Wales2004

My mother lives in Italy and they are laughing despite Berlusconi because they live in that special we're the best at everything place as well. While orange wax was melting in front of those hideous gold drapes (please forgive me to anyone who actually likes the drapes), Paul Ryan said the GOP has a replacement plan for the ACA. Naturally, they cannot share the plan because the cost of the bill has to be estimated by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation. So why not wait until that was done before announcing it? Because they can pretend they've done something before they go on their break.

@Juliajms Trump was asked about the rise in anti-semitism at that joint press conference yesterday and his response was to wax poetic about his electoral victory and point out that his daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren. Then he mentioned how he was going to get rid of crime which was more Trumptopia. Netanyahu gave him a hyperbolic assist--no one love Jewish people more than Trump blah blah blah. His base will continue to believe the "illegals and blacks" are sucking up all the welfare until some of them take their last breath. Meanwhile he is going after the deep state by putting his buddy Stephen Feinberg in charge of sussing out the leaks (at least that's the rumor). I wouldn't expect the GOP to investigate anything more than who leaked the information. They don't (except maybe a handful) seem to care about anything except pushing through their repeal ACA and cut taxes for the rich agenda. Russia is a distraction to them.

Remember when we were hearing how unsafe America is because refugees are coming to terrorize the nation and only Trump can save us all? I guess he's got to put that hysteria on hold for the rally he's holding on Saturday http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/02/trump-to-celebrate-rough-week-with-florida-rally-on-saturday.html Maybe there will be protesters and how great it would be if they outnumbered his cheering squad in a classic battle of who can pay the most for a crowd.

This has been out there for a bit. Anyway, it seems he has withdrawn.

Kellyanne will continue to be used on shows, under the guise that she's admin staff, until she gets booted (if she gets booted) or reassigned to a position with no media contact. She's an easy way for Jake Tapper, Matt Lauer, and whoever else to show that they are journalists in pursuit of the truth since it's a given that she's going to lie about something. It's a lazy cheap way for them to get ratings. CNN declined to have her on that one day but quickly got her on with a geared up Jake Tapper. I read something about this yesterday and how it makes them appear to be journalistic heroes.

“We’re bringing back jobs big league. We're bringing them back at the plant level, we're bringing them back at the mine level. The energy jobs are coming back,” he continued. “A lot of people going back to work now.” (regarding repeal of transparency rules for oil companies in Dodd-Frank) I feel that fairytales are very integral to keeping his base happy since his words mean more than his actions. Maybe someone can explain to me how this is going to bring back jobs. This sounds like some more trickle down nonsense. Now that those companies don't have to spend all that money reporting payments to foreign governments they are going to be able to afford to hire thousands of Americans to do lots and lots of work a the coal mine. I was thinking they were just going to give the execs bigger bonuses.

The Republicans should never try to make the argument that their frivolous investigations are done in the interest of the nation. Clearly, they are politically motivated and that's not to say that the Democrats don't have their faults as well but they do at least express concern for the people. So far the general response from them is Flynn is a good man and there is no reason to investigate anything except the leaks. Orange Ignorance 45 wants to know if there will be leaks when he discusses what should be done about N. Korea....as if he wasn't a faucet himself over the weekend, in the middle of a public area, holding a meeting on N. Korea. It's basically up to a determined journalist (or two) to dig up the truth. This isn't headline stuff but may be of interest to someone: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-grants-injunction-barring-travel-ban-implementation-in-virginia/

He said something about them having breakfast with their wives in response to why they haven't commented. He said Flynn's a good man and we need to move on. You know like how they moved on from all those things of which they accused the Democrats. Here's a link: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/02/14/chris-collins-flynn-resigns-newday.cnn

Not surprising but they did go after Stephen Miller yesterday. Hannity attacked Joe over Miller. A GOP rep told Chris Cuomo on CNN that they cannot comment on Flynn today because it's Valentine's Day and the republicans are spending time with their wives.

Are the criminals with the very bad track records that he is keeping out because of his very very big electoral college win making America more dangerous than the psychopaths working with him or even his own pathological self?

They had emergency meeting on N. Korea in the middle of a public dining area and people used their smartphones as flashlights. All you need is a club membership to learn government secrets now.

Which is what makes him seem frightening. He sounds as if he's been programmed to seek world domination. He really seemed to be saying that they are going to take over the nation and the world cannot stop them. Then there's Trump talking about weaponizing federal funds to keep states in check. But instead of the media emphasizing any of this bizarre plotting going on, they are concerned that Trump didn't tweet before 8:15 a.m. and that psycho Miller brought up voter fraud again. These people could seemingly plan something dangerous while they are distracting the media with a bunch of shiny objects and the media would be none the wiser. So it's kind of useless for the media to keep declaring themselves guardians when they are constantly smarting over being labeled fake.

Did anyone happen to see Stephen Miller on the morning shows yesterday? I watched him with Chuck Todd and was disturbed by him whereas the usual Trump puppets are more on the annoying liars level. He just seems diabolical and power hungry. After watching the first minute of this Morning Joe clip, he sounds even more disturbing. http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/joe-takes-stephen-miller-to-school-on-law-875977283878

Polls are even more useless when it comes to him. He goes on twitter to pretend the protesters are supporters and the truth is fake news and his Trumpkins buy it. Why expect better from them regarding him when Mitch McConnell won't come off a penny to help deal with the opioid problem in his state and still gets re-elected. He will probably be okay with all those people dying so they won't need benefits anymore and he can rest easy cutting them all off since they must be such a financial drain to him and Paul Ryan (who probably thinks it's their own faults for not helping themselves).

Sure but I think it's more common that over-saturated fields lower wages. Certain fields are not going to command higher wages simply because they require lower skill levels or virtually no skills at all. If a farmer is forced by law to pay workers minimum wage then that is all the workers will get. Any farmer paying more than that would be the type of person who would not need to be told that workers should receive a certain minimum. Independent contractors that are not operating under any type of regulation are likely to receive lower compensation for work they do. Competition among businesses to move their products is probably a major factor when it comes to wages (and of course greed). This is true but there are also some people who refuse to do farm work, janitorial work, etc., who are unskilled and basically unrealistic. Some of this is inconsistency because why let someone stay here for 20 years (checking in) before deciding to deport the person? An amnesty program should allow them to keep the people who meet whatever criteria that they establish and it should not be discriminatory or arbitrarily applied. If they are going to go guest worker then they should make it work with the H1B visa program. I kind of see where you're going but my experience with has been more I'm better than you than you're making us look bad. I've got this one friend with a Mexican background who has deluded herself into believing that her Japanese step-grandmother makes her better than all the Mexicans period. And since she can't speak Spanish because her parents wanted her to be American (which apparently means you can't learn other languages), she gets bent when anyone assumes she speaks Spanish. I've got other examples but they basically have in common the snobbery. The pull up your pants thinking is right up there with the whole you've got to work 10 times harder than the white people thinking, imo. It's that old way of thinking that being well-behaved and demonstrating that you are a super hard worker is going to fix racism. I believe that people who dislike you because of something which you cannot change, aren't going to like you no matter how well-behaved you are. Anyway, I wish people would stop encouraging non-white people to worry about what white people think about them instead of encouraging them to be concerned about what they think of themselves. I could go on but I'll leave it at that.

The hard core Trumpkins will be that until they die. He could cause them all to end up on the street with nothing and they will steal swear by him and place the blame elsewhere. I'm sure some of them don't expect their conditions to change, they're just happy believing their version of what America is and should be is being realized. I doubt they would care. Although their main targets are Mexicans because they love to believe that all the Mexicans are sneaking in over the border and spreading out all over America stealing the job of all the good ole Americans and sucking up all the welfare that the black people aren't getting. I remember seeing this destitute looking racist on one of those Soledad O'Brien specials bemoaning the illegals taking the jobs away from the "blacks," and thinking how considerate he was for looking out for other people he couldn't stand. What's really sad is when legal immigrants are against illegal immigrants because they "came here the right way."

I don't think she will get the chance to make that much of a dent in California, if any at all. Is it a thing to point out how Barack Obama did more conservative things than conservatives....because if it is then the conservatives ought to know that it only shows how much lying they've done about him. Clearly he had moments when he was a better conservative than they and they still pretend he was nothing. @DramatistDreamer I am "naturalized" (placed in quotes because I think it sounds so odd). None of this phases me personally because I'm just like that now, but I do have compassion for others. I really hope your mother will be able to rely on her faith and find some strength in it.

Not only is the Bannon stuff pretty obvious but why should anyone be more shocked about his references to women when there's Trump. It's interesting that they haven't confirmed the "salacious" part yet. People don't find it odd that someone who uses being a germaphobe as the reason he couldn't be in that video, loves to grab other people's hands so much. He is telling the truth about that video because the video they supposedly have of him is much worse (it's one of those rare instances that I was told something that my mind hasn't processed). I'm just going to guess that someone heard there was a video and filled in the blanks.

Hopefully they get some where with the gerrymandering project. I am interested in seeing something established to help people obtain identification, e.g., if the problem is that some people live too far to get to a DMV, then maybe provide some transportation or if it's the fees, then a fund. I know some of the suppression goes deeper than an i.d. card but if that is one of the main issues and it can be addressed by helping people get those cards, then it would be a good idea to try to do so. It's pretty hard to unify a party when voting blocs has seemingly been a mainstay. Keeping everybody divided is great for politicians but now it seems to only be great for Republicans. It's caught up to the Democrats in a most problematic way. They've successfully managed to be integrated on the outside while being segregated on the inside. It was just a matter of time before that started to catch up to them. Reconciliation is a tall order but either they do it for real or they slap a band-aid on it until it opens up a big enough wound that cannot be ignored. At the end of the day, people want to feel as if they belong and are included and it cannot be that hard to talk to each other and really just listen.

My early Friday thoughts (because gee why not share them?): So the stock market is based on what Trump says and not what he actually does? They do know that he's never run a publicly owned company and yet.... I don't get why he and his mouthpieces constantly used China to shield him from questions about Russia. It's not a smart move but then.... The Democrats should have attacking gerrymandering and getting some sort of voter id drive going. As a party they seem to take a lot of things for granted and they need to be more proactive and less presumptuous.

I was thinking about people who feel left behind or left out. One of the things that always strikes me as problematic is how all these advocates on various news-related programs will show up to talk about poor people or other disenfranchised people and what they need, but none of them gets to come on and speak for themselves. They should be talked to and not just about. Many people just want to feel as if they belong. I may have said this before but the Democrats should take this time to define Americans and stop letting the Republicans do it while they just fight the Republicans. It is almost too easy to beat Republicans at their own game that I cannot figure out why Democrats don't and all of this can be done in such a positive way--which will help them win over independent/non-partisans. Be the Party of and for the People. Thanks! She expressed dismay that she was not given better options. Maybe she didn't care for Hilary Clinton enough to want to vote for her and he just seemed like more bark than bite. I can't begin to understand how anyone could find that annoying man an option for anything. I'm about tired of hearing "respectable" people brush off Trump's classless behavior by saying that's how he is but that's not how they would talk. But then again, I am tired of reporters asking apologists to condemn his tirades when it's evident they won't.

You're thinking and using logic and some of those voters may have understood deep down that nothing would change but they want to believe and chose to vote for Trump. I watched an interview of three women who voted for Trump a couple of weeks ago. One of them said she didn't think he would deliver on the jobs but hoped he would and that she wasn't enthusiastic about him, but she felt he was the lesser of two evils. The people who voted against Hilary Clinton will likely vote for whoever the Democrats run as long as that person is not polarizing with a lot of baggage. I am non-partisan. I am tired of party rhetoric and all the divisiveness. What the Democrats have going for them is that they seem to be for people while the Republicans are about money. But the Democrats need to snap out of their funk and get to networking. They should be finding ways to get people i.d. cards, working on community outreach programs, etc. There are plenty of young people who want to belong to something purposeful and they could get something going. And they need to offer opportunities for young people to learn how the government works so that they can keep new blood in the party because the over 70 club is not cutting it. Right now they're squandering opportunities to start something new.

Earlier I read about all David Duke and his ilk tweeting a bunch of congratulations to Jeff Sessions. One of the tweets included a photoshopped picture of Sessions as a confederate soldier with the flag in split screen. Duke labeled Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder black Marxists and bragged about how Sessions would take care of the "terrorist BLM group." So I'm now guessing that they had advanced knowledge of this: http://ktla.com/2017/02/09/trump-signs-3-new-executive-orders-on-crime-reduction-public-safety/ I expect more lawsuits over this Maybe they were thinking that since Mexico won't pay for the wall that it would not be an issues. I feel sorry for the workers but not those selfish farmers. They want to exploit cheap labor. After a while they may figure out that their votes didn't get him elected anyway since CA went to Clinton. But this is a prime example of how trickle down does nothing for American workers. Those farmers want to benefit from tax cuts and deregulation which should put more money in their pockets and they have no intention of hiring American workers at higher wages than they can pay their illegal immigrant workers. I live in California and undocumented workers help a whole lot of craven employers save money. They pick up day laborers at Home Depot parking lots and the like and drop them off. The Labor Board does not have enough manpower to keep up and some of them are subjected to unsafe conditions which Trump aims to make more unsafe.