Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped?

[johnu]

Paul Ryan leaves office with a 12 percent favorable rating, 32 percentage points lower than Trump's 44 percent job performance approval rating per a Civics survey of registered voters.

 

While Ryan is a coward who was terrified to appear to offend Dennison, a political hack with rehashed ideas which didn't work in the past and have no prospect of working in the future, and so partisan he forgot what was right and what was wrong, at least his ratings were above 0%. Well done Paul.

[johnu]

From It’s time for Democrats to be the grownups voters want by Dana Milbank at WaPo:

 

I disagree with most of that opinion. Democrats have played it safe since the 2010 ultra right fringe tea bag sacking of Congress. The progressive wing led the take back of the House in 2018. It's good to show some passion against some of the outrages that have been happening in this country in the past 2 years.

[johnu]

More delusions from Dennison

 

Dennison Wants To Call The Shutdown A ‘Strike.’ He Has It Completely Backward.

 

As the partial government shutdown grinds into its third week, multiple news outlets have reported that behind closed doors President Donald Trump prefers to call what’s happening a “strike.”

 

According to Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey, Trump dropped that particular term during his meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday, drawing “puzzlement” from his audience.

 

Dennison Claims Most Furloughed Federal Workers Are Rooting For Him On Wall Funding

 

I see where I was wrong. Those unpaid Federal workers actually went out on strike to support building the wall. B-)

[johnu]

So many lies, in so little time.

 

Democrat Accuses Kirstjen Nielsen Of ‘Outright Lies’ On Border, Calls For Hearing

The new Democratic head of the House Homeland Security Committee on Friday ripped Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for peddling “outright lies” about border security and called for an oversight hearing.

 

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) made the accusation in a scathing letter to Nielsen following a private presentation to Congress in which she tried to promote President Donald Trump’s border wall by falsely claiming thousands of terrorists were apprehended at the southern border last year.

 

Kirstjen Nielsen lying to Congress and the public :lol: Tell me something I didn't know

 

Dennison officials exaggerate terrorist threat on southern border in tense briefing

Sitting around a conference table in the secure White House basement chamber on Wednesday, Nielsen told the group that included President Donald Trump, adviser Jared Kushner and top congressional leaders of both parties that border officials had apprehended more than 3,000 terrorists and 17,000 criminals along the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year, according to a person familiar with the private meeting.

 

But statistics from the Justice Department and DHS belie Nielsen’s numbers. In fiscal 2017, DHS encountered 2,554 people on the terrorist watch list traveling to the United States. But of those, only 335 were attempting to enter by land.

 

The majority, 2,170 were attempting to enter through airports, and 49 were attempting to enter by sea.

~300 and many of those were trying to cross the Canadian border. Once again, facts have a liberal bias.

[johnu]

Well, he keeps going back and forth on on equating border security with border wall.

 

Probably a decent number are in favor of border security. And when it suits Trump's purpose, he translates that to wanting a wall.

 

Basically, everybody is in favor of border security. Most people think a bigger wall is a waste of money.

[Winstonm]

y/immigration/article223944055.html"]Dennison officials exaggerate terrorist threat on southern border in tense briefing[/url]

 

 

 

~300 and many of those were trying to cross the Canadian border. Once again, facts have a liberal bias.

 

Build that Northern Wall! :) I don't care if they are cold. It's unfair that they are sharing our warmth without paying for it.

[johnu]

Build that Northern Wall! :) I don't care if they are cold. It's unfair that they are sharing our warmth without paying for it.

 

And also a wall around Hawaii. Probably at least 40 feet tall with pointy steel spikes. Maybe it would have kept Obama from illegally immigrating into the country. B-)

[Winstonm]

It appears the U.S. Electoral Washington D.C. Junior College has held an election of which we were all unaware:

 

President Trump’s national security adviser, John R. Bolton, appeared on Sunday to roll back Mr. TrumpIndividual-1’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave American forces there for months or even years.

 

Mr. President Bolton, making a visit to Israel, told reporters that American forces would remain in Syria until the last remnants of the Islamic State were defeated and Turkey provided guarantees that it would not strike Kurdish forces allied with American troops.

 

I'm surprised President Bolton hasn't appointed a new Attorney General. B-)

[johnu]

Forget Concrete, Let’s Build A Steel Wall Instead

 

The president seemed to imply the material was the real sticking point as he continued to keep the government partially shut down over wall funding.

 

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

[johnu]

Dennison Says He Can ‘Relate’ To Federal Workers Who Can’t Pay Bills During Shutdown

 

Who would have known, another compassionate conservative. B-)

 

“I can relate,” the president responded. “And I’m sure that the people that are toward the receiving end will make adjustments, they always do. And they’ll make adjustments. People understand exactly what’s going on.”

 

“Many of those people that won’t be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I’m doing,” he added, without evidence.

 

“By age 3, he was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. In his 40s and 50s, he was receiving more than $5 million a year,” the Times wrote.

 

Needless to say, he worked very hard for his allowance salary at age 3 and was very frugal and saved his money in case his father had a shutdown and stopped paying him he had to go on strike against his father.

[johnu]

So many lies, in so little time.

 

Democrat Accuses Kirstjen Nielsen Of ‘Outright Lies’ On Border, Calls For Hearing

 

Even Fox Propaganda knows this is a lie,

 

Sanders repeats claim on terrorists at the border refuted by administration's own data

 

Wallace (Chris Wallace, Fox) pointed out that special-interest aliens are those hailing from "countries that have ever produced a terrorist. They're not terrorists themselves." Wallace cited a State Department report stating there is "no credible evidence" of terrorists crossing the border with Mexico.

 

"At year's end there was no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States," the State Department report said. "Terrorist groups likely seek other means of trying to enter the United States."

 

But there's this:

 

Dennison said

 

"The border is a much more dangerous problem. It's a problem of national security. It's a problem of terrorists," Mr. Trump said. "They find it's the easiest place to come through. They drive right in and make a left. It's not going to happen."

 

The obvious solution is to put up signs saying that left turns are not allowed :rolleyes:

[johnu]

More solid negotiating by Dennison, the master of the Art of the Deal. :lol:

 

Dennison Offers a ‘Steel Barrier,’ but Democrats Are Unmoved

 

“If he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, ‘See? He’s not building a wall anymore,’ that should help us move in the right direction,” Mr. Mulvaney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If that’s not evidence of the president’s desire to try and resolve this, I don’t know what is.”

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

OMG, do we need to get Mulvaney psychiatric help as well?

 

It is unconfirmed that Democrats countered with offering to paint a line in the sand with bright red paint.

[Winstonm]

More solid negotiating by Dennison, the master of the Art of the Deal. :lol:

 

Dennison Offers a ‘Steel Barrier,’ but Democrats Are Unmoved

 

 

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

OMG, do we need to get Mulvaney psychiatric help as well?

 

It is unconfirmed that Democrats countered with offering to paint a line in the sand with bright red paint.

 

Tbe Democrats countered with a mime troupe.

[jjbrr]

Y'all need to slow it down.

 

Winston, when is Olivia going to learn bridge?

[Winstonm]

Y'all need to slow it down.

 

Winston, when is Olivia going to learn bridge?

 

My best guess would be never; however, my oldest daughter, Sara, expressed an interest just the other day but I managed to talk her out of it. ;)

[barmar]

Dennison Says He Can ‘Relate’ To Federal Workers Who Can’t Pay Bills During Shutdown

He can relate because he's well known for not paying his creditors.

[Winstonm]

Wapo discusses the Jerry Falwell Jr. led "base":

 

And, like many heretics, Falwell and his fellow evangelical Trump Individual-1 apologists are on their way to founding a new religion, one in direct conflict with the old. This new religion doesn’t have much to do with Christ at all. Instead, it centers Trump Individual-1 as savior above any other god.

 

A disconcerting number of self-professed Christians have transitioned from the traditionally “evangelical” ambitions of spreading the gospel and forming a personal relationship with Jesus to spreading the gospel of wealth creation and fighting the “radical left.” National identity is what ties this body of believers together, and “the wall” has become its icon of hope, pushing the cross to the side

 

Well, Amen!

[kenberg]

My best guess would be never; however, my oldest daughter, Sara, expressed an interest just the other day but I managed to talk her out of it. ;)

 

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.

[johnu]

Y'all need to slow it down.

 

Winston, when is Olivia going to learn bridge?

 

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

[johnu]

Mick Mulvaney Blames Schumer For Apparent Trump Fib That Ex-Presidents Back His Wall

 

For background, all 4 living presidents have denied talking to Dennison about the wall.

 

Asked by Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday to identify which presidents Trump was talking about, Mulvaney admitted, “I can’t name any.”

 

“My guess is that this boils down to some of the semantic difficulties with leader [sen. Chuck] Schumer,” Mulvaney said before suddenly veering into an unrelated discussion of wall construction. (See the video above.)

 

“You don’t know what president it was then?” Tapper pressed again.

 

“I have no idea,” Mulvaney said. “I have not asked the president that question.”

 

And then the topic switched to Dennison bizarre statement that Russia was correct to invade Afghanistan.

 

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial that first appeared Friday blasted Trump’s tale about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan as the most “absurd misstatement of history by an American president” in memory and bashed his claim that the invasion was justified as “absurd” and “reprehensible.”

[Chas_P]

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]

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:

 

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:

 

1. 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.
   
2. 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.”
   
3. 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.
   
4. 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.
   
5. 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.
   
6. 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.
   
7. 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.
   
8. 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.
   
9. 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.