This thread has taken a strange tangent and for that I apologize


So how bout that potential government shutdown on Friday?

Government Shutdown Begins as Budget Talks Falter in Senate - The New York Times

Usually they're so good at getting things done and reaching a consensus.

That's from the January one. Although I can see why people could be fooled, because apparently you don't have to put congress's feet to the fire to get them to do something, the whole foot has to be a charred wreck and the pant legs merrily blazing away before they do anything.

Nobody has the courage to say no to Donald.

Gah! History repeats itself often I guess.

Here's a newer link

Congress Stymied on $1.3 Trillion Bill With Days to Go Before Shutdown - Bloomberg

Trump’s national security advisers warned him not to congratulate Putin. He did it anyway.

It's OK, other reports say he often doesn't read his briefing materials before meeting with world leaders. How was he to know?

Seems like there is almost more talk that somebody on the senior staff had to have leaked this to the press than the actual Trump congratulating Putin. Have to wonder who it could be at this point after all the changes Trump's made with his staff.

I bet he looks like this

well if I knew what the reference was from, I'd likely agree :)

Bro, Game of Thrones :)

Ah I've only read the books :)

Is the swamp drained yet?

FBI deputy fired by Sessions was leading criminal probe into Sessions

Saccone finally concedes in the PA election:

Saccone concedes Pennsylvania House special election to Lamb | TheHill

And now our current President and former Vice President have engaged one another in a public war of words over which one could kick the other's ass.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Let's settle this like men....

New main event for Wrestlemania?

I'd pay a lot to see Trump forced to exert himself in such a way.

My thought process:

Hmm. That doesn't sound like Obama.

OH, Vice-President.

Yeah, Biden would totally do that.

Would buy the PPV.

Please tweet Dana White

Would a Biden/Obama ticket happen?

It's awesome to see the first lady making a difference with her cyber bullying campaign.

Is this really that uncommon? In a different political environment we would probably bring the dueling guns out of retirement and let them settle this like the gentlemen they clearly are.

No it's not.

It's completely pointless and distracting from the real uses at hand. Honestly, it's not even worth commenting on.

I swear, if the democrats can't find someone under 70, who is an actual leader, with evolved thoughts and plans they are seriously fucked.

Its time for boomers to step aside.

5th largest Dow drop in history. Too cynical to suggest that his inner circle have probably made millions off of it?

I’m sure these 19th century economics are going to pay off eventually though.

Just wait for the trickle down. We’ll all be just fine.

How long before it is the Fake Stock Market? Or Rigged Stock Market?

Everything is working against this poor guy who was born on third base.

McMaster out. Bolton in.

The thing is, the average voter shouldn't give a shit about the Dow. Trump is the one that's made the average voters aware of if though by basing his economic success on it.

Why shouldn't average voters care about the Dow?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure if I’m a few weeks away from retirement I care than 5-10% just got wiped off my 401k.

Rand Paul is doing some serious grandstanding on twitter but this one here seems reasonable.

eyes getting tired but really someone should read this beast.

Page 392 sec 9007: no $ shall be spent “for the permanent stationing of US forces in Afghanistan”

Wonder what they meant by permanent? Some might argue that after 16 years we approaching the definition of permanent.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 22, 2018

Cool, replace an actual General with an unapologetic draft-dodger who wants to declare war on everyone. Gets better all the time...:banghead:

And Trump's lead lawyer on Russia out, John Dowd as well. Figured at least one of them would be leaving when he brought the new guy in this week. And at least four other lawyers/law firms said no to joining his team.

They should just name Hannity to the open Communication Director job and the take over of the govt by Fox News will be complete.

If you own enough stock to care about the ups and downs of the market, you aren't an average voter. 90% of the public shares 20% of the value of stocks while 10% shares the remaining 80% of value.

If it will pass without him he'l vote against it, but if it won't he'll reluctantly vote for a flawed bill.

I feel sick to my stomach about the world our kids are going to be left with if shit doesn't turn around quick.

John Bolton, HR McMaster’s replacement as national security adviser, explained - Vox

yeah, well, fuck ...

Andrew Jackson and Aaron Burr approve of this! Alexander Hamilton, not so much...
Has there ever been any ruling on the constitutionality of such a maneuver since the 22nd Amendment was passed? I like Obama & Bill Clinton well enough (and certainly compared to the retread boomers who just won't go away), but in actuality that seems pretty close to what Putin did in Russia.

The way I read the amendment technically it only bars electing a President who has already served 2 terms. i.e. Biden/Obama could run & Biden could resign the day after he's sworn in and it wouldn't violate the letter of the law, unless there's been additional clarification (or my quick google search is showing me an abridged text.)

Twelfth Amendment answers your question, Bishop.

Nobody ineligible to be President is eligible to serve as Vice-President.

As Obama has already served two full terms, he is ineligible to be further elected as President as matters currently stand. As a result, he is also ineligible to serve as Vice-President.

Now, I think there IS a loophole in the Constitution that could get Obama back into the White House. As you point out, the 22nd only talks about the election of a President. Obama cannot be elected President again, which means he can't be elected Vice-President, either.

But the Presidential succession extends further than that. He could be elected to the House of Representatives and, if Democrats controlled the chamber, become Speaker of the House. If that happened, and the Presidency and Vice-Presidency were vacated at the same time for any reason, he would probably be eligible to ascend directly to the Presidency to complete the current term of office (but could not stand for re-election). Likewise if any future Democratic President appointed him to the Cabinet (albeit he'd be much further down the line of succession in such a case).

But the 22nd says he couldn't then (nor can he now) be elected President again, and the 12th says nobody who's ineligible to be elected President may be elected VP. So absent a fringe case like the immediately preceding, that's your answer.

Has there ever been an emptier threat than Trump's threat he'll veto the spending bill and close the government because the Dreamers aren't taken care of?

Oh he'd veto it - not because of the 'Dreamers' but because it shows he has the power to do so ... and it makes him feel 'big' ..

Get your popcorn ready. The tweets, misdirection and chaos this weekend will be spectacular with the 60 Minutes interview coming up and we all know how much the Dotard cares about what people say to the media (see Biden).

Trump's still willing to shutdown the government over not getting funding for something Mexico is going to pay for.

Trump is signing the bill. He says nobody read it but he's going to sign it. His reasoning is that the military needs more money.

Remarkable: Trump is essentially conceding he just got rolled by Congress. Claims he was “forced” to sign spending bill. When he campaigned for president, he said he was smarter than all the “stupid” politicians in Washington and would get his way

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 23, 2018

This is the last time you can punch me in the face!

I was reading through a lot of his posts and comments on Twitter about the Omnibus. A lot of his base apparently did want him to veto it, and are unhappy he didn't. Plus they didn't include money for his wall, and did include (apparently) some funding for Planned Parenthood, Sanctuary Cities, and others things Dems wanted.

That's what they call The Art of the Deal.

Dems really got a lot of what they wanted, Trump didn't get very much:

GOP Congress rebuffs Trump and goes on a spending spree - POLITICO

NEW: When Trump threatened to veto the spending bill this morning, aides warned him that he might catch blame for shutting down the government on a weekend he planned to spend at Mar-a-Lago.

“F— that,” the president replied. https://t.co/AOnFQwRx11

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) March 23, 2018

So he wanted to veto the bill but ultimately decided he couldn't let the job of governing get in the way of his weekend golfing plans.

We've never had a weaker President. He's all plumage and no beak.

Yep his base is not happy with him:

Coulter, Drudge blast Trump for signing spending bill | TheHill

The good news is that we probably aren't going to war with him in office once he finds out that golfing while troops are dying isn't a good look.

I don't know what's funnier, Trump hiring DiGenova or DiGenova possibly turning down the job.

Trump bans most transgender Americans from serving in the military

:::sigh::: does he really think he'll win back his base with this? Yet another court battle he's going to lose.

Thanks. Figured it was way too obvious a loophole not to mention whether they could be elected as VP, should've guessed it was covered in an earlier amendment.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, they are so afraid of Democrats winning the two special elections they are required to hold by state law, they are defying a judge's orders, and are going to have a special session...just so they can change the election laws so they don't have to have the elections:

Wisconsin GOP will tinker with election laws rather than follow court order | TheHill

How will voters and electoral officials deal with two separate races in separate districts occurring at the same time...that never happens ;)

Trump's base has something they can be happy about. There is language in the Omnibus bill banning ACORN from getting any federal funding.

It’s kind of moot now as the legislature is wrapping up its business. But those greasy Republicans have been orchestrating it this whole time, from the timing of the seats opening up to not scheduling elections. I hope they get destroyed this fall.

This isn't just about votes in the legislature. State office holders do a lot of constituency service, from ceremonial duties to help navigating the state bureaucracy. Keeping these seats open causes real harm to the people in those districts.

yeah the reasons they use to justify their actions in situations like this have become pretty laughable. I mean its an election, not something where people are going to riot or cause chaos. (normally)

I had to go look it up because I was pretty sure ACORN no longer existed. Thank God the Republicans were there to stop a non-existant group from getting federal funds.

There is also an anti-porn "rider" in it. To make sure it was enforced they added it four times. Of course legal experts say its completely meaningless but...

Here Is The Single Dumbest Thing In The Government Spending Bill | HuffPost

I thought I had read they were going to have a special session just so they could change the law?

It's going to be this week or very soon, before any election would take place.


True, I didn't consider that aspect.

The porn thing is weird since you'd think they'd drop the "family values" act after making Trump their party leader. Guy was banging porn stars.

yes and make sure to watch 60 Minutes on Sunday to get all the details! :)

I'm hope I'm wrong but I think nothing major will come out of that interview. It will be about Stormy Daniels promoting Stormy Daniels.

Not sure which is worse -- that or Pennsylvania, where the GOP is trying to impeach judges who ruled against their gerrymander.

They kinda have to. It's that or contempt of court.

But it's this fucked double jeopardy bullshit because the affected districts won't have representation in a vote designed to deny them representation for at least another 7 months.

Bonus fun? If Walker had called the elections when those Senators first resigned to join his Administration, the special elections could have been on Tuesday's ballot. Yeah, wankery because the legislature will be out of session the rest of the year, but the court bullshit never needed to happen.

There never needed to be a separate election to cost the state additional money.

And there never needed to be this appearance of 'oh shit we're afraid we're gonna lose hold onto power by any means necessary,' whether that's actually what's going on or not.

But nobody ever went broke betting on the WI GOP to do the dumbest fucking thing imaginable at the worst possible moment.

There's an election on Tuesday (or possibly a week from Tuesday) to select a Supreme Court justice, among other things. It's too late for the special election to be on that ballot because Walker and the WI-GOP spent four months going THE VACANCIES HAPPENED LAST DECEMBER THEY DON'T COUNT TRA LA LA.

But, y'know. Details, right?

It's been in every spending bill since Republicans took back control of Congress during the Obama Administration. Just like they had to vote to repeal ACA 69 billion times so every new crop of freshmen Republicans could vote against ACA to fulfill a campaign pledge, every spending bill since 2011 has had the anti-ACORN provision in it.

I think most of the time was spent being spooked they lost a state senate seat in St. Croix, Pierce, and Polk Counties by 11 points.

Almost certainly. But there was still a period of a couple weeks where Walker could have called the special elections before that happened. Had he done so, there wouldn't have been a court case, they'd be on the upcoming ballot, and they wouldn't look like they were pissing their pants at the prospect of losing historically double-digit-Republican seats.

Instead, he went 'nah I don't gotta the law only requires that if they're vacated after the new year,' Democrats won the seat you mentioned, and the pants-wetting began.

And now they're talking about changing the law to make sure they can harm a group of their own godforsaken constituents against a court order.

Cowards or assholes. No middle ground.

Thanks for chiming in on this Sack. So is there any movement by Dems to impeach Walker? Most people in Wis fed up about him and R's actions?

From WaPo:

He is up for re-election this year. Lots of Dems vying for the nomination. Hopefully we are smart enough not to nominate Paul Soglin, Mayor of Madison. Not that I dislike Soglin, but he will not play well statewide.

Hopefully the Dems don't blow this. Walker's practically gift-wrapped the governorship for them.

Dems have been energized against Walker for eight years and he's still survived a recall and regular election. Problem is that he's never faced an opponent that can either a) Win the western swing counties or b) energize turnout in Milwaukee and Madison.

Not quite sure who that right person is in this crowded primary in 2018.

Well Trump can tweet about his damn Wall again (the amount budgeted in the Omnibus is a down payment). And how we shouldn't believe the fake news about the law firms that don't want to represent him, but any tweets about the marches throughout the country yesterday? Nada.

Trump claims many lawyers want to represent him: 'Don’t believe the Fake News narrative' | TheHill

CPR is enough to save gunshot victims, right?

Santorum: Instead of calling for gun laws, kids should take CPR classes

Yea. Shame on them for marching on Washington where Congress is supposedly representing the wants of the people.

And now the latest 2 attorneys who were joining his team are not.

Trump really needs to mix up his tweets. Claim false = true.

First Aid is never a bad thing to learn and would probably be a more effective solution at savings lives than marching.

Not if the marches turn into votes that pass meaningful legislation that actually does reduce gun deaths.

As a side note, I was going to type all of the things Santorum got wrong in his interview there, but instead I just googled "santorum."

And the odds of that happening is about the same as the Cleveland Browns winning the Super Bowl next season.

I'm pretty sure they don't have to choose one or the other. Walking out of school for a day does not prevent one from also learning CPR.

Ya know, the one thing I would have thought Trump had a handle on was the timing of his tweets:

Trump’s legal team in flux as he reverses decision to hire controversial pair - POLITICO

Good point. I mean, it's not like protests, marching, organizing people to vote and the like have ever accomplished anything in the U.S.

They should just learn CPR so they can try to save the lives of the friends and fellow students as they lie dying from gunshot wounds. Just think of all of the lives those six and seven year-olds could have saved at Sandy Hook had they just learned CPR in kindergarten.

Said somebody, everytime before every meaningful change, since at least Plato.

”Now, in my opinion, the procession of the native inhabitants was fine; but the one the Thracians conducted was no less fitting a show. After we had prayed and looked on, we went off toward town.”

So no one should learn first aid because it wouldn't have worked in your narrow scenario? Learning first aid has benefits far beyond gun shootings.

So what do you think the odds are of effective gun legislation happening because of these marches?

What's preventing them from learning CPR? I don't understand.

Gun control issues are going to be front and center in a number of campaigns this year. That's in part due to the organized efforts of those calling for gun control. Federal laws are tough because one party is committed to no legislation and the President is a wildcard, but I'd expect local and state level bills in many locations.

They are higher than without them. But hey, why even strive for something that is hard to achieve ? Next people will say they are only doing it to shirk moving the lawn or doing their homework. Bloody entitled little brats ...



No one actually said that.

You have taken/presented the position that knowing CPR somehow makes these protests redundant, no one said that doing these protests (or even improved gun regulation) makes CPR redundant.

And what you call "a solution" is actually just another treatment for the symptoms with which one can pat oneself on the back and feel good about doing something.

I mean, it isn't the same level as arming teachers but the line of argument is not without similarities.