By Pogo, a Trail Mix Contributor
Get a cup of coffee, sit back, go read the full article, and consider what happened last night and what its impact and import will be. If you’re anything like me, you are scared shitless about what’s getting ready to happen to the United States.
Wapo PowerPost: Senate approves budget in crucial step forward for Republican tax cut
By Elise Viebeck
The Senate approved the Republican-backed budget Thursday night, a major step forward for the GOP effort to enact tax cuts.
The budget’s passage will allow the GOP to use a procedural maneuver to pass tax legislation through the Senate with 50 or more votes, removing the need for support from Democratic senators.
* * *
The White House, in a statement issued Thursday night, said Trump “applauds the Senate” for passing the budget resolution and “taking an important step in advancing the Administration’s pro-growth and pro-jobs legislative agenda.”
The Senate approved an amendment Thursday night that paved the way for the House to adopt its version of the budget. This could eliminate the need for a conference committee, which might expedite consideration of tax reform by several weeks, according to a House GOP aide.
* * *
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) proposed an amendment to prevent tax increases on people making less than $250,000 a year. The measure would have also required the Senate to approve a tax-reform bill with 60 votes rather than a simple majority. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) called this language a “poison pill,” and the amendment was defeated 51-47.
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Yep Pogo, I guess it’s “morning in America” all over again.
Again, Heddycariad, welcome to our threads. Appreciate your review of Kelly’s Homeland tenure. Ancestral Wales sounds like a good idea.
thanks, pogo, the sun isn’t even up yet and after reading? My coffee has turned to acid in my stomach and then I remember I do not have any health care insurance going for next year. The endless fretting of the trump year(s). Everyone is getting touched by this rapid fire change and to the military guys? It is like shooting fish in a barrel. the trumpence junta continues to kill our old democratic way-of-life and it is not kelly’s job to assassinate the character of the congresswoman, just like bill o’liely who made fun of Maxine Water’s hair on national tv. These guys continue the takedown, especially of Black women. Could it be that 97% of all Black women who voted, voted for Hillary? These senseless cultural attacks are not the job of the military and are not appropriate. kelly should have actually defended Obama as his admin treated the military quite well with Michele and Jill spending many hours with families. Instead he defaults to protecting a ‘humperdoo’ of a prez.
To Rep. Wilson? She is doing something the dems can’t seem to do these days — tv time and she is getting better and more press than trump.
Not a great morning in America except for one little thing …. DODGERS!!!!
Pat Bagley on GOP Monument removal
bw, ‘fraid you’re right, gen Kelly did seem to go beyond the call of duty attacking with this one according to Miami herald:
When White House Chief of Staff John Kelly condemned a Miami congresswoman on Thursday for sneering at President Donald Trump’s condolence call to a soldier’s widow, the retired general recalled when the two attended a somber ceremony in Miramar to dedicate a new FBI building named after two slain FBI agents.
Kelly criticized Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson for claiming “she got the money” for the new building during the 2015 ceremony while he and others in the audience were focused on the heroism of agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, killed during a 1986 shootout with bank robbers south of Miami.
Thursday night, Wilson said Kelly got the story flat-out wrong. In fact, she said Washington approved the money before she was even in Congress. The legislation she sponsored named the building after Grogan and Dove, a law enacted just days before the ceremony.
“He shouldn’t be able to just say that, that is terrible,” Wilson said of Kelly’s remarks in the White House briefing room, the latest volley in the controversy over Trump’s condolence call to a military widow from Miami Gardens, an area Wilson represents. “This has become totally personal.”
In 2015, Wilson won praise from Miami Republicans for sponsoring the bill to name the long anticipated federal building after two agents who became legends in local law enforcement.
At the dedication ceremony, James Comey, then director of the FBI, lauded Wilson’s legislation, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama three days before the April 2015 ceremony.
“Rep. Wilson truly did the impossible, and we are eternally grateful,” Comey said in his remarks.
On Thursday evening, an administration spokesman issued a statement that said: “The White House stands by Gen. Kelly’s account of the event.”
The controversy was still raging at the White House late Thursday night. Shortly before 11 p.m., Trump tweeted: “The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson(D), who was SECRETLY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content!”
[…continues…]
“51 Republican Senators just voted to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and Medicare by $500 billion so that millionaires and corporations can get a tax cut. It’s immoral and despicable,” said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for Americans for Tax Fairness, in a statement immediately following the vote.
Read more.
The death toll mounts under the trumpence junta and so do the disaster invoices. I think the plan is to kill-off the lower end of humans. We have withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, yet pollution is killing one in six, who needs guns? Although they do help us cherry pick our victims!
very well written and worth reading in its entirity
Lupita Nyong’o: What Harvey Weinstein Did to Me
Patd, I noticed a ‘comey’ reference in one of the links in your comment to Rep. Wilson’s dedication of the fbi building. Move over, Kevin Bacon, the new game is the six degrees of comey!
Roll-out the barrel…the trump regime loves using that word. From stone’s prediction of podesta’s tumble in the barrel to kelly’s empty barrel? Old coots using barrel imagery…must be code.
bw, and it’s like shooting fish in a barrel with twit tossing out tweets to the media
“If you’re anything like me, you are scared shitless about what’s getting ready to happen to the United States.”
This administration is the Piranha Brothers of politics & #45 is our own Spiny Norman, growing bigger & badder through the power of fear. “Dinsdale …. DINSDALE!!!” ( Or should I put it in #45’s lingua franca: #Dinsdale #DINSDALE !!! )
Fear & intimidation is exactly how this gang operates.
*******
The day of the September 11th terrorist attacks I had the night shift. A woman ran into the store screaming “Why are you open!” I calmly explained that living in fear was exactly what the bastards wanted. We weren’t going to give in. We won. They lost.
*******
Mr Olbermann writes in the introduction of his new book, Trump is F*cking Crazy, the following words:
We are the majority.
Let’s act like it.
Words to remember & live by. ✔
Great post Pogo. While the rest of the country is concentrated on SFB’s and Kelly’s distraction… the Republicans in the Senate are doing the real work of remaking this country in their image. You bet I’m scared shitless!
Heddycariad, welcome aboard. by any chance is your name welsh? like the welsh words “heddychlon” (meaning peaceful, peaceable) and “heddychwr” (meaning peacemaker) does it mean peaceful love or peace and love?
very fitting moniker for the trail.
sjwny, here’s keith on manafort’s millions from Russian curious loan
Published Oct. 19, 2017
Paul Manafort ran Trump’s campaign. He worked for free. Why?
looks like ‘bama boy roy might be in a bit of trouble according to wapo:
The Alabama charity once led by Senate candidate Roy Moore did not report to the Internal Revenue Service that in 2011 it guaranteed him $498,000 in back pay, according to an income report provided to The Washington Post by the charity itself.
Five tax law and accounting specialists said it appears the guaranteed payment should have been reported as compensation, a disclosure that would have triggered a federal tax bill of more than $100,000.
Moore and his campaign have not responded to questions about whether he paid the taxes, or to requests that he release his income tax returns.
[…continues…]
patd: peace and love. Yes, family is Welsh. Been a lurker for a very long time.
Federal judge refuses to erase Joe Arpaio’s conviction despite Trump pardon
[…]
The case raised the novel question of how far a presidential pardon actually reaches.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton said the pardon only freed Arpaio from possible punishment. In a four-page order offering a check on the president’s executive power, Bolton wrote that a pardon could not erase the facts of the case.
“The power to pardon is an executive prerogative of mercy, not of judicial recordkeeping,” Bolton wrote in the decision. “To vacate all rulings in this case would run afoul of this important distinction. The Court found Defendant guilty of criminal contempt.”
The president issued the pardon, and Arpaio was spared “from any punishment that might otherwise have been imposed,” the judge wrote. “It did not, however, ‘revise the historical facts’ of this case.”
Arpaio’s attorney immediately filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
[….continues…]
Jamie, thanks for the EPA links yesterday. This guy Pruitt is a real piece of work, ignores science, only listens to industry.
Jamie, thanks for the EPA links yesterday. This guy Pruitt is a real piece of work, ignores science, only listens to industry.
Boy Howdy you could say that about everyone in the PG administration
ugh
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/john-kelly-and-the-language-of-the-military-coup
We love Sheriff Joe, don’t we? Sad.
The one thing I see as a plus in this budget/tax cut disaster is that republicans can no longer lie about being fiscally conservative. Let’s all sit back and watch the red ink charts rise and rise. Can’t wait for the debt ceiling charade to roll around again.
Medicare and Social Security is what he plans to use to make up the deficit
Paul Waldman ended his piece at WaPo today with this:
Pretty much sums it up. Sad.
Re trump’s alleged condolence call :
The ACTUAL point is that the family of the deceased showed insufficient gratitude that the greatest man in the history of warfare (& gummint & literatchur & busyness & big hands & byootiful buildings & golf) called her to say, essentially,
Tough shit. Get over it. Vote for me.
Steal this analysis and spread it all the way to Marla Ego.
“mourning in america”
There is a remote possibility that McCain would once again act with his “NO” vote on the change to the taxes. He did it before and he could do it again.
You know you have been working a lot of overtime in four days when you take five hours off on the fifth day and have over eight more hours of OT to burn next week. But the work was enjoyable and the people, from around the world, wonderful. Gale enjoyed her time with new friends, but was just plain tuckered out when we got home last night.
Been asked to go to PR or USVI by Red Cross. Cannot go, have too much to do in the office. Would go in a flash though if the office said okay.
Ignoring the fall of a general and the orange toilet plunger today. Maybe tomorrow. Not today.
kgc, thanks for linking that newyorker piece which pointed out gen Kelly seems to be saying “the only good American is a dead American”
how quaint. that phrase use to only apply to native americans
http://wgnradio.com/2017/10/19/keith-olbermann-refuses-to-accept-the-new-reality-of-trumps-america
Interesting conversation. Mentions media & political complicity in why we still have #45.
sjwny, speaking of “the new reality of trump’s America”
cbs via msn:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Police in Gainesville have arrested three Texas men accused of shouting “Heil Hitler” and other chants before firing a shot at two people shortly after white nationalist Richard Spencer spoke at the University of Florida Thursday, reports CBS affiliate WGFL.
Gainesville Police charged 28-year-old Tyler Tenbrink and brothers Colton and William Fears with attempted homicide.
Tenbrink, who police say admitted to firing the shot, is also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Police say the incident happened about 5:30 p.m., about an hour after Spencer’s speech, which had attracted thousands of protesters, ended. Police say the victims were at a bus stop not far from the event, when a Jeep with four men inside pulled up and started yelling at them.
A report released Friday says one of the victims hit the Jeep’s rear window with a baton. Police say the Jeep drove about 10 feet and stopped. The report says both Colton and William Fears threatened to kill the victims and told Tenbrink to shoot.
They say Tenbrink fired one shot, hitting the building behind the victim.
Police say that one of the victims was able to get the Jeep’s license plate number and later that evening an off-duty sheriff’s deputy pulled the car over about 20 miles north of Gainesville.
Police say at least two of the men have connections to extremist groups but didn’t immediately identify which ones.
Tenbrink is being held on $3 million bond. Colton and William Fears are being held on $1 million bond.
I’m willing to grant Trump “good intentions”. And we know where those are used for pavement. I’m willing to grant that the grieving widow with her friends and neighbors may have taken Trump’s hoof in mouth statement in a way he didn’t mean it.
That being said. A great big “I’m sorry if you misunderstood me” statement would have put an end to it. Instead we got the unending whining of the playground bully making himself the victim. Then he trots out hi pet general who incorrectly references a sitting Congresswoman calling her an “empty barrel.”
The just to put the cherry on top, out trots Sarah Sanders to lie through her perfectly polished tweets to prove once more that hucksterism runs in the family.
The bond should be set higher, say, $10MM, $3MM, $3MM.
A Modest Proposal
Build a maximum security facility for these guys on Tristan da Cunha. Run it like bergen belsen. Let all the nazis feel the ‘glory of nazism’ from the inside, as it were. Staff it with the old No Vietnamese prison guards; they’re both inexpensive and effective.
Any update on an updated “Attack the Messenger” ? The complicity of the (mainly tv) media in electing & continuing to enable this President is worth at least a few more chapters about fear, loathing & a damn good ratings ride.
Could anyone within established television news gathering operations speak out truthfully without fear of removal? What is the point of “news” if it is not truthful but self edited for fear of loss of access?
in addition to the twit’s tweet that rep wilson is “wacky” and “crazy” (he should talk), sarah (whose bio is rather thin) affirmed Kelly’s “empty barrel” epithet and added her own “all hat, no cow” to disparage a member of congress who has been a school principal, a Miami-dade school board member, a florida state representative and senator in addition to other local activity for which she has been praised.
given those accomplishments, that barrel the general spoke of is more than half full, there are more cows in her corral than in sarah’s, and she is no where near as wacky or crazy as the twit.
Wizard of Oz: WH press sec Sanders doesn’t defend Kelly’s lies, instead says we have no right to pay attention, question a general.
Wizard of Uh-huh.
Noteworthy: Both Trump and Press Sec Sanders today dodged when asked if he authorized disastrous Niger mission.
Sarah Suckabee
Trump’s Sanders to reporters: “Inappropriate” to question a general. Her resume to Putin in the mail.
We hold these troops to be self-Oedipus
See……trump picked a frump to be his front man….now ain’t that weird?
We shall frump them on the beaches, we shall frump them on the investigations, and we shall frump them in the trenches, if it comes to that
Mort Sahl……1970
Somewhat off topic, but just wanted to say that tonight I’m missing my sweet cousin Tabitha Crawford. Tomorrow would have been her birthday. What I miss most are her colorful stories. She never forgot her roots in Renfro Valley, Kentucky. Having moved away years earlier and traveled the world; she hadn’t lost her southern accent. When new acquaintances heard her speak for the first time many would ask “Well, where are you from?” Smiling, she’d quickly give her standard reply in that flat Kentucky drawl “New York City, Honey!” She was one-of-a kind. Love You Toby!
May sweet Tabitha rest in peace. May we all meet together to hear and enjoy her marvelous stories spoken in her inimitable flat Kentucky drawl.
Thank you, Ms BB. Hug
Position Sought
john kelly, professional empty barrel. Loud and very cheap. Will perform on the road or in rose gardens – let your imagination run wild. john kelly does.
Mr Crawford, I have dropped a new brief in the hopper for your review.
Apparently Kelly isn’t one of the generals Flatus was referring to as not being a kiss ass suck up LYING SACK OF POO. ?
Now, where has our beloved Mr Flatus gone ? I miss his extraordinary wealth of experience, his heaped-up wisdom, and rock solid good sense, especially, after this hellacious week of trumpastrophes and donsasters.
I spose alla you guys are out dancin’, or standin’ on the corner, swappin’ lies. Well, if no one is gonna tocktommy, I’m goin’ tabed. Skrewt, I mowtahear.
(shambles down the road into the deep shadows – fade to black. Credit roll)