Trump's America

[Dave_LF]

Some of his paranoia may be justified; with any luck, there are people spying on him with the goal of proving high crimes and misdemeanors. Just not Barack Obama.

[Frelga]

Impish, probably most of them, given that the Republicans have control of the Congress. That's why it's important to talk about the Republican legislature and not just Trump's administration.

Also, H.R.1275 - World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.

That's the name of the bill. Verbatim. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-con ... -bill/1275

Someone hand me duct tape, my brain is broken.

[yovargas]

lololololol

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Impish, probably most of them, given that the Republicans have control of the Congress. That's why it's important to talk about the Republican legislature and not just Trump's administration.

Actually, no, none of those bills listed have any chance whatsoever of passing. Most of them aren't even being considered, they just were introduced and died on the vine. HR 370 has been supplanted by the more serious bill that was just introduced to repeal and replace the ACA. But even that seems to be very unlikely to pass, since it is being attacked on both sides by Democrats that think it is too draconian and conservatives who think it is not draconian enough. So even though it has been introduced under special "budget reconciliation" rules meaning it can't be filibustered in the Senate, it is still unlikely to get enough votes. All of the other ones on that list would require 60 votes in the Senate, which won't happen. So while there is plenty to be concerned about, I'm not too worried about any of those bills. There are all kinds of bills being introduced all the time. There's another one that has recently been introduced that would add a public option to the ACA (H.R.1307 - To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to establish a public health insurance option). I'm not going to get too excited about that, either, since it has an equal unlikelihood of passing.

[Frelga]

Ah, OK, thanks V.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't mean to suggest that we shouldn't worry about the GOP Congress. And the demographics of the 2018 election are such that there are far more Democratic senate seats at risk than GOP senate seats. If people are not vigilant we could be faced with a situation where the GOP could pass all of those bills with impunity.

[Frelga]

I would like to believe that anyone wondering what good it does to vote has seen by now the evil it does to not vote. But we can't be complacent.

[yovargas]

Why is this happening???

Purple America Has All But Disappeared - Counties are increasingly super red or super blue, with less and less in between.

It's an awful, dangerous trend.

[anthriel]

Why is this happening???

Purple America Has All But Disappeared - Counties are increasingly super red or super blue, with less and less in between.

It's an awful, dangerous trend.

It is. We just saw a GREAT video presentation by our CEO (he is just so good, I wish I could share it here with you all) where he talked about having gone to Washington to try to understand possible changes to the ACA. (Good luck with that, btw.) He says that Democrats and Republicans aren't talking at ALL. How can that sort of thing be useful to anyone?

And... WHY? Why.

[Dave_LF]

Why is this happening???

I blame Loki. It's as good an explanation as any.

[Frelga]

At this point, a Chitauri invasion could be a helpful unifying event. Probably less deadly in the long run.

Outside of the MCU, there was a clear, deliberate progression of steps that brought us here.

[Sunsilver]

Meanwhile, at the Canadian border:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ ... -1.4011202

This woman and her 2 friends were planning a spa day in Vermont. Of course, her 2 white friends were admitted without any hassles...

[Frelga]

Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. https://t.co/4nxLipafWO

Steve King, US Congress

[Voronwë the Faithful]

For those who don't know, that is a reference to Geert Wilders, a far-right, anti-immigrant candidate for Dutch Prime Minister.

[Sunsilver]

And the madness continues....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/ ... -1.4022969


I'm also going to post this quote from Bannon. I normally don't like to put too much stock in stuff that's taken out of context, but in or out of context, this is downright scary. It's from an interview he did with The Hollywood reporter:

“Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power.”

For more quotes from Bannon, go here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener ... qqD77ZxM0W

[Frelga]

People who read European papers, can this be real? It's only attributed to "a Scottish newspaper", describing Trump's inauguration as a pilot episode of a new Twilight Zone production.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AeHZeqTXu ... mJljxJtYg/

[Alatar]

Yeah, its a real newspaper, but they write joke descriptions of TV progranmmes.

[yovargas]

Fascinating article theorizing some reasons behind the recent rise of "populism" (why is that the term the nativist movements has been given? ) and why leftist strategist won't work against it:

No easy answers: why left-wing economics is not the answer to right-wing populism

[N.E. Brigand]

The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins

This is an eye-opening article, both because of what is says, and the fact that it is published in (so far as I understand, though I could be wrong) the newspaper that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner owns and formerly was the publisher of.

You're right about the newspaper.

The author of that article does not have the most sterling reputation, however, despite his background.

Doesn't mean he's wrong, but proceed with caution.

You also should use caution in reading the cyber-security writings of Louise Mensch, but she probably should be read anyway. A lot of her stuff sounds very fringe, nearly tinfoil hat. And yet, and yet, she's been proven right multiple times, and as far as I can tell, nothing she's written about the election has been proven wrong . . . yet.

As I type, she's busy trolling Michael Flynn, Jr., who very much deserves it, but I'm more interested in her new theory about Anthony Weiner's supposedly underage correspondent, whose communications led to the October surprise that tanked Clinton's campaign. (No potential criminal case against Weiner means no excuse for the FBI to look at his laptop.)

It's pretty wild, so again, proceed with great caution. But, oh boy. It's really weird to be living in a John le Carré spy novel.

Just a few hours after I wrote that, Mensch was profiled in The Guardian. To that point, I didn't know any more than she was a blogger / fringe journalist who had correctly predicted some developments on the Trump / Russia front; I had no idea she had been (though for just two years) a Member of Parliament. Before that, she was a novelist, of reportedly trashy fare. Now she works for News Corp. in New York (and her husband manages Metallica). Since then she's made several TV appearances and just last week had an op-ed in the New York Times about questions that the House Intelligence Committee should ask Comey and others--an op-ed that reporters at the Times trashed on Twitter. Some of her views are frankly nuts. Including possibly the piece about Weiner I mentioned above.

Right now I'm feeling less John le Carre and more Tom Clancy.

I don't dance.

[Frelga]

Fascinating article theorizing some reasons behind the recent rise of "populism" (why is that the term the nativist movements has been given? ) and why leftist strategist won't work against it:

No easy answers: why left-wing economics is not the answer to right-wing populism

This Forbes article touches on the same subject, and is shorter, more clear imo, and talks about America specifically.

Unspeakable Realities Block Universal Health Coverage In America

By funding government programs with tax credits and deductions rather than spending, we have created an enormous social safety net that grows ever more generous as household incomes rise. It is important to note, though, that you need not be wealthy to participate. All you need to gain access to socialism for white people is a good corporate or government job. That fact helps explain how this welfare system took shape sixty years ago, why it was originally (and still overwhelmingly) white, and why white Rust Belt voters showed far more enthusiasm for Donald Trump than for Bernie Sanders. White voters are not interested in democratic socialism. They want to restore their access to a more generous and dignified program of white socialism.