[Chas_P]

kenberg, on 2019-January-07, 10:48, said:

When my oldest was in college she mentioned that someone was planning to teach her bridge. I suggested that she wait until graduation and she took this advice. She is now 57. If she thinks that a Vienna Coup is some political event of a hundred years ago I'm fine with that and so is she.

Richard Pavlicek says that a Vienna Coup is the mating call of Austrian doves. He also says that a Bath Coup is getting to use the tub before your roommate.

[jjbrr]

johnu, on 2019-January-07, 16:20, said:

It seems easy enough to ignore posts you aren't interested in, or are off topic.

I literally wrote a script to hide obnoxious posters. It is, in fact, easier than easy to ignore them.

[y66]

From First big bipartisan vote establishes House select committee on modernizing Congress by Lindsey McPherson at Roll Call:

Quote

Taking its first bipartisan vote of the 116th Congress, the House voted Friday to establish a select committee to come up with recommendations for modernizing the legislative branch.

The 418-12 bipartisan vote was even more significant because it is part of the House Democrats’ rules package. House rules are crafted by the majority party, and they rarely draw votes from the minority.

But since Friday’s vote on Title II of the rules package was just about establishing the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress — as it will be called — it was a noncontroversial aspect of Democrats’ rules package that most Republicans could support.

Three Republicans also voted Thursday to support Title I of the rules package, which encompassed the vast majority of Democrats’ rules changes. The Republicans backed the package because it included provisions to foster bipartisan legislating they helped push for.

The House will complete consideration of the rules package on Wednesday by voting on Title III. The provision would authorize the general counsel on behalf of the speaker to intervene in the Texas v. United States lawsuit, to defend the constitutionality of the 2010 health care law and ensure that protections for pre-existing conditions continue.

The select committee, which won’t have legislative authority, will be tasked with holding public hearings and studying options for modernizing Congress. Those include changes in congressional rules, procedures and schedules.

The panel will also look at “policies to develop the next generation of leaders; staff recruitment, diversity, retention, and compensation and benefits; administrative efficiencies, including purchasing, travel, outside services, and shared administrative staff; technology and innovation; and the work of the House Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards,” according to the text of the rules package.

Every 90 days the committee will be required to provide an interim status report to the House Administration and Rules committees. A final report to be submitted to the full House is due at the end of the first session of the 116th Congress.

The reports must be approved by two-thirds of the 12 select committee members.

The speaker and the minority leader get to appoint six members each, including at least two each from the House Administration and Rules panels. The party leaders must also select at least two freshman members to serve on the panel.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that Washington Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer will chair the select panel. Kilmer is also the new chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition.

“Congressman Kilmer is an innovator and a pioneer, who has worked relentlessly to make the House more transparent and more responsive to the voices of Members and the American people,” Pelosi said in a statement. “His commitment to bipartisanship in the Congress will be vital to this Committee’s work to modernize our institution.”

The select committee will formally terminate on Feb. 1, 2020.

[Winstonm]

The Reichstag fire seems to have spread to the U.S. southern border. I doubt a wall will contain it. Perhaps more firemen?

[y66]

From 9 things you should know before Trump starts spewing lies in Tuesday address to the nation by Sally Kohn at USA Today:

Quote

• Illegal border crossings are down. Significantly. In 2000, 1.6 million people were apprehended trying to cross the southern border into the United States. In 2001, 1.3 million were apprehended. In 2018? Less than 400,000. That’s not just a decline. It’s a significant decline.
  
• The counties along the southern border are among the safest in the United States. According to data from the Wilson Center, as summarized by The Washington Post, “The crime rates in U.S. border counties are lower than the average for similarly sized inland counties, with two exceptions out of 23 total.”
  
• Most undocumented immigrants don’t “sneak” across the border. The majority of immigrants in the USA without authorization first entered the country legally, and then overstayed their visas. The Center for Migration Studies said in a 2017 report that crossing the border is not the way “the large majority of persons now becoming undocumented.” It reported that two-thirds of undocumented immigrants entered the U.S. legally and then simply overstayed their visas.
  
• The White House is lying about terrorists crossing the southern border. In an interview on Fox News this weekend, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that “nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border.” Sanders' careful wording suggests she knew she was more than bending the truth. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace fact-checked Sanders: “Do you know where those 4,000 people come, where they are captured? Airports.” “The state department says there hasn’t been any terrorists found coming across the southern border,” Wallace stated. But Sanders kept pressing the lie, because Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda relies on fact-less fearmongering.
  
• Migrant caravans aren’t “sneaking” across the border, either. If you care about facts, it’s important to distinguish between illegal border crossings and migrants lawfully presenting themselves at southern ports of entry in order to apply for asylum. The simple fact is that large groups of very visible migrants, such as the main so-called migrant caravan of people fleeing violence in Central America, are obviously not trying to “sneak” across the U.S. border. They’re coming to the border to apply for asylum, which was a completely transparent and lawful process until Trump started changing the rules.
  
• Drugs entering the USA across the southern border are most often hidden in legal shipments. Trump has suggested that the flow of heroin into the United States would be stanched by his border wall. He’s right that 90 percent of heroin enters through the southern border. However, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, “illicit drugs are smuggled into the United States in concealed compartments within passenger vehicles or commingled with legitimate goods on tractor trailers.” In other words, a wall wouldn’t stop most heroin from entering the country. And arguably, resources spent on the wall would divert from other enforcement mechanisms, such as more officers and technology at ports of entry to scan vehicles for drugs.
  
• Conservative political figures and think tanks think Trump’s wall is pointless. What apparently began as a memory device to help the undisciplined Trump remember what to thunder about during campaign appearances has turned into a central bone the president won’t let go of. But there’s a reason Trump couldn’t get funding for his wall during the past two years of his presidency when his own party completely controlled both houses of Congress: They didn’t want it. The New York Times reports that leading anti-immigration activists are concerned Trump’s focus on the “relatively ineffectual” wall is distracting from other strategies they would like prioritized.
  
• There are already 654 miles of border fencing. The U.S.-Mexico border is 1,933 miles long. Of that, 34 percent already has a wall or a fence — in particular, parts along the areas of the border that are most easily accessed by people traveling by car or on foot. That’s right, there’s already a wall along 654 miles of the U.S. border. What’s the rest? Huge mountains and rivers and vast stretches of land that are privately owned, which the United States would have to seize through eminent domain if Trump got his way. Mind you, those areas aren’t completely open — they’re actively patrolled using sensors and drones and other technology, the sorts of things experts say actually work.
  
• Americans do not support Trump’s wall. “The people of our country want it,” Trump said recently. No, they do not. A mid-December poll found that 54 percent of respondents opposed Trump’s wall. That number even crept up slightly by late December. And more than two out of three Americans don’t think the wall should be a political priority. It’s also worth noting that most Americans blame Trump for the government shutdown that he initiated by trying to hold government funding hostage to get his stupid wall.

[johnu]

I confess I have underestimated Dennison.

Watch the speech - then donate to Trump! President's campaign turns Oval Office address into money raising effort

Just when I thought he was in decline, Dennison turns the clock back and flashes as the world's greatest con man. There was speculation he might declare a national emergency on the Mexican border in his 9 minute press event that was covered by the national TV networks in prime time.

Instead, the national TV networks were conned into providing millions of dollars of advertising to promote Dennison's appearance, and disrupted expensive prime time network programming to cover the political rally, which turned out to be a short version of his Dennison 2020 campaign rally speech that he has routinely given since he was inaugurated.

Turns out this was mostly a fundraising stunt by a phenomenal con man. Before the TV appearance, Dennison's campaign committee sent out a fundraising email.

Quote

'The American people are demanding Democrats finally put America First and BUILD THE WALL....but Chuck and Nancy simply won't listen,' the donation page reads.

'That's why I want to do something so HUGE, even Democrats and the Fake News won't be able to ignore,' Trump writes. 'We need to raise $500,000 in ONE DAY.'

'Get on the 'Official Secure the Border Fund' list my team sends me' after the speech, Trump encourages people.

The appeal went out via text and email.

The email pleads with people to donate $5 by 9 p.m., which is when Trump's speech starts.

It's not too late to donate to Dennison's campaign fund as the deadline was extended after the speech.

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2019-January-09, 03:57, said:

I confess I have underestimated Dennison.

Watch the speech - then donate to Trump! President's campaign turns Oval Office address into money raising effort

Just when I thought he was in decline, Dennison turns the clock back and flashes as the world's greatest con man. There was speculation he might declare a national emergency on the Mexican border in his 9 minute press event that was covered by the national TV networks in prime time.

Instead, the national TV networks were conned into providing millions of dollars of advertising to promote Dennison's appearance, and disrupted expensive prime time network programming to cover the political rally, which turned out to be a short version of his Dennison 2020 campaign rally speech that he has routinely given since he was inaugurated.

Turns out this was mostly a fundraising stunt by a phenomenal con man. Before the TV appearance, Dennison's campaign committee sent out a fundraising email.


It's not too late to donate to Dennison's campaign fund as the deadline was extended after the speech.

I'm still waiting for the Ginsu-knife-with-every-MAGA-hat-ordered deal before I commit.

[Winstonm]

NO Collusion.

Quote

On January 6, 2017, the U.S. intelligence community issued a report that showed there were two campaigns to elect Donald Trump: one run by Trump and one run by the Russian government. Trump and many of his senior advisors and close associates have repeatedly denied any connections between the two campaigns, despite the fact that they were working towards the same goal, at the same time, and utilizing the same tactics.

Yet over the past year, we’ve learned about a series of meetings and contacts between individuals linked to the Russian government and Trump’s campaign and transition team. In total, we have learned of 101 contacts between Trump’s team and Russia linked operatives, including at least 28 meetings. And we know that at least 28 high-ranking campaign officials and Trump advisors were aware of contacts with Russia-linked operatives during the campaign and transition. None of these contacts were ever reported to the proper authorities. Instead, the Trump team tried to cover up every single one of them.

Why were there so many meetings? What was discussed in them? More importantly, why did Trump and his camp lie about them, including to federal law enforcement? What are they hiding?

Well, OK, maybe a little....

[Winstonm]

When Fox News breaks rank, you are in trouble:

Quote

It was revealed Tuesday that Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data with a Russian operative, according to a poorly redacted legal filing by his attorneys.

“This shows that Bob Mueller can demonstrate to a court without the testimony of Paul Manafort that the campaign had a connection to Russian intelligence and the connection involved information going from the campaign to the Russians,” Napolitano said. “The question is, was this in return for a promise of something from the Russians, and did the candidate, now the president, know about it?”

“Collusion isn’t a crime, but this would be considered collusion?” Smith asked.

“The crime is the conspiracy, the agreement. Collusion is a nonlegal term,” Napolitano said.

“I know, but if there’s collusion, giving stuff to the Russians about polling data [would count],” Smith said.

“Yeah, that would probably fit into the category,” Napolitano responded. “This event, which has been outlined in these court papers, occurred during the campaign.”

[johnu]

One of Dennison's early supporters and a possible source for Dennison's obsession with a wall

Stunning Steve King builds wall in Congress

Steve King asks how terms 'white nationalist' and 'white supremacist' became offensive

Quote

“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King asked in an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday.

Quote

In 2018, he also defended his association with a far-right Austrian group with links to the Nazi Party and hard-line views on immigration.

“If they were in America pushing the platform that they push, they would be Republicans,” King told The Washington Post last October.

Good to know. I was a worried that Austrian nazis would immigrate to the US and join the Democratic party.

Quote

King dismissed his critics in November as "uninformed," saying, "if you attack someone and you don’t cite anything, you’re just a cannibal."

How has this brilliancy not become the catchphrase of Dennison?

[Winstonm]

Quote

"if you attack someone and you don’t cite anything, you’re just a cannibal."

If you don't attack anyone and have no plan to do so, you're just smoking cannabis.

[Winstonm]

It just dawned on me how the shutdown could be halted. All we have to do is promise Individual-1 that he can build a hotel on the border, overcharge the government for housing asylum seekers, while putting a wall around his building. Voila'!

[johnu]

johnu, on 2019-January-06, 16:52, said:

Forget Concrete, Let’s Build A Steel Wall Instead



I'm disappointed in Dennison. A steel wall...Steel??? As a golfer, he should know that titanium is the best material that is used in the latest high tech golf drivers.

Titanium wall

Titanium wall

Titanium wall

Titanium wall

No steel wall, no steel wall ...

New Photo Shows Steel Border Wall Prototype Can Be Breached With Saw

Dennison has promised that Mexico will ban the sale of metal saw blades and will pay for any damage to the wall.

Added:
We Had to Elect the Dumbest Guy Available Not even the second dumbest.

Quote

This is something said by the President* of the United States on Thursday.

They say a wall is medieval, well so is a wheel. A wheel is older than a wall...The wheel is older than the wall, you know that? There are some things that work. You know what? A wheel works and a wall works. Nothing like a wall.

Build that WHEEL

[andrei]

Winstonm, on 2019-January-10, 16:30, said:

It just dawned on me how the shutdown could be halted. All we have to do is promise Individual-1 that he can build a hotel on the border, overcharge the government for housing asylum seekers, while putting a wall around his building. Voila'!

Winston and John: “Has U.S. democracy been trumped?”’s Statler and Waldorf

[Winstonm]

Quote

Members of the conservative small-government, anti-tax Freedom Caucus are having second thoughts about Donald Trump’s suggestion that he may declare a national state of emergency to get his border wall built — fearing it could blow up in Republican faces.

Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) said, “I do see the potential for national emergencies being used for every single thing that we face in the future where we can’t reach an agreement. That’s the slippery slope that I’m concerned about,” he explained....

When Mark Meadows and the Freedom Caucus are the adult supervision, you know you are deep into a looking glass shite storm.

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2019-January-11, 01:55, said:

No steel wall, no steel wall ...

New Photo Shows Steel Border Wall Prototype Can Be Breached With Saw

Dennison has promised that Mexico will ban the sale of metal saw blades and will pay for any damage to the wall.

Added:
We Had to Elect the Dumbest Guy Available Not even the second dumbest.

Build that WHEEL

Oh, no! A suspected Italian immigrant knows about WHEELS!

[y66]

Matt Yglesias speculates that "This is going to end with Trump trying to use a fake alien attack as a pretext for dropping all sanctions on Russia, while AOC tries to stop him." AOC and Chuck Grassley?

[Winstonm]

y66, on 2019-January-11, 11:36, said:

Matt Yglesias speculates that "This is going to end with Trump trying to use a fake alien attack as a pretext for dropping all sanctions on Russia, while AOC tries to stop him." AOC and Chuck Grassley?

The sad part is that I doubt Individual-1 is concerned about whether or not he should declare an emergency but when such a declaration would get Yuge Ratings!

Edit: Dumbass-in-chief has a new take:

Quote

President Trump Individual-1 said Friday he has no immediate plans to declare a national emergency in order to fund the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border—and instead urged Democrats to vote on the issue. “What we’re not looking to do right now is a national emergency,” Trump Individual-1 said in a White House meeting on border security. He then called a national emergency an “easy solution.” “I’m not going to do it so fast,” he added.

He went on tv and declared a crisis - but now there is no crisis. I mean, seriously, is there anybody out there - die-hard supporters included - who won't finally admit that this clown is a total dumbass?

[johnu]

Another first for the Manchurian President

FBI Probed Whether Trump Was Working For Russia After Comey Firing: Report

The first time a sitting POTUS has been the subject of a counter terrorism investigation by the FBI. I'm sure the White House brought out a yuuge bottle of 100% Russian vodka to celebrate. Das Vedanya Comrade Dennison.

[hrothgar]

Well worth reading as followup to the previous link

https://www.lawfareb...atest-bombshell