Trump

[WaspInWales]

Not sure if the video will load from an embedded Tweet. You can view it on some news sites or by going to SheldonWhitehouse's feed.

It's worth a watch.

Talk about draining the swamp.

[Mikey Brown]

It works. But I couldn’t stomach more than a minute of it. Painful viewing.

[Which Tyler]

I have a feeling @Morepork is going to love this!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... 5eb8fa52ec

The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.

Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

...

That right, the Centre for Disease Control is no longer allowed to talk about things being science/evidence-based

[Mellsblue]

Feck me. This sort of shit is far more worrying than all his verbal diarrhoea on Twatter.

[morepork]

The Christian Right's contribution to Wee Donny's education. Science be bad. There will be massive push back on this. Watch out for vaccines next. I cannot overstate the scale of the opposition to this nonsense within the scientific community. I'm sure Russia are in on it and are very close to resurrecting Lysenko to run things.

[Sandydragon]

Fair play, if someone had the aim of destabilising the US, it’s working.

[Digby]

Disney have published photos of their new Trump doll to be added to the hall of presidents, it looks much slimmer than the real thing.

[WaspInWales]

So, Trump's tax plan has become his latest in a long list of 'wins'.

How long will it be until it potentially backfires? Quite a few commentators suggest the poor will be hit hard with Medicare and Medicaid being gutted, but if people see less tax deducted out of their weekly or monthly pay cheques, will they really care? Some people may only care about short term gains, more money in their pocket could well distract them from the bigger picture of what happens when the shit hits the fan.

Will it take a number of years for the damage to be done? By that time Trump will be gone and him, his family and many other wealthy Americans will be far more wealthy as a result.

[Digby]

Trump might even garner a fair amount of praise as in the shorter term a lot of taxes are being cut, and the offsets to some of that are being deferred into someone else's presidency. Though the cuts to health delivery could have much earlier push back, and the addition of the tax breaks for real estate moguls like Trump and Corker will give the Democrats an easier target still at the midterms, still think the Dems need a position beyond not being Trump, and the Dems are still very muddled on what they actually want

[morepork]

Personal income tax deductions are temporary, while corporate reductions are permanent. There has been no public dialogue as to details of its contents. Steve "Goldman Sachs my cock" Mnuchin released a one page justification for the plan that is basically an assurance that tax cuts will trickle down and pay for themselves via the magic of "economic growth". Of course, should this infallible logic not come to pass (I mean it has worked every other time trickle down theory has been applied to governance, right?) there are options to cut health and social welfare in order that the great job creators are not required to break a sweat. Comparisons have been made to a similar small government logic applied to the Kansas tax code in 2012 which.....didn't go too well- https://www.npr.org/2017/10/25/56004013 ... experiment

The general feeling here is that the thing has been pushed through by vested interests spurred on by corporate lobby power. Pretty textbook Republican ideals but the lobbyists can not believe their luck in having such a pliant, pig-ignorant and profoundly stupid president to play with. I suspect that if they get this through, and it looks like they will, they will wipe their cocks on the curtains and leave Donny to sleep off the arse raping.

[Which Tyler]

The impression I get is that expectations are for the tax deal to benefit the economy, and the low-middle class in the short-term; start biting after 3-4 years, and increasingly squeeze things from then on.
So basically, it should be fine, or even a positive for most of this presidential term; and shouldn't be too big a hurdle for the next election; and then everything will start going to shit on Trump's successor - or his own 2nd term if the world is really that crazy, but by then he'll have made his extra billions, and won't be seeking re-election; so really won't care - though Pence might if he's successor.

[morepork]

Those expectations are simply bullshit peddled by wankers that know better but don't care. This is the most significant play for the public purse in a long time. Your post the other day about the banned phrases at the CDC is part of the plan. By removing empirical evidence of the benefits of assistance and subsidies to the public, say a government sponsored vaccine program, the easier it is to triage these services to subsidise corporate welfare. There is a real danger that industry bodies will get control of some core government services and bleed the public with impunity. Look at the management of student loans over here by predatory investment companies. Fucking outrageous. This administration is already undermining Frank-Dodd and the Consumer Protection Act, so watch this space.

[WaspInWales]

Shocking comments from Trump and Haley regarding the UN vote on Jerusalem.

Taking names and threats to cut off aid if they dare vote against the US.

Wow...this has to be a new low, if that was even possible!

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Which Tyler]

I am so hoping the UN manage a unanimous vote

[Digby]

No way this is a new low for Trump, it's pathetic, but it's business as usual from the orange tub of lard

[Which Tyler]

Same day as this though...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... vely-sold/

President Trump was so excited about passing his first major piece of legislation Wednesday that he blurted out that the Republican Party had misrepresented the entire bill, handing Democrats some potentially troublesome talking points for the 2018 midterm elections.


Speaking at the White House just before the House prepared to sign off on the tax-cuts bill one last time, Trump reveled extensively in his win before turning things over to Vice President Pence to heap praise upon him continuously for a few minutes. It was a thoroughly unique spectacle, even as victory dances and Trump Cabinet meetings go.


But along the way, Trump basically admitted that the GOP's talking points on the bill weren't exactly honest in two major ways.


While talking about the corporate tax rate being cut from 35 percent to 21 percent, Trump said, “That's probably the biggest factor in our plan.”


...

[WaspInWales]

I am so hoping the UN manage a unanimous vote

Here's how it went:


128 for, 9 against.

Australia, Canada, Mexico and another 32 nations abstained.

21 failed to show.

Would be interesting to see if the numbers relating to abstentions and no shows are anything like other UN votes on Israel.

Did Trump's threats make any difference to those numbers?

[Which Tyler]

I was just going to post that up...

Reports are that Australia and Canada were going to support the US, but chose to abstain following Trump's threats

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/12/21/16 ... rael-haley

A few stalwart allies voted against the resolution -- voting in support of the US -- who were:

Guatemala
Honduras
Israel
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Nauru
Palau
Togo
United States

Israel and the US voting in favour of Israel and the US, then a whole bunch of political titans... erm...

[morepork]

Canada and Straya doing a double bitch out.

[J Dory]

Canada and Straya doing a double bitch out.

I can understand Mexico and Canada abstaining given the ongoing NAFTA negotiations.

Not sure what the motivation is for the other countries.

[canta_brian]

Canada and Straya doing a double bitch out.

I can understand Mexico and Canada abstaining given the ongoing NAFTA negotiations.

Not sure what the motivation is for the other countries.

2 words. Trevor Chappel.

Australians wear yellow for a reason.

[WaspInWales]

At least the UK didn't bow down to their masters across the pond.

Give it a few weeks or months and we'll be pissing millions away by giving Trump the state visit he wants. I expect the bulk of the money spent will be to control the protests.

[J Dory]

At least the UK didn't bow down to their masters across the pond.

Give it a few weeks or months and we'll be pissing millions away by giving Trump the state visit he wants. I expect the bulk of the money spent will be to control the protests.

The media here is fawning over Megan's reportedly $90,000 dress. Who's paying for that? One way or another you and me.

[morepork]

At least the UK didn't bow down to their masters across the pond.

Give it a few weeks or months and we'll be pissing millions away by giving Trump the state visit he wants. I expect the bulk of the money spent will be to control the protests.

The media here is fawning over Megan's reportedly $90,000 dress. Who's paying for that? One way or another you and me.

I think it would be nice if they wed in matching denim suits. Keep it real.

[The White Rabbit]

God bless you President Trump!