US Politics November 2017

deficits don't matter anymore !

they do when you're trying to pass bills through reconciliation

lol at the washington post right now

"Fresh evidence that the ground is shifting beneath the GOP
The Republican message of low taxes and common-sense governance wasn’t enough. Will that hold true in 2018?"

is ... that the republican message?

also "racism"

"Is the tape recorder on? Okay, now tell him what the 'NFL' stands for..."

This is 100% Scavino tweet, not Trump himself: Trump never uses the final outcome, 304 EVs, instead of the 306 EVs he earned in the voting. pic.twitter.com/xSHCdPHiFo

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 8, 2017

twitterology

Worthwhile thread from Scott Benson of “Night in the Woods”

oh no it's a year after all the Trump Country stories and now we're gonna get all the One Year Later In Trump Country stories

— Dismember November (@bombsfall) November 8, 2017

Issa now a "no" on House tax bill lol i wonder why

Issa no

Heard on the radio some pundit opine that if the tax bill passes as is, the GOP would be virtually decimated in any state with high property taxes. NY, NJ, CA ...

it specifically targets rich dems in solid blue states. its an attack on the democratic donor base.

Yup

It hurts anyone with high property taxes, no matter where they live, GOP and Dem alike. There are GOP reps all over the place, even in CA. Looks like there are 14 GOP reps in CA, including Issa. They'd all be put at risk. In theory.

5 GOP reps in NJ, 8 in NY ...

yup. getting rid of the state deduction is a "let's just do it and be legends" move wrt the 2018 congressional elections

xp
not only anyone with high property taxes, but anyone with high state and local taxes, which includes voters in a lot of states

A few Republicans who seem to be in more danger, imo, after last night:
Ed Royce, Erik Paulson, Peter Roskam, Mimi Walters (all either lean/likely gop, on Cook). Republicans did not hold on to the VA districts that voted like theirs did in 12/16.

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 8, 2017

(2 CA, 1 MN, 1 IL)

I don't think every single CA rep is going out in 2018 but there's no reason to think the Rohrbachers and Issas in OC and the burbs in San Diego dont get slaughtered.

it specifically targets rich dems in solid blue states. its an attack on the democratic donor base.

lol, i just heard Schumer moaning about the GOP tax scheme attacking "the upper-middle class" in "the suburbs." Truly a champion of the soccer mom and marketing dad.

c'mon. sure, it's a regressive deduction, but it's not like they're going to take the money and redistribute it to the bottom 20%. the plan raises taxes on people in NYS in order to benefit corporations and fucken wyoming. do you think schumer should support it?

My fave detail from my hometown paper (in Chester County, SE PA):

In one West Chester precinct, the GOP candidates did not reach even 10 votes, while their Democratic opponents neared triple figures.

"neared"! precinct level is pretty small potatoes

Erik Paulson is a shitbag and in a ton of trouble

possibly related conditions

Since I keep hearing about Trump's buddy testifying... when the fuck did "bodyman" become a job title?

Did Trump make it up and the media decided to run with it because they love to use new words and phrases

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--mFnQEMFM--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1238167705374019941.jpg

Is that Seinfeld

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jeevesandwooster.jpg

It's been around for a while. Obama's body man was Reggie Love. It just means the person who knows where your phone charger is, picks up your dry cleaning, knows how you like your sandwiches, always has an umbrella. As opposed to aides/assistants whose support is more clerical or policy-related or whatever.

I mean, it's a valet.

http://armondwhitebook.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/wj-pr16-jb-holds-up-mirror-to-md-on-stage.jpg

I guess Trump left his balls on the plane...again.

President Donald Trump said in Beijing on Thursday that he doesn’t fault China for a “very unfair and one-sided” trade relationship with the United States — instead laying the blame with past U.S. administrations.

“Right now, unfortunately, it is a very unfair and one-sided one,” Trump said at an event with business leaders in Beijing. But the president added, “I don’t blame China. After all, who can blame a country for taking advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens?”

You know what he should do? He should negotiate a better deal, the best deal. I mean, he's so good at it. And he promised!

It kind of blows my mind, this line that if the GOP passes some tax law then somehow everyone will just dismiss everything from Trump on down and say, yeah, what a bunch of useless, embarrassing fuckups with disgusting, regressive views, but at least they jammed through some sort of desperate, ill-conceived tax reform! Sign me up!

Nothing new here, but the hubris of data miners who once again failed to remotely predict the GOP getting trounced on all levels in VA making more predictions. It's a blue wave! Everything is different! Or, "Don't dismiss Trump without Trump!" Whatever. Hats off to the people on the ground who gave a shit and actually tried and worked hard rather than arrogantly coasting on shady numbers.

Also back suggestions that papers dump these "catching up with Trump voters" shithole pieces and replace them with "catching up with people who didn't vote."

Apparently Paul story getting muddier and more mysterious:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/06/the-attack-on-sen-rand-paul-just-keeps-getting-stranger-and-stranger/

real talk tho: why wasn't rand paul armed

But Paul appeared to dispute that notion with a pair of posts to Twitter on Wednesday, linking to a Breitbart News story headlined “Rand Paul’s neighbors say reports blaming savage assault on ‘landscaping dispute’ are fake news” and one from The Washington Examiner headlined “Rand Paul's neighbors rip media 'landscaping dispute' reports.”

In its report, The Washington Examiner said Boucher’s social media accounts were peppered with posts critical of President Donald Trump and of Republicans, although it stopped short of suggesting that the attack was politically motivated.

xpost He was armed with a lawnmower.

dead_alive.gif

if you're mowing your lawn without even the basic protection of a snub-nosed .38 tucked into one of the socks you're wearing with your crocs then you deserve to be throughly and soundly beaten imo

Also back suggestions that papers dump these "catching up with Trump voters" shithole pieces and replace them with "catching up with people who didn't vote."

otm

John Kelly...

On Monday, as the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Honduran immigrants living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called Acting Secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them, according to current and former administration officials.

Duke refused to reverse her decision and was angered by what she felt was a politically driven intrusion by Kelly and Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, who also called her about the matter, according to officials with knowledge of Monday’s events, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-chief-of-staff-tried-to-pressure-acting-dhs-secretary-to-expel-thousands-of-hondurans-officials-say/2017/11/09/914d3700-c54a-11e7-a441-3a768c8586f1_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.d3c2c4b0bd17

I think a political scenario in which Dems gain a House majority by wiping out GOP reps in California, New York, and New Jersey is actually kind of a terrible political equilibrium for the country, though much better than a scenario where GOP has control. The executive branch and the party apparatus will have no political reason at all not to brutalize Californians and New Yorkers.

I'm still pissed that my state went from two establishment senators, one from each party, to two republicans where the reasonable one is Chuck Grassley

It’s been an honor to serve #VA06 - thank you for your support and trust. It’s time to step aside. I’ve decided I will not seek re-election.

— Bob Goodlatte (@BobGoodlatte6) November 9, 2017

(chairman of the house judiciary)

spacebo, comrade

When even Republican Peter King gets some of what's going on (but he'll probably support final version anyway):

Representative Peter T. King of New York said on Wednesday that the results should provide a wake-up call to lawmakers about the risk of losing middle-class voters who were drawn to Mr. Trump.

“I’m convinced we’re going to lose them with this tax bill,” Mr. King said. “The picture they see is an indifference to the middle class, but taking care of special interests. And that’s not why they voted for Donald Trump.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/us/politics/senate-republicans-will-diverge-from-house-in-sweeping-tax-rewrite.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0