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THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY
(03-26-2017, 10:31 AM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: The nutty far right extremists in the Freedom Caucus


Dreadful group of people, just awful. (If anyone in here associates themself with that general attitude, please don't tell me. I honestly don't really want to know). They left me with the impression they wouldn't vote yes because not enough was taken out even though at that point nothing meaningful was left. Their belief in what needs to be done leads me to believe they will never work with others to insure something fair that benefits everyone.
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Why would the trump administration want to prevent Sally Yates from giving testimony regarding Mike Flynn and Russia? Anyone care to take a guess? Smiley_emoticons_smile
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(03-28-2017, 10:31 AM)Duchess Wrote: Why would the trump administration want to prevent Sally Yates from giving testimony regarding Mike Flynn and Russia? Anyone care to take a guess? Smiley_emoticons_smile

Damage control. That's my guess

Whether Flynn's breach was major or relatively minor, the White House gave Sally Yates the middle finger when she privately provided them with the Justice Department's concerns/evidence. Then, Yates was out. But, they waited weeks to dump Flynn when it was long clear that his credibility had been shot to hell and his integrity seriously compromised (oh, and most importantly, according to the White House, because he lied to Pence).

The Russia connection has been handled terribly by the White House. If there was no there there..........one meeting with the campaign staff, one public statement putting their cards on the table and explaining the nature of their various meetings with Russian officials before the election..........and the House Intelligence Committee wouldn't keep ending up back at the White House in the course of their Russian interference investigation.

Manafort, Stone, Sessions, Carter Page, and now it's revealed that Jared Kushner met with the head of a sanctioned Russian bank while Trump was on the stump praising Putin and calling for Russia to hack Clinton. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.
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You're gonna want to slap me Duchess, but I still think Paul Ryan is a decent man. He's always struck me as such, though I disagree with his priorities and proposed policies on most counts.

Boy did Ryan do some dancing in this morning's press conference though. He's not gonna rush through a new Obamacare replacement plan because it's too important an issue and it takes time to get things right? Come on Paul, you're the one who imposed short deadlines and pushed the Republican House Reps to suck it up and support the really shitty bill. Moonwalking.

Ryan has one hell of a tough job. I always picture Boehner drinking whiskey and smiling in relief that his ass no longer occupies the Speaker's seat.

Ryan needs to replace Nunez as chair of the House Intelligence Committee; Nunez has seriously compromised his perceived objectivity in terms of the Russian interference investigation and it looks even worse considering he was part of the Trump transition team (compounded by Nunez's weird public statements).

However, if Ryan does that, he gets off sides with the White House again and it would look like the Dems got their way. I think Ryan will regret not sidelining Nunez anyway; it's the right thing to do.

So, having failed in torching Obamacare, the White House is reportedly busy looking at undoing Obama's major environmental protection initiatives, domestic and global. I fear that they'll have a much easier time getting the science-denying and progress-hating Republicans to unite on this one, but I really hope not.
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(03-28-2017, 11:49 AM)HairOfTheDog Wrote: You're gonna want to slap me Duchess


hah No I'm not!

*BarkBarkBark*
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Come on. Come at me bro! Smiley_emoticons_smile
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Ha! I can handle people I like, liking those that I don't.
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I don't necessarily like Paul Ryan, I just don't think he's a piece of shit.

He may prove me wrong.

I believe that he's strongly principled, though his principles don't typically align with mine.
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I should have chosen a better word rather than like.

Don't look into his eyes. He's a vampire, a ghoul.

I saw him riding a horse a couple weeks ago. He has nice form.
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(03-28-2017, 12:08 PM)Duchess Wrote:

Don't look into his eyes. He's a vampire, a ghoul.

I saw him riding a horse a couple weeks ago. He has nice form.

Nah, he's just misunderstood -- like (a really buffed) Eddie Munster.

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We should all be ashamed how this election has divided us and the petty vitriol we have posted. I would pick any of you no matter your political affiliation to live next to. GOOD PEOPLE ARE GOOD PEOPLE. I will watch your house when you are away and invite you over for a cold beer and nachos when you are home.
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I used to feel about politics what I feel about religion, I don't care who people worship and it doesn't affect how I feel about them. This election cycle wasn't normal in any way and neither is what is going on now.
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(03-29-2017, 01:20 AM)BigMark Wrote: We should all be ashamed how this election has divided us and the petty vitriol we have posted. I would pick any of you no matter your political affiliation to live next to. GOOD PEOPLE ARE GOOD PEOPLE. I will watch your house when you are away and invite you over for a cold beer and nachos when you are home.

I agree with you that good people are good people, regardless of political affiliation.
But, I don't think anyone needs to be ashamed of anything they've posted here if they meant it or had fun putting it out there.

The 'unfiltered' part of Mock is one of the best parts, to me; it's a good thing that Mock isn't a troll hole nor a 'safe space'. If you can take being challenged in return, this is a good place to dish it out.

Anyway, sharing a cold beer and nachos in your backyard sounds good, Biggie.......so long as you're not jumping out of the jacuzzi naked to shoot at snakes or passing around loofahs or anything. Smiley_emoticons_smile
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I think President Trump is going to face a lot of resistance outside of the Republican party in pushing the myth of 'clean coal'.

People die young from mining coal and the impacts of burning coal en mass affects the health of millions of others. It should continue to be phased out as a primary energy source and there should be a concerted effort to train people in coal country for work in renewable energies, in my opinion.

It doesn't make sense to me go backwards because some people's fathers and grandfathers put food on the table for their families in the mines, got black lung disease and other work-related illnesses/injuries and died young.........just to preserve a regional tradition, create a few hundred or thousand jobs, and line the pockets of the coal moguls.

That's not a 'winning' strategy for the U.S. and moving from being a global leader on environmental protection initiatives to being a welcher isn't good for the country either, in my opinion.
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Is coal even being used for much of anything anymore?

I saw a stat the other day, this may not be exact but I think I read there are 75,000 coal related jobs in the US as compared to almost a million jobs for other sources of energy.

Rolling back some of these regulations piss me off, particularly the ones involving the environment, specifically clean water & air. Bastards.
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Climate change is caused by man and that urgent government intervention, in the form of new taxes and regulations, is the only way to stop it. ummmmm right?
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Taxes no, some regulations, yes!

...but, don't worry. This administration has wiped off anything regarding climate change from the WH website. He thinks it's a hoax that China instigated.
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(03-29-2017, 11:46 AM)Duchess Wrote: Is coal even being used for much of anything anymore?

I saw a stat the other day, this may not be exact but I think I read there are 75,000 coal related jobs in the US as compared to almost a million jobs for other sources of energy.

Rolling back some of these regulations piss me off, particularly the ones involving the environment, specifically clean water & air. Bastards.

Coal is still being used, but not nearly as much as it used to be. I do not believe coal miners will see the jobs Trump promised them coming back because coal as an energy source was in decline before Obama took office and the market is driving that decline.

President Trump is the one trying to interfere with capitalist market drivers. I think he will fail on this issue, despite having signed an Executive Order (EO) to start undoing Obama's Clean Power Plan, which seeks to cut carbon emissions by power utilities, one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases. Obama's EO was never even put into effect because the courts put it on-hold; still, the demand for coal was decreasing rapidly.

The administration says Trump's EO is delivering on a key campaign promise: to restore coal mining jobs by eliminating regulations. He wants to maintain the support of the coal country voting bloc that helped him win the 2016 election.

The reality is that the demand for coal in the United States has been declining for years due to capitalism, not government regulations.

The falling price of natural gas is the primary reason for the plunge in use of coal by utilities. Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, are also becoming more competitive.

Overseas markets, such as China, are cutting their consumption of American coal and consumers are using more efficient appliances and light bulbs that limit the pace of increased electrical consumption at home.

The amount of coal used to produce electricity in the United States has dropped by about 35% since the high point in 2007, according to the Energy Department figures. Most of that decline is attributable to the increased use of natural gas, with renewable energy becoming more of a factor in recent years.
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It doesn't really matter, in my opinion, whether one believes that climate change is man-made or not. Coal is on the way out because better, cheaper, more efficient, and cleaner sources of energy are on the rise. That's where the new jobs will be created.

2016 was the first year in which natural gas produced more electricity than did coal, according to Energy Department figures. About 35% of electricity came from burning natural gas, while coal, which used to produce half the nation's electricity, only produced 30% last year. Another 19% came from nuclear power while 15% came from renewable sources.
Ref: http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/28/news/eco...er-plants/

Robert Murray (a sharp critic of Obama), founder and chief executive of Murray Energy—the nation's largest privately held coal mining company—told the Guardian that many mining jobs were lost to technology and competition, rather than regulation.

Trump can't really change that, Murray said. "I suggested that he temper his expectations. Those are my exact words," Murray said. "He can’t bring them back."

Another industry expert, Ted O’Brien, a coal analyst at energy industry research firm Doyle Trading Consultants, told The New York Times just after the November election: "I don’t think the Trump presidency will have a material impact on bringing coal miners back to work. He may eliminate the regulatory overhang... but I have a hard time seeing a surge in coal demand." Ref: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-cant-bring...obs-574766
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Put that in your Christmas stocking!
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