I was flipping a coin between this and the Kevin Bacon Animal House All is Well memes.
Open thread
by David Anderson| 41 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Organizing & Resistance, Politics, Our Failed Media Experiment, Our Failed Political Establishment
I was flipping a coin between this and the Kevin Bacon Animal House All is Well memes.
Open thread
Comments are closed.
Peter
This is what I would go for, personally.
Chris
Been listening to an old TV show on YouTube while at work. The latest episode ends with the heroes tracing the crime of the week to the adviser of a politician who’s portrayed as a paranoid conspiracy-prone complete douchebag. At the end of the episode, this gem:
The adviser: “I made him! We could’ve gone so far! With me guiding him, he could even have been President of the United States!”
Main character: “Yeah, he probably could have. Terrifying, isn’t it?”
Fifty years before Donald Trump…
trollhattan
One guy can make a difference. Clair Patterson v. leaded gasoline.
As a wounded Trump continues killing or maiming dozens, perhaps hundreds of beneficial agencies and programs remember the importance of what they do.
chopper
so chaffetz is out at the end of next month. man, this day just gets better and better.
Mary G
These people are incompetent. Bloomberg:
and
The gang that couldn’t shoot straight strikes again.
chopper
@Mary G:
Jesus what a fucking shitshow. used to be these assholes knew at least a bit about what the hell theyre doing. the trump era GOP has really gotten into the jar of bath salts.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Are you trying to make us all feel worse?
Mary G
Now Dems really have reason to win the special elections:
ruemara
Forever 21. Land of the translucent dress. I’m listening to some Soundgarden. This is hitting a friend of mine pretty hard. Sometimes I think I’m so used to tragedy that I accept it as normal.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
Ryan would just arm-twist a few Republicans from swing districts into doing his bidding this time around. It’s not like they have any actual principles.
Also, typing with a mild fever is hard. I hate the flu. ?
Ian G.
@Peter:
My favorite too.
dmsilev
I’m thinking the “Bring out your dead/I feel …happy” scene from Monty Python & the Holy Grail.
Roger Moore
@Mary G:
Who knew that legislating was so damned hard? Maybe if they had, you know, waited for a CBO score before voting, they wouldn’t have to think about going back and redoing the whole thing. I doubt, though, that they’ll learn their lesson.
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: @chopper: you would think at least Ryan knew a thing or two about how to legislate. Then again, what’s he ever written that became law?
dmsilev
@Mary G: It would be totally utterly hilarious if they had to hold another vote and saw that one fail.
LurkerNoLonger
@Major Major Major Major:
The Eat The Poor Act of 2014. What a wonk!
Raoul
@Mary G: Yes! I am dearly hoping this turns out to be needed. Another round of House voting, after CBO score and after the first round blowback (plus Trumpocalyse, updated daily) could be mighty interesting.
Raoul
@Major Major Major Major: Paul Ryan was the jackass in my business school classes who always acted like Alex P Keaton but was actually really dumb. He could get someone to do enough of his homework for him (probably at the Frat) to pass.
But actually do anything? Have a coherent, original thought? Hah.
efgoldman
@Mary G:
Granny Starver is as bad at speakering as Apricot Asswipe is at presidenting, he’s just quieter.
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Remember after the election, he said he had a “rocket in his pocket” of bills ready to go on health care, tax reform, immigration, kangaroos maybe, all would be voted on bing, bang, boom? He’s just as bad as Trump – “oh, it’s easy, I can get it done in the first 10 days.”
@Mnemosyne: Maybe, but seeing all the angry constituents crammed into the few town halls they’ve actually been brave enough to hold, even in the reddest of districts, has got to have them feeling nervous. And it makes great ads for Democrats. These guys had the house and the Senate for the last two years and accomplished nothing besides naming a few post offices and repealing Obamacare 50 times.
Chris
@Raoul:
A stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like?
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
It does seem like relevant expertise for the Speaker of the House. OTOH, look at who Ryan has had a chance to learn from: Boehner, Pelosi, and Hastert. I think it’s safe to assume he’s ignored Pelosi- a Democrat and a woman- so he hasn’t had real paragons of legislative excellence as examples to follow from.
efgoldman
@Mary G:
And in the house, where there are no restraints whatsoever on the majority. It’s not like Nancy SMASH could call up a filibuster.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Gives them an excuse to have another kegger.
BBA
In an earlier thread, somebody wondered what Holy Joe’s qualifications to run the FBI are, aside from being a nominal Democrat for bipartisan warm & fuzzies. Well, he was state AG of Connecticut back in the ’80s, so there’s that.
Mike in NC
News is saying Roger Ailes died from bleeding brain. Yeah, 20 years of FOX Fake News would do that to anybody.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
This is one of the reasons why term limits for legislators are a bad idea — when you don’t have any institutional knowledge, you can’t get shit done.
Chris
@Mike in NC:
OMG, YES!
Calouste
I’m wondering whether there will be a big juicy bit dropped about the shitgibbon or one of his minions just an hour or so before AF1 is scheduled to take off for his trip. It’s certainly something I would consider if it was in my power, just to see them panic.
Elizabelle
@ruemara: I am haunted by Chris Cornell’s loss. That it was by his own hand. That if he’d been able to resist the impulse last night, he might be with us a lot longer.
Another day, I’d be delirious over Roger Ailes’ leaving this mortal coil. No loss whatsoever there. We would be in better shape if he had never been born or, if born, had been hit by a bus early in life.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: I don’t get it at all (about Cornell). What a talent that man had.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: All I can put it down to is an impulse that he couldn’t fight back last night.
And he’s amazing. I’d not listened to his acoustic work, or his range.
My sympathies to his young family. Oldest daughter is 15, if that. And to his band mates and fans.
Origuy
A friend of mine is in Chaffetz’s district. His Facebook feed contains a post from Provo mayor John Curtis, saying that he is considering running for Chaffetz’s seat. Seems like a decent guy; his opponent was a Republican legislator who tried to cast Curtis as a Democrat, although Provo city elections are nonpartisan. Probably as good as you can get elected in Provo.
MisterForkbeard
@Chris: I thought that was Gingrich? :)
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Absolutely. My go-to argument for why term limits are a bad idea is because legislators need their own knowledge and skill to get the job done, and if they and their staff don’t have it, the work will wind up in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and lobbyists.
I’ve been thinking about the arcane procedural rules that legislatures have built up, and I have what I hope is an interesting perspective on it that highlights what’s wrong about Ryan’s approach to legislating. It’s not my main job, but one of the things I have to deal with at work is GMP (good manufacturing processes) and similar quality procedures. When I first started dealing with it, it seemed like a lot of work for not much value, but I’ve come around to accept a lot of the general principles. A key one- possibly the key one- is that you can only get a quality product by following repeatable procedures and checking the quality of your product throughout the process. If you aren’t doing those things, you might wind up with a quality product, but it will only happen by chance. It’s far more likely that problems will creep in along the way and you’ll wind up with a piece of shit.
Far from being a bunch of arbitrary rules, I think a lot of the process issues in Congress reflect hard-won wisdom about those kinds of quality issues as they apply to legislation. You have to run things through committees so the top legislative experts can look at what you’re proposing and look for problems. Those committees have to hold hearings so they can listen to outside experts. All this stuff has to be done publicly so anyone else who knows anything about the issue can contribute. Both amendments and the full legislation have to be out there for long enough that everyone in Congress can read them and make up their mind. And you have to have impartial experts at CBO look at the thing and judge it so it has a second set of non-political eyes doing technical vetting. If you short-circuit some of those steps, you’re not following a well controlled process. If you leave out CBO scoring, you’re ignoring quality control. It’s always possible that you’ll somehow manage to get decent legislation through without that process, but it’s far more likely you’ll wind up with a piece of shit like AHCA.
rikyrah
Report: Trump Official Offered Insurers Quid Pro Quo For O’Care Repeal
By Tierney Sneed Published May 18, 2017 6:14 pm
A top official in the Health and Human Services Department allegedly suggested that if insurers supported the House GOP Obamacare repeal bill, the administration would continue funding subsidies that President Trump has threatened to halt that keep out-of-pocket costs down for low income consumers, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The offer — put forward by Seema Verma, the Trump-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (pictured above) — left insurance industry officials “stunned,” the newspaper said.
“It made no sense,” one of the officials told the Times.
The subsidies are known as cost-sharing reduction payments, and they go directly to insurers to subsidize costs like deductibles and co-pays for low-income consumers, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act. They are the target of a House GOP lawsuit mounted in 2014 against the Obama administration that claims the payments are illegal because they were not explicitly appropriated by Congress. The case is on hold while the House GOP and the Trump administration figure out their next steps, but Trump on his own has threatened to halt them because he believes that would force Democrats to negotiate on repealing Obamacare.
Insurance companies have warned that an elimination of the payments will cause them to jack up their premiums to make up the shortfall or withdraw from the market entirely. Insurers have also raised concerns about the whether the Trump administration will continue to enforce the individual mandate after an executive order signed in January suggested they wouldn’t. Early filings for the 2018 plan year have shown major hikes in premiums, which Republicans have pointed to to justify their repeal effort.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/seema-verma-offered-insurers-quid-pro-quo-for-ocare-repeal?utm_content=buffer66abd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
rikyrah
Armando @armandodkos
It’s very telling that even Manchin says No to Lieberman. / Senate Democrats reject Lieberman for FBI director
TenguPhule
Trump getting his wood on
Must be a day ending in y again.
rikyrah
Tomthunkit™ @TomthunkitsMind
BREAKING: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians – Reuters. http://tinyurl.com/mo7tn3j
6:30 PM – 18 May 2017
TenguPhule
The womenfolk aren’t going to like this one.
The GOP want every woman in America barefoot, pregnant and chained to the kitchen.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
this is who they are