Trump approval down to 33%, Republican Support is starting to crumble.

[Breccia]

Trump continues to widen the gap between himself and the GOP.

Gorka confirms Trump's attacks on the GOP are intentional and deliberate.

Trump backers turn on Kelly

Hannity blames McConnell: Now Trump 'has to deal with Dem leaders'

You're tearing me apart, Lisa!

[Glorious Leader]

While congressional republicans have been a problem for years, they're not the main problem in washington right now. They're like an extra credit problem at the end of a test.

You dont get trump without the congressional republicans though. To uote the czhec mobster from batman "joker man was right you have to fix real.problem"

[Belize]

Trump continues to widen the gap between himself and the GOP.

Gorka confirms Trump's attacks on the GOP are intentional and deliberate.

Trump backers turn on Kelly

Hannity blames McConnell: Now Trump 'has to deal with Dem leaders'

You're tearing me apart, Lisa!

Are we tired of winning yet?

[Breccia]

I don't know if it tops "Amnesty Don" which must have hurt because the WH specifically pushed back against this label, but, this line is just too good to pass up.

Steve King: Looks like Trump is keeping Hillary Clinton's promises

Rep. Steve King, who I assume has a self-driving car, a St. Bernard, and lives next to a pet semetary, said Thursday that President Trump appears to be keeping the promises of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton when it comes to immigration and border security.

“So I think something is going to have to get reversed here with this president's policy or it will just blow up his base. I mean this was a straight up promise all the way through his campaign,” King told CNN’s “New Day.”

King, a staunch conservative who has long pushed for a strict immigration policy, said he has “market-tested” Trump’s immigration policy over the last 14 years and has debated the issue across the early primary states.

“I don't think it's unclear to anybody what those campaign promises were, but it looks to me like he's preparing to keep Hillary Clinton's promise rather than his own.”

King’s comments come after Trump met with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday night at the White House.

While Pelosi and Schumer after the meeting said they agreed to work towards a deal to protect young immigrants and to address border security, Trump noted in a tweet early Thursday that no deal had been reached yet on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Rep. King then poured blood all over the prom queen, chased a psychic child through a frozen hedge maze, and executed Michael Clark Duncan. Authorities are unsure how he managed to escape, or how that poster of Rita Hayworth got into his office.

[Felya]

Mnuchin all but admits Trump's promise of 15% corporate tax rate is impossible. Granted, we all knew that, but it's interesting when the WH flat-out admits Trump promised the impossible.

Well... duh... how are we to pay for his honeymoon, with a tax cut? Thanksgiving is right around the corner... we are going to pay for a lot of travel...

[Ripster42]

Well... duh... how are we to pay for his honeymoon, with a tax cut? Thanksgiving is right around the corner... we are going to pay for a lot of travel...

I can't believe Mnuchin isn't out yet after abusing his office. Spent govt money on a trip for him and his wife to watch the eclipse and tried to use govt money on his honeymoon. Got shot down on the honeymoon at least.

[Breccia]

Oh this is rich.

Trump: 'If I don’t get the wall, then we will become the obstructionists'

President Trump on Thursday again argued for his proposed wall on the U.S.'s southern border, saying Republicans will become the obstructionists if the wall is not constructed.

“Ultimately, we have to have the wall. If we don’t have the wall we’re doing nothing,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac during a trip to Florida.

“At some point, they’re going to have to — they cannot obstruct the wall. The wall to me is vital. If I don’t get the wall, then we will become the obstructionists.”

Please, read that again. Slowly. Trump is threatening to turn the majority party into the "obstructionists". He's threatening to have the majority party intentionally get nothing done, while they are in charge.

Over the Wall.

- - - Updated - - -

I can't believe Mnuchin isn't out yet after abusing his office. Spent govt money on a trip for him and his wife to watch the eclipse and tried to use govt money on his honeymoon. Got shot down on the honeymoon at least.

You do understand, Trump is intentionally, specifically, profiting more. Mnuchin asking for vacation funds is nothing compared to what Trump has done with his vacation budget, and also, what he's funneled directly into his own businesses.

This is just "I learned it from watching you!" in action. Sorry, but apparently those are the rules now.

- - - Updated - - -

More fracturing.



I love that last comment.

- - - Updated - - -

Trump will have to act quickly to keep his base intact. This time, I mean the NRA.

Donald Trump is failing America's gun lobby

The National Rifle Association isn’t known for the subtlety of its messaging. But in recent months, the leading shill for America’s gun industry is sounding shriller than ever. That’s despite unprecedented support from Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to speak at its annual meeting in a generation. “You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you,” the commander-in-chief told the NRA’s top brass and members in Atlanta in April. “The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end.”

But something else has come to an end with Trump’s election: a bull market for the gun industry. Distress is evident across the sector, from the profit warnings of gunsmiths to the sliding stock prices and bankruptcies of outdoor retailers.

Trump is arguably the most NRA-friendly occupant of the Oval Office in decades. But that’s exactly the problem. His arrival precipitated a sharp slowdown in firearms sales, which had been on a tear since the United States elected Democrat Barack Obama as its first African-American president in 2008.

Christopher Killoy, chief executive of gunmaker Sturm Ruger, summarized the thinking when explaining his company’s 44 percent slide in EBITDA last quarter. “We just have to encourage our customer base to get back out to the range, blowing up some ammo, enjoy the sport and get back into the store ... to start buying a few more guns for fun, not just because you think they might be banned in the future.”

In other words, firearms buyers no longer fear the government anti-gun bogeyman, and it is hurting those in the business of selling weapons. The FBI says there were nearly 1.6 million fewer background checks conducted in the first eight months of 2017 than in the same period last year.

That still implies more guns have been sold already this year than in all of 2010. The neo-Nazi rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia last month and the associated violence may have provided at least a temporary boost, too – there were 4 percent more background checks in August than in the same month last year. But it’s nonetheless a calamity for America’s consumer-armaments complex.

Take last week's quarterly earnings report from American Outdoor Brands. The Springfield, Massachusetts-based gunsmith used to be called Smith & Wesson. The company changed its name in January and started diversifying away from guns into other accoutrements of rugged outdoor pastimes. It recently acquired Bubba Blade, for instance, which makes knives for filleting fish.

What really stuck out in American Outdoor Brands’ numbers was its sharp financial decline. The company went from a $35 million profit a year ago to a $2 million loss in the three months to July. Sales plunged 38 percent. The balance sheet deteriorated, too. Cash fell from the preceding quarter by a third to $43 million, while total debt rose 11 percent to $240 million.

Investors were cautious about the largest publicly traded gun manufacturer's prospects even before its latest results. They had, after all, seen Dick's Sporting Goods lose a fifth of its value in August because of what it called "irrational" discounting of hunting supplies. Dick's retailing rival Gander Mountain declared bankruptcy in May, flooding the market with an inventory of guns.

Yet share owners in Smith & Wesson’s parent were still shocked. They sent the stock down to nearer where they traded before the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 supercharged gun sales. The company’s value is now half what it was the day before Hillary Clinton, who supported restrictions on gun ownership, lost the presidential election in November.

The winner, Trump, isn’t helping the NRA’s arms-producing backers, whose generous donations account for a chunk of the nonprofit’s annual revenue, which hit $337 million in 2015 – the last year for which its tax returns are publicly available on GuideStar. But the NRA is taking a page or two from the candidate’s playbook in creating an enemy to rally support: the media.

In a series of recent videos, NRA spokespeople snarl into the camera. "They use their media to assassinate real news," growls journalism-school dropout Dana Loesch, before cutting to an image of the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan. "You weaponized the First Amendment against the Second," fulminates NRA chief Wayne LaPierre. "Your claim to the truth is as legitimate as a thief's."

Such melodrama ought to be unnecessary given that LaPierre has a standing invitation to the White House and the Republican House and Senate majorities are stacked with NRA-friendly legislators. But it is a symptom of the gun industry’s failure to garner support much beyond the one-third or so of American households who own guns, many of whom have been stockpiling weapons during the Obama years.

LaPierre, whose wife Trump appointed to the board of the charitable arm of the National Park Service, is pushing legislation as well as rhetoric. The NRA’s agenda includes draft laws that would, among other things, make it easier to carry concealed weapons on some 12 million acres of federal land – and perhaps in all 50 states.

One measure calls for the easing of restrictions on gun silencers and suppressors, including getting rid of a $200 tax. It would also bar states from imposing their own regulations or levies on silencers. Billed as a “hearing protection” provision, the relaxation of rules on equipment that’s more suited to Mossad agents than moose hunters was this week dropped into a wider House bill called the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act.

This kind of legislative legerdemain is one way the NRA can keep trying to help its hardware-producing backers boost their top lines even if actual firearms aren’t flying out of stores. Not convinced? Take another look at American Outdoor Brands’ recent results. In July the company agreed to buy Gemini Technologies, known as Gemtech, a provider of “world class silencers” and related products to consumers, law-enforcement entities and the military.

"American Outdoor Brands" is "The Artist Formerly Known as Smith and Wesson". They're diversifying because they have no choice.

Bolded for nepotism. Retail is having issues, but the NRA was a heavy Trump supporting group. And now, they're losing stock. I can't imagine they're happy about that, or the lack of assistance they're getting. Or maybe gun sales are down because people aren't afraid Obama will come and take them.

[Dontrike]

[IMG]http://product.datastream.com/dscharting/gateway.aspx?guid=c6a46e98-7780-40f3-b7fa-1c739f45eb7e&chartname=Gun%20makers%20under%20trump&groupname=PERFORMANCE&date=20170913&ow ner=ZRBV003&action=REFRESH[/IG]

"American Outdoor Brands" is "The Artist Formerly Known as Smith and Wesson". They're diversifying because they have no choice.

Bolded for nepotism. Retail is having issues, but the NRA was a heavy Trump supporting group. And now, they're losing stock. I can't imagine they're happy about that, or the lack of assistance they're getting. Or maybe gun sales are down because people aren't afraid Obama will come and take them.

Love that they finally admitted that they've been selling guns based on fear, that was unneeded.

[Breccia]

Trump casually drops a line to reporters that suggest he's back to threatening a shutdown if he doesn't get Wall funding.

"Very important is the wall. We have to be sure the wall isn't obstructed because without the wall I wouldn't do anything... It doesn't have to be here but they can't obstruct the wall if its in a budget or anything else."

Bolded for um, yes they can.

House sends $1.2 trillion spending package to certain rejection in Senate

And that's the one that has the $1.6 billion for repairs and renovations only, not new Wall. This is the one Breitbart got so pissed off about in the last 24. 52 is a dangerous number and the Democrats can, and will, stop any actual Wall funding. Which, again, this isn't, and it will likely still fail.

[Daelak]

Love that they finally admitted that they've been selling guns based on fear, that was unneeded.

Yeah, let me necro that gun control thread and tell them that, no wonder they don't post as often, they probably have to find second jobs now that the Obama gunpocalypse isn't coming.

[Lenonis]

Trump is threatening to turn the majority party into the "obstructionists". He's threatening to have the majority party intentionally get nothing done, while they are in charge.

Well, the problem is that the GOP is already an obstructionist party. That's all they know how to do and they admitted as such. Now that they have power they don't know how to stop being obstructionist so instead of obstruction Democrats, which are in the minority, the factions in the GOP are obstructing each other.

Because it's the only thing they know how to do. It's what they were elected to do, and so they keep doing it. Hopefully they won't stop while they are in power.

[Glorious Leader]

Well, the problem is that the GOP is already an obstructionist party. That's all they know how to do and they admitted as such. Now that they have power they don't know how to stop being obstructionist so instead of obstruction Democrats, which are in the minority, the factions in the GOP are obstructing each other.

Because it's the only thing they know how to do. It's what they were elected to do, and so they keep doing it. Hopefully they won't stop while they are in power.

And so far theyve showm themselves to be hopelessly inept at governing. Thank fucking god.

[Belize]

And so far theyve showm themselves to be hopelessly inept at governing. Thank fucking god.

I never understood the "well we need to see for ourselves" attitude people have.
We've known the GOP was incompetent for years now. There was literally no need to actually test it out. I swear, they must have to check whether a fire is hot or not.

[Glorious Leader]

I never understood the "well we need to see for ourselves" attitude people have.
We've known the GOP was incompetent for years now. There was literally no need to actually test it out. I swear, they must have to check whether a fire is hot or not.

They were not always this inept at governing. They managed to get a significant amount of awful shit done during the bush and reagan years.

[Cthulhu 2020]

"American Outdoor Brands" is "The Artist Formerly Known as Smith and Wesson". They're diversifying because they have no choice.

Bolded for nepotism. Retail is having issues, but the NRA was a heavy Trump supporting group. And now, they're losing stock. I can't imagine they're happy about that, or the lack of assistance they're getting. Or maybe gun sales are down because people aren't afraid Obama will come and take them.

It seems the gun lobby might want to stop backing Republicans, and start secretly funneling money into Democrat PACs. Democrats talk a lot about gun regulation, but never do anything meaningful with it. But every time they do, half of America collectively shits their pants and goes out and buys thousands of new guns. With a Republican president, they "feel" safe that their guns won't be taken away. Emphasis on the feel part, as that's all guns ever really have been, security blankets for feels.

[Breccia]

TrumpCare, failed.

Wall funding, failed.

Better relations with Russia, failed.

DACA, Trump supporters burning MAGA hats and tweeting the videos of them burning

Now another of Trump's campaign promises -- tax reform -- is in serious trouble. Bigly.

Republican unity on U.S. tax overhaul shows sign of fraying


Sen. Hatch tells the press "Yes, thank you, I know what smart phones look like. I'm still going to use this parchment scroll."

Republican efforts to unite the White House, Senate and House of Representatives behind a single tax reform plan appeared to be unraveling on Thursday, when one of the “Big Six” negotiators said the group would not dictate tax policy in the Senate.

At the outset of a congressional hearing on tax reform, Senator Orrin Hatch said the Senate Finance Committee he chairs would not be a rubber stamp for the other congressional Republican leaders and senior aides to President Donald Trump who make up the select group that has been working on a tax reform framework for months. The Big Six is preparing to release its framework on Sept. 25, a release that will sound the starting gun for Hatch’s panel and the House Ways and Means Committee to produce tax reform legislation that is now expected in October.

Overhauling the U.S. tax code is a top priority of Trump and congressional Republicans, who campaigned on it last year. They have made little progress since taking power in Washington in January via a closed-door process that has excluded Democrats.

“The group – some have deemed us the Big Six – will not dictate the direction we take in this committee,” Hatch said. “The Finance Committee will not be bound by any previous tax reform proposal or framework when we start putting our bill together.”

Some analysts viewed the Utah Republican’s comments as the beginning of what could be a widening rift among Republicans in the Senate, House and White House that could jeopardize hopes of completing the first overhaul of the tax code in 31 years before January.

“Disagreements over both substance and process are driving a wedge between senior House Republicans involved in the tax-writing process and their Senate counterparts,” Henrietta Treyz of investment advisory firm Veda Partners said in a report.

But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, Hatch’s congressional counterpart, described potential divergence as a natural and even healthy development that would be kept in check by common ground on major tax issues.

“We’ll work this out by the end of the year,” Brady told reporters. “At the end of the day, we just have to sit down and find common ground.”

Hatch and Brady are among the Big Six, which also includes Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn.

‘SIGNS NOT PARTICULARLY POSITIVE’

There have already been two statements of general tax principles from Republicans: a one-page document from the Trump administration in April and a joint statement from the Big Six negotiators in July. Democrats have criticized Republican plans as too favorable to the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

With the latest blueprint due in less than two weeks, Brady and Mnuchin appeared to differ on Thursday over how much detail the document would contain.

Brady told a policy forum that he did not expect the document to offer specifics on tax rates, while Mnuchin said the plan would contain extensive details including a specific corporate rate. Brady later told reporters that talks continued over what the document would contain.

“It is still clearly possible that tax reform could be enacted over the next near. However, the signs are not particularly positive at the moment,” analyst Jan Hatzius of investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Thursday.

Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady (R-TX) listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Republican Congressional leaders about tax reform. No really, actual caption. That look of confusion, that's the context. Not kidding. Look up original article if you doubt me

After months of talks, basic questions on the Republican tax plan remain unanswered, such as whether or not the tax cuts they want will expand the U.S. budget deficit.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that the tax reform plan would be revenue neutral, if economic growth spurred by the legislation is taken into account.

Revenue neutrality is fast emerging as a divisive issue in Congress, where deficit hawks have expressed misgivings about adding to the deficit.

In White House meetings with top Democrats in recent days, Trump has shown a new willingness to deal with the opposition.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi talked about tax reform with Trump after their Wednesday discussion on immigration, according to Representative Richard Neal, the top Ways and Means Democrat.

Neal said the White House appeared to be “in synch” with Democrats for now on tax relief for the middle class.

“I think that there could be some room there for conversation,” he told the same policy forum where Brady spoke.

- - - Updated - - -

A crumbling base continues to erode.

Pastors stand firm as Trump's U.S. evangelical base weakens

As President Donald Trump bowed his head in the Oval Office earlier this month, Texas Southern Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress and other U.S. religious leaders laid their hands on Trump’s back and prayed for Hurricane Harvey’s victims.

With TV cameras and reporters watching, the scene was a powerful reminder of one of Trump’s most reliable and improbable political assets - his close ties with conservative Christians.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, however, that Trump’s popularity among white evangelicals has weakened, suggesting his grassroots support may not be as unconditional as religious leaders’ public displays of allegiance would suggest.

That may pose a problem for Trump and his allies as the 2018 midterm congressional election season nears. Trump’s strong links to conservative Christians played a key part in his stunning victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Though disenchanted evangelicals were unlikely to switch their votes to Democrats, they could stay home next year when U.S. voters elect senators and representatives.

“When your base is starting to even slowly move away from you, that should be a sign of concern,” said Justin Vaughn, director of the Center for Idaho History and Politics at Boise State University in Idaho, a state Trump won handily last year.

In a country that is more religious than most other western democracies and where a president’s spiritual life is closely examined, the twice-divorced New York billionaire socialite, who has attended church just twice since his Jan. 20 inauguration, is an unlikely torchbearer for conservative Christians.

He has labored to build and preserve this unlikely alliance, embracing social issues, such as commitment to anti-abortion and religious liberty policies, and picking staunch conservative Neil Gorsuch, for the Supreme Court.

Trump also mentions God far more often in public remarks than his two predecessors, a Reuters review showed.

Bolded for hypocrisy.

WEAKENING BASE

But data from the nationwide online Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Jan. 22 to Aug. 25 suggest Trump has been unable to prevent his evangelical support from sliding in line with his overall ratings. The majority of those polled last month who described themselves as both “white” and a “born-again or evangelical Christian” said they approved of Trump, but considerably fewer than when he took office almost eight months ago.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the poll.

During a four-week period in August, 62 percent of white evangelicals said they approved of Trump, while 33 percent disapproved of the president and 5 percent said they had “mixed feelings.”

That is a drop from the first four weeks of Trump’s presidency, from late January to mid February, when 73 percent of white evangelicals said they approved of his performance while 23 percent disapproved and 5 percent had mixed feelings.

The poll was divided into eight four-week periods, with each including about 2,000 people and a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of about 2 percentage points.

The declines are broadly in line with those recorded among all adult Americans.

This drop in the white evangelical base is bad enough, but when even graduates of Jerry Falwell's university return their diplomas because of Trump you have a rotten August indeed.

[Breccia]

The voter fraud panel is...well, it's technically the most successful Trump-formed group so far, since it hasn't dissolved yet. But that's about it.

Attacked for being created with a false partisan pretense, the panel has caused people to de-reigister rather than have their info potentially shared. And the Election Registration Information Center, which has all this information already and is a bipartisan group, has been against it from the get-go. "It wasn’t clear how they were going to protect the data and generate results that were actually going to be usable,” the group chair said. “If you have garbage in, you’re going to get garbage out."

The group is having its second meeting to discuss the thousands of voters bussed into NH to illegally vote, for which there is no proof of course.

[Celista]

Bolded for nepotism. Retail is having issues, but the NRA was a heavy Trump supporting group. And now, they're losing stock. I can't imagine they're happy about that, or the lack of assistance they're getting. Or maybe gun sales are down because people aren't afraid Obama will come and take them.

It's the bolded. Good reminder that as a whole, human beings are an irrational group.