Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Wild Hoss]

JMO...but I don't think a whole lot of us want to get along.

[froot loops]

Yeah Richard Cohen had a blistering column on the Real America phenomena. I think part of the Trump appeal was he was going to build a wall and remove people they didn't consider Real Americans. It went along with the despicable birther campaign. Obama wasn't a Real American, he and Sheriff Joe were going to prove it.

[Whitley]

Donald Trump goes after Meryl Streep on twitter saying she is an overrated actress.

Streep, never mentioning Trump by name, brought up him mocking a disabled reporter in 2015.

[Wild Hoss]

I don't think anybody in the room, or elsewhere, was confused about whom she was referring.

That said, Conway's response was typically foolish.

[Dr. Strangelove]

You mean Conway saying that Meryl Streep was inciting people's worst instincts? LOL. Do you think she (Conway) says things like that just to troll liberals or is she just that oblivious to irony?

[Whitley]

You mean Conway saying that Meryl Streep was inciting people's worst instincts? LOL. Do you think she (Conway) says things like that just to troll liberals or is she just that oblivious to irony?

Oblivious

[Dr. Strangelove]

I saw Williamson's article over the weekend and approve of its message. I've been saying here for a couple years now that "Middle America" has nearly as great a sense of cultural superiority as the 'coastal elites" do.

[Wild Hoss]

You mean Conway saying that Meryl Streep was inciting people's worst instincts? LOL. Do you think she (Conway) says things like that just to troll liberals or is she just that oblivious to irony?

I was referring to her attempt to shame Meryl via her assumed lack commentary on the incident in Chicago. Its dumb on its face and droll by its lack of originality, but it also equates the PEOTUS to Chicago street thugs.

But that's Conway's business, being one of Trumps' media fronts. We're told she's a genius, so that must be the intent.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Mitch McConnell's plan to repeal Obamacare is falling apart as several GOP Senators begin to defect...wow

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/obamacare-repeal-might-have-just-died-tonight.html

[iam416]

The beauty of the legislative process. When it's 52-48 you can't ram home a massively conservative agenda. And repeal and replace, IMO, is the viable political path. Personally, I think it's a political disaster for the Rs because then THEY take ownership of it even if they just modify it slightly.

Anyway, as a study in politics, I find it fascinating.

[Dr. Strangelove]

What's also interesting is Rand Paul and Bob Corker are not really 'moderate' Republicans, to my knowledge, but they hail from states where a large % of the population gained insurance for the first time through Obamacare.

Repealing without having a replacement ready is a bigger disaster, IMO. They've had six years to develop an alternative their caucus could rally around and failed completely.

Anyways, Cabinet hearings begin today! Woo!

[Dr. Strangelove]

A story came out yesterday, and I don't know if it's really 'news', but while Tillerson ran Exxon they did over $50M worth of business with Iran through a European subsidiary which kept it all nice and legal, but sort of against the 'spirit' of the sanctions which were in place during the 2000's.

Might come up tomorrow in his hearing.

[iam416]

Repealing without having a replacement ready is a bigger disaster, IMO.

Yeah, as a matter of politics, absolutely.

I reiterate -- I love American legislative process. I'm not a fan of executive orders and such and the largesse of the administrative state. I suspect some folks on the left may come around to that way of thinking when DJT has the EO pen.

[hack]

The American republic is based on rules but has always depended for its survival on norms—standards of behavior, conduct toward fellow citizens and especially critics and opponents that is decent beyond what the letter of the law dictates.

From James fallows, in The Atlantic. Agree wholeheartedly. Executive orders are part of the symptoms we've seen, even though they are nothing new. On the one hand, that's what you're going to get when a Congress says its main objective is to block the president. Logical response. On the other, it's a race to the bottom, to a condition in which those norms and codes are gone and Washington becomes driven by a might-makes-right approach. Which is not what was intended.

[iam416]

We've "discussed" Fallows on more contentious terms, briefly. I almost certainly disagree with his politics, but I wholeheartedly endorse his view of community and local politics.

He asks the question, in effect, how could civic-minded good people elect DJT? It's a fair question. It's one worth asking. If I were to try to explain it in terms not discussed by Fallows, I'd include that broad rejection of "national control" of local issues based on a perception that Federal control isn't good. I want to emphasize perception. It's not a matter of reality. We all concede the need for regulations. But I do think the perception amongst those who are civic-minded and who did vote for DJT is perhaps that we can do it better.

When the rubber hits the road it's a different matter. We're seeing it w/ Obamacare. It's one thing to perceive it as a disaster; it's another thing to consider the realities of repeal.

Executive orders, however, play into this perception in a very obvious ways. The legislative process legitimizes policy. Executive orders juke the system -- perception-wise. The administrative state surely induces similar perceptions. And, of course, the perception that politicians are slaves to special interests also undercuts actual legislation.

Politics is perception. Activists on both sides understand it. I think if you're going to explain why certain people voted one way, you have to include not only their personal feelings and life experience, but their perceptions.

Personally, I embrace the legislative process in all it's dysfunction. I embrace the Federalist Papers concept of the process as exactly such for reasons such as strifing partisan bills to giving the electorate the sense that they had their say. I will hold DJT's EOs to the same standard those of BO. Especially with an f'n R Congress.

Anyway, I like Fallows writing even if I disagree with him on almost every political issue imagineable.