Mr. Trump Goes to Washington

[dpareja]

Anthony Scaramucci: "I'm not Steve Bannon. I'm not trying to suck my own cock."

[Id82]

Did he actually say that?

[SCarpelan]

He did. That's just the tip of the iceberg in the interview.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a56679/the-mooch-steve-bannon-suck-own-cock/

[Cloud3514]

And his response was to complain that he shouldn't have "trusted" a reporter. Even though anyone with half a brain could tell you that anything said to a reporter on the record is publishable, especially if you're a public official. This shit's on him, not on the reporter.

[ironbite]

Oh good we've got the best person possible as communications director.  A man who's basically a younger, less charismatic Orange Piss Pot.

Ironbite-I can see why Priebus didn't want this ass in the administration.

[Askold]

I mean, I would have thought that you can allow Islam to exist in your country and still support LGBT rights and, I dunno, coexist?

But TD have clearly made up their mind and now support Islam. It's either that or they are hypocrites but would they really do something like that? What would their rolemodel Trump think of his fanbase being liars?

[dpareja]

Seen in the Senate after repeal-and-replace, straight repeal, and skinny repeal (Collins, Murkowsi and McCain voted against that) all failed:

[Id82]

I didn't know I could be proud of John Mccain.

[SCarpelan]

So, he returns and has a grandstanding speech, votes for allowing the bill to proceed to a useless debate since nobody knows what the bill actually includes and then turns around and votes against it. This makes him a hero while the two other Republican senators who opposed the bill are pretty much forgotten now since the maverick narrative is so cool. While I appreciate the fact that in the end he voted against the repeal and he should get credit for that the other two Republican senators who stood their ground without this kind of political displays should get at least as much attention.

[dpareja]

Murkowski voted for repeal when Obama was in office, so that she could turn around in 2016 (when she was up for re-election) and say that she voted for repeal, even though she personally didn't want it--she just knew Obama would veto it, so it was a safe vote for her. Now that it's not (and she's not up again until 2022), she voted against it.

Collins, who was re-elected in 2014 and is up again in 2020, voted against the effort in the previous Congress, the only Republican to do so, even though she could have done the same thing to play up her chances in 2020. But I've heard she may decide to run for Governor instead, and would want the Medicaid expansion available (I'm not sure if Maine took it).

As for McCain... congratulations, you bucked Trump with your vote on one issue. Yes, it's an important issue, but he's going to have to do a lot more for me to think of him as a "maverick." (He's been far less of a maverick than he once was ever since he lost the 2000 nomination to Bush because the donors backed Bush... well, that and some racist push polling in South Carolina.)

[ironbite]

McCain can suck a fat dick.  He's no maverick at all.

Also Reinis is out, Kelly is in.  Trump fired Priebus today and appointed his Homeland Secretary in his place.  So now he's gotta go through that process again.

Ironbite-running out of self-servering narcissists there Orange Piss Pot.

[Id82]

Has there ever been a presidency this chaotic before?
I can only imagine how terrible it must've been to work underneath him in his business.

[dpareja]

Random thought.

Sanders has sworn to introduce single-payer legislation once the Senate health care bill was defeated.

With that appearing to be accomplished, we can probably expect to see Sanders' bill soon.

I would be so very, very amused if McConnell decided that he could sell single-payer as a "repeal and replace" of the ACA (since it would effectively render the ACA obsolete) to his base and signed onto Sanders' effort.

I know he won't, but it would be really funny.

EDIT:

I'm listening to Priebus' interview with Wolf Blitzer... it's really tough to hear (as Scaramucci might put it) Reince trying to suck Trump's cock.

[The_Queen]

Random thought

The Senate passed the Russian sanctions bill 98-2. The two votes that decided Putin wasn't so terrible a guy: Rand Paul (R-KY) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Now, Russia ran the mass propaganda campaign against Clinton well before the general election. The first public endorsement by Russia in the 2016 election was an endorsement by a close friend of Putin, Aleksandr Dugin. In a video released in March, he praised Trump for running as an outsider while disparaging Clinton. He also took time to argue that the democratic primaries were "rigged" against Bernie, and that while Bernie had more support, Hillary would win by nefarious means. These arguments of "rigged primaries" may sound familiar, as they were touted by another friend of Putin, Donald Trump, as well as Bernie Sanders.

We also know that Russian trolls and bots pushed mass-misinformation during the primaries to this end, having the effect of creating a feeling that crucial moments in the democratic primary were part of a rigged system for Clinton. Notably, the lack of debates, Super Tuesday having a lot of states with black people (who were also allowed to vote), Arizona/Nevada controversies (including no chair being thrown), and crying about super delegates while ignoring primary outcomes. Bernie benefited a lot from these as they painted Hillary as a corrupt insider and himself as the moral, courageous victim.

Another candidate, Jill Stein, received aid from Russia by way of free publicity on RT and positive coverage. Jill Stein was critical of both candidates, but focused more of her vitriol toward Clinton (even saying Trump would be better because he would "bring about the 'revolution' sooner"). While Stein did not keep a list of campaign rallies, a google search shows most of them were in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (if she were trying to maximize her votes, and not siphon Hillary's, she'd go to bluer states like California and Massachusetts). Jill Stein, even after Donald Jr. leaked communications he had with Russian agents, continues to call the collusion scandal "ludicrous." Stein is now being investigated in the Russian collusion scandal, indicating that Putin's support of candidates expands from Trump to others that could hurt Hillary (and by proxy help Trump).

And yet, here we are. Putin employed his trolls to help Bernie because it would hurt Hillary, then Putin employed his trolls to benefit Donald, for among other reasons, to weaken Hillary should she win. After receiving this help from Putin, both Bernie and Trump oppose sanctions on Russia.

I sincerely believe Bernie was not in this collusion scandal, but against this backdrop, his recent vote on the sanctions bill is troubling.

(click to show/hide)

(yes, I am trolling Dpareja)

[dpareja]

Ha.

On a serious note, I imagine Sen. Sanders voted against the bill in question because it also put sanctions on Iran.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBBbdvUzbog

Sanders in 2003 discussing Republican electoral tactics.

EDIT #2: https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/890657920991481856

Glenn Greenwald absolutely nails it.