Trump's Card

[Tubby Isaacs]

Bob Corker retiring.

[San Bernardhinault]

Is that it? Done till 2018?

It's done (assuming that McConnell doesn't try and sneak a vote in over the next three days) until one of the following happens:

(a) They have a bipartisan policy that can get 60 votes
(b) It gets back as part of an annual budget, and can be part of reconciliation.

(a) isn't going to happen
(b) might happen as soon as next month, in theory - the Republicans are talking about possibly adding it to the 2018 budget, which would start very soon. But they look like they want to keep it off in order to focus minds on getting tax "reform" passed through the reconciliation process.

Now - if it's not on next year's budget (and I think that actually requires congress to pass the budget rather than just allowing a continuing resolution; and that's not always easy), then they probably have to try again on the 2019 budget. But if it's on the 2019 budget that means they're trying to pass shitty and controversial policy that everyone hates during the middle of the mid-terms.

There's a reason they were trying desperately to get it done this year.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cheers. I have to pinch myself you're not American sometimes.

[Hot Pepsi]

Cheers. I have to pinch myself you're not American sometimes.

Indeed.

I don't follow this stuff any more very closely because its so upsetting.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm getting that way with Brexit.

Just seen Sessions, announcing he'll go after universities over free speech. It's the really big issues with Team Trump, isn't it?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

[anton pulisov]

Did you know that presidents 25 and 35 were assassinated?

[anton pulisov]

Meanwhile Puerto Rico is going to absolute shit, but nobody in the White House seems to care.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I've just seen Steve Mnuchin speak for the first time. Is he Neuroatypical in some way?

[Amor de Cosmos]

Meanwhile Puerto Rico is going to absolute shit, but nobody in the White House seems to care.

Le Grand Orange is flying down in a few days. Should cheer them up no end.

[San Bernardhinault]

I wonder if someone has pointed out that Puerto Ricans are US citizens. And if Puerto Rico goes to shit they'll all move to Florida and Texas and be eligible to vote straight away.

It might have suddenly focused some minds.

[ursus arctos]

TAB, there's something going on with Mnuchin.

He's always been weird, but this is quite different from how he behaved at Goldman.

[Femme Folle]

Mnuchin reminds me of Zachary Quinto's character in AHS Asylum. Google it. Threadson is the character's name.

[ursus arctos]

Moore looks certain to win the Republican Senate primary in Alabama

[Hot Pepsi]

Fucking Alabama.

I saw a thing where the Mets are raising money for Puerto Rico. Of course, it's an important community relations thing for them, but it's a sad fucking state of affairs when the Mets are doing more for a crisis than the federal government.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm getting that way with Brexit.

Just seen Sessions, announcing he'll go after universities over free speech. It's the really big issues with Team Trump, isn't it?

That's just meat for the base. I don't think he can do anything more than the right has tried to do repeatedly. The real threat to universities is from state legislatures and governors.

[San Bernardhinault]

So, the guy that Trump supported, who was appointed by an Alabama governor who had to quit office because he was corrupt, wasn't nutty enough for the Alabama primary electorate.

There's suddenly a (very slim) chance that the Senate could be 51-49 next year.

[ad hoc]

I know that the generalisations about "the South" are just that, generalisations, and that clearly there is a lot of diversity and variety of opinion in places like Alabama, but electing someone senator (as they almost certainly will) who is too right wing and extreme even for Trump, is not really lifting the popular view of the state out of the swamp much, is it?

Is there some way that Mississippi can outdo them and go even deeper into the crazy?

[ursus arctos]

I'm not exactly sure of the historical reasons as to why, but during my lifetime, Mississippi has consistently been controlled by establishment, gated community/country club types like Trent Lott and Harley Barbour, while Alabama has been much more inclined to fire breathing, bible thumping, populist loons like Moore and George Wallace. One of the many things that makes Sessions so terrifying is that he is an Alabama loon who can pose as a Mississippi gentleman.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Many more red Senators going to be primaried by loons in 2018? Flake and Heller already, but who else?

[Tubby Isaacs]

McConnell is going to back Moore. Won't that hurt them more widely?

[Ginger Yellow]

Less than a Democratic senator would, at least while McConnell's still in charge.

[ursus arctos]

45 has deleted his tweets supporting Strange.

What a stand up guy he is.

As to other primary challenges, I'm sure that Mercer and Bannon are getting calls from all kinds of loons at the moment.

With Corker retiring, Tennessee will become a firefight, and then you have the seven sitting GOP senators who are currently expected to seek re-election (in rough order of danger): Dean Heller (Nevada), Jeff Flake (Arizona), Roger Wicker (Mississippi), Deb Fischer (Nebraska), John Barrasso (Wyoming), Ted Cruz (Texas), and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Seeing Obamacare is still about, could a supporter of it make an impression in the non-expansion states?

Its not like it's faraway coastal elite states getting the benefits. Arkansas and Kentucky are.

[ursus arctos]

People in every state in the Union have benefited from Obamacare.