American Politics thread: No Nazis Allowed

onemoment

This pick makes no sense to me.
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/05/508417418/trump-picks-ex-senator-banned-from-russia-as-his-intelligence-chief?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20170105

Not even in the same vein of of like picking guys to head environmental departments where it's obvious corruption.

I'm right there with you. The only thing that makes sense is that this guy is a conservative, which seems to be just the way this cabinet is leaning.

The cynic in me is assuming this is revenge for Trump, and he just hired some random guy to head this department. There's nothing special about this guy, he has no experience, and for all I know might not even have any interest in this department.

MetaMario

@Robby:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mitch-mcconnell-merrick-garland-supreme-court_us_586d6720e4b0c4be0af2bd3a

Mitch McConnell Says Americans Won’t Tolerate Democrats Blocking Supreme Court Nominations

Go ahead, Mitch, answer his question for me.
Garrland didn't become the Supreme Court justice because _______?

Kaiolino

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Trump fires every ambassador in the world.

loneassassin

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/border-wall-house-republicans-donald-trump-taxpayers/index.html

I wonder how all the idiots who voted for Trump will feel about this one

Serra Britt

Not really sure what people expect this wall to do. Be a symbol, I guess? A symbol of what, I don't know.

Cyclone_Baroness

@Kaiolino:

[qimg]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1cQruIUkAEtT5Q.jpg:large[/qimg]

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Trump fires every ambassador in the world.

Terrible. Yeah wtf. Melania gets to stay in New York cause of her kid. Trump is the worst type of "human."

@loneassassin:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/border-wall-house-republicans-donald-trump-taxpayers/index.html

I wonder how all the idiots who voted for Trump will feel about this one

That proposal is completely stupid in the first place. I can't imagine the wall even been done before he left office even if he managed a 2nd term.

Monkey King

@Green_vs_Red:

Eventhough Republicans have spent the last 8 years complaining about Obamacare and how they're going to repeal it, I don't think they'll actually do it

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/trump-voters-dont-think-smart-businessman-like-trump-will-really-enact-gops-health-care-plans/

This is my hope in many respects for the Trump years ahead. That lots of things the Republicans want to turn back or destroy are cats out of bags. Things that can't really or easily be reversed. Things that have become complicated and embedded in society both literally and in people's minds, things that will be a headache to get rid of.
They may wise up and try a more gradual dismantling, but then again a more gradual dismantling makes things more likely to make it four years without being totally destroyed.

Its easy to be a conservative when stopping things. Its much less easy to be a conservative and undo things. Ironically because even some of the conservative population will through their own conservatism be resistant to well…change lol.

Robby

If Mexico refuses to pay for the wall, the GOP could add billions of dollars into the spending bill that needs to pass by April 28 to keep the government open. But doing so would force a showdown with Senate Democrats and potentially threaten a government shutdown.

His supporters really, honestly believed that he'd somehow get Mexico to pay the billions and billion of dollars and years of effort needed for a wall?

They deserve the government shutdown.

And the loss of their healthcare and rising insurance rates.

And the loss of their jobs.

Ironically, its blue states like California and New York that will be least affected by all this since they're self sustained and pay for all their programs and and don't need handouts.

It is a shame the innocent get screwed by all this though.

Nobodyman

@loneassassin:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/border-wall-house-republicans-donald-trump-taxpayers/index.html

I wonder how all the idiots who voted for Trump will feel about this one

Live footage of Trump trying to get the wall built

MetaMario

Robby

http://shareblue.com/house-gop-appallingly-votes-to-conceal-cost-of-obamacare-repeal-to-taxpayers/

House GOP appallingly votes to conceal cost of Obamacare repeal to taxpayers

A line sneakily inserted into the new House rules package exempts the Congressional Budget Office from doing a standard 10-year cost analysis on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, thus seeking to conceal the cost to taxpayers of taking away their health insurance.

Outerspec

U.S. Intel is now blatantly saying Putin was directly involved with the cyber campaign which disrupted and influenced the election.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-intel-report-says-putin-directed-cyber-campaign-211116712.html

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@Robby:

http://shareblue.com/house-gop-appallingly-votes-to-conceal-cost-of-obamacare-repeal-to-taxpayers/

House GOP appallingly votes to conceal cost of Obamacare repeal to taxpayers

A line sneakily inserted into the new House rules package exempts the Congressional Budget Office from doing a standard 10-year cost analysis on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, thus seeking to conceal the cost to taxpayers of taking away their health insurance.

And on top of that there's this.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/1-trillion-medical-bill-obamacare-203627658.html

If Obamacare is even partially repealed the cost of care would spike greatly. Estimates based off of last year's repeal plan put it at 1.7 trillion dollar increase over a decade which is 1.1 trillion dollars higher than if Obamacare was simply left alone. Now, if they instead focused on improving the ACA like tackling rising premium costs instead of replacing it with something desperate to erase Obama's signature policy then they wouldn't have this problem.

Green_vs_Red

And Wikileaks is once again stirring shit, while accusing the government of doing the same.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/you-guys-are-a-fckin-joke-the-internet-rips-wikileaks-for-whining-about-leaked-report-on-russian-hacks

Kaiolino

GOP aims to rein in liberal cities.

I thought the GOP hated federal overreach and tyrannical government.

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This headline is not an Onion article.

Cyan D. Funk

This just in: Hacker collective not actually concerned with the well-being of other people, cares more about making western governments look bad, more at 11.

Ubiq

@Cyan:

This just in: Hacker collective not actually concerned with the well-being of other people, cares more about making western governments look bad, more at 11.

That's not being entirely fair; they also have a focus on trying to intimidate their critics and their supporters into silence.

Monkey King

Assange you can only still have your unearned rebel cred to idiots when its a foreign government you service.
When you start serving the US president how full of shit you are is going to be apparent to a lot of people who still take you seriously.

Cyclone_Baroness

One last message from Luther. Obama's anger translator.

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/videos/key-peele-salute-obama-with-final-anger-translator-skit-w459345

Robby

DemonX

@Robby:

https://scontent.fykz1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15873144_1379161655510218_5255354414436165801_n.jpg?oh=f20149de1c117d9626dfb51b2de5ac5c&oe=58E032AA

And you know what? People are still going to buy it and Democrats are still going to be the ones to be fucked. Heh.

And also, where are the 3 million job losses coming from? Haven't heard about that before.

Robby

@DemonX:

And you know what? People are still going to buy it and Democrats are still going to be the ones to be fucked. Heh.

And also, where are the 3 million job losses coming from? Haven't heard about that before.

Insurance companies and businesses are going to be fucked by losing obamacare too.

Cyan D. Funk

The insurance industry has been losing its shit since November. They've adapted to the ACA and depend on it.

DemonX

Shouldn't they be lobbying hard in Congress right about now then? :D

Panda Bear

@DemonX:

Shouldn't they be lobbying hard in Congress right about now then? :D

They are.

I saw some article (apologies, don't have the link handy) where some Republican in Congress was quoted as saying, paraphrased "Well what do they know? I don't care what their opinion is if they like Obamacare."

Cyan D. Funk

@DemonX:

Shouldn't they be lobbying hard in Congress right about now then? :D

You assume a) that they aren't and b) that any amount of lobbying will dissuade Republicans from spitting on Obama.

DemonX

@Cyan:

You assume a) that they aren't and b) that any amount of lobbying will dissuade Republicans from spitting on Obama.

I actually had in mind that the Republicans are closer to the industry/economy and it didn't really compute that they'd screw them over. But Obama.

Robby

1. American intelligence agencies have confirmed that Vladimir Putin ordered Russia to intervene in the 2016 presidential election on the side of Donald Trump.

2. Trump refuses to acknowledge this.

3. Over the years, Russian oligarchs, friends of Putin, have financed Trump’s projects and lent billions of dollars to Trump’s enterprises. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr., told a real estate conference “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” and continued, “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

4. The financial ties don’t end there. Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014, has done multi-million-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs. Also: Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, came up through the ranks at Exxon by managing the company’s Russia account. After becoming CEO, Exxon bet billions on Russia’s vast oil resources through a partnership with Russian oil giant Rosneft, owned partly by the Kremlin. Putin himself attended the 2011 signing ceremony for the deal. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, one of the highest honors Russia gives to foreign citizens.

Cyclone_Baroness

@Robby:

1. American intelligence agencies have confirmed that Vladimir Putin ordered Russia to intervene in the 2016 presidential election on the side of Donald Trump.

2. Trump refuses to acknowledge this.

3. Over the years, Russian oligarchs, friends of Putin, have financed Trump’s projects and lent billions of dollars to Trump’s enterprises. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr., told a real estate conference “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” and continued, “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

4. The financial ties don’t end there. Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014, has done multi-million-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs. Also: Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, came up through the ranks at Exxon by managing the company’s Russia account. After becoming CEO, Exxon bet billions on Russia’s vast oil resources through a partnership with Russian oil giant Rosneft, owned partly by the Kremlin. Putin himself attended the 2011 signing ceremony for the deal. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, one of the highest honors Russia gives to foreign citizens.

This is all….just so ridiculous. I feel like these last couple months can't possibly be real.

But I'm more weirded out that you have a non husky related avatar.

Green_vs_Red

@Robby:

1. American intelligence agencies have confirmed that Vladimir Putin ordered Russia to intervene in the 2016 presidential election on the side of Donald Trump.

2. Trump refuses to acknowledge this.

3. Over the years, Russian oligarchs, friends of Putin, have financed Trump’s projects and lent billions of dollars to Trump’s enterprises. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr., told a real estate conference “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” and continued, “we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

4. The financial ties don’t end there. Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014, has done multi-million-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs. Also: Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, came up through the ranks at Exxon by managing the company’s Russia account. After becoming CEO, Exxon bet billions on Russia’s vast oil resources through a partnership with Russian oil giant Rosneft, owned partly by the Kremlin. Putin himself attended the 2011 signing ceremony for the deal. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, one of the highest honors Russia gives to foreign citizens.

\

You forgot the part where he continues praising Russia, Lied about never having met Putin, & keeps deflecting by blaming other people for the hacks even the DNC itself.

Monkey King

If anyone was wondering, to some extent this isn't unique. The "populist" far-right in Europe, plus the asshole in the Philippines, all have a Putin fetish as well. And yes Russia supports their political groups.

Ubiq

What is that anyway? Schmendrick from The Last Unicorn?

Anyway, expect to see a lot of slap-fighting over the next few years in the Republican Party over this. The old line GOP really hates Russia while the younger ones are outright enamored with Putin's authoritarianism.

Kaiolino

"Propaganda wing of American government tries to destablilize allied European democracy"

is what that headline might as well be called in 2 weeks.

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@Monkey:

If anyone was wondering, to some extent this isn't unique. The "populist" far-right in Europe, plus the asshole in the Philippines, all have a Putin fetish as well. And yes Russia supports their political groups.

It's always fun to see Great Geert suck up to Putin as a strong leader who takes no shit from agrressive EU while at the same time insist he's a criminal who's only getting away with mass-murder because of… passive and weak EU.

wolfwood

Those dickbags who think it's funny to launch fireworks into crowds or houses really need to be put in a sack and beaten.

But the thousand man mob lighting a church on fire with fireworks headline is just hilarious.

It's not even beliable as an exageration of the actual events. Kind of sloopy work on that piece of propaganda i'd say.

Bugs

Clashes between defense nominee Mattis and the Trump transition (and specifically, it seems likely, Flynn) over posts in the Pentagon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/06/mattis-clashing-with-trump-transition-team-over-pentagon-staffing/?utm_term=.4911ab949147

Also, the Trump team is giving the Ethics Office the finger.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/u-s-ethics-office-struggled-gain-access-trump-team-emails-n704146

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http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/07/politics/donald-trump-chuck-schumer/index.html?sr=twpol010717donald-trump-chuck-schumer0702PMVODtopLink&linkId=33127535

Sakonosolo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-maga-cap_us_5870d860e4b099cdb0fd66ad

Don't think the translation is right but the concept is pretty funny.

Monkey King

@Kaiolino:

"Propaganda wing of American government tries to destablilize allied European democracy"

is what that headline might as well be called in 2 weeks.

"“around the flag of al-Qaida and Islamic State collaborators the Free Syrian Army."

I guess Breitbart is also getting paid by Russia now if for no readily apparent reason they're randomly throwing in total bullshit about the FSA.
RARG RARG RARG SCARY MUSLIM SAVAGES RARG RARG RARG, also the Syrian opposition is in bed with ISIS, so totally deserving endless Russian bombs and stuff.

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@wolfwood:

It's not even beliable as an exageration of the actual events. Kind of sloopy work on that piece of propaganda i'd say.

I don't think you're on the same planet as the rest of us recently.

wolfwood

@Monkey:

I don't think you're on the same planet as the rest of us recently.

Could very well be true. I haven't really been looking up from my work lately.

Robby

Uhm, nice Nazi iconography you got there.

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Yes, this is real.

SmokerSan

What's with these "Presidents" governing through their twitter accounts? It is really annoying.

Cyclone_Baroness

@SmokerSan:

What's with these "Presidents" governing through their twitter accounts? It is really annoying.

I'm okay with presidents of foreign countries calling out Trump on it. It's his favorite source and we know he'll see it an embarrass himself further trying to reply.

He also asked if Trimp was even a legitimate president lol. http://slate.me/2i37KOQ

Robby

@SmokerSan:

What's with these "Presidents" governing through their twitter accounts? It is really annoying.

Wel its the only way to get a message to Trump apparently.

Kaiolino

^ Bad newspaper

Monkey King

I appreciate Jeff Sessions for bringing the ugliest face of the south to the stage, while the ugliest face of the northeast is currently the new power.

Robby

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/brody_levesque/republicans_in_congress_set_value_of_all_public_lands_and_buildings_to_0_for_easy_sell_off_at_taxpayers_expense

republicans in congress set value of all public lands and buildings to 0 for easy sell off at taxpayers expense

All Democrats in the House voted against the measure, while only three Republicans joined them in opposing it, USA TODAY reports. The Wilderness Society said "this move paves the way for a wholesale giveaway of our American hunting, fishing and camping lands that belong to us all. Make no mistake, the giveaway is for the benefit of the drilling and mining interests that have a lock-grip on Congress and the rest of Washington."

Since the House is required to account for any cost associated with any legislation it considers under Congressional Budget Office accounting rules and guidelines, legislation put forward now shall skip several steps in the normal legislative process, coming up for a vote without any discussion of the costs and benefits. This means that the House does not need to render an assessment or cost analysis of estimated financial losses resulting in legislation giving away public lands or buildings.

For example, the national parks like Yosemite - even federal buildings and facilities in Washington like the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover headquarters building, could all be given away without consideration of the cost to American taxpayers.”

“The House Republican plan to give away America’s public lands for free is outrageous and absurd. This proposed rule change would make it easier to implement this plan by allowing the Congress to give away every single piece of property we own, for free, and pretend we have lost nothing of any value. Not only is this fiscally irresponsible, but it is also a flagrant attack on places and resources valued and beloved by the American people,” Grijalva said.

Geezus, I'm pracitcally just copying the whole article at this point. This is yet another bit of terrifying Republican awful.

But in the case of Rep. Bishop, he has waged an incessant campaign to divest federal ownership of Western lands, in particular urging President-elect Donald Trump to abolish national monuments designated by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton. More than 270 million acres of American land and waters are potentially at risk—an area two and a half times the size of California.

This latest maneuver by Bishop with the House rules change was met with sharp criticism from conservation and watchdog groups. One group told NCRM that the impetus for Bishop's zeal to unload federal property could be traced to his contributors.

Green_vs_Red

@wolfwood:

Could very well be true. I haven't really been looking up from my work lately.

Sloopy form Wolfy, you gotta take it easy.

@SmokerSan:

What's with these "Presidents" governing through their twitter accounts? It is really annoying.

If it's any consolation Vicente Fox isn't the current president of Mexico.

Kaiolino

^ Guy who has been in politics longer than Hillary Clinton

Cyan D. Funk

@Kaiolino:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1rok9NXAAUx2JE.jpg

^ Guy who has been in politics longer than Hillary Clinton

The actual article (or at least this piece that Scott Lemieux dug up, because fuck going to the NYT site) is fucking gold:

Mr. Sessions is in many ways Mr. Trump’s antithesis: reedy-voiced, diminutive and mild-mannered, a devout Methodist and an Eagle Scout who will soon celebrate a golden wedding anniversary with his college sweetheart. His father ran a country store in the Deep South. And he is widely regarded as rigidly honest and inflexible on issues he considers matters of principle. Mr. Trump has meandered across the political spectrum; Mr. Sessions has been a deeply conservative Republican his entire life.

Matters of principle, like black people voting.

wolfwood

@Green_vs_Red:

Sloopy form Wolfy, you gotta take it easy.

I wish i could. The new head chef is keeping me on edge.

Monkey King

Scandinavia is super ripe for the great global Dumb to infest it. I wouldn't think you'll be insulated from this for long.

wolfwood

@Monkey:

Scandinavia is super ripe for the great global Dumb to infest it. I wouldn't think you'll be insulated from this for long.

Oddly enough it feels like Denmark might be the least susceptible to that swing. Their decade long pass-time of playing lion tamer with their dumb seems to have robbed them of that "Us common folk against the elite" momentum. Hard to play up that angle when your dumb party has been a deciding factor for several terms.