Believe it or not, I do buy into the idea that it’s possible someday, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, the GOP Congress will turn on Trump. But I don’t think it’s likely, and the idea that once the tax cut giveaway to millionaires takes place, the GOP Congress will turn on Trump because they don’t need him anymore, well….that’s just stupid:
The reason the tax cut bill is a danger to Trump is that it’s the one last thing keeping the bulk of his own party in line behind him.
[…]ith a tax bill behind them, the bigger the better, you will see more Republican members of Congress publicly denouncing the president, and showing far less patience for time-consuming fights with a celebrity sports figure who rubs Trump the wrong way or attacks on the president’s disfavored Republican of the moment. You won’t see leaders watching quietly as Trump encourages divisive primary challenges against incumbents. What you will likely see is real movement toward a well-funded alternative in 2020, should the president even make it that far. And if Mueller does show any evidence of malfeasance on the part of Trump or his team, don’t look for a crowd of Republicans to jump to the president’s defense.
Republicans in Congress are afraid of Trump’s brownshirts. They’re afraid of being primaried in particular, but it goes deeper than that. They don’t want Fox and Breitbart to go after them. I’m not making a value judgement here, just describing their mindset.
If the pee pee tape drops along with “Apprentice” tapes where Trump uses the n-word plus the economy tanks, then maybe the GOP Congress will turn on Trump. Until then, they won’t, and they’re even less likely to if Trump signs a bill giving their Galtian overlords trillions of dollars.
rikyrah
We have to fight for the 20th Century. If we can fight and win for the 20th Century, then let’s see what happens if they don’t pass the tax cut scam bill.
rikyrah
Trump’s Criminally-Inspired Approach to Deal-Making
by Nancy LeTourneau
October 18, 2017
Lately I’ve been noticing some of the analogies people have been using to describe Trump’s deal-making as president. Right here at Political Animal, David Atkins described him as an organized crime boss.
charluckles
It’s the economy. Trump isn’t go anywhere (unless Mueller) while Obama’s economy is still humming along.
cmorenc
Meanwhile, Fox News is going full-court press defending Trump on several fronts and attacking Comey for exonerating Hillary
“President Trump blasts Comey, Obama DOJ in wake of explosive report”
“Trump: I can prove Rep ‘fabricated’ account of call to war widow”.
“Roofers stop work to respect anthem, flag”.
You knew Fox-addled viewers were in a bubble, but the bubble gets more insular and aggressively misleading as Trump’s misbehavior grows worse. Trump is being presented as a bold leader who is the victim of a witch-hunt to them, and not as a sociopathic narcissist going off the rails of normal civil behavior.
rikyrah
Movement Conservatism Protects Itself With Racism
by Martin Longman
October 17, 2017
Ed Gillespie and the Republican Party in Virginia are so bent on using racism as a political weapon that they’re campaigning against sanctuary cities even though Virginia doesn’t have any sanctuary cities. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg when you consider the other things they’re doing, including the mailers they’re sending out and the advertisements they’re producing even in downticket races.
I want to go back to July 2nd, 2013. That’s the day I wrote a piece called The GOP is Moving in the Wrong Direction. It was in response to an article Benjy Sarlin had written for MSNBC in which he detailed the transformation that occurred in Republican circles as they moved from following the RNC post-2012 autopsy report’s analysis (that insisted on the political necessity of passing immigration reform) to following the analysis of Real Clear Politics’s Sean Trende (who argued that the GOP could win by opposing immigration reform and getting better turnout and a greater share of the white vote).
…………………………………………………….
The Republicans are doing this because they’re driven by movement conservatives who believe it’s the only way they can win in a country that is growing more diverse. The Democrats are grappling with how to adjust as a party to their collapse of support in small towns and rural America, so I know parties can struggle to change to meet new challenges. But the GOP is using racism to protect conservative ideology. They know that immigrant communities don’t share their values on a host of issues related to how the government should function, and they want to avoid having to ask for their votes for as long as possible.
Racial animosity has always been a big part of movement conservatism and of the Christian Coalition, but the need to keep polarizing whites against everyone else is making it more central and more transparent than ever before. It’s actually making people more racist, both by design and by osmosis.
For the Republican Party to break this transformation into a fascist party, they need a rump to emerge with a lot of financial backing that is opposed to movement conservatism and that refuses to cede the party to them. We’ve seen push-back when the business community intervened to stop anti-gay measures pushed in North Carolina and Mike Pence’s Indiana. I know it is possible for traditional Republicans to organize, finance and push back against the extremists in their midst. But when a guy like Ed Gillespie is using racism like this in the Virginia governor’s race, it’s obvious that this process has not yet begun.
ByRookorbyCrook
If the Goopers get their tax cuts, they will stay in line. The reason there is even the token grumbling now is because they haven’t passed any of their dream legislation. All is forgiven if they can have more money for their overlords. If they can’t get tax cuts they will try and burn all the leaders McTurtle, ZEGS, and Chump
Betty Cracker
I’m trying to stay out of the political predictions bidness because I suck at it. That said, I personally plan to go all in on calling, writing, etc., to denounce the tax cuts for plutocrats bill, putting as much effort into that as I’ve done on healthcare, and I encourage y’all to do the same.
You’re probably right that the GOP ain’t gonna turn on Trump if it fails. But another massive failure will drive Trump even loonier, ensuring he’ll lash out at the GOP Congress even more, expanding the chaos and infighting. And that’s a good thing.
trollhattan
@sylvania:
Agree there’s no deus ex machina to save us unless the playwright has included one in this Trump tragi-comedy. I’m not holding my breath. A man with no shame won’t voluntarily leave no matter what, congress is hapless and a good chunk of them are happy he’s in office, so it’s down to law enforcement.
lollipopguild
Trump and his friends in the media(Fox, etc) are going to go after the widow of the soldier killed in Niger and trump is going to become even more radioactive than he currently is.
dr. bloor
One of these events is necessary but even then possibly not sufficient. The other two are superfluous.
schrodingers_cat
Rs are not going to abandon T. They are afraid of his supporters. And I refuse to call the Racist party GOP, there is little, that is grand about them.
Major Major Major Major
Republicans will only turn on Trump if it becomes more likely to get them reelected than if they don’t. That’s all you need to know. They have no principles and care about nothing other than power and money. Well, maybe dominionism, but as evangelical support for Trump shows quite clearly, they’ll do whatever it takes to get power and money first.
The Dangerman
The Republicans, en masse, will never turn on Trump. Not gonna happen, tax cuts or no tax cuts (and I think any tax bill is DOA, see Repeal and Replace)…
…unless he decides to whip Little Donnie out to enjoy the sunshine like Harvey Weinstein. On camera. Even then, they might not turn.
sherparick
Trump is fully supported by 79% of people who identify themselves as Republicans and 33% of “Independents” who are probably people who are so “Conservative” they can’t stand most Republicans. These are the people who watch Fox News, listen Rush, Laura, Sean, and Mark and their clones, and vote in Republican primaries and are always there at the General Election. Trump identifies perfectly with these people and they identify perfectly with him. Trump, like them, believe all the dumb BS that spews out of Fox and Right Wing Infotainment media industry that confirms all their dumb ideas, prejudices, and resentments. And through Trump, the “Base” is destroying the country.
Meanwhile, the donors, many whom have stupified themselves by getting all their information from Fox, Fox Business, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Ayn Rand novels and David Barton pseudo-histories, really want those tax cuts.
SFAW
The first two will make no difference, other than some transitory disgust. A tanking economy MIGHT make a difference, but Fux, Breitfart, and the usual cast of traitors will try to paint it as Obama’s fault, and his idiot supporters will lap it up.
Or have his voters suddenly become rational, and I missed it? And, yes, I know where his approval rating is. And as Governor Charlie Crist can tell you, approval ratings are all that matters.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: The trouble is, Trende turned out to be right. This stuff works. The Republicans went full fascist and they won.
I think they’re already past the point of no return; at some point, mainstream Republicans are going to be openly advocating exterminating their opposition. And that will probably work too, and the killing will begin in earnest.
They’re already making up assertions that some huge fraction of their opposition consists of illegal-immigrant impostors.
rikyrah
As Alabama race tightens, Republicans rally behind Roy Moore
By Steve Benen 10/18/17 10:41AM
With Alabama’s U.S. Senate special election just two months away, most recent polling shows Roy Moore (R) with a modest lead over Doug Jones (D). The extremist Republican is clearly the favorite, but his advantage is hardly insurmountable.
With this in mind, the political world was jolted a bit yesterday when Fox News released a new statewide poll of its own, showing the race tied at 42% each.
It’s probably wise to take the results with a grain of salt — it looks like an outlier, and there are some legitimate questions about Fox’s methodology — but the poll was nevertheless a reminder that Alabama’s race is relatively competitive, thanks in part to Roy Moore’s radicalism and record that got him thrown off the state Supreme Court (twice).
The broader question, meanwhile, is what Republican officials are thinking about his candidacy at this point. The New Republic’s Jeet Heer had a compelling take yesterday, following Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) endorsement of Moore.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes added yesterday, “GOP senators from across the spectrum of their coalition endorsing Roy Moore shows that Trump is a symptom not a cause.”
Karen
dolt45 is the “perfect front man” while he is busy performing for the world the industrial military complex just keeps chugging along behind the scenes controlling the US; take a look at his actions with the widow of latest fatality, this soldier died in Niger and everyone is focused on dolt’s treatment of widow and few are asking “what were those soldier doing there?’
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/17/17
Mueller interviewing former Trump staffers
Rachel Maddow relays a report that former Trump communications director Sean Spicer is among the former Trump staffers who have now been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, leading to speculation about how far along Mueller is in his inquiry.
khead
OT: Workplace shooting in Maryland. Multiple injuries and shooter is still on the loose. Not many more details than that so far.
rikyrah
Of course he did.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/17/17
Trump picks leader of failed Bush Katrina response to lead DHS
Rachel Maddow reminds viewers of the leading role Kirstjen Nielsen played in the George W. Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, making her a dubious pick by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
schrodingers_cat
@Karen: That’s the first question I asked.
rikyrah
hmmph
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/17/17
House Intel Russia investigation burdened by partisan disunity
Congressman Eric Swalwell who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about challenging partisanship within the committee’s Trump Russia investigation.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: She is Kelly’s handpicked successor. Say with me everyone, Kelly is a T man.
ETA: Hand picked by Kelly, she was his deputy at DHS.
rikyrah
After Trump’s warning, McCain says, ‘I have faced tougher adversaries’
10/18/17 10:02 AM
By Steve Benen
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was awarded the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center on Monday night, and delivered remarks that sounded like a not-so-subtle shot at Donald Trump. The veteran senator said that “some half-baked, spurious nationalism” should be considered “as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.”
Asked yesterday whether this was a rebuke of his party’s president, McCain added that he was really referring to “America Firsters” – which only reinforced impressions that Trump and his followers were his intended targets.
As the Washington Post reported, the president was asked about this during a radio interview yesterday.
Soon after, McCain didn’t sound overly concerned about the president’s warnings. “I have faced tougher adversaries,” he said of Trump.
lamh36
Spanky
@khead:
That last line may be a typo.
Apparently just off I95 near Aberdeen Proving Ground, a US Army base, which may or may not be relevant.
ETA: That’s the Breaking News at wtop.com, btw.
rikyrah
@sylvania:
That’s money laundering for the mob.
lamh36
geg6
@rikyrah:
That committee has already been compromised from the start due Nunes’ actions,then and recently with issuing subpoenas while he was supposedly refused. Don’t expect much from them at this point, despite the heroic efforts of Adam Schiff. Look to the Senate and Mueller.
Elizabelle
Look at what happened to Harvey Weinstein.
When Trump and Co. fall, it will be fast and furious.
Weirdly, Trump will have more supporters than HW did — about 30% of our
countryvoters would be just fine transported back in time as Good Germans. But he will fall.We just have to hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Idjit just coming up on his 9th month anniversary. We are less than 10 months separated from Obama at the helm. Although we are coming up on the year anniversary of the illegitimate election that shocked us all, to our bones. Worse than 9-11. Every single day since.
lamh36
Great twitter thread i was ready last night
rikyrah
@ByRookorbyCrook:
What happens if they don’t get their tax cuts?
Who are they gonna give their money too? Democrats?
Whatever.
Brachiator
The thing is, the brownshirts do not belong to Trump. Trump did not create this new era of brutality and cruelty. He is riding the wave as much as anyone else. As the alien Kosh once said on “Babylon 5,”
The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Look where Trump tried to back an alternative to Ray Moore in Alabama and voters there totally disregarded Trump’s recommendation. Trump has no organization to marshall the troops, and while his insane bully pulpit has some powerful mojo, it has its limits.
OTOH, the GOP loves Trump and will stick with him until the end because they are dull and unimaginative, and because he is still giving them what they want. And, more importantly, Trump does not have any original ideas himself as a conservative or populist, or anything. He had no alternative plan for the ACA and simply jumped onto the GOP bandwagon. Much of his tax plan is actually based on a draft GOP plan that has been around since at least 2015.
Trump is an empty suit who loves to sign shit. What’s not to love, from the GOP’s point of view?
Also, the GOP wants to control American society. Taxes are a big part of that. But the other huge influence will be all the federal judges that Trump will push through.
This is just stupid. There is a fantasy land where the world shudders when a conservative calls someone a n-gger. But Trump’s birther BS was deeply insulting and the GOP didn’t care, never mentioned it, and embraced it themselves in much of the party.
A major nasty war and another economic meltdown will get the voters’ attention, but the Republicans have no problem with going down with the bad ship Trump.
Seanly
I’m not a betting man, but I’d still put money down on Trump passing away in February/March 2019. President Pence serves out the remainder of Trump’s term without it counting against the two term limit. The Republicans are getting everything they want with Trump:
1) Stacking courts with conservative idiots for the next 50 years
2) Massive tax cuts
3) Destroying the public’s faith in our federal institutions
4) Destroying any legacy of Obama’s two terms
rikyrah
@geg6:
You don’t have to tell me about THAT committee. I KNOW it’s garbage.
Roger Moore
@charluckles:
I think it’s not just the economy. It’s the hope of achieving long-awaited Republican goals, like tax cuts and repeal and replace (but I repeat myself). As long as there’s a reasonable chance of achieving those goals, the Republicans in Congress will bite their tongues and go along. If they succeed in achieving them, they’ll be happy and go on to the next set of goals.
But the longer they fail to achieve those goals, the angrier they’re going to get and the harder it will be to keep biting their tongues. I don’t know if it’s going to break out into an open GOP civil war, but I think you’ll see more NFLTG Republicans speaking their minds on particular things Trump is doing that go against the traditional Republican brand.
The real random factor in all this is Trump’s own behavior. I think it will take a lot to get the Republicans in Congress to turn on Trump to the point of openly going against him, but it’s going to take a lot less to get Trump to turn on them first. If he goes beyond saying the occasional mean thing about them and actually starts actively trying to hurt their reelection chances or targeting the states of hold-outs, they’re going to feel compelled to go against him in self-defense.
One other thing that could make a big difference is if Trump does try to punish somebody for going against him and obviously fails. Fear of Trump and his supporters is a huge motivator, and unleashing those followers and failing to get the desired results would weaken the fear. If Republicans in Congress lose their fear of Trump, things could go downhill pretty quickly.
khead
@Spanky:
5 total shot. 3 dead. The police just found the shooter’s car in Elkton. Looks like the police are surrounding the house now.
Edit: Shooter not at the house.
Repatriated
@rikyrah:
Right now, they’re all-in with the GOP. If they conclude that strategy can’t get them adequate tax cuts, they may decide to try buying themselves a few “moderate” Dems as insurance against the pendulum swinging the other way.
Mr. Wu's Pigs
@Brachiator: You made my day with the B5/Kosh reference!! After 11/09/16, I had to re-watch the whole story again — just to see that the good guys *can* win!
Karen
@schrodingers_cat: I said very few, there are a few asking but what the focus has been on is treatment of widow by dolt.
Years ago, I was told that office of president keeps the eyes of public away from the back room power plays; had a teacher who said that the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about was going to end up running the country and by default the world since the complex’s focus is money and power. When US exports war, we feed that complex; this year $600 billion is going to military budget and the soldiers pay isn’t enough to support their families without help from social services.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Republicans don’t fear Trump or his supporters. The GOP boldly tried to cobble together a healthcare repeal that would screw all of their middle class and lower class supporters. They faced down angry people at Town hall meetings and, except for a few holdouts, stood firm.
From every news story we’ve seen, the only thing that gets the Republicans’ attention is the anger of the big money donors that they are not getting a steady roll out of all the laws they paid for.
The modern GOP will stand or fall with Trump.
chopper
that’s what it would take, and nothing less. cause that’s what it would take to get a large number of his supporters to finally get over him. hell, a tape of him using the n-word will probably make him more popular with them. and the goopers on the hill follow the votes.
Brachiator
@Mr. Wu’s Pigs:
There’s another quote that may apply to the Republicans in the long run. They seem intent on betraying all the “American values” they pretend to so deeply care about. This cannot be a good thing. They may tear their own party about in a sad attempt to gain power over the Democrats and over the country. And so,
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
The bill they cobbled together would have screwed people, sure, but it was specifically sold to Trump supporters as a poke at Obama and as cutting off his supporters, who are portrayed as lazy moochers [insert dog-whistle here]. Even so, they couldn’t pass it. How many times did they swing and miss? I’m confused at your description of these craven worms as bold stalwarts.
Betty Cracker
Christ on a pony — just got notification from my local party that Nina Turner is hitting five cities in Florida to raise money for Progressive Democrats of America. Next my hens will issue a bulletin that they’re holding an event for a visiting fox. Hard pass!
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Most of them will probably decide there’s no practical alternative to continuing to support the Republicans, but they do have other options. Some of them may decide to focus their energies on something other than funding individual candidates, like going back to the think tank game. Or they may decide to try taking over third parties and trying to build them up until they replace the Republicans. Others may decide the US isn’t so easy to take over and try their luck with a smaller country, like New Zealand, or crazy nonsensical shit like seasteading. So they do have other options.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
Very few of them actually faced people down at town hall meetings. Most of them deliberately avoided contact with any constituents who hadn’t been carefully vetted. That is the behavior of people who are squeezed between fear of their constituents and their big money donors.
Mr. Wu's Pigs
@Brachiator: That’s a deep cut right there! JMS must’ve read/studied history; I’ve been doing my own reading also. Hard to see while we are in the middle of this, but the pendulum will swing back eventually :)
MCA1
@Elizabelle: I think at this point we’ve established that about 20% of voters, if transported back to 1930’s Germany, would be actual brownshirts and eager party members, not the good Germans minding their own business and not rocking the boat because of moral cowardice or apathy or a little bit of themselves that likes what’s happening but won’t admit it publicly. Though there is an additional 20% that would be those good Germans. The good news is that that leaves a majority of our own modern country that finds this maladministration a stain on all of us, are fully aware of the dangers here, and wants desperately to eject the foreign object from the system. Whether it’s too late, I guess we’ll find out.
I agree with Doug’s basic premise here, though. Yes, it’s possible that something makes the GOP quit Trump, but at the moment it’s hard to see what that is. Unless and until it’s an electoral imperative for more than a few of them to run against the sitting president of their own party, we’re stuck with the status quo. They may neuter him/ignore him, but they’re not getting rid of him or going full on internecine war anytime in the foreseeable future just because of the outcome of tax reform.
Incidentally, I wish Democrats would push a tax reform counter-proposal and start shouting about it. The concepts of simplifying the code (or, more relevantly, simplifying people’s individual returns), eliminating the AMT or making it apply only above about half a million, and doing away with carried interest are pure, transpartisan winners. Whereas the actual substance of the R plan is garbage if actually laid out there.
feebog
At this point it is pretty clear Dolt45 has a serious mental disorder and is also degenerating mentally. His disorder will become worse as the pressure of the job continues to bear down on him and his mental acuity will continue to erode. I don’t think any of this matters, because Mueller is going to indict several people close to him next year. I’m not talking about Flynn or Manafort, they will be indicted for sure; look for Donnie Jr. and Kushner to also be caught in the web. When that happens he is going going to try to pardon one or both. That will trigger a constitutional crisis that will lead to his impeachment or resignation. That’s my scenario and I’m sticking to it.
wuzzat
Am I the only one that thinks the lyrics of of the post title song read like a letter found at a murder-suicide scene? In the context of the post, I’m okay with that.
jl
Getting their rich person’s tax slash plan enacted into law means their sugar daddies will open the money spigot again.
We need to fight the rich person’s tax slash plan as hard as we fought the tax slash plan disguised as health policy bills.
Elizabelle
@MCA1: Yup.
And I like your ideas on the Democratic counter-plan. Add a tax on financial trades too — would raise a lot of money, at a miniscule percentage per trade.
dww44
@Betty Cracker: We need to be focused on a ground up change and get our way back into majorities at the state and federal levels, beginning with Doug Jones in Alabama. Donate and work for sanity and inclusiveness, as opposed to far right racist extremism. That outcome in December should tells a bit about the path forward, even if it is Alabama. As Southern red state citizen, let’s not assume that everyone in Alabama is a white racist.
Boatboy_srq
So, Repubs are just vile, spiteful, and destructive enough to continue to garner the fascist vote, and prepared to resume some version of moderatism once Lord Dampnut catapults himself off the pedestal.
Had we not had the last three decades’ worth of Rethug ugliness, that might be a defensible position.
Boatboy_srq
@rikyrah: Not a crime boss. Just the heavy. Putin is the crime boss – and Russian hackers are doing the destruction alongside the pResident. But somehow Lord Dampnut is persuaded he’s the one in charge.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare with something that would be better. But he was a lazy liar who had no proposal of his own.
The Republicans in Congress have NEVER proposed, approved or signed off on anything that would be superior to Obamacare. Also, the Republicans in Congress were not simply intent on poking at Obama or viewing his supporters as lazy moochers. The more moderate Republicans would throw a few dollars at the states. But the Tea Party people, and all those who get money from the Kochs and their ilk are fundamentally opposed to any government intervention in the health care markets for anyone. All the GOP proposals, no matter how half-assed or better, would ultimately return to the status quo for everyone, and would ultimately end up getting rid of the supposed protections for pre-existing conditions, because this protection cannot be sustained by the insurance companies with any of the GOP plans.
Ryan and the GOP extremists also want to go after Medicare and ultimately Social Security, and have not been afraid to say so, and this has nothing to do with Obama.
Who knows, they might believe the lie that the free market will soften the blow and solve any problem. But the Koch Brothers and the Mercers and their ilk believe that all of America has become too soft and the federal government too bloated, and American can become great again only by making citizens scramble and fight like dogs in the street for economic scraps.
Also, I didn’t say that these people are bold stalwarts. I have said time and time again that they don’t give a shit about the people. They don’t fear them because they believe that they are protected by gerrymandered districts, oligarch money, an efficient vote suppression political machine, and the propaganda of Fox News.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
I don’t know why people insist Republican politicians are manipulators. Maybe they believe the same racist bullshit as their voters.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore: RE: They faced down angry people at Town hall meetings and, except for a few holdouts, stood firm.
Good point. You are right, many of them fled and avoided their constituents. But, with very few exceptions, NONE of them listened to their constituents or tried to address their concerns. Almost everything in the GOP healthcare bills are based on the demands of the big money donors. Nothing would help people. Nothing would improve access to doctors. Nothing would provide that more people will be able to get health insurance. And even the weak sauce of the GOP bill is opposed by the rabid dogs that make up the Tea Party extremist contingent.
The Congressional Republicans were afraid to tell their constituents that they planned to fuck them over hard and good. But that did not stop them from voting on a bill that would fuck them over hard and good. So, they figure that these fools will vote for them anyway, or they don’t care.
Fair Economist
@feebog:
4 years can be a lot of deterioration with dementia. He might be really, obviously messed up by the end of his term, in the sense of being unable to perform ordinary activities.
kindness
The GOP will turn on Trump shortly after they get creamed in the 2018 elections. The reason they will get creamed is they won’t be able to vote anything important across the finish line. Also, once Democrats control the Senate & the House, it’ll be Democrats dirty hands that ‘stole’ the presidency from an elected president*, and they will use that for everything they can in the 2020 elections.
Those assholes plan ahead don’tchaknow.
Stan
@Elizabelle:
New York State, home of wall street, already has such a tax. It’s a wonderfully progressive tax because, after all, most normal people never buy or sell a stock. So this tax never hits them. Middle class stock owners typically have a mutual fund and don’t do a lot of trading either. The people who get hit by this tax are the wall street sharks who are constantly buying and selling.
…..which is undoubtedly why New York never collects this tax although its on the books. That great progressive Andrew Cuomo inherited this situation but don’t expect him to do anything about it.
Frankensteinbeck
@kindness:
If there is one thing that has become clear to me over the last year, it’s that they do not plan ahead. They operate in a constant state of ‘How can I cheat RIGHT NOW’, and it looks like a long term plan because it drags things out.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
This is where we disagree. Yes, you and I know that’s what they want to do. But, they have always tried to hide their sociopathy.
But, now, they have to put it all out in the open.
The Dolt45 Voters thought that getting rid of Obamacare, meant getting rid of it for THOSE people.
Now, they’ve gotten their first introduction to that THEY are ‘ THOSE PEOPLE’.
Can’t wait for the ZEGK to explain it to them with Medicare and Social Security.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Brachiator:
Yes, we know. Doom and gloom. Republican rule forever. They are invincible.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Hardly. But it is going to take more than wishful thinking and “hooray for our righteous side” cheerleading to defeat them.
Peter H Desmond
this seems interesting:
Republican former U.S. Rep. David Jolly doubled down Tuesday evening on his expressed wish that Democrats win the 2018 mid-term elections as a check on President Donald Trump, saying he hoped that so that “we may be safer as a nation.”
Jolly appeared Wednesday evening at the University of Central Florida in Orlando with Democratic former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy on their college-campus tour to talk about their concerns about how hyper-partisanship has caused gridlock, and forced both parties to kowtow to extremes within their ranks.
Yet Jolly, the St. Petersburg politician who served two terms and then chose to run an eventually-aborted campaign for the U.S. Senate Republican nomination last year instead of for re-election, expressed great frustration Monday night on MSNBC with his party’s unwillingness to stand up to Trump.
Brachiator
@rikyrah: RE: Ryan and the GOP extremists also want to go after Medicare and ultimately Social Security, and have not been afraid to say so, and this has nothing to do with Obama.
Actually, it was worse than that. The Republicans always opposed Obamacare and cultivated the lie that the it was just for Negroes and illegal immigrant Mexicans. And so you had the idiocy of white fools saying that they were in favor of the Affordable Care Act, but wanted to get rid of Obamacare.
However, people like Paul Ryan and Rand Paul have always been open about their opposition to Social Security, Medicare, and the ACA. Both have spouted libertarian nonsense to justify their positions. But Ryan and the GOP have always pushed the lie that there is just too much spending on entitlements, including Medicare and Social Security. They had to get spanked on this a couple of times in the past.
Mainstream Republicans talked about killing Obamacare, but were always vague on what would happen afterwards.
However, Trump always combined his Obama obsession with his own special lie that he was going to repeal Obamacare and magically replace it with something better, something white and wonderful for white people. This helped him seal the deal with the idiots who voted for him, but it was definitely a different flavor of BS than the standard GOP nonsense.
But maybe we agree a bit that the GOP focused on killing Obamacare to soft pedal their ongoing desire to screw with Social Security and Medicare. But hell, those attacks go back even recently to mockery of Al Gore talking about having a “lock box” to protect Social Security.
A lot of these people still don’t get it. They still labor under the sick delusion that Trump arrived to save them from that scary black man, Obama. And when Trump steals all their shit and leaves them sitting in the dirt, most of these fools still will not understand or believe what has happened to them.
Peter H Desmond
i tried to post the URL for the above comment, but don’t understand how to do so.
http://floridapolitics.com/archives/247233-though-decrying-gridlock-david-jolly-like-see-democrats-stop-donald-trump