US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Trent Dole]

[Tasty]

http://www.theonion.com/article/bernie-sanders-refuses-flashy-abc-podium-favor-own-51845

[Phoenix Dark]

[Oblivion]

That poll is both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Sure, it's nice that college educated Republican women have shown literally 0% support for Trump.

But that's completely nullified by their 63% support for Carson. 

[benjipwns]

THE DREAM IS DEAD

Senator Lindsey Graham is ending his presidential campaign, he told CNN during an exclusive interview airing Monday.

"I'm going to suspend my campaign. I'm not going to suspend my desire to help the country," the South Carolina senator said in a wide-ranging and candid discussion in which he acknowledged: "I've hit a wall here."

[Great Rumbler]

There are at least five other candidates that could drop out today and nobody would even notice.

[Samson Manhug]

That poll is both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Sure, it's nice that college educated Republican women have shown literally 0% support for Trump.

But that's completely nullified by their 63% support for Carson. 

I don't have a lot of love for the GOP candidates, but Carson really rubs me the wrong way. With his phony humility combined with a stunning ignorance about foreign affairs, how could anyone support him other than from a purely opportunist Realpolitik stance?

[Human Snorenado]

There are at least five other candidates that could drop out today and nobody would even notice.

Gilmore, Pataki, Santorum, Huckabee... and Bush I guess?

[benjipwns]

Huckabee we'd notice probably because he'd be pestering Fox for his show back.

Carly we'd notice only because some idiot would make a big deal about how there's no women left in the field.

I'm shocked that people are dropping out at all. Just sit on your cash until after Iowa. It's a month long blitz from then through Super Tuesday and all of it is PR. If 2/3rds of the vote goes non-Trump, even piddly numbers of delegates will get you some endorsement leverage.

[benjipwns]

[benjipwns]

I don't have a lot of love for the GOP candidates, but Carson really rubs me the wrong way. With his phony humility combined with a stunning ignorance about foreign affairs, how could anyone support him other than from a purely opportunist Realpolitik stance?

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that your view is becoming more common:

[benjipwns]

[brawndolicious]

Trump's spikes seemed to happen during Bush and Carson's drops and they don't have much in common with each other whether you're looking at education, personality, anything. Now there's 5 weeks to go and Trump has been in the lead since August. It does look like Trump will win some states like Iowa before the rest of the Republicans coalesce around a less radical candidate but that will be a drawn out battle. And I'm thinking it's good to be prepared for the reality that Trump might be nominated.

That poll is both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Sure, it's nice that college educated Republican women have shown literally 0% support for Trump.

But that's completely nullified by their 63% support for Carson. 

I don't have a lot of love for the GOP candidates, but Carson really rubs me the wrong way. With his phony humility combined with a stunning ignorance about foreign affairs, how could anyone support him other than from a purely opportunist Realpolitik stance?

Doesn't he have the most individual donors of the Republican field? Maybe there's a lot of old people who love their doctors. He and Cruz are probably the most well-educated candidates but I don't think that matters much, most Republicans are probably resigned to the fact that this election is about how well they fail.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

The NY Times had a great article about how even though Trump was polling extremely well in Iowa, he's lagging far behind in organization and campaign infrastructure to most of his rivals in that state. Being that its a caucus, organizing for turnout is really key there (upstarts do great there, due to their policy, but also because they burn the most shoe leather).

It doesn't seem crazy to me that Cruz can win Iowa, which at least would put a dent in the air of inevitability that seems to be around future President Trump as of now. Donnie will definetly crush South Carolina though and probably New Hampshire as well.

[benjipwns]

Cruz rise continues:

Quinnipiac University National poll released today. Trump has 28 percent of the GOP pack, with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 24 percent. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has 12 percent and Dr. Ben Carson has 10 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll finds. No other candidate tops 6 percent with 8 percent undecided.

Last poll was 27% Trump - 17% Rubio - 16% Carson - 16% Cruz

Among Republicans, 28 percent of voters say they “would definitely not support” Trump, with 24 percent who would not back Bush.

Only 23 percent of all voters would be proud to have Trump as president. 50 percent would be embarrassed. [73% of 18-34]

If Clinton is elected, 33 percent of all voters would be proud and 35 percent would be embarrassed

[Phoenix Dark]

    Standing before a crowd of 7,500, Trump recounted how Clinton was seconds late to the Democratic debate stage on Saturday night following a commercial break. Trump asked the crowd four times where Clinton had gone.

    "I know where she went -- it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it," Trump said, screwing up his face, as the crowd laughed and cheered. "No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it, it's disgusting."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/21/donald-trump-calls-hillary-clinton-disgusting-for-using-the-restroom-during-a-debate/?postshare=1511450752087649&tid=ss_tw

what the fuck

[Human Snorenado]

The comments for this one...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/lets-elect-hillary-now-1450742854

[Great Rumbler]

    Standing before a crowd of 7,500, Trump recounted how Clinton was seconds late to the Democratic debate stage on Saturday night following a commercial break. Trump asked the crowd four times where Clinton had gone.

    "I know where she went -- it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it," Trump said, screwing up his face, as the crowd laughed and cheered. "No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it, it's disgusting."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/21/donald-trump-calls-hillary-clinton-disgusting-for-using-the-restroom-during-a-debate/?postshare=1511450752087649&tid=ss_tw

what the fuck

Who's worse? Trump for running his campaign like a twelve year old or the people who cheer and applaud someone running their campaign like a twelve year old?

[Barraco Barner]

I thought this quote from the WP article was more lol

"She was favored to win, and she got schlonged," Trump said, turning a vulgar noun for a large penis into a verb.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/inslee-error-releases-inmates-early-since-2002/

lol

[tiesto]

    Standing before a crowd of 7,500, Trump recounted how Clinton was seconds late to the Democratic debate stage on Saturday night following a commercial break. Trump asked the crowd four times where Clinton had gone.

    "I know where she went -- it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it," Trump said, screwing up his face, as the crowd laughed and cheered. "No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it, it's disgusting."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/21/donald-trump-calls-hillary-clinton-disgusting-for-using-the-restroom-during-a-debate/?postshare=1511450752087649&tid=ss_tw

what the fuck

Trump just got Berned!

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-kentucky-kim-davis-20151223-story.html

[Great Rumbler]

Among his other executive orders, Bevin suspended an executive order that automatically restored the right to vote to most nonviolent felons who have served out their sentences — a pool that potentially included thousands.

Because of course he did.

[benjipwns]

Mele Kalik-Baracka
President Obama jets to a Hawaiian holiday, while the world unravels.

Before leaving for his annual Hawaiian Christmas vacation, President Obama found an odd way to wish Americans “Mele Kalikimaka!” In an interview with National Public Radio, he discussed Islamic State, also known as ISIS. While admitting that “they can hurt our people and our families,” the president once again played down the terrorist threat.

“It is also important for us to keep things in perspective,” Mr. Obama told NPR’s Steve Inskeep. “This is not an organization that can destroy the United States. This is a not a huge industrial power that can pose great risks to us institutionally or in a systematic way.”

Furthermore, he said, “the strength of the United States and its allies are not threatened.” He then compared Islamic State to al Qaeda, which he said “was able to carry out one spectacular attack,” but “at no point was there ever a sense that in fact it could do catastrophic damage to us.”

Mr. Obama should try telling the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11, and the Americans who saw two great buildings topple, that al Qaeda’s attacks that day were not “catastrophic.”

Not only was the statement tone-deaf, the president’s description of Islamic State reveals his terribly shortsighted vision. This is something you might expect from a man who, just last year, referred to ISIS as the “jayvee team,” and who, the day before the Paris massacres, said the group was “contained.”

ISIS has already destabilized the Middle East, drawing Iraq deeper into Iran’s orbit and giving Russia an opening to return to the region from which it was ejected in 1973. Because of the threat posed by Islamic State, the U.S. is no longer actively pressing for the ouster of the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Instead, America is seeking to cooperate with Russia. Neither is in the long-term interest of the U.S. and the West.

Islamic State’s actions have already resulted in a flow of more than a million refugees to Europe, straining relations among the continent’s governments and fueling the growth of right-wing populist political parties. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has exploited this, having begun long ago to foster closer relations with European right-wing parties like France’s National Front. That’s because Mr. Putin is playing chess, working to bring about NATO’s demise and restore a buffer of subservient European puppet states, while Mr. Obama is playing checkers, apparently content to keep things patched together until he leaves office.

At the same time, ISIS is creating a zone of instability from the Strait of Gibraltar to Central Asia. This could result in the creation of radical Islamic terror states along the southern Mediterranean and the overthrow of the Western-oriented Egyptian regime, both of which would directly harm U.S. interests.

This same volatility could threaten Israel; undermine our Saudi, Jordanian, and Gulf state allies; and help return the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. It could topple the government of nuclear-armed Pakistan. Radicalization could destabilize the peaceful, largely Western-oriented Muslim nation of Indonesia. The Obama administration seems clueless about ISIS’ catastrophic potential and has no long-term strategy to bend events to America’s benefit.

President Harry Truman, by contrast, thought decades ahead. The haberdasher from Missouri reformed the government to meet new challenges after World War II and created international structures that helped contain America’s adversaries and win the Cold War. Mr. Obama’s vision is limited to the coming months, to the next quarter, to the end of his term. Whenever events undermine his view of the world, he has the habit of retreating to an alternate reality. Mr. Obama is a man with an uncommonly rigid, anti-empirical mind.

We’ve seen this manifest itself in areas other than foreign policy—for example, in his refusal to address the entitlement and debt crises.

Because of an aging population, the trust funds for Social Security and the hospital portion of Medicare will both run out of money within 20 years. The nation’s public debt, equal to 41% of GDP in 2008, now stands at 74%. Yet Mr. Obama is acting as if we’re in the middle part of the last century, with plenty of time before disaster hits. He is not bothered by inconvenient truths. Don’t worry, be happy.

For a man who thinks he’s always the smartest person in the room, Mr. Obama has shown himself remarkably astigmatic about our national interests, always behind the curve. Because of his lack of vision, the mop-up operation his successor will face is unlike any in living memory.

This is why we shouldn't elect foreigners from Hawai'i as American Presidents.

[benjipwns]

Donald Trump will ring in the new year with Fox News, the network announced on Tuesday.

Trump will be live from Florida during the 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, helping hosts Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric Bolling count down to 2016. Trump owns the Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

[Brehvolution]

That rove sore loser screed 

[Phoenix Dark]

I love how deeply rooted that attack is in far right bullshit a lot of people don't care about or never heard of. Specifically the "Obama the anti-emperialist" stuff, which will never stop making me laugh.

[Mandark]

I love how deeply rooted that attack is in far right bullshit a lot of people don't care about or never heard of. Specifically the "Obama the anti-emperialist" stuff, which will never stop making me laugh.

Actually in this one Rove's calling him "anti-empirical," ie too bound to his abstract conception of the world to be deterred by facts on the ground.  The jokes make themselves.

[Great Rumbler]

[Joe Molotov]

I love how deeply rooted that attack is in far right bullshit a lot of people don't care about or never heard of. Specifically the "Obama the anti-emperialist" stuff, which will never stop making me laugh.

Actually in this one Rove's calling him "anti-empirical," ie too bound to his abstract conception of the world to be deterred by facts on the ground.  The jokes make themselves.

Yeah, but Putin's playing shirtless chess and Obama is playing mom jeans checkers.

[Mandark]

Did we ever talk about the Paris Agreement on here?  Seems like that might be kind of a big deal.

[Human Snorenado]

It's cool, President Trump will save us from that shit in early 2017

[benjipwns]

That rove sore loser screed 

I love how deeply rooted that attack is in far right bullshit a lot of people don't care about or never heard of. Specifically the "Obama the anti-emperialist" stuff, which will never stop making me laugh.

President Harry Truman [a Democrat of all people - ed], by contrast, thought decades ahead.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

that one's for long time internet user Mickey Kaus

[close]

[Phoenix Dark]

That Truman line is one of those things you kinda learn not to do around Mandark and other people because you can't answer the inevitable "like what? Give an example" retort.

[benjipwns]

add Jim Webb (who killed a man) to title plz
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-26/webb-attacks-clinton-with-eye-on-independent-run

http://www.facebook.com/IHeardMyCountryCalling/photos/a.240139606175966.1073741828.232634213593172/421407398049185/

Our next commander in chief must define a strategic vision for the country and accept accountability for past actions. Hillary Clinton should be called to account for her inept leadership that brought about the chaos in Libya, and the power vacuums that resulted in the rest of the region. She’ll need better answers than the recent nonsensical comment that she advocated taking out Muammar Qadaffi in Libya in order to avert a situation like Syria. The predictable chaos in Libya was bad enough, but it also helped bring about the disaster in Syria. Who is taking her to task for this?

dat facebook user name

[benjipwns]

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2015/12/26/exclusive-trey-gowdy-to-campaign-for-marco-rubio-n2097243

Townhall has confirmed rumors that Rep. Trey Gowdy -- widely admired as a principled fighter among many grassroots conservatives -- will join Sen. Marco Rubio on the campaign trail in Iowa next week

[Phoenix Dark]

Widely admired among grass roots activists? He's the guy who dropped the ball on a slam dunk case and let Hillary walk. 

[Human Snorenado]

Widely admired among grass roots activists? He's the guy who dropped the ball on a slam dunk case and let Hillary walk. 

To be fair, he was the best the GOP had.

[benjipwns]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/26/its-time-to-rally-around-donald-trump/

Brent Bozell has called on conservatives to rally around Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% for the Republican presidential nomination. Ted Cruz is a good man and a fine candidate — my own second choice — but I believe GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is the candidate for American patriots to rally around.

Bozell states that Cruz is the one candidate who will return the United States to “her Constitutional foundations and Judeo-Christian values,” explaining:

On every issue of crucial importance to conservatives—defunding Planned Parenthood, ending the Obamacare nightmare, reducing the size of government, opposing amnesty—Cruz is not only with conservatives, he’s led the fight for conservatives.

To be honest, if these were the only issues under discussion in this GOP presidential primary season I would hardly be able to make myself pay attention. It’s not that they are unimportant issues. Personally, I support every one of them. But they are not existential issues. They are not the issues on which the very future of the Republic hangs. They are issues that a responsible Republican House and Senate, if they were loyal to their oath and to their constituents, could today begin to rectify all by themselves.

If they did — or if, say, a President Cruz were to ensure that Planned Parenthood was defunded, Obamacare ended, government trimmed, and amnesty once again staved off for another election cycle — we would all rejoice. However, the Constitution, the Republic, would be no more secure. On the contrary, they would still teeter on the edge of extinction, lost in a demographic, political, and cultural transformation that our fathers, founding and otherwise, would find inconceivable — and particularly if they ever found out that the crisis took hold when We the People lost our nerve even to talk about immigration and Islam.

It is in this danger zone of lost nerve and the vanishing nation-state where the extraordinary presidential candidacy of Donald Trump began. Like the nation-state itself, it started with the concept of a border, when Donald Trump told us he wanted to build a wall. Circa 21st-century-America, that took a lot of nerve.

After all, Americans don’t have walls. We don’t even have a border. We have “border surges,” and “unaccompanied alien minors.” We have “sanctuary cities,” and a continuous government raid on our own pocketbooks to pay for what amounts to our own invasion. That’s not even counting the attendant pathologies, burdens, and immeasurable cultural dislocation that comes about when “no one speaks English anymore.” A wall, the man says?

The enthusiasm real people (as opposed to media and #GOPSmartSet) have shown for Trump and his paradigm-shattering wall is something new and exciting on the political scene. So is the “yuge” sigh of relief. Someone sees the nation bleeding out and wants to stanch the flow. Yes, we can (build a wall). From that day forward, it has been Trump, dominating the GOP primary process and setting all of the potentially restorative points of the agenda, compelling the other candidates to address them, and the MSM, too. Blasting through hard, dense layers of “political correctness” with plain talk that shocks, Trump has set in motion very rusty wheels of reality-based thinking, beginning a long-overdue honest-to-goodness public debate about the future of America — or, better, whether there will be a future for America. That debate starts at the border, too.

A well-defended border is an obvious requisite for any nation-state. It bears noting, however, that before Donald Trump, not one commander in chief, and (aside from former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-CO), not one figure of national fame and repute I can think of had ever put it to the people of this land that a wall was a way to stop our border crisis: the unceasing flow into the nation of illegal masses of mainly Spanish-speaking aliens, among them terrorists, criminals (yes, including rapists and murderers) and transnational gangs. On the contrary, crime and chaos at the U.S. non-border are what every branch and bureaucracy of our government expect We, the People to accept as normal — and pay for as good citizens.

But good citizens of what — the world?

For many decades, the unspoken answer  to this inconceivable question (inconceivable, that is, before Trump) has been yes. “We Are the World” has been the USA’s unofficial anthem, the political muzak of our times that we either hum along to, or accept in teeth-gritted silence for fear of censure (or cancelled party invitations). “Openness,” “multiculturalism,” “globalism” — all have been pounded into us for so long that I think Americans despaired of ever hearing anyone give voice again to a patriotic vision of American interests. Then Trump came along and changed the tune. Americans perked up their ears. Maybe a wall — which is just the beginning of Trump’s detailed immigration policy, which Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)80% calls “exactly the plan America needs” — would make America possible again. That would be great, indeed.

Does Trump see it all this way, or is he going on “feel”? I don’t claim to know, although by this time in the political season, I think I am beginning to get a sense of Trump. When it comes to what is important, beginning with immigration, Trump’s instincts are as formidable as his courage. Notwithstanding Cruz and his consistent conservatism (in which Bozell places great stock), immigration wouldn’t even be a campaign issue without Donald Trump. In my opinion, the Trump plan is absoutely essential to any possible return, as Bozell puts it, to America’s constitutional foundations and Judeo-Christian principles. I actually think of it as our last shot.

In the meantime, Trump continues to catapult issues, one after another, into the heart of the multicultural/universalist narrative that long ago marginalized the very idea of American interests. His judiciously sensible, also unprecedented, call for a moratorium on Muslim immigration following the San Bernardino jihad attacks is a perfect example. Citing polling commissioned by the Center for Security Policy that reveals shockingly high support among Muslims in America for 1) violent jihad in America — 25 percent believe it is justified, and 2) sharia law in America — 51 percent believe they should have the choice of being governed here by Islamic law (sharia), Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

As Trump makes clear, our country’s representatives have no clue. Worse, they seem content to remain in ignorance no matter how many Americans die, no matter how far sharia spreads. Not Trump. When you think about it, his call for a Muslim immigration moratorium is really a no-brainer — but whose “politically correct” brain is capable even of thinking of it, let alone calling for it out loud? I regret to say that Sen. Cruz does not support Trump’s moratorium, deferring instead to a rosier vision of Islam and immigration screening both in order, politely, to reject it.

That’s too bad, but so it goes, further testament to the fearless, agenda-setting powers of Trump. It’s really quite incredible: soon, maybe even before it’s too late, GOP primary voters will have a clear choice on walls, borders, immigration, even Islamic immigration (and, I would hope, the related issue of Islamic law), all because Donald Trump plucked these crucial issues from the void where the politicians, including good conservatives, have been eager to leave them.

Go Trump!

[benjipwns]

 

 



 

[Human Snorenado]

PD, EXPLAIN

http://www.vibe.com/2015/12/black-twitter-hillary-clinton-logo-change/

[Joe Molotov]

PD, EXPLAIN

http://www.vibe.com/2015/12/black-twitter-hillary-clinton-logo-change/

[brob]

 

[Mupepe]

I'm not sure how the fuck I got on Rand Paul's mailing list but I did a few years ago. I was too lazy to fill out the unsubscribe form since hitting delete was easier. Until that motherfucker kept asking me for money.

[Phoenix Dark]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.thecoli.com/threads/mer-crimmuh-my-ode-to-donal-trump.385302/

[close]

[Mandark]

http://i.imgur.com/nsjUZrV.png

It's funny to me every single time I'm reminded that he set his name to "Dr. Rand Paul" on Twitter.  What a tool.

[Mandark]

*My Mind on Trump youtube*

Did you know that black Americans commit Poe's Law violations at the same rate as white Americans, but are five times as likely to be sent to prison for it?

[benjipwns]

One person shows up to O'Malley event in Iowa, remains uncommitted

"The very last event of the night, we actually had a whopping total of one person show up, but by God, he was glad to see me. So we spent the time with him," the Democratic presidential candidate told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, speaking from Des Moines.

A tweet shared by a reporter who was present showed a bearded man, identified only as Kenneth, sitting at a table with O'Malley, who told MSNBC that he was "working on him" but also said people in Iowa "want to see the whole campaign play out" before deciding on a candidate.

[Joe Molotov]

One person shows up to O'Malley event in Iowa, remains uncommitted

"The very last event of the night, we actually had a whopping total of one person show up, but by God, he was glad to see me. So we spent the time with him," the Democratic presidential candidate told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, speaking from Des Moines.

A tweet shared by a reporter who was present showed a bearded man, identified only as Kenneth, sitting at a table with O'Malley, who told MSNBC that he was "working on him" but also said people in Iowa "want to see the whole campaign play out" before deciding on a candidate.

(Image removed from quote.)

The Onion

[benjipwns]

http://www.wmur.com/politics/george-pataki-tells-nh-supporters-he-will-drop-out-of-race-for-president/37181108

Republican presidential candidate George Pataki is planning to end his presidential bid, sources within the campaign confirmed to WMUR Political Director Josh McElveen.

The former New York governor has called some of his supporters in New Hampshire to tell them of his decision.

Game changer.

[Kara]

While y'all were laughing at dank memes, the IRS was quasi-privatized.

http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/highway-bill-revoke-passports-tax-delinquents-private-debt-collectors-76612-1.html

Congress has passed highway-funding legislation that includes two tax provisions that would allow the State Department to revoke the passports of long-term tax delinquents who owe more than $50,000 in tax debts and revive a program requiring the IRS to hire private debt collection agencies.

On the matter of using private debt collectors, the IRS has tried using outside contractors in the past, but the program has been discontinued twice because it did not bring in the revenue anticipated and provoked complaints that the debt collectors were harassing mostly low-income taxpayers.

http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/tax-strategy-76811-1.html

FAST orders the Secretary of Treasury to enter into one or more qualified tax collection contracts with private contractors for the collection of all outstanding inactive tax receivables. This is authority that the Obama administration, the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate did not seek or want. The IRS views the last attempt at private debt collection several years ago to have been a failure. However, the provision does give Congress cover to argue, as it reduces the IRS’s budget and tax collection suffers, that this provision should permit tax collection to continue in spite of the reduced budget.

In an apparent effort to impose further control over the IRS’s use of funds raised from private debt collectors, FAST redirects funds that the IRS may retain from private debt collectors from use for the IRS’s collection enforcement activities to a new Special Compliance Personnel Program Account. The account is to be used for hiring, training and employment of special compliance personnel. These special compliance personnel are to be used by the IRS as field function collection officers or employed to collect taxes using the automated collection system. No other funds are to be placed into this account, no funds from any other source are to be used for this purpose, and no funds in the account are to be used for any other purpose. In short, if the IRS does not receive any money from private debt collectors, it is to have no funds to pay for this aspect of its internal collection activities.

With respect to private debt collection, Congress clearly appears to be trying to force the IRS to undertake private debt collection whether it wants to or not.

[Great Rumbler]

We can't raise taxes to pay for repairs on a crumbling infrastructure, so we'll hire a private for-profit company to squeeze a few cents out of people too poor to pay the taxes they owe. Sounds like a great idea! I wonder why no one has ever tried it before?

[Kara]

The medical device excise tax (which admittedly was dumb) was also taken out back and shot. Not a great sign for the fiscal health of the Affordable Care Act, imo.

[benjipwns]

New Hampshire Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid responds to Donald Trump’s ‘low-life’ comments and predicts how New Hampshire Republicans are receiving the GOP front-runner’s public image.

JOSEPH MCQUAID: I don't know what Mr. Trump's support is in our state or nationally, for that matter. I think polls are pretty much bunk, and are name recognition, not real substance. It is a crowded field, and I think Iowa, N. H., and South Carolina are going to winnow the field, and all this poll business is going to be history.

Boom. Take that ya dumb polls.

[Samson Manhug]

http://www.cato.org/blog/2016-presidential-candidate-intervention-meter

[Phoenix Dark]

We gonna acknowledge the best part of the 2016 race has been Paul's nonstop annihilation of neoconservatism during the debates?

[Syph]

The GOAT Mark Steyn:
http://www.steynonline.com/7394/predators-for-hillary

Wonder how long the whole Bill Clinton will fester until it reachers critical mass. Perhaps just before Iowa Trump will drop a bomb, or maybe next debate (latter more unlikely probably).

[Oblivion]

How the fuck is Fiorina so low on the intervention list? Bitch wants to nuke everything.

[Samson Manhug]

American conservative demigod Ronald Reagan, everyone:

[Joe Molotov]

President Trump will ask Seal Team 6 to play Rainbow Six Siege before carrying out a no-knock warrant for the arrest and deportation of Muhammad Ali.