Will the Freedom Caucus be Obamacare's unwitting savior?

Congressional leaders have warned that replacing Obamacare could take years and Republican lawmakers are considering repealing the law immediately while delaying its replacement for three years, but the incoming leader of the House Freedom Caucus is not on board.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), the next chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told Politico on Monday that a plan to replace Obamacare in three years "will meet with major resistance from Freedom Caucus members." Meadows said that the replacement should not be "left to a future Congress to deal with."

"It should be repealed and replaced, and all of that should be done in the 115th Congress," he told Politico.

Meadows said that the plan to replace Obamacare will be "the first big fight I see coming for the Freedom Caucus."

The Freedom Caucus, the conservative group of congressmen known for their hardline approach, may rankle GOP leaders by preventing consensus on a plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare despite the fact that the party controls both houses of Congress and the White House.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has said that repealing Obamacare is a top priority next year, but he acknowledged on Monday that it will take time to replace the health care law and indicated that there will be some kind of "transition."


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/freedom-caucus-obamacare-replacement

Gen. Michael Flynns Son Continues to Push #Pizzagate Conspiracy After Attempted Assault

After police arrested a man with a firearm in a Washington D.C. pizzeria Sunday night, the son of Donald Trump‘s incoming national security advisor General Michael Flynn tweeted out his continued support for the conspiracy that spawned the attack.

“Pizzagate” is the name for the bizarre conspiracy theory claiming that associates of Hillary Clinton ran a child sex-trafficking ring out of D.C.’s Comet Ping Pong. Those claims are entirely without basis, but that didn’t stop a North Carolina man from walking into Comet Ping Ping with a weapon demanding answers.


http://www.mediaite.com/online/gen-michael-flynns-son-continues-to-push-pizzagate-conspiracy-after-attempted-assault/

Obama sends prayers to Oakland and Donald Trump gives us this.

Sweet Christmas, Luke Cage Is Officially Getting A Second Season

It looks like Netflix is following Pop’s advice. “Luke Cage” will be moving “forward” with a second season, the company announced Sunday. A premiere date has not been released.

The Marvel comic adaption starring Mike Colter, Rosario Dawson and Mahershala Ali hit the streaming service Sept. 30. Netflix crashed shortly thereafter. Whether the two events were related is still unknown ― Netflix does not comment on viewership numbers ― but fans formed their own opinions.

Season 1 was certainly a hit, receiving strong praise for its portrayal of the (nearly) bulletproof, hoodie-loving black superhero in a dim yet lively version of Harlem. The political undertones in Luke Cage’s special abilities, especially during a year of continued news headlines involving police and people of color, did not go unnoticed.

While we’re waiting for the second installment, we’ll have other Marvel titles on Netflix to keep us busy. “Iron Fist,” starring Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick, is due to premiere on March 17. “The Defenders” ― who are Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Iron Fist and Luke Cage ― is coming (we hope) next year, while the second “Jessica Jones” season will likely debut in early 2018. The third season of “Daredevil” will likely hit the streaming service after that; its spinoff, “The Punisher,” is upcoming, too.

Donald Trump Reportedly Considering Fast Food CEO For Labor Secretary

President-elect Donald Trump famously loves fast food. But does he love it enough to put a fast-food executive in charge of the Labor Department?

On Friday, the New York Times reported that Trump is mulling Andrew Puzder to be his labor secretary. Puzder is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. The Times attributed its brief report to an anonymous official on Trump’s transition team. Puzder met with Trump in person last month after the election.

https://www.google.com/amp/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5845b436e4b028b323389199/amp?client=safari

Trump breaks promise on NAFTA

Members of the Trump transition team are trying to tamp down concerns among corporate leaders that the incoming administration may spark trade wars with Mexico, Canada and other major trading partners over the next four years.

Anthony Scaramucci, a senior advisor on the Trump transition team, told a group of business leaders convened at a bipartisan meeting by the group No Labels that President-elect Trump is a free-trader who is looking to make trade deals more fair, not scrap them.

“I don’t think we’re looking to rip up NAFTA as much as we are looking to right-size it and make it fairer,” he added. “He’s got a great relationship, by the way, with the Mexican president. They talk regularly,” referring to Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.



http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/308764-transition-official-trump-will-not-rip-up-nafta

GOP wagers Americans dont care about Trumps conflicts

Republicans see the same ethically challenged complications lurking in Donald Trump’s business portfolio that Democrats are squawking about. They just think Americans don’t care about these entanglements anymore.

Indeed, the GOP is so easily dismissing Democratic threats of investigations and ethicists’ calls for divestment out of a belief that the political landscape has shifted. Voters rewarded Trump in part on the idea that success in business will equal success in government, and Republicans are therefore unwilling to encourage the president-elect to put distance between the Oval Office and Trump Tower, or between himself and the children who serve him as trusted advisers.

“This is a great test case between the pre-Trump and post-Trump worlds,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a prominent early GOP backer of the president-elect. “In a pre-Trump world dominated by left-wing ideas, anyone successful is inherently dangerous and should be punished for trying to serve the country.”

“The American people,” Gingrich added, “knowingly voted for a businessman whose name is inextricably tied to his fortune. … I’d say to the left wing, get over it.”



http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-conflicts-republicans-232137

KKK Leader Misses His Own Trump Victory Parade

The leader of a Ku Klux Klan branch missed his own Donald Trump victory parade because he was in a jail cell, arrested after a planning meeting descended into violence.

Dozens of KKK members drove through rural North Carolina on Saturday, giving Nazi salutes and shouting: 'White power.'
The event attracted nationwide publicity after details were posted online announcing it as a celebration of Mr Trump's victory.
However, its organizer, Chris Barker, 37, Imperial Wizard of the Loyal White Nights in North Carolina, was not present after he was arrested in connection with a stabbing.

Michael Welch, sheriff of Caswell County, said Barker was one of two men detained after a stabbing victim was dumped in the lobby of his office complex in the early hours of Saturday morning.
'The victim Richard Dillon told investigators that he had been at the residence of Christopher Eugene Barker due to a Ku Klux Klan meeting when the altercation took place,' he said.

A police officer told the Burlington Times News that Barker had urged on William Hagen, 50, of Indiana, in the attack and had kicked the victim as he fell to the ground at his home.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3999342/Imperial-wizard-man-arrested-stabbing-KKK-meeting.html#ixzz4RyGoYmJR
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Comcast commercial with the worst granddaughter ever.

PERSONAL NOTE: My son once commented on the fact that his grandfather has no internet. I told him to suck it up.

KTVU: Expect death toll to rise above 100

Someone on KTVU made a point that Oakland FD found 33 bodies after searching 35% of the building, so expect the death toll to get far worse.