Not surprising. Anything to distract from the fact that the compromise tax bill worse than either was individually.

This video depressed the living fuck out of me.

The divide in this country seems so ridiculously wide right now, I don't know how we can really bridge it.

My hope is still what I said in the election thread after Trump was elected.

This is the death rattle of a dying segment of our population trying to hold on to "the ol' good days."

But fuck, I've seen a lot of young Trump supporters recently and I'm afraid the death rattle is gonna last 30+ years.

Trump absolutely embodies a movement that has been, and will be, around for a while. But in spite of all of the awful things that it is (racist, sexist, cruel, wasteful, and fundamentally low information), the primary reason it is so destructive right now is its obsession with control and power. It is a movement that is definitively antithetical to the rule of law. Law is about constraint, restraint, and accountability....and at the heart of Trumpism is a limitless sense of pure WMA exceptionalism.

But here's the thing: it's also only like 30% of the country, nationally....and *maybe* 20% of the under 50's. Republicans are in a rush right now to pass legislation because, without admitting it publicly, they believe that the rise of Trumpism has destroyed their party's ability to win. You can gerrymander around minorities. You can't gerrymander around women, who now lean democrat by 20 points (25 points under the age of 35!). Even before the scandals which now define him came out, Roy Moore was performing 15 points below the Republican average for Alabama. Republican strategists are describing shrinking voter rolls in their territories all over. Long term, it's hard to see how they recover from this.

So back to that rule of law thing.

The one thing that scares me is that the core of the party was able to be coaxed back into supporting Roy. They backed away, the base flexed, they came back. That's a bad sign for whatever happens going forward with the Mueller probe, to my mind...because, say Trump closed it down and Republicans let him. A Democratic rise in 2020 would likely mean renewed investigations, and renewed pursuit of consequences. So eventually a corrupt power's only hope for avoiding blowback is to never lose power. Like everything else that's happened so far, it's one of those things that is built on layers and layers and layers, chiseling at norms until you realize that's just where you are now. And if you are willing to gut social programs that save sick children in order to feed your donors, or to energetically obfuscate an investigation into foreign election interference to please a strongman...how far are you from that really?

I think the answer is made abundantly clear on Fox News, every single day.

There are 16 women allegin sexual misconduct at the hands of Trump.

What’s the process here? Why isn’t it being investigated by police?

It’s ok because it was Trump and he’s republican. It’s only Democrats that are forbidden to assault sexually.

This is everything.

He even kind of lost the debate.

except that Dems will prob take the 'high road' and just focus on fixing things and passing legislation

i think many expected that GWB's regime would be investigated further for the various shady things they did; but when Barry O. took office instead there was a 'it's not good for the nation to get bogged down in the past' type of approach

i think if the Dems sweep they would do the same again... and just decide not to waste time getting in another few years' worth of nanny nanny poo poo with drumpf ... although these grievances may seem more severe than GWB's, some would argue that they don't come close to the back door shenanigans that went on in that reign

but it's moot anyways bc the dems will prob find some way to lose again

I am genuinely not sure I could bet money against Paul Ryan being an evil robot.

"there is no such thing as evil robots" would not be evidence enough to put me at finance-level confidence.

That and they have to count on mostly the same donor industries.

ivanka has crabs

Wait. Are those pro or anti-Trump shirts?

Really B?

Jeez

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-taxman-cometh-senate-bills-marginal-rates-could-top-100-for-some-1512942118

Great job! Lol