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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Tomorrow is the day Donald Trump's presidency totally changes
By noon (or so) Thursday, Nancy Pelosi will become the new speaker of the House of Representatives — formalizing the Democratic majority her side won in last November's election. And that will change everything.
Trump has sought to look on the bright side of divided control of government to date — insisting that maybe he will be able to make deals with the new Democratic majority in the House. "It really could be a beautiful bipartisan situation," he said at a press conference the day after the 2018 election.
But the early returns are not promising. The federal government has been shut down for the past 12 days — and there's little reason to believe that will change at any point soon. Trump has dug in on his demand for $5 billion to fund construction of his border wall. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, are equally dead-set on providing zero dollars for Trump's wall.
And this is only the beginning. Starting tomorrow, Democrats in the House will make Trump's life a living hell. Efforts are already underway to bring a number of his Cabinet officials before Congress, to extricate his tax returns from his grip and to more deeply probe his business dealings both before and during his presidency.
Trump, a political neophyte prior to the 2016 race, has never had to deal with this sort of opposition before. Sure, Democrats have never been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he never really needed Democrats to do much of anything, either. The Republican majorities in the House and Senate ensured Trump got his tax cuts and two Supreme Court picks. There was no real political penalty for his total unwillingness and inability to work with Democrats.
Those days are now over. Democrats can now do Trump real political damage using the official means of their House majority. While they may not be able to, say, force his tax returns into public view (the jury remains out on that), they can make sure the issue is front and center and create major distractions for a White House that has already shown it can distract itself very well, thank you very much.
Trump claims to understand this, likely with his self-professed titanic intellect. To me, that's like when people who are about to have a baby say they are totally ready for it. As evidence, they point to their nursery being all set up, the Diaper Genie being up and running, and so on and so forth. Then the baby comes — and they realize, like every parent that has gone before them, that no amount of planning or bracing could fully prepare them for their new reality.
That's Trump and the new Democratic House majority.
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
With the end of the shutdown and work looking to resume I had a question for the experts, those in the know. This is not a, "Oh leave poor Donald Trump alone," serious question out of interest.
If Trump wants the wall that much, his voters want the wall that much, how about this as a bomb pass to use American football terms, a Hail Mary. Say there's three hundred million voters. Divide that by five point six billion and you get...well you get, um...calculator says 5.6 repeating, five dollars sixty? Fifty six dollars? Point is every Trump voter is asked to pledge x amount of dollars into the wall. If they don't get that much the money is returned.
Has any serious thought been given to that? I've heard of ideas like Go Fund Me and the like, anything official?
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
So about three billion? I honestly don't claim to be an expert, best shot he got? More likely that Mexico will pay?
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than YoursWhile Trump himself hasn't called for it, there was a Trumpster who created a Go Fund Me for it
The only major issue with that is money like this can't be directed to a specific project unless Congress says it can.
They can add it to the general fund with Congressional approval, but that wouldn't go to the wall.
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."Mexico was never going to pay.
And support for a wall isn't as strong as you might think.
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
I see. Very interesting.
One more question...two more questions if I may. How familiar are any of you with Tony Abbott and Australian politics? And for anyone who is compared to Trump was Abbott on more of a crusade against the boats or Trump on more of a crusade against Mexico? I honestly seeing both cannot tell.
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
I do beg your pardon, allow me to clarify.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott treated stopping the boats as the beginning middle and end of all the world's problems.
President Donald Trump seemingly believes fluffy pink bunny rabbits will bound across endless green fields and kittens with ribbons will eat marshmallows if only Mexico pays for the wall to keep them out.
Hyperbole? Is one or both really that bad?
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
You'd be surprised. Disturbing as it is, I'd say in comparison Trump would be the lesser evil. They're both narcissistic, dictatorial control freaks but while Trump is a bigot, Abbott's a zealot. He's the man who (when John Howard was Prime Minister) was referred to by his fellow party members as "The Mad Monk" and got the Health Minister's portfolio stripped of certain powers because he would not stop trying to legislate religious doctrine into law. The man who left the seminary because he thought the the Catholic Church was "too compassionate."
In many ways Abbott's the worst of Trump and Pence rolled up into a single person but with the benefit of not having the attention span of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum (vs Trump) and managing to get into a position of actual power (vs Pence).
A little policy discussion: Is Roe v. Wade at stake as 116th Congress convenes?
I'd agree that it is at stake. Republican lawmakers on the state level have been apparently enacting strict anti abortion laws in part in order to provoke a Supreme Court case to overturn or gut Roe, and there are apparently a couple of cases on the Court of Appeals level that may make it to SCOTUS in this term. On the upside, in Democratic controlled legislatures there are already bills underway - or already enacted - to guarantee abortion rights if Roe is overturned. Unfortunately though all what House Democrats can do is to keep Planned Parenthood funding safe, court cases are not their bailiwick.
Also, I was surprised by
This is exciting!
One example: Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who will be the first Somali-American member of Congress, noted the history of her election on Twitter on Wednesday night.
"23 years ago, from a refugee camp in Kenya, my father and I arrived at an airport in Washington DC," she tweeted, along with a photo of her and her father smiling with suitcases. "Today, we return to that same airport on the eve of my swearing in as the first Somali-American in Congress."
Omar is just one of dozens of stories starting a new chapter Thursday. There are record numbers of women who will be sworn in in just a few hours. Muslim women will be serving for the first time — including Omar and Rep.-elect Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — as will Native American women, including Reps.-elect Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland. The state of Texas sent the state's first two Latina members to Congress, and two black congresswomen-elect from New England will also make history by coming to Washington. The historic firsts come from both parties and at least one member — Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York — will be younger than 30.
Democrats seize control of the House on Thursday with fresh voices and new energy as they prepare to take on President Donald Trump, many of them inspired to run because of his presidency.
They'll be led by a barrier breaker as well. Longtime Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California is poised to make history by winning back the speaker's gavel and reclaiming a title she had held from 2007 to 2011, when she served as the first and still so far only female House speaker.
The party breakdown in the new House of Representatives will be 235 Democrats and 199 Republicans, with one congressional race in North Carolina still unresolved. In the Senate there will be 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, a total that includes two independents who caucus with the Democrats.
The record number of women elected to Congress were key to Democrats' reclaiming the majority in the House. Though Republicans, on the other hand, lost female representation.
Congress itself is changing to meet the new members coming to Capitol Hill. The new class also includes more women with young children, and female Congress members have recently been even more vocal in forcing the US legislative branch to catch up with the needs of members who are juggling child care and official duties. NPR reported Tuesday that the new Congress opened a new child care facility exclusively for employees of the House of Representatives.
The #Me Too! movement is front and center as women take on new positions of leadership. Last month, Congress passed legislation to overhaul the way Capitol Hill addresses sexual harassment.
Kansas and New Mexico are sending the first Native American women to Congress.
Democrats Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico are the first Native American women elected to Congress.
Davids identifies as a lesbian, which will also make her the first openly LGBT member of Congress from Kansas.
Incoming Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota are the first Muslim women elected to serve in Congress.
Omar also has the distinction of becoming the first Somali-American member of Congress. She came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee.
Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to Congress. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, she became the first Muslim female member of Michigan's state Legislature a decade ago.
Incoming Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is 29 years old, will become the youngest woman ever in Congress.
Abby Finkenauer, a 30-year-old Democrat who was elected to an Iowa US House seat, will also be one of the youngest members of Congress.
- Republican Marsha Blackburn will be the first female senator from Tennessee.
- Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith made history in the midterms by becoming the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi.
- Democrat Kyrsten Sinema became the first female senator elected to represent Arizona. Sinema will also make history as the first openly bisexual senator.
- The state of Texas will be sending its first Latinas to Congress after Democrats Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia won their congressional races to serve in the House of Representatives.
- Incoming Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley will be the first black congresswoman to represent Massachusetts, while Democrat Jahana Hayes will be the first black congresswoman from Connecticut.
It's still good optics, though. The Democrats' biggest strength right now is being the Party of Actual Government Leadership, as opposed to the Party of Goddamn F*cking Five-Year-Olds that the GOP's become. Conducting business in a professional and orderly fashion while the Republican-led Senate continues to be a shit-show will help improve public opinion of us for 2020.
Of course he did. The George W. model is basically his only hope of leaving office as a beloved and popular President. He should be so lucky as to have an ISIS attack on American soil.
I'm not saying he's planning to let one happen, "Jet fuel and steel beams" conspiracy theory style. But I'm not sure he'd be too upset if it did. His ego probably wouldn't allow him to stage an attack, but he'd be thrilled to have a real one that he can opportunize.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 3rd 2019 at 8:27:00 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.A preview of today's What the Fuck Just Happened Today feed
Trump told a group of lawmakers at a meeting on border security that he can't accept the offer from Democrats to re-open the government because "I would look foolish if I did that," according to an anonymous source. Trump and the Democrats remain at an impasse over funding for Trump's border wall, and Nancy Pelosi has remained firm on her refusal to accommodate Trump's demands. "We can go through the back and forth," Pelosi said. "No. How many more times can we say no? Nothing for the wall." Sen. Lindsay Graham, meanwhile, has been pressuring Trump to hold firm as well. "If he gives in now, that’s the end of 2019 in terms of him being an effective president," Graham said. "That’s the probably the end of his presidency." (CNN / NBC News / The Hill)
The confirmation of 70 of Trump's judicial nominees remains in flux after Sens. Mitch Mc Connell and Chuck Schumer failed to reach an agreement on how to move the nominations forward. The pending nominations will now be sent back to the White House to be re-nominated. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hold an extra-long session at some point in the next few weeks to consider all the remaining nominees who were awaiting a vote on the Senate floor or waiting for a committee vote. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/02/trump-judicial-nominees-1077658
So...can anyone help me out regarding the fuss around paygo? I mean, it looks like with one or two exceptions, even progressive Democrats seems to be for it, but the far left media is screaming bloody murder over it. Since they don't do a really good job explaining why except for hating on Pelosi, can someone explain to me their reasoning? If they even have a point in the first place….
The idea is that the GOP didn't bother with "fiscal responsibility" so why should the Democratic Party?
For some like Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna, it's also too close to austerity politics for them.
Slate has an article about Paygo.
The article points out that other progressives like Mark Pocan do not consider the paygo rule to be a major issue.
As for why people are supporting it or opposing it...
For House Democratic leaders, it could be that they’re trying to protect vulnerable Democrats in purple or red districts after a campaign when many of those candidates called out Republicans’ reckless fiscal management. “Acknowledging the value of fiscal responsibility helps many of our front-line colleagues,” a senior Democratic aide said.
For Khanna, though, reinstating any pay-go rule, even a porous one, is just “bad politics,” as he told me in an interview Wednesday. On the granular level, the waiver process creates its own unnecessary problems. “Why have a waiver and give Republicans a talking point every time you’re asking for a waiver?” he said.
Honestly, it's not really a hill worth dying on for progressives. And most of them seem aware of this. Probably explains why Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna aren't doing much more than tweeting about it and refusing to vote for it. There's no apparent attempts to instigate a rebellion or anything that would actually threaten it.
Edited by M84 on Jan 4th 2019 at 12:41:34 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedThere is a constant tension in government between people who want to practice real macroeconomics and those who insist on symbolic gestures of fiscal responsibility because they play well with voters. And heck, I'd question the economic credentials of quite a few progressives, Bernie Sanders included. Both progressivism and conservatism tend to play fast and loose with economics to score political points with their respective bases.
To truly and properly overhaul our economic system would require changes that go far beyond what any imaginable Congress would attempt, but wouldn't necessarily satisfy the demands of progressives, either.
Edited by Fighteer on Jan 3rd 2019 at 11:51:30 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Pay Go sounds rather awful, just more "fiscal responsibility" nonsense that treats the government as a very large private household.
If it will be exempt from effecting major progressive legislation then I suppose it's tolerable. Still, the fact that it exists at all and feeds the fiscal responsibility nonsense is bad enough.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jan 3rd 2019 at 11:55:22 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

Trump is down to 56% approval in KY, he may very well lose it by 2020.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.