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July 15, 2017 12:13 AM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 138 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

–Albert Einstein

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138 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. The worst president in American history continues his stumblebum   hour upon the stage.  His misadministration is a tale told by an idiot in 140 characters, a twit on Twitter, a fart joke full of stink and blunder, signifying nothing.

    He stinks.  Lord, he stinks.

    Stay upwind my friends.

     

    1. I don't think Trump is quite yet at worst president in history altho he is moving closer. Consider Franklin Pierce, who spent most of his 4 year term soused (at least by being a drunkard, he couldn't do a ton of damage). Then there was James Buchanan, who was unable to stave off the Civil War. Or Warren Harding, Mr. Teapot Dome himself. Interesting that the oil and gas industry was in the midst of Harding's big time scandal.

      1. This buffoon hasn't even tried to put an administration together.  Franklin Pierce looks like a titan compared to the fart  joke.

        Worst president ever.

         

        1. And I pray every day that through his incompetence, the GOP agenda is further stymied until we can start throwing the bums out of office next year.

          For now, a stalemate is ok, and maybe, just maybe the GOP will finally lose any pretense among voters of representing the best interests of all Americans.

          The Democratic Party needs its own self-examination and evolution, but we're not actively trying to destroy the lives of millions of our own citizens in order to pay tribute to the almighty few who fancy themselves Titans of the Universe.

          1. Dems also need someone leading them other than Nancy Pelosi. She was a big time target in the Georgia House vacancy race couple months ago. Use of her as a target by dark money right wing PACs probably cost the Dem the victory.

            1. CHB:

              She is doing great.

              Nothing says change and reaching out to middle America like an 80 year old liberal from San Francisco.

               

              1. Yes, Gerbils.  We all understand that your tastes run towards infantile, narcissistic megalomaniacs that are happy to do the bidding of the enemies of our nation as long as they stroke his ego and pump billions into his businesses to keep them afloat.  Just when you think the GOP has scraped bottom, they dig a deeper hole.

                Kal sun 7-9-17print

              2. Surely the rock-ribbed Palinites, those get gummit out of our lives rugged independent bear hunters in Alaska couldn't possibly accept this largess?  

                The Kodiak Kickback: the quiet payoff for an Alaska senator in the Senate health bill

                Buried in Senate Republicans’ new health care bill is a provision to throw about $1 billion at states where premiums run 75 percent higher than the national average.

                Curiously, there’s just one state that meets this seemingly arbitrary designation: Alaska.

                 

                    1. She is also not bad on LGBT issues.

                      If anyone is entitled to exercise some independence from the GOP leadership, it's Murkowski. She got screwed over a few years back from the Teabaggers when they nominated Joe Miller (FOS&T – Friend of Sarah and Todd) in the GOP primary and Murkowski had to run not as an independent but as a write-in candidate. And won.

  2. Who cares what’s wrong with Donald Trump? What’s wrong with us?

     On Thursday, we will be half a year through the Trump Era. And, contrary to his signature promise, America seems less great by the day. Nor are his other promises faring particularly well.

    But for all that Trump has not achieved, there is, I think, one thing he indisputably has. He has taught us to live in a state of perpetual chaos and continuous crisis. Six months later, the White House commands the same horrified attention as a car wreck or a house fire. 

    In that sense, last week’s revelation that the Trump campaign, in the person of Donald Trump Jr., did in fact collude with a hostile foreign power to influence the 2016 election was just another Tuesday. Sure, it might have been shocking from the Bush or Obama campaigns. But under Trump, we live in a state of routine calamity.

    Besides which, a few days from now, there will be something else. With Trump, there inevitably is. Things can always get worse — and usually do.

    And when they can do, we can count on the GOP, that inexhaustible fount of righteous outrage, to stand tall and courageously look the other way. For almost 20 years,the party has never seen a minor episode (“Travelgate”), a sheer nothing (Whitewater) or even an international tragedy (Benghazi) it could not turn into Watergate II. Yet, as credible accusations of treason, obstruction, collusion, and corruption swirl about this White House, the GOP has been conspicuous in its acquiescent silence. It seems the elephant has laryngitis.

    But the rest of us can’t stop talking.

    1. Not-fake (i.e., not-FOX) History 101: . . .

      Once upon a time, in the land we used to call “America”, . .

      . . . Republicans, calling themselves”patriots”, used to know how they would handle any Putin head-rearing . . .

        1. Whether down on Alaska's bucolic back porches, or high within the lofty urban New York grandeur of TwoScoops tower, our good friends the Russians are always happy to chat with the defenders of our liberty about how to make America great again!*

           

          (* Unless, of course, you happen to be a Democrat — in which case, what every FOXwatcher knows for a certainty, what they're doing is plotting together for the socialist overthrow of brave capitalist job creators and the pillage of fair maidens.)

                1. Far right wing conspiracy theories (“Clinton body bags”) are so hilarious. What is even funnier is watching & listening to all the people dumb enough to believe the B.S. All the while, Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin laugh all the way to the bank. P.T. Barnum indeed was right when he talked about a "sucker born every minute." 

                  1.  What is even funnier is watching & listening to all the people dumb enough to believe the B.S.

                    True enough but unfortunately, they were probably the winning margins in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

                     

                    1. FWIW, since we are talking about polls, recent ones in WI, MI, PA show enough erosion of those Trump margins that he likely would have lost all three states. As I've said before, Hillary's campaign staff allowed her to be "defined" by the far right and they had no effective counter.

          2. Spin this one, G-string (you'd be the smelly part of that accessory). 

            Republican donor kills himself after talking about working with Russian hackers to get Hillary Clinton's emails

            A GOP donor and opposition researcher who said he tried to work with Russian hackers to retrieve deleted emails from a private server used by Hillary Clinton, has died in a suicide, according to public records cited in a Chicago Tribune report.

            Smith gave his interview to The Journal 10 days before his death. He said he had assembled a group seeking to obtain emails Clinton deleted from the private server she used during her tenure as secretary of state. Smith implied that, when reaching out to several hacking groups, he was working with Flynn.

             

        2. Gerbils — I think you missed the ones that your fan club really cares about:  

          Where's the one where Hillary is meeting with Space Aliens in New Mexico plotting their takeover of the world.

          You're slipping… 

          Bill Catches Hillary With Space Alien! | Tennessee Valley TalksHillary Clinton Believes In Aliens, We’re Here For It | Milk

        3. You're a tiny, sad, desperate, pathetic excuse for a human being, CarnHolio.

          You're also a total douche bag and a POS, totally beneath contempt. You are the tragic poster boy for Deplorables everywhere.

        2. Clinton was very young when elected governor and president.  Now, he's 71 and a lot of the old people who mentored him when young are dead.  This is the heart of Carnholio, a vicious lying sociopath who lies just for the joy of lying, even if the truth might better serve his cause.  It's a bit unfair to compare him to Goebbels, unfair to Goebbels, that is, because while Geobbels was just as unprincipled, he was smarter and more calculating in his lies.

          Carnholio, like Trump, has only one redeeming virtue, his utter stupidity.  He wouldn't have lasted two days at West Point, where our motto Duty, Honor, Country is utterly foreign to him.

          2. V,

            Still holed up in the mountains with your guns afraid the Jews are going to take over our foreign policy?

            Has anyone tried to invade yet?

             

            1. I actually carried a gun for my country, Carnholio.  Something I am certain you didn't.  By the way, one of us received a major award from the anti-defamation league of b'nai  b'rith. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't you.

              You are a coward, a liar, and a person with no integrity or personal honor.  

              You are a waste of space on a small planet.

              And you stink. You really, really, stink!

              1. You carried a gun for your country.  Now you carry water for socialists.  

                You received an award from the ADL.  Now you write about the Jews taking over our foreign policy.

                Seems the trajectory of your life is in a downward spiral.

                  1. I have a 93yr old great-uncle who fought at the Battle of the Bulge and still lives on his Minnesota farm. A proud progressive who has more integrity and patriotism in his severely-arthritic pinkie finger than G-string has in his entire being. 

            2. Jeeez, Andy…..

              It's pretty bad when you're compared unfavorably to Herr Josef Goebbels.

              Even Moldy and Passionate Prune have been placed there.

          1. And you can bet there were no pilots among those bewitched, befuddled and woefully gullible believers.  Ground-huggers all who probably haven't ventured far from their homes to boot.

    4. From a well-established liberal black voice, Pitts' entreaties will fall on deaf ears in the "Fake News!" crowd.

      They might listen to Jennifer Rubin, who has been a strong conservative voice for years, but of course she can be easily dismissed because of her employer.

      Let me suggest the real problem is not the Trump family, but the GOP. To paraphrase Brooks, “It takes generations to hammer ethical considerations out of a [party’s] mind and to replace them entirely with the ruthless logic of winning and losing.” Again, to borrow from Brooks, beyond partisanship the GOP evidences “no attachment to any external moral truth or ethical code.”

      Let’s dispense with the “Democrats are just as bad” defense. First, I don’t much care; we collectively face a party in charge of virtually the entire federal government and the vast majority of statehouses and governorships. It’s that party’s inner moral rot that must concern us for now. Second, it’s simply not true, and saying so reveals the origin of the problem — a “woe is me” sense of victimhood that grossly exaggerates the opposition’s ills and in turn justifies its own egregious political judgments and rhetoric. If the GOP had not become unhinged about the Clintons, would it have rationalized Trump as the lesser of two evils? Only in the crazed bubble of right-wing hysteria does an ethically challenged, moderate Democrat become a threat to Western civilization and Trump the salvation of America.

      Indeed, for decades now, demonization — of gays, immigrants, Democrats, the media, feminists, etc. — has been the animating spirit behind much of the right. It has distorted its assessment of reality, giving us anti-immigrant hysteria, promulgating disrespect for the law (how many “respectable” conservatives suggested disregarding the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage?), elevating Fox News hosts’ blatantly false propaganda as the counterweight to liberal media bias and preventing serious policy debate. For seven years, the party vilified Obamacare without an accurate assessment of its faults and feasible alternative plans. “Obama bad” or “Clinton bad” became the only credo — leaving the party, as Brooks said of the Trump clan, with “no attachment to any external moral truth or ethical code” — and no coherent policies for governing.

       

      1. Thus Ms. Rubin has summed up are all of Gerbils' motivations and raison d' être for posting here.  

        He is merely the mouthpiece for what the GOP has become.  The party's moral rot is his sustenance and guiding light.

  3. And now, CarnHolio's despicable, pathetic, lie-filled attempts to divert everyone's attention notwithstanding, let's get back to the REAL business at hand — The treasonous trump criminal cabal's naked attempts to subvert the U.S. electoral process:

    1. "A  high-quality person"? That's damning with faint praise if I ever heard such. Of course, to The Yam that may be a lavish compliment.

  4. Joy Reid's show this morning:

    Go to Malcolm Nance's commentary at about 14:21 in.

    "The Trump people were the fish that jumped at that bait. ….this meets the standard of conspiracy. Because you don't have to rob a bank, to be in a conspiracy to rob a bank (my paraphrase)…"

     

    1. Genius:

      Robbing a bank is a crime.

      What is the crime that is the end of the alleged conspiracy.

      Care to cite a statute?

      Didn't think so.

        1. In the meantime, Trump is having to call in reinforcements on his legal team because his current staff are buckling under the pressure (sort of like Gerbils defending the steaming pile he's buried under):

           Ty Cobb, a veteran Washington lawyer, is joining President Trump’s legal team to coordinate the response to the expanding investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia’s election interference, reflecting a growing sense among West Wing officials that the president’s private lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, cannot handle the job alone.

          After a tumultuous week in the fast-moving inquiry, Jared Kushner’s top lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, also announced plans to remove herself from matters related to the Russia investigation that are engulfing her client, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and a West Wing adviser. She said she will continue to represent Mr. Kushner on other concerns.

          The hiring of Mr. Cobb, a partner at the white-collar firm Hogan Lovells and a former federal prosecutor, was welcomed by White House officials who have complained that they have been repeatedly blindsided by revelations not disclosed to them by the president and his family. The hiring was first reported by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a person with direct knowledge of the move.

          Ho, Hum.  Just another ordinary day in TrumpWorld 😉

          And the beat goes on with Robert Mueller’s deepening investigation…

          1. That moment Gerbils lost the National Review.  (I'm guessing he's of the opinion they're not real Republicans, but do enjoy this article).

            Trump, Russia, and the Misconduct of Public Men

            Look to the Constitution, not the statute books.

            The bickering over collusion “crimes” misses the point. If an unfit person holds the presidency, the danger to our society is that he will abuse the power that he wields. The imperative is to remove him from office. Whether, in addition to that, his misconduct also happens to violate penal statutes and be ripe for criminal prosecution is a side issue. It is a subordinate legal question, whereas fitness for the presidency is a core political issue. That is why it is rightly observed that impeachment is a political remedy, not a legal one. We are a good distance from being able to assess whether President Trump should be impeached. It is specious, though, to suggest that this is not a question worthy of exploration, or that its answer hinges on whether collusion with Russia amounts to a criminal-law violation.

            The conclusions to be drawn about the president, however, will have little or nothing to do with whether prosecutable crimes have been committed. The questions are those that arise from “the misconduct of public men”: abuse of trust and fitness for office.

             

            1. Once the GOP election casualties are counted up in 2018 with the prospect of even heavier damage in 2020, they'll cut their losses and impeach or 25th amendment Trump in a New York minute.  

              They'll probably even buy him a ticket to Russia so they don't have to hear from him again.

                2. After Carnholio psychopaths primary Republican moderates, the GOP  will likely lose seats in both the house and Senate and hundreds of legislative seats as well.  "Democrats are mass murderers" may work as a slogan for KlanbannonCarnholio psychopaths, but America isn't there yet.

                  1. Actually I have to agree here, in part, with Andrew. The odds of Dems losing Senate seats next year remains high as they have many more to defend than do the Repubs. While Pols readers are more sophisticated than the average Trump voter, the whole Russian issue, from what I'm reading, has yet to gain traction out in Trump Land. Combined with the $300-400 million in planned spending next year by the Koch brothers and their associates, Dems will have an uphill battle not to lose ground in the Senate, or to take control of the House. But, lots can happen between now, and, let's say, January.

                    1. Between Trump's abysmal polling numbers, and the growing realization of TrumpLand voters that they could lose their Medicaid coverage thanks to their local Congressman and/or Senator, the GOP is bending the curve in the direction of more reasonable insurgent challengers. (and yes, RWNJ primary challenges to GOP candidates that don’t support Trump will help increase GOP losses from the other direction)

                      I don't care if they are Independents, moderate Republicans or Progressive Democrats.  All should have a reasonable shot at turning out the bozos that want to throw their constituents to the wolves just because they aren't major campaign donors.

                      Here’s a great link making the point for me:
                      http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/16/trump-triggers-flood-of-democratic-candidates-240597

                      “All politics are local, especially in House races — and Democrats have been learning this in special elections,’’ Whalen said. “It’s not about having someone running against Donald Trump as it is having someone who’s the right local fit. You have to tailor the candidate to the district.”

                    2. I agree that average voters don't care about Russia.  But Trump and the Trump c​​​​​​time family a​​​​​​​​​​​re obsessed with it.  ​​​​that ensures they will accomplish nothing and fall even further in the polls.

      2. Here is the official complaint filed by Common Cause on Monday that cites the statutes:

        http://www.commoncause.org/policy-and-litigation/letters-to-government-officials/doj-fec-complaints-filed-against-trump-jr.pdf

        More detail about the charges here:

        http://www.newsweek.com/why-we-are-suing-donald-jr-and-trump-campaign-violating-electoral-law-636894

        Since this initial complaint, new information has come out, and Common Cause was joined by others in an updated complaint. I don't have the link to that handy at the moment.

        1. A Complaint to the FEC by Common cause.  Isn't that special?

          The Complaint alleges that the Trump campaign, which did not get any dirt from Russia on the Clinton Campaign, requested it.

          In fact the Clinton campaign requested and received dirt from Ukraine on Trump and, although it was the bogus stuff initially created by DNC operatives who hired a retired British intelligence officer, they were at least furnished with something.

          Accept it.  Trump won the election.  Acceptance is an early step in the healing process.

          1. Not just a complaint to the FEC (where the Republicans on the Commission habitually refuse to take action on complaints and thus deadlock the Commission), but also to the the Department of Justice, specifically Special Council Mueller, who will do a thorough investigation.

            Solicitation to commit a violation and conspiracy to commit a crime are violations in many circumstances even if the action was not completed. (Example: conspiracy or solicitation to commit a bank robbery even if the robbery did not take place. Or conspiracy for drug deals, or solicitation for drugs, even if the deal was not completed–a favorite of undercover police drug operations.)

            Also, Donald Jr.'s claim that no material was obtained is now in question, as new information showing Jr.'s "transparency" was not at all transparent comes out every day. It is yet to be seen where this will lead, but it is now in the proper hands with Mueller.

            1. More fake reporting from the National Review:

              There Is Now Evidence That Senior Trump Officials Attempted to Collude With Russia

              But to say that it (so far) appears that Donald Jr. didn’t break the law isn’t to defend his actions. To repeat, it now looks as if the senior campaign team of a major-party presidential candidate intended to meet with an official representative of a hostile foreign power to facilitate that foreign power’s attempt to influence an American election. Russian collusion claims are no longer the exclusive province of tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists. No American — Democrat or Republican — should defend the expressed intent of this meeting.

              Going further, at long last we can now put to bed the notion that the Russia investigation is little more than frivolous partisan harassment, and it casts in an entirely different light the president’s fury and frustration at its continued progress. 

              As of now, we should have zero confidence that we know all or even most material facts. We should have zero confidence that Trump’s frustration is entirely due to his feeling like an innocent man caught in the crosshairs of crazed conspiracy theorists. It now appears that his son, son-in-law, and campaign chair met with a lawyer who they were told was part of an official Russian government effort to impact the presidential election. The Russian investigation isn’t a witch hunt anymore, if it ever was. It’s a national necessity.

               

              1. Just when I think nothing good can come from the a US House controlled by the far right, news today that the recently passed defense spending bill contains a statement that climate change is a threat to national security. The Pentagon has known that for at least 15 years, but good for Ryan and McCarthy to finally arrive at the same conclusion.

                1. The military has been concerned about (and preparing for) climate change as a threat multiplier at least as far back as 2004 in the DOD Quadrennial Review. (I'll let our trolls do the math on who was in charge then).  The next year the Bush Supreme Court ruled CO2 a pollutant.  This, on the heels of Papa Bush instituting the very successful cap-and-trade program to curb acid rain.  Historically, from an environmental standpoint, we've fared pretty well under Republican administrations all the way back to Teddy R.  This crop of morans parading as Republicans is set to undo decades of progress. 

                   

                  1. I'm becoming more and more convinced that this crop of dunderheads aren't so much global warming deniers, but global warming believers . . . 

                    . . . who hope to make a bundle drilling the arctic after they get that pesky polar ice cap melted. They can't say that, so they scam their poor rubes and sycophants to keep their dream alive — fuck the planet, we'll make a bundle and sail our oligarch yachts around waterworld happily ever after!

                    1. Don't be surprised if the Koch Bros. have already bought up all the rights:

                      Arctic passage sea lanes.

                      Optimal September navigation routes for ice-strengthened (red) and common open-water (blue) ships traveling between Rotterdam, The Netherlands and St. John’s, Newfoundland in the years 2040-2059. Credit: Image courtesy Laurence C. Smith and Scott R. Stephenson. Click image to enlarge.

                      Rapidly melting sea ice in the Arctic due to global warming will open new shipping lanes that will speed transit between northern Asia, Europe, Canada and Alaska but unleash new safety, environmental and legal issues, according to scientists writing in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

                  2. Once G.W. Bush finally told Dick "Mr. Oil & Gas" Cheney to shut up, he did a couple things that were good. He signed an energy efficiency act in 2007, mandating transition to more efficient light bulbs, among other things. Two of the Texas US House clowns; Joe Barton and Louie Gohmert; never forgave G.W. for siding with the "communistic greens" on that one. G.W. also created what was then the largest national monument in the country, in the northern Hawaiian Islands.

                    1. He signed an energy efficiency act in 2007, mandating transition to more efficient light bulbs, among other things.

                      I remember that. And I also recall that former U.S. Rep Michelle Bachman (Nut Case-MN) introduced the Light Bulb Freedom bill which would have guaranteed everyone the inalienable right to buy and use wasteful light bulbs.

                      It went no where. Much like her.

      3. Trolling 101

        6 hours away, and people are still responding to your BS, AC. I have to give you points for persistence. Just to refresh our colletive memory:

        1. 4 months ago, the talking point was, "There is no Russian story – what about Benghazi? What about Clinton scandal ______?" You people are such sore losers.

        2. Then the talking point evolved to: "The Russian story is not important. Let's talk about Bernie's wife's college's business deals ten years ago. Scandalous!" By the way, you people have acceptance problems.

        3. Then it was "You're obsessed with Russian scandals because you are sore losers. Let's see if I can make you defend ____ Democratic female leader. OK –  Pelosi is really old! No? Maxine Waters' hair looks funny! Not enough response? Hillary Clinton is a murderous sow – look at all of these old people who have died since they began their political careers 40 years ago!"

        4. Then it was, "One crazed Dem tried to shoot Republicans at a baseball game! You're all terrorists! Prove that you're not terrorists! Dems are worse terrorists than any Russians!" And what’s the big deal about collusion? Everyone colludes. Dems are the worst colluders.

        5. Which brings us to today. Faced with pretty conclusive evidence of Trump family collusion with a foreign power, and conspiracy to influence elections, your battle cry now is: "Show me the statute numbers, Mofo!"

        Others have cited statutes on here.

        FEC campaign violations statutes. Impeachment articles for obstruction of justice and failure to defend the Constitution.

        Investigation by special prosecutor, as well as the FBI, and both houses of Congress. Seems to me the head of your party is in deep doo-doo. What shiny object would you like to dangle now?

         

  5. In non-impeachment news — GOP Senators having proven their willingness to practice medicine maliciously without a license, are now pretending to be insurance actuaries.  The insurance industry is not pleased:

    “Millions of more individuals will become uninsured,” the insurer organizations said, concluding that “we strongly oppose this provision.”

    The substance of the warnings was not new. Ever since Cruz began discussing his proposal, and especially since it became apparent that Senate GOP leaders intended to add it to their bill, a chorus of independent experts, industry officials and trade groups has criticized it and warned of its potential effects.

    Among those weighing in recently were the American Academy of Actuaries, who released a report Friday that even included illustrations to explain how insurance is supposed to work ― and what would happen if healthy and sick people gravitated to different sets of plans.

    AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ACTUARIES

    That report did not mention the Cruz proposal by name, but it made the same points ― stating, among other things, that, “in a market with separate risk pools for compliant and noncompliant coverage, costs would no longer be spread over the broad enrollee population.”

    But Friday night’s blast from the insurer groups is noteworthy because AHIP, in particular, has a relatively conservative outlook and tends to have close relationships with Republicans. Among health care groups weighing in on repeal proposals over the last few months, insurers have been among the more reserved ― generally offering a nuanced mix of support and criticism.

    That changed Friday, just in time for a weekend when a handful of holdout Republicans have said they will study the bill and consider how to vote on it. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have already said they oppose it ― and would not vote yes on a so-called motion to proceed, which is necessary to begin formal debate and, eventually, have a vote on the bill.

    If one more Republican joins them, GOP leaders won’t have the 50 votes necessary to pass the motion, thereby halting the process and quite possibly killing the bill.

    I hope this is the final nail in the coffin of the GOP "Repeal and Replace" fiasco

    1. My brother is an insurance broker.My sister-in-law (his wife’s) birthday party was last night and my brother is having kittens. This is going to screw (up) so many of his clients. He spent half the night checking news on his phone and railing about the idiot Republicans and their cockamamie scheme to upend an insurance system that would be fine if the threat of mischief from the aforementioned idiots wasn't spooking insurance companies into abandoning previously lucrative markets. 

    1. Remind us all again what are those crimes for which Hillary was indicted, tried, and convicted? One can't be "crooked" in the absence of evidence regardless of what paid entertainers like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin might say on their shows. Trump, on the other hand, with all his bankruptcies, lawsuits against him for failure to pay contractors, etc………….

    2. In the meantime, Gerbils, your mentally unstable, weak-minded, but totally self-absorbed man-child has his finger on the nuclear button, as he sells out America to the Russians.

      Just warms your cockles, doesn't it?

    3. Another pathetic attempt at diversion from terrified, desperate gop operative and two-bit wannabe character assassin CarnHolio, meant not only to draw attention away from his beloved "Deer Leeder" Comrade Covfefe Mussolini and the treasonous trump crime family, but also, if possible, to stoke the fires of animosity and mistrust between Hillary and Bernie supporters.

      You fail yet again, CarnHolio, you amoral squid.

       

    1. Mitch McConnell: "Curses — foiled again!"

      The Senate will "defer" consideration of its attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday night. The announcement follows Sen. John McCain's surgery that will keep him away from Washington next week. The bill has two GOP senators in opposition already and likely would have failed to advance with McCain's absence.

      1. I too wish McCain a complete recovery but you have to appreciate the irony….

        Two-Scoops waits with anticipation with pen in hand at the White House to sign his Repeal and Replace bill. But the man whom Two Scoops labeled a non-hero for getting caught just two years ago this weekend is holding up a vote on opening debate on the bill.

        To be certain of a complete recovery, McCain should spend the rest of the summer in Arizona. The rest of the Senate can take their full August fundraising recess. And McConnell can try to bring his bill to a vote this fall after they deal with raising the debt ceiling.

        1. Fortunately for McCain, he has good health insurance. And under the current Republican plan he and his fellow Congressional members will be able to keep it–unlike millions of their fellow Americans.

    1. Sorry about McCain's blood clot – but it does give McConnell some political cover for not producing results this week. The pressure is only going to get more intense. Keep those calls and emails coming, folks.

  10. The new poll numbers are in for Trump's job rating.  Folks out there are really catching on to the fact that he's not suited for the job:

    President Donald Trump has hit the lowest approval rating of any president during their first nearly-six months in office in 70 years, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

    Thirty-six percent of those surveyed approve of the president's job performance, which is six points down from his 100-day mark, while 58 percent disapprove of Trump's performance.

    Sixty percent think Russia tried to influence the 2016 presidential race and 67 percent believe Trump aides helped them.

    That pretty much just leaves our Three Stooges as true believers in the wonders of TrumpVille.

     

  12. The plot thickens ever-so-slightly: Twitler's private attorney, Jay Sekulow, has claimed that nothing "nefarious" could have possibly occurred at the Trump Tower meeting, and if it had, somehow it would have been the fault of the Secret Service for not keeping the bad Russians out. Just one problem with that theory: Don Jr. did not have any Secret Service protection then (neither did Jared Kushner or Paul Manafort). 

    Did Sekulow just let slip that Hair Drumpf himself was in the meeting?

    To quote G-string:  "Oops"

    U.S. Secret Service rejects suggestion it vetted Trump son's meeting

    In an emailed response to questions about Sekulow’s comments, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said the younger Trump was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the meeting, which included Trump’s son and two senior campaign officials.

    “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” the statement said.

    1. Take commentary from Jay Sekulow with a large grain of salt, considering his background as a toad, tool, and flunky within the religious right.

    1. America's ammosexuals needn't fret  any longer about their gun injuries . . . 

      . . . they will soon be well covered under TrumpskiCare!

        1. I used to have a bumper sticker on my Hoopty Honda that read, "My Other Car is a Broom."

          As someone who still uses pagan / neopagan ritual to focus energy and worship , I'll ask y'all please to knock off the witch-bashing. I no longer refer to myself as a “witch”, but others regularly use the word to describe people who worship as I do, in pre-Christian or earth-centered ways.

          Ann Coulter can more appropriately be described with a word that sounds like witch.

          I’ll cut everyone some slack in the political correctness department in the cause of showing Coulter for who she is.

          1. I hate the use of the word "bitch" as an insult because I have lived with real bitches and adore them.  My beloved dachshund Muffin was a real bitch.  Real bitches are loving, loyal, faithful and true and love to cuddle on a cold winter night.  Our bitch Penny is likewise a joy.  As to witches, if you seriously invoke supernatural forces, satanic or otherwise, you've left the halls of rational discourse and are free to mix it up with the baptism by immerson, snake handler or 6,000 year old earth crowds.  

            Y'all have a good time and wake me when I give a damn.

            1. Whatever, V. This is why I try not to engage with you. When you have a difference of opinion or viewpoint, you start slinging insults.  I've been called a dyke and a witch and a bitch often enough that it doesn't sting much, but feel free to sling away, if it makes you feel superior.

              I don't feel it's appropriate to explain what I believe and how I worship on this forum at length, but the short version is:

              All religions to some extent rely on bargaining and working with supernatural forces. All religions also have a moral code explaining how to behave. Most modern people have internalized the moral code, and disregard the supernatural forces stuff.

              For comparison, most Christian religions rely on a rite in which they symbolically drink the blood and eat the body of their "Savior". This is supposed to make them "clean" and forgiven of their sins, which are mostly sexual in nature.

              Devout Jews have strict rules for keeping kosher, most of which made practical sense when living in a desert with no refrigeration, but make less sense now.

              Devout Muslims must pray 5 times a day to keep Allah from destroying the world.

              In my faith, we believe that we are not separable from the earth itself, and use symbols and names for the four directions of the compass in invoking qualities that we want or need in our lives.  We name our Gods and Goddesses, which is not more nor less silly or unrealistic than the practices of the faiths I've mentioned above. 

              I also personally happen to be a Unitarian Universalist, which means that I think every approach to the divine, including a humanist secular one, is valid. We worship that way in my church.

              1. I have limited knowledge of religions, Jewish, Islam or Unitarian Universalist. Your statement about Christians demonstrates you have no knowledge about Christianity. You mention your Gods as more or less silly or unrealistic than the others. Why would you waste time or silliness? I knew there was a reason I had become bored with this site. I just had to respond so I can keep track of your lunatic beliefs, to show my friends what the thought pattern is of a modern day Democrat activist. 

                In your workshop to develop a one page message that will relate to the working people who voted for Trump, be sure to mention your faith in the four compass points. That will hook them.

                1. Why did you return, PP? Just what is your "mission" to the liberal heathens? Next time, just stay away. If you're bored, please believe that folks on here are equally bored with you. 

                  2. Well, I checked to see if you had responded to the challenge that you issued. But nothing…nothing and more nothing. Not totally unexpected. I would say it was situational ethics but then you would have to have ethics to apply.

                    My mission is to understand the faith of the 4 compass points. To find the limit on how much filth one human can write in a single setting. To identify the America haters, bigots and racist. To determine what lengths the KOOK left will go to lie about their agenda (how's the one page of bullet points going). To see devastation of mental illness played out in the Democratic Party.

                    It is interesting that not one of the PolCats will identify as a Christian. Maybe that's why there are only a dozen KOOKs on the site. They probably don't want a beat down from the inclusive MJ and Blowman and ColoradoPols.

                    1. Be patient, stalker boy.

                      I'll write a diary on "Trump 6 months on".

                      But here's a preview, without links:

                      The three attributes we agreed to report on were:

                      1. Terrorist attacks within the US (Did Trump keep us safe?)

                      2. Job losses or gains (how's the economy?)

                      3. Campaign promises kept

                      On terrorist attacks within the US, the short version is that we look real safe if one doesn't count attacks by US  citizens and white guys.

                      I can't find the work I did on that earlier, but IIRC, there have been 11 terrorist attacks in the US since 1/20/17, the definition of terrorism being a crime meant to intimidate or terrorize a civilian population to effect political change.

                      Of these 4 were from radical Islamists, and 7 were from Christians or unspecified religious affiliations. All were by males, and 7 were by white males. 9 of the terrorists were US citizens or lawful residents. 6 of the attackers were by right wing nuts inspired by Trump, attacking Muslims and people of color.

                      On the jobs front, Trump looks pretty good if you don't look closely at the job market for non-whites and youth. The unemployment rate is still at around 3-4% average most places – however, my take on it is that this is still pretty much the good economy Obama left us with after digging out from the GWBush crises. I'd like to take a deeper dive into this by looking at government jobs – I suspect that there may be significant job losses in the civilian service employee sector, as Trump's idea of "cleaning the swamp" has been to fire civil servants and break government.

                      Trump's campaign promises have mostly not been kept.

                      *He has lied about not cutting social security, Medicaid, or Medicare – the health bill guts Medicaid by a trillion over the next 10 years, and his budget slashes Medicare and social security. Seniors will take it in the wallet. You'll see a lot more elderly people in poverty if he gets his way.

                      *He lied about "draining the swamp" to eliminate the influence of Wall street. Everyone in his cabinet is either a Goldman Sachs alumnus or heavily in debt to Russian banks, and this includes members of his own family.

                      * He told the truth about nominating a conservative judge to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch will rule as Scalia did on most matters.

                      * He's not going to be helping veterans – his budget slashes funds for alternatives to the VA system, as well as funds for the existing VA system. It also slashes funds for food stamps, GI bill, and psychological help for veterans.

                      *He has not allocated any funds , nor started building, a wall on the sourthern border. Probably because it's an absurd waste of money since the sourthern border is already heavily policed and guarded, Congress is unlikely to fund this boondoggle, even if we build it out of coal, as Dio suggests.

                      * He did not repeal Obamacare. That project is dying on the vine.

                      *He did not implement a Muslim ban. The only provisions he has temporarily been able to put into force (for the next 90 days) are those which limit family members of citizens from the targeted 7 countries to weirdly defined parameters. Brother but not grandmother or grandchild, for example. Without connections from within those parameters , certain people can't pass the borders. This managed to keep out the Afghan female robotics team members – such a security risk.

                      * He promised that he'd be a hard working president, but has instead taken more days off than any modern president, mostly to golf.

                      *He promised to bring back coal mining jobs, and he hasn't.

                      *He promised to bring back "made in America" goods, and he hasn't. His own fortune and his family's rely on overseas property and foreign cheap labor to function.

                      *He promised to break the EPA and he has.

                      *He promised to "shake things up"in DC and he has.

                      *He has declared war on the news media and he has promoted that war.

                      He has not de-escalated foreign wars – Afghanistan has 5,000 more troops, Syria is a bombed-out hulk, North Korea is ready to nuke us over stupid tweets, relations with China are more tense, and the rest of the world has lost respect for the US because of our President . The onlu country with whom we have improved relations is Russia, because Russia owns the US presidency.

                      So that's the preview of "Trump at 6 months". I have a couple of diaries in front of this one in my queue, so you can do your usual responses that it's all a bunch of KOOK y crap. I have other things to do, so will not choose to debate you on it on this thread, anyway.

                    2. OH, OUCH! I'm a practicing Catholic, Pear (the Pope Francis kind).  But you knew that.  In most #ProsperityJesus circles being 'Catholic' doesn't count as being 'Christian' – and that makes me quite happy. I'm not interested in their kind of ‘gospel’

                    3. They ought to put you in charge of your church, michael.  After all, "practice makes prefect" smiley

                    5. In order to refer to ones self as a "Christian" it is necessary, in many established circles, to become a member of a "Christian" church. Why? Because only someone "ordained" by that church is allowed to interpret the bible and tend to your soul.

                      I didn't need anyone to interpret the words attributed to Jesus. I was baptized as an adult, by a friend who is ordained. I will always qualify my identity as a follower of his teachings…not by a label that says I must embrace the leaders of your chuch.  I am not a "Christian", like you.

                      For that to matter at all to you, says more about you than anything else.

                2. Because this is how #ProsperityJesus rolls: we tif the shit out of these for-profit projects masquerading as 'religion' because that old 'give unto Ceasar' thing is soooo yesterday. 

                  Could a $10 sale mean no more taxes for Noah’s Ark theme park?

                  'Ark Encounter officials worked out a series of incentives with state and local officials, including a controversial sales tax rebate under the state’s Tourism Development Incentive Program that could return as much as $18 million over 10 years to Ark Encounter. The state also pledged about $2.4 million to improve the Interstate 75 interchange near the Ark.
                  In addition, the city and county created a tax increment financing district for Ark Encounter. The deal means Ark Encounter gets back 75 percent of the increase in property taxes within the TIF district, encompassed by the Ark’s 800 acres, for 30 years. The property started with an assessment of $1.3 million in 2011.
                  On June 29, Williamstown City Attorney Jeffrey Shipp sent a letter to the Biblical amusement park Ark Encounter, rejecting their request to be exempted from a new safety tax because they are a religious organization.
                  Shipp said it was clear that Ark Encounter is a for-profit entity, which is how it has been listed with the Secretary of State’s office since 2011.'

                   

                3. Then you have to contend with that crazy old Uncle Pat thing. Any old KOOK that thinks they saw the pussy grabber sitting at the right hand of the Lord needs to be fitted with  something resembling a jacket.  

                  Robertson Said He Had Vision of Trump Seated ‘At the Right Hand of the Lord’

                  “God came to me in a dream last night and showed me the future,” said Robertson. “He took me to heaven and I saw Donald Trump seated at the right hand of our Lord.”

              2. If all approaches to religion are equally valid, then it follows that all are equally invalid.

                To me, wiccans and snakehandlers are very much equal.  But calling you a bitc h is probably a compliment you don't deserve.  Calling you a witch may be inaccurate but apparently at one time had some validity.  Calling you a dyke is just wrong.  I'd call you a friend but you'd probably sue.

                So, sue me anyway.

                1. Fine. I'll sue ya, buddy. And you still owe me something ridiculously alcoholic. I'll drink about 3 ounces and get a nice buzz off it.

                  It's good to be a cheap drunk.

            1. Loved that show. Tried to make my nose tweak like that, but no deal. Her mother, played by Agnes Moorehead, was badass, too.

              Also enjoyed "I Dream of Jeanie". That crossed-arms bloop-bloop! pout thing didn't work for me, either.

      1. Here's a reliable source that claims she and Satan have a different kind of relationship.

         

         

        p.s. Coulter really did say that the 9/11 widows that wanted to keep their health benefits were "enjoying their husband's deaths."

  16. In the "Tell Us Something We Didn't Already Know" department:

    The John Birch Society Is Back

    Bircher ideas, once on the fringe, are increasingly commonplace in today’s GOP and espoused by friends in high places. And the group is ready to make the most of it.

    By JOHN SAVAGE 

    July 16, 2017

    In that quest, they have common cause with powerful allies in Texas, including Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Louie Gohmert and a smattering of local officials. Recently at the state level, legislators have authored Bircher-esque bills that have made it further through the lawmaking process than many thought possible in Texas, even just a few years ago—though these are less the cause of the John Birch Society’s influence than an indication of the rise of its particular strain of politics. These include bills that would forbid any government entity from participating in “Agenda 21,” a UN sustainable development effort which JBS pamphlets describe as central to the “UN’s plan to establish control over all human activity”; prevent the theoretical sale of the Alamo to foreigners (since 1885 the state has owned the former mission, Texas’ most visited historic landmark, where the most famous battle of the Texas Revolution occurred); and repeal the Texas DREAM Act, which allows undocumented students who graduate from Texas high schools to pay in-state tuition at public colleges. And last month, Governor Greg Abbott signed the “American Laws for American Courts” Act into law, guarding against what the society has called “Sharia-creep” by prohibiting the use of Islamic Sharia law in Texas’ court system.

    This is what the 21st-century John Birch Society looks like. Gone is the organization’s past obsession with ending the supposed communist plot to achieve mind-control through water fluoridation. What remains is a hodgepodge of isolationist, religious and right-wing goals that vary from concrete to abstract, from legitimate to conspiracy minded—goals that don’t look so different from the ideology coming out of the White House. It wants to pull the United States out of NAFTA (which it sees as the slippery slope that will lead us to a single-government North American Union), return America to what they call its Christian foundations, defundthe UN, abolish the departments of education and energy, and slash the federal government drastically. The John Birch Society once fulminated on the idea of Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government; now, it wants to stop the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling and possible collusion with the campaign of President Donald Trump.

    The article does provide some history of the organization and how William Buckley tried to banish them from the GOP.  

    FYI — Charles and David Koch's father was one of the co-founders which probably isn't news to most on this site.

  17. Davie, this reads like the Republican Party platform.If the majority of them are buying into this mess it's no wonder they can't find their collective ass with both hands and a GPS.

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