Jared Kushner Tapped to “Fix Government with Business Ideas”

From the Washington Post…

President Trump plans to unveil a new White House office on Monday with sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and fulfill key campaign promises — such as reforming care for veterans and fighting opioid addiction — by harvesting ideas from the business world and, potentially, privatizing some government functions.

The White House Office of American Innovation, to be led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will operate as its own nimble power center within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump. Viewed internally as a SWAT team of strategic consultants, the office will be staffed by former business executives and is designed to infuse fresh thinking into Washington, float above the daily political grind and create a lasting legacy for a president still searching for signature achievements.’

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Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Led Zeppelin Plays Since I’ve Been Loving You

Jimmy Page again! This solo is yet another amazing one from Page. Powerful and emotional, it definitely soars.

Of course, I’m talking about the second solo. There are actually two, here, the first one opening the song. And that one is really good, as well, setting the tone of the song quite nicely.

The first solo starts right at the beginning and ends at 1:12. Page continues to play lead licks underneath Plant’s singing, so the lead playing continues. But the second, and main, solo starts at 3:37 and ends at 4:52.

Enjoy!

Self Care – Justice League Trailer

You know what? This trailer isn’t terrible. I’m still afraid that they’re gonna cram way too much in too short a time frame with no cohesive structure… or maybe they’ve learned from past mistakes and stick to only shooting one major story for the one film, instead of six major stories for the one film… we’ll see.

As I’ve said in the past… whether or not I actually go out of my way to see this will depend entirely on how good Wonder Woman is. If Wonder Woman is good, then I’ll give Justice League a chance. If Wonder Woman is bad, then maybe I’ll catch Justice League on TV… maybe…

Oh and no, the main villain here is not Darkseid. The main villain is connected to Darkseid, but it’s not Darkseid.

Because I still want a cohesive Justice League DC Cinematic Universe, my fingers are crossed. But my expectations are as low as it’s possible for them to get, so…

How is This Still a Thing? What is Happening?

Didn’t we agree, like, thousands of years ago, that the earth is not flat? So what the hell is happening?

I mean… don’t get me wrong… I know that there are still people who genuinely believe the earth is flat. But they’ve always been… like… fringe of the fringe. Even most know Young-Earth Creationists agree that the earth isn’t flat! Like… if Ken Hamm agrees that the earth is not flat, then maybe… you know… that’s a piece of science we can all agree on, right?

So what the hell is going on? Why is famous person after famous person coming forward to say that they think is the earth is flat?

Even People magazine noticed this…

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Keystone XL Pipeline a Go… Maybe…

Welp… this is bad news mixed with some spotty hope…

From Reuters…

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration approved TransCanada Corp’s (TRP.TO) Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, cheering the oil industry and angering environmentalists even as further hurdles for the controversial project loom.

The approval reverses a decision by former President Barack Obama to reject the project, but the company still needs to win financing, acquire local permits, and fend off likely legal challenges for the pipeline to be built.

“TransCanada will finally be allowed to complete this long-overdue project with efficiency and with speed,” Trump said in the Oval Office before turning to ask TransCanada Chief Executive Officer Russell Girling when construction would start.

“We’ve got some work to do in Nebraska to get our permits there,” Girling replied.

“Nebraska?” Trump said. “I’ll call Nebraska.”

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Agent Orange Blames Democrats for Trumpcare Failure

After Paul Ryan says that Obamacare will remain for the foreseeable future, Agent Circus Peanut is now blaming Democrats… for not supporting it.

From the New York Times…

President Trump, trying to put the best possible face on a major defeat on Friday, dismissed the scuttled bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act as a byproduct of Democratic partisanship. He predicted that Democrats would return to him to make a deal in roughly a year.

“Look, we got no Democratic votes. We got none, zero,” Mr. Trump said in a telephone interview he initiated with The New York Times. “So when you get zero from the other side — they let us down because they’re hurting the people. The good news is they now own health care, they now own Obamacare.”

He tried to minimize the deep divisions within his own party that prevented Speaker Paul D. Ryan from securing passage of the bill.

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Basic White People are Racist

Fucking white people.

We’re always doing the most in a dash to be the absolute worst. Then we scream and cry when people call us out. For us white people today, there’s no such thing as racism. You literally cannot say or do anything that’s racist, today. But call a white person a racist, and oh. My. God.

You have ruined their precious day.

I just love your hair! My wanting to touch is a compliment! And I can see the pros of building a wall; I mean… those illegal immigrants, man! They broke the law by coming here! And anyways… we live in America! Why shouldn’t citizens here have to speak American? And while we’re on it… I totally agree that black lives matter, and all, but why couldn’t they just do what the cops said, instead of trying to resist? And I just want to wear that head dress and that kimono because they’re cute! I’m not appropriating any cultures! And why can’t I put that black shoe polish on my face? It’s just a costume!

Racist?

RACIST?!?

How dare you! Do I look racist to you?!? I’M A GOOD PERSON! IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT YOU’RE NOT WHITE! THAT’S JUST HOW IT HAPPENED! I STILL LIKE YOU!!!!

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Trumpcare Pulled

From Daily Kos…

Multiple sources are reporting that the House has pulled the vote on Trumpcare, breaking their own promise of the past seven years to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Seven years they had to come up with some kind of bill to replace it. Seven years they had every conservative policy wonk (the real ones, not Paul Ryan) providing advice and offering ideas. In seven years they did squat.

Well, not entirely squat. They had over 60 votes to repeal Obamacare in part or in whole. Every one of those votes was estimated to cost $1.45 million dollars—each vote—of taxpayer money. That’s not counting all the staff time, the committee time, the opportunity cost of everything that was postponed or just not done because of their single-minded obsession on this one thing. Billions of dollars spent—just on votes—not on all the campaign ads for this.

Seven years. They had seven years. And all they had to show for it was a crappy cut-and-paste job from the original law. A bad bill that destroyed Medicaid (Paul Ryan’s frat-boy “dream”), destabilized Medicare, and threw 24 million people off of healthcare.

All for the tax cuts for the wealthy.

And in the process, they self-inflicted incalculable wounds. Ryan had to pull this vote, after strong-arming and threatening his members, even though it would be damaging to them back home. It damaged Ryan AND Trump in the process and makes it even harder for Republicans to pass anything in the future.

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