US Politics November 2017

The proposal repeals an itemized deduction for medical expenses, a crucial provision to households with extraordinary health-care costs. It also repeals the tax credit for adoption and the deduction for student-loan interest.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/11/republicans-double-down-on-screwing-blue-states-in-tax-bill/

"We don't want people to get abortions but we also don't want people to adopt children that can't be raised by their birth parents." - the GOP

It's super-important that all babies be brought to term but once that's taken care of it's basically

http://memes.ucoz.com/_nw/25/96588251.jpg

Hmm...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/jeff-sessions-congress-russia-trump-campaign/index.html

The notable part here is both Cornyn and Grassley making noises.

they'll "look into it" and then accept His Keebler-ness's bullshit explanation, since he's such a good man dontchaknow

Likely, but the fact that they're even saying something is a shift.

atm, seems like this tax bill should be the focus of attention & resistance, because they're going to try to rush it through as fast as possible, before anyone knows what hit them. I look forward to news reports that expose all the poison pills in it.

*"Unborn"* children can now have 529s. This is new. No one has talked about this. pic.twitter.com/cM9Mt8kKZ6

— Meghna Chakrabarti (@MeghnaWBUR) November 2, 2017

"a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb"

corporations are unborn children, my friend

what the everloving fuck

March: I didn't have meetings w/ Russian intermediaries about campaign
July: I didn't talk to Russians
Late July: Oops
Nov: Double oops pic.twitter.com/nAhFbKkrEv

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 2, 2017

49% of Americans believe Trump committed a crime re: Russia

"and 30% believe he was justified in doing so"

nothing surprising here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/02/winners-and-losers-in-the-gop-tax-plan/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-high_tax-winnerslosers-230pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.c13776dfeed6

on the campaign trail, Trump said that hedge funds were “getting away with murder” on their taxes and that he would take away carried interest, the popular opening in the tax code these Wall Street titans use. But the bill does not change or eliminate carried interest, which is also used by some real estate developers.

The GOP preserves the earned-income tax credit, a popular refundable credit for the working class, but the bill does not expand it.

So the other 51% believe Hilary Clinton committed a crime re: Russia? (xxp)

U.S. district court judge Amy Berman Jackson said President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort could be a flight risk on Thursday as she mulled requests to loosen the conditions of his house arrest.

The judge set a bond hearing for Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. to discuss a request made by Manafort’s lawyers to remove a GPS monitoring system and to allow him to move more freely about.

“The charges are significant and his ties and assets abroad are significant so I have concerns about flight,” Berman said. Manafort is under house arrest with $10 million unsecured bond that would become due should he violate court orders or flee the country.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/358476-judge-worried-manafort-could-pose-flight-risk

dude has three passports

the whole bail bond system is a fucking joke fuck that shit

i think he can fly

whoever wrote this up for Franken did a good job:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/franken-blasts-sessions-papadopoulos-you-failed-to-tell-the-truth

Okay Hensarling announced he’s leaving yesterday, now Lamar Smith?

haha for real that's awesome

Sessions fuck ups are a good excuse for Trump to can him and get someone in there to fire Mueller, no?

Sessions is not the roadblock keeping Mueller from getting fired

Sessions is also the only member of Trump's cabinet delivering results

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), whose questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in his January confirmation hearing kicked off a chain of events that ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel, on Thursday had some more pointed questions for Sessions.

wait is this true? Franken seems pretty legit.

well he should fire him anyways because fuck that guy

yes that is absolutely true, because Franken's questioning >>> Sessions recusal from investigation >>> Trump firing Comey >>> Mueller appointment

xp

Sessions is also the only member of Trump's cabinet delivering results

I think DeVos belongs here as well

tbf stupid ass sessions walked into it by adding some flavor to his answer that fucked him over even harder

Franken: "CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week that included information that quote, ‘Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.’ These documents also allegedly say quote, ‘There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump's surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.’

"Now, again, I'm telling you this as it's coming out, so you know. But if it's true, it's obviously extremely serious and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?"

Sessions: "Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."

yeah it was a total unforced error

with Chaffetz, Hensarling, Smith + others leaving the GOP House caucus, Ryan's gonna be facing a serious "brain drain" of senior leadership + committee chairs, even if their seats are not at risk.

that's what draining the swamp means

well if Trumpists take those seats it's more like pumping the swamp

full of Trump ooze

This is the state of the GOP leadership pipeline. In a decade, state legislatures will start filling up with Gamergaters, MRAs, /pol/ posters, Anime Nazis, and Proud Boys. These are, as of now, the only people in their age cohort becoming more active in Republican politics in the Trump era. Everyone else is fleeing. This will be the legacy of Trumpism: It won’t be long before voters who reflexively check the box labeled “Republican” because their parents did, or because they think their property taxes are too high, or because Fox made them scared of terrorism, start electing Pepe racists to Congress.

I don't see that as a huge change tbh.

yeah lol "start"

Ted Bilbo was a Senator

!

Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page has spent more than five hours behind closed doors w/ House Intel Cmte, w/o a lawyer.

— Ben Siegel (@benyc) November 2, 2017

xpost I thought Bilbo was a hobbit thank you drive through.

did someone say
https://i.imgur.com/u0nX81d.jpg

believe me, I tried to think of a more appropriate term

lol

Jeb Hensarling being dragged from his lair

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.sequart.org%2Fimages%2FStarship-Troopers-Brain-Bug-660x371.jpg&f=1

Fighting Baseball for Super Famicom: A League of Fake Americans POLL

Good god.

Now going on 6.5 hours and Page still there

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 2, 2017

All the committee members stumble out, having been driven insane Lovecraft-style.