US Politics November 2017

the GOP doesn't have the votes to pass a debt ceiling raise without the '"freedom" caucus' and/or the democratic minority. play hardball chuck and nancy! either the deficit hawk '"freedom' caucus' votes to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit (and guarantees they'll lose in 2018) or the economy gets it : )

i feel depressed about this tax bill

racist islamophobic trump tweets bum me out too but this tax bill seems worse

the tax bill will send out much larger and more lasting waves compared to the temporary ripples from an one racist tweet

yup

P sure this is going to be a line of defense. Is it collusion if you don't even know you're colluding?

"is it stealing if you didn't know you couldn't take it" unlikely to hold up in court

vs the hyper-rich unlikely to ever see the inside of a courtroom for long, let alone justice

Subpoenas are being sent to 23 Trump businesses requiring them to preserve records that may be sought by the attorneys general from the District of Columbia and Maryland in a lawsuit accusing the president of profiting from his office.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte on Tuesday issued a two-paragraph order granting the Democratic officials’ request for permission to serve those subpoenas, which don’t call for the immediate production of any information.

DC Attorney General Karl Racine and his Maryland counterpart, Brian Frosh, contend the president’s continued ownership of his business empire -- including the Trump International Hotel in Washington -- enables him to make money from foreign and domestic governments, breaching two Constitutional clauses intended to prevent that.

Attorneys for President Donald Trump have asked the court to toss the emoluments case, arguing the states lack the legal injuries that would give them a right to sue. They also say the Constitution doesn’t cover presidents’ private business activities that are unrelated to their government service. Oral argument is set for Jan. 25.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/trump-businesses-to-get-retention-subpoenas-in-emoluments-case

Hmm, CNN at least is starting to go there.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/president-donald-trump-competency/index.html

it is really insane that we're just gonna pass this thing through without knowing how many tens of millions of dollars Trump himself is going to make from it

asked the court to toss the emoluments case, arguing the states lack the legal injuries that would give them a right to sue.

This is a strange argument. It presumes that the direct constitutional prohibition embodied in the emoluments clause only applies if there is a definable tort, apart from the fact that the president is in breach of his constitutional obligations.

it is really insane that we're just gonna pass this thing through without knowing how many tens of millions of dollars Trump himself is going to make from it

― frogbs, Wednesday, November 29, 2017 8:42 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

while we do have an idea about how much his failsons will inherit - 100% of it

this tax bill is 2scoops' revenge that so many people poorer than him are smarter than him (and have better hair)

Apparently the bill has exceptionally bad implications for grad students? A good friend of mine is losing their mind over it.

yes it does

it's pretty much a total "fuck you" to all of higher education in general

More on that here it appears

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/house-tax-bill-graduate-students.html

This is a strange argument. It presumes that the direct constitutional prohibition embodied in the emoluments clause only applies if there is a definable tort, apart from the fact that the president is in breach of his constitutional obligations.

any arguments about this are going to be strange and without precedent tbh. Primarily because restraining the President in these kinds of areas is Congress's job, and they have totally abdicated.

legal policy wonks, please tell me how much of this tax bill disaster can be repealed if we have an all-Dem House/Senate/Prez in 2020

congressional bills can always be repealed/rewritten

The government can pass any laws it wants, Congress can’t pass a tax code that includes “future congresses shall not repeal this tax code”, so unified Democratic government could replace it entirely with an excise tax on whiskey or whatever

ty

even more so than currently grad school will be the exclusive domain of children of wealthy families (at the expense of any smarter poorer people). 2scoops is just maybe under orders by former KGB officer vladimir putin to weaken the american higher education system, which has too much clout in the world for the kremlin's liking :(

what's this going to do to medical students?

fuck them over, like everyone else

taxing tuition remission to fund the repeal of the estate tax is 18th century france bullshit

looking forward to American equivalent of latter days 18th century France tbh

I assume Morbz and I will be fighting over who should be first to the guillotine

yeah it basically fucks people over who are trying to improve their lot in life in exchange for a permanent aristocracy. wheeeeeee

looking forward to American equivalent of latter days 18th century France tbh

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, November 29, 2017 9:06 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol dude the mob is getting warmed up right now

perhaps this will usher in a revival of cut-rate barber-surgeons

looking forward to American equivalent of latter days 18th century France tbh

I'm not, because the people who are currently mobilizing for violence are the racists.

yeah, i was gonna say, not quite ready for this right-wing mob with a bunch of guns to heat up

Could we not attribute every evil thing to Russia dude? Trump probably doesn't even know about the grad school thing, he just wants to yell about tax cuts. This is just standard republican viciousness towards college students, ever more hated by their base.

I think (hope) qualmsley is kidding.

Sorry, it's a little hard to tell sometimes

MSNBC had chryon "BREAKING NEWS...Trump: Focused on helping 'people that like me best'".
His actual quote was much more benign: 'Our focus is on helping the folks who work in the mailrooms and machine shops of America – the plumbers and the carpenters, the cops and the teachers, the truck drivers and the pipe fitters – the people who like me best.'

Fuck MSNBC. This guy is horrible enough to just let him hang on his own rather than twist his words/take them out of context to make them appear even worse but yeah let's give more fodder to the fakenews idiots.

sheesh can't even make jokes about the French Revolution anymore :(

kidding simon!

but you have to admit . . .

Don't lose your head over this, Shakey.

there it is

About right

WH staff has given up on the idea of stopping the president from tweeting, I'm told. On retweeting of anti-Muslim videos and other offensive posts, WH aides will say "well the issue has been raised" and try to make the most of it, I'm told.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 29, 2017

what else have they given up on

not letting america slide into civil war

GeneralKellyHoldingHead.jpg

in-house drug testing

propecia can do a number on someone

anyway how do I provide material support to some leftist violence