I was just wondering yesterday how many plots were planned for July 4th and where. Sad that I had that thought, but it's the world we live in.

The day manufacturing jobs come back will be the day the united States is 3/4 through a historical collapse into a third world country.

I get Republicans get all nostalgic for the 40s and 50s, but maybe let's let the history be history and not help our enemies?

Something else for the GOP to ignore.

Financial disclosures show @MelaniaTrump has been paid six figures by Getty Images since President Trump took office for use of restricted photos of the First Family that are only available to news outlets writing "positive stories" under an unusual deal https://t.co/sPKAF8rRRz pic.twitter.com/jYvulA8PXI

— Anna Massoglia (@annalecta) July 2, 2018

Exactly. China doesn't have to worry about elections either.

It's interesting how a family that has "billions" scrapes for every little bit of revenue they can.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/07/0...imes&smtyp=cur

Well, we're not the only ones going batshit crazy at least.

We're giving children the Abu Ghraib treatment.

Not children, animals. Try to keep up.

One of his best

Now that Harley-Davidson is moving part of its operation out of the U.S., my Administration is working with other Motor Cycle companies who want to move into the U.S. Harley customers are not happy with their move - sales are down 7% in 2017. The U.S. is where the Action is!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

The US is where the action is?

Is this a country or NBCs Wednesday night lineup?

So let me get this straight, Harley moved operations overseas in 2018 and it hurt their 2017 sales? How is Vegas still operating if we are this fucking clairvoyant?

Or can I just do this? Yes, $100,000 on the Eagles to win Superbowl LII please.

I sense new memes coming from Twitter on this bit of stupidity.

So Twitter is "abuzz" this morning about Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio and member of the Freedom Caucus. When he was assistant coach of the Ohio State assistant wrestling team, many wrestlers now coming out and said he covered up sex abuse allegations from the team doctor:


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...l_nbn_20180703

Considering how the Republicans reacted to Roy Moore, Jordan will probably replace Paul Ryan as head of the GOP House after this.

I'm pretty sure the GOP could turn Hastert, Moore, Trump and Jordan into the party of child molesters. I hope the Dems aren't that uncivil.

Thank God for the senate intelligence committee. They are still acting like responsible politicians and bi-partisan. They released a report today confirming the intelligence agencies findings on how Russia influenced the 2016 election and tried to help Trump win it:


http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3...ssian-election


And one of the endless conspiracies coming from the right came to an end today. Imran Awan accepted a plea deal over a false bank loan application and also said they found no evidence that "The Government has uncovered no evidence that your client violated federal law with respect to the House computer system."



He worked for Debbie Wasserman Schultz as an IT specialist, and the right was all over him about hacking the DNC computers prior to the 2016 election and distributing sensitive information to the Pakistan government.


Of course the right has already been on Fox about it the corrupt Justice Department...
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/polit...aud/index.html

There's a GOP delegation in Moscow that plans on holding no press meetings with the Russians and Trump wants to meet with Putin with no other Americans in the room.

Is this a good time to point out that not only have the Russians paid no price for interfering in the 2016 election, they are also already interfering in the 2018 election? It would sure be nice for the Dems to point this out.

Results Matter: PRESIDENT TRUMP Tops Obama in Approval Numbers at Same Point in His Presidency

From a Rasmussen poll

So, one of Obama's bad stretches to Trumps highest moment is something to celebrate? I dunno...

Who cares?

I've been reading the responses to #SecondCivilWar on Twitter. Some pretty good ones if in need of a laugh.

There is a protestor on the statue of Liberty. Looks like it might be a black woman-not sure how she got where she is, but there's a rescue effort underway. They have been talking to her and are working on some ladders and pullers to get to her. They had to close the island.

Hard to believe it took a true american president this long to have a better approval rating than an illegal Muslim one. I think that's the prime takeaway.

Rasmussen isn't exactly the most accurate pollster. They I believe still only call landlines and use automated polling which are less accurate. And they poll approval based on likely voters which skews more Republican.

Polling averages are a better way of doing it. Not sure if they have the historical information readily available for Obama. I don't think there would be a huge difference as the country is pretty split and entrenched into whatever the party tells them.

There's a whole lot to think about here. A lot to unpack about the future, threats, and ability to sell out democracy for political gain that ultimately, ends the republic we have.



SCOTUS battles show danger of changing rules

I'm not sure what to think of the filibuster. On one hand it does prevent radical changes in a sense. On the other, it gives far too much power to the minority party.

Then again the Senate is the most undemocratic part of our government so maybe making it harder for them to do stuff is a good thing.

Finally!:


Embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt resigns - The Washington Post

Of course the guy taking over from Pruitt is a former coal lobbyist, but maybe he won't be as much of an ethics violator.

Frying pan. Fire.

I've been in favor of keeping the filibuster, but only if it's a real filibuster. This means they'd have to stay up all night, miss time with their families, important dinners with big donors, etc. That's a way you could balance it between giving the minority some power and preventing the filibuster from making it essentially a 60 vote requirement to pass anything.

Hopefully Congress and the media hold his feet to the fire if he does make it worse just like they did Pruitt.

I like a temporary filibuster.

Have your committees, debates, amendments, etc. At some point, the majority puts up a final bill.

Then, 41 senators can filibuster that bill for up to 60 days. That gives the people against the bill and in favor of the bill time to make their case to the people.

If, after 60 days, the bill can get 51 votes, then it passes the Senate.

It takes more changes than just the filibuster. The reason it is so easy now is that actual drawn-out filibusters hurt the majority more because they burn legislative time. There isn't much time in between elections, so something like a 60 day filibuster would have to include other rule changes, but if you make things too easy for the majority the 60 day rule is basically an elimination of the filibuster as the majority could just introduce anything and wait for sixty days to vote.

edit: Maybe the answer is some sort of rules change that allows the majority to move things faster during a filibuster, so the minority can still block things, but at the expense of losing on other things.

Pruitt resigns with one of the weirdest resignation letters in at least the last 150 years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/bet-...bor-force.html

BET founder: Trump's economy is bringing black workers back into the labor force

"You have to take encouragement from what's happening in the labor force and the job market," Johnson told "Squawk Box." "When you look at African-American unemployment, ... you've never had African-American unemployment this low and the spread between African-Americans and whites narrowing."

Why acknowledge something that the one half of the 'debate' doesn't care about, this being the half with whome he has even a remote chance of gaining traction with in the future ? Might as well play that sympathy card, hard. And never, ever forget to kiss the ring, even on the way out.

This whole Trump era will be so damn baffling to historians revisiting this in a couple of hundred years when they read this and try to figure if that file is really sorted correctly under "America, 2018" and shouldn't really be under "North Korea (translated), 2018" or maybe "England 1718".

It reads like a creepy love letter.

It totally read like something of revolutionary times, whether on the colonies side or the red coats, take your pick.

Yeah, that too. Or a letter to the pope from the middle ages.

Putin literally was in charge of it.

Trump mocks his critics for saying "'President Putin is KGB' and this and that. You know what? Putin's fine."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 5, 2018

Shorter Pruitt letter:

In Michael Cohen news, he has hired none other than top Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis to be his lawyer, presumably to deal with the Mueller/federal part of whatever deal he can get.

Yeah I hate to always jump in the Trump side here because I don't really care that much about him but the Trump hate/misinformation is almost as bad as what people get fired up about him doing. The Putin/KGB thing is dumb. It's a stepping stone in Russia to move up in government. Just like George HW Bush and the CIA. And yes the CIA and KGB are essentially the same. One could argue they are both evil and have cost many lives but it's not something that is exclusive to the KGB.

The offensive part is Putin is fine.

He jails and kills his opponents. He murders people in foreign countries. He shot down an airliner. He invaded Ukraine. He killed thousands in Chechnya. He helps Assad gas his own people.

Oh, and he attacked our election in 2016 and is already doing it again.

He's not fine and the President of the United States shouldn't be friends with him.

It's unclear what's going on here, but in connection with the rest of Trump's actions it looks bad.

AP NewsBreak: The U.S. Army has moved in recent weeks to discharge dozens of immigrant recruits and reservists who enlisted through a program that promised them a path to citizenship. https://t.co/OFMawYeMRm

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 5, 2018

He's a lot less destructive to the U.S. than the Democratic Party, so he's got that going for him.

Plus, he's simply more likable.

I'm guessing the pictures of a topless man sitting on a horse sets your loins on fire.

Eh, I didn't say the guy wasn't over the top.

But, as being "fine" goes, I hold him in exponentially higher regard than anyone aligned with the (D). He's shows consistently better judgement & acts far more rationally.

If Trump says "hey, Pelosi is 'fine' " then I'll worry. As is, he's just being honest.

Party of Reagan.

So why do you hold Putin higher then Democrats?

What the absolute fuck

Korean media: Trump asked Kim Jong Un, whom he had called Rocket Man, if he knows the Elton John song Rocket Man, and Kim said no, so Pompeo is bringing Kim the CD, which Trump has autographed. https://t.co/Z1EAg4ZaAM

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 6, 2018

I’m Trump will see the funny side of this, he’s known for being able to laugh at himself, right?

Giant 'Trump Baby' could fly over London for president's visit - BBC News

You know I can barely stand politicians with the D by their name neither.

But Trump is a dumpster fire. The party of family values brought in a guy who has none. He represents everything the GOP has traditionally hated. Up until a few years ago, he was a self-professed Dem.

I get not wanting to support the other side. But Trump is not only a valueless, soulless narcissist, he is completely in it for himself and himself alone.

Do like me. Don't support the Dem side OR his idiocy.

I don't know if Jordan will survive this OSU wrestling scandal. It sure sounds like everyone knew and did nothing. It seems like some sort of non-consensual sex scandal is a part of B1G membership.

It's now the party of 4chan

It is funny and Trump deserves it, but am against it because of the precedence it sets.

All of the world's leaders need to be reminded that they can be replaced. People show far too much deference to the powerful. When in doubt, mock the powerful.

Because he thinks every democrat is send to earth by Satan to destroy the heaven on earth that is America.

Conservatives forget history with Trump effigy outrage | TheHill

40+ Years of Saturday Night Live Presidential Parodies

Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics: Anonymous, Joe Klein: 9780812976472: Amazon.com: Books

Or pretty much any satirical editorial cartoon involving presidents.

Fact of the matter is, rulers, including American presidents and foreign leaders, have always been targets for mockery - whether it's something more serious and steeped in a troubled racial past like Obama effigies or something more light-hearted liked the giant Trump baby.

Delve into the literary world (Primary Colors the first to hand at example) and find more.

There's no new established precedent here. It's part and parcel of a society that has the freedoms to protest and skewer its leadership and the leadership of foreign nations - and even in countries where those freedoms aren't guaranteed, you'll still find an underground culture of similar mockeries - frequently all the more potent because of the repression.

I agree. Unfortunately, when it is someone that is supported by the majority of this board, shit hits the fan.

It is a 2 sided coin. Cannot have one without the other.

The party ran a pedophile for the US Senate months back. He'll be fine.

I think understanding how he was able to co-op the party, all the way to the White House,will be the central question asked for a generation.

Just last night he tells the Law and Order party that the Justice Department, FBI and our electoral process is rotten and worthless. It’s mind boggling, he takes down the fundamental tenants of our country to a cheering crowd of Republicans!

It’s just scary because the only way he can say these things is if the crowd/party believe in him more than the country- which I think they do.

I think Trump could turn the Republican party into a environmentalist socialist party right now if he wanted to.

Or, he could go the other way and invade Canada and nuke Cincinnati and his base would follow him that way too.

Those are only slightly more unlikely examples than turning the party of Reagan into the party of Russia.

Such a fascinating guy and a bizarrely effective leader (in the sense of getting people to follow him).

I don't think he has changed the party. It's been this way for decades. Trump if anything just dropped the facade that it was about much more than white nationalism, corruption, and helping rich people.

The law and order stuff has always been a farce. Nixon and Reagan both committed treason. The hatred of feds has long been established. Read some of McVeigh's stuff and it's essentially mainstream right rhetoric today. And corruption is nothing new. I mean Pruitt couldn't hold a candle to what Gorsuch did to the EPA in the 80's.

If anything Trump has been more transparent than any previous Republican in what he and his supporters believe.

He already turned them far left on trade.

It's all true. Jordan on Fox:

Manafort in solitary and locked in a jail cell for 23 hours a day:


Manafort in solitary confinement, lawyers say - CBS News

“I have broken more Elton John records, he seems to have a lot of records. And I, by the way, I don’t have a musical instrument. I don’t have a guitar or an organ. No organ. Elton has an organ. And lots of other people helping. No we’ve broken a lot of records. We’ve broken virtually every record. Because you know, look I only need this space. They need much more room. For basketball, for hockey and all of the sports, they need a lot of room. We don’t need it. We have people in that space. So we break all of these records. Really we do it without like, the musical instruments. This is the only musical: the mouth. And hopefully the brain attached to the mouth. Right? The brain, more important than the mouth, is the brain. The brain is much more important.”

We need to deport these non English speakers.

Hey, you leave Cincinnati out of this!

WTF is that? Is that someone actually talking? It's t-dumb isn't it? ffs, why!?!?!?

That is word for word Trumps speech the other night .... that in itself doesn't scare me as I have figured for a while that he's incoherant .... but people 'cheered' that rambling idiocy ....

I generally like Elton John's music

GOP Senator that spent the 4th in Russia now says that maybe we should just lift those sanctions on Russia.

The precedence is a UK ally/mayor mocking a US president in such a visible, public, and childish way.

Its fine if you want to have protests etc. but a baby Trump blimp?

I absolutely understand that its not directed against the US as a country or people, its a personal with the UK Muslim mayor.

Let's put it this way - if Trump was to retaliate and encourage his 38-42% to come up with a blimp to portray the UK mayor as a radical Muslim during a UK royal state visit (only thing I can think of right now that would be somewhat comparable), would that be appropriate?

CNN has a list of stuff that would be impacted by the US-China trade war.

China-US tariffs: The products targeted by both sides

It seems as if the US will be hurt by increased costs in food & beverages (e.g. we won't export as much) and China will be hurt by vehicles, machinery & related (e.g. we won't buy as much). Don't know what the breakdown is but I don't think this impacts me personally that much.

This is the first salvo, it can get worse I'm sure.

Trump's goal is to reduce the trade deficit and to build more in the US, and I'm certainly supportive of that. If there was a recession, it would be worth it to achieve the stated goals. However, I would feel better if I knew there was a "master 5-year plan" which, deep down, I don't think there is.

I'm okay with doing DNA testing to make sure we reconnect the kids with the right parents, its beyond the child's "human rights" at this stage re: DNA testing and honestly don't see it as the main issue.

The main issue is the last paragraph, it is shocking how we did this without the proper plan/documentation/rigor to really reconnect parent-and-child.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ocates-n889161

Provided it was done in a safe manner, yes. It may make the flyer an asshole, but in the U.S. his/her free speech rights would absolutely allow that.

Sure I get the free speech part. But to have Trump ask his followers to do it is not appropriate (not to say he wouldn't, it just wouldn't be right).

When did Khan ask for his supporters to do this?

And now it seems likely there will be a Khan balloon as well.

No statements from him but he is "allowing" it to happen and the bad history between the two seem to support it. So if not verbally expressed, its implicit.

Yeah, just saw the Khan balloon story. If citizens want to mock their own politician, that's free speech. If citizens from another country want to mock a politician from another country, that's still free speech but doesn't mean its appropriate.

A leader with no empathy, leads with no empathy, plans with no empathy, acts with no empathy. How can you possibly be surprised?

So we can't mock Kim Jong Un?

edit: A better phrasing is "we shouldn't mock"

How, just how, is the whole Bill Shine conversation not at the top of the Trump conversation list, and list any other president, literally, any other, who could have gotten away with that?

World's greatest negotiator...


https://www.nknews.org/2018/07/north...prk-u-s-talks/

How long before NK does exactly what NK does every single time, and we get to watch t-dumb try and say he never said that he solved the NK crisis and made the world safe again?



https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...-un/765232002/

I don't think I said that.

If the crazy kid visits the US, Trump should certainly not ask his supporters to mock the crazy kid.

I do blame Trump for the policy/directive of separating the kids. However, the folks on the ground executing this policy is at fault.

If Trump said do it, the people on the ground should have done it with thought to eventually reconnect parent-to-child without DNA testing.

Again, where did Khan ask for this? He provided a permit.

If I found evidence that Khan did ask/suggest this, would it change your mind?

If yes, I'll dig and see if I can find something. If no, then not really a needed question?

You're using that as the reason why it's wrong, and there's no evidence he asked people to do this. It would put Khan in a much worse light if he planned this and then approved it.

But, yes, in the U.S. I would still put the first amendment over the feelings of the powerful.

This guy makes some good points:

No. Just No. You're removing the responsibility of the policy from the person who put it in place. Leaders don't just throw the bones of policy and law out and then tell the people on the ground "you figure it out."



No, this is exactly what happens when proper laws, and actions are not thought out and planned. It's the kind of thing that takes a great deal of forethought and planning. t-dumb isn't that kind of leader though. People love his leap before look and off the cuff mentality and the result is exactly what you see here.



This is all on him, and his administration. None of this started happening before he directed Justice to do it. Even his EO supposedly ending the policy was hastily written with no real plan of execution. If you leave it to the people on the ground, you end up with 500 different plans, programs and executions. No administrator would choose that as a good outcome.



The blame lies in the no-direction, lack of foresight, lack of empathy leadership that occupies the WH this very moment.

I'm surprised Roger Waters isn't personally flying a Trump balloon.

You are right, I don't see evidence that he asked UK people to do it. I did say

Quote:

No statements from him but he is "allowing" it to happen and the bad history between the two seem to support it. So if not verbally expressed, its implicit.

It's just not beyond belief that he supported/encouraged it. I just don't think its appropriate.

Thanks, I appreciate you giving me some kudos.

My statement in the prior post which I quoted for your benefit qualified my statement re: #1-3 below.

I don't think #4 is fair though.

I fully blame Trump for the policy. His policy was to separate kids from parents. His policy was not do it without a way to reconnect them without DNA. That was poorly executed by whoever was in charge of execution.

Leaders do throw bones of policy (not sure about law) and tell people on the ground to execute it. It happens in business all the time.

Something as complicated, as important as kids and families was going to just be 'figured out on the fly' at entry points all across the border, by different agencies and personnel, is an example of where that's ok?

No, not saying its okay at all. I thought we were talking about where to place the blame for having to use DNA to reconnect parents to kids.

I made the distinction between blame on "policy" and blame on poor "execution".

Good policy generally includes the means to good execution. Poor policy does not. The execution is the the result of the poor policy. You're breaking them apart. I am not.

Is this good enough?

Spoiled for some language