US Politics November 2017

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

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?”

it's rare when he arranges words in an order that make sense, at least to this degree. were those prepared remarks?

but this is actually kind of an interesting belief, albeit a common one, that probably falls under the "he says what i'm thinking!" category of trump's appeal to some people. it's easy to imagine the poll question "is it acceptable for any country to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens?" leading to ideologically split results, even though those who would think it's not acceptable (like me) would have to acknowledge that it happens all the time. but it seems odd to openly embrace taking advantage of other countries as a goal? maybe not. i'm tired.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/health/medical-deduction-tax-bill.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/your-money/the-private-school-tax-break-in-the-middle-class-tax-bill.html

...

Remarkable to witness, in 24-hour frames, how GOP confidence in tax-reform has gone from high, to very high, to relatively high, to "the product out of conference committee will probably just be a corporate cut"

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) November 9, 2017

xpost I think that's just Trump's version of game recognize game.

That seems like a good strategy. "We can't do much to help the American people, but hey, at least we gave corporations a hand up!"

Still not clear why more Dems are not hammering the inconsistency that unemployment is down and corporate profits are way up, so why do they even need tax cuts? They don't need more money and they're maxed out on job openings.

Attorney General Sessions welcomes U.S. Attorneys to the Justice Department pic.twitter.com/QS2ys8Pyrm

— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) November 8, 2017

Good choice of photos, guys

whoa, following up on qualmsley's post on Kelly and the acting head of DHS:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/kelly-demands-acting-dhs-secy-expel-hondurans-more-quickly

This is a wild story. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke is reportedly going to resign after Chief of Staff John Kelly (her former boss as DHS Secretary) called her from Asia to complain that she wasn’t expelling Honduran immigrants quickly enough.

This comes from a report in The Washington Post. The details are important. There are a substantial number of immigrants in the US from a handful of Caribbean basin nations where there were either natural disasters or human rights crises which led to the decision to allow immigrants from those countries to stay in the US under Temporary Protected Status. The Trump administration’s policy goal is to change those country designations and expel those people.

Elaine Duke is basically in the process of doing just that. She’s already done it with Nicaraguans. She’s just not going fast enough apparently. She decided more time and fact-finding were necessary to make a decision. That got Kelly and Bossert on her case for ‘kicking the can down the road’ and lacking ‘decisiveness’. Kelly was apparently also upset that Duke’s decision might adversely impact confirmation hearings for Kirstjen M. Nielsen, his chosen successor at DHS. The upshot though is that Kelly is angry with Duke because she’s not expelling people quickly enough. The Post’s sources says Duke told Kelly she’s going to resign, though the DHS spokesperson said that’s not true.

sorry, curmudgeon's post, not qualmsley's

Tbf - and I hate to say this - but he's sort of got a point about kicking the can down the road, as heartless as it scans. As I heard it, the Nicaraguans were here as refugees from a hurricane decades ago, Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and even their president didn't lobby to extend their stay in the USA. I think they were given 14 more months? I assume the Hondurans were here for the same reason, not because of political violence or persecution but a long since passed natural disaster. Right?

(Obviously at this point I think those people should stay, just saying, reassessing their Temporary Protect Status had already been kicked 20 years down the road. Their status should and could be addressed the same time as the DACA people.)

hmmm

http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-painter-justice-department-time-warner-cnn-trump-impeach-2017-11

I am all for impeachment and impeachable offenses, but that guy from day one has called virtually everything he has done an impeachable offense. Not saying it isn't, just saying Painter has been pretty consistent. TPM I know I was really curious about the CNN stuff too, pretty suspicious.

xposts

yeah, anyone living here under Temporary Protect Status has known for a long time that this day would be coming. especially once Trump was elected. but as crazy as it sounds to have not come up with a plan after 20 years, i can see why the acting DHS secretary could be justified in asking for more time to assess the Honduran immigrants' situation.

the Post notes that "previous administrations have repeatedly renewed the residency permits every 18 months", which suggests that coming up with a plan to deport 50,000+ people in a humane way is difficult. add to that the chaos in the federal government right now in terms of empty appointments, acting directors at every level of the organization, from the very top all the way to the low-level supervisors.

in the end, she asked for a 6 month extension to figure things out. obviously from the outside it's impossible to know if that extension was truly warranted, but i do think it's actually very courageous (in a very depressing, bureaucratic way) to argue for more time in the face of a supervisor demanding that you immediately produce results. the easy way out is just to do what they say, implement the flawed plan, and then blame the superior later on for rushing things. delaying means taking the blame (and in this case maybe resigning?) but getting better results for 50,000+ people.

Yeah, but if I read it right, even the Nicaraguans got another 14 months, and they (or their government) weren't asking for an extension. So immediate is not necessarily immediate. Another 6 months could mean another 6 months before deciding it should be another 20 years, so I see why the dicks in charge would be annoyed. I'm all for opposing everything in the Trump administration, but this is a rare instance where I understand the conundrum.

caek (way xxp), I'm just struck that I seldom hear Schumer on the soapbox when the GOP victimizes poor people.

I read Yam's "I don't blame China" as "I blame Obama."

this isn't good, Dems have to do a better job hammering home how bad this is:

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/09/poll-support-for-gop-tax-plan-ticks-down-but-remains-positive-244715

?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.d3c2c4b0bd17

?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

holy shit at sieg heil session pic

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.312accd3cb84

i can already see the right-wing reaction to that story but considering how close that election is...

re bad behavior: fakin' you out

https://observer.com/2017/11/spy-circles-suspect-kremlin-is-behind-dozens-of-fake-trump-sex-tapes/

Dozens of fake Trump sex tapes?

I sense a poll thread in our future.

more interesting is the confident assertions that there are tapes that are almost assuredly *not* fake

but even having something on tape can i think be dismissed by red hatters, i mean they can point to something like the very well done fake version of that Billy Bush tape, which ends w/trump getting tackled.

i wonder who buys/downloads more fake trump sex tapes - huge trump supporters or those who hate him?

people who have run out of ipecac

hfs @ that Moore story - now *that's* an oppo dump

"i could make a snuff tape in the middle of Bulgaria and i wouldn't lose voters"

Yeah I presume the whole point of producing fake Trump sex tapes is precisely as omar says: to provide cover for the real one.

"Boy who cried wolf" kinda thing. Or, more like "tape that showed pee."

http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/print-covers/20171111_cuk400.jpg

Holy shit at that Moore story.

tbf Moore's voters all enthusiastically backed the pussy-grabber so may not move that many votes but who knows

At least the pussy grabber is a hedonistic godless heathen.

Dems' tax bill message is complicated by the presence of the standard deduction doubling in the present bill. A hell of a lot of people in the median income range will read that, figure it will help them, and stop there.

imo, the dems need to drive home endlessly that they aren't against that provision, as the first thing out of their mouths. Then they can detail their opposition to the worst crap, like ending the Alternative Minimum Tax and the estate tax. They need to emphasize how happy they'd be to double the standard deduction, but how the bill would raise the deficit by $1.5 TRILLION and of that new debt, $XXX would go straight into the pockets of the top 1%.

arguing about the nat'l deficit is not the way to go about opposing this bill.

yelling that it's benefits are all tilted toward the rich, in no uncertain terms, will. And specific provisions like repealing the state/local tax deduction will totally split votes off the GOP (at least in the House).

that moore news seems like the kind of news that could suppress republican turnout in AL, even if it doesn't change minds. my understanding is he's starting from a place not a ton more popular than joe arpaio is statewide in AZ, i.e. not very any more. his main virtue is he's a republican in alabama, which is obviously a huge advantage one, but other than that, he's about as beatable a candidate as they could have chosen.

and hopefully it (along with the VA results) will encourage some national help for doug jones, because this from yesterday is not good:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/after-big-wins-top-democrats-still-shying-away-from-alabama-special-election

agree on all that

stopping this tax plan should be the Dems #1 priority right now. all hell's gonna break loose in the GOP if they can't get that done.

Breitbart: Maybe Roy Moore dated kids but if he did he was romantic and read them poetry pic.twitter.com/yVYDCFc6Gp

— Will Rahn (@willrahn) November 9, 2017

voting a pedophile to seriously own the libs right now

the DNC guys are right that sending in Obama or another nat'l figure wouldn't help Jones and would probably hurt him/rile up the GOP - but what does help is money and operational/logistical support to boost turnout

Biden going was probably best-case-scenario for nat'l figure support