patrick.net

Ironman says

Ahhhh, one person here that gets it...

Ironman says

"Negotiations 101: The best deals you can make are the ones you walk away from...and then get them with better terms."

Yes. Losing epically was actually strategic. I see now. Trump is an amazing statesmen and chess player. I see it all coming together for him shortly. Yessssss ...

My schadenfreude meter has been topped off all week. The epic unraveling is amazing to watch.

Ironman's defense of Trump is to point at congressional approval ratings? Oh dear. We are a far far cry from MAGA now.

You will need to move the bar a bit lower soon Ironman. :)

Trump the Great Negotiator, getting deals done. Republicans talking lots of smack about repealing ACA, turns out to be all hot air. As if we weren't telling you guys this all along. Lol

You mean tatupu.

"At Harvard, Kayyem was co-faculty chair of the Dubai Initiative which was funded by the United Arab Emirates. The first paper released by the Dubai Initiative in 2005 was a call for "European engagement with moderate Islamists" to promote "a genuine representation of the popular will through peaceful means". "Moderate" groups are defined as those seeking to establish a more extreme theocracy through peaceful means rather than violently overthrowing their current Muslim rulers, and a list of such "moderates" includes the Muslim Brotherhood.
***
In April 2013, Kayyem appeared on CNN as a "homeland security expert" to discourage anyone from associating the Boston Marathon bombers with Islamic extremism and to discourage the notion that they may have had a supporting network. In another CNN appearance two days earlier, Kayyem had claimed wrongly that "we have not had a successful small scale terrorist attack since 9/11.""

She defended famously Huma Abedin in response to accusations that Kayyem claimed were "intended to make Muslims or Arabs in government … feel like outsiders." Whatever else Kayyem might be, I have never seen anyone other than AF refer to her as a "minister," so that must be a cannibal anarchy reference to sanctifying balm.

None of that makes her comments true or false, but time will tell whether her comments reflect actual information or wishful promotion of her own personal agenda.

I would pick Chile in a heartbeat over Alaska! I've been there several times and speak Spanish. Love it. Great food, weather, safe, clean, modern and nice people.

BUT I would rather head to Uruguay than either place.

zzyzzx says

I'm sure it's cheaper to make your own cheesesteaks as well, but that's not the point.

It's cheaper to wipe our own ass too, but why bother? You can pay someone to do it, and there's not even any oppressive liberal tax on it!

Ironman says

“People are seeing sales decline larger than anything they’ve seen up to this point in the city,” said Alex Baloga, vice president of external relations at the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association.

Stupid liberals! No wait. That's the point. It's supposed to work the same way that cigarette taxes work.

Why do I have to pay taxes to support FAILURE Republicans in FAILURE Red States?
Blue states getting SOCIALIST TAX DOLLARS doesn't mean that FAILURE Republicans
aren't sucking the govt teat.

Look at all the Red States at the bottom of the graphic.
SEND US THE HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS.

http://www.cheatsheet.com/personal-finance/states-with-the-most-people-on-food-stamps.html/?a=viewall

I still want to know is if soda sales have increased in stores just outside the city limits.

Do you really need all the fluff?

It's obvious they stand for nothing, and they got a small dose of what they think they want: the ability to troll those more productive and successful than themselves, on a large scale. What else do you expect of them when all they have left is their jealousy and envy of everyone else?

Trump said he's going to Repeal Obamacare on his first day. The Left threw a George Soros sized hissey fit. And provoked youth to riot in the streets.
So he pulled back. Paul Ryan was sent in to muddy the water with the absolute Worst shitty legislation in History.
Trump was NOT supposed to welcome it, the Establishment busted their ass on that bill. It was supposed to bring out the best temperament of Trump Tweeting a petty cat fight about. Which the media would have used as proof that Trump is unhinged and can't work with people in Washington.

Trump played those sorry asses, like a cheap harmonica.

Trump is now free to kill the mandate in the Tax reform session. Obamacare will die quietly in the night from Sleep Apnea.
Trump can only fall up as long as the Liberals keep acting like they've been conditioned to be the crazy they are.

You ever notice that you never see Trump and Kim Jong-un pictured together at the same time?

The real secret is that the Establishment Republicans never had any intention of reforming or repealing Obamney Care.

That's why they had the Patriot Ready to go on 911, having written it in the 90s just waiting the aftermath of a mass terror attack to ram the bill through. But notice in the past 8 years, despite "Trying" (knowing it would never pass) to repeal Obamney Care, they never bothered to actually draft a bill to seriously reform/repeal it.

All Ryan's bill really did was transfer the penalty to be paid from the IRS to the Insurance Companies, that way it wouldn't appear on people's tax filings and give the illusion the government's mandatory subsidy of the Health Denial Insurance Racket was ended.

Remember, Insurance companies make money by denying your healthcare. They are not "Healthcare Providers" - Doctors, Nurses, Technicians are providers. They are overpaid, oligarchic middlemen, like Realtors.

Obamneycare isn't a stepping stone to Single Payer anymore than Mandatory Auto Insurance resulted in a single Government-based Auto Insurance Agency. It's a plot to get the healthy 29-year old millenials to pay $400/month (with $3000 Single Person Deductible) to subsidize increasingly less healthy older people.

Remember, Insurance (Life, Homeowners, etc.) is largely Cyclical. They get slammed with three hurricanes in a row, after a decade of no major payouts, then complain they're going under. Health Insurance pocketed big premiums from boomers for 40 years, now it's time they'll have to pay, but they're used to pocketing most of those premiums. To keep up their big dividends, they need to strong arm young healthy people into the program.

I'm sorry this means what exactly?
Does this mean we lock of Obama yet or do we start shooting each other the street?

All of that will happen before the Deep State, Obama and Soros fucks with Trump.

Tenpoundbass says

I'm sorry this means what exactly?

Does this mean we lock of Obama yet or do we start shooting each other the street?

Two words: President Pence.

Straw Man says

Two words: President Pence.

That'll be his comeupPence

Why? I already got what I wanted: TPP Killed and Globalism given another kick in the ass after Brexit, Westphalia preserved. That's all I hoped for - anything else is gravy. I'm probably getting a ban on Invade-Invite Refugees, too, esp. once Gorsuch is nominated, which is going to happen.

Not a Trump fan - but this argument is so frigging dumb it hurts.

What would a "pro-Russia" foreign policy look like? Seems to me, it would look an awful alot like what Obama did for 8 years and what Hillary was campaigning to do in 2016.

- Reduce fracking in the US
- Reduce oil exploration and production on federal lands
- Reduce the size of the military
- Give Russia a freer hand in the Middle East (as Obama did in Syria)
- Give Russia's ally (Iran) billions of dollars in the nuclear deal
- Abandon the missile shield in Poland and Czech Republic

Trump has campaigned and is doing the opposite of everything listed above.

American frackers have done more to hurt Putin and OPEC than anything else and Hillary and the Democrats (working in the pockets of Putin and Saudi Arabia?) have done everything they possibly can to prevent the US from becoming energy independent. Remember Obama saying "we can't drill our way to lower oil prices"?

PCGyver says

You keep saying this but is it even possible?

Is it possible for Judges to dictate domestic security policy?

What we have here is a big dick contest. One that Trump will ultimately win. Because well he's the President, and two the Liberals are too petty and too fundamentally flawed on every human level to pull off what they are trying to pull off.

Remember I'm in South Florida I have not been in the best of company over the last two years. After the election Trump got no love here, and every Liberal I knew honestly believed everything CNN said. More and more of these people are coming around. And more and more are saying while they still think Trump grates them the wrong way.
The Liberals are not the Democrats they thought they were. They are abandoning the Clinton/Obama legacy they fully disavow it 100%, they don't see mainstream Democrats doing the same. They see them doubling down. These folks will probably become the marginalized voters and never vote in their adult lives again if nothing changes.
The only thing Liberals have at this point, is celebrities that loathe America and Faggots that wants to turn our kids out.

The Democrats are fucking hurting Bigly!!!

Trump approval reaches all time new low : 36%.

He could very well still achieve the lowest approval rating ever. Still time.

He is now lower than Obama ever reached by 2%.

Rew says

Trump approval reaches all time new low : 36%.

Hillary has a 98% chance of victory.

The Patriots will lose the Superbowl.
Eric Cantor will easily defeat his Primary Challenger.

This is Gallup. For the deepest historical comparison you can go to virtually no other source.

Trump is an epic fail in just 64 days.

socal2 says

If Trump was cutting back oil production in the US or reducing the size of our military, you would at least have some plausible explanations as to why Putin would favor Trump over Hillary.

Trump can't do shit for Vlad now. His hands are pretty much tied by all this shit coming to light. Poor Vlad, no detente/reset for him.

Rew says

Trump is an epic fail in just 64 days.

Tee Hee!

Well, he's not Hitler then. By the end of the year he'll be "Not my favorite, but I can put up with him." That's Scott Adam's prophecy, at least.

socal2 says

As always, the Democrats are the Russian's best friends.

Funny how throughout the 80s, even Establishment Center-left Rags and Programs ran "Let's get along with the USSR" editorials on a regular basis.

Today, you can't find one that doesn't postulate that Putin is Hitler and never, ever a contrary position.

The same people who rah-rah'd Obama's "Russian Reset" and snickered at Romney in the Debate about the level of threat Russia posed, are now like
"HOLY FUCK!!! RUSSIA!!!! RUSSIA DONE DID THIS AND THAT AND THE OTHER THING!!!!"

www.youtube.com/embed/T1409sXBleg

Rachel Maddow rips Romney on Russia, March 2012
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/romney-doesnt-know-how-fake-foreign

WaPoIsHitler Lipsovitch says

Funny how throughout the 80s, even Establishment Center-left Rags and Programs ran "Let's get along with the USSR" editorials on a regular basis.

Today, you can't find one that doesn't postulate that Putin is Hitler and never, ever a contrary position.

Just the 1980's?

The Democrats have been easy on Russia until about 2 minutes ago when they thought they could use it to take down Trump. There is hardly a Russian ally or Marxist government that Democrats didn't support.

And lets not forget Ted Kennedy's actions in 1984.

"Kennedy’s message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. “The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations,” the memorandum stated. “These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign.”"
https://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/ted-kennedy-soviet-union-ronald-reagan-opinions-columnists-peter-robinson.html

The Cubs will never win another World Series!
2016 FOR THE WIN!

Once again, Trump is this front man. Bannon is the brains.
Now Trump can appeal to Democrats (which he has) and ask them to fix things. This brings them to the negotiating table, actively participating in the process instead of sitting back and saying "No." Once everyone is talking again, something can be hammered out that will please the majority and Trump will sign it.
This is a marathon, not a sprint you ducking duck!

Quigley says

Now Trump can appeal to Democrats (which he has) and ask them to fix things. This brings them to the negotiating table, actively participating in the process instead of sitting back and saying "No." Once everyone is talking again, something can be hammered out that will please the majority and Trump will sign it.

So, what exactly changed after this debacle that will bring the Dems to the table now as opposed to 2 weeks ago?

You lack the ability to argue cogently. Your response to my post was to make up quotes and build a little straw man to further your convoluted point.
Time to buy a book and go to school!

joeyjojojunior says

So, what exactly changed after this debacle that will bring the Dems to the table now as opposed to 2 weeks ago?

Because people are still overwhelmingly displeased with Obamacare, whose costs continue to skyrocket out of the means of even the most ardent supporters. If the Democrats show a resolve to keep it AS IS without any modifications, then they own the slow motion disaster and lose even more bigly next election. As a purely political move, this one is a master stroke.

Quigley says

Because people are still overwhelmingly displeased with Obamacare, whose costs continue to skyrocket out of the means of even the most ardent supporters

But my question was what changed in the last 2 weeks. All of those things were true before Trump was humiliated by this bill failing. Why didn't he just work with Dems from the start if that's what he really wanted to do?

Quigley says

If the Democrats show a resolve to keep it AS IS without any modifications, then they own the slow motion disaster and lose even more bigly next election. As a purely political move, this one is a master stroke.

Whatever you say.

For the challenged ducks, let me make this simple. The President can NOT legislate by himself! He needs about 450 congressmen to do that! Balance of powers! Honestly it's like you've never cracked a social studies book.

What's changed is that the GOPe has been shown for the fraud that it is! They had seven years to come up with a better plan and they failed miserably. The other stuff hasn't changed and is most relevant to your original question which is why I gave it. The GOPe thought it was in power but has now learned differently. The factions which remain must come together to produce something that is actually good for America. Trump can NOT legislate! The most he can do is encourage people to legislate and sign off on whatever is produced!
Read your Constitution, people!

Two months is hardly the cut off. He's got four years to corral the globalists and MAGA.

I think Trump is doing OK so far.

He's certainly giving it a good go at implementing much of what he promised asap. Not sure most people really want him to follow through on putting Clinton in jail, but the wall and replacing Obamacare may yet happen.