caulfield12

Because the right doesn’t actually actually want to have substantive policy decisions about what’s best for the majority of Americans, including independents. What non social-issue/identity politics discussions are held...well, very clearly, the ObamaCare and tax issues drew lots of interesting discussions from different viewpoints. Or net neutrality. Marijuana laws. Prison reform. The problem is there’s simply no overarching strategic political vision or military agenda from this administration. It’s just flying by the seat of its pants. That’s going to limit the discussion, because not much has been accomplished that isn’t 100% partisan, meant to piss off the Left or undo everything Obama ever put into place. Trump’s main goal each morning is to be the person most talked about in the country and the world, no matter the reason. Yet surely, there has to be compromise at some point or the government will stop running this Friday...at least one would hope, until the s***hole comments came out, leaving both sides in an impossible position. Anyone compromising is a sell out and should be primaried, right? Pelosi voted for FISA authorization, get rid of her, too. Feinstein’s not progressive enough...she is too moderate in her old age. ETC. While the majority of Republicans are not racists, they’re certainly making themselves look very anti-minority, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-women. In this type of charged or polarized environment, real discussion is going to be exceedingly difficult. The likes of Stephen Miller or Huckabee Sanders can’t come across as anything but strident partisans, why should we expect more of the average American to somehow elevate the discourse? Lots of those people who voted for the GOP in 2016 are scared to death that their way of life is changing, shifting under their feet...there’s the fear that women and minorities are taking away their promotions/advancement, that they can’t get ahead, that the good/honest jobs are all gone for good to countries they’ve never heard of and they’re not coming back. The world has changed, and nobody in Washington made a plan for how to help everyone in Flyover Territory. (And still haven’t.) The fact of the matter is that there won’t be a return to real unity on anything with Trump as president...he doesn’t want us to talk about anything but him, after all. When you have Pence or Ryan in there, 75% of the “noise” will be gone, too. People will also gradually become less interested in the day to day politics of the moment, unless it’s something that will existentially threaten to change everyone’s way of life, like ObamaCare in 2010 leading to the rise of the Tea Party. The only difference is the next version of Occupy Wall Street is coming in a wave election against the GOP this year, so it’s natural for many to go into hiding instead of attempting to defend the indefensible.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 13, 2018 -> 07:37 AM) That post regularly anymore? Hard to think of any. Admitting to the R word in today's world can cost you your livelihood. That’s quite distinct from the Silicon Valley case. Where has anyone ever lost their job simply for admitting to simply being a Republican? That would be the headline chyron on Fox, Breitbart, Alex Jones and James O’Keefe’s twitter feed for an unending 24 hour loop. Three interesting facts: Only 1/4 of 1% of diversity visa lottery applicants are accepted. 18 countries cannot apply. 50,000 per year max. It’s not the worst of the worst being drawn randomly from a bingo ball machine, as Trump has described it. Trump’s own mother came to the US through chain migration from Scotland. She technically would have been classified as an unskilled domestic worker. Hardly the head of a Norwegian think tank. Emigration from Norway to the U.S. hit its peak in 1882 when almost 29,000 mostly poor Norwegians crossed the Atlantic. In 2016, however, only 1,114 Norwegians moved to the U.S., while 1,603 Americans moved to Norway.

WSJ: National Enquirer Shielded Donald Trump From Playboy Model’s Affair Allegation Tabloid owner American Media agreed to pay $150,000 for story from Karen MacDougal, 1998 Playmate of the Year, but hasn’t published her account https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-enqui...tion-1478309380 Rich Russians Are Traveling to Trump's American Properties to Give Birth and Get Dual Citizenship for Their Babies Oddly, there's been not a peep from the right. https://www.alternet.org/russians-are-trave...ip-their-babies

Trump reportedly had another Playboy centerfold at the same time who was paid $150k for her story by the National Enquirer...but that story was buried by Trump’s good friend who owns that rag paper. Rex Tillerson was scheduled to give a speech on the “Value of Respect” the morning after Trump’s s***hole comments went out. The White House doctor who gave Trump his physical had his name misspelled by someone in the comms department who put out a glowing p.r. statement about Trump’s health, purportedly directly quoting the doctor...which couldn’t possibly have come from him. John Kelly had to take over Trump’s Twitter feed and send out a second message trying to clean up the FISA confusion when the President came out against his own position. White House struggles with muting function for 22 minutes on Iran conference call with reporters...the best of all. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/white-hous...with-reporters/ It actually started with a man talking in Mandarin about chicken. "This White House can't even run a f*cking conference call," a reporter on an unmuted phone line angrily exclaimed to the entire call. "They don't know how to mute their line." "It's the illegitimate media that doesn't know how to conduct themselves. They can't mute their f*cking phones," an unidentified official said. "Mute your phones." Another White House official repeatedly attempted to quiet the noisy line "so the people in charge" could talk. "I think if everyone had half a brain and common sense and muted their phones, this wouldn't be a problem," she yelled in an apparent fit of frustration. "Hello? Hello?," one reporter interjected, some 15 minutes after the slated start of the call. "Has the call started?" "This is Kim Jong Un calling for Donald Trump," another reporter joked as tensions flared.

Shape of Water was very good, but I’m not convinced that film or Lady Bird (prefer Edge of Seventeen, actually) is the best film of the year. Oldman should definitely pick up the win for The Darkest Hour. Three Billboards is the front runner, IMO.

Too bad this guy can’t run. Ujiri, GM of the Raptors, goes after Trump. ”This summer, I went to Kigali and Nairobi and Lagos, and I went to Kampala and Abidjan and Dakar and Johannesburg, and I saw great cities and great people," Ujiri told ESPN on Friday. "And I went to visit the refugee camp in Dadaab, and I met good people and good families with plenty of hope. If those places are being referred to as s***holes, go visit those places, and go meet those people." "I don't think it's fair, and I don't think it's what inspiring leadership can be. What sense of hope are we giving people if you are calling where they live -- and where they're from -- a s***hole? "I've spent a lot of time in the United States and Canada and I am grateful for the opportunities that I've been given by people, and the game of basketball, and the NBA. As leaders, I think we have to give people in many places a chance to have success, not continue to put those people down. "We have to inspire people and give them a sense of hope. We need to bring people along, not ridicule and tear them down. This cannot be the message that we accept from the leader of the free world. "... Just because someone lives in a hut, that doesn't mean that isn't a good person, that that person can't do better, that person isn't capable of being great. And just because it's a hut -- whatever that means -- doesn't mean it's not a home. God doesn't put anyone someplace permanently. I am a living testimony to that. If I grew up in a s***hole, I am proud of my s***hole.”

First stable genius, consensual vs. consequential, on quite a roll...now we get, “not a racist, in a traditional sense (just uninformed and ignorant)” from a member of the MLK extended family https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-not-racist...-205320873.html Trump, Not Racist in a (Bad) Traditional Sense? Paul Ryan continues to play both sides of the fence for when he runs for president https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-ryan-call...-and-unhelpful/ Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday afternoon broke his silence and condemned President Trump's remark about "sh*thole countries" from a day earlier. The Wisconsin Republican was asked about the remark during a Q&A event at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He said that the first thing that came to mind is it's "very unfortunate" and "unhelpful." "I thought about my own family," he said, describing his Irish immigrant relatives who came to the U.S. on what he said were called "coffin ships" and began working the railroads. Eventually, he said, they opened a farm in Wisconsin after they raised enough money. "It's a beautiful story of America," he said. "I see this as a thing to celebrate and I think it's a big part of our strength."

Once again, poor people either don’t vote or don’t vote in their best interests/get sucked in by identity politics Bevin won't admit it, but his plan would force most of those 430,000 people off the federal insurance plan – leaving many of them without a way to pay medical bills. After being asked repeatedly whether those people who earn up to 138 percent of the poverty level would still have health insurance, Bevin said, "They're Kentuckians. They will continue to live in Kentucky if they choose to." While they are Kentuckians, the question is whether they will vote. The Pew Center report used 10 criteria to determine people's financial stability including one that dealt with whether they or anyone in their family received Medicaid, and another that dealt with whether they had trouble paying medical bills in the past year. Of the least secure, 57 percent said they or a family member received Medicaid, and 64 percent said they had had trouble paying medical bills. Only 20 percent of that group were likely to vote in the 2014 election. Of the next least secure group, 25 percent answered "yes" to the Medicaid question. Forty-three percent said they had trouble with medical bills, with 29 percent of them saying they were likely to vote. By contrast, few in the top two groups received Medicaid or had trouble paying bills. Sixty-three percent of the most secure said they were likely to vote in the 2014 election and 51 percent of the second most financially secure group were likely to vote. So, Bevin may be betting with the odds. But if 430,000 longshots come in, they could reshape politics in Kentucky. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/...-vote/30668543/ Steve Beshear, fwiw, would be a legit VP candidate...term limited out as governor

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-ambassador-pan...-163051490.html US Ambassador to Panama resigns https://www.trumphotels.com/panama Was $315 per night, but you can get a discounted rate of only $163 if you say Steve Bannon sucks balls three times when you check in. https://nypost.com/2018/01/12/trump-team-pa...tal-affair/amp/ Guess he likes the Ivanka look...all plastic. Yikes. This will only draw praise from his base, because, let’s face it, even evangelicals fantasize about doing it with a porn star. Only surprise here is it wasn’t Jenna Jameson, Traci Lords, Sasha Grey or Marilyn Chambers, since Trump is all about dating the most famous, like his pursuit of Lady Diana.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/12/t...reaction-337926 So far, only four Republicans have really gone after Trump on this. Rick Scott in Florida, it’s simply a political calculation with such a diverse state that he’s better off siding with the immigrants than with Trump. Flake and Ros-Lehtinen aren’t running again. Both from immigrant heavy states, too. Here’s what Rep. Erik Paulsen (Minnesota, another state with huge immigrant numbers) said on Twitter. It is completely inappropriate for the President to refer to other countries in the manner in which he reportedly did, especially given the circumstances and disasters that led many TPS immigrants to seek refuge and shelter in the US. Also kind of tired of Gillibrand putting her name out there in every obvious opportunity. Why doesn’t the GOP simply admit the American Dream is officially dead to the non-white immigrant world (unless you happen to be from countries like Saudia Arabia, Panama and Indonesia with Trump properties)???

The scary thing here is that Trump could still win in 2020 if the Dems were to run Sanders, Warren or Harris. Donnie Deutsch, who I usually don’t go to for political wisdom...is right on the money. Someone too far to the left and the latent forces of prejudice/racism are really going to come out more openly. It’s getting closer and closer to the point where it’s two separate countries, with the coasts/populated urban areas in opposition to the rural areas. There’s a really good article at politico.com about Alaska (and Colorado would be another) and how it’s turning more and more purple without the national Democratic Party doing a thing about it. And, for what it’s worth, the next huge battleground is the 18th Congressional District on March 13th in SW Pennsylvania. Trump carried it by 20+ points and losing that seat would be even more shocking than AL (Moore handily wins without the pedo allegations). The GOP candidate’s struggling with his fundraising, and Trump and Pence are both scheduled to go there multiple times. https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrBT6Lc61h...4HTUyl36tkqJ2g- Conor Lamb looks like a Dem out of central casting, the reverse of Nicholson in Wisconsin...with an unassailable military record. If that seat goes, you’re going to see double the numbers of GOP Reps bailing out before the expected bloodbath in November. Interestingly, it’s an area that perhaps the only national Dem who can go in there on Lamb’s behalf is probably Joe Biden. Probably.

The sale of the old embassy actually began under the George W. Bush administration. They announced in an Oct. 2, 2008 release -- a month before Barack Obama's election to his first term -- that the U.S. had entered into an agreement with real estate company Ballymore to acquire the new embassy site in southwest London and that the old site "will be offered for sale almost immediately." The sale to Qatari real estate developer Qatari Diar was completed after Obama became president in November 2009, according to The Telegraph. The U.S. Embassy in London is funded entirely from proceeds of sale from other U.S. government property in London, according to the State Department. The State Department examined options for a costly renovation of the embassy in 2006, but that would have required an appropriation of taxpayer dollars and would not have met the most critical security needs. https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trump-cancels-tri...topstories.html Basically, they weren’t going to give him royal treatment, visit with Queen, London Mayor Khan wanted him nowhere near his city....this was the convenient excuse. Like when he disinvited the Warriors from the WH as a pre-emptive strike.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/11/politics/tru...ttom/index.html Trump hits the rock bottom of his presidency (so far) Mia Love (R-Utah and Haitian-American) The congresswoman, one of the few Republican lawmakers who called out Trump, continued: This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took the oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with. They never took a thing from our federal government. They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children. They taught their children to do the same. That’s the American Dream. The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned.

There were supposedly 7-8 witnesses. Lindsey Graham (SC) was one of them. It's not getting walked back, and his base would be furious if he apologized, anyway. Now the tricky part is weathering the storm over immigration next week. He's going to eventually have to PICK a lane. He can't simply defer to "whatever those smart guys in Congress" come up with and go with the flow. This might be his first real act of political courage...in the sense that a wrong move here splits the party even more apart and risks the relationship with his base of supporters.

ObamaCare was supposed to slow down costs. While it's hard to isolate the inflationary effect from the substantive policy impact, it seems to be making the argument that it's working fairly well. I heard a GOP Rep arguing that it's Kaiser Permanente who's doing exceedingly well curtailing costs, but that they're not very indicative of the overall/general trends in the health insurance field.

I can't wait until Don, Jr., Jared and Ivanka get their comeuppance at the hands of Mueller. Even Hope Hicks is going to be out, because she was part of of those meetings about covering up the original Trump Tower meeting with the Russians. Eric will be the only one left standing. The majority of Trump businesses will end up being wounded, if not crippled, due to his time as President. Sadly, that only leaves the likes of Rex Tillerson, Peter Navarro, Stephen Miller and Mike Pence to run the country...along with Mattis, Kelly (who will undoubtedly be replaced or resign when Trump is gone) and McMaster.

Have we already forgotten how people from Ireland, Italy and even Germany were treated when they originally came to Ellis Island? Or how the new British colonies were perceived to be a "s***hole" by the rest of Europe 200-300+ years ago...especially Georgia, as it was a penal colony? But this is the way that Trump really thinks...obviously, no Trump International Hotels, casinos or golf courses in Haiti or Africa. Down with the "blah" people, blah, blah, blah. The irony is that there will really be some outstanding business opportunities in Africa over the next 25-50 years, but, to the Trumps, it's only a hunting ground for wild animals that can hardly fight back against high-powered rifles from long distance.

Just some general poverty statistics, not broken down by working but still considered below poverty line...but it was around 45 million Americans, or 14.5% of US population https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/p..._n_5828974.html One cause of this grim trend could be that U.S. policy makers have increasingly ignored the needs of the very poor. In the latest recovery, the Republican-controlled Congress has slashed billions from the government food-stamp program and ended extended unemployment benefits that were helping more than a million long-term unemployed people. These Census poverty numbers don’t take into account government benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid. That could have a big effect on poverty levels. For example, if food-stamp benefits were counted as income, then about 3.7 million fewer people would be included in poverty, according to the Census Bureau. The annual income threshold for being counted as living in poverty was $11,490 last year for a person and $23,550 for a family of four. Poverty is particularly dire for single mothers: A third of all families headed by single women were in poverty last year — that’s 15.6 million such households. The black poverty rate was 27.2 percent, unchanged from 2012 and higher than 24.3 percent before the recession began. More than 11 million black Americans lived below the poverty level last year. About 42.5 percent of the households headed by single black women were in poverty. The Hispanic poverty rate was 23.5 percent.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2018 -> 08:31 AM) So is a sales tax. How many have a 37-55% rate?

Steve King Steve King @SteveKingIA A DACA Amnesty in exchange for a wall and enforcement would be the LAST deal of a Trump administration. Unless a second amnesty is served up to trade for more enforcement. No civilized nation should be held hostage to amnesty as a requirement to secure its border. 11:21 AM · Jan 11, 2018 from Washington, DC

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 10, 2018 -> 11:37 PM) Estate tax technically isnt double tax on an individual. The first tax was paid by the deceased, the second tax was paid by the heir. The inheritance is income for the receiver and therefore its a taxable event. Its no different than gift tax, etc. But it’s still a double tax on that same money that was originally earned and taxed by an individual. The money to pay the tax is likely coming from the same source, or borrowing against it (collateralizing). Which is one of the reasons the tax basis of the original investment portfolio/trust is bumped up to day of death...or 30 days subsequent to that.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option...p;jumival=20885 Oprah 2020? A progressive’s take

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 10, 2018 -> 10:46 PM) You are right, it would disproportionately help people who make more money. That being said, I do think that state and local taxes should be deductible. I could be wrong, but I believe that the state doesnt tax you on the money that you pay to the fed, so it should be reciprocal. Although they're different rates, you shouldn't get double-taxed. Cue the Estate Tax argument (again).

We've got some interesting names outside of the Top 10 now. Ryan Cordell, Burdi, Adolfo, Luis Gonzalez, Jordan Stephens, Polo...just off the top of my head. Let's cross our fingers that of Burger, Collins and Rutherford, we get at least 2 productive (2.5+ WAR) contributors from that trio.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/09/middleeast/i...intl/index.html Netanyahu’s son not making things any easier for Trump admin’s Israel policies