I think it's brought up because he was one of the most vocal complainers of Obama playing golf and vacationing.

Trump hiring freeze forces suspension of military child care programs

Breibart.fired.Milo

Maher's interview this week on his show was fantastic. I had heard he got some heat for bringing him on the show, but I agree with Maher that just seeing Milo's mannerisms and how he spoke during the interview to Maher and to the crowd was very enlightening. I don't always agree with Maher, but I love that he brings all the extreme conservatives on his show and just lets them hang themselves in front of a national audience. The extreme liberals often do the same, with the only difference being that he talks them back from the edge every once in awhile.

dola

One of my good friends is in the bottom left of this photo. He was invited to a small business meeting with other business owners to talk with VP Pence. Pretty exciting moment for him.

According to Spicer, States should decide policy on transgender issues, but the Federal government should decide policy on marijuana.

Got it. :rolleyes:

Could someone spell out for me the argument in favor of the coal-ash-in-streams repeal? It reasons against seem self-evident, but other than "job creation", I'm not sure what people in my neck of the woods (Indiana) are seeing as such a positive here.

I understand that part of it is anti-regulatory sentiment...but I'm assuming there's a legitimate bone to pick somewhere between the coal industry and the extent of the regulations beyond just "Yay, we can dump coal ash in streams again!!"

It's about jobs. West Virginia's economy is collapsing because the loss of coal jobs and the state has done little to help the heavy coal areas in southern WV move on with a viable economic alternative. This has led to huge spikes in drug use and drug related deaths in the area.

My family, which is heavy Democrat in most beliefs, was willing to vote for whoever promised to make coal viable again because of the impact its had on the area they live in.

They understand its bad for the environment, but in an area with little to no other options they're willing to allow another generation to have to figure out if it means immediate improvement.

I'm all for tax reform and am looking forward to seeing the details.

Mnuchin says Trump tax overhaul could happen by August - LA Times

Okay. I can see this argument in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I'm a bit confused by all of the Indiana support I'm seeing in my news feed. I mean, we have coal mines, but I don't consider it a major part of our economy...and I theoretically live in what would be the closest thing we've got to coal country.

The profile of the cheer squad tends to also be the pro-hunt and fish/outdoorsmen/second amendment guys...who generally aren't like environmental activists, but they're very solid proponents of responsible use and conservation.

So either they're completely blinded by partisan nose-thumbing (which is possible in some cases), but in general, it leads me to assume that there's something I'm missing. But I can't get anybody to say anything other than "more jobs"...despite the fact that none of them seem to be in line to get (or want) coal mining jobs.

I almost feel like people with reservations are afraid to talk this one out because they're afraid of being accused of being a snowflake (at least publicly...may be time for a beer-and-range-time get together to find out what they're really thinking).

Don't mistake me here: I'm not all go-environmental-superpowers on this issue. I spent $20k to replace my well last November. If some coal mining outfit poisons my groundwater because they're not being conscientious about the impacts, that's what I'm going to care about.

And I'm going to get compensated for that 20k or I'm going to take 20k worth of equity plus whatever it's going to cost me to haul water in from that point forward out of your operation in one fashion or another until our losses are even.

But that's me. I'm kind of an asshole that way. (In the same way that I supply half of my power through solar...not because of the environmental benefits, but because I've got an ROI of about 7 years, and after that it's pure savings.)

FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories


The White House's attempts to control and undermine the media remain a truly scary thing to me.



I have no idea how big a deal that is. /shurg

Rich people will pay less in taxes. Debt will grow higher. That's the plan. Trump outlined it in the campaign.

The sad thing is that the coal jobs are gone because coal is economically on par with natural gas, and if Trump reduces regulations on fracking, gas will likely be cheaper.

Rich people will pay more. Not sure about Debt if there is cost cutting and economic growth. I am interested in proposed plans for corporate, border taxes.

What makes you think rich people will pay more?

Under what plan will they pay more? His plan is right here. It's a cut of over 14% for the top income tax bracket.

The proposed plan for corporate taxes is to lower the rate to 15% and give businesses a 10% holiday to repatriate income.

And where are you cutting costs from? Especially when Trump has stated he wants to expand the military and institute a trillion dollar infrastructure plan (which isn't really an infrastructure plan but a corporate welfare plan).

Print more money?

Oh sorry, rich people will pay less.

There's plenty of places of cut costs. It comes down to who gets the crappy end of it and/or how much pain affected people will have to bear.

I have no doubt trumps base approves of him so far. I wonder how effective he really needs to be. I'm sure his base loves the Obamacare repeal, building the wall, keeping radicals out, drilling for oil, saving babies despite (so far) the lack of legislation to make it real. But is that enough? I suspect most of his declarations do not have much impact on his base, so a toothless EO is nearly the same as law: most don't have private insurance, don't see many illegals or Muslims, and gas is cheap and babies are born. The poor rust belts folks are real, and need real change, but I'm sure there are fewer of them than well off trump voters. Besides, even if it doesn't get better, the media and courts have already been set up to be the reason.

I guess I'm just surprised how many times I've heard that an action by trump is overturning an Obama action i never knew about. trumps ability to control/create the narrivite is so powerful, I'm not sure effective it really needs to be.

Trump's tax plan alone was scored at about a trillion a year. There isn't enough to cut unless he plans on deep cuts to SS and/or Medicare, and he promised not to cut those.

Cut costs where? Most of our budget goes into Medicare, Social Security, Defense, and paying back debt. Trump has stated numerous times he will not cut Medicare or Social Security. He has also stated he wants to increase defense spending by a lot.

So again, where are the cuts coming from and how can they possibly make up for the increases in spending he wants to make in defense and infrastructure along with the decrease in tax revenue?

No.

He has said many things that I felt were BS. However, he is in a different stage now. Let's give him a chance to do/propose what he says he will do and I don't think entitlements are off the table.

Bottom line - we should know by now to not believe what he says but lets see what he actually proposes to congress.

But, just so we're beginning at the same starting point, this isn't what Trump has said. He's said that his tax plan will be revenue neutral. The proposed budget isn't based on cutting costs.

This gets you to the discussion of a few pages ago, that to lower taxes and be revenue neutral, growth has to take off. If you use the CBO's forecast numbers, the math doesn't work, so the White House will have be convincing that its own numbers are better and to be trusted.

Or they can win, you know, a party line vote.

Straight cash economic growth, homie. It will be tremendous!

The President Of The United States is hate-tweeting the FBI this morning.

He can't be dumb enough to not see the irony in his constant decrying of leaks, right?

I think Hillary should hold a press conference to extol the leaks and ask Russia for more.

Trump at CPAC:


Does he really believe he's the first person courageous enough to speak out against Obamacare?

Harambe is more cognitively sound than Cheeto right now.

If nobody has been saying that it doesn't work, doesn't that mean it does work, so that repealing it is idiotic?

Of the numerous things that Trump rails on about...his criticisms of the FBI and CIA are some of the least objectionable to me.

First one willing & able to do something about it would be the (seemingly) obvious qualifier here.

except he can't do anything, its up to Congress.

After the Constitutional Convention he will be able to do anything the eff he wants. Keep up.

Presidents influence Congress -- or legislative priorities if you prefer -- that's a rather long-standing accepted reality (or at least I thought it was).

Me? I'm just happy someone with a rather sizable pulpit is willing to speak against such an abominable & utterly indefensible piece of legislation. You're free to be unhappy about it if you so choose.

Next achievement unlocked on the Dictatorship Checklist: Ban the Media

Log In - New York Times

Spicey needs his safe space.

Counting down for the inevitable posts about how this is exactly the same as what Obama did to Fox News and we're all hypocrites for not complaining about it then.

10
9
8
...

If you strike this down, single payer will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

So who else here has made some big money as a paid protester? So far I've made $11k in just over a month.

Just putting this here so that it hopefully ends up in search results for conspiracy searchers

:lol:

Am paid protester :D

Exactly what I'd expect from a paid protester.

Easy money!

It's actually hard. I've had to travel to 7 different states. It's actually cost me 13k just for travel and rooms. Good thing I don't have a full time job outside of this. And since it's slush money, no taxes, so I get to keep my Obamacare/phone/WIC/stamps/disabilty/unemployment/madeupstuff.

again, this is for Wayne LaPierre's eyes

Or is that exactly what you'd expect from someone pretending to be a paid protester.

I was thinking of becoming a paid protester, but after looking at the numbers, my pay from Al Gore for spreading AGW propaganda online is still higher.

Wall is to start in El Paso. Does Congress have to approve funding for it?

Trump border wall to start in El Paso, 2 sites in Arizona, California

Yes, though he could probably pull funds from somewhere else in the homeland security budget to at least start it. He'd need congress to give him money at some point.

What are the odds the wall is ever finished?

So this is hell.

So he'll essentially make America less secure in order to build a useless structure. Makes sense.

A wall across the whole border? I'd say slim to none. I think they'll patch up some areas and build some walls in trouble areas and claim they "built the wall".

2%

I think that's high if we're literally talking about a wall covering the entire border.

I think one way or another a Trump wall will be built. Regardless of what the wall turns out to be (complete end-to-end wall or partial wall), he'll explain it away if needed and claim victory anyway.

I'll bet its higher than 2%.

Let's get started! I want to see how this turns out.

Phase one of the wall is supposedly 26 or so miles. Which I immediately had the semi racist thought that Mexico was going to start challenging the Kenyan's stronghold on the Olympic Marathon.

So last September, I ran the Long Beach Marathon and about half way through strained my knee and had to walk the rest. The back end of the marathon was being run back along the path toward the finish line. And the first place guy was coming along the other way not long after I hurt my knee. Sure enough, it was a Kenyan or Nigerian runner.

I briefly debated the merits of crossing the rope to the other path and diving at his knees. Pathetically, though, I was pretty sure I would miss on the bum knee.

Wrong side of the continent.

Hey, when the wall gets to 60 miles or so, watch out.

Correct. I was thinking Ethiopian.

Okla. AG's office confirms Pruitt used private email for state business


Lock him up?

Who is Nils Bildt?

Fox News literally called someone a Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor despite nobody in the Swedish government having any idea who he is. Apparently this was done solely to feed the narrative to their idiot viewers that Trump's comments weren't as bad as they really were.

It's just OK, no one really cares about a state full of earthquakes.

An old high school friend told Nancy Pelosi to get off TV and go to church this AM. I guess she was on a morning show.

Doesn't that just mean the FB friend was just watching TV and not at church at the same time?

So Trump eats well done steaks with ketchup? I think that should piss off his base more than if he gave a hug to a Muslim Mexican illegal.

It's the most disgusting thing about him I've heard of yet.

#NotMyPresident

He has the refinement of a 6 year old, it makes sense.

The ketchup part doesn't bother me at all, because if you order it medium well or higher, then you might as well smother it in ketchup or some kind of sauce.

And healthcare is complicated. Who knew?

In other news, the sky is blue.

Dubya says the media is “indispensable to democracy" and questions need to be answered regarding the Trump administration's connections to Russia, and now people are calling Bush a "leftist", part of the "establishment" and an Obama supporter. My oh my.

George W. Bush undercuts Donald Trump after staying silent on Barack Obama - Washington Times

Left without comment...

Kellyanne Conway checks her phone after taking a photo of President Donald Trump and leaders of black universities, colleges in Oval Office pic.twitter.com/MgVhCoJFuC

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 28, 2017

Evidently he says in a Fox News interview that Obama is organizing the protests and leaks (with possibly the most "leading" question ever). I feel like if you phrased it right, you could get him to agree that mole people live under the white house.

See guys, segregation was really just proto-school choice.

adam harris on Twitter: "Inbox: @BetsyDeVosED statement on today's meeting with HBCU leaders https://t.co/J7SvKFjlcB"

How is this our government in 2017?

Colored only water fountains were an example of America's entrepreneurial spirit!

She had just taken a photo of the group with her phone.

Yeah tbh checking if a photo is decent is something everyone does surely ?

(much as I detest her approach to media relations etc. - I don't see any scandal here)

I find it disturbing that she's sitting on the couch like a 7 year old girl. You're in the Presiden't office.

Ya, let's just focus on the illegal conduct of the administration and not worry so much about someone checking kneeling on a sofa and checking their phone. Remember when some Republicans got in a tizzy when Obama was photographed with his feet on the oval office desk? If you're followed around almost 24/7 you're going to have casual non camera-friendly moments. I think we're going to see a LOT of those this administration when the media has no reason to show the respect that they might usually show for the office.

Yeah, I think I'm a little more worried about the $54 billion defense spending increase he wants. How much fucking money do we need to spend on "defense"?

Trump's guests tonight will be families of people killed by illegals, indicating that there will be a focus on justifying those areas of his policies.

I have no idea the answer to this, and don't have time to look it up the rest of today; how does the murder rate among undocumented immigrants compare to the general population and to those with similar income?

Hate Conway, but who really gives a crap about how she sits on the couch?

Its like Nicole Kidman's clapping for me. Famous person does normal thing weirdly.

Still trying to wrap my head around this literal vs serious interpretation of trump. When he said I have a great plan to replace aca and a secret plan to defeat isis, those were taken seriously by his voters, but not literally? So his voters knew he didn't have a plan, but he would listen to people who align with views? (Free market and hawkish in this case)

I think the study was just general crime, with the obvious caveat that they tried to adjust for their undocumented status and that it could be under-reported to not get themselves deported for reporting a crime. But the study found that crime is actually lower in areas with larger illegal immigrant population, even adjusting for under-reporting.


There was a podcast that broke the study down about a month ago, but I can't recall which one it was that I was listening to.

Immigration and crime: What does the research say?
Urban crime rates and the changing face of immigration: Evidence across four decades: Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice: Vol 15, No 1

I wish those articles would distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.

There's not much that focuses on legal vs illegal, but Cato argues that the rate is consistent across the two populations.

Education Secretary DeVos: [Sound Of Me Spitting Out Coffee, Falling Out Of Chair]


Wtf kind of drugs is this administration on that they decided that this was a totally normal line of thinking in regards to their platform? As the article breaks down...

In the last day he said Obama is behind the protests, Democrats are behind the Jewish bomb threats, and that the military is to blame for the SEAL's death in Yemen. I don't know that you can really quantify DeVos' release as the craziest thing that's been said in the last 24 hours, let alone the last 39 days.

Is there a group they've managed not to insult so far? They've gone after the press, FBI, CIA, military, teachers, liberals, LBGTQ, hispanics, jews, blacks, Europeans, Australians, Muslims/middle-easterns... There's children and straight-white-Republican males, that's really all that's left to insult.

Claiming anything is offensive about this administration just excites the base even more.

The DeVos press release is ignorant on a level I can't believe came from a U.S. President's administration. But hey, she wants to do something different so it has to be better.

The comment by Trump that claimed at the same time that his administration has the most respected generals in decades while placing all of the blame for the SEAL's death on them was incredible. I don't know how else to describe it.

This administration continues to operate on a level the rest of us just don't understand yet.

In the race for most offensive things the administration has said, I think this is an early lock to make the playoffs...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.2984866

He's probably just getting his information from here (please note, I can't prove this site won't infect you with Russian malware or stupidity):

Shocking List Of Official Proven False Flag Attacks - Your News Wire

I don't give a crap how she sits on a couch generally, I just think that in her capacity in that room it's incredibly unprofessional.

How will Trump sell a pathway to citizenship to his base, or will they not care if they get their wall.

He won't. Fox News will run a story on it that will be mildly critical and he'll change his mind.