What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[FunkMonk]

Jesus christ these people run the country

[The Minsky Moment]

The strategy behind Scaramucci is simple: normalize Trump by upping the ante on completely outrageous words and conduct.

"Why don't you honor the job? You remember Joe Paterno? What would he say? Act like you've been there before," Scaramucci said during a phone interview. "Act with honor and dignity and respect, and hold the confidence of the presidency in his office. Why don't we do that?"

[Oexmelin]

Jesus christ these people run the country

That they run the country is scary.

That they are rewriting the rules of normalcy, undermining the spirit of the institutions, and able to do it so fucking easily is perhaps even scarier.

[The Minsky Moment]

We are playing out the plot of Idiocracy except it is unrolling over weeks and months instead of over centuries of imagined evolution.

[garbon]

http://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/344221-senate-sends-russia-sanctions-bill-to-trumps-desk

Senate sends Russia sanctions bill to Trump's desk

Senators are sending legislation slapping new sanctions on Moscow to President Trump's desk, setting up a potential showdown with the White House over Russia.

Senators voted 98-2 on the bill, which would give Congress the ability to block Trump from lifting the Russia sanctions. It also includes new penalties against Iran and North Korea.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted against the bill, with Sanders saying on Twitter that "following Trump's comments that he won't recertify Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement I worry new sanctions could endanger it."

The move marks congressional Republicans' first significant rebuke of Trump's foreign policy, where the administration's warmer stance toward Russia has drawn heavy skepticism from both parties.

Underscoring the bipartisan support for the bill, senators agreed to temporarily set aside their days-long fight on repealing ObamaCare so they could debate and pass the sanctions bill.

The vote comes hours after a top White House official floated that Trump could potentially veto the legislation.

Communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN that "he may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are, or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians."

But senators were quick to warn that vetoing a bill that passed the House 419-3 earlier this week would be a significant misstep for Trump. An earlier version of the bill, which did not include North Korea penalties, passed the Senate in a 98-2 vote.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) downplayed the chance that Trump would use his first veto on the bill, noting he had talked to the president and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about the legislation during the last week.

"It's just not a good way to start a presidency to veto something and then be soundly overridden," the Foreign Relations chairman told reporters. "It's not something I would do, but they might choose to do it."

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, added separately that vetoing the bill would be a "mistake."

The Russia sanctions vote marks the GOP-controlled Congress's biggest legislative victory to date. Major GOP agenda items, including ObamaCare repeal and tax reform, are running months behind the schedule, and lawmakers do not yet have a deal on how to raise the debt ceiling or fund the government in the fall.

Senators started trying to get a deal to fast-track the legislation on Wednesday night. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted earlier Thursday that Democrats had agreed to let the bill move quickly.

The New York Democrat cast skepticism on the Trump administration wanting to negotiate a tougher deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The idea that the President would veto this legislation in order to toughen it up is laughable. I'm a New Yorker, too and I know bull when I hear it," he said from the Senate floor. "If the President vetoes this bill, the American people will know that he's being soft on Putin."

[FunkMonk]

So much going on right now

Congress sends veto proof Russia sanctions bill to Donald, daring him to veto 

Senate voting on the "skinny bill" that they themselves admit they hate  and don't want to become law

Open warfare inside the WH made public on national television 

I feel a crescendo of crap

[celedhring]

"We'll only vote for this law if we get promised that it won't become law", beggar's belief 

[garbon]

From the Mooch's communications, you would get the impression he thinks he's in charge of the White House. Spicer must be so happy to be out.

[Savonarola]

We are playing out the plot of Idiocracy except it is unrolling over weeks and months instead of over centuries of imagined evolution.

Today I saw two headlines on CNN:

Boy Scouts Apologize for Trump Speech

and

AG Sessions on Trump tweets: 'It's kind of hurtful'

And I thought, "Wow, I could never have imagined headlines like this, even a week ago."  Mid-July was a simpler, happier time. 

[FunkMonk]

"We'll only vote for this law if we get promised that it won't become law", beggar's belief 

America is genuinely broken.

I'm going to start learning Chinese.

[DGuller]

Supposed color blindness is complicit in supporting racism.

You can't see racism if you can't see color.

[CountDeMoney]

I guess he's some New York hotshot hedge fund guy who made lots of TV appearances where he sucked Donnie off enough to get where he is now. Any other Languishites know more about this wannabe tough guy?

He's precisely the kind of New Yawk guido that Trump loves, and will subsequently fire in 6 months.

[CountDeMoney]

From the Mooch's communications, you would get the impression he thinks he's in charge of the White House. Spicer must be so happy to be out.

He is going to become the de facto Chief of Staff.  Until he makes the cover of Time magazine, as all rays of light must shine on Donald.




And with the addition of The Mooch, my organized crime model continues to take shape, as he assumes the trope role of: Made Man from Downtown.

[Ed Anger]

Best American Heroes week ever.

[Camerus]

Another issue is the extent to which one believes in top-down bureaucratic initiatives as effective (or even  appropriate) means to address inequality of outcomes. The key question to me seems to be, in spite of the wide acknowledgment that racism is inherently evil and that historical injustices continue to play a significant role in inequality of outcomes, what specifically is to be done about it? It strikes me as reasonable to doubt whether many of the attempted remedies (e.g. school busing, affirmative action, etc.) really achieve what they intend or whether the negative effects of such initiatives outweigh the positive.

I'd also say it is singularly unhelpful and misleading to utilize polarizing terms like "white supremacist" society given how polemical and charged such a phrase is in our society, and what those phrases would conjure up for most moderate actors. Even if we redefine it in certain contexts to mean something somewhat different than the popular understanding, it begs the strategic question why use such a loaded term at all, if its user isn't just preaching to the choir, but truly interested in effecting dialogue and achieving progress.