ok it is time again for that wiener dog running happily on the baseball field it is spring training season so here is that wiener dog for u pic.twitter.com/09M40HcCWB
— darth™ (@darth) March 25, 2017
A BFD win, if we can keep it — and for once, it looks like we just might. Per the NYTimes, “Democrats, Buoyed by G.O.P. Health Defeat, See No Need to Offer Hand”:
…Invigorated by the Republican dysfunction that led to a stunningly swift collapse of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and relieved that President Barack Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment remains intact, Democrats are in their best position since their embarrassing loss in the November election.
While it is far too soon to suggest that the House Republican majority may be imperiled, Democrats are newly optimistic about picking up seats in 2018, hoping to ride a backlash against Mr. Trump. Seeing an opportunity, they say they will not throw Mr. Trump a political life preserver at what they sense could be the first turns of a downward spiral.
The president’s approval rating was already mired below 40 percent in some surveys, and is likely to remain low after the health bill’s failure. He has no prospects for legislative victories on the immediate horizon, given how complicated and time-consuming his next priority, an overhaul of the tax code, would be even for a more unified party.
And while his electoral success in states represented by Democrats in Congress had been thought to put such lawmakers in a vise between their party and their president, Mr. Trump demonstrated no ability to pick off centrist Democrats in his first significant legislative push. Democrats — red-state moderates and blue-state liberals alike — formed an unbroken front of opposition to the repeal-and-replace campaign…
Though the ability of Democrats to do much more than say no remains limited, their success in helping to thwart Mr. Trump will not only embolden them to confront him again — it will also inspire activists to push them to do whatever it takes to block his path.
“Having tasted victory, the resistance forces will feel even more empowered to insist that Democrats continue withholding any cooperation and not granting Trump any victories when he is so wounded,” said Brian Fallon, a Democratic strategist…
Cult-of-the-Savvy high priest and Politico founder Mike Allen, at his new brand Axios:
… It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of the Day 64 defeat. President Trump, who made repeal-and-replace a central theme of his campaign, and House Republicans, who made it the central theme of every campaign since 2010, lost in a publicly humiliating way despite controlling every branch of government and enjoying margins in the House rarely seen in the past century.
This virtually guarantees no substantive legislative achievements in the first 100 days. And it creates rifts and suspicions and second-guessing that make governing much harder.
What’s on the agenda as we start the new week?
America: so sick of all the winning. https://t.co/oGWnNE0dZ5 pic.twitter.com/Nt6AoJSUjR
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 26, 2017
Baud
I’m willing to give them a finger.
OzarkHillbilly
Laughter. Lots and lots of laughter.
Baud
Thanks, Pelosi and Schumer.
Waspuppet
This will be the challenge going forward. I don’t see Manchin et al voting against tax cuts for billionaires.
Which in turn underscores how much of a blunder going for ACA repeal first was. I know about the “genius” plan whereby doing this first set the stage for permanent rather than temporary tax cuts, but still.
bystander
Now if Schumer can put a sock in Manchin’s mouth over Gorsuch…
I’m having fun thinking about the call Trump got from Putin after the demos this weekend in Russia. Wonder if it was anything like the reaming Trump wanted to give ZEGS.
NotMax
Don’t put those phones down.
All this was seen as coming from last fall.
NotMax
Kind of important call to action comment in moderation. Please to liberate.
Meanwhile, the vital link is here.
NotMax
Testing. (2 comments went *poof*)
OzarkHillbilly
The 712-page Google doc that proves Muslims do condemn terrorism
For the next time your RWNJ uncle goes off on a facebook rant about “radical Islamic terrorism”.
NotMax
Trying again.
Until/if comments released from limbo, today is the one and only day to call your House reps to tell them to oppose S.J. Res. 34, which repeals the FCC’s broadband privacy (net neutrality) rules. House vote supposed to happen on Tuesday.
Baud
@NotMax: Privacy is only one aspect of net neutrality.
What’s funny is watching all the Bros on Reddit realize that being a libertarian means deregulating big business. They are mad at Rand Paul at sponsoring the privacy repeal bill (although he was too cowardly to vote on it).
NotMax
Ah, liberation. Thanks, Anne.
amk
Eight years of no, no, no, NO, NO, NO … from the rethugs.
Dems better remember that.
debbie
@Baud:
Also loudly and constantly remind them just how much of a hand they offered to the previous president.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
We begin the fight anew.
Onward Ho!??
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Kay
They announced that Kushner is running a “SWAT Team” to run the government like a bidness- the nepotism is gross and bad for America, but besides that isn’t that almost an admission that they can’t get anything thru Congress?
It’s what lame duck Presidents do- tweak the executive branch. Trump has congressional majorities.
I give Ivanka and her husband credit. They managed to come out clean from that piece of shit health care bill by running away. They’re really A-1 self-promoters. Real talent in that area.
amk
Bennett
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I hate the Alt-Left and everything they stand for. That said, I have my doubts about Schumer.
He’s a half a step away from being Vichy.
If Claude Rains wasn’t dead he would be perfect for the role of Schumer (video)
Baud
@debbie: GMA this morning:. Trump can be a transformational president now by reaching out to Democrats, but he needs to fundamentally change who he is as a person.
LOL.
rikyrah
Never forget:
Trumpcare was just a tax cut bill disguised as a healthcare plan. Without it, the ZEGK’S plans for ending the American Social Safety Net are going to have to be out in the open.
Now, we can highlight all attempts by Price to hurt Obamacare.
The fight continues.
But, don’t let anyone minimize the importance of what happened Friday.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Nah. Schumer is so much savvier than Trump. If they work together, Trump will be his bitch.
geg6
@Baud:
That was Jon Karl, who should be one of the first up against the wall. Idiot.
Baud
Thank God Hillary the Hawk isn’t president
Baud
@geg6: Karl and Dowd. Dowd said the italicized part.
debbie
@geg6:
Unbelievable. I believe the expression is “like a tiger can change its stripes.”
PsiFighter37
Apparently Trump spent Saturday golfing, and an hour Sunday at his golf club watching golf(?!), and the WH lied about both.
What a lazy morherfucker. Seriously, even a kindergarten student works harder than this clown does.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Hhahahahhahaha
Congress has only 8 work days scheduled in April (and 2 of those days are 1/2 days).
May is no better: 12 work days, but 6 of them are half days.
Pretty hard to put together a large bill when everyone is always on vac-kay.
Kay
Trump smears shit on everything he touches. No one comes away from an encounter or alliance with Donald Trump better off. No one. Democrats should stay away for that reason only. This isn’t complicated. He’s a disaster as a human being and that can’t be fixed with a “better approach”. Everything else runs from that basic truth.
Trump could have opposed that piece of shit bill and nipped this in the bud but he didn’t because he’s a bad person. He does not care what happens to people and their health care. He cares about himself. He was fine with the bill when he thought backing it meant he could rack up “wins”.
Forget “policy”. Trump is a liar and a cheat. They can’t negotiate with a person like that.
Just One More Canuck
“Democrats, Buoyed by G.O.P. Health Defeat, See No Need to Offer Hand”
I disagree – I think they should offer Trump a hand – with an anchor in it
Soprano2
I’m willing to give Republicans an anvil. They get nothing else.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Pelosi’s house worked hard. The GOP Congress has always been lazy.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning! And it is, for folks like me on Obamacare. For the time being, anyway.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Not to mention there was never a deal negotiated with Trump that he didn’t breach before the ink was dry.
geg6
@Baud:
Yeah, I turned it off as soon as Karl started yammering about Dolt 45 being transformational. So much stupid this early on a Monday is more than I can take.
germy
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/can-chuck-schumer-check-donald-trump
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud:
Well, when Sarandon is right, she’s right.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37: WAPo has noted that he’s spend a third of his time in office at his properties.
germy
@geg6: Karl, as a former college republican, is framing a narrative he wants reality to fit neatly into. But reality bites.
Immanentize
@satby: I know that the exchanges are only a small part of the ACA, but what a critical part. My BiL is self-employed and installs and fixes garage doors in Houston. He has save thousands every year he has been on Obamacare.
I have employer-based insurance, but that value is fading too. I had surgery last month and — get this — I had to pay a 160 buck co-pay the day of surgery that no one mentioned. Wha?
MomSense
@Baud:
Middle fingers up, put them hands high
chris
One down, but it will be back in one form or another.
Keystone XL gets the Presidential Permit today.
Executive Order to rescind the Clean Power Plan coming this week.
More war. Always.
Gonna be a very long slog. 588 days to go.
Kay
Jamie Gorelick has always been gross. She’s one of the people Hillary Clinton should have jettisoned along the way. During the Obama Administration she lobbied against the Administration’s for-profit college rules. Decades after working in government she’s still cashing in on it.
The Democratic Party would be really well-served by cutting some of these people off. There are a lot of them and they’ve been cashing in on programs and policies that Democrats are (supposedly) opposed to for years. Clean house.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Let’s go with the devil we don’t know, as long as he has a penis.
germy
@Kay: I wish someone had stolen Obama’s copy of “Team Of Rivals”
Baud
@chris: Why don’t Democrats work with him again?
Baud
@Kay:
The problem with this
Is this
But otherwise, yeah.
Iowa Old Lady
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: This long after the election, that quote still makes my blood boil.
Kay
@germy:
Trump found something he cares about and will fight for- himself. If Democrats can use that to their advantage they should but I wouldn’t. I haven’t seen anyone benefit from anything Donald Trump has ever done except Donald Trump and his children. Schumer isn’t ideological and he’s tactically smart so he’s really perfect for handling Trump. Someone who actually gave a shit about health care might be vulnerable to Trump’s bullshit.
amk
@germy: fucking conman to the core.
Lurking Canadian
@Baud: When I got to the gym yesterday morning, Kasich (or maybe Portman? I get those two mixed up) was on CNN complainihg that it was “disgusting” that the Dems wouldn’t “work with” the Reps.
I don’t know how the hosts responded, but I’m betting it was not the correct answer, which would have been something about tire rims and anthrax.
What, after all, was Pelosi supposed to do to “help”? “Well, Paul, I don’t think I can get my caucus to go along with 24 million people losing insurance and 30,000 dying each year. You’ll have to come down from those figures: how about 8 million lose insurance and 10,000 unnecessary deaths? I might be able to do that.”
When one side wants to make things better and the other side wants to make things worse, the status quo IS the compromise.
JMG
Tax cuts won’t so easy to pass as all that. Tax cuts that aren’t revenue neutral cannot be passed through reconciliation. They can be filibustered. Takes 60 votes. That’s eight Democrats, more than I think they could get. If the cuts are revenue neutral, it’d require BOTH the ridiculous cuts of the partial Trump budget and cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Hard to see that coming down.
Mark
The Buffoon is drawing up an enemies list of Republicans that didn’t support his health care fiasco and plans to retaliate. Doesn’t bode well for any future initiatives on the Buffoon’s part.
pk
@Baud:
Maybe Ben Carson can perform brain surgery on him to bring about that change, otherwise it ain’t happening in this lifetime.
Kay
@Baud:
I can forgive a lot – I get that she’s an advocate and the client doesn’t equal the lawyer but for-profit colleges are a bridge too far. It has really hampered Democrats in Congress because half of these lobbyists are Democrats. That’s why Obama had to do it thru the CFPB and the Dept of Ed- Democrats in Congress were beholden to people like Gorelick.
Now we know who’s behind all the “Ivanka is a humanitarian” stories, anyway.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Two, even
Baud
@Lurking Canadian: From what I’ve seen, there’s a big push for the Dems to make it all better. To which I say, not this time, motherfuckers.
OzarkHillbilly
Headline at the Guardian: ‘He’s a street fighter’: Trump fans rally after heavy blow on healthcare
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA…. gasp….. wheeze…. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. stop it, yer killing me….
He’s a Madison Ave fighter you idgits. Has his big brother, a “Brooks Brothers” lawyer, fight all his battles for him.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: And I say, if they wanted Dems to make it better, they should have voted for them.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Lurking Canadian
: How can you mix up Kasich with Natalie Portman? They don’t look the least bit alike.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: We keep talking about the fact that people who are wrong need to be held accountable. Why shouldn’t that apply to people like Sarandon?
Martha
@rikyrah: Good morning! (I’m actually commenting in time to be somewhat timely…?)
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: Yep. 2018 and 2020. Then we’ll talk.
Eric S.
I Have my one month follow up with my surgeon after rotator cuff surgery this morning. I expect he will recommend I start physical therapy right away. Then off to another grueling work week.
Kay
@Baud:
She steals from low income 19 year olds. She may as well knock them over in a parking lot and take their wallet. That’s her job:
Cut her loose. There are lots and lots of good people to hire.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Right. I need to be a foot taller, change my eyes from brown to blue. and lose 25 years, all by force if will….
LOL is right
NorthLeft12
I love how the Republicans [virtually all of them] channel their inner snotty eight year old psyche and say “We never wanted it anyway.” and move on to the next failure.
BTW My apologies to eight year olds everywhere, but I was trying to evoke certain image and that is the best I could come up with.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: It’s often said they (white) voters want Republicans who will act like Democrats. We’re seeing that now in spades.
efgoldman
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Don’t worry, Granny Starver will get right on it. He’s got three boxes of magick asterisks under his desk.
Baud
@Kay: Maybe instead we should reach out to her like we need to do with Trump voters.
NorthLeft12
Hey, is it possible to arrange for a band of only trombones serenade the House Repubs with a soulful and repeated playing of “Sad Trombone”?
PlaneCrazy
Very long time lurker (Bush years), extremely rare commenter. Just wanted to thank y’all for this regular feature, love the photos, and for being an amazing group of front pagers and commentariat. I’ve dropped a bunch of the old sites I used to frequent, but BJ, Digby and Talking Points Memo stay in my daily diet, with occasional nibbles over at the Great Orange Demon. (Daily pundit roundup is always worth a look, and Hunter, but most of the rest I can’t quite deal with regularly).
Hear’s a raised glass to all BJ’ers everywhere.
rikyrah
@Baud:
He is an unqualified mediocre White man. They will continue to give him break after break. After all, they resented the shyt out of the competent, excellent Black President. And, if he could do it, how hard could it be????
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: What ya gonna do, not watch her movies?
I think I’ve only seen one of them, but I live in a cave and don’t watch movies.
efgoldman
@geg6:
He is transformational, really. He’s transforming the White House into a hell hole, the State Department into third grade, the cabinet into moron city….
rikyrah
@JMG:
Tell it again. That’s why Trumpcare was important. It was a tax cut bill disguised as a healthcare plan.
Baud
@NorthLeft12: Much more appropriate than Hail to the Chief.
satby
@PlaneCrazy: Good to see you commenting.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Just treat her like we would Bill Kristol.
satby
@efgoldman: and apathetic people into ones paying attention. Though I would have preferred they woke by less drastic means.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Done!
amk
swat team to drown the gobinment in twitler’s nepotism.
Kay
@Baud:
I went to a Dem dinner last week and this older man I like used a word I hadn’t heard in a while to describe why he comes- “camaraderie”. That’s one of the things political and civic organizations provide and it’s not a negative, especially in conservative parts of the country. It also recognizes the reality of our system which operates on majorities. Trump really doesn’t have a mandate.
sherparick
Although it does help that this is gang of wingnuts that could not shoot straight gave a big victory for the home team, they continue to rapidly destroy EPA rules and regulations, especially effecting, but not exclusively climate change. They continue to gut Labor, Safety, and anti-trust rules. Everyday will be struggle with this crew in power. Document the atrocities, and the answer is always nothing.
OzarkHillbilly
@PlaneCrazy: Join in, I’ll bet you can snarl with the best of the jackals around here.
efgoldman
@Kay:
What on Earth makes you think Shumer doesn’t give a shit about health care? I don’t think that’s possibly true about ANY Democrat on Capitol Hill, even (or maybe, especially) the ones from red states.
If that piece of crap had passed the house, I’m sure Shumer would have been leading and organizing the fight against.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay:
Because Ivanka Trump is always rubbing elbows with just plain folks? What horse shat this horseshit?
Baud
@Kay: It might be the only thing that can push back against right wing media.
aimai
@rikyrah: Its good to see you smiling again.
Baud
@PlaneCrazy: Welcome to the Baud! 2020! campaign!
Kay
@amk:
The nepotism and unearned promotions are bad for ‘Merica. You can’t strut around crowing about merit and hard work unless you model that. It’s false at the core. DeVos goes to 3rd grade classes and tells them to work hard and they’ll get promoted. That may or may not be true but she in no way represents this idea. She bought that job. She’s never had a job she didn’t inherit or buy. Can they not FIND a goddamn welder to promote welding training? They’re insulting these people.
Eric S.
@MomSense: I can only lend the left finger on high. The right one would have to remain around cheesy level until therapy shows me to raise that arm.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Except for no buying tickets to, or videos of, her movies, what else can you do? She’s not elected or a politician so there’s no political way to get at her.
aimai
@Kay: Half these lobbyists are not democrats–not after the K street project.
amk
@Kay: well, the wwc snowflakes sold their country and their interests to this traitor of a conman. and at dirt cheap rate too.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
For some reason they dumped Ivanka Trump on Merkel. Because Ivanka is a girl and so is Merkel so they can talk about girl things.
She is a BAD SPOKESPERSON for young women rising on merit. Bad. The price of entry to the role is rising on merit yourself. You have to pay for stuff! That’s how you pay.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@FlipYrWhig: She’s always around the sweat shop workers making her schmattas
Jeffro
While the Rs are busy trying to let Obamacare fail…let’s be sure to stay busy helping their coalition of jagoffs and evil miscreants fall apart as well:
1) Freedom Caucus member resigns in disgust at fellow Goopers
2) Trump hangs AHCA defeat on conservatives
and then this one, so sweet that I might have to print out a hard copy, roll it up, and smoke it…ahhhhh….
3) Reince Priebus: it’s time for the GOP to grow up and start governing.
Oh. My. Goodness.
efgoldman
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Who’s selling those schmattes now? The rag man and his push cart are long gone.
sherparick
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: For those not getting Charlie (no, I am not forgiving you Charlie for 30 years of Talk Radio BS) Sykes snark, William Henry Harrison died 30 days to the day after being sworn into office. So, no, for Trump at least, his Presidency has not been as bad Harrison’s.
efgoldman
@Jeffro:
Only from the kkkrazy kkkaukus, though, not from the house.
Hahahahahahahaha
Right, rinse. Just after they follow the whatchacallit policy suggestions from after the 2012 elections – you know, the ones that they should reach out to minorities and women….
Hahahahaahahahahahahahaha
low-tech cyclist
I’m going with that old political adage, “when your opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil.”
Since the Pubbies are talking about trying tax deform* next, the Dems should come up with a populist tax reform themselves. My suggestion for such a bill would be to treat capital gains as ordinary income**, and use the extra revenue to pay for a middle-class tax cut. (And toss in any extra closings of rich people’s and big corporations’ loopholes that they can think of, but this would be the base.)
Then whatever crap the GOP came up with could be compared with the Dems’ plan.
*Not a typo.
** This would have the pleasant side-effect of killing the carried-interest loophole, which works by having their income treated as cap gains.
sherparick
@Baud: The Repubs are Wiley E. Coyote, the Democrats are the Roadrunner; time to hand them an anvil. https://www.google.com/search?q=Wile+E+Coyote+anvil+drops+on+head&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ_say3fbSAhVLNSYKHVckCAAQsAQIGQ&biw=1409&bih=592
Kay
Indivisible are having a big NW OH conference in Toledo May 27th and I’m going. I like them, the ones I have met.
rikyrah
@Lurking Canadian:
ICAM
THIS is the fundamental ‘ problem’ with those who want us to ‘ understand’ Trump Voters.
And, ‘ he’s the President’ people.
We fundamentally have different ways of seeing the world.
When one side believes HEALTHCARE IS A RIGHT..
and, the other side wants to cut healthcare for poor people so that millionaires can get a tax cut..
there IS NO COMPROMISE.
When one side wants to improve things that so even MORE people can get access to healthcare..
And, the other side has no problem gutting care for 24 million, and tells you to go to the ER….
there IS NO COMPROMISE.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay: Speaking of Indivisible, here’s a good summary of the legislative process they just published. Useful for resistance strategy. (Schoolhouse Rock was a long time ago.)
rikyrah
@Kay:
Which are complete and utter bullshyt.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah:
Preach.
AxelFoley
@amk:
This.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Amen.
We are NOT going to save these phuckers from themselves.
BOTH side DON’T DO IT
and, now, their sociopathy will truly be laid bare for all to see.
debit
@sherparick: I propose the official Democratic response to any GOP proposal be: Beep, beep motherfuckers.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Keep on it, Kay.
Scum Scum Scum.
Jack the Second
@Baud: I think that’s being overly generous.
White voters want big government racists, who will spend money on white folks while treating everyone else as an extractive resource. They want drug testing for Welfare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare, because they all know deep down all black people are on drugs, but not a penny cut. They want the borders closed to immigration from outside three European countries, and all second generation immigrants deported. They want an end to equal opportunity and “quotas” and free college for white kids.
Republicans sold themselves as friendly neighborhood racists, while deep down being big city kleptocrats, who just want to burn down the government and loot its corpse to fill their own pockets.
rikyrah
@PlaneCrazy:
Hope you comment more :)
MattF
And… oh… btw… ‘tax reform’ is code phrase for ‘kill off the mortgage interest deduction along with the deductions for state and local taxes’. And then cut corporate taxes and the high end of income tax rates.
Because… because, they are middle class ‘entitlements’ and we need to release the immense energy of our frustrated corporate overlords. And so forth. So it’s a pretty direct transfer of capital from the middle class to the wealthy. It’s just bound to be popular.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
They’re busy! They’re also having a more local meeting in a GOP county here. A rep from Sherrod Brown’s office is coming. I’ll go to that one too- it’s one of the 4 counties I work in.
I have to go to the Dem meeting on Tuesday and mend fences. We met with the Individible people at my house a couple weeks ago and the Democrats thought I “favored” them by letting them talk more. I did favor them.
Chris
@rikyrah:
It’s that, but it’s also the fact of seeing the world in terms of different realities, not just different values.
In this case – “is it possible to sustain a welfare state providing things like universal health care that won’t ultimately wreck the free market economy because of the taxes and regulations necessary to sustain it” was a perfectly fine debate to be having in, you know, 1917. A hundred years later when every other developed country has been running such a welfare state for decades and in most cases are still doing just fine, the debate is over, and trying to pretend otherwise doesn’t make you a healthy skeptic, it just makes you deluded: which is, of course, where the GOP is at now.
If only it were just health care; but it’s pretty much everything at this point.
laura
@rikyrah: Good morning! How was the movie? Did Peanut enjoy it?
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
It wasn’t just Ivanka and Jared on that ski holiday. Don Jr. and Eric and their families were there as well. And while Uday and Qusay have told us* that they never discuss the Trump Family Business with their dad, I’m pretty sure they have no such scruples about conversations with their sister and BIL, and naturally, the President’s closest advisors can’t have any secrets from him….
They all carry the aroma of rottenness and the stench of evil.
*(You’ll notice I’m taking them at their word here, though I have no reason for doing so.)
rikyrah
Trump’s Provocation-Based Foreign Policy is Dangerous
by David Atkins March 26, 2017 4:52 PM
Today brings news that Donald Trump literally gave German chancellor Angela Merkel a $300 billion bill for NATO expenses last weekend:
Never mind that this isn’t how NATO funding works. The gall of leveling such a juvenile stunt on a much-needed ally is appalling. But it’s not the first time. Trump has spent his presidency insulting a host of allied countries from Mexico to Australia to China to Sweden to Britain and others. And that doesn’t even mention potentially hostile powers like China and the countries included on his travel ban.
Of course, the only country that Trump explicitly declines to insult is Russia. Nor is it an accident that Trump seems so upset at funding an alliance designed to help European allies keep Russian military threats at bay. Beyond darker conspiratorial possibilities, Trump sees in Putin’s right-wing, authoritarian, explicitly nationalist, anti-globalist religious conservative leadership a natural ally for him, while he sees Europe as part of the problem. They can’t say it publicly, but Bannon and Trump see Russian oligarchs not just as potentially helpful hackers and destabilizers, but kindred political spirits. Nor is it an accident that both Trump and Putin engage in foreign policy by provocation.
The difference is that while Russia in its position of weakness and yearning for territorial expansion stands to gain from destabilizing the world order, the United States stands to lose. But Trump and Bannon don’t understand that. As racist nationalists, they see America as the victim of a world that takes advantage of trade deals to send away jobs, and allows immigration to dilute the racial and cultural purity of white western states.
NorthLeft12
@OzarkHillbilly: Come on, they won’t believe that documentation, it came from the heathen internet! They will call it propaganda, fake news, or still not sufficient.
rikyrah
Trump’s Reality Distortion Field is Shattering
by David Atkins March 27, 2017 3:26 AM
Greg Sargent at the Washington Post has long been making the case that Trump’s main communications strategy is to assault the notion of shared objective reality itself. In Trumpworld, the only arbiter of crowd sizes or climate science or wiretapping is Donald Trump himself, and everything else is “fake news” regardless of what facts might invalidate his narrative.
And for a while, it was working. During the presidential campaign, Trump lied with reckless abandon but never seemed to suffer for it. That’s partly because his opponent also suffered from perceived credibility issues, but it’s mostly because the news media treats presidential elections like a game where any claim is in bounds as long as a candidate can get people to believe it. And because Trump is the sort of figure it’s hard to take one’s eyes off of, his tweets and pronouncement manage to derail news cycles and capture attention. It was thought that perhaps we were entering a new political era in which reality simply no longer mattered.
But campaigns are one thing. Governing is another. And Trump’s reality distortion field is failing him now that he has to grapple with something more than campaign coverage.
Sargent himself noted this fact almost a week ago, referencing reports that Trump’s tweets were no longer having the narrative-driving force they once did. But the failure of the Republican health plan has cemented the degree to which Trump is losing his ability to gaslight and confuse enough people to get his way.
Donald Trump has always carefully crafted the image of a tough guy negotiator, through ghostwritten books and reality TV show characters. But it’s not wholly clear that Trump has ever had more than a few tricks up his sleeve: bully people with money and influence, play hardball, pretend to refuse offers, and when all else fails swamp the opposition with attorneys. It’s not exactly a creative arsenal, and Trump wouldn’t have had it available to him in his business career without a lot of inherited wealth and strings pulled on his behalf.
But when he attempted to play those games with the Republican Congress, they simply laughed in his face. When he attempted similar gambits against the federal judiciary over his travel bans, the judges simply used his own words against him.
rikyrah
Anatomy of a Disaster: Trump Didn’t Care, and the GOP Didn’t Have a Plan
by David Atkins March 25, 2017 3:52 AM
s dawn breaks over the wreckage of the GOP’s failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, one thing is abundantly clear: the Republican Party is not ready to govern. Its chief executive is uninterested in policy details, and far too many of its Congressmembers are too beholden to AM radio platitudes to effectively govern.
First, the President. During the campaign Donald Trump used Obamacare as a punching bag, but was all over the map in terms of what he would replace it with. The whimsical real estate developer was on the record praising Canada’s system of universal government coverage, saying that “it works.” Over the course of the presidential election Trump limited himself to more traditional Republican talking points, but in typical fashion never presented any specifics. But he did make promises that sounded good: universal coverage, no cuts to medicaid, more benefits, lower prices, and just about everything short of a unicorn in every stable. It was clear to anyone who listened that Trump had absolutely no background in healthcare policy or why the subject had bedeviled both parties for decades: as with his business empire, he simply assumed that if he snapped his fingers and told people to make it happen, it simply would. In Trump’s world, the only reason hard things don’t get done is because no one of sufficient power and Nietzschean will gets surly and angry enough to scare the little people into doing them. As with so much else in his first two months in office, President Trump was in for a rude awakening about how the world really works: “nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated,” he said. Not exactly. Everybody knew but him, and he didn’t really care enough to find out.
Which leads us to Speaker Paul Ryan and the GOP Congress. Paul Ryan is often touted as a policy guru, but he’s been unmasked as a dilettante. Seven years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Republican lawmakers still didn’t have a coherent plan to replace it. The bill that Ryan and team did come up with essentially maintained the basic structure of the Affordable Care Act, but replaced subsidies with measly tax credits while eliminating requirements that insurers actually cover a wide range of illnesses, and switched out the mandate for an even more onerous tax penalty. The result was a cruel, incoherent plan that didn’t commit to free-market ideology and please hardline conservatives, and was even worse in terms of cost and coverage than plain repeal would have been, thus angering moderate Republicans and ensuring a total blockade from Democrats.
MomSense
@Eric S.:
You now have the best PT goal. Here’s the song for your workouts.
I Ain’t Sorry
GregB
So listening to a Republican Congressional toolbag n CNN. It is beginning to sound that their plan is to claim that Flynn is the sole bad actor in the campaign and dump everything on him.
Which also leads me to conclude that he has cut a deal with the FBI.
rikyrah
Trump Built His Own Prison
He’s barely been in office for two months and he’s already cut off every possibility for success.
by Martin Longman March 25, 2017 10:42 AM
A lot of people will read the following excerpt and take away from it more confirmation that Donald Trump doesn’t know or care about policy, and that’s a legitimate takeaway. But I think, ultimately, any Republican president would eventually get to the same place with the Freedom Caucus on health care or many other issues, regardless of the underlying merits of what they were discussing. So, I’d like to offer a limited defense of how Trump reacted:
…………………………….
What’s important, though, is that reality has a way of asserting itself, and if there are limited paths for achieving basic minimal governance, those pathways will become better marked with every week that passes without progress on Trump’s legislative agenda.
On the Breitbart front, it’s getting hard to tell when the organization is acting at Steve Bannon’s instruction and when they are running independently from him, but they’re going very hard against Paul Ryan. Their article looks to me like it contains concocted anonymous quotes. They just read less like how people actually talk and more like how a bad scriptwriter would create dialogue. The intent is clear enough, though, which is to try to foment a coup against the Speaker so that a Freedom Caucus member can take his place.
rikyrah
The GOP Only Wants To Investigate, Not Be Investigated
by Nancy LeTourneau March 24, 2017 8:48 AM
One of the most ridiculous arguments made by Republicans during the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Monday is that the real danger to our country is the actual investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. In other words, investigating those possible ties is more dangerous than finding out whether or not a sitting president worked with an adversary to influence our elections.
Beyond the fact that this is an absurd argument to make, it also happens to be drowning in irony for anyone who has been paying attention over the last 25 years. You might recall that this is the same party that pursued investigations of Bill Clinton almost continually for his eight years in office. To do so they had to make the case that we faced an impeachable moment if our sitting president lied under oath about having sex. Clearly they didn’t think that an investigation into whether or not that happened was dangerous.
But that was simply the crescendo moment of investigations. Republicans also didn’t think it was dangerous to investigate whether or not the Clinton’s improperly fired White House staff or if they somehow benefited from a failed land deal in Arkansas or any other of the myriad of things they investigated in the 1990’s.
You might say, “Well, that was a long time ago. Things have changed.” But obviously the Republicans didn’t think it was dangerous to investigate whether a president (or a subsequent candidate for the presidency) nefariously failed to use the appropriate words to describe an attack on our facility in Benghazi. Even now, Republicans seem intent on finding a way to make Obama the culprit in Trump’s lies about being wiretapped.
bystander
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
But for the 12 inch difference in their heights. Claude was a peanut.
Just reading about Nunes being at a meeting in Trump Hotel DC with Flynn and the Turkish foreign minister. I still think Nunes is dirty and compromised. The only explanation for that “I’m crapping my pants” routine last week.
ET correct place of meeting.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
I saw a report over the weekend, and am sorry I can’t track it down right now, that in one of his closed-door meetings with Republican legislators last week — maybe the one with the Freedom Caucus — he went around the room and asked each one what the margin of victory was last November in each of their districts.
Not the Representative’s margin. His. Yes, nearly five months after the election, he is still obsessed with the huuuuge bigness of his electoral win. It is so abnormal and out of kilter, it’s almost embarrassing to think about.
NorthLeft12
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch: I thought you were going to refer to his roles in Casablanca or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Funny how Mr. Rains seemed to excel in those roles.
Kay
If Trump were serious he would meet with Hillary Clinton on this health care problem he has.
Oh, God, would I laugh. He has to go to her house, is the rule :)
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
zhena gogolia
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
What a magnificent actor he was.
?eric
@GregB: NEVER throw the anvil to a man with no scruples and who knows where the bodies (likely literally) are buried. You are supposed to make sure he lives a comfortable life when his stint in the pokie is over. far be it from me to tell these idiots what to do….
Chris
@rikyrah:
The whining about NATO isn’t new, but God, is it tiresome.
The irony is that there is one country that actually took responsibility for its own defense – France, in the De Gaulle years, when it actually pulled out of NATO, asked that American troops on its soil be withdrawn, and developed its own nuclear deterrent and a more independent foreign policy. Did the U.S. say “oh, good. At least someone’s taking responsibility for their own defense and it means less work for us”? Of course not. It wailed loudly and angrily about French “ingratitude.” Fifty years later, it still can’t STFU about it.
Germany right now is this in reverse: for the last seventy years, it’s maintained extremely low defense spending and military power, because the U.S. (not just the U.S, but it was very much part of the group) didn’t want it to – a rearmed Germany was the last thing anyone wanted in a post-1945 world. Now, all of a sudden, Trump’s decided that this policy, which we forced on the Germans in the first place, is really a sinister conspiracy by the Germans to screw us out of our money.
American whining about its NATO allies is pretty much the ultimate case of “Tellarites do not argue for a reason. They simply argue.”
Kay
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ivanka flat out lied about her involvement in the administration. She did that deliberately. She wanted to wait until the initial questions dissipated. It worked, too. She has the role she wanted with no accountability and no transparency.
The Trump’s operate by knowing that other people will follow norms that they don’t. They see the world as suckers and winners. Suckers follow rules. Ivanka is relying on the norm that says people won’t attack a President’s kid. It is ESSENTIAL to the Trump’s success that other, lesser people follow rules. That’s their edge.
rikyrah
One can only hope.
……………
Following failure, Paul Ryan’s reputation may never be the same
03/27/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
A month ago today, CNN ran a report on House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) efforts to prepare his party to advance an ambitious far-right agenda. The piece described the Wisconsin congressman as a “legendary wonk.”
Not just a wonk, mind you, but a legendary wonk.
The phrasing was a striking reminder of Ryan’s most impressive skill as a politician: convincing much of the Beltway establishment that he’s a knowledgeable policy expert with few, if any rivals on Capitol Hill. Ask some of Ryan’s admirers to point to any specific examples of the Speaker actually earning such a reputation, however, and they’ll generally hem and haw – because for those who care about the details, the fact that the GOP lawmaker speaks in complete sentences, and occasionally uses jargon that makes him appear knowledgeable, is not enough to mask the fact that Ryan isn’t a wonk, a legend, or even an especially capable Speaker of the House.
If there’s any justice, the failure of the ridiculous health care bill that Ryan wrote behind closed doors, and then failed to persuade his own members to support, should do permanent damage to the Speaker’s standing. The New Republic’s Jeet Heer noted last week that the demise of the American Health Care Act “should strike at the real root cause of the mess: The powerful, persistent Washington myth that Ryan is a policy genius.”
Gin & Tonic
@GregB: I don’t know Flynn at all, but the last thing I can imagine is his taking one for the team.
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Oh, and Trump’s budget would cut water assistance money to us ruggedly independent Westerners: http://bit.ly/2nY8LyJ
Chris
@rikyrah:
I’d love to see that guy tossed out on his rear end. Sure, whoever replaced him would be just as bad, but is there any worse case of unearned VSP-cred in Official Washington right now?
oldster
Great post title, Anne!
And exactly the right historical analogy to invoke: if Hitler had won the Battle of Britain, then the Nazi invasion would have followed, and the war would have gone much worse. America would have lost its essential staging ground off the coast of France which allowed for the liberation of Europe.
But Hitler lost the Battle of Britain, just as Trump and Ryan lost the Battle of Obamacare. The War would last for years, but it was already on a far better trajectory.
And soon, Hitler would be having deep problems with Russia.
As Churchill said, “this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning.”
rikyrah
On public policy, Trump combines ignorance and indifference
03/27/17 08:42 AM—UPDATED 03/27/17 09:48 AM
By Steve Benen
The day before the Republican health care plan collapsed, Donald Trump met at the White House with some of the bill’s House critics. As Politico noted, the president knew that the members had substantive concerns, but he didn’t care.
This posture, not surprisingly, failed spectacularly. The “little s**t,” as the president called it, referred to the substantive details of the health care debate that stood between success and failure. But Trump was dismissive, in part because he knew effectively nothing about the policy he was trying to pass, and in part because he didn’t care to find out.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay:
Guess she never heard Rush Limpdick refer to Chelsea Clinton as the “White House dog”.
NorthLeft12
@efgoldman: The schmatta was a given in our kitchen and at the family dinner table [not when guests were there though]. I still call the dishrag that to this day. and I always smile when I say it.
BTW I am Polish and ex-Catholic. When I look up schmatta, it is specifically identified as Yiddish, but my long deceased Mom was not so subtly anti-Semitic, so I am surprised we used that term around the house. I always thought it was a Polish term, not Yiddish.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah:
Chuck Todd on MtP yesterday called Paul Ryan a “policy wonk”.
rikyrah
In the wake of failure, Republicans eager to push tax cuts
03/27/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 03/27/17 08:13 AM
By Steve Benen
The Republican effort to tackle health care reform was one of the more dramatic legislative fiascoes in recent memory, but GOP officials apparently don’t intend to spend much too time licking their wounds. On the contrary, Republicans want to quickly make the transition to tax reform.
Politico had an interesting piece over the weekend, which quoted House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) on his party’s plans.
And while on the surface that may sound compelling – GOP lawmakers intend to move from one effort that cut taxes for the wealthy (health care reform) to a different effort to cut taxes for the wealthy (tax reform) – Republicans also seemed united in their opposition to the Affordable Care Act. As recent developments made clear, like-minded ambitions do not a legislative victory make.
So why would tax reform be “the hardest lift in a generation”? In part because of the scope and scale of the task: Republicans aren’t just talking about tax cuts; they want to pass tax reform – the first time since 1986 that federal policymakers have effectively tried to re-write the nation’s tax code.
To be sure, the U.S. health care system, which affects one-fifth of the American economy, is incredibly difficult to overhaul. But the U.S. tax code affects nearly all of the economy, making it that much more challenging.
Cermet
@Chris: So very true and exactly what thugs do best – cry like babies when they don’t get what they want and then cry when they do get it but discover they can’t profit from that goal. Also, nice “Enterprise” reference.
Corner Stone
Does Jared Kushner somehow go into a phone booth and then come out as Superman? Apparently the dude can do anything and everything all at the same time.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/24/17
Schumer: Wrong to vote on Gorsuch while Trump under investigation
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer talks with Rachel Maddow about why Senate Democrats should oppose Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, and why the confirmation should be postponed until investigations of Donald Trump are resolved
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/24/17
Schumer: ‘Art of the Deal is out the window’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer talks with Rachel Maddow about the failure by Donald Trump and Republicans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and the power of the grassroots effort to thwart Trump.
Chris
@Cermet:
TOS! Not Enterprise. Said by Sarek in, I think, “Journey To Babel.” :P But thank you!
Corner Stone
@GregB:
Flynn has flipped so hard he would make Greg Louganis blush.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone: Ya know, if Paulie hates politics he could just get out of that game. Resign as Speaker and resign from Congress.
rikyrah
Two months out of office, Barack Obama is having a post-presidency like no other
By Krissah Thompson and Juliet Eilperin
March 26
The first cocktail party at Barack Obama’s new office last month was certainly more casual than any he had hosted in recent years. The wine bore a random assortment of labels, as if assembled potluck-style. The self-serve appetizers were set out in the narrow hallway. The host, tieless, eschewed formal remarks, as a few dozen of his old administration officials — Joe Biden and former chief of staff Denis McDonough, as well as more junior ones — mingled in a minimalist wood-paneled suite that could be mistaken for a boutique law firm.
“It was a bit of a shock to the system,” said Peter Velz, who used to work in the White House communications office. “You’re bumping up right against the vice president as he’s getting cheese from the cheese plate.”
As the dinner hour drew near, the former president exited with a familiar excuse, Velz recalled: “He was joking if he doesn’t get back to Michelle, he’s going to be in trouble.”
So far, Obama is trying to approach his post-presidency in the same way as his cocktail-hosting duties — keeping things low-key, despite clamoring from Democrats for him to do more. “He is enjoying a lower profile where he can relax, reflect and enjoy his family and friends,” said his former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
But the unprecedented nature of this particular post-presidency means his respite could be brief. Even while taking downtime at a luxurious resort in the South Pacific last week, Obama put out a statement urging Republicans not to unilaterally dismantle his signature health-care law.
Not only are the Obamas still young and unusually popular for a post-White House couple, but their decision to stay in Washington while their younger daughter finishes high school has also combined with the compulsion of the new Trump administration to keep pulling them back into the spotlight.
schrodingers_cat
@Chris: The conservative whining about how every other country is out to screw America is bogus. The post WWII agenda was set by the United States, from the UN to NATO to the more recent WTO. United States has benefited from all those arrangements. Dollar is the reserve currency of the world, United States is the biggest military power of the world. The non stop whining is nauseating.
ETA: That the Republican party and their financial backers have decided to screw over the rest of the 99% is not Germany’s fault.
Corner Stone
It’s amazing that now that R’s and Trump completely failed to dismantle President Obama’s signature legislation, the D base (and others not exactly D base) are completely engaged and fired up, that somehow the Democratic Party is just waiting on their tippy toes to work with Trump on an “Infrastructure Bill”.
No. Nope. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
hueyplong
@oldster:
I think Churchill was talking about the win at El Alamein, not the Battle of Britain, but the point — and the thread title — are still good.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: I have no idea how to do it but we need the MSM to stop acting like the propaganda arm of the Republican Party.
schrodingers_cat
@hueyplong: Fuck Churchill, the starver of 3 million Indians during WWII.
Ohio Mom
@Lurking Canadian: I’m guessing it was Governor Kasich who was bemoaning the lack of cooperation from Democrats. He’s been trying to pass himself off as some kind of let’s-meet-in-the-middle moderate for a while now.
I suspect he still has his eye on the White House and is positioning himself as the grown-up in the room, admonishing us to all behave better and reach out in compromise. As a future POTUS candidate, he’s hungry for as much of the spotlight as possible.
As far as I can tell, Senator Portman’s M.O. is to quietly go about being a dick.
How to tell them apart? Kasich is grayer and pudgier, Portman is taller and has a more chiseled face. I’m impressed that you are interested in telling them apart.
ArchTeryx
Look, the Republican leadership tried to do what I feared they’d do from the first day they took power: Commit mass murder by fountain pen. And while that was colored by my own ox about to be gored, it’s hard to deny that tens of thousands of preventable deaths every year, by malign neglect at best, would not amount to mass murder. We as Americans are experts at malign neglect, but this was a bridge too far.
The fact that we managed to stop them when they were in total control of government is a huge boost for our side. Being the Party of Hell No is a lot easier and more fun then actually governing, and the Republicans are learning that the hard way.
So they get all the opprobrium of committing attempted mass murder by fountain pen, and get none of the “benefits” of actually sticking it to the poor this time out. Yay us! So let’s build up and have our own wave in 2018, now that WE are the party totally locked out of power nationwide.
Chris
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. Of course, whining from a position of privilege is what conservatives do. In the U.S. or elsewhere. Why should they stop at domestic stuff?
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: Once again, every question is being framed as how do the Democrats find a way to work with this president and the GOP.
It is our burden to bend our principles to accommodate the temperamental man baby so that he can get a win. And then he will shit all over us.
rikyrah
White Man Who Allegedly Went to NYC to Hunt Black Men Says He Meant to Kill Younger, More Successful Person: Report
by DANIELLA SILVA
The white supremacist accused of fatally stabbing a black man with a sword in New York City said he would have rather killed a younger — or older and more “successful” black victim.
“I’m sorry I killed that man,” James Harris Jackson told the New York Daily News at the Rikers Island jail on Sunday. “It was pitch black, I picked a dark place. I didn’t know he was elderly.”
Jackson, 28, told the newspaper he would have killed “a young thug” or “a successful older black man with blondes … people you see in Midtown.”
The Baltimore man is accused of taking a bus to New York City specifically to kill black men. Police say he confessed to randomly picking out victim Timothy Caughman on the street and stabbing him to death with a 2-foot sword.
oldster
@hueyplong:
Huh. You are exactly right. My memory failed me (again).
Okay, but in the words of another great statesman, “Forget about the little shit. Let’s focus on the big picture here.”
Oh–that wasn’t Churchill? It was part of an earlier bunker speech by Hair Furrer?
Darn that bad memory of mine!
hueyplong
@schrodingers_cat:
Fucking Churchill is ok by me.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: We don’t have to do nothing. Non-cooperation. MSM can DIAF.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: I’m getting an odd sensation, a kind of tingle that is telling me it’s possible you may not care for Msr. Churchill.
I got the same kind of vague impression this weekend from a comment Botsplainer made about Ivanka and the other Trumps.
rikyrah
Dark Rhode: The Effort to Silence Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
by D.R. Tucker March 27, 2017 5:00 AM
It’s obvious why they want him gone.
If you watched last week’s Senate confirmation hearings for unqualified Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, you saw just how effective Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) can be when it comes to challenging right-wing ideology. Gorsuch was intellectually overpowered by Whitehouse, a former US Attorney and state Attorney General.
Whitehouse is arguably the right’s biggest nuisance. Conservatives cannot stand his criticism of the special interests responsible for destroying democracy in the United States in the seven years since the Citizens United decision. They cannot stand his condemnation of the fossil fuel industry on the Senate floor, and his full-throated call for the return of bipartisan action on climate change. They cannot stand his strict scrutiny of the Trump administration.
If the Senate changes hands in the 2018 midterm elections, Whitehouse will have a more prominent platform to tear apart conservative claptrap. As David Bernstein noted last year, had Democrats won the Senate in 2016, Whitehouse would have likely become chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, currently in the clutches of arch-denier John Barrasso (R-WY). Whitehouse as EPW chair would be a nightmare for Carbon Inc.–a nightmare the fossil-fuel industry and its allied interests would rather avoid.
Corner Stone
It’s now considered laughable that Trump would be required to “get into the weeds” on any piece of legislation. And actually understand what is in the bill and what parts are important to which factions.
But that’s ok that it is laughable! Because everyone knows and agrees that’s not his strongsuit. And that’s ok. Hahahaha! Trump spending time understanding legislation that effects people’s lives! What a larf!
The bar is still being lowered. Every freaking day, after every lashing out, blaming tweet rant or failure. The bar gets notched a little lower to continue moving forward.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Step away from the TV, your BP is spiking.
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: Sing that song loud. I was in a bad way and I had a 100% medically necessary procedure last year. Checking in, the billing person hands me the phone and says my insurer (UHC, Gold Plan, PPO, good as we can get) wants to talk to me. $1,000 on the barrelhead, to cover the entire remaining amount of my deductible – or they’re not doing the procedure.
You could not have robbed me more effectively than if you’d used a gun.
Mike J
@Baud:
The real problem is that Schumer knows that to negotiate well,you have to let the other guy think he has a win. Many people on our side would be livid if Trump got to say he had win even if the bill nationalized all the banks and set up a guaranteed income program.
Chris
@The Moar You Know:
I continue to maintain that health insurance in this country today is just licensed organized crime.
The Moar You Know
Art of the (plea) deal:
Christ, this will not end well.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Please report back to us, Kay.
rikyrah
@Jack the Second:
White socialism…..
rikyrah
@laura:
We both loved it. It was a beautiful production.
No One You Know
@NotMax: Thanks, Max.
I called and the aide I spoke with told me that the all-out push for health care meant there hasn’t been time to look ahead the legislative calendar.
The ensuing conversation was enlightening. At the risk of stating the obvious, our reps need to hear from us when they’re so tired…
we give them energy, a chance to recoup, and reconnect with the people they serve.
I’ve put the Washington and local numbers for my representatives my phone now, and will be a bit more assertive about using them in future.
artem1s
@Jeffro:
JFC, Reince Priebus lecturing the GOP on growing up is a fucking farce. If that was the goal of the GOP then they should kneecapped Twittler 18 months ago. If he really believed that he would have kept the GOP from kneecapping Michael Steele and turned down the job in the first place.
brettvk
@Immanentize: You’re not the first person I’ve heard this from – the surprise! cash copay right before the outpatient surgery. Why does this happen so often? And how often does someone have to walk away because they don’t have the money? Maybe the friend/relative with you to drive you home afterward is really there to be a second credit card.
Uncle Cosmo
@FlipYrWhig:
As we well know, The road apple doesn’t fall far from the horse’s ass.
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
” I had to pay a 160 buck co-pay the day of surgery ”
Mrs J had knee replacement surgery about 6 months ago. She was going over the remaining medical bills earlier today getting stuff ready for the taxes. She noted that the operating room cost $30,000…. not that we paid that, just that it was the cost from the hospital…!!!
So a $160 co-pay isn’t much to go on about.
No offense, no one likes surprises.
J R in WV
@PlaneCrazy:
If you have any opinions, we would be glad to hear them. Even if they seem dim to us, we’ll be interested and talk about them. ;-)
They probably won’t, given your reading list.