Trump Thread

[a completely inoffensive name]

One problem is that many reforms would necessarily be so massive, they could not be drafted by a small team ahead of elections. For these one is largely limited to advertising a set of principles or ideals that points in the direction of the reform. But you need a way to legislate a scaleable agenda into place so that, if hypothetically one party no longer has the supermajorities to pass a Universal Healthcare measure, the government would be provisioned to go on drafting and testing and building it up in the national consciousness in time for the next round.

Again, I would agree. That's why the three I listed above would not be overly complicated to put into practice (A and C would be essentially amendments to previously passed bills from the early 90s) and give a good return on investments.
From my perspective, Trumpism has not invalidated the 2012 GOP autopsy report. Once Democrats find themselves above the stacked deck, many regions become competitive due to demographics and other regions will flip. Trump's hold on the section of blue collar whites is only as good as the Dem's were. If you ask them in 2020 if they were better now than 4 years ago, only those locked into into alt-right consciousness would deny the lack of effort made by this administration to bring back the coal jobs, fight the opioid crisis and revitalize the rust belt. This analysis also ignores the trends I have seen reported online about the millenials and gen Z workers being more receptive to participating in labor unions (which skew workers left by their nature) than their fathers and grandfathers.

Refund the IRS and do everyone's taxes for free. Relatively easy if the lobbyists are out of the picture for even a moment.

This almost happened in California (lost by one vote). Perhaps this is simply a case of unmined political gold that TurboTax has successfully kept hidden?

Firebreathers like this guy?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-collar-voters
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...rmy-one-217217
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqsa0c8lHv0

I do think men like him are the key to the future for the Democratic party. If Dems wish to become competitive in regions like West Virginia, they will need to become inclusive of men like Ojeda into the Democratic platform.

[Montmorency]

I do think men like him are the key to the future for the Democratic party. If Dems wish to become competitive in regions like West Virginia, they will need to become inclusive of men like Ojeda into the Democratic platform.

West Virginia Democrats tend to diverge a bit from the national party, typically marrying a yeoman’s populism with heavy doses of social conservatism. Ojeda is different still, with aggressively and blunt rhetoric reminiscent of Donald Trump, and politics that run the gamut but skew towards the Bernie Sanders wing of the party. On abortion, Ojeda said “I hate the idea of telling a woman what to do with her body,” and expresses support for Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood. He supports Dreamers in their battle for immigration reform, is open to some forms of gun control, marijuana legalization and makes a case for a government role in providing healthcare.

He's already left of just about any Blue Dog, with the advantage of economic populism rather than corporatism. Ideally the Democratic Party should be syncretizing economic populism and globalism, exporting it. The Dems should never be allowed to forget that US domestic policy is foreign policy of consequence.

But with Democrats like these...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[HopAlongBunny]

House Intel Panel:
No Collusion

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/12/59301...on-with-russia

The Panel minority dissent:

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/13/59332...ia-conclusions

The public record of what little we definitely know about Mueller's investigation:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...y-worried.html

When Mueller lowers the boom there may not be enough popcorn for the full campaign.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

And adieu Rex Tillerson, we hardly knew ye.

The White House must speak with one voice, and that voice must be the President's.



On the other hand, it might be a LEEEEETLE easier to keep a staff if Trump himself knew what he was going to say more than 20 seconds prior to his saying/tweeting it.

[rory_20_uk]

He didn't appear to be doing a particularly great job - partly since he was somewhat bought into the "disruptive" agenda Donnie was peddling which unsurprisingly caused all the ones you want to stay to leave ASAP and of course not having Congress et al bought into the concept of a State Department that was 1/3 the size of what it was. There probably were changes that could be made, but "leadership" is supposedly taking others along with you.

But even with all the wilful damage and disruption he was creating, he still made the carnal sin of making Donnie look like a prat. Not falling foul of this requires someone with all the freedom of thought of a cult member who is happy for history to be rewritten one tweet at a time.

No idea about the new person but Donnie is currently saying how they are really good, close friends who he knows really well. In six months time he'll be denying he every did more than meet him twice in meetings and he too is too much "establishment" which apparently code for "refuses to believe that this is all some sort of reality show on MTV".

[spmetla]

Well Rex Tillerson is fired as Secretary of State:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/polit...est/index.html
In his outgoing remarks, Tillerson defends his record

This is an odd one too that will be overshadowed by Tillerson's departure:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/13/polit...nce/index.html
Longtime Trump aide fired over financial crime investigation

(CNN)President Donald Trump's longtime personal aide John McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing told CNN.

The charges are not related to the President, the source said.
Minutes after news of his departure broke, the Trump campaign announced McEntee would be joining the reelection effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.
McEntee escorted from the White House on Monday, three sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. Two sources said McEntee was pushed out because of issues with his security clearance, making him just the latest aide to be forced out because of difficulties obtaining a full security clearance.

[Montmorency]

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump...mnuchin-2018-3

In October 2017, BuzzFeed News reported that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Tillerson had forged a "suicide pact," whereby all three agreed to leave if Trump fired one of them.

Elsewhere I saw McMaster included in the pact. Make it happen.