What it all amounts to is just more distraction from two big problems ... the fact that Trump is wholly unprepared for and apparently uninterested in learning about the array of issues that cross the Resolute desk in the oval office, number one; and, number two, the low-simmering-perhaps-soon-to-furiously-bubble-over investigations into Russian connections to the Trump campaign, transition and early presidency.

I'm starting to get the distinct feeling that the lid is about to blow off ...

"You only expect Trump to do what he says because he has an "(R)" after his name!"

According to the Tax Policy Center (TPC), in the first year of Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” tax plan, released in 2016, fully 76 percent of the benefits would go to the top 1 percent. A narrow slice of that group, the top 0.1 percent, would get about 47 percent of the plan’s total benefits, more than double the bottom 99 percent of households combined. The tax plan even manages to get considerably more regressive over time—by 2025 the top 1 percent would get 99.6 percent of the benefits.

In practice, this means that in 2017 households making more than about $700,000 would get an average tax cut of around $200,000. And households making more than $3.7 million would get an average tax cut of $1.2 million. The rest of us don’t fare as well as the rich. Households making less than $25,000 would get only $50 on average. In fact, of the income groupings analyzed by TPC, none of groups within the bottom 95 percent (which covers everyone making less than about $292,000) would see an average tax cut larger than $410.

http://www.epi.org/publication/republicans-opening-bid-for-tax-reform-is-egregiously-tilted-to-the-rich/

So how's that Orange-populism going?

For confused reporters, I'll explain it very simply: Trump voters don't care about most of the issues Trump claimed to care about in the campaign. They were just applause lines. If Fox and Breitbart had spent 3 months going on about the "Zipperhead Protocol" they'd have screamed in delight every time Trump mentioned it, without caring what it meant. A lot in America is fucked up and bullshit, so Trump supporters have legitimate economic grievances like the rest of us, but they don't really see politics as a way to solve that. They see politics as a reality show in which their guy is winning and stomping on the face of the losing team, a team which includes blah people. Keep the racism going, keep pissing off the loser liberals, keep sticking it to the blah people. That's what will keep them happy. It was never about the ex-im bank or Chinese currency manipulation or whatever the hell, it was about kicking the shit out of loser liberals. Go Team Trump!

I think that sums it up.

"Bannon may not last much longer in the White House"

The above triggered memories of the cartoon series Jonny Quest from the 1960s and some amusing parallels with the Trump 1st 100 days.

Roger T. "Race" Bannon was one of four major JQ characters, he was an intelligence agent, pilot and action packed nanny among other things. Reruns of "Race" and the rest of the show were pulled off the air for racist sterotypes and a propensity for lethal violence in the 1970s. (It returned in the 80s in highly redacted form).

Fast forward to 2017, and former Trump nanny Steve K. "Racist" Bannon looks to be circling the drain, although it's unlikely racism or violence have anything to do with this.

To his credit, the '60s "Race" Bannon fought AGAINST Nazis.

And this where we are! Satire is dead; it can't compete with self-satirising reality[1]. But we knew that long ago when Tom Lehrer pointed it out just after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.

[1] And reality is a mere hallucination caused by alcohol deprivation.

The article contains a lot of "clearly indicates that the munitions was ... etc." with a lot of analysis about tube crushing mechanisms. Are there any other experts who agree with Postol?

Quite a claim!

Let's hope he stays in favor of the clown-in-chief.

JL

"Here is a link for you. The U.S. is calling it "likely intentional misinformation" from Syria, and Russia wouldn't back up Syria's claim."

Thanks.
That isn't the link for the story I mentioned obviously.
After a request, the link was provided... from Zerohedge.
In other words, not credible as noted in the link you provided.
No wonder a link wasn't provided initially.

If the incident did happen, I'm sure a credible source will report on it.

Even though my comment started with "supposedly", I still feel bad for commenting before the source was provided.
Sorry about that... I know better.

I really, truly and finally am outta here.

A

This Theodore Postol guy seems to be getting mentioned a lot in the Syria debate.

Here is what he put out.

https://imgur.com/a/W4zQx#xC7yL6U

If the close up pictures of the crater are accurate, it does indeed raise questions.

Mull it over.
I should be back Tuesday.

A

All one has to do is look at the money trail, 650 million owed to the state bank of China, and the approval to allow the trump trademark into China, worth ????.

One cannot expect to leach money off of buildings that want to use your name if you are engaged in a trade war or for that matter calling the government, that issued you the loan, a currency manipulator.

If you follow the money, it becomes crystal clear why the conversation only took 10 minutes.

Wouldn't it be more like 45 got played like a 78?

Although 45 like a 45 has a good ring to it...

I think you credit him with too much content. He is at best a single. They played 45 like a 45 :)

Since he's been busy firing career diplomats right and left it turns out he didn't have people that really knew squat about China or their trade policies so he figures he'll "wing it". The Chinese arrive with a crack team of people, take Trumpy's measure and within MINUTES 45 has decided that whole currency manipulation thingy was bunk. They played him like an LP.

They have to have been laughing all the way home.

The Orange-base won't care about that. Their main concerns are the personally nasty stuff involving hurting POC, women and Muslims. They want blood there, but all this esoteric stuff? Won't move the needle.

Now, when 45 stumbles into a mess on Social Security, they'll care. And if he bumbles into another ACA effort, they'll care.

But China making a laughingstock out of him? FOX won't cover it so they won't even know.