StrangeSox

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Feb 15, 2017 -> 09:28 AM) I think the internet has turned us into Idiocracy. Speaking of fake news, 20th Century Fox Used Fake News to Publicize ‘A Cure for Wellness’

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 15, 2017 -> 09:25 AM) What we're seeing is fairly predictable in what happens when you go from campaigning to governing and people don't have the other candidate to try and balance out their coverage. But that said, this is all moving a lot faster than I thought. I did think he'd have a grace period, and I did think he'd buy press with a bunch of Carrier type deals. But, that really does just seem to be a fluke done by the fact that Pence was governor. Trump went his whole life thinking merely being the center of attention would provide power and people would have to pay attention and respect him if he's President. Now he's President and realizing that it's an actual job that gains respect by recipricating, and showing a seriousness of the position. Going to be a long, long few years. He's doing a speed-run of the Nixon Presidency

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 14, 2017 -> 09:58 PM) lol There's a rift opening up in Congress. Multiple senators and a rep or two are calling for full investigations, chaffetz is dismissing some things but sending letters on others, and some GOP members are shilling as hard as possible, trying to blame the leakers rather than the core problem or openly wondering why they'd ever investigate their own party.

The deep state is real, and strong, and it's my friend.

Came here to post that nyt article, also this House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said Tuesday that those who leaked the contents of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s phone calls “belong in jail.” “That’s nine leakers that all belong in jail,” Nunes said. “Those nine people broke the law, clearly, by leaking classified information to anybody.

Trump admin arrests its first DREAMer. Expect more immigration crackdowns in the future. https://t.co/IDbXnbG0Hq

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 14, 2017 -> 07:47 PM) 15 Republicans voted to see them? Baby steps... No it was a party line vote. That was the fifteen Democrats.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 14, 2017 -> 04:51 PM) Yes, military action under Trump has been my biggest fear all along. I hoped he would be disinterested. I think Mattis is probably the best in his admin, but still think odds of war with Iran are very high. I hoped for the same with Mattis, but the story that came out about the Yemen raid was that he was one of the ones who goaded Trump into approving it by saying Obama was too weak to approve it.

I like that greg's post is literally one post after a Republican Senator openly asks why he would ever investigate a fellow Republican.

At least he's being honest about it: Rand Paul on Flynn: 'Makes no sense' to investigate fellow Republicans

They're in international waters and it happens every time we're going to launch something, apparently. I'm sure we do the same.

Not even a month in, and his own party is having to call for multiple Congressional investigations into his administration. Weeeeee!

Oh look, more breaking news about how deep this scandal goes and how long the administration has known F.B.I. Interviewed Flynn in Trump’s First Days in Office, Officials Say There's also a lot of conflicting messaging from the administration on whether Flynn voluntarily resigned or if he was asked to resign.

Pudzer might be DOA.

Spicer's conference was interesting. They didn't launch Flynn earlier because Democrats were holding up Jeff Sessions' nomination, and they decided weeks ago that this was a trust issue not a legal issue, but despite not trusting Flynn he was still involved in national security briefings as recently as yesterday? Oh and Trump's been very tough on Russia, apparently. Their main argument is that the problem here isn't that Flynn knowingly and deliberately undermined a sitting US President by conspiring with a foreign nation that has had high tensions with the US for years (decades?), it's that he lied to Trump about it. And also it's the DOJ's fault that Flynn had this definitely-not-illegal-nope-just-a-trust-problem and wasn't removed earlier, despite reports that the Sally Yates, the woman Trump fired recently, informed the Trump admin of the concerns surrounding Fylnn 17 days ago.

hey brett any thoughts yet on The Greatest President ever having a compromised Russian stooge as his National Security Advisor despite being told several weeks ago that he was compromised and susceptible to being blackmailed?

In contrast, the head of the House Intelligence Committee is primarily concerned about who leaked the information to the press, not that Trump knowingly had a man who violated the law and undermined a sitting President, lied about it publicly, and was susceptible to Russian blackmail as his National Security Advisor. This seems like a pretty accurate summary of the situation: Option 3 was Reagan's excuse for Iran-Contra.

The only exception that I can think of is when Arcade Fire won several years back, and that pissed off a bunch of people who didn't know who they were.

Ok last post before needing to go get some work done, credit where credit is due: GOP Senate Intel Member: 'Exhaustive' investigation into Trump-Russia connections needed following Flynn resignation

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/831480662620250113

Bannon wants some purges

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 14, 2017 -> 09:51 AM) I really doubt that Collins, Alexander and Paul will all go along with that in Senate, and would bet that it would not even pass the house. Collins and at least one other Rep. Senator whose name escapes me has said that they're a solid "no" on a Medicaid repeal.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 14, 2017 -> 09:46 AM) This article from WaPo is pretty amazing/crazy: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/uph...m=.602ac0c9c74f The effect of cable news coverage/SNL on the president is so crazy, but crazier are the stories of aides shuffling around personalities trying to gain favor. While Trump himself seems to be set to chaos mode all the time, it is more than a little worrying what this looks like in an actual crisis. Sure, he can fight back against narratives when it seems he's sinking, but what happens when a part of the country is about to go under water. What do we get then. I forgot who it was, but back during the campaign, some of his top advisors said that the best way for them to communicate to Trump was through TV interviews since he's obsessed with media coverage. Combine that with reports that he prefers his daily briefings in the forms of pictures and maps rather than multi-page written assessments, and you've painted a picture of a man who isn't exactly very intelligent or at least can't direct his mind to what actually matters.

Conservatives Take A Hard Line On Obamacare Repeal, Putting GOP In A Bind tl;dr the House Freedom Caucus is demanding basically a full repeal of Obamacare with little replacement. That action, which would include removing the Medicaid expansion, is DOA in the Senate unless they blow up the entire filibuster and even then there's a possibility it couldn't pass there and in the House.