18 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

This makes me wonder just how that tax plan is really polling. 

 

Maybe he can go clone Ayn Rand for his 2020 running mate.

I don't believe the tax plan is polling effectively at all. If you recall, they ended up pulling the ads in the PA race that Connor Lamb won because it ended up working against them. Ryan's tweet bragging about a secretary getting an extra $1.50 a week is a prime example as to how out of touch these people are.

1 hour ago, JaneAusten said:

I don't believe the tax plan is polling effectively at all. If you recall, they ended up pulling the ads in the PA race that Connor Lamb won because it ended up working against them. Ryan's tweet bragging about a secretary getting an extra $1.50 a week is a prime example as to how out of touch these people are.

I agree. I keep seeing articles like this, which I find a little scary.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/09/the-gop-tax-plan-means-short-term-gains-for-the-economy-but-federal-debt-is-primed-to-explode-cbo-analysis-says.html

7 hours ago, Roman said:

Paul Ryan will not seek re-election.

 

Bye.

 

(Not to you, Roman, but to Paul.)

1 hour ago, Khan said:

 

Bye.

 

(Not to you, Roman, but to Paul.)

LMAO! I sent him the song. 

White House in chaos mode: “Oh, my God, Trump Tower is on fire. Oh, my God, they raided Michael Cohen’s office. Oh, my God, we’re going to bomb Syria. Whatever is there is what people respond to, and there is no proactive strategic thinking.” https://t.co/dYTzTuox8Q pic.twitter.com/1H64xcycQW

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) April 12, 2018

I think he's right, but I pray he isn't.

 

Seth Abramson is a blowhard.

So it seems as if the Oklahoma Teachers are not happy that their union ended the walkout and accepted what they see as a subpar solution. We will see what happens.  Maybe @Khan as you live there you can share some insight.

 

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/9kggj8/oklahoma-teachers-arent-happy-their-union-ended-the-walkout-after-nine-days

Trump’s favorite paper, leading with the actual news in the book > https://t.co/IoHgrhAnIP

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 12, 2018

THE BOOK https://t.co/YpbSZ5v1iz

— Julie Pace (@jpaceDC) April 12, 2018

As I explained yesterday. The White House's new argument is that Rosenstein has to be canned because he helped Trump fire Comey https://t.co/ma3QvIbTBh via @TPM

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 12, 2018

White House circulating talking points that Rosenstein needs to be fired because he helped fire Comey. Also he's Comey's friend. Also, none of that makes sense. pic.twitter.com/lzlGDn3zr6

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 12, 2018

Scoop here from NBC: Mueller likely to report at least four "findings" on Trump and obstruction of justice, including dangling pardons to grand jury witnesses:https://t.co/r8jtJ2q87j

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) April 12, 2018

Oh, and more on the pee tape:

 

 

Trump asked what could be done to “lift the cloud” of the dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, because it was painful for first lady Melania Trump, Comey writes. https://t.co/ra7gb2Pue5

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 12, 2018

The nation’s intelligence chiefs had just finished briefing Donald Trump on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election when FBI Director James B. Comey stayed behind to discuss some especially sensitive material: a “widely circulated” intelligence dossier contained unconfirmed allegations that Russians had filmed Trump interacting with prostitutes in Moscow in 2013.

 

The president-elect quickly interrupted the FBI director. According to Comey’s account in a new memoir, Trump “strongly denied the allegations, asking — rhetorically, I assumed — whether he seemed like a guy who needed the service of prostitutes. He then began discussing cases where women had accused him of sexual assault, a subject I had not raised. He mentioned a number of women, and seemed to have memorized their allegations.”

 

The January 2017 conversation at Trump Tower in Manhattan “teetered toward disaster” — until “I pulled the tool from my bag: ‘We are not investigating you, sir.’ That seemed to quiet him,” Comey writes.

 

Trump did not stay quiet for long. Comey describes Trump as having been obsessed with the prostitutes portion of the infamous dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, raising it at least four times with the FBI head. The document claimed that Trump had watched the prostitutes urinate on themselves in the same Moscow suite that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stayed in previously “as a way of soiling the bed,” Comey writes.

 

Trump offered varying explanations to convince Comey it was not true. “I’m a germaphobe,” Trump told him in a follow-up call on Jan. 11, 2017, according to Comey’s account. “There’s no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way.”

LMAO:

 

 

“For about the fourth time, he argued that the golden showers thing wasn’t true, asking yet again, ‘Can you imagine me, hookers?’” Comey writes of their March 30, 2017, call.

— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) April 12, 2018

More from the incredibly important WP article above:

 

Comey writes that he regrets not interrupting Trump to explain that his plea was wrong. He recalls later confronting Sessions, whom he describes as “both overwhelmed and overmatched by the job.”

 

“You can’t be kicked out of the room so he can talk to me alone,” Comey told Sessions, according to the book. “You have to be between me and the president.”

 

Comey also recounts new observations: “Sessions just cast his eyes down at the table, and they darted quickly back and forth, side to side. He said nothing. I read in his posture and face a message that he would not be able to help me.”

“expecting a Trump defeat, Ryan planned a speech on Election Night to denounce Trump’s racially polarizing agenda as a betrayal of conservatism’s ideals. Instead, Ryan folded the speech back into his jacket pocket—where it has receded deeper ever since.” https://t.co/C2Z2HZhOle

— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) April 11, 2018

Urine trouble now, @realdonaldtrump https://t.co/SHnADUCeRf

An early peek at Friday's front... pic.twitter.com/mRgKGv1fBK

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) April 12, 2018

lol. Michael (Rosemary Woods) Cohen pic.twitter.com/i28KPfVRJD

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 12, 2018

2 hours ago, JaneAusten said:

So it seems as if the Oklahoma Teachers are not happy that their union ended the walkout and accepted what they see as a subpar solution. We will see what happens.  Maybe @Khan as you live there you can share some insight.

 

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/9kggj8/oklahoma-teachers-arent-happy-their-union-ended-the-walkout-after-nine-days

 

Well, I'm saddened by the news, but I can't say I'm surprised.  

 

Let me just say upfront that there was not a moment when my support for our state's teachers flagged.  I was with them every day of the walkout, and I remain with them always.  However, the sad fact is that our teachers could have remained out of their classrooms until this time next year, and it probably wouldn't have made any difference.  Because, as the union head intimates in that article, there comes a point when you have to realize you're just banging your head against the wall.  In this case, the wall was our state legislature and governor.  You got your raise, they seemed to say, now go away.

 

Here's another sad fact: although I do like the call for everyone to make their displeasure known at the next local elections, the truth is that Oklahoma is in no danger of "turning blue" anytime soon.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the devil himself could run for office here on the Republican ticket, and win...

 

Sigh.

 

So, yeah, the educators end up being the losers here.  The package they get is a pittance compared to other states; it isn't sustainable fiscally (they'll be in the red from jump street); and if the anti-tax nuts have their say, part or most of it will be undone by the time you finished reading this post.  Which probably means, our vicious cycle continues: deficiencies in education funding means more students falling behind academically; more teachers and support staff will either keep bailing to other states that actually pay their teachers a fair and decent wage, or they'll just drop out of the profession entirely; and as classroom sizes continue expanding, administrators will be forced to emergency certify as teachers people who 1) are ill-qualified for the gigs and 2) not as committed to the noble task of preparing future generations for a tomorrow that, no doubt, is gonna leave them behind.

 

Honestly, I think most Oklahomans would just as soon home-school their kids at this point.

Edited April 13, 20188 yr by Khan

If it happens, Trump would effectively be using a megaphone, blaring that pardons are available to those who lie under other & obstruct justice. https://t.co/SJbJHSSSzJ

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) April 13, 2018

@Vee I read the Paul Ryan piece that is from, I think (at Politico). It read like a very long press statement from Ryan supporters, although it was well-written, at least, as most Politico pieces are (I say most because they recently had an embarrassing "Republicans will win because a Planned Parenthood chapter tweeted that a Disney princess should have an abortion!!!" article from ex-CNN shill Jeff Greenfield).

Melania was upset about the pee tape?  REALLY?

 

Yeah, I doubt Melania was all that taken aback by the tape, or the dossier, or anything else pertaining to her husband's extramarital activities.  As the polarizing Wendy Williams says, all she wanted (out of the marriage) was a green card and a baby.  She knew what kind of husband she was getting when she said "I do" -- and frankly, if I were Melania, I'd be getting my things together for the first open chance to drop his ass and collect what I'd hope would be a nice paycheck.

 

Meanwhile, I'm convinced Comey's gonna end up getting his own courtroom show.  ("Justice has a new name: JUDGE COMEY.  Weekdays.  Check your local listings.")

Edited April 13, 20188 yr by Khan