Gifting the United States, with the Worst

All of the grinning Republican mogwai are dancing and throwing confetti. The Republican masses hoped for the best, but it is not turning out well.


Rotten!


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/...n=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

"But aren’t politicians always cynical? Not to this degree," Krugman writes. "This whole process involves a level of bad faith we haven’t seen in U.S. politics since the days when defenders of slavery physically assaulted their political foes on the Senate floor."


For Krugman, "the rot is wide as well as deep."


https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/paul-krugman-entire-republican-party-rotten-core

Krugman argues there's only one solution: sweep the entire party out of office. "Until or unless that happens," he concludes, "there’s no telling how low the G.O.P. will sink."


·


Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
·
9h
What I find remarkable is that so many Senators seem blindsided by the bad numbers, which were totally predictable. They really believed in Mnuchin's mnonexistent study; really didn't think JCT would mirror other analyses



Paul Krugman

@paulkrugman
What this tells you is that even McCain, Collins, Murkowski et al live in the conservative media and intellectual bubble. They didn't know what any regular reader of the NYT, WaPo, etc. knew. They trusted obviously untrustworthy people



Paul Krugman

@paulkrugman
·
22h
Republicans’ Tax Lies Show the Rot Spreads Wide and Runs Deep via @NYTimes





Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
·
Nov 30
Hard as it may be to believe, I suspect that many Republicans didn't see this coming. As I've said before, they don't even know what serious analysis looks like, and thought that Heritage and the Tax Foundation were credible

Voting at midnight ?

Friday night in America
A group of old white men are about to give America to international conglomerate corporations. This is why the men in my family died on the battlefield ? This tax bill is making a mockery of the Constitution.

Right Now The Senate is voting on amendments after the Republicans released a revised tax bill with significant changes


Elizabeth Warren
@SenWarren
·
45m
The @SenateGOP just voted against protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security from future cuts. Make no mistake: they’re on the chopping block next in the GOP Congress


Elizabeth Warren

@SenWarren
·
1h
Well there you have it: The @SenateGOP won’t even give Democrats the weekend to read all the lobbyist giveaways they’ve added in chicken scratch to the #GOPTaxScam they're jamming through tonight


Elizabeth Warren

@SenWarren
No, I haven’t had time to read the 500-page #GOPTaxScam bill that we’re voting on tonight. I couldn’t read it if I tried – and I did



On Friday evening, the text of the Senate tax bill was finally released to the public: nearly 500 pages with multiple sections ambiguously crossed out or subject to modifications written in largely illegible handwriting.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...ges_into_the_tax_bill_and_democrats_aren.html




Senator Jon Tester

@SenatorTester
·
4h
I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. One page literally has hand scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better.


Senator Dick Durbin

@SenatorDurbin
Trying to review the #GOPTaxScam but they are making hand-written changes to brand new text as we speak – can anyone else read this

It will all look interesting in the 2018 elections. Too bad the American electorate isn't too bright.

Why are the Republicans forcing this tax bill through ?


November 30, 2017

Republican Donors Are Mad as Hell and Closing Their Checkbooks


The reason, Miller says, is the failure of Republicans to accomplish much of anything in Washington, from their whiff on Obamacare to their ongoing wrangling over tax reform. Donors are livid, particularly because Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have still floundered.


Donor dissatisfaction has translated into meager Republican fundraising hauls. Monthly fundraising totals for the NRSC, which is closely aligned with the Senate leadership, have dropped steeply.

The signs are ominous for Republican leaders, Miller says. “If they’re not worried, they’re stupid,” he says. “Or crazy. Or both.”


http://www.motherjones.com/politics...are-mad-as-hell-and-closing-their-checkbooks/



Republicans Are Tacking a Last-Minute Gift for Rich Finance Guys Onto Their Tax Bill



DEC. 01, 2017,

There are a few things that make this giveaway particularly shameless. The passthrough cuts are specifically designed to exclude high-earning professionals in industries like law, accounting, and finance whose business “profits” are really just salary by another name. Cornyn works around this by only making firms organized as “publicly traded partnerships”—which is to say, partnerships you can go on eTrade and buy stock in. Most of these firms are in the energy industry, which obviously has a big presence in Texas, but they also include private equity behemoths like Blackstone. Other parts of Wall Street aren’t really going to reap the benefits of Cornyn’s amendment.



You may recall that Trump at one point promised to eliminate the loophole, but the GOP’s bill more or less preserves it with some cosmetic changes that won’t effect private equity guys. Cornyn’s amendment, as Fleischer notes, will lower their tax rate on income that doesn’t already qualify as carried interest. It’s an additional, gratuitous carve-out for some of the Republican party’s favorite money men.


https://slate.com/business/2017/12/...or-rich-finance-guys-onto-their-tax-bill.html

When you add it up, Trump would have saved as much as $42 million on his 2005 taxes under the House bill and $35.1 million under the Senate bill. A big part of the savings is from elimination of the alternative minimum tax, and of course we do not know how often he was subject to it or how much was due to net operating losses that could be limited under the legislation.

But the fact that the president has refused to release his tax returns should not allow him to make claims about his taxes without offering documented proof. The information we do have — the partial 2005 return — shows his claim of losing a fortune on the tax bill is poppycock.

Four Pinocchios

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...s-433am:homepage/story&utm_term=.bc161c2bef8e

Passed the Senate 51-49.

December 1, 2017


The night that church bells should have woken Americans.



An orgy of utter corruption.

Every Republican got what they wanted.

This is what Republicans do when they seize power.

Emperor Carrot obsessed about two trillion dollars.


Emperor Carrot achieved his magical two trillion.


Welcome to back to the Victorian age!

Emperor Carrot scraped dollars away from government agencies. He robbed every program that did not benefit the wealthy.

He finally found a way to starve Obamacare. He will punish the poor through taxes.Adding a trillion to the national debt is acceptable to the Republicans in power.






If the legislation is signed into law, it will raise taxes on middle class people making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year by more than $5 billion while cutting taxes by more than $5.5 billion for people making more than $1 million a year.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics...whelmingly-benefits-the-wealthiest-americans/


In the end, self-described deficit hawks voted for legislation that, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, would increase the nation’s budget gap by $1 trillion over a decade even after factoring in economic growth.


https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/senate-republican-taxes/547280/

Democrats took to the Senate floor to deride the GOP’s hurry to pass the legislation that Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said they were drafting “on the fly.” Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri tweeted that her office received a list of changes first from lobbyists on K Street. And when the 479-page text of the revised proposal finally came out early in the evening, Democrats were appalled to find that sections of the bill were written by hand, with some provisions crossed out with lines across a page. “This makes no sense,” Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said on the Senate floor.



https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/senate-republican-taxes/547280/

Every lobbyist got their Christmas wish ?


For companies the size of Dark City, the tax break's savings would have a disproportionately big impact, according to the Brewers Association. "We think the vast majority of this benefit accrues to the smallest brewers in the country," Watson said.

Does Sharpe think that this will lower the cost of his craft beer?

"Unfortunately, no," he says. "It'll just make it easier for small breweries like us to stay in business."

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/01/567446997/tax-bill-would-give-small-brewers-a-big-break

We can all look forward to a tax form the size of a postcard, with illegible, handwritten instructions.

Take a page from Amazon for the perfect gift. 2 pieces of chocolate. Better than money, improved working conditions, respect, a t-shirt, discount, gift card....

Anybody who believes a word out of Krugman is a complete ass hat

Mike Pence, his life, his experiences, are examined by Atlantic magazine
January/February 2018 issue


He (Emperor Carrot Head) won an astonishing 81 percent of white evangelicals’ votes, more than any Republican presidential candidate on record. And while his national approval rating hovers below 40 percent, poll after poll finds his approval rating among white evangelicals in the high 60s. The fact that such an ungodly president could retain a firm grip on the religious right has been the source of much soul-searching—and theological debate—within the movement.

The religious right began reaping the rewards of Trump’s victory almost immediately, when the president-elect put Pence in charge of the transition. Given wide latitude on staffing decisions, Pence promptly set about filling the federal government with like-minded allies. Of the 15 Cabinet secretaries Trump picked at the start of his presidency, eight were evangelicals. It was, gushed Ted Cruz, “the most conservative Cabinet in decades.” Pence also reportedly played a key role in getting Neil Gorsuch nominated to the Supreme Court.



What would a Pence presidency look like? To a conservative evangelical, it could mean a glorious return to the Christian values upon which America was founded. To a secular liberal, it might look more like a descent into the dystopia of The Handmaid’s Tale. Already, in some quarters on the left, it has become fashionable to fret that Pence’s fundamentalist faith and comparative political savvy would make him an even more “dangerous” president than Trump. He has been branded a “theocrat” and a “Christian supremacist.”



What critics should worry about is not that Pence believes in God, but that he seems so certain God believes in him. What happens when manifest destiny replaces humility, and the line between faith and hubris blurs? What unseemly compromises get made? What means become tolerable in pursuit of an end?

full article at link


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/gods-plan-for-mike-pence/546569/

DooleyDarter said:

Anybody who believes a word out of Krugman is a complete ass hat

Click to expand...

I'm sorry your alternate reality isn't working out for you.

The presence of Steve Bannon in the White House Oval office, was a clear "dog whistle" to Trump's fan club. Every fringe Extremist Right Wing lunacy had hope of representation.

Last night, Steve Bannon arrived in person to Alabama, to support Roy Moore.


http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/12/steve_bannon_mocks_joe_scarbor.html#incart_river_home


"Stumping for embattled Republican Senate Roy Moore Monday night in Midland, Alabama, Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon mocked MSNBC host Joe Scarborough..."

(Steve Bannon stirred up some Trump style controversy- Bannon stamped on the University of Alabama, ignoring the fact that Roy Moore graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1977. Bannon fans will not mind a boot mark on their faces, from Bannon. They hate Joe Scarborough, because Tonald Drump (Drumpf) hates him, too.)


"Bannon's entire spiel during this campaign boils down to what he said in Midland City, Alabama, on Monday night: "They tried to destroy Donald Trump and they tried to destroy Roy Moore. They're coming for you!" For some reason this thrills the crowds and they cheer deliriously when he says it."


Steve Bannon blamed the people of the great state of Alabama ?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...ore-conspiracy-theory/?utm_term=.d12d09c487c8


A strange story

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/12/alabama-shakedown-if-roy-moore-wins-should-steve-bannon-get-credit/

Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared on my television, before I could get to the clicker.

https://www.salon.com/2017/12/11/sa...battles-reporters-over-fake-news-im-not-done/


"My god, how can they keep a straight face in the White House briefing room?” Brzezinski said.

“I would literally laugh hysterically. How do you even listen to her say those things and not just walk out? At this point those briefings are useless. She does not say anything that is truthful, and she does not intend to when she walks out there. It’s incredible.”


-MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski

gsgs comment-

Is it true, that two news reporters recently walked out of Sarah Huckabee Sander's press conference ? They were not expected to get any real news, or real answers from early indications. They gave up.
/end gsgs comment

Sarah Huckabee Sanders has lost control of her fascist conference gig-

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is getting called on the game she is playing.When you cannot extend a defense against reality, block the truth...

I’m not finished!"

"I’m not done!"

-Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Watching and hearing Sarah Huckabee Sanders play her role as White House press secretary, is like watching her vomit logs of someone else's poop onto the lectern.

She decided to ingest this poop, not us. She accepted the job of heaping this poop in front of us.

I understand that her ambition has led her to join her father in an alliance with Trump. She is forcing us to endure this poop because it directly benefits her.


She is the anti Jimmy Kimmel.

No compassion, no empathy, and no generosity. Entirely selfish. If this country falls into ruin, her money will protect from any consequences. Daddy has 9 million and counting. She is living it up, on government dollars.


Trump just implied that a woman who is a prominent political figure attempted to prostitute her body, in order to get campaign money.

Let us see how she defends that statement.


I will get the bathroom tissue.

Trump Just Suggested Kirsten Gillibrand Trades Sex for Campaign Donations

DEC. 12, 2017

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...d-wouldve-had-sex-for-campaign-donations.html


December 12, 2017 9:37 am
President Trump Fires Off Particularly Gross Tweet About Kirsten Gillibrand

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...articularly-gross-tweet-about-gillibrand.html

Yes, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is a Democrat from New York and she has consistently stood against Tonald Drump (Drumpf) and has exposed him for the greedy, selfish sexist pig, that he is.

He does not like it when a Good Witch waves her wand, and causes his disguises to fall off.

The Emperor has no clothes, that covers up all the things that he does not want people to see.


Donald J. Trump

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
3h
Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED


wheee! poop flinging. It is a tradition within his alliance.

A few weeks ago, Bill Maher called Sarah Huckabee Sanders "...your bosses' niece who's in charge of office birthdays."

*sigh*

Today, the press was forced to be present, while Sarah Huckabee Sanders urped up another poop log.

This one was extra odoriferous. Tonald Drump Drumpf jerked off and swallowed his own sperm. Sexual humiliation of women, and sadism really gets him off.


What was it, that the public was intended to be distracted from ? Does it seem like deliberate, orchestrated disruption, to you ? Certainly watered down the coverage of the demand for Trump to step down.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders wants control of her fascist conference room returned to her-

Jim Acosta
@Acosta
Prior to this morment, @presssec issued a warning to me. She said if I asked a question of Trump at the bill signing "I can't promise you will be allowed into a pool spray again." Sorry Sarah.. we won't be intimidated.


(Sarah Huckabee ) Sanders warning to Acosta now represents the first overt threat made by the Trump administration to a reporter. "Do as I say or face the consequences."

Trump has his propagandist puppets in right-wing media, and the rest of the news industry he subjects to constant verbal attacks.

And now, the real war on the media has begun.

https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/after-being-threatened-presssec-cnns


Hallie Jackson
@HallieJackson
·
49m
.@PressSec,((Sarah Huckabee Sanders)(was) asked what POTUS meant by Gillibrand tweet: "The president is very obvious."


allie Jackson
@HallieJackson
·
45m
"Only if your mind is in the gutter" would you have interpreted the president's tweet as sexist / suggestive, (Sarah Huckabee Sanders)@PressSec says

gsgs comment- Where have we heard this defense, before ? Oh, yes. Every time Tonald Drump(Drumpf) made a misogynistic, sexist comment about a woman.


Yes, that is your president basically saying that Senator Gillibrand offered him sexual favors for money. Among other things.

Oh, and we're about to see if a credibly accused molester of underage girls and totally insane racist theocrat is going to become a member of the US Senate.

Welcome to Donald Trump's America.

https://digbysblog.********.com/2017/12/remember-when-republicans-used-to.html

Wonkette gets a word in-

Oh, Donald! You glorious fucking idiot! On the day when Alabama’s making its final decision on whether to vote for a sexual predator, a decision that will hinge on turn-out from African-Americans and pissed off women, you LITERALLY TWEETED that the wonderful, highly respected female senator from New York BEGS you for campaign contributions (and would do anything for them, by which you, the president, mean she is willing to fuck or blow you for them). You did this in the middle of the #MeToo awakening, when women are not fucking taking it anymore.

And, you fucking moron, you also took Kirsten Gillibrand’s bait.

When we said Trump had taken Gillibrand’s bait (LIKE A IDIOT), we were referring to how on Monday, she loudly called on him to resign right the fuck now, because of the multitudes of women credibly accusing him of sexual harassment and abuse. And boy oh boy, the thin-skinned rectal stain in the Oval Office — or to be clear, lounging around in his underpanties in the White House residence, because lazy ass doesn’t go to work that early in the morning — couldn’t stand it. So he, predictably, picked up his Obamaphone and set his (tiny) meat fingers to Twitter-raging.


Brzezinski later addressed West Wing staffers, saying, “If your day is not consumed by getting him to take down that tweet, please leave. You’re worth nothing. You don’t care about this country. You don’t care about women.” And the rest of the women on “Morning Joe” took it from there!

And in case Press Secretary Sarah "Poot Lips"Huckabee Sanders didn’t hear her, Brzezinski doubled down on Twitter:

ika Brzezinski
@morningmika
·
7h
@PressSec Do the right thing today. I am imploring you to speak for the women of this country-Do not defend that tweet. Nothing is worth it

Mika Brzezinski
Mika Brzezinski
@morningmika
·
7h
Note to all who work for @realDonaldTrump Say this. “Mr President, Take down that tweet. You are wrong”— #knowyourvalue


Mika Brzezinski
Mika Brzezinski
@morningmika
·
2h
Ivanka. Please step up. It is your chance to do the right thing. Pictures and parties and photos don’t amount to action. Keep your promise.


Mika Brzezinski
Mika Brzezinski
@morningmika
·
6h
Ivanka. This is your moment. Speak out for what is right.


(What happened to the anti-bullying campaign ?)


Read more at https://wonkette.com/626872/trump-h...er-to-chop-off-his-peener#1XRPxiul36floMSk.99







https://crooksandliars.com/2017/12/after-being-threatened-presssec-cnns


Meanwhile, the grownups stood up for American women.

Elizabeth Warren
✔
@SenWarren
Are you really trying to bully, intimidate and slut-shame @SenGillibrand? Do you know who you're picking a fight with? Good luck with that, @realDonaldTrump. Nevertheless


Katherine Clark
@RepKClark
Women know Trump is “that guy” -- the insecure sexual predator who bullies any woman who dares to hold him accountable. Here’s what should really terrify him: @SenGillibrand has been standing up for women her whole career. She won’t be intimidated and neither will we.


Congresswoman Katherine Clark joined Senator Elizabeth Warren and others in her party condemning President Donald Trump’s Twitter attack on New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand..


Trump’s attack on Gillibrand came a day after the New York senator called for the president to resign over past allegations of sexual misconduct. His tweet was followed by swift criticism from Democrats accusing the president of making unsavory insinuations about Gillibrand.


https://www.boston.com/news/politic...says-donald-trump-is-insecure-sexual-predator

https://www.boston.com/news/politic...asts-donald-trump-for-slut-shaming-gillibrand

fuck!

OK, every time Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells a lie, I will say that she burped up a fart.


When Tonald Drump Drumpf insulted male campaign money seekers, he did not add the sexist insinuation that he used when addressing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

(arrghhhh, it is in one of the links that I posted.)

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...our-mind-gutter-could-you-think-trumps-attack


Incidentally, Trump did donate to Gillibrand three times, though the person who should be accused of having flexible morals in this situation is probably him, what with the donations highlighting his history of being a pro-choice registered Democrat who supported gun control and universal health coverage.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...d-wouldve-had-sex-for-campaign-donations.html

The Republican mogwai/gremilns are ready to go on a bender!

Two horrible men in position to fuck up America, and screw everyone out of everything.

On Horrible Eve, in Alabama, we gaze at the words of the creature, pulling the thing out from under a rock

"I’d say that was—in addition to being a supremely hateful string of words—sexual harassment!"


"Yet, Trump hasn’t accused any of these men of “doing anything” for campaign contributions. He hasn’t described them as “used,” a word that forcefully implies that the recipient is an object that can be worn out."

https://theslot.jezebel.com/is-it-sexual-harassment-when-donald-trump-does-it-on-tw-1821214342

In the wake of Democratic senators calling for Al Franken to resign over multiple sexual harassment allegations, a few stalwarts turned their attention to admitted serial predator Donald Trump and called for his resignation. Among those who stood up for survivors of abuse, and specifically, Trump’s accusers, were Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

But as befits Trump’s history of deep misogyny, he saved his ire and piggishness for the lone woman in the group, tweeting that she was so desperate for campaign contributions that she would “beg” him for them and was willing to “anything for them.” But despite his attempt to force Gillibrand to back off from her position that he should resign, she is standing strong for herself, for his accusers, and for the millions of women who oppose him and his policies.




The senator, who confirmed that Trump’s name-calling and smear campaign against her will not silence her also said of his alleged crimes, "These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I've heard these women's testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.


https://www.advocate.com/politics/2...h-sanders-defensive-after-trumps-sexist-smear

gotsnowgotslush said:

In the wake of Democratic senators calling for Al Franken to resign over multiple sexual harassment allegations, a few stalwarts turned their attention to admitted serial predator Donald Trump and called for his resignation. Among those who stood up for survivors of abuse, and specifically, Trump’s accusers, were Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

But as befits Trump’s history of deep misogyny, he saved his ire and piggishness for the lone woman in the group, tweeting that she was so desperate for campaign contributions that she would “beg” him for them and was willing to “anything for them.” But despite his attempt to force Gillibrand to back off from her position that he should resign, she is standing strong for herself, for his accusers, and for the millions of women who oppose him and his policies.





The senator, who confirmed that Trump’s name-calling and smear campaign against her will not silence her also said of his alleged crimes, "These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I've heard these women's testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.


https://www.advocate.com/politics/2...h-sanders-defensive-after-trumps-sexist-smear

Click to expand...

Slut shaming a U.S. Senator is probably just another day at the office for Donald Trump, but for me, it's the most vile insult to the legislative branch, the Congress of the United States, that has been seen for a long time, if ever. Even if true, which I doubt, the Senator wouldn't deserve to be humiliated like this. Period.

“The people of Alabama sent a loud and clear message to Donald Trump and the Republican Party,” said Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez. “You can’t call yourself the party of family values as long as you’re willing to accept vile men like Roy Moore as members.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...fe-breitbart-adviser-amid-chaos-a8108291.html

gotsnowgotslush said:

“The people of Alabama sent a loud and clear message to Donald Trump and the Republican Party,” said Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez. “You can’t call yourself the party of family values as long as you’re willing to accept vile men like Roy Moore as members.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...fe-breitbart-adviser-amid-chaos-a8108291.html

Click to expand...

50 percent of the voters of Alabama sent that message.

48 percent of the voters in Alabama ignored Moore's unsuitability on multiple grounds.

It was forecast that ~25% of eligible voters would turn out in Alabama. I haven't seen if that number was exceeded. It is rumored that black women made the difference though.

Alt Fed Employee
@Alt_FedEmployee
Media: Accuses Trump of something

Trump: Fake news! I absolutely did not! Witch hunt! Sad!

Trump lawyer: Yes he did

Trump: DID NOT!

Trump lawyer: DID TOO!

Media: We have proof

Trump: Oh ok. Did too.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Squirrel?

6:34 PM - Jun 4, 2018