“Get me the President’s agent!”
ShivaX
3883
And so it begins. 240 years was a pretty good run.
Miramon
3884
I bet the Dems don’t even campaign against them on this vote during the midterms. They are so passive and weak now… it’s really very sad.
ShivaX
3886
Don’t worry, the Drain The Swampers are already making excuses for getting rid of the ethics oversight. It costs a $1 mil a year! Because that’s a lot of money… said no functioning nation ever.
My fucking town of 3000 people can spend more than that on a school, but for the Federal government to do it to keep our elected officials somewhat honest? Too much money. Now time for a couple trillion dollars in tax cuts.
One MILLION dollars! Just think, though, that means that the 53% are paying like 1-2 cents each PER YEAR just to keep Congress honest. What a waste!
JFrazer
3888
To be fair, that $1 million/year is costing the GOP hundreds of millions in kickbacks and bribes annually. And think about all the savings in court costs from not investigating and prosecuting all future ethics violations. How can anyone be expected to pass that savings up?
JFrazer
3889
Well that was quick. GOP announced that they are pulling the amendment after Trump basically said “seriously? How about doing something important instead”.
This should be an interesting first 100 days…
The decision to disempower the ethics agency had terrible optics. It was getting eviscerated on the news all day. I’ll give thumbs up to Trump for at least tweeting something on the right side of a debate for once, but I hesitate to give him credit for the backpedal.
[quote]
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it … may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS,” Trump said over two consecutive tweets.[/quote]
Note that Trump didn’t actually disagree with the effort. Just that he disagreed with the timing.
I don’t know what you all are talking about, because I know from Facebook how awesome things are going:
“Ford just announced cancellation of a new $1.5 Billion plant in Mexico due to Trump’s promise of a new business-friendly environment in the US. The US House of Representatives Republicans made the terrible decision to cancel the independent Congressional ethics council - then reversed that decision after Trump blasted them for it. Trump promised to reverse the Obama administration’s stand against Israel at the UN. Trump is not President yet, but he is creating positive change.”
JFrazer
3893
To be fair, none of those statements are false, according to the primary news sources. Ford cited Trump’s “pro-business environment” for their decision to invest $700 million in Michigan instead of $1.5 billion in Mexico. The press is reporting that the GOP reversal of the Ethics Council change was due to Trump’s tweet (even though it wasn’t). Trump has vowed to roll back the Israel settlement condemnation in the U.N. (which, frankly, I can’t understand…).
The “pro-business environment” thing is going to be repeated by a lot of companies. The press is going to tout it like it is keeping all kinds of jobs on-shore, which will be partially true. However, the U.S. government is going to pour billions in tax cuts and sacrifice the environment in the process or saving a few thousand jobs.
Yup, Trump and the GOP are basically the dad that lets kids stay up all night watching TV and eating junk food, and the Dems have to be the mom that comes home and gets mad while dad makes a pouty face and says, “sorry kids, your mother’s right.” Except in this case mom’s not coming home until the kids are hit by a glacier.
That’s an excellent analogy. Just change the last line to “Except in this case mom’s not coming home until the kids are drowned by global warming” to fit the subject matter.
Drowning is too subtle, that’s why I went with a glacier. Drowning could just be some random flooding or freak storm. I guess to truly dispel fit the name “global warming” it should be that they die of heat stroke on a 150 degree day? Not sure what has to happen for people to stop sticking their heads in the sand. Oh, I know! The sand will get too hot!
There is no threshold. We are dealing with tribalism and willful ignorance such as humanity has seldom seen. If New York were 100 feet underwater, they’d say it wasn’t human-caused, and anyway look at all the new beachfront property, and any poor saps who didn’t move away in time deserved what they got.
I’m all for pointing out Mr Trumps many and obvious questionable actions and statements, but I have to point out that the hyperbole is getting a little thick in here. I mean, really, “humanity has seldom seen” is a bit over the top don’t you think?
There is nothing new here. America has had waves of irrational reactionary backlash before. Populists have exploited this to get elected before. America has elected questionably-qualified presidents before.
I seriously doubt the Trump presidency will lead to civil war, internment camps, or nuclear war. Things could be and have been worse, so let’s keep a little perspective.
I think Trump brings us closer to nuclear war than we have been since the '60’s. He’s the guy who reportedly asked why we couldn’t use our nukes. He’s the guy who said we have to increase our nuclear capacity.
I think he’s scary in that regard.
ShivaX
3900
Name one time. Things “have been worse” since the development of The Bomb? Not even remotely, or we’d all have ceased to exist a long time ago.
Now he’s tweet-arguing with the intelligence community over the briefing date.
