Donald Trump Presidency-Day One

[buttslinger]

I would say that article sums it up pretty well, it happened right after Flynn was given a sweetheart deal by Mueller. (hmmmmm) James Carville said in the nineties "It's the economy, stupid"...now he says "It's all polarity"
I think both sides hire guys from Madison Ave to sell their PRODUCT, if all the men in the army obey the General, you will win, at least for a while. I think we're at the Dunkirk stage, or Stalingrad, Fox News is ordering it's soldiers to fight to the last man.
Part of the Tax Bill might take away home interest deductions which will hit Democratic states like New York and California more than Georgia or Alabama, or did they drop that? Everything Republicans do is aimed at cutting taxes, that not only saves corporations money on the back side, more money pours in on the CONSUMER front, because the schmucks have more money to blow.
By kicking out Franken, Democrats want to highlight that it's REPUBLICANS who reward sleezoid behavior. If you drop all Business regulation and slash taxes in half, the economy will thrive, but only until there's not enough taxes to pay armymen, teachers, and cops, not to mention creditors. Dems are looking at the long game, Republicans are looking at get rich quick schemes. Because Democrats are on the outside right now. RNC is IN.
Hannity earns millions of dollars. I cannot really understand that, at all.
It's baffling
My hope is that Mueller makes Trump not only lose his money, take his liberty too.

[sukumvit boy]

The Trump presidency is putting the Con back in the constitution and the Dumb back in freedom.

[buttslinger]

I heard David Axelrod talking this morning about how President Obama spent all day swimming through paperwork, getting tough decisions made, looking ahead, leaving the office every day with an armful of folders to get a jump on the next day. This was just after a report that Trump watches TV for four to eight hours a day. Bush played video games. It sounds like Clinton and Obama did the sowing, and Bush and Trump do the reaping. Is this the pattern now?

I also heard a rumor somewhere that Mueller has the goods on A WHOLE LOT of PEOPLE.

Will Trump get his middle class tax break?
Will Alabamians pray to a golden goat next tuesday?
Will Biblical prophesies come true in Jerusalem????
Orwell (sic) Rocket Man beat them to it???
Stay tuned, unless you're Vladimir Putin, nobody knows!!
Owoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[filghy2]

I think the question now is whether this is a desperate attempt by people with something to lose to blame the system rather then themselves, or whether by tapping into a degree of public mistrust of Federal institutions the long term impact could be a more general loss of trust in those institutions and by extension the democratic system of which they are a part. It is one thing for Bannon and his associates to smash the duopoly of American party politics, but the danger is that they could be smashing everything, or at least causing it severe damage. What happens if half of America simply doesn't care that their President is a liar and a con-man who willingly accepted the help of a foreign government to win the highest office in the land? And what happens to those who do care?

I don't think it's half the population; more like 30-40%, but the key point is that it's a majority of the Republican party. Trump's entire strategy for staying in office is to do whatever he can to appeal to these people and hence intimidate any Republican members of Congress who may still have a conscience from doing anything meaningful.

I doubt that the Trumpistas really care about the future consequences for democracy and the rule of law because they don't really believe in these things. Sure they pay lip service to them, but their ideal system would be one in which their side is always in power and the law is just a tool to be used against their opponents. That's why they admire Putin - he is their role model.

[Stavros]

I don't think it's half the population; more like 30-40%, but the key point is that it's a majority of the Republican party. Trump's entire strategy for staying in office is to do whatever he can to appeal to these people and hence intimidate any Republican members of Congress who may still have a conscience from doing anything meaningful.
I doubt that the Trumpistas really care about the future consequences for democracy and the rule of law because they don't really believe in these things. Sure they pay lip service to them, but their ideal system would be one in which their side is always in power and the law is just a tool to be used against their opponents. That's why they admire Putin - he is their role model.

On the one hand it is easy to feel depressed about the changes taking place in the US, particularly in the judiciary which is being transformed into a haven for men -and it is mostly white men- some of whom have little or no experience of the law but are members of the Federalist Society and this fit the ideological requirements of the Republican Party.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...r-court-system

I wonder if these people believe they are the 'last Americans' and realise that over time, in say 25 years 'white Americans' of European ancestry will be a minority. The best way to combat this is first to prevent the Americans they don't like -Black and Latino in particular- from voting, either through voter suppression at the registration stage, through denial of voting on the day of the poll, and the refusal to allow anyone with a criminal record to vote as happens in many if not all states- Alabama has actually reversed this law but not publicised it. What we don't know is precisely how many Americans have been denied the vote, with the assumption that in a close race it would make the difference between someone like Moore winning or losing. But as you say, politicians in Alabama don't even hide their contempt for democracy as a system that should bring all Americans together to vote, they just can't accept that Black people should have equal rights.

On the other hand, in time this may change as society changes and a new generation of voters enters the fray, but in the meantime many of the gains made in the 1960s on civil rights remain the most potent targets of the religious conservatives with LGBTQ rights, abortion and in time, welfare the primary targets, and in this they will to some extent be protected by the new generation of judges some of whom are only in their 30s. In ideological terms, it seems odd that the US would in its social legislation appear to moving closer to Afghanistan than most Afghans would believe possible. It is as if the gun-totin', women-and-homo hating, Quran/Bible bashing Taliban, undefeated in 21 years, now has a presence in the US, where it will remain in its tribal areas of the South for some time to come.

[Stavros]

It was a narrow victory, but a victory nevertheless. The stats show a solid 30-35% of white people mostly men for Moore, with a perhaps encouraging majority of young people voting Jones, though as I write I am not sure if Roy Moore, who claims God is still in control, will get a recount.

Will this further deepen the rifts in the Republican Party? It appears to be another blow to Steve Bannon. The Chief of Strategy who, it turned out, didn't have one, left the White House months into the job claiming 'it's over' and attempted to 're-boot' the Republican Party by attacking it from within, always a risk. He lost. His organ has yet to produce a coherent explanation unless it comes up with a claim that thousands of illegal voters crossed the state line, or take a hint from Roy Moore and claim that when Satan gets serious, he makes himself invisible -and impersonates Alabama voters. This is a man who, when asked when America was great replied
"I think it was great at the time when families were united – even though we had slavery – they cared for one another,” he said. “Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”
-having lamented on radio in 2011 the abolition of slavery and the granting of votes to women and Black people.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...party-trumpism

18 sitting Republican Senators will not run in 2018. Some who are may be wondering what they can do hang on to their seat. Moore was an exceptionally poor candidate -and I even wonder if riding what often seemed like reluctant horse was a factor- but we have yet to get the full Monty on this from the President, who tweeted a typically sour congratulations to Doug Jones, but has yet to admit any role in the defeat and may be looking around for someone else to blame, because whatever happens, it is not, it is never, and it never will be his fault.

Hear me talkin' to ya
I don't bite my tongue...

[trish]

The important thing is that Trump was right. It’s the most important thing - in Trump’s failing mind anyway:

“The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! ...”

The margin was close (about 1.5%) but not enough to trigger an automatic recount (the threshold is 0.5%). Still Doug Jones is not likely to take office before the GOP pushes through their tax bill.

To delay even further the day that Jones is seated, Moore could ask for recount. Delay would be the only point of such a request as there is no chance (barring malfeasance) a recount would change the outcome of the election. The last time I looked Jones was ahead by approximately nineteen-thousand votes. The last recount in Alabama occurred when the difference was just several hundred votes and the recount changed that difference by only three votes.

Moreover, since a recount is not triggered, Moore would have to pay for it. I think the question is, “Does the GOP want to pay for a recount that will just confirm last night’s result in order to delay Doug Jones being sworn into office?”

[bluesoul]

anyone else find the timing impeccable that the night african american women turned out in record numbers to vote in doug jones, omarosa, the highest ranking african american woman in the white house, was fired and escorted out of the white house?

also, it's frightening to think that alabama saw the choice between a democrat and a pedophile as a tough choice

[buttslinger]

ha ha ha
I heard Omarosa was cussing out Gen Kelly and demanding to see the President, and he refused so she tried to sneak into to the White House Residence section and was escorted out by Secret Service. Apparently her job description as "token black woman" wasn't fulfilled enough. Oprah? Condi? nope....

As much as I would have liked to have seen Senate Republicans in the same photos with Senator Roy "Prevert" Moore, I'm glad the Dems brought another one over Home Plate, I hope after we're done with Trump Charles Barkley will be able to get elected, if Trump has taught us anything, it's that you can't wait for it to be given to you, you have to go out and get it.
Rule #ONE: you've got to pull it off.
I guess Donald will be pulling one off later this week with his new tax bill to the poor and middle class.
ha ha ha

[buttslinger]

I saw on Rachel Maddow show that if tuesday night hand been an Alabama House of Representatives election, and the same people voted either democratic or republican, because of gerrymandering, you would have gotten 6 republicans, and one democrat.