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[anton pulisov]

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He really did put in gold curtains.

[Guy Profumo]

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antoine polus wrote: He really did put in gold curtains.

Black and blue, surely?

[Satchmo Distel]

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I think the biggest message of the executive actions so far is the facilitation of new Jim Crow measures at state level, as in item 4 in ursus' list, "the DOJ has signaled that it will be changing sides in pending litigation challenging Texas' Voter ID law..."

Essentially we will see a savage attack on all progressive gains earned by minorities since 1960. The social consequences of that will be a repeat of the riots of the 60s.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

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Re my earlier questioning whether Trump might do anything right, this blog has an interesting take.

Interesting indeed.

[ursus arctos]

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The MLK bust is indeed still there.

It has been moved, and was blocked by an open door and a Secret Service agent in such a way that the pool reporter who made the initial report didn't see it.

New administrations do of course revamp government websites, though it is unusual for them to simply remove entire sections on policy as this one has done. They have, however, had time to modify the version of Melania's biography that went up yesterday afternoon so that it no longer references her costume jewelry collection available through QVC.

Following the National Park Service's tweet about the size of yesterday's "crowds", all NPS offices have been banned from tweeting for an unspecified time. Among other things, this has meant that established alerts about mountain weather have had to move to Facebook.

Trump also signed an executive order about "reducing the burden of Obamacare" last night, but it is unclear what if anything it does, other than make manifest to government agencies the president's wish that they do what they can to undermine the ACA.

[Satchmo Distel]

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I think the ACA order is pure intimidation to scare officials from implementing what is currently there.

[ursus arctos]

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I'm not sure how that would work in practice.

[Satchmo Distel]

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Me too, but I fear it is designed to stop or slow down new people signing up, albeit Trump has no legal powers to do so.

[Lang Spoon]

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This CIA event is horrifying. I dunno if I'm more scared by Trump's rambling egomaniac madness or Pence's steely sociopath voice.

Petty (poor "Zeke" from Time magazine), plain lying and unbalanced as elephants and ants on seesaws. Fuck this is the Dead Zone shit right now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

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[ursus arctos]

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Decent summary of that debacle from the Washington Post.

Virtually every claim he made was demonstrably false.

[Tubby Isaacs]

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NHH wrote: Yeah, but the Democrats consistently valorise a chimerical bipartisanship; they either think that's really important, or think it's really important to be seen to think it's important. Both are misguided.

They've been in a position to chuck away bipartisanship for 4 years out of the last 48.

[Nefertiti2]

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now Press Secretary Sean Spicer claims President Trump's inauguration drew the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period." –

they're obsessed about ratings and lying tweets.

"Deliberate false reporting" " egregious tweets"

[ursus arctos]

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Ratings were in fact the second lowest for a first inauguration in the last 50 years.

[Kowalski]

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ursus arctos wrote: Decent summary of that debacle from the Washington Post.

Virtually every claim he made was demonstrably false.

A comment left underneath

Give him a break! The guy is 70 years old, and no one in his life has ever said "No" to him before, or challenged any statement that he's made, or told him anything that didn't confirm his opinion of how wonderful he is.

[Hot Pepsi]

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I was looking at a WP piece on Trump supporter's thoughts on the women's march. Most were respectful statements that amount to "what are they so mad about?" It conforms to my observation that a huge portion of the electorate - on both sides, but disproportionately conservative - are just totally fucking clueless. They don't disagree with the left so much as they just have no idea what the issues are, and if they have a vague clue, they are so full of Fox News and third-hand rumor bullshit that their perception of what America is like beyond their county is about as realistic as Lord of the Rings.

Absent any real info, they just project whatever hopes they have onto a candidate and then come to believe he is that image regardless of any inputs from reality. A lot of people did this with Hillary too, to be fair, but their understanding of what Trump is and what his policies will be is a lot further from what he or his people have actually said.

And then having picked the horse they will back, they are believe whatever bullshit they hear about the opposition.

The end result looks very polarized, but it's largely based on absolutely nothing of substance.

[ursus arctos]

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The focus groups that Planned Parenthood commissioned after the election strongly support this hypothesis.

[Lang Spoon]

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It's worse than in the campaign. He's gone full wackjob, his ridiculous vanity could cause Armageddon.

[ursus arctos]

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[Amor de Cosmos]

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We're obviously not there yet, but is there a "removal from office due to mental incompetence" possibility somewhere down the line? I sense he could be headed in that direction.

[Gerontophile]

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I think he's got syphilis.

[Amor de Cosmos]

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He could find out with a visit to Planned Parenthood.

[Lang Spoon]

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And too proud to take the penicillin shots back when, now he's a tertiary case who's said goodbye to rationality. It's fucking awful that the new Prez having some Victorian style Veneral delirium seems a reasonable bet.

[Slightly Brown]

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Amor de Cosmos wrote: We're obviously not there yet, but is there a "removal from office due to mental incompetence" possibility somewhere down the line? I sense he could be headed in that direction.

I genuinely think he'll get bored and just wander out of the White House on a crisp February eve: "Hey, you there, yeah you...wanna wrestle....lets wrestle." Whatever. We'll probably be at war by then anyway. One of those good old-school jungle ones.

[ursus arctos]

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Interesting question as to whether Pence and the GOP majority would prefer the 25th amendment as the vehicle for ridding themselves of the troublesome tycoon over impeachment.

Here's the relevant passage

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

As to venereal diseases, recall that this is the guy who claimed that having to wear a condom due to the AIDS crisis was his personal Vietnam.