Donald trump. what is your take on him?

[tands]

Glenzilla chats with BBC shill regarding piss-russia dossier and omg who will think of the the CIA?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwobebBEMzY

 

[fazer]

Glenzilla.  Been watching YouTube videos all morning.  Great journalism.  Real analysts.  Thanks

 

[JohnRoberts]

"The U.S. Senate on Thursday took a first concrete step toward dismantling Obamacare, voting to instruct key committees to draft legislation repealing President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance program.

The final vote, which ended just past 1:30 a.m., was 51-48. The resolution now goes to the House of Representatives, which is expected to vote on it this week. Scrapping Obamacare is a top priority for the Republican majorities in both chambers and Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

Republicans have said that the process of repealing Obamacare could take months, and developing a replacement plan could take longer. But they are under pressure from Trump to act fast; he said on Wednesday that the repeal and replacement should happen “essentially simultaneously.”

-

The resolution approved Thursday instructs committees of the House and Senate to draft repeal legislation by a target date of January 27. Both chambers will then need to approve the resulting legislation before any repeal goes into effect.

Senate Republicans are using special budget procedures that allow them to repeal Obamacare by a simple majority; this way they don’t need Democratic votes. Republicans have a majority of 52 votes in the 100-seat Senate; one Republican, Senator Rand Paul, voted no on Thursday."

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/republicans-except-for-rand-paul-vote-to-gut-obamacare-in-the-dead-of-night/

Some history worth mentioning "reconciliation" (the simple majority procedure) is reserved for making budgetary adjustments. So this can gut the funding for ACA, but not really re-write the full program, and perhaps ironically reconciliation was what the democrats used to finally pass the ACA after they lost the super-majority in 2010 due to the unpopularity of this legislation (MA a very liberal state elected a republican senator that year).

I suspect many who have been recently elected on the promise of repealing the ACA feel obligated to deliver that. I know that I have neighbors who expect this and would be angry if it didn't get repealed. 

I agree with Rand Paul that the replacement needs to be fleshed out and ready to go before killing the ACA. It appears that Trump is pressing for speed to get this replacement accomplished.

BTW Trump still isn't president yet...

I suspect Ryan's estimates of the typical sausage making process being ugly and taking years is not that crazy in light of recent team politics and intransigence. I really hope the Democrats get on board and work with republicans to craft a better healthcare bill. I haven't seen much movement in that direction, but instead more extreme attempts to throw up roadblocks and discredit the new President elect. 

The world must be getting a chuckle from this and is probably a little nervous too if we can't act like adults. This too will pass but not soon enough for me.

JR

 

[mattiasNYC]

The world must be getting a chuckle from this and is probably a little nervous too if we can't act like adults. This too will pass but not soon enough for me.

JR

Not soon enough for the US to act as adults? You could have started by not voting for a 70 year old who at the ripe age of 60 said he grabbed women by the pussy. Not to mention his juvenile language and usage of Twitter.

If being adult was an issue then you could have started by not voting for 70-year old petulant narcissistic man-child.

You get exactly what you voted for.

 

[Script]

John Lewis announced he'll not attend the inauguration.  But why mention the alleged role of Russia in rigging the election? Why not just say: don't like the projection of what policies might become and even less how it was and still is being promoted -- so not coming... Says it to make staying away more legitimate or rather meant as a statement?

 

[pb]

i liked this, some good edits.

 

[pucho812]

Not soon enough for the US to act as adults? You could have started by not voting for a 70 year old who at the ripe age of 60 said he grabbed women by the pussy. Not to mention his juvenile language and usage of Twitter.

If being adult was an issue then you could have started by not voting for 70-year old petulant narcissistic man-child.

You get exactly what you voted for.

And what were the alternatives? Electing someone who cheated her way to a nomination and demanded it because it was her time? Because of her gender?  Or any number of other reasons none of which were not logical and all about feelings.
So far if the trend continues with soon to be president trump looks like the economy will do nicely and conditions to keep Americans working will continue.  Call it the trump effect. 

 

[mattiasNYC]

And what were the alternatives?

Bernie Sanders was one. There were others as well.

Electing someone who cheated her way to a nomination and demanded it because it was her time? Because of her gender? 

I don't recall having heard her say people should vote for her because she was a woman. Maybe you did, but I didn't.

Or any number of other reasons none of which were logical and all about feelings.

If you want to use logic and facts to discuss the US election you can start by going back to the at least two assertions you've made so far that proved to be either flat out wrong or shown to be unfounded. That'd be a starting point. But as I predicted earlier that won't happen, because it's inconvenient. Ergo, "all about feelings", just not mine.

So far if the trend continues with soon to be president trump looks like the economy will do nicely and conditions to keep Americans working will continue.  Call it the trump effect.

I'm tempted to ask you about how the economy developed under Obama, and if there's anything to look at in terms of the direction of change as far as the economy is concerned... you know, inertia and that sort of stuff....

 

[pucho812]

Bernie Sanders was one. There were others as well.

I don't recall having heard her say people should vote for her because she was a woman. Maybe you did, but I didn't.

The DNC made sure  Bernie was not an option.

Plenty of people including the Clinton campaign  made the notion to vote for her purely for her Gender.

As for Obama's economic development,  getting back to to where we started  was not bad. Then it went a little further again not bad. But  considering legislation passed I would hardly attribute it to President Obama. 

 

[mattiasNYC]

The DNC made sure  Bernie was not an option.

Careful now, you're treading into uncomfortable territory: Did people not have a vote in the primary? Was there not a chance to vote for Bernie and him winning the nomination? Or are you saying the vote was rigged, technically speaking?

Plenty of people including the Clinton campaign  made the notion to vote for her purely for her Gender.

I was asking about what you implied, which was that that was her statement.

As for Obama's economic development,  getting back to to where we started  was not bad. Then it went a little further again not bad. But  considering legislation passed I would hardly attribute it to President Obama.

Of course not. No conservative would.

 

[tands]

Oh, it was rigged, technically speaking.

fazer, I'm so happy you found it interesting! It's fantastic seeing a sane person on the internet machine isn't it? ;D

Also,

"SO, YES, I’M EMOTIONAL AND I’M YELLING. BECAUSE THIS IS FUCKING EMOTIONAL FOR ME. I WANT A FEMALE PRESIDENT AND I WANT PRESIDENT HILLARY CLINTON. I WANT BOTH OF THESE THINGS BUT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE I WANT WOMEN TO HAVE AN EQUAL FUCKING FAIR SHAKE. I’M SICK OF THIS STUPID BULLSHIT DISGUISED AS POLITICS, MASQUERADING AS POLITICAL OPINION."

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/02/hillary-clintons-internet-supporters-desperately-w.html

 

[tands]

"Hillary Clinton failed to defeat Donald Trump in the general election, but the Democratic Party is giving Clinton campaign staffers another chance by appointing several of them to a “war room” to take on President-elect Trump’s administration.

The Washington Post reported, “The DNC’s new communications and research operation, to be staffed by former aides to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, will be one of several efforts from across the Democratic firmament to take on Trump, including the office of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Center for American Progress, and American Bridge.” Clinton campaign manager John Podesta founded the Center for American Progress, and Clinton surrogate and former aide Neera Tanden serves as its president. American Bridge, a super PAC, is run by controversial Clinton propagandist David Brock. Combined with the office of Schumer, the DNC couldn’t have created a less effective way to fight Trump.

After losing an election they treated as a certain victory, the Clinton campaign staff is being rewarded for their loyalty with jobs at the DNC. The war room’s director will be Zac Petkanas, the Clinton campaign’s rapid-response director, who will also serve as a DNC senior adviser. Petkanas was vice president of Brock’s Media Matters. The DNC’s national press secretary will be Adrienne Watson, a Clinton campaign spokesperson. Additionally, just as former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz did before the primaries began, the organization is now being stacked with Clinton loyalists by interim chair Donna Brazile, who CNN severed ties with after WikiLeaks revealed she helped the Clinton campaign cheat before the primary debates. Despite violating the DNC charter, the Democratic Party is allowing Brazile to remain interim chair until a new one is elected in February.

Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media."

http://observer.com/2017/01/clinton-staffers-appointed-dnc-positions/

 

[JohnRoberts]

Not soon enough for the US to act as adults? You could have started by not voting for a 70 year old who at the ripe age of 60 said he grabbed women by the pussy. Not to mention his juvenile language and usage of Twitter.

If being adult was an issue then you could have started by not voting for 70-year old petulant narcissistic man-child.

You get exactly what you voted for.

Perhaps I wasn't clear...  The group that does not appear to be behaving like adults is the democrats who are still trying to delegitimize the election any way they can, and laying land mines for President elect Trump to deal with when he finally takes office.  Still trying to come up with excuses for why Hillary lost, by investigating Comey (but not Loretta Lynch?), and Russian hacking. If they want to get serious how about investigating all hacking by all foreign powers and individuals well before the election campaign even started.  Obama seemed to brush this off as a non-issue telling Putin to "cut it out" (recall that we were caught hacking our own allies). Since his legacy is now at risk he on the "Russia changed the election" train. Hollywood "stars" making anti-trump videos, as if somebody cares about what they think. Their weak influence was apparent in the election, while some are speculating about running someone like De Caprio for office next time, they clearly misunderstand why Trump was/is successful. 

I am generally impressed with the cabinet Trump assembled, while some appear too white and too wealthy for the identity politics crowd, they all seem to be very highly qualified.  I like the smartest people in room working at that level. The fact that they don't all march in lock step with Trump is also a good thing. IMO Trumps entire campaign was the beginning of a negotiation, not the end. 

I hope the hysteria settles down soon so we can get on with the nations business... with a little less political kabuki theater. Folks are already laying down their markers for 2020, but at the speed of change we are experiencing now, that is a long time off.

JR

 

[mattiasNYC]

Perhaps I wasn't clear...  The group that does not appear to be behaving like adults is the democrats who are still trying to delegitimize the election any way they can, and laying land mines for President elect Trump to deal with when he finally takes office.  Still trying to come up with excuses for why Hillary lost, by investigating Comey (but not Loretta Lynch?), and Russian hacking. If they want to get serious how about investigating all hacking by all foreign powers and individuals well before the election campaign even started.  Obama seemed to brush this off as a non-issue telling Putin to "cut it out" (recall that we were caught hacking our own allies). Since his legacy is now at risk he on the "Russia changed the election" train. Hollywood "stars" making anti-trump videos, as if somebody cares about what they think. Their weak influence was apparent in the election, while some are speculating about running someone like De Caprio for office next time, they clearly misunderstand why Trump was/is successful. 

No, I understood you loud and clear. I'm saying that all of the above is far less childish than talking about grabbing women by the pussy, especially at his age. Add to that his use of language when Tweeting, not to mention Tweeting in the first place. And his borderline OCD-induced vindictiveness.

Those are actually childish qualities in a president of the USA, and the rest of the world sees that. Trying to fight for one's party against the other's policies isn't childish, that's just politics.

But what we've been trying to tell people like you - and you don't appear to ever acknowledge it - is that by supporting and voting for a president like Trump, who ran a campaign the way he did, you have in practiced legitimized and endorsed exactly that type of political behavior. What the Democrats are doing is far less bad than what Trump did during the campaign. The bar has been lowered and that's because you accepted it John, you did that when you cast your vote.

Mexicans are rapists and bring drugs and disease... well, some are good... Muslims should be registered and shouldn't be allowed to enter the country.... etc...

Those are all things that Trump said during the campaign, and it doesn't matter if you disagree with those issues specifically, because the point here is that by voting for him you have accepted that type of language and that type of pandering.

So, regardless of who is engaging in childish behavior you've endorsed it.

Live with it.

Own it.

I am generally impressed with the cabinet Trump assembled, while some appear too white and too wealthy for the identity politics crowd, they all seem to be very highly qualified. 

There's a bit of irony above in that you talk about "identity politics" yet you cheer the fact that some are supposedly against the things Trump said during the campaign, which makes one wonder why you voted for him in the first place. I'm pretty certain it was exactly because of your own identity politics.

As for their qualifications, looking at their prior statements and experience it's pretty clear we live in different worlds John. I suppose we could review all of that again, but the basic demeanor by Trump supporters seem to be "Oh well, he won, so suck it up buttercup; I didn't care about facts before because they all lie, and I sure don't care about them now. So whatever your concerns seem to be you can just sit down and be quiet about it".

 

[pucho812]

What's funny is we can easily lay same concerns and find similar actions from those on the left. Turning blind eye to one and not the other does not do anyone any good.

 

[mattiasNYC]

What's funny is we can easily lay same concerns and find similar actions from those on the left. Turning blind eye to one and not the other does not do anyone any good.

Who is turning a blind eye to what?

People here voted for Trump. I didn't vote for Clinton. Everybody who voted had the option to vote for Bernie Sanders or any other candidate for that matter.

Again: IF you want to pretend to want to have a real discussion about these things, first go back and back up your prior assertions. Making claims is as easy as going to the bathroom, backing them up is a different issue. Obviously you'll come to the conclusion that 'the left' is turning a blind eye towards the bad things 'their guys' are doing if what you're referring to are numerous either unsubstantiated claims or claims that were proven wrong.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I grow a little weary of explaining myself but a vote for one candidate or the other is not embracing or even forgiving every single action that candidate ever took during his/her entire life, but a simple calculation about which election outcome is preferred.

Voting for anybody other than Trump or Hillary was just political masturbation since nobody else had a realistic chance of winning. I thought Trump was unlikely to win (but I hoped he would). IMO Trump was the least bad choice.  As I've stated several times by now my decision was dominated by the future of the supreme court, and the rest is secondary to that. I have been pleasantly surprised by a string of Trump's campaign promise reversals, and remain optimistic that his cabinet will inform him to make even more.

You can try to reframe the current argument to suit your fancy,  but I am not playing along.

In my judgement the future is more important to invest any effort into. We can't change*** the past, or even change the present.

JR

**** Perhaps an interesting observation about Pres Obama's recent screed that his presidency failed at "public relations". The public was unduly influenced by his detractors (Fox et all) and just not adequately convinced by him and his people about how good it really is/was. (perhaps why the Obama administration has >5000 PR staffers).  A little too meta for me, but something we may hear more of.

President Barack Obama says sometimes in his presidency he failed to marshal enough public opinion to force his Republican opponents to back off. Losing “the PR battle” was one reason he couldn’t get a hearing for his last Supreme Court nominee, he tells Steve Kroft in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CBS.

As a senator more than two decades ago, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. argued that President George Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until the presidential election was over, and that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/us/politics/joe-biden-argued-for-delaying-supreme-court-picks-in-1992.html?_r=0

 

[tands]

What's funny is we can easily lay same concerns and find similar actions from those on the left. Turning blind eye to one and not the other does not do anyone any good.

The dem party is not the left, but that's right, it was just a matter of opinion which candidate was the lesser/greater evil. Miserable situation.

Bernie would have won, that's my opinion. As far as I'm concerned, the dems can suffer in their loss, maybe it'll smarten them up.

 

[tands]

"Trump, who has unleashed a series of aggressive tweets against the U.S. intelligence community and his political rivals in recent weeks, did not respond to Brennan's criticism.

But later Sunday, he retweeted a journalist's remark that the intelligence community owes Trump an apology for briefing him on a document that contains unverified financial and personal information that could be damaging to the president-elect.

"Media should apologize also" for reporting on the document and the briefing, Trump wrote. The Associated Press has not been able to verify the contents of the document."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-cia-director-brennan-trump-tweets-russia-20170115-story.html

 

[hodad]

But later Sunday, he retweeted a journalist's remark that the intelligence community owes Trump an apology for briefing him on a document that contains unverified financial and personal information that could be damaging to the president-elect.

I hope you're bringing this up because of the sheer lunacy of it.  This is approximately 4 different kinds of stupid and 8 different kinds of crazy.