Obama as a Deep State Darth Vader is just an extension of same old, blatantly racist and Trump-inspired Birther crap
— Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) March 6, 2017
Trump spox says president rejects Comey’s assertion that wiretapping claim Is false @nytmike reports https://t.co/ZecaeW6tPd
— Michael Tackett (@tackettdc) March 6, 2017
When you’re reduced to using Sarah Huckabee (Yew know who ma daddy wuz?) Sanders as your spokesperson, it’s not a great omen, let’s face it…
"Every single article you just mentioned does not back up the president's claim that President Obama had him wiretapped" pic.twitter.com/WhL3ZWuxV4
— Leanne Naramore (@LeanneNaramore) March 6, 2017
Team Trump placed trust in Comey when he was dinging Clinton. Now? Not so much. https://t.co/WR4zbQtOPr
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 6, 2017
Even Mike Allan — founder of Politico, currently of Koch-funded Axios — is beginning to lose his enthusiasm for cheerleading the Trump maladministration:
… Towergate is a fascinating test of Trump’s great gamble that he can do the job of president in a totally new way: largely improvisational, driven by whims, moods and obsessions; thinly staffed, like his campaign, and with poorly enforced process, not taking advantage of the massive safety net available to him; heavily reliant on family; and unconstrained by manners, rituals or precedent…
A Democratic theory is that if Trump believes problematic transcripts of recorded calls with Russians may dribble or gush out, why not discredit them in advance as a political dirty trick? Then when they emerge, you can say “Aha!” rather than being on the defensive.
But a Republican close to the White House said that’s overthinking it: That “view is quite plausible. But I do not believe they are playing chess. I think they are playing Trivial Pursuit.”
Yeah, more like they’re playing Candyland — but they think it’s Monopoly.
debbie
I’m sure Obama wants to remain above this all, but he needs to call Trump’s bullshit. Sue the bastard.
Speaking of bastards,
zhena gogolia
Who is this “Republican close to the White House”?
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
OMG, really?
Anne Laurie
@zhena gogolia:
Mike ‘His Own Self’ Allan, perchance?
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
Somebody who happened to be strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
JPL
@debbie: Do we know if it was a prepared speech? Maybe Bannon wrote it.
Kay
Low quality work.
It must be a horrible place to work, though. Trump blames them for everything and I bet he screams at them all the time. Plus, they’re all paranoid and no one knows what they’re doing. Nightmarish. Imagine Bannon skulking around looking for “leakers” and dissenters. Gross.
Chris
You’ve got to love the fact that after eight years of screaming that Obama was destroying the intelligence/security community, we’re now being told that the intelligence/security community were really just Obammunist conspirators all along.
Chris T.
By the way, if that’s the deep state, does this mean that the Trumputin Presidency is the shallow state?
germy
I predict republicans will in eight years nominate Sarah Huckabee Sanders for pres.
debbie
@JPL:
I don’t think so. He’s standing without a podium, both hands on the mike. (Maybe he was about to break into song?)
Roger Moore
@Kay:
We all know “The beatings will continue until morale improves,” works every time.
pk
This is a guy who went bankrupt running casinos in Atlantic city.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Samuel L. Jackson
✔
@SamuelLJackson
OK!! Ben Carson….I can’t! Immigrants ? In the bottom of SLAVE SHIPS??!! MUTHAFUKKA PLEASE!!!#dickheadedtom
3:04 PM – 6 Mar 2017
Roger Moore
@debbie:
Suckers! The Republicans are doing everything they can to make sure that will never happen.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
That about says it all.
SFAW
@debbie:
Holy fuck, what a moron. It’s as if he used his “Gifted Hands” to self-lobotomize.
Yarrow
@Kay: It really must be an awful place to work. I’m kind of surprised they haven’t had people leave–lower level people, young people. Why are they sticking around only to be working in such a miserable place and get yelled at all the time?
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
@JPL:
Fits right in with Betsy DeVos’ contention that HBCUs were an early initiative in school choice.
rikyrah
Google Hyde Amendment, muthaphuckas
Trump Tells Planned Parenthood Its Funding Can Stay if Abortion Goes
MARCH 6, 2017
The White House, concerned about the possible political repercussions of the Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood, has proposed preserving federal payments to the group if it discontinues providing abortions.
The proposal, which was never made formally, has been rejected as an impossibility by officials at Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500 million annually in federal funding. That money helps pay for women’s health services the organization provides, not for abortion services.
“Let’s be clear, federal funds already do not pay for abortions,” Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said on Monday. “Offering money to Planned Parenthood to abandon our patients and our values is not a deal that we will ever accept. Providing critical health care services for millions of American women is nonnegotiable.”
But the outreach to allies of Planned Parenthood is a glimpse of the internal struggle inside a White House torn between trying to satisfy the conservative base that elected President Trump and responding to the views of his older daughter, Ivanka Trump, who urged her father to tread carefully on the Planned Parenthood issue during the Republican primary contest.
germy
History is whatever they say it is.
I remember when Palin made her Paul Revere comment, and then a bunch of her followers edited wikipedia to try to make it sound like she knew what she was talking about.
Major Major Major Major
I thought this Onion article was funny. Literary Study Finds All Modern Narratives Derived From Classic ‘Alien Vs. Predator’ Conflict
ETA: Also, ‘Towergate’? Terrible. I guess they finally found something that ends with -ergate and they’re running with it.
The Moar You Know
Good going America, you elected a bona-fide crazy person as president. As in: “The president is insane”.
Not crazy like “fun” or “gets his drink on at noon” or “drives a hundred miles an hour through school zones for shits and giggles” but crazy as in “mentally ill”.
hovercraft
@debbie:
Immigrants are people who make a decision to immigrate to a country, people in chains in the bottom of a ship don’t fit that description. Then again, accurately describing shit or remembering past events are not Carson’s strong suit.
Yo Ben, you’re trying to hard, you already got the job, now shut up and smile, you’re not helping.
rikyrah
The Situation RoomVerified account @CNNSitRoom
DHS Secretary says he’s considering separating immigant children from their parents to deter illegal immigration
Yarrow
@debbie: All of Trump’s picks are so awful. Carson seemed like he might be slightly less bad than some. Nope. They’re all awful in so many different ways.
Roger Moore
@Yarrow:
Because they think sticking with it will get them cushy, higher-level jobs in the next Republican administration.
germy
@Major Major Major Major: Lately their website design is simply awful. I love the writing, but the site has gone downhill, IMO. Does it have to do with it being sold?
Kay
Portman. All those rural counties where he wins by double digit spend a LOT of Medicaid dollars. So funny that the part of Obamacare they can’t get rid of is the most liberal part.
JPL
Think Progress said the speech was rambling throughout.
Actually I think the most bizarre part might be equating those shackled, as immigrants.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I missed Betsy’s statement. There must be an intramural contest for the most stupid.
germy
@rikyrah: What happened to all the bad hombres they were going to chase? I guess it’s safer to harass children, grandmas and dads dropping their kids off to school.
They sold this thing like they were going to be kicking down doors and grabbing the tough dudes. Maybe they’re saving that for last?
debbie
@Kay:
Are you saying Rob Portman roused himself from his campaign-enriched stupor and is fighting for Medicare? Stunning!
Corner Stone
@Yarrow:
All of them have turned into ghosts of themselves. The ones that were awful already have just been exposed as how truly awful they really are. Those that had some reputation or acknowledgement as competent have now been hollowed out as empty vessels, filled up with the shit that every thing Trump touches turns into.
The Dignity Wraith has hollowed out Kelly and Mattis, among others.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: have you noticed that almost every website has gone downhill lately (=last 2-3 years)? I blame the proliferation of ‘plug and play’ tools, also WordPress.
gkoutnik
Not playing chess. Playing Candyland. And losing. Sigh…
rikyrah
Daniel DaleVerified account @ddale8
Daniel Dale Retweeted Daniel Dale
Trump’s schedule has him having lunch with Rex Tillerson, former Exxon CEO, two hours before he released this.
Daniel DaleVerified account @ddale8 2h2 hours ago
Trump has issued a press release praising an ExxonMobil investment. It reads like corporate PR.
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major:
Being it’s Mike Allan’s invention, he can probably make it stick with the Media Villagers. But I still think my own Waterbedgate is truer/funnier!
Kay
Another terrific hire for Team Trump:
He should fit right in.
Roger Moore
@gkoutnik:
That’s totally unfair. Losing at Candyland is entirely a matter of luck. This is more like losing at tic-tac-toe.
hovercraft
@germy:
We are safe, she’s dumb enough, but not attractive enough. GOPers like their women “hot”, al Palin.
debbie
@Kay:
If he’s still as immature and hyperactive as he was growing up, we’re in for some unplanned entertainment.
bystander
@Kay:
Au contraire. I love the idea that each day in Trumpville is an inkling of the eternal damnation that awaits each of the phuckers.
debbie
@rikyrah:
That part of the statement about Exxon reads like the annual report to shareholders.
Aleta
@rikyrah: I saw that Barbara Bush (the one who is the daughter of the torture president) is speaking out for and raising money for Planned Parenthood. Supposedly her mother was a supporter but never permitted to speak. (So much for Republicans and freedom of speech)
Major Major Major Major
@Anne Laurie: Oh that is funny.
lgerard
@Kay:
so he’s an usher?
Anne Laurie
@germy:
Yup, the ICE enforcers have just about said this out loud: The ‘bad hombres’ shoot back, so it’s not as ‘cost effective’ as rounding up old ladies and soccer dads.
Frankensteinbeck
@JPL:
There is no need for anyone else to prepare Carson’s speech. His whole schtick has been to go on FOX and explain that blacks today are lazy and live in a culture of dependency, and it’s their fault if they’re not as successful as he is. Validating racism as the black who agrees that blacks are terrible is his entire thing, so it’s no surprise he would refer to slavery in a horribly offensive way.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: I love Samuel L. Jackson. Love, love, love him.
efgoldman
@SFAW:
Not only that, he was talking to HUD employees in DC, What do you suppose the makeup of that workforce is? I can’t believe they didn’t walk out on him.
Anne Laurie
@hovercraft:
Goddess forgive me, cuz I’m no Miss America myself, but my first thought when I saw Sarah Huckerbee Sanders defending Trump was “The Trumplodytes must be desperate, if they can’t find any more ‘hot’ women to stand in front of a camera and lie for them.”
George Spiggott
“Do you think I’m mad?” –Trump
“Mad?” –Bannon
“Yes, sometimes I think that I’m going mad. Do you – be honest with me – has that thought ever crossed your mind?” –Trump
“Never. Never. The idea is preposterous. You set the standard of sanity for the whole world.” -Bannon
Miss Bianca
@SFAW: OK, that was a LOL for me. Lucky for me no one else is in the office right now!
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Major Major Major Major:
Actually, a scandal name ending with “gate”
shouldn’t even be on the table: we need a brand new Trump-related suffix. What’s he’s doing is faaaar worse than what Nixon did. I am also very fond of Benedict Donald as his nickname. Wish I’d have coined it.
George Spiggott
Your Emperor has returned!
Mike J
cmorenc
@Yarrow:
Carson does have the virtue of being Trump’s only domestic-side Cabinet nominee who is not deliberately, maliciously evil toward anyone who is not both rich and Republican – but rather merely cluelessly out of his depth at HUD.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@rikyrah:
That’s in part how future terrorists are created.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Sociopath. Evil. I find it hard to talk or write about because it enrages me so. I am taking the local trainings to provide sanctuary if needed. Many churches and synagogues are providing sanctuary.
I keep thinking of my stepdad who was a who was sheltered by so many people. He lost his whole family in Hungary in WWII.
There are many, many days when I can’t stop crying just thinking about him and so many of our friends who all had survival stories. The fear they felt. The loss. I’m safe. My kids are safe. It would be very easy to just mind my own business but evil like this cannot be left unchallenged. Whatever it fucking takes. These evil monsters who would separate women from their babies must be destroyed.
MCA1
@Roger Moore: Or this one – they’ve seen The Apprentice and know how it works: hang in there long enough for everyone else to get fired first (so you move on up the ladder).
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
Oh Lordy. I remember him as an extremely bratty little kid when Rudy was first inaugurated as Mayor. He was aping his dad taking the oath, mugging, yawning, and just basically acting out in a way that made, probably, hundreds of thousands of adult palms simply itching to give him a well-placed smack.
Shana
@Chris T.: You win the thread if not the internet today for that one.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: I see Chris Farley imitated him on SNL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hG8qRj05_E
PPCLI
@debbie: In fact, one paragraph is cut and pasted from an Exxon press release. (With “U.S.” changed to “United States” and one other insignificant stylistic modification).
Link
debbie
Someone works youtube faster than I!
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Had forgotten about that.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: “Immigrants” chained together in bowels of ships by the millions, periodically thrown overboard by their captors. What an idiot and embarrassment Ben Carson has turned out to be. Sigh.
Major Major Major Major
@PPCLI: Oh, for fuck’s sake, it’s like they’re not even trying.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
@debbie:
Had forgotten about that.
JPL
@PPCLI: That is just not normal.
different-church-lady
Jesus, the amount of words he spent beating around that bush…
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
If he were White, he’d just be stupid and insensitive, but he’s African American. This is beyond inexplicable.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@JPL:
Return on investment?
What’s he doing, harvesting organs and selling them on the black market?
bystander
@zhena gogolia: I would like to swap Carson’s glasses for these.
different-church-lady
@gkoutnik:
FlipYrWhig
@germy: yep. But I thought I had read that he and his old man weren’t on speaking terms.
NotoriousJRT
@Yarrow: I think Ben Carson is a lunatic.
chopper
to quote achewood, “jesus ray we got the chessboard out but you playin’ whack-a-mole”.
sigaba
@gkoutnik:
DRAIN THE MOLASSES SWAMP!
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: His lack of any discernible qualifications makes him perfect for Trump’s regime. He’ll fit in just fine with Trump’s agenda to destroy the government.
Starfish
@Yarrow: I am seeing these arguments about why people would stay in a horrible work place or work for a place that has a mission that you morally disagree with. No one seems to consider that it has been hard for Millennials to find work at all, and they have a ton of student debt.
debbie
@FlipYrWhig:
Rudi’s abandoning them for a new wife back in the 1980s alienated both him and his sister. Yet it seems he’s grown up to be just like his dad.
Corner Stone
Looks like the GOP just released their plan to destroy health care in the US.
Barbara
@NotoriousJRT: I think he has a case of needing to prove that he never, ever benefited from anything that smacked of being affirmative action. The guy has remarkable achievements and the neighborhood around the hospital where he made his career has a lot of urban poverty (it definitely suffered from development decisions made to support the hospital), but still, what an extreme case of ugliness spurred by self-delusion.
hovercraft
@Anne Laurie:
Me neither, I felt guilty for saying it. For GOPers it’s all about the looks, we don’t mind if a woman is smart and attractive, but the smart part is the essential part. The only reason that Carly was a credible candidate was because she was a woman and as such gave them a voice to rip into Hillary in a way no man could without being called a misogynist. At least they thought so before they realized that Twitter could do no wrong.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Yeah, that was at the meeting last week with the HBCU presidents (same occasion at which Kellyanne knelt on the sofa in the Oval).
Several of the HBCU representatives who attended have since indicated that they “felt used.” I can well believe it.
germy
@Corner Stone:
I’m afraid to look. Is it horrible or just terrible?
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Like all of Trump’s fantasies and conspiracies, bad hombres just don’t exist.
germy
WaPo
Corner Stone
@Barbara: Ben Carson is a horrible human being. I do not know why people keep trying to look for a bright spot somewhere.
Gelfling 545
@Yarrow: I think he might be slightly less awful in this respect only: having absolutely no experience or previous interest in this area, he may well be only a figurehead and leave it at that.
Corner Stone
@germy: No mandate make ACA go boom boom.
Barbara
@germy: I am an expert in the field but even I wait for Richard/David to tell me how bad it is. What frosts me and I find very difficult to deal with are the people I work with who are practically gleeful about it.
Barbara
@germy: Four means no reconciliation. Even three means no reconciliation, but McConnell probably counts on being able to peel off one.
Aleta
https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/303mab.pdf
The last 13 pages of this pdf are the main parts of the Global Gag policy (the MEXICO CITY POLICY changes to the Standard Provisions for Non-U.S. Nongovernmental Organizations). The Republicans and the Trump admin. released it March 4.
A summary by Lauren Dobson-Hughes from twitter:
JPL
@NotoriousJRT: That appears to be a requirement for Trump appointees.
just sayin
zhena gogolia
Robert Osborne dies and Trump is still alive.
different-church-lady
@chopper: Ah, a fellow Achewood fan. I think Onstad predicted the way the entire campaign played out with this offering.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: I don’t want to read too much into one tweet– i’m waiting for somebody to translate it from bullshit and wonk– but this kind of sounds like a mandate
This guy, who is a wonk, seems to think so also
sapient
@germy: No, it’s going to be Ivanka.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara: Collins is not one of those four, or Cassidy. Rand Paul wants to (I think) kill the bill with RW purity rhetoric so as not to have to deal with the fall out, Graham made similar noises, and that may prove an out for others like Lee and Hatch (lot of Medicaid in Utah, I read today.
I’m not optimistic, yet, but… who knows?
VFX Lurker
@Barbara:
Why are they happy to see the GOP kill the ACA? What nonsense is going through their heads?
kindness
Let us agree:
Trump & associates were/are under investigation because of Russian interactions.
The White House certainly didn’t order it. Most likely the FBI or the CIA did.
Release the FISA request and all the transcripts of calls and it’ll all be settled. Well, it’ll all start as it should then.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Gaba has this tweet
Fifteen million people can kiss Medicaid goodbye.
different-church-lady
Seen in another corner of the interwebs (which I will not link to):
JPL
David Anderson/Richard Mayhew is probably preparing a post on the house plan for AHA. Since the plan hasn’t been scored yet by the CBO, costs are unknown.
efgoldman
@Barbara:
Just like Clarence Thomas
Who did, in fact, benefit greatly
And in a different way, Granny Starver, who’s whole upbringing, education, and employment history was courtesy of the federal gummint
The pull up the ladder people are The. Fucking. Worst.
Fuckem
les
@cmorenc:
I don’t know–his “god raised me out of poverty, he would do it for all them lazy blacks if they just were righteous” schtick is pretty damn evil. Maybe stupidly evil more than maliciously, but the outcome isn’t much better for that.
zhena gogolia
Robert Kagan in WaPo on how Republicans are “becoming” Russia’s accomplices. I’d say that ship sailed a long time ago. But it’s good anyway.
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
I am so grateful to live and work in a very blue part of California, where even the middle-aged white dudes in my office didn’t vote for Trump and the upper management is vocally horrified by him. I’m not sure how folks who are less lucky than me are keeping their sanity.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
As a white person, can I legally use the hashtag #dickheadedtom? Asking for a friend.
Eh, probably not.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
You took the words out of my mouth. But yeah, probably not.
efgoldman
@Patricia Kayden:
Oh, there are some, but I don’t know how many of them are eight year olds waiting to be picked up at school, or guys who’ve been here 20 years and are pillars of the community, or women trying to support their kids, or….
I figure, not too many.
different-church-lady
@Steeplejack (phone): It is safest to assume the answer to any question that begins with, “As a white person, can I…” is no.
humboldtblue
@debbie: No … he didn’t … no fucking way on earth
JPL
The mandate would be gone retroactively. Insurance companies must be loving that.
This is a link to Margo Sanger-Katz twitter feed.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
There’s probably a way to say, Hey, African-Americans would also like to share in the American Dream even though they did not come here willingly, but that was not it, to say the least.
Burtonjur
@germy: Ow, my gorge!
trollhattan
O/T feel the nerdmentum: MIT launches election data and science lab. They hope to be functioning for 2018. Maybe they can launch a satellite for tracking those pesky Trump voters with buyer’s remorse.
goblue72
@Barbara: JHC, what kind of awful people do you have to work with? That’s just completely miserable to have to deal with.
efgoldman
@VFX Lurker:
You have to ask this about a country that “elected” Cheetoh Caligula?
You’re new here, aren’t you?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve always thought that’s what Thomas meant when he put the (IIRC) ten cent garage sale price tag on his Yale diploma
but I don’t know about the ZEGS’ upbringing being from gov’t handout. He was 16 when his father died, and Ryan Sr was a prosperous lawyer.
D58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He still qualified a soc. security benefit
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@rikyrah:
Shorter Ben “slavecatcher” Carson: I Am Your Negro
mai naem mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: he’s said they did get survivors benefits from his dad passing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
you can tell Paul Ryan and his peeps are serious green eyeshade wonks
I’m sure Steve King will insist on a provision disenrolling anyone buying crab legs or birthday cake
ThresherK
@trollhattan: Hey, I understand the NYT plans to front-page interviews with every single RealMurca Trump deserter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@D58826: @mai naem mobile: yeah, he took the money when it was offered– I don’t know how much means-testing went on, is my point.
ETA: He was also close enough to his cousins at the Ryan Companies, as I recall my campaign gossip from 2012, for them to make a up a job for him between congressional internships and junior wing nut welfare gigs that they made up a job for him so he could claim some ‘private sector’ experience when he ran for Congress while still in his twenties
ThresherK
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The term I like is “Drawbridge Libertarian”. They get across the fckin’ moat and they’re the first ones to pull up the drawbridge.
zhena gogolia
Get Out (of the White House). Great use of Ivanka clips.
D58826
@zhena gogolia: If it meant getting their tax cuts for the rich and repeal Obamacare they would buy airline tickets to send their mothers to the old soviet gulag.
SRW1
It is Monopoly for Trump Inc. The other dudes and dudettes in his admin not so much.
different-church-lady
@ThresherK: A libertarian is just a Republican who thinks he should be allowed to smoke pot.
D58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: For that benie I don’t think there is a means test
Roger Moore
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Being as charitable as possible, I think the point is that young people have more of their lives ahead of them. If you save the life of a newborn, you’ve added 70 years or so to their expected lifespan, vs. maybe only 5 years or so for somebody in their 70s. Not that I’d encourage doctors to think that way.
Mike J
Republican “health care”plan out now. AARP already calling it an age tax.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, but who will be paying the bills for the uninsured who go to the ER? Trump?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Here’s something to ponder – perpetrators of My Lai, Kent State, Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Mahmoudiya, intitial travel ban excesses and stupidity represented the mediocrity and cruelty of the white working class we’re supposed to grant discretion to and slobber over.
Discuss….
Corner Stone
@zhena gogolia: That is so F’ng good. Wowsers.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Watching “Hitler: a Career” on Netflix. Chilling.
He was making Germany great again.
humboldtblue
@Aleta:
Yes she did
Corner Stone
Why do people keep letting Sheldon Whitehouse out of his tree house and on to TV? Why, I ask you? Why?!
Tell him to shut up and go have some cookies and milk with Millhouse.
SgrAstar
@rikyrah: That’s cuz it IS corporate PR. Cut and paste from an Exxon piece. The stupidity of the WH staff, top to bottom, is beyond belief.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
“Incapable of forming satisfactory personal relationships….”
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am no Wonk’s wonk, but that is no mandate. If the largest, healthiest group think they never need insurance, and never buy it, then the whole market craters.
That’s not a mandate if a very small select group of the unlucky “healthy” eventually end up paying a penalty for when they need insurance. What about the majority that never gets sick or hurt for 3 or 4 years?
TenguPhule
@germy:
Talk is cheap.
Every Republican folds like a cheap suit when its time to perform.
VFX Lurker
@efgoldman: Heh. I’ve been here since 2007 or so…ever since kos wrote “John Cole has seen the light.” The writing, information and community on this blog are just too good.
I asked Barbara why her co-workers love watching the ACA burn because I’ve seen two different strains of ACA opposition on Facebook. One is the RWNJ “mandates are evil and deregulation solves everything” crazy. The other is the alt-left “destroy the eeeevil insurance companies and make as many Americans suffer and die in order to bring about the Pure and Perfect System of single-payer.”
Same result, but different deranged thinking.
Shana
@efgoldman: Charlie Pierce (bless him) always finishes posts about Ryan trying to dismantle the programs he benefited from with “You’re welcome Dickhead.” One of 100 reasons to love Charlie Pierce.
danielx
@Yarrow:
Short term pain, long term gain. On the other hand, may not work out if lord shortfingers fires one during a ragegasm – how incompetent do you have to be to get fired from Trump’s WH staff? On the other other hand, getting fired from that staff may be viewed as a career-enhancer in some circles, nay, a badge of honor.
jl
@humboldtblue: Ha, see Barbara Bush, daughter of ex establishment liberal president Dub promoting Planned Parenthood. Deep State, Deep State! Thwarting poor Donny and Steve who are just earnestly trying to smash everything..
Sab
@Kay: My guess is that Portman is doing a Voinovich, where he wrings his hands in public, gets good press coverage and then votes the party line. Strickland, a decent man and longtime very honorable public servant, got destroyed by Koch funded ads all summer. Do you really think Portman is going to go up against the Kochs,
who want the ACA gone tomorrow. They will destroy him in the next primary.
You understand these things better than me, but that is my take.
Kathleen
@germy: Did she replace Malibu Meth Barbie? Did M M Barbie resign to spend more time with pink plastic crypt?
efgoldman
@trollhattan:
Or another one with a death ray to take out those three million fraudulent voters. Or Kobach.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s on the record somewhere that he received SS death benefits and college tuition. And for sure he never held a non-gummint job.
danielx
@germy:
Hey, if it was your choice and you wanted to look good for your boss, and his boss, and so on ad infinitum…would you rather be grabbing schoolchildren’s parents and churchgoers or trying to grab up armed-to-the-teeth MS-13 members? Who aren’t going anywhere peacefully?
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Not to mention t-bones and driving [25 year old] pink Cadillacs.
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady:
Corrected for accuracy.
Pot is for wanna-be liberterians. The real bros are doing heroin and crack now.
MCA1
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, they’re trying. It’s just that they have no idea how shabby their work product actually is.
JPL
@efgoldman: He also had a part time job working at minimum wage for a few dollars a hour. It was perfect for him. No one asks him with inflation, what that pay would be.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Even if Portman is getting nervous about what his fellow Rs are about to do to Medicaid, I am still not sorry I called two of his offices today and ended up scolding both of those (extremely smug) interns about how critical Medicaid is for adults with disabilities, and how catastrophic block-granting it would be.
(Then I called Sherrod Brown’s office and gave extremely effeusive thanks.)
efgoldman
@VFX Lurker:
Actually at the constituent level, it’s the old overpass/sparrow/coat hanger problem
“We’ll take immisseration if those other people have it worse. “
Kathleen
@Miss Bianca:
@rikyrah:
My favorite SLJ line (possibly favorite movie line of all time): “That’s some egregious shit”. (I think it’s from Jackie Brown).
jl
@Ohio Mom: From what I’ve read, GOP Medicaid provision is dishonest attempt to make savage cuts, sooner or later, but with attempt to hide them, and pawn off problems to the states. States with large, or expensive, Medicaid enrollments get a block grant adjusted for per capita enrollment, but there are caps to the per capita adjustment that kick in after a few years.
So, if you are a Senator, and you represent a state with a large or expensive Medicaid population, you will have a problem.
GOP seems to have taken a ‘Aw… eff it, we gotta shove something out the door, let’s go with this and see what happens.”
Probably chaos will ensue as people and Congresscruds sift through the mess and spot the landmines and turds hidden in the thing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a libertarian-leaning (I think) Republican who writes for Commentary, and a libertarian-leaning very recent ex-Republican
Justin Amash is already calling this “ObamaCare 2.0”
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ObamaCareLess? (the ‘careless’ can be taken several ways).
Edit: Amazing from what I’ve seen, is that the GOP House plan throws in the towel on free market in health care and health insurance, but decides to use non-market elements as a tool to kill the poor and help the rich. ‘A spectacle both hilarious and disgusting’ using the words of what has become my favorite Alexander Hamilton quote (the man, not the play)
Lizzy L
I try to remain measured and calm but this Repeal and Replace monstrosity is going to make me crazy. A dear friend of mine with multiple disabilities has just been diagnosed with yet one more medical condition — a malignant brain tumor. The money which supports her, pays her rent, food, medicine, co-pays, everything, will be gone in five-six months. She is over 65, and on Medicare, but she needs to be on Medicaid too, and the thought that she could end up with no place to live, no seizure medicine, no cancer treatment, begging for help with a fucking GoFundMe — hell, you get the idea. I loathe and detest the politics which presents this bill as a reasonable health insurance alternative. I hope I never meet Paul Ryan, or Mitch McConnell, or any of the millionaires in Congress who think this is a good idea. Bad words does not begin to cover it.
Kathleen
@efgoldman: Except when he was a Wiener.
Ohio Mom
@efgoldman: Yes, in those days, orphans got Social Security benefits through their undergraduate college years — that’s what it possible for one of my suite mates finish her social work degree.
Then when Reagan “saved” Social Security by raising the contribution levels (all the better to create a bigger pot of money to steal), another “improvement” was cutting all orphans off at 18. I don’t think Jenelle could have swung college if she had been born after that change.
Villago Delenda Est
The Force is pretty damn lame with these clowns.
Bess
Moving from subsidies to tax credits ( and refunds for those who don’t have a tax bill) means that many working people will not be able to afford health insurance. They won’t have the money to pay monthly premiums for a year and then wait several more months to get their money back.
Ohio Mom
@jl: If that comes to pass — and sadly, I have no reason to think some version of it won’t — my one consolation will be screaming I TOLD YOU SO at all the people I spoke to at last Friday’s local, annual conference on raising children with disabilities. Because they will all be back at next year’s conference, and I am still pissed that they looked at me like I was nuts and told me, “They’d never do that to our kids.”
As @Lizzy L: ‘s comment shows, “they” don’t care one whit about our kids or our grown kids.
Barbara
@VFX Lurker: It’s only a few and it is all power politics. People who have connections maximize them when those with greater power succeed in what they set out to do.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Baby dumpster fire pretty much describes the Trump administration.
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah:
1. FTFNYT
2. I want hard evidence of that before I will believe that Ivanka is a moderating influence. Everything we’ve seen so far indicates that she is every bit as horrible as he is, and all reports to the contrary have been unsubstantiated aversions from outfits with terrible records of accuracy. Such as the NYT.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: They will not be happy until it turns into a giant forest fire that consumes everything.
Vhh
The GOP insurance will hurt and kill millions of Americans. That said, estimates I have seen on the web suggest that more than half of them voted for Trump and the GOP, because freedumb.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve in the ATL: Not for nothing do I call them the Vichy Times. They were the campaign arm of the Orange one.
Elizabelle
Good evening, jackals.
American Masters tonight is Miss Patsy Cline. Would much rather think of her than anything the criminals and incompetents in govt are doing.
PBS. At least, in central Virginia.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: re the Vichy Fuck the Fucking New York Times: They’ve outdone themselves today with some shitshow on misogyny equating treatment of Hillary Clinton and Kellyanne Conway. Didn’t read it, but decided it’s proof they’re being clueless on purpose.
And PBS is shilling during the Patsy Cline show. Pledge week. So who knows what’s on in your neck of the woods.
p.a.
@Vhh: I shut up my idiot wingnut cousin when he was smirking about repeal replace by asking him which room he’ll move his nursing homed sister into when her Medicaid $ is voucherized.
ETA: I haven’t been invited over since. Don’t care.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
They sold this thing like all brown people were criminals, and that’s exactly how they’re enforcing it.
Lizzy L
@Vhh: It does appear that a lot of people who voted for Trump believed him when he said everyone would still have health insurance during his presidency, and that it would be “better” than what they had. Hell, it’s likely that he “meant” it, insofar as he means anything he says.
It’s possible, if the outcry about this POS bill is loud enough from the people he thinks of as “his” base, that Trump will reject it out of hand. (Oh please let that happen.Oh please. Karma, bitches.) Wouldn’t entirely surprise me.
Mike J
Hey, they’re not gutting paediatric coverage, they’re “sunsetting” it. Everybody loves sunsets!
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
Yes he did. He famously drove the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile; he’s been selling bologna for a very long time.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
I met with some people Saturday who had gone down to Portman’s office in Toledo. Portman wasn’t there so they asked to meet with his in-state staff. First they were told they should make an appointment but they stuck around outside so were invited in – they believe because it looked bad to have them milling around outside, chanting or whatever the hell they were doing :)
Anyway, it was supposed to be a 20 minute meeting and they stayed for an hour and a half and the staffer took notes. They felt good about it- like pressure might work with Portman. He has to run statewide. He can’t depend on gerrymandering. The truth is the Medicaid expansion is a godsend to rural providers. They just weren’t getting paid. The money isn’t there. People were making 25 dollar payments on thousands of dollars in medical debt or just discharging the whole bill in bankruptcy. Something had to give.
I’m waiting to see if the Medicaid children’s coverage makes a difference 10 or 20 or 30 years out. I sometimes feel like every kid in this town is on Medicaid. They’re getting much more medical care than their parents did, so hopefully that pays off.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
You never want to place a bet on Republican consistency, but between stuff like this and Rand Paul putting together what a “denounce and preserve” strategy*… Paul Ryan may be sad again (the House is doing to start committee votes on Wednesday, without a CBO score, as another norm bites the dust, one that has nothing to do with trump this time)
*reluctant hat tip to David Frum, whom I still despise, but I think/hope he’s right on this
TenguPhule
@Bess: Feature, not a bug.
GOP Healthcare for America: Die Quickly. You’re on your own.
Corner Stone
No one should allow Neera Tanden on TV ever after 10:00AM ET. I think she has a drinking or medication problem that gets out of hand after about noon each day.
PsiFighter37
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have a feeling that there are too many GOP senators who know they will be stepping on a landmine if they vote for something that crushes their constituents. Only so many times you can piss on someone and tell them it’s raining, especially since the black man is no longer in the White House.
The House, on the other hand, is full of troglodytes who would probably vote for their own extinction if it meant they got to stick it to the hippies one more time.
Of course, Cheddar Christ has boxed them all in by going full-on con man and promising that the replacement will be even better than ACA. Lulz.
TenguPhule
@PsiFighter37:
Exhibit A for why that’s not true: Donald Trump.
People he RIPPED OFF as contractors voted for and supported him.
jl
@PsiFighter37: The bill contains some attempts at a con for the gullible. Some of the provisions that will really hurt their working class, independent operator, and poor white rural constituency won’t kick in until 2020.
SiubhanDuinne
This is really off-topic, but I’m kind of freaking out at the way advertising algorithms seem to be able to read my mind.
I know they can track products/services/brands that I may have mentioned on line (or even that someone else mentioned and I followed) and I’m used to seeing ads for, you know, ass clippers for cats after John posts.
But recently I’ve heard ads on the radio for a product I’m not going to name* and although I’ve never typed it into a search engine nor mentioned it on any of my social media platforms (including email or even a scratchpad note to self), I am suddenly INUNDATED with display ads for this product.
WTF? And HTF do they even do that?
*It’s nothing shameful, I just don’t want to contribute anything further to my online profile right now.
Redshift
@debbie:
During the ACA debate, the were already conservatives advocating for “solving” that problem by repealing the requirement that emergency rooms treat everyone.
randy khan
I stopped by the rally on Travel Ban 2.0 at the White House tonight. The Secret Service closed off Pennsylvania Avenue and pushed the group to the north end of Lafayette Park. (It looked like someone was about to leave, based on how they were blocking things off, but you never know.) Still, it looked like somewhere in the hundreds of people there – certainly a couple hundred, maybe four or five hundred – so bigger than pretty much any of the pro-Trump events last weekend, and all showing up within a few hours of the event being organized. I couldn’t stay too long, but there were more people arriving as as I was leaving, so it may have peaked at more people than I saw.
BlueDWarrior
@SiubhanDuinne: perhaps its a coordinated campaign in a given city?
Jean
@JPL: I guess I missed the switch from Richard Mayhew to David Anderson. What’s the reason?
jl
@Redshift:
” During the ACA debate, the were already conservatives advocating for “solving” that problem by repealing the requirement that emergency rooms treat everyone. ”
That is a mish mash of federal, state and local laws and regulations. The feds could repeal the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). But that would not take care of very many state and local requirements.
BBA
@gkoutnik: Trump does not play chess. He beats up the chess team and steals their lunch money.
Elizabelle
@randy khan: Great to hear. Go, protesters!
jl
@Jean: I’m curious too. I think he changed jobs and there was some reason for anonymity at the old one, maybe company policy? Anyone know?
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Now I can’t remember if it was the Chabot or Wenstrup (Cincinnati’s two Congressman) sub-group of my Indivisible chapter that had a meeting with the Rep’s staff where one person talked about her cousin taking an SSRI after her husband died suddenly and then being denied insurance in the bad old days of pre-existing conditions. One of the staff members turned completely white because that’s the SSRI she takes.
Still not convinced that getting through to the staff will make much of a difference right now. Maybe some of them will wrestle with the cognitive dissonance they are being introduced to, and eventually recant their evil ways. Butterfly wing flaps…
No one here has been able to get into see even a staff person of Portman’s — though Planned Parenthood held a demonstration outside his downtown office that they billed as a Town Hall a few weeks ago. So kudos to the Toledo bunch for getting inside.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
I would guess the correlation works differently. The reason you heard the ad on the radio and then started getting inundated with online ads isn’t because the online ads somehow responded to you now knowing about the product. It’s because the manufacturer just started an ad blitz that includes both traditional and online media.
jl
@BBA: I think Trump is more the ‘throw the chess board up in the air, try to sucker punch the opponent and hope for the best’ type of guy.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@jl:
Not until 2020? Is this a subconscious admission that they expect to out of power by then and can blame some of the damage on the Dems who will be in office?
Peale
@jl: yes. He got a job at Duke. He no longer needed to be anonymous. So he changed his name
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
This is true. I have a client who he tried to stiff and acknowledges it, and is a virulent Trumpet.
Barbara
@jl: Yes, that’s it exactly.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: maybe you just come off as a “personal lubricant” kind of gal
Roger Moore
@Jean:
He moved from industry to academia- apparently helped by his posts here, including one mentioning that he might like to change jobs- which lets him post under his real name.
amk
I am trying hard to find even a teensy weensy redeeming
qualityfactor of this admin vis-à-vis the last admin – expertise, knowledge, compassion, competence, leadership, smartness, planning, analysis, execution, heck, even humor – and not a single fucking thing comes to mind.As josh marshall put it, this is an extreme white privilege gone fubar performance art.
efgoldman
@Elizabelle:
It’s begging time in New England. Pfui.
El Caganer
As the price for getting Senate Republicans on board, McConnell will insist the new law be nicknamed “TurtleCare.”
Lizzy L
I haven’t read the Rs bill, only reports about it — does anyone know, how does it handle pre-existing conditions? Are we back to the old way? i.e. if we can deny you for any reason, we will, just die motherfuckers.
randy khan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Here’s what I think probably is a decent first approximation of what’s going on:
Radio advertising is made up of tiny little slices of demographics, except for the most popular stations. If you’re in a city of any size, a few companies own all the stations, and each one programs the stations so that they hit separate specific demos, and sometimes different demos at different times of the day. The company that advertised on the radio station was trying to hit a demo of which you’re a member.
The same company was looking for ads to hit the same demo online. There’s enough information about you in the various databases that the cookies in your browser signaled (this is shorthand, since it’s more complicated) that someone in your demo was hitting the page, and served ads from that company to the page. So it’s sort of a coincidence and sort of not – the coincidence is in the timing, but not in the ads you heard on the radio and are seeing online.
Or at least that’s what I’d guess.
efgoldman
@Kay:
And they’ll all grow up to vote for RWNJ Republiklowns, against their own interests.
Baud
@Lizzy L:
Vox has a good summary.
jl
@Thru the Looking Glass…: From summaries I have read, and comments on Krugman’s and Josh Marshall’s twitter, they have basically kept Obamacare (and that means, specifically, kept most of the horrible non-market mechanisms or ghastly social engineering tax provisions, except these are tweaked to hurt the middle class and poor and help the rich). Except they have drastically underfunded it, and tossed poor sick people into the most underfunded parts. They have also made the individual markets even more unstable. Removed minimum policy standards (so you can have fun trying to figure out exactly where and what that insurance company is, or was, when your teabagger in-law gets sick and needs to file a claim on the policy that was clipped out of the back of a wingnut magazine).They caved and chickened out of one of their major goals by keeping the status quo on employer group plan cadillac tax (so, they’ve shown they will cave to pressure from whoever scares them, in this case employers). A lot of the reactionaries really hate comprehensive health policies, so they wanted to take an ax to group plans, starting with employer plans, but looks like they chickened out.
I think the guiding principle is whatever gets them through the night with their political hides intact, hell with anything else. It is an unprincipled, chaotic mess from what I have read so far.
Ohio Mom
@Kay:
I wouldn’t bet against you on Medicaid for kids leading to much better health outcomes among adults in the decades to come.
In the autism world, early and continued intervention has made a tremendous difference. For one example, even accounting for all the diagnostic creep (where the criteria have expanded, leading to more reported cases, and those cases tending to be milder), researchers have had to change the numbers on how many kids become verbal.
Surprise, surprise, when you put energy and resources into teaching language skills, the number of autistics with language shoots up. And all sorts of other improvements in functioning follow.
SiubhanDuinne
@randy khan:
That would make sense to me except that the radio ads in question were nationally-broadcast ads on SiriusXM, so the demographic profile thing kind of falls apart. Also, I’m not aware of anything that would connect, even remotely, my vehicle-only Sirius listenership with my iPad-only online presence. If I were more wired in, it would be easier to understand.
But thanks for the analysis; it’s all grist, and useful.
El Caganer
@Roger Moore: “Hey! Grab a wiener!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Owen Ellickson (sp?) who tweeted as Trump last fall could probably start imagining taunting prank calls from Boehner to Ryan. “Hiya, kid. Your blue eyes crying in the rain yet?”
ETA: The Obama Bros on their podcast said that Ryan needs to get this voted on before the two week Easter recess, which will coincide with the planned Tax Day rallies (I hope I hope)
Patricia Kayden
@George Spiggott: Actual conversation in the White House before Bannon gives Trump back his blinky … I mean his cell phone.
Shana
@Lizzy L: Having just recently gone through the transition from Medicare to Medicaid (or the reverse, I can never remember) with my mother-in-law, get started on the process now. It’s a bureaucracy, it takes time, and patience. Document everything. Keep copies and good notes about it all.
efgoldman
@BBA:
Not true. He wouldn’t try to beat up anybody, because he knows he’d get the living shit kicked out of him. He’d promise somebody else a cut of the lunch money if they did the job, then stiff them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Multiple choice:
(A) LOL!
(B) FYVMWARCS
(C) 42
(D) All of the above
El Caganer
@Redshift: Wasn’t the emergency-room mandate signed into law by that old commie Ronald Reagan?
danielx
@jl:
I think Trump is more the ‘throw the chess board up in the air, try to sucker punch the opponent and
hope for the bestclaim he won’ type of guy.Fixed.
jl
@jl: Except mandate gone, replaced with onerous penalties for restarting coverage after a gap. Seems designed for no reason at all but driving everyone below upper middle class with very stable employment group coverage out of insurance market forever.
Example of chaos: the individual markets will be more unstable than now, and they are pretty unstable already.
JerryRich
@Yarrow:
Why, exactly, did you think this?
patrick II
@debbie:
There is only one feature that counts on any republican health care plan. Lower taxes. In this case they will repeal the taxes that supported ACA, and without that income whatever plan they come up with will be made unaffordable to a significant number of people. For each million people who will not be able to afford health care there will be over one thousand deaths. Someone should figure the death/per tax dollar saved for rich guys.
Lizzy L
@Shana: As I understand it, my friend, because she’s over 65, will remain on Medicare, and will have Medicaid as secondary insurance. Thanks for your advice.
@Baud: Thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@JerryRich:
That’s quite likely.
jl
My general impression is that the chaos and pain really kick in after 2020, and I guess the GOP thinks they can hang on with majorities in both houses and keep WH until then, and then will be too late to go back.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: I wish the congressweasels who want to take away our healthcare had to beg for their pay, healthcare, and benefits.
El Caganer
Sounds like all those good Christian Republicans had Matthew 25:45 in mind. Or not.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay:
If it is like the Narcassit I worked, not so much screaming as constantly being told how everything you do is wrong and terrible, while constant barrage of false deadlines and made up rules. So it’s quite possible that a lot of the White House staff is just going threw the motions now.
randy khan
@SiubhanDuinne:
SiriusXM does the same thing with the demographics as a local radio station when it can. (FWIW, the big national radio owners have been known to sell demos across their entire footprints.) I get way different ads on MLB Network than on other channels.
J R in WV
@Jean:
New job, so dropped his pseudonym and started using his real name. Now he’s working in academia rather than for an insurance company. Duke? IIRC…
Anonymous patient
My mom dies of COPD from smoking with good Medicare coverage. My Dad died with Medicare and Banker’s Life for prescriptions etc. which was good as his medications for cancer and side effects from his chemo was thousands of dollars a month.
Many people who have a sister or a child who dies on account of the ACA being screwed up by the R’s… they would go hunting. For the people who vote to screw up a fairly well built insurance plan. These R. guys seem to think there is no down side to taking health care away from people, but that is very incorrect.
I do not have any loved ones who will suffer and die as a result of the ACA being messed with for fun and profit by Republicans. I am also not a violent person. But there are plenty of people out there who’s loved ones will stop receiving their chemo, or their insulin or dialysis, or, or…
And lots of those people will not forgive a Republican officeholder for putting there loved one down like a dog, only without the compassion vets feel when they put a loved pet down. No tranqs, no pain killers, no shot to ease them into the hereafter. Just lie there on the sidewalk and die, and do it quickly so as not to bother me.
Maybe some of these losers should think about the kinds of arsenals
amk
@Anonymous patient: No need for any violence. If only they just vote for once out of their own self-interest instead of out of their innate racism and tribalism.
Another Scott
@Jean: David Anderson’s introductory post.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.