As for Ms. Wolf, I watched her routine and found some of it funny, some of it obvious and some of it dull...I couldn't care less if Sarah Huckabee Sanders was given a lick of the cat, she's been pissing down the backs of reporters for months, that stony face she pasted on during her humiliation is no different from the blank stares she inaugurates five times a week from her imodium podium. I'm not a fan of abortion jokes in the same way I don't find be-headings a curiosity. Shock-value humour is a lose-lose gambit at the best of times. Were I to have my druthers at that gig, I would have stuck with the equal opportunity gags that the political climate writes for itself on a daily basis...Such as, Ben Carson and his 'pyramid granaries', Scott Pruitt and his 'safety Tardis', Kelly-Anne Conway and her 'Machiavellian microwave' and the nausea inducing Trump-Macron bromance, to name a few.

LL&P

In other news, seems it's and assault on the rights of society and the rights of the individual to have the FBI, armed to the teeth with court ordered warrants, to raid a lawyers office, but it's somehow ok to send your personal Gehime Staatspolize to raid your doctor's office.

Why do I get the feeling the 'spit's going hit the spam' in the upcoming weeks?

LL&P

If you're having difficulty discerning the differences between the statutory mechanisms available to the IRS for collecting delinquent income taxes compared to the collection of other types of debt, research and compare how many delinquent taxpayers are in jail or have had their assets confiscated compared to the number of student loan defaulters in similar circumstances.

As for the Republican who 'prayed so hard' for Trump to win the election, as we say in the South, "Bless her Heart".

https://youtu.be/_WjxBS93OVY

I guess nobody pays their taxes then. How is a $1,000 loan different from a $1,000 tax bill on April 15th?

The government is very good at getting the money it is owed. And if you stiff the government, they usually are also the same people who are giving you welfare.

But don't, for god's sake, don't rely on large numbers of Republican voters to defect and pad the numbers. It won't happen.

Many Republicans are being exposed for the spineless hypocrites they always have been (not saying they're the only hypocrites) since their heads would be exploding if Obama were saying/doing the same things they ignore from Trump as long as it makes the "libruls" angry, but keep in mind that a healthy number of them are defecting and while they may not vote for a Democrat, they are not remotely motivated at the present time to vote for the "bait and switch" fake populism and con of Benedict Donald again. Fool me once...

So many more shoes still to drop too.

In fact, it's really a disservice to legitimate news organizations to call Fox "news". It belongs on the entertainment/fiction menu, and shouldn't be allowed into any journalistic organization or forum at all.

(Clapping) Standing ovation! I could not agree more with your comments after spending the last two weeks back in Georgia with my Fox-News-Only family. I would only add that I realized that my family’s lack of understanding of how law enforcement works has aided Trump’s reputation with them when Trump constantly yells that Mueller’s investigation has not found Trump was guilty of collusion with Russia.

My dad is a very intelligent, kind, and reasonable man, yet he had a hard time accepting that law enforcement investigations do not announce any of their findings until they complete the investigation! Granted, usually we never know about investigations until they are finished — law enforcement doesn’t usually tell those being investigated what they are doing as it spoils all the fun. My father kept saying, “They’ve been doing this for over a year, just how much money does Mueller make for this gig?” I kept having to remind him that Mueller was paid a salary to work for the FBI and that this “gig” wasn’t just a way for lots of attorneys to bill the government for as long as they could without producing any results! And despite what Fox News kept telling him, Mueller’s investigation HAS produced lots of results so far! Multiple guilty pleas and multiple indictments have already occurred, and more were surely to come!

But like you said, Trump was shaking things up as far as my family was concerned. I honestly believe that they are fine with Trump’s making money off of his presidency because at least he does it for all the world to see instead of doing it secretly the way the rest of our elected officials have been doing it all this time. My dad is sick of politicians and their lies. He voted for a person he knew was a liar and greedy because Trump was at least honest about being a liar and greedy, unlike the others. That is some messed up and depressing realizations, but it is what Devon and I both walked away from our time down South feeling.

Dennins Miller says he will have some good jokes on the subject 'in a few days'. Someone of course pointed out that this is the very definition of 'slow-witted'.

Netayahu's presentation, filled with slides, and 'dramatic' reveals, was a good rundown of Iran's nuclear program before the Iran Agreement, but showed no evidence that inspectors have missed any ongoing activity.

If anything, it's a good argument for sticking with the agreement, as it's better to keep the inspectors on the ground there to keep an eye on what the Iranians are actually doing.

What is needed are guys with geiger counters, not bellicose rhetoric. Under the present deal, inspectors get unprecedented access - more than enough to detect the sort of activity that Bibi alleges, if it exists.

Did the hawks learn nothing from Iraq and Afghanistan? Silly question: of course not!

With what motivation? Well, let's start with the poor situation that the press is in right now. Suppose that instead of handing out a few journalism scholarships, the press association was able to cover the entire cost of hiring investigative journalists for smaller newspapers, or able to fund FOIA battles in court, or provide seed money to start up newspapers in under-served areas? Or maintenance costs for serious bloggers?

Good ideas!

The next time they complain about the lies and dismissive attitude with raised eyebrows above smoky eye that greets them at each and every press briefing at the White House, they should instead ponder their own dismal approval ratings.

Exactly!

I think what the media doesn't realize - among other things, of course - is just who the audience for the comedy routine actually is. Hint - it's not them!

But, their reaction to it is oh so predictable and hypocritical.

The next time they complain about the lies and dismissive attitude with raised eyebrows above smoky eye that greets them at each and every press briefing at the White House, they should instead ponder their own dismal approval ratings.

So, until the WHPC and media at large begin to act like professional journalists whose primary function is to inform the electorate, the lot of them should have to endure a comedy routine just like the one Michele Wolf served up on a regular basis.

I ended liking Michele Wolf's routine too, after calming my mother down on the phone. It was a bit blue.

But good modern comedy.

And that's why the whole thing should remain a staple part of the DC calendar.

In fact, the value of whole point of the exercise was more or less proven last night.

My beef with it is that the organizers of the event have steadfastly refused to fully modernize the thing, move it to the Kennedy Center and make it a full-on yearly roast of the President and Washington Press Corps, with embarrassing clips, skits and sarcastic musical numbers. I'm sure 'The Capitol Steps' have plenty of material for a gig like that.

With what motivation? Well, let's start with the poor situation that the press is in right now. Suppose that instead of handing out a few journalism scholarships, the press association was able to cover the entire cost of hiring investigative journalists for smaller newspapers, or able to fund FOIA battles in court, or provide seed money to start up newspapers in under-served areas? Or maintenance costs for serious bloggers?

A little celebrity glitz would go a long way toward paying for bigger ambitions.

As for the Press Corps themselves, they should have some smaller event with just themselves and a few guests. A dinner, perhaps.

This is unfortunately true of everything we have been shocked to see these last two years, from the revolving door hiring practices of the White House(Trump likes a competitive atmosphere, like the one we saw on The Apprentice), to being hip-deep in investigations over Russian connections (which just demonstrates how desperate the Democrats are to undermine Trump - because he's winning!), to Trump's incoherence (keeps his enemies off-guard), to his insistent lying (see previous entry), to his corruption (Democrats hate anyone who has ever had money - unless they're a movie star or is named Clinton or Soros - therefore anything having to do with money is inherently 'corrupt' to them. Trump is doing business, not 'engaging in corrupt practices' and the fact that the Democrats don't know the difference is a large part of the problem).

And the reason is, is that after years of getting lip service from establishment Republicans who said that they wanted to abolish the entire New Deal and its progeny, the Nanny State, Trump and his team of radicals are actually trying to accomplish that goal, and to undermine the Democratic raison d'êtres in the process. It's a wildly ambitious agenda, one only a madman would undertake, so....

Scott Pruitt may be feathering his own nest over at the EPA, but he's also, according to the faithful, restoring "balance" to environmental policy that has for too many years essentially attempted to label the oil and mining industry criminals just for doing their jobs. So he gets a pass, right?

And so on. Deficits? Requires entitlement cutting, not tax hikes, to solve. Diplomacy? A sucker's bet if there ever was one. The only way to negotiate is through strength - starting with 'or I'll kill you' is much more effective than the traditional UN pussy opening, 'would you mind..?'.

I point these things out to demonstrate the absolute futility of the hope of 'winning over' on-the-fence Republicans by pointing out what a horrible disaster Trump is. Or that we could wring more votes out of rural America by 'understanding' Trump voters more, which sounds like a prototypical Democratic plan if I ever heard one.

No, we should point out Trump's flaws in order to activate Democratic turnout in the midterms, and by the way, treat it like a dress rehearsal for the bigger contest that will be held in 2020, when we'll not only have to redouble voter turnout, but also have to defend whichever jackass makes it to the top of the Democratic Ambition Demolition Derby that year.

But don't, for god's sake, don't rely on large numbers of Republican voters to defect and pad the numbers. It won't happen. They put Trump in the White House in the first place, and are so far very pleased with the result, in part because Democrats are so upset themselves with everything that Trump and his allies have done so far, and fearful for the future.

"That's good", Republicans think, "fear breeds respect". See? Hopeless.

In order for a 'De-Trumpification' of the US to be effective, the western allies model should be applied. This would have to include laying bare all of the misdeeds of Trump and his 'odious apparatus', the removal of his right wing media support apparatus that seem to think telegraphing his verbal sewage is ok. Hannity, Drudge and the NRA will have to go, obviously. Truth about the past is essential if truth for the future is to gain a foothold. The first amendment, last I checked, has no fine print that says freedom of speech includes bald-faced lies, it was designed to allow people to disseminate their own view, not to allow people in a position to influence great swaths of the population with 'alternate facts.'

Yes, yes, yes!

"There is a valid reason why commercial banks don't make the kind of loans we're talking about - they know they'd never be repaid!!"

First of all, you are assuming something that is patently false. You are making the assumption that most people are inherently untrustworthy, undeserving, conniving, lazy, worthless, irresponsible, etc. When in fact most people hate having to rely on charity, or government handouts, don't like not being self-reliant, are responsible, do want to work, etc. Most people in fact want off welfare. They want and need helping hand ups, not hand outs. Most people will conform to whatever expectations you have of them. It's human nature. Treat them like responsible adults, and most, granted not all, will behave like responsible adults.

"Your repayment/default stats are simply not realistic for the type of loans under discussion."

Actually they came from both government and private company statistics.

"Ask yourself, why would ANY 'poor' person EVER repay an unsecured loan to the gov'T??? There would be no incentive. What are they gonna do if you don't repay?"

Since we are talking about a loan from the Federal government, one option would be taking your tax return refund away from you in order to repay your loan, for example. I would call that a pretty good incentive. There are others.

"And you've got the Puerto Rico situation backward. It's the lenders who are going to eat $billions of losses, the borrowers are in no trouble whatsoever."

No they are not, since they have already made money on the interest payments. We are talking about the default and loss of the principal, not interest payments already made. You might also want to talk to the borrowers and the trouble they are already in, such as cuts being endured in education, health care, public utilities, higher taxes, etc. all because loan repayments come first.

"The banks and hedge funds that loaned the money will sue, hassle, etc, but you still can't get blood out of a turnip, as the saying goes."

No, but you can hassle the turnip to death and keep them from ever trying to accumulate or make any kind of capital advancement in the future through things like bad credit ratings, etc.

[9] Paula...Post war Germany, after having been split into four zones of control overseen by France, England, USA and the USSR went about their own versions of 'De-nazification.' The western powers decided to educate the people under its control from kindergarten age and up to expose the Germans to the true horror of the Nazi system, unvarnished. The Russian's decided to demonize the people and the former system and ultimately replaced one system with an equally brutal regime...the effects of that choice can still be seen today, the majority of the nationalistic far-right groups that have sprung up since reunification have their genesis in for Russian controlled urban areas.

In order for a 'De-Trumpification' of the US to be effective, the western allies model should be applied. This would have to include laying bare all of the misdeeds of Trump and his 'odious apparatus', the removal of his right wing media support apparatus that seem to think telegraphing his verbal sewage is ok. Hannity, Drudge and the NRA will have to go, obviously. Truth about the past is essential if truth for the future is to gain a foothold. The first amendment, last I checked, has no fine print that says freedom of speech includes bald-faced lies, it was designed to allow people to disseminate their own view, not to allow people in a position to influence great swaths of the population with 'alternate facts.'

*An aside...I saw the speech Wayne La Pierre spat out at C-Pac earlier this year, I thought it odd that he spent more time talking a bunch of nonsense about socialism and how it destroys democracies. Socialist democratic countries, like France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Australia, New Zealand and the two I call home, England and Canada have much stronger democracy than the US, hell-bells, we even go so far as to elect the winner of the popular vote...go figure! What is now becoming clearer is, I think that speech was as much to get out ahead of the NRA-Russia-Trump triumvirate of conspiracy to nobble the US election, as it was to point out all the above mentioned 'true democracies' also have sane gun laws. It's going to be interesting to see how this NRA funneling of Ruskie cash into Trump's so-called 'self-funded campaign' plays out.

Humpty Trumpty is so broke...all the kings horses and all the kings men...etc etc.

LL&P

Gov't/Postal banking systems are very common throughout the civilized world, and we even had one here years ago, but I fear you and Sen Gillebrand are dreaming that we could initiate a new one here and thereby eliminate the hateful "payday Lending" loanshark industry.

As far as I'm aware, postal banking systems exist solely to accept poor people's money (savings accts.), and NOT to make unsecured short-term loans.

There is a valid reason why commercial banks don't make the kind of loans we're talking about - they know they'd never be repaid!!

Your repaymen/default stats are simply not realistic for the type of loans under discussion. Ask yourself, why would ANY 'poor' person EVER repay an unsecured loan to the gov'T??? There would be no incentive. What are they gonna do if you don't repay?

And you've got the Puerto Rico situation backward. It's the lenders who are going to eat $billions of losses, the borrowers are in no trouble whatsoever. The banks and hedge funds that loaned the money wil sue, hassle, etc, but you still can't get blood out of a turnip, as the saying goes.

"If I created the impression in your mind that my [1] post was intended in the slightest way as a defense or an advocacy of the 'Payday Loan' industry..."

Not at all, actually...

"but my point was that if the gov't got into the business, they would never be permitted to charge outrageous interest in order to cover the defaults, and still make a big profit, so the result would be huge losses for the Postal Service (aka the taxpayers)."

It is simply my contention that this basic premise of yours is factually wrong to begin with.

1) Subprime loans have a total default rate of about 20 percent. Regular loans about 5 percent. But this still compares favorably with small third world bank loans to the poor. The famous Grameen Bank also has a total default rate of about 20 percent.

2) In the case of loan defaults, most lenders still manage to make a substantial profit. It's the borrowers who get into trouble with defaulted loans, not the lenders. Puerto Rico is another prime example of this.

3) The whole point of U.S. postal bank loan industry would be NOT to make a HUGE profit, but to either simply break even or make only a small one, just enough to cover expenses and keep ahead of operating cost increases and NOT be a burden or drain to the taxpayer.

4) Most banks are not going to make small personal loans to people who are in most need of them. They mostly make huge loans chiefly to people who have so much in assets that they really don't need the loan in the first place. The only exceptions being car or house loans which are covered by the car or house to begin with itself. Postal banking and loans would fill in a much needed gap. The person who only needs 2,000 dollars, for instance, to cover car repairs in order to keep the job they have.

LL&P

If I created the impression in your mind that my [1] post was intended in the slightest way as a defense or an advocacy of the 'Payday Loan' industry, you have my sincerest apology. I FREELY admit that 'Payday Loans" are outright highway robbery, and that the entire industry profits by taking advantage of the poor/innocen/stupid/gullible/vulnerable segment of the public, and that such usury ought to be outlawed.

And I fully understand that the industry makes huge profits by preying on the ignorant, but my point was that if the gov't got into the business, they would never be permitted to charge outrageous interest in order to cover the defaults, and still make a big profit, so the result would be huge losses for the Postal Service (aka the taxpayers).

"Anybody who thinks that the U.S. gov't, in the form of the Postal Service, making unsecured loans to the type of people who normally patronize the infamous "Payday Loan Industry" (i.e., people with bad credit/no credit) will generate a profit for the Postal Service, simply isn't living in the real world.

If you think the default rate on sub-prime mortgage loans was bad, wait till you see the rate on unsecured loans!"

I guess YOU aren't living in the real world then. Both myself and a friend of mine used the payday loan system in the past.

I can tell you from personal experience that it took more than one year to pay off a simple one time loan. The maximum amount you can "borrow" at any one time is 500 dollars. People struggle to make regular payments every two weeks and not default. You are basically rolling over the same loan every two weeks unless you pay it off completely, which most of the time is virtually impossible once you get "hooked." You think it's only going to get you over this one time shortage, say your paycheck that week isn't quite enough to cover your rent for that month. But it becomes a trap. It's not like you are taking out a completely NEW loan every couple of weeks. If you miss your payment, they automatically try to deduct your payment from your bank account that you used in order to secure the loan in the first place. So that it comes out of your paycheck before rent, food or anything else.

They made far more money in interest payments on the loan than they would EVER lose on someone just defaulting on the loan itself. It made a HUGE profit for them.

I know, right!? Benedict Donald can refer to Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt" until over and over until he's orange in the face because everybody knows that "Bobby Three Sticks" is actually on a "snitch hunt," and I have it on good authority that he being quite the seeker has already caught himself more than one golden snitch already. ;)

If you think the default rate on sub-prime mortgage loans was bad, wait till you see the rate on unsecured loans!