House Passes Tax Reform, NBC Wants to Bring Back 'The Office', and California Sues Trump…Again: P.M. Links

• 

  ERIN SCHAFF/UPI/Newscom

  The House passes tax reform today, with the Senate expected to follow suit. Read Reason's Peter Suderman on the pros and cons of the bill.

• NBC considers bringing back The Office.

• California sues Trump Administration over methane gas rule.

• More on the Bitcoin is 'bad the environment' beat.

• Two rail advocates killed in yesterday's Washington derailment.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The House passes tax reform today, with the Senate expected to follow suit.

Doug Jones will save us.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"NBC considers bringing back The Office."

WE'VE RUN OUT OF IDEAS.

I proposed a show called 'The Bathroom' but they didn't go for it.

[Jimbo]

Starring Crusty?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

More like starfishing.

[Stormy Dragon]

My show idea: a game show called "The Lowest Common Denominator" which would be like family feud, but with poll questions that have an actual right answer, and contestants would have to guess the most common wrong answers.

e.g. "Who is the President?" and guess the most popular answers by people who don't know who the President is.

[CE]

That's funny. You should be able to guarantee a No. 2 rating.

[Rich]

It might look good on paper, but the outcome would probably stink.

[BestUsedCarSales]

NBC considers bringing back The Office.

Why? Why?

[Rufus The Monocled]

How much worse than the WKRP in Cincinnati reboot can it be?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Scranton, PA versus Cincinnati, OH is definitely a race to the bottom. I'll give it to Cincinnati though because I like their Chili.

[Citizen X - #6]

This is the most disgusting thing you've ever admitted to.

[Aloysious]

That isn't chili. That's bean soup.

[Citizen X - #6]

CHILI DOESN'T HAVE NOODLES IN IT. If there are noodles in your chili then you are BAD and you should feel BAD.

[BestUsedCarSales]

It's over the noodles. It's more of a sauce.

Also, if you've never reheated old chili con carne and eaten over rice or noodles then you're missing out.

[Citizen X - #6]

CHILI IS NOT A "SAUCE" IT IS A DELICIOUS SENSORY FEAST ARRHFGH

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'm glad that this was the thing that made you realize that Tony was right. People can't just be let to do what they please.

[mad.casual]

Also, if you've never reheated old chili con carne and eaten over rice or noodles then you're missing out.

I'm with X on this. Chili should be eaten standalone. If you're going to eat it off of anything that isn't a spoon, that thing should be a hot dog. Chili on rice is for cucks who think rice is an acceptable substitute for a hot dog. Even modestly self-aware centrist cucks acknowledge the inherent superiority of a baked potato.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Once you start saying "cuck" you've given up on life.

[Agammamon]

you're going to eat it off of anything that isn't a spoon, that thing should be a hot dog.

Once you abandon your principles, you may as well eat it off noodles.

In any case - chili-rice is awesome.

And Ohio chili is not chili - its more a meat paste topping for pasta than anything close to actual chili.

[Aloysious]

It's over the noodles. It's more of a sauce.

Of course you realize, this means war.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Real chili doesn't even have chili powder.

[Atlas Slugged]

Beans in chili is much greater abomination than spaghetti noodles. Also skyline >> gold star

[SIV]

Cincinnati chili is hotdog chili which is derived from Greek spaghetti sauce so it is perfect paired with pasta.

Fact:The Coney Island, of chili/mustard onions hot dog fame, is in Michigan

[BestUsedCarSales]

Okay, call it whatever. I like it.

[lap83]

Real chili is just raw hamburger eaten out of a cowboy hat, do you even Texas? Gosh.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

You use ground beef?

Must be from Austin.

[lap83]

I assume I got the cowboy hat and arrogance right at least

[Fist of Etiquette]

NBC considers bringing back The Office.

Seinfeld would make more sense.

[CE]

Seinfeld (like Friends) would make no sense now with cell phones. All the mixups would have been avoided.

[Rufus The Monocled]

So...no 'Three's Company' comeback?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Considering that about 50% of There's Company jokes were about Jack supposedly being gay, there is no way that show would be approved now.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Yeh. And who would play Mr. Furley anyway?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Wallace Shawn

[Rufus The Monocled]

Heh.

[gaoxiaen]

Jeff Sessions

[Rat on a train]

In the reboot, Jack is still hetero, but all the others are gay.

[Citizen X - #6]

They could bring back Bosom Buddies, but as a super-woke drama about gender identity.

[CE]

So they probably will then.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

They sorta did a few years back, didn't they?

[Rich]

You mean Transparent?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Have you not seen the now defunct Modern Seinfeld feed? Social media opens a whole new treasure trove of scenarios.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Why did he stop?

[Libertarian]

That was funny stuff, and pitch perfect. Comedy gold, if you will.

[Libertarian]

BTW, I think I read once that Larry David hated it.

[BYODB]

What does Larry David like?

[Agammamon]

He;s Jewish, so . . . pain and miserly - like the Catholics?

[lap83]

I can understand. Just because it's funny in a tweet doesn't mean it translates into an entire show.

[Jimbo]

2 rail advocates were killed? Well, what do you expect? They were on the rails and a train ran over them.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Two rail advocates killed in yesterday's Washington derailment.

This is pretty dark joke from you, Christian.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

They died doing what they loved.

[creech]

Real rail fans don't expect the taxpayers to subsidize their hobby, eh Bob Poole?

[Fist of Etiquette]

More on the Bitcoin is 'bad the environment' beat.

Cryptocurrency is why we had the worst hurricane season in a century.

[CE]

But electric cars are still good for the environment?

[Ron]

You don't suppose the government is trying to talk down bitcoin's value since the government does not like competition and once bitcoin hits bottom people will be asking the government to step in and regulate online money sites. just a little conspiracy idea that will probably happen in 2018

[BYODB]

Wouldn't Bitcoin need to be actually accepted as currency at lots of places to be 'competition'? I don't think the Reserve is shaking in it's boots, I think it's more likely that it's laughing. It'll be laughing a lot harder once that bubble pops. I don't have any particular hate against Bitcoin, but as an actual currency it seems like it's about as spendable as a gift card.

[mad.casual]

Wouldn't Bitcoin need to be actually accepted as currency at lots of places to be 'competition'?

Right, at best it's an asset. An asset that you can't look at, hold, or show off to other people and that consumes power on par with a small nation and is, as a whole market, smaller than Amazon.

Even if you love Bitcoin, you'd be a fool to pretend that a hard crash isn't coming.

[BYODB]

Also, and it's just an aside really, most people want their currency to retain it's value and right now Bitcoin's value is something you need to check daily. If I had to do that with a dollar, I wouldn't be spending dollars. I wager no one else would be either.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two rail advocates killed in yesterday's Washington derailment.

And if the train had stayed on the rails they were advocating...

[Mickey Rat]

At least they died doing what they loved making other people pay for.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Man, that's a lot less grim then mine. I was going to say, "At least they died doing what they loved. Struggling to breath as they attempted to shove their own intestines back into their body in a shock induced trance."

[Fist of Etiquette]

California sues Trump Administration over methane gas rule.

The president has an active digestive system sometimes. So sue him.

[Citizen X - #6]

Two rail advocates killed in yesterday's Washington derailment.

Ayn Rand's corpse has such a huge boner right now.

[Eidde]

Hmmm...sounds like mysticism to me.

[Rich]

Two rail advocates killed in yesterday's Washington derailment.

Looks like those folks

*** dons sunglasses ***

got railroaded.

[Citizen X - #6]

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Jeezo I see why you guys don't like Britches. Make an effort Britches, act like this is a starting point for a real job.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So suddenly people are reading the links?

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

When there are only 5 crappy ass links...

[CE]

That's 25 percent more than he used to give us.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I continue to hover over the image, hoping for an alt-text that in my heart I know will never come.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

You know who else hovers over something that will never come?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Crusty?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Or maybe me if I'm edging correctly.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Doesn't edging EVENTUALLY end in an orgasm? Or am I doing it wrong?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Yes, but you can edge for weeks, months, or years.

[Rich]

Thread winner!

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

UFO over United Nations World Peace treaty ceremony?

[lap83]

the angel that appeared to Mary
/is immediately struck by lightning

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Couldn't even italicize The Office.

His disdain is so hot.

[Rich]

One alarmist article in Newsweek said that bitcoin computer operations could consume "all of the world's energy by 2020."

Even the energy used to publish Newsweek?!

[BestUsedCarSales]

This is all a sinister plan by NVidia.

[Rich]

California sues Trump Administration over methane gas rule.

Methane gas *rules*!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Haha, my guess that you linked to Mr. Methane was correct.

[damikesc]

?California sues Trump Administration over methane gas rule.

Great to see that California's has licked all of their problems and is now tackling the really, really big issues.

[Rich]

"California Licks Methane Gas"

[lap83]

NBC considers bringing back The Office.

They'll need to update it quite a bit for today's audience, although "The Remote Project Management App" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue

[BYODB]

The American version of The Office should of been as short as the British version. It dragged on way, way too long and I just lost the ability to give shits after season 1.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Man, didn't even get good until season 2.

[Ken Shultz]

Here is the list of House Republicans who voted against tax reform:

Rep. Dan Donovan, New York
Rep. John Faso, New York
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
Rep. Darrell Issa, California
Rep. Walter Jones, North Carolina
Rep. Peter King, New York
Rep. Leonard Lance, New Jersey
Rep. Frank LoBiondo, New Jersey
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California
Rep. Christopher Smith, New Jersey
Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York
Rep. Lee Zeldin, New York

Eleven out of twelve of them come from three of the states with highest state income taxes. The twelfth one is probably just an idiot.

When the senate passes tax reform tonight, Californians will wake up to a new dawn.

Suddenly, the only issue that matters in the state won't be immigration, gay marriage, environmentalism, . . .

The only issue that matters will be taxes.

No, Sacramento can't jack property taxes up to $10,000--because Howard Jarvis saw that shit coming from 40 years ago.

Fuck you, cut spending, Sacramento! Nothing else you can do.

P.S. When the only issue that matters is taxes, California stops being a one party, Democrat state.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Are you a Californian?

[Ken Shultz]

If I am, what difference does it make?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Just wondering about the sudden verge into the commentary on specifically California.

[BYODB]

It's not that unusual for representatives to vote the way that's best for their constituents, but that's aside from your main point.

I'm still not comfortable with being taxed on income that's already taxed, but it seems that at least in this instance it's the only way to make state governments accountable for their own tax policies. And maybe, just maybe, down the road there will be a discussion of Federal taxes.

Just kidding, in ten years these expire under a Democrat President and Democratic majority and the whole thing disappears.

Hopefully it will be nice while it lasts.

[Rich]

Fuck you, cut spending, Sacramento! Nothing else you can do.

"Fuck *you*!" *** declares bankruptcy *** /Sacramento

[Ken Shultz]

Just as a hypothetical, that would result in lower spending--one way or the other.

Theoretically, if President Hillary led a Democrat majority congress to bail out California, Sacramento might start spending all over again on a clean debt slate--but Hillary isn't the president, Trump is, and Trump has nothing to gain politically by bailing out California and plenty to lose.

Midwestern swing voters might rather bail out banks than California.

If California defaulted on a bond payment, the market would demand higher interest on new debt than would have otherwise because of the higher risk of default. If they can't carry debt at affordable rates, you know what they'd have to do?

Well, they'd have to raise taxes, but since high taxes are suddenly the problem, you know what they'd have to do to finance their spending?

The correct answer is that they'd be out of options. They'd have to cut spending.

There's no third option.

If you box them in so they can't borrow and they can't raise taxes, then all they can do is cut spending.

There will be no bullet train.

You may have read earlier this week that Governor Moonbeam said publicly that state pension benefits aren't written in stone.

A new dawn in California--if only Congress gets this right.

[Tony]

One can easily oppose this shit sandwich on any number of grounds, and you're treating it as a litmus test for libertarian cred among Republicans? Or are you just doing your typical mindless partisan shilling?

[Sevo]

Tony|12.19.17 @ 9:13PM|#
"One can easily oppose this shit sandwich on any number of grounds, and you're treating it as a litmus test for libertarian cred among Republicans? Or are you just doing your typical mindless partisan shilling?"

One can easily point out that you have nothing to say other than 'WAAAAAH! I don't like this!!!!"
Fuck off.

[Ken Shultz]

"One can easily oppose this shit sandwich on any number of grounds . . . "

Tony seems to think we take our thinking orders from Reason staff.

[Ecoli]

my guess is Doug Jones will change to the Republican party in about 8 months.

[creech]

Only if he's extremely vital to the GOP Senate to get some bill passed and he's promised some huge carrot such as no viable primary opponent in 2020.

[Old Mexican's Speedos]

The House passes tax reform today, with the Senate expected to follow suit.

Here comes the tax cuts... Maybe.

NBC considers bringing back The Office.

Not that this means a tacit concession that the rest of their lineup sucks eggs.

California sues Trump Administration over methane gas rule.

They're against college students lighting up their own farts. That's enough reason to sue!

Two rail advocates killed in yesterday's Washington derailment.

Karma hates advocates.

[Tony]

It's unseemly for the speaker of the house to get a full-on throbbing erection while presiding. It's in the rules I think.

[Sevo]

"...I think."
Nope.

[Sevo]

"Elizabeth Warren: The GOP Tax Bill Is For The Rich, And No One Else (HBO)"
Youtube/ HBO/ Vice news, so you may as well consider it as Tony bullshit, but if you'd like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCZE_eiEW6g
This is a slimy piece of crap who lied to get a position reserved for 'minorities' at an ivy league school and has yet to admit or apologize for the fraud, so screw her with turd's dick.

[Ken Shultz]

The Senate has voted.

Praise Covfefe! They did the right thing.

If the streets aren't filled with hurt snowflakes tomorrow morning, I'll be disappointed.

I want to see an emergency drum circle on every street corner.

LOL

[XM]

So the individual mandate is now repealed? That was bundled with the tax bill, if I'm not mistaken.

[XM]

So the individual mandate is now repealed? That was bundled with the tax bill, if I'm not mistaken.

[Ken Shultz]

Yes, that is my understanding.

It's not about executive orders anymore.

. . . or it won't be after the procedural vote tomorrow morning in the House.

Time to celebrate!

Yeeeeeeeeeeee--HAW!

I'm so glad Hillary Clinton isn't the President.

We'd still have the individual mandate.

We might have invaded Syria rather than worked with Putin to destroy ISIS.

We might have had gun control legislation in the wake of the Las Vegas attack.

And there's no way she'd have signed a bill to cut corporate taxes by 40%.

America is more capitalist today than it was yesterday.

I don't agree with the Republicans on everything, but I respect them for what they did tonight.

Having them there instead of the Democrats made a difference.

[Tony]

You president has dementia and your party's ideas would make an African warlord hesitate.