing else he's a supreme twitter troller.

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

Actually, most people are better.

Chuck Schumer on Twitter: "Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in '03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team? https://t.co/yXgw3U8tmQ"

[digamma]

Nah, he gets reactions and drives the narrative, which is the point of his trolling, regardless of the truth. It's childish but he's really good at it.

[SteveM58]

Originally Posted by digamma

If nothing else he's a supreme twitter troller.

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

Sad!

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by digamma

Not defending nor do I know how it is related to Trump's presidency, but I think this probably occurs more often than you might thing (though still not frequently). You can see it develop from a legitimate need a shoulder to cry on, help around the house, etc. Still a little uncomfortable for sure.

I remember reading about how there were a ton of NYC firefighters getting divorced in the years after 9/11. What happened is that they were assigned (not sure if that's the right word here) a widow to look after. A lot of them ended up leaving their wife for the widow.

[Bee]

The only government officials who seem to be competent in any of the news stories lately are the Russians.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sabotai

I remember reading about how there were a ton of NYC firefighters getting divorced in the years after 9/11. What happened is that they were assigned (not sure if that's the right word here) a widow to look after. A lot of them ended up leaving their wife for the widow.

Log In - New York Times

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by sabotai

I remember reading about how there were a ton of NYC firefighters getting divorced in the years after 9/11. What happened is that they were assigned (not sure if that's the right word here) a widow to look after. A lot of them ended up leaving their wife for the widow.

I get this and also the firefighters but this is the sister-in-law.

[tarcone]

This Russia stuff needs to be laid to rest.

Face it, all politicians lie. All politicians are crooked. All politicians will do whatever it takes to remain in power.

Until the people do something nothing will change.

[NobodyHere]

What exactly should the people do?

[tarcone]

Man, I dont know. We are in such a weak position. Clinton or Trump? Thats the best we got?
I voted 3rd party. But not enough of the people agreed to get a 3rd party in the mix.

Do you have any ideas?

[jeff061]

Clearly uniting around something begins by laying it to rest.

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

What exactly should the people do?

Honestly, the only thing that will create legit change is a straight up rebellion. The logistics of that are far beyond me, because it is abundantly clear that the country is far too fractured to organize and effectively protest anything anymore. It always turns into a bunch of fringe nutjobs screaming about shit that has nothing to do with the original intent of the protest they are involved in. Then the "news reporters" step in and sensationalize it all, which results in a perpetual cycle of unacceptable behavior blown out of proportion.

It'll take an incredible change of heart among the elites to fix things but I'm not holding out hope. I've decided to just live as happy a life as I can and teach my son that his generation is potentially doomed because our generation and those before it allowed ourselves to be used and mislead because we were too stupid to pay attention. It won't make any difference most likely, but if he ever finds himself in a position to influence, my goal is to ensure that he does it benevolently.

[Brian Swartz]

I think there are two main things the people need to do.

1. Give a Crap. When barely a majority vote, it's obvious that a significant part of the country will put up with anything.

2. Vote Unselfishly. By this I mean putting the interests of the nation's above their own; choose the candidate(s) who will do what's best for the country. If there were a nobler citizenry than what happened this last election would be impossible. We the People still have the power; there's absolutely no reason that a random guy off the street from some completely unremarkable small town couldn't be elected president -- but this requires people to stop behaving like sheep. Only a few candidates were able to get any kind of significant traction. Among these, we made the choices of who would really have a chance and who wouldn't. It could have been the case that in primaries across the country, the voters said 'these are unacceptable' and chose someone else entirely, third-party or whatever.

We didn't do that, and in a free country you always get the government you deserve. That's a painful reality to reflect on in these times.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Face it, all politicians lie. All politicians are crooked. All politicians will do whatever it takes to remain in power.

I don't agree. All humans have these tendencies to one degree or another, but some are far worse than others. There are some politicians who generally conduct themselves with integrity. That's become rare, but those people are not gone completely. And again, it's the case because we the people tolerate it.

[molson]

I think it helps to realize too that the value of the country is not who the president is or what stupid shit he does. Washington doesn't have to define us. Everybody can make their own difference.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

I don't agree. All humans have these tendencies to one degree or another, but some are far worse than others. There are some politicians who generally conduct themselves with integrity. That's become rare, but those people are not gone completely. And again, it's the case because we the people tolerate it.

Agree. All politicians may lie, but all people lie to varying degrees. Painting everyone with the same broad brush isn't fair to those that do try to do good.

[tarcone]

True. I like Trey Gowdy a lot. He seems to be a straight shooter. I am just frustrated. And tired.
I should not have used a brush. But the loudest voices seem to be the most untrustworthy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

If there were a nobler citizenry than what happened this last election would be impossible.

We disagree 100% on that contention.

Which isn't news, but it isn't my point either.

My point is that "We the People" exercised our power. That's why this last election miracle was possible. We chose, in the primaries of both parties, what WAS acceptable.

By & large, the masses ARE sheep. And they're not particularly capable of being much more than that, if for no reason other than being unwilling to do so. (I don't believe that's the only reason, but you could go there with it).

That leaves the wolves to make the decisions but ... if the sheep became wolves then it seems entirely possible that they would also act as wolves. Their change would not make the active wolves suddenly turn more sheep like.

In both parties, voters chose from the only rational options they had available. The system worked perfectly to present the best each party had available.

Thank God that in the end the system also worked to at least give a dying nation a last chance to be salvaged.

[Mantle2600]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

We disagree 100% on that contention.

Which isn't news, but it isn't my point either.

My point is that "We the People" exercised our power. That's why this last election miracle was possible. We chose, in the primaries of both parties, what WAS acceptable.

By & large, the masses ARE sheep. And they're not particularly capable of being much more than that, if for no reason other than being unwilling to do so. (I don't believe that's the only reason, but you could go there with it).

That leaves the wolves to make the decisions but ... if the sheep became wolves then it seems entirely possible that they would also act as wolves. Their change would not make the active wolves suddenly turn more sheep like.

In both parties, voters chose from the only rational options they had available. The system worked perfectly to present the best each party had available.

Thank God that in the end the system also worked to at least give a dying nation a last chance to be salvaged.

The delusions run deep.

[SteveM58]

Originally Posted by Bee

The only government officials who seem to be competent in any of the news stories lately are the Russians.

[Ben E Lou]

So this morning, in multiple Tweets, the current President is accusing the previous President of having wiretapped Trump Tower.

Happy Saturday!

[Easy Mac]

It seems he read Breitbart articles someone printed out for him.

Plus, this was reported at least a month ago in real news places; since, you know, the government was investigating ties between Manafort, Page, ... to Russia.