Yep, still not feeling sorry for these fucking assholes:
I went back this spring just after the House passed the AHCA, the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare that would cause 23 million fewer Americans to have health coverage, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The optimism was gone. Resignation had replaced it.
“You know, thinking about it, I’m not even sure what I expected. I just thought it would miraculously work out wonderful for everybody,” Bobbi Smith, a 62-year-old Obamacare enrollee who voted for Trump, says. “So I guess maybe I didn’t put enough thought into what I would expect from a health care act.”
***This includes Kathy Oller, an Obamacare enrollment worker who supported Trump in the 2016 election. She feels let down by the Republican health care plan — “If they take the expanded Medicaid away, it really, really is gonna kill Kentuckians because they won’t have health insurance,” she says — and she’s already seeing other ways that Trump health policies are hurting Kentucky. Obamacare sign-ups, she said, were slower this year, as people in Kentucky were confused about whether the health care law still existed.
But Oller doesn’t regret her vote for Trump — “I don’t have regrets,” she says plainly — and she trusts that Rogers, whom she has also voted for, knows what he’s doing. She gets most her news from his weekly emails to constituents; she cites his arguments for why the law needs to be repealed.
Maybe what this world needs is fewer Kentucky voters, which the Trump bill will most certainly help accomplish. After all, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t stop it from yelling racial epithets and then drowning itself.
I don’t feel bad for these mother fuckers in any way, shape, or form. They didn’t think, and when they did, they came to the wrong conclusion or decided they didn’t care the Democrats were worse. Which is fine. They are free to do that. But the problem here is they are fucking me and a lot of other people, because this week, while we’re investigating Trump and Russia and Trump is agitating a war in Qatar and Iran, the Senate is working behind closed doors to screw every single American. So go fuck yourself Kathy Oller and Bobbi Smith.
Turgidson
Top notch stuff right there.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
Four words: Eat shit and die.
bystander
As a side note: Why is anyone surprised that Dan Coats is acting like a partisan d/bag? Was he ever anyway else?
Trentrunner
With every victory the GOP has, I will think about this woman and people like her, Trump voters, getting a strange pain in their side, an odd headache. And I will wish for them the most protracted, intractable cancer diagnosis that has insanely expensive experimental treatment that is both painful and humiliating, even while it sucks dry any assets they have.
And then, after months or years of these drains on their finances and their hopes, I hope they die an excruciating death of bleeding and shitting to death in front of their horrified families, who are spattered like hillbilly Jackson Pollock paintings come to life with the rancid bodily fluids of their Trump-voting loved one as they writhe and scream when death finally, happily wins.
I may be a tad angry about this.
Baud
So the media is still obsessed with Trump voters? Ok.
(((CassandraLeo)))
I’ve got no sympathy for any of ’em. No sympathy for third-party voters either, nor anyone who had the opportunity to vote for Clinton and didn’t, and frankly I don’t even have much sympathy for people who voted Clinton only after spending the whole general election trashing her. I’m stressing the fuck out about whether I’ll ever be able to afford health insurance in the future. I have no sympathy for the people who actually bear culpability for the election outcome. Fuckem, as efgoldman is fond of saying.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Two words too many.
“Shit, Die.”
TenguPhule
@Trentrunner:
But tell us how you really feel about all this.
Jeffro
The funny thing is, Trumpov’s stance on health care – as with most any issue, really – obviously depended upon whomever had last whispered in his ear. THAT is the thing these ignorant morons should have voted against. Not necessarily where he stood on the issues, but the fact that he doesn’t KNOW any issues, and can be made to react for or against most anything by either a) telling him Obama was against or for it, b) telling him it benefits billionaires, or c) telling him that people will adore him if he does/doesn’t do ‘X’
The guy’s a complete idiot, unprincipled to the core, and cares only about himself…so this is who they would elevate to lead our country/the free world?!? I could care less if they were focused on his health care positions du jour (du hour, du minute). He’s the dumbest, biggest asshole the GOP could have put forward (and that’s saying something).
So…just as I don’t really care about his positions or why these people voted him into office, I truly don’t care what takes him out of it, either.
TenguPhule
Not only did she screw herself out of healthcare, but her own job.
These people are bound and determined to prove that Darwin was wrong through personal examples.
Bill E Pilgrim
And just the periodic reminder which shouldn’t even be necessary but is and also won’t do a bit of good no matter how many times it’s proven:
You can pretty much imagine that “25% of less than half the country are white and angry” would be somewhat less compelling as a subject to lavish nonstop articles and punditry about, thus the myth continues with the more adjusted for-sensationalism-not-to-mention-propaganda-purposes figures.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Two words: Ah and men.
Quinerly
I believe it:http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/trump-is-making-america-more-hostile-and-mentally-ill-new-england-journal-of-medicine-study/
JMG
I hate suffering, and if these people had screwed themselves just because they were as dumb as they obviously are, I would feel bad for them. But they’re putting on their “woebegone white folks” face for a big city reporter. In truth, they voted out of malice, out of the belief that Trump would give them stuff by taking it away from non-white people. So fuck ’em. They can ponder their white identity as their white cell count declines.
Iowa Old Lady
I never want to hear from another Trump voter, but I assume reporters keep at it because they’re as incredulous as we are. Surely these voters will see their mistake now! But they don’t. It’s like Dr Phil asking a wife who’s been cheated on how her decisions are working out for her. She kind of knows but she keeps going back to the guy.
jacy
Yep. Hope everyone who voted for Trump endures bankruptcy, destitution, pain, and death. And I don’t even feel guilty about it anymore. Fuck ’em.
Jeffro
Still waiting for all the articles about Clinton voters – you know, the majority of voters? By almost 3M votes? – and how there hasn’t even been a shred of genuine outreach to them and their needs, or to bring the country together in any way. Not with president* double down, though…
TenguPhule
And who knows what next week will bring.
TenguPhule
@jacy:
And not necessarily in that order!
dmsilev
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – H. L. Mencken
JDM
You know what, though, we should definitely make whatever changes we have to to the Democratic Party and our values to get these people to vote for our candidates.
Ruckus
@Trentrunner:
I’m a cancer patient. I’ll let that sink in a moment.
I wish every dumpf voter gets cancer. Stage IV cancer. And they find this out on the last day of whatever healthcare insurance they have, work, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, life savings. I hope they suffer horribly and die.
different-church-lady
@TenguPhule:
I do: the Senate will be working behind closed doors to screw every single American.
Baud
@Jeffro: We’re invisible.
different-church-lady
Let’s start a pool: who will be the first to blunder in and scold us about our angry rejection of the common clay of the new west?
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady:
That’s true for every day ending in Y.
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady:
Goblue72 for the under.
different-church-lady
@TenguPhule: And all the others as well.
hovercraft
@bystander:
According o the villagers he is/was a respected “statesman”, twice elected senator, two different stints, a diplomat or something, and just an all around, good guy who’s being brought down by this president. He was on his way to a dignified retirement and stepped up to serve his country and now is being brought down by the Shitgibbon.
Nora
She almost got her statement right. She should have said, “I guess I didn’t put any thought into my decision at all.” I suppose the reporter was especially pleased to find someone who had personally profited by the passage and working of Obamacare but who was still stupid enough to vote for its demise; I’d like to think people that stupid are hard to find (I’m probably wrong, but I try to be hopeful).
Quinerly
Meanwhile……http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/07/trump-wants-to-start-charging-stores-to-accept-food-stamps.html
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady: I’ve tried to think of what few fake scandals they smeared Obama with that haven’t already proven true for Trump.
I think I’m down to gun-running and FEMA concentration camps.
Anyone else recall more that haven’t already occurred with Trump?
Yoda Dog
Fuck their feelings.
Jeffro
@Baud: Even invisible people would leave, like, mysterious footprints in the dirt, or the occasional empty snack food wrapper lying around. At this point, I’m not sure anyone BUT Trumpov voters voted last November.
(Kremlin: “you’re getting warmer…”)
Baud
@TenguPhule: Has Trump worn a tan suit?
Has Trump given a video address to school children?
Has Trump eaten arugula?
amk
democracy: not for everyone.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
I hope you have a comfy chair to wait in, because it’s gonna be a looooooong wait.
It really is as basic as the fact that most journalists are white, so it genuinely never occurs to them to speak to anyone outside that circle. They want to hear from people like themselves, not those Others.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TenguPhule: Don’t forget the black helicopters and Agenda 21 where the pansy negro gives away national sovereignty to the UN, creating a global totalitarian state, silly!
Yoda Dog
@different-church-lady: Imma go with Applejinx for the block.
JMG
It is tempting to think that the big city reporters are seeking out the especially stupid and deluded Trump voters for these stories, but there have been about a billion of them now, and they’re all the same. The people willing to talk on the record (an important distinction) are either really stupid, really racist, or really both. These are the ones who still have the faith, the faith that being white will be rewarded by God in this world and the next.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@amk: Only for white rich people who vote GOP
Mike in NC
Good article. “That man [Trump] has a head for business” said one clueless rural Kentucky douchebag. They all need some suffering as the Angry God intended.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
1) He’s shown he’s a suit of Tan.
2) Well, with school children
3) Okay you got me, I can never see Trump doing this one.
FlipYrWhig
@JDM: Wry. What they think they want is The Government, which is always run by black and brown-loving liberals, to cut the free rides and welfare, and then, having done that, there will be more than enough of everything to go around for all the hardworking People Like Us. This is 100% of the reason why people who aren’t lousy stinking rich vote for Republicans and at least 75% of why the ones who ARE lousy stinking rich do. They are not changing their minds. We just need to outvote them.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@different-church-lady: goblue72?
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
Well to Russia, who is a member of the UN security council.
ETA: And black helicopters pre-date Obama to Clinton.
Ruckus
@JDM:
The only changes that can be made for these assholes to vote democratic is to change our values to agree with theirs. Two words for that. FUCK NO. There are more of us, we shouldn’t give up our values, which by the fucking way help those fucking assholes who couldn’t possibly vote for a woman or at least not vote for complete fucking moron, douchebag, dumbass. Notice that our values help them, save their lives, puts more money in their pockets and is far better for jobs. And they voted against all that. And if we had an actual democracy we would have won. So FUCK THEM, FUCK THEIR HORSES, I hope they get sick and die.
Joe Falco
I still have my regrets voting for Bernie in the Georgia primary.
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: That’s Mulvaney. I don’t have to read anything but the headline to know this is a Mulvaney idea.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Actually there was a gun walking case where the ATF stepped on it again a month or so ago in Florida. Jacksonville I think.
different-church-lady
@JDM:
So then, the new Democratic Party platform:
* Brown people are your enemy
* Black people are your enemy
* Poor people are your enemy
* Muslims are your enemy
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: Has he eaten brown mustard?
Another Scott
@Jeffro:
On a lot of things, yeah. He knows nothing about the issues involved in, say, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. So the last person who talks to him is going to have an outsized influence.
But on some things, like Obamacare, it doesn’t matter what the facts and the impact of destroying it would be, he wants it gone. Obama made a fool out of him, so Obama’s legacy has to be destroyed.
MJ: Donald Trump is completely obsessed with revenge
It’s not just stupid. He’s vengeful.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Does arugala come in scoops? If so, then yes he’s had two of them.
TenguPhule
Ben Carson, truly Trump’s rival when it comes to saying stupid shit.
Every stereotype of a stupid man of color, Ben Carson obligingly provides. Every single one.
Thoughtful David
@TenguPhule:
Darwin’s evolution actually requires that the stupid ones die.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
I think my response at #47 is a bit more pithy.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: @Mnemosyne: Here you go:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/06/we_re_supposed_to_fear_the_rage_of_trump_voters_what_about_the_rage_of_clinton.html
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Joe Falco:
Heretic! Burn him at the stake!
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@JMG:
And the non-whites who voted for and/or work for Trump?
Baud
@West of the Rockies (been a while): The 27% rule is colorblind.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Okay, So Fema Concentration camps and eating healthy food are all that’s left. Should we be concerned?
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman:
Yep.
JPL
@Ruckus: so did you read this
@Quinerly:
You are no alone. We are all disgusted.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Jeffro:
Good god damned point! Zero outreach to HRC voters, except maybe from BS voters who here and there are still reaching out with extended middle fingers.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: So we’re finally okay with the Jews? My Mom will be so relieved!//
Steeplejack
@TenguPhule:
Uh, the military maneuvers that were really a plot to take over Texas? Ah! Jade Helm. Good times.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: John Cole is interested as well. This is not the first time he has written a post about it. The best way to deal with T voters is to ignore them. I don’t need to know what they think for the nth time.
JMG
@Another Scott: What goes around, comes around. When he leaves office, one way or the other, a Democratic administration will be bound by its voters to make sure the miserable fuck spends the rest of his life in prison. The thing about revenge, you can never be sure you bat last.
TenguPhule
@Thoughtful David: But they’re not supposed to reproduce and spread their bad ideology along first.
hovercraft
@Baud:
Has Trump worn a tan suit?
Too fattening.
Has Trump given a video address to school children?
He met with Aryan kids today in Ohio.
Has Trump eaten arugula?
He doesn’t eat anything green, it would upset his delicate palate, maybe if you dipped in batter and deep fried it.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
They’ll never truly succeed. Most Americans know better these days, even if too little too late. They’ll can’t mind wipe us. And as sad it would be for millions to begin losing coverage in 2019, myself probably included, that can be used as cudgel in 2020 and beyond, if people face real consequences for their actions.
Iowa Old Lady
@Adam L Silverman: Which taste better when everybody else gets only one scoop.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule:
Quite the opposite, they’re proving Darwin right.
TenguPhule
@Steeplejack:
When it was funny. I remember that.
p.a.
Crap… bad link
James Powell
@Thoughtful David:
Sadly, they have to die before they procreate.
Jeffro
@Another Scott:
My original comment:
So, yeah, option ‘A’
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: No. They are the biggest enemy because they incite the “others” who are too stupid to think for themselves, or so I have read on the cray cray supremacist websites.
Major Major Major Major
No matter how few Kentucky voters there are they’ll still get as many senators as California. Le sigh.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Perhaps. Might not be a bad idea.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Someone still has to count the grifter money.
rk
@Jeffro:
Well according to one of the stupid Trump kids, they’re not even human. Only thing he didn’t say was that they should be put down like one of the animals that he hunts.
bystander
@hovercraft:
As well as Dan Coats may be. A perfectly fitting ending to Coats’s career.
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: What did I win?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Baud:
True. It seems you can assemble a hundred of anything (doctors, football players, Lutheran ministers, biologists…)
27% will be morons.
Of course, some groups may have more idiots, bigots, misogynists, etc… GOP voters come to mind.
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pyRVN-ejoJY/VavIekSRLhI/AAAAAAABj2o/QQStBnuDBts/s1600/1%2Ba%2Bjade%2Bhelm.jpg
Ruckus
@JPL:
Read it? Unless I’m missing something, an alternate understanding of english perhaps, not only did I read it, I wrote it. Yes it’s a bit longer than THIS!, but I felt there are more than enough pixels to accommodate both.
Adam L Silverman
@Iowa Old Lady: Exactly.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
A charge for foodstamps.
Yoda Dog
@Joe Falco: Wilmer was fine before he declined to accept defeat and help defeat the fascist toddler. His behavior since this has been fucking despicable though. Fuck that guy.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@rk: Or even more darkly in concentration camps.
Dehumanization. Literally what Hitler did
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Mom is not going to be happy to hear that. Neither are the alte kakers at the Elders meeting next week. I’m not sure if this will have to be covered in old or new business, but it is clearly going to impact our world domination plans.
Peale
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: do you honestly expect the Dems to try to do healthcare reform again before 50 million actual voters are without insurance? They got 0 credit for what they did.
Baud
@Yoda Dog: I blame the bird. That was the turning point. Evil bird.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Yoda Dog: Look on the bright side: he’s likely going to die soon
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: There is no reason to resort to stereotypes.//
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: OMG, how’d I ever miss that. one. article. that came out in early June, seven months after the election?
I’m not knocking you of course, Adam…just double- or triple-eyerolling the media at this point…where were/are the articles about the majority (now approaching ‘vast’ majority) that had to settle for rule by a political minority at best, which at this point has essentially devolved into an abusive marriage with some discount Corleone? (and one owned by even seedier thugs at that?)
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
No offense meant, that is literally one of the only two things Trump thinks they’re good for.
ETA: Sorry, Poe’s law varient.
Baud
@Peale: Agree. And it’ll just piss off the single payer people.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I know, I was just being a smartass and playing out the snark. So no worries. I’ll go back and put sarc tags on that.
TenguPhule
@Peale:
Credit, hell. They got PUNISHED for their good deed.
piratedan
apparently Ms. Oller was so busy being white that she forgot that she was also a person….
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman:
There is if we’re gonna change the party the way we “need” to.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Ruckus:
Call me a pearl clutcher, but does such rage hurt you more than it does them?
Yes, I fucking despise them, too, and I sometimes give in to that anger by yelling at Mara Liassen, Mark Halprin, Hannity, et al. But too much of that turns your guts to acid, which works at us from deep inside.
Take time off to point and laugh at them, too, and to GOTV.
*I feel quite certain, Ruckus, that you do those positive things, else you wouldn’t be here!
Chris
I’ll say it over and over: I can forgive stupidity, I can’t forgive malice. Those people didn’t vote for Trump because they thought he’d make their lives better. They did it because they thought he’d make our lives worse. That he’s also doing to them what they wanted to do to us is the only richly deserved part of this whole disaster.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Lack of your facial emojis makes it hard to spot the difference.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: But he didn’t have to be told about Obamacare. He made up his own mind about that.
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
Darn, nobody picked West of the Rockies in the pool…
different-church-lady
@Chris: DING DING DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!
hovercraft
@TenguPhule:
So I’ve decided he’s an idiot savant. He was a brilliant neurosurgeon, but a complete and utter moron in every other regard. Also a very useful house …………
He’ll have to try much harder to become Massa’s favorite though, Clarence Thomas is well established in that role.
raven
Ooo, Lebron got KO’d.
joel hanes
@Thoughtful David:
Darwin’s evolution actually requires that the stupid ones die.
Misconception.
What matters is the number of descendants in the grandchild and following generations.
If you win by that metric, you win evolution — doesn’t matter when you die.
Morzer
@Major Major Major Major:
IMPEACH JAMES MADISON!
TenguPhule
@Chris: Preach it, brother!
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@different-church-lady:
You forgot the gays.
Jeffro
@Another Scott: Right…he was reflexively against it, even though the ‘solution’ he described essentially is Obamacare. My point.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Peale: We just need better PR is all and a greater willingness to be louder and more aggressive. If 2018 doesn’t go well and Dems win presidency in 2020 they’ll be hamstrung anyways. It’s an issue that can be used to beat Republicans over the head with to win elections. I never said it wasn’t going to get worse before it gets better. It will.
If enough people get fucked over, and Dems can convince enough voters that the GOP is at fault, they could win back control and bring affordable healthcare back. Maybe even some form of single payer if things shift enough. Who knows what the polticial landscape will look like 5-10 years from now
TenguPhule
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Three words.
Log Cabin Republicans.
Yoda Dog
@different-church-lady: lol you beat me to it..
raven
he back
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
At this point in time I’m worried what the literal landscape is going to look like by then.
Between the EPA getting gutted and the move to try and sell off as much public land as possible before the jig is up, America promises to look very different in the future.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: I honestly think the party basically needs to find qualified, which there are plenty of, people of color, especially women, and get them to run for office up and down the ticket from municipal special districts to the presidency in every election and in every district. They get first crack if they want it. And then support them to the hilt. Find qualified people to run their campaigns and do their strategic comms and serve on their staffs. And marry this to a platform that benefits everyone and is delineated in clear, concise language that is hard to twist and to misconstrue and just hammer the messaging over and over and over.
Camembert
“Becky McCrackerson”
https://twitter.com/thewayoftheid/status/848529985904287745
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TenguPhule: I think all of that is going to contribute to a backlash that not even voter suppression or oligarch funded propaganda will be able to overcome
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: Also, more virtual candidates.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
And would you like a unicorn to go with that too?
mainmata
@Trentrunner: I understand the reason for the sentiment but that’s just morally wrong to want.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: No, I’m not unrealistic. Just a pegasus. Thanks.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Yes, but as much fun as watching Republicans twist in the wind would be, that doesn’t unshit the pollution and destruction.
mainmata
@Jeffro: That’s why Trumpsters like him because he’s just like them.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@different-church-lady:
Yeah, saw the pool after responding to Ruckus.
Still worry though about the effect of bile though…. Don’t let’s roll over and pee on ourselves with impotent worry over sounding shrill. Just don’t poison yourself with rage.
Camembert
@JMG:
Or it could refer to us as fucking retards. But let’s hope your version is the new thing we actually go by.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TenguPhule: True. But it is what is. Just more cleanup and rebuilding that will have to be done.
Rome wasn’t built in a day
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: I can have a chicken ducttaped to Baud’s back. That’s the best I can do.
MoxieM
@Iowa Old Lady: That’s a hella shitty analogy. I’m a formerly cheated-on spouse, and I can tell you that I had Not. One. Clue. Being lied to your face very convincingly will do that–cheaters are entitled narcissistic, selfish cowards. It was not my fault, and none of my doing. If someone makes innumerable decisions to betray and steal from a family who are committed to love and support that person. Well, It’s fucking hard, let me tell you. Worse than any of the other catastrophes in my life. Waaay worse, and like most ~ 60 year olds, I’ve had my share. But I promise you, that I didn’t “go back”, and I am nothing like a dumb ass Trump voter, and I resent the fuck out of that analogy. It’s called blaming the victim. For example: “that guy who got mugged…why did he keep getting up and walking down the street to go to work? what a moran! Just like a Trump voter.” Uhh, no. Trump voters made selfish, racist, stupid, racist, poorly thought out, racist, hateful and racist decisions. It’s nothing like being (actually) psychologically abused for years. Nothing at all.
James Powell
We Democrats can never hope to get these people to vote for them.
We are the party of the Ns, the Fs, and the Bs. They hate us.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@TenguPhule:
Ugh. Self-loathing people.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: It doesn’t matter what the details are – as you say, and I agree, he doesn’t care about details. He wants Obamacare gone. Because he’s vengeful.
The Teabaggers could simply change the name of the PPACA to Great Leader Trump’s American Best HealthCare in the World Act (GLTABHCWA) and he’d be fine with it. But Obamacare has to go, as far as Donnie is concerned.
IOW, we’re talking past each other a little. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: That’s exactly what I was thinking. How many more years of this are we going to endure. There has been zero obsession over President Obama voters or Secretary Clinton voters.
different-church-lady
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
Well, so much for that plan.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
But it was burned in a night.
JPL
@Ruckus: I was asking about the Raw Story link that Quinerly had. I’m enraged by Trump’s actions and those of his supporters. Truthfully, they don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Patricia Kayden: For the rest of Trump’s life
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: What you all do in your private time, provided everyone is a consenting adult, is y’all’s business. I do not need to know it. No one needs to know it!
efgoldman
@hovercraft:
You’re kidding, right? Coats was, is and will always be a bog-standard Indiana RWNJ hack.
MomSense
I called Senator Collins’ office (voicemail) and begged. I begged her not to vote for the Republican bill. Then I cried.
Yoda Dog
@Adam L Silverman: Hell fucking yes. Between the B-bros and the trumplicans, I am fucking over the vast majority of white guys forever. (FULL DISCLOSURE: Im a white guy..)
To your point, I’m rooting very hard for Senator Harris, both tomorrow at the hearing and going forward. I love her. She is everything our party needs in a leader right now, imho.
BBA
It is a deep flaw in the Constitution that we can’t just deny white people the vote.
Major Major Major Major
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I think a lot of them are just rich.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TenguPhule: And was eventually rebuilt and continued on for several more hundred years.
Patricia Kayden
@JMG: If only we could limit the suffering to just Trump supporters but alas.
efgoldman
@Nora:
Nope. Just go to rural Ohio, PA. IN, MO…. and swing a dead cat. You’ll hit at least a dozen of ’em.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
It has four limbs and a pair of wings, what more do you want?
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
Wait, I thought we were going to try to be more like Republicans.
eclare
@Camembert: That was brilliant. Forwarded on.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Which I’m sure was a great comfort to those actually caught in the fire.
TenguPhule
@Baud: Zing!
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@different-church-lady: If the Repukes are in charge when they get hurt, it’ll be possible. We don’t live in an Orwellian state yet
Patricia Kayden
@MomSense: Sadly I wouldn’t count on Collins to do the right thing. I believe she’s voted in support of Trump on pretty much everything even when she’s expressed skepticism beforehand. Cannot stand her.
Adam L Silverman
@Yoda Dog: The look she gave Burr today was priceless. And from what I know of her, I’m sure she’s had a word with him as well. Most likely about her experience being a former prosecutor and his being in sales.
Yoda Dog
@West of the Rockies (been a while): My rage is cathartic.
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: Not even all of Facebook?
TenguPhule
@MomSense:
You do realize she’s going to be using your message for self pleasure, right?
Patricia Kayden
@Chris: They are both stupid and malicious just like Trump. Bad combo.
TenguPhule
@Patricia Kayden:
I believe its still legal to discriminate based on political party preference.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: Facebook should be banned. Zuckerberg’s wealth should be seized and put to use funding services for the needy.
different-church-lady
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: …but the fourth one STAYED UP!
Bobby Thomson
Fuck Ezra Klein, also, too. Fucker did his part.
hovercraft
@TenguPhule: @Adam L Silverman:
WTF? ? ?
I just started reading from the bottom, @efgoldman: I know, just quoting dumbass media.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TenguPhule: What do you want me to say? That no one is going to get hurt? I’d be lying if I did. I’m just trying say that not all is lost and that there is a way out of this. Neither Trump or the GOP are as invincible as they’d like us to believe. Everything ends; even cults of personality and political parties
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: Come sit over here next to me.
Mary G
Somebody’s worried about his criminal case. Link is to the Guardian.
The discussion of the false version first put out by his campaign is a masterpiece of very expensive damage control and evasion:
It’s a mystery why anyone would think you were accused of starting the fight!
The kicker’s at the end:
Davebo
@Patricia Kayden:
Collins is a female version of McCain. She’ll furrow her brow, express deep concerns then vote either the way she’s told to or the way she planned to all along.
Baud
@Davebo: Yep. And she’s not even a POW.
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
No need to bring color into it; he embodies the stereotype of every stupid man, just like his boss.
BBA
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: There’s still 17 months until the midterms. They have time.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Not picking on you or anything, but provided we win, there is still a lot of work ahead. And some of it is going to be lost for good anyway even in the best outcome. Don’t want it forgotten, that’s all.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: If Jacobs is smart he’s going to sue Gianforte for everything he can get.
geg6
Fuck these assholes and fuck any media that give them the spotlight. They should all eat shit and die. I hate them and I’ll hate them forever.
Major Major Major Major
@Davebo: @Baud: Reminds me of the brilliant McSweeney’s reporting on the Winners and Losers of the Recent Nuclear Holocaust.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, I am, but I don’t have much choice.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: You could self-hate.
Baud
@efgoldman: You could be self-hating.
ETA: Damn you, OO.
tobie
I was so despondent today after the Coats/Rogers/McCabe/Rosenstein hearing in the morning and the GOP spin on Comey’s opening statement, that I wrote a letter for my mother instead to fax to her Republican Senator. I’m pasting it below if anyone wants a little push to contact their GOP senator. FaxZero is a really useful tool.
***********************************************
I am a proud resident of Florida. I am also a proud mother of two and grandmother of two. Three of my children and grandchildren purchase health insurance on the individual market. I am extremely worried about the healthcare they will receive if the Affordable Care Act is repealed and replaced with the AHCA. As the Congressional Budget Office has shown:
1. At least 23 million Americans will lose health insurance if the AHCA passes.
2. Premiums will rise over the next ten years and especially for those 50 and over, which applies to my two daughters.
3. Block granting Medicaid payments will leave millions of struggling Americans without health insurance, which will lead to public health crises in turn.
4. Removing protections for people with pre-existing conditions will effectively price them out of the market.
5. Repealing the Essential Health Benefits provisions will result in health insurance policies that cover virtually nothing and are not worth the paper they are printed on.
The AHCA puts the lives of countless Americans at risk. Do the right thing. Strengthen the ACA. Your colleagues in the Senate have many wise ideas about how this could be accomplished (for instance, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices). The AHCA neither expands coverage nor improves health care. Do not vote for it.
Corner Stone
@geg6:
Hmmm…yes. Yes.
Wag
@Iowa Old Lady:
No, because brown mustard is delicious. Instead the MF puts ketchup on his well done steak.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: RE: Last night. Jason was in the 11th Tennessee, CSA.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud:
Too late.
jacy
@mainmata:
Nope — I don’t think it’s morally wrong to want. It would be morally wrong to ACT TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. But it is definitely not morally wrong to want. I had cancer. I would be dead, literally, without the ACA. My children would be motherless. I’ve had 53 years of trying to be empathetic to everyone — even the worst people. But I’ve had that burned out of me by these people. It makes me feel good to hate them, because that anger would have to go somewhere else if I didn’t. I’m not a bad person, but they’ve just exhausted my mental goodwill and I will save it for someone else.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: So my guy may have shot at yours and vice versa.
ArchTeryx
And this is just why I’ve been celebrating almost nonstop at getting this job, because my state health insurance is likely going to kick in just as my Medicaid is taken away. I have my lifeboat seat. How many tens of millions don’t, and how many hundreds of thousands will simply die?
Cancer don’t check party registration. Democrats and Republicans will die together from lack of health care. All sacrificed to the Moloch that drives the Republican party – the unholy offspring of Greed, Malice and Spite.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: No, that’s the full and final settlement of any and all civil claims. Plus the GoFundMe that someone started to get him a new pair of glasses took in $7,500 and he’s also donating that to CPJ as well. Ben Jacobs is much nicer person than I am. I’d have taken it to trial, refusing any and all offers of settlement, just for the discovery process, even knowing that a Montana jury wouldn’t give me squat. I’m pretty sure Greg’s got more violent episodes in his closet.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: BAGGGIIIINS!!!! We hates him we hates him for eversssses!
Baud
@ArchTeryx: Glad to hear about your new job.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Adam L Silverman: Yes x 1,000,000
hovercraft
@Baud:
Are you sure? She frequently expresses concern and or disapproval and then turns round and votes with the evil turtle, so she may be a POW or maybe a hostage suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Neldob
Maybe billboards are a way to communicate with these voters. Sort of some basic information, like Republicans want to end Medicare and Social Security, vote for x who supports it. Or flyers at the grocery store that look like a Nat’l Enquired.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: It’s a pretty crappy job for a PhD, but a) it’s a state job, b) it’s permanent – not temporary, and c) it comes with full benefits. Which means health insurance.
That’s my lifeboat, so long as I pass my year’s probation. Going to be a very tight and very stressful year, but once it’s over, I’m in the state for life.
JPL
@ArchTeryx: Wahoo! That is such good news.
Yoda Dog
@geg6: Here, here.
I, for one, don’t wish them to all die face down in a mudpuddle. I just wish them justice. Whether or not those two things dovetail is none of my concern.
James Powell
@Bobby Thomson:
He’s the Richard Cohen of his generation.
Baud
@ArchTeryx: Peace of mind is the most important thing.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@ArchTeryx: Happy for you.
Mary G
@ArchTeryx: I missed that you got hired, congratulations. I too am privileged to be personally insulated from the nightmare that the ACHA is going to unleash on the poor and sick, probably, but I have an imagination.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: You actually do have really flat arches for your feet, don’t you?
BBA
@Omnes Omnibus: I for one loathe most of my fellow Jews, but purely because they’re white. Nothing to do with Judaism.
Citizen Alan
@mainmata:
I don’t give a s***. These animals will murder your children for a laugh. They have forfeited any right to common decency. Don’t coddle them.
rikyrah
Key GOP centrists open to ending Medicaid expansion
06/07/17 05:20 PM EDT
GOP moderates in the Senate are open to ending federal funding for ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, but want a longer deadline for ending the additional funding than their leadership has proposed.
Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) have proposed a seven-year phase-out of federal funding for the Medicaid expansion, beginning in 2020 and ending in 2027.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) proposed a shorter, three-year phase-out that would end in 2023 at the Senate lunch on Tuesday.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/336814-key-gop-centrists-open-to-ending-medicaid-expansion
Yoda Dog
@ArchTeryx: Huge congrats. I’ve never said anything before, but I’ve been very worried for you, my friend. That’s incredible news.
Cheryl Rofer
Someone asked earlier if Trump will be live-tweeting. He’s at least going to watch the Comey testimony.
ArchTeryx
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Not happy for those who didn’t find seats on a lifeboat as the ship sinks from under them. I’m no less a health care evangelist now then I was when it was my ox getting ready to be slaughtered. At least this way, I can keep fighting the fuckers instead of dying a protracted and lonely death.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: I use very good orthotics in my shoes.
rikyrah
The Hill
✔
@thehill
House votes to waive lie detector tests for Border Patrol agent hiring: http://hill.cm/FtMEMjX
4:25 PM – 7 Jun 2017
Baud
@rikyrah:
Hell of an incentive to GOTV in 2020.
tobie
@ArchTeryx: Congratulations on your job and health benefits! I’m relieved for you.
rikyrah
Stop.writing.articles.about.these.stupid.people
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: That’s unfortunate for the DC bar that is going to buy rounds of drinks for every time he tweets about Comey. There could be several tweets in that two hour period.
BBA
@rikyrah: Lie detectors don’t work, why did we use them to begin with?
Mnemosyne
@MoxieM:
I disagree with you a bit, but it will require me to scrape up a tiny bit of compassion for Trump voters. I think a lot of them probably are abuse survivors, particularly emotional abuse, and Trump’s constant lying and self-aggrandizement seems normal to them, because that’s what Mommy or Daddy was like.
They’ve basically been told all their lives that they need to sacrifice their own well-being to keep Mommy or Daddy happy, and the Republicans came along and pushed those exact same buttons. It’s not a coincidence that the one cousin of mine that I know voted for Trump was raised by a narcissistic mother.
eclare
@ArchTeryx: Had not heard, wonderful news!
Adam L Silverman
@BBA: The reasoning is that they’re better than nothing.
ken
@Jeffro: There have been articles and reporting about the Clinton voters: all the marches and protests. And we’re mad. Also, I think the media is waiting for a comeback story, so you don’t get “Clinton voters” you get articles about the special elections, Ossoff and Quint and Perriello….
rikyrah
Tommy ChristopherVerified account @tommyxtopher
Oh SNAP! @Ossoff busts @karenhandel HARD when she tries to weasel out of her Komen/@PPFA controversy! Watch!
https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/872273701978476545?
hovercraft
@ArchTeryx:
Congrats, so glad you found something with good benefits. That’s a huge burden off of you.
dlm
@mainmata: No, it’s not wrong at all. I cheered while reading the comment.
jl
@JPL:
” That’s unfortunate for the DC bar that is going to buy rounds of drinks for every time he tweets about Comey. There could be several tweets in that two hour period. ”
Several? God knows how many Trump will pump out. Sounds like a risk of one of those mass alcohol poisonings they have in Russia (RUSSIA!!??). Anyway, local public health authorities should be on alert tomorrow morning.
efgoldman
@MomSense:
I’m sure she’ll have some aide tell you she’s very “concerned” and has some “doubts”.
And when voting time comes, she’ll do whatever Yertle McTurtle needs/wants her to do.
Gawd, how can you STAND her?
Is she really gonna’ run for governor? I suppose she’ll appear to be a great relief after two terms with Governor Mucilage.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This would be (at least approved by) Mitt Romney’s niece, George’s granddaughter, part of the old school Republican establishment and one of those Mormons we sometimes hear want no truck with President Grabber?
I think this is a mistake, then I think, what percentage of the country knows who Comey is and what’s going on tomorrow? 35%? 40%?
Sab
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Most of the Bernie primary voters I know worked very hard for Hillary in the general election. I know we have our trolls here, but I’must not sure they are typical.
KhefnNoKY
Somewhere long ago I found the gov’t site that showed Hal Rodgers’ 6th Congressional district is like the number 3 Congressional district receiving federal aid of all cong. districts. His bringing home the bacon and being re-elected while keeping them stupid. These people hate. These people are perpetually, generationally on the draw. These people are vengeful. These people are slighted that the lazy blacks in Rep. John Yarmouth’s Louisville district receive the same federal benefits they deserve more.
After Years of their hate toward PBO & Beshear, they elected Matt Bevin because some county clerks refused to sign marriage certificates. They are unsalvageable.
As they favor, lessons are only learned the hard way. Let them find the resources locally to deal with generational poverty. Let them find locally the money to fight and heal the opioid crisis in the hollers. Let them line up in the darkness at an abandoned strip mall or grocery to receive free health, dental and eye care.
I will donate what I can to charities to help. I will continue to donate furniture and house goods to Father Beiting’s Appalachian Mission so they have a place to sit or lay their head or a spoon to eat from. But I have no intention to assist people who have doom themselves and taken the my child and the rest of this country down the sh!thole bc they hated PBO and this pres*dent is determined to erase Obama’s work.
And I still want to deck every last Bernie or Stine supporter.
efgoldman
@Baud:
No, but she’s had RWNJ capture Stockholm syndrome for years and years and years and…..
glory b
@West of the Rockies (been a while): ‘And the non-whites who voted for and/or work for Trump?”
All three of them?
jl
@MomSense: @efgoldman: Never beg a Senator, they take it as a sign of weakness. Make it clear you are telling those miserable so-and-so what to do. Politely, of course.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@ArchTeryx:
Congratulations on the job! I just saw the news. I hope it is rewarding and engaging.
Mary G
Some small bit of justice:
jl
@Sab: Don’t venture out into that smoking, cratered, hellhole of no-man’s-land in the great Hillary-Bernie war. You’ll be cut down in a second. Makes Verdun look like an ice-cream social.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus: @Baud:
Naah, too much work. Anyway, I have cousins who take care of that enough for any five people.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@rikyrah:
Oh, well, I’m sure it’ll work out… I mean, what could go wrong?//
Redshift
My reply to Klein:
I think that’s a pretty decent practical argument in favor of mockery. Is there any actual argument against, other than that it might make them feel bad?
Sab
@Peale: They didn’t do it for credit. They did it to help people.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
Mary Mayhew resigned from DHS and announced she is running for Governor. She’s a horror show but no match for Collins should she decide to run.
@jl:
I’ve left every kind of voicemail imaginable – indognant, angry, incredulous, frustrated, resolved, etc. Mostly I get a message saying her voicemail is full.
I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know if anyone listens to the professional left podcast here but bluegal said something really important. The Republicans are now known by teens and young children as the party that makes their moms cry. It’s so true.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Josh Marshall rule: moderate Republicans always fall in line. Someone tell me he’s wrong.
KS in MA
@Jeffro: @Jeffro: This.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wouldn’t surprise me if she actually thinks she’s giving careful thought to every issue, considering it from all angles, then votes the way Mitch wants her to every time.
Ksmiami
@jacy: the right has worked hard to earn our hatred and contempt. I say we give it to them
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
No self-hater, you’re the self-hater, you’re the self-hater!
MomSense
@ArchTeryx:
Congrats on the job! So happy for you.
efgoldman
@rikyrah:
Of course they do. Gets the greedy assholes thru at least one more election cycle before the fuckheads who voted for them realize what’s happened.
[BTW, this idea was actually floated while Boehner was still speaker, and the house was passing a new repeal bill every other week, but the mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging flying monkeys wanted all or nothing]
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Of course, they wouldn’t need to pass polygraph waivers if the Congress actually provide enough funding to clear the backlog and keep up with the workload.
This reminds me of a story I heard on ATC yesterday:
“Reform” and “protecting whistleblowers” and “making it easier to fire bad employees” is all well and good (depending on what is meant by “bad employees”, of course), but what about the obvious question?
Why wasn’t there enough food at the hospital?
Why are there 49,000 vacancies?
Maybe the main problem with the VA is lack of funding? How about some more money?? It’s kind of amazing how well a system can work if it is given adequate funding to accomplish its mission…
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Yoda Dog
@Sab: Well if we’re exchanging anecdotes, then most all of the bros I know bitched and moaned all the way til November that Bernie got screwed, the DNC fixed the race and HRC was impure of progressive gravitas…. or something.
Ladyraxterinok
@Quinerly: Èach day we painfully relearn that there are no depths to which they will not sink. Ìf we were to pray that God would open their hearts to the pain and suffering of real people–and that in fact was done–I think there would be an epidemic of death by heart attack.
Sab
@Peale: They didn’t do it for credit. They did it to help people.
@ArchTeryx: @ArchTeryx: Finally, some good news today. I am so happy and relieved for you.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Just read on NPR a story of angry shareholders of a zoo in China feeding a live donkey to tigers to protest a lack of returns on their investment.
Ugh. Human beings everywhere are capable of being utterly reprehensible.
jl
@MomSense: Sorry to hear about your experience with Collins. Hope that you got some response from her. I can understand your frustration and despair.
One thing about DiFi, is that I do get a response almost always obviously a form letter, but at least a relevant response every time I issue a constituent instruction. Sometimes within a few days, on other topics, might be weeks later.
I recently i sent a response to a response, informing her that she was not following my constituent instructions, and was hopelessly wrong and a no good miserable excuse for a Senator. Looks like some staffer put my on all her mailing lists in revenge.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: There are 49,000 vacancies because of the sequester. These positions are on the official Table of Distributed Allowances (TDA – the shedule/list of existing positions at any specific Federal workplace). But because of the sequester a lot of them aren’t filled. Largely because the funding is held up or is being temporarily reallocated to pay for other things. In other cases it is because the VA has gotten a bad reputation – fairly or unfairly – and has trouble finding personnel. In other cases the flash to bang between application, interview, initial offer, final offer with on board date, and the actual proposed on board date takes so long that people take other jobs because they have to pay bills.
As for the food issue: I have no idea.
Mary G
@MomSense: The children are watching. Hang in there. We have to face some awful losses, but we can’t give up and we can limit the damage. Have you tried tweeting? I’m enjoying bugging Darrell Issa.
hedgehog mobile
Boo fucking hoo. Fuckem.
MoxieM
@Mnemosyne: Nearly everyone I know in similar circ.s to me–surprisingly quite a few, of many genders, has been deeply triggered by the election and subsequent shitstorms of the *resident. Deeply so. Many of us have CPTSD from years of psychological abuse, but it tends to teach us skills to spot the narc! (like a really crappy midway game…) less so make us vulnerable to the blandishments and manipulation. I guess if you’re vulnerable, it’s the consequence of an unexamined life, tant pis. And, I don’t feel in the least sorry for folks who voted that way and will suffer.
Mnemosyne
@Sab:
Nobody is mad at people just because they preferred Sanders in the primary. We’re only mad at the ones who continue to insist that he didn’t really lose, it was all a set-up by the Evil DNC and Crooked Hillary, who totally fixed the race so Sanders would lose by 3 million votes.
Starfish
@rikyrah: Those tests should be waived for everyone. They are bullshit that make sure those jobs are filled with white people who look like the people giving the lie detector tests.
J R in WV
@(((CassandraLeo))):
I worked my ass off making phone calls into Ohio for Hillary, and contributed on a regular draw-down schedule… you can do that now, tell Act-Blue to suck yea much money weekly or or monthly, etc.
I contributed to congressional candidates too, always do, some first-timers, some running for higher office, congresswomen running for the Senate, etc. But mostly worked for Hillary. I had signs in the back windows for a while, but found that they interfered with my vision making turns and backing and such. Probably didn’t matter anyway, solid red state, after all.
efgoldman
@KhefnNoKY:
Satisfying, but too quick. They should all lose their jobs, their scholarships, mummy and daddy’s nice house they live in…
Let them live like the people who actually USE AND NEED the ACA,
Fuckem
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks, but that doesn’t really answer the question (even though it is the correct answer).
Why is the sequester still impacting things in the Federal Budget? Because the Teabagger Congress cannot do its job.
The VA (and all the other government departments) are not going to be fixed by “reforms” that “protect whistleblowers” and “ease firing of bad employees” when the problems are mainly due to lack of staff and lack of resources.
The ATC story did not leave me better informed about problems with the VA nor how the legislation was going to fix things. Will it improve the hiring backlog? Will it eliminate the problems of diabetics not being able to eat on the weekends? It doesn’t seem like it…
IOW, the VA story (like the polygraph exceptions story) is another illustration of the problems the Teabaggers have unleashed on America. But the reporter was unwilling to give us the big picture, or address obvious questions in the report.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
efgoldman
@jl:
I’ve got two true blue senators, and a Jewish, gay congresscritter with an Italian name. I let them know how I feel from time to time, but I don’t need to beg, cajole, or demand. They know what the right thing is, and they do it.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
When i was at basic at Ft Polk, 68/69, the company mess would sometimes run out of ham or roast beef or turkey before the last platoon finished.
Always wondered why, until the time I had KP and saw the mess sergeant loading up a cooler in the trunk of his car a half hour after the delivery truck left.
Just sayin’.
jl
@efgoldman: Thanks,. I’ll bring the RI [right?] delegation to DiFi’s attention that next time DiFi is dilatory and obstinate.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: There is just no pleasing some people.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@MoxieM:
There are people who grew up with an abusive parent or had an abusive romantic relationship who are able to realize that it was bad and free their minds. But there are also quite a few people who are never able to free themselves, and often get into a Stockholm Syndrome mindset where they rationalize what was done to them, make excuses for their abuser, and (most importantly) lash out at anyone who tries to point out that they were abused and their abuser is a horrible person.
Those are the people to watch out for, because they’re completely willing to rationalize themselves right into a vote for Trump and to lash out at anyone who threatens the alternate reality they’ve created for themselves where all the abuse they suffered was for their own good and made them a better person.
Sab
@Mnemosyne: I agree with you, but we get a lot of anti-Bernie comments here on BJ. I just don’t want to alienate the Bernie people I know who worked for Hillary and are still working for Democrats. I am probably treating them like snowflakes when they are not, but I recognize a lot of them did work hard for us in the general election and I don’t want to alienate them.
I am living in a blue city in a red state, so I am not challenging you or Yoda Dog, just saying my experience with Bernie folks is different, and I don’t want your comments to piss off my bernie guys. But on the other hand my local bernie guys are on board and not snowflakes so they can withstand your comment that is appropriate to your state/district but not to mine.
I think you would like my local bernie guys. Weird thinking in Ohio. Why was Nina Turner a Bernie Bros? I will never understand that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sab: is there such a thing as self-virtue-signaling? auto-virtue-signaling?
Sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wow. This comment is way beyond the capacity of my tiny brain. What are you trying to say, in words of one or two syllables?
J R in WV
@ArchTeryx:
Congratulations on your job. Be a square peg in the square hole ’til you pass the probation period, then you can loosen up a bit. Also, once you’re hired, and through probation, I expect you can apply for better positions without going through probation again. That’s how it is here, anyway.
Best of luck with the job, co-workers, etc!
Sab
@Mnemosyne: Well , I agree with you. That’s good, because I usually agree with you. Glad that is still the case.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sab: supporting Bernie made people feel virtuous, as if they were more highly evolved and idealistic than the rest of us cop-out compromisers (or neo-liberals, or secret Republicans, or whatever we are according to NR et al)
Virtue-signaling = Hey, look at what a good person I am!
self-virtue-signaling = Hey, who’s that hero I see in the mirror!
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@ArchTeryx: Welcome to state employment. Even if it’s not the job you imagined, may it be a start on life getting better.
Sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for the update. Now I understand.
The Lodger
@ArchTeryx: Great news about the job (and the health care.) I’m stoked. Possibly even chuffed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sab: well, it was an update on a bunch of bullhsit I made up, but… FWIW, YMMV, and all that.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
@Chris:
West you make a good point. But Chris makes a far better one. I too can forgive stupidity, to a point. But malice? No fucking way. How many people on this blog have heath issues? Lots of us. Many/most of us have some connection to the government for our healthcare needs, be it money, the exchanges, the VA (me). These assholes voted against their own interests to fuck us over. And that’s just the health care issue. What about voting? What about banking regulations? What about taxes on the rich, oh wait, I mean no taxes on the rich? What about foreign relations? What about the climate? What about infrastructure? What about SS? What about grift and corruption?
And you want me to be polite? I had hoped that my retirement might be at least not living on the street and maybe it won’t be. But fuck the people who have decided that a democracy doesn’t need to think about the citizens that make it up, unless they are willing to be subservient to the wealthy and bigoted old white men.
I am pissed off and see no need to hide that. I’ve worked and paid into SS for 55 yrs and am still working, I’ve suffered the loss of 2 small businesses, one to an earthquake and one to a fucking republican recession. My whole life was about trying to live the american dream, hoping that things like civil rights, healthcare would get better. I’ve gladly paid my taxes because I know we are in this together, friend or foe. But that’s not what republicans want. They want us to die. Reciprocity is fair play.
Ruckus
@jacy:
I’m a bit older and male but the outcome is the same. I just have no more fucks to give for the people that fucked everyone because of their hate, bigotry, stupidity, cult idealism…………
AxelFoley
@Trentrunner:
You need to stop holding back.
Camembert
@Sab: I was a Bernie guy, and I voted for HRC, and I just wasn’t surprised that it was close enough that Tr45 could steal it, which is . . . why I was a Bernie guy.
Economy was lousy due to the sequester and Obama letting the banksters off the hook, Obama killed the 50-State Strategy and hired James Comey, HRC still didn’t have a good answer for why she took all that money from those douchebags, and Obama made HRC look like a liar about the TPP (where, to be fair, she was opportunistic at best).
I have no idea how anyone who supported HRC has time to even consider Berniefolk after Obama shanked her so brutally, but I don’t know how anyone could put up with his “let me be clear” schtick after Year One either.
Anyways.
TenguPhule
@Camembert:
FFS, Very big companies flushed a lot of money away on getting pointless speeches and she could put it to better use then any Republican Douchenozzles who would have taken it. If you can’t take their money, drink their booze and then go ahead and vote against them anyway, what’s the point?
DonkeyKong
When republican governors are elected in off years in blue states they alway begin by taking hostages (education, public unions and healthcare) and threaten to shoot them if they don’t get what they want (tax cuts and reduced government services for “those people”)
In red states they avoid that protracted battle altogether, the hostages shoot themselves.
NorthLeft12
Maybe I am just an ignorant Canadian, but does Kentucky have what anyone with more than grade three education would call an immigration problem?
My own gut feeling is that a person who is concerned about America’s “immigration problem” is undisguised code for “I am raving racist”. Allows you to hate on whichever group you want to.
That goes double for citizens concerned about “crime in the streets”.
Kay
@NorthLeft12:
The problem for these GOP voters in Kentucky is there’s no political payback for addressing their problems. Democrats got absolutely slaughtered on that health care law. If the major benefits went to people in red states and they still won’t consider backing a Democrat there’s no political justification for the downside. Democrats at the state level can do a lot to improve coverage in-state, in areas where they are elected, and they’ll be rewarded for it.
When the health care law passed, Chuck Schumer said Democrats wouldn’t realize any political gains because the people who support health care reform support Democrats already. It’s perhaps cynical but it struck me as true at the time and it has turned out to BE true. They can’t expect politicians to continue to put their necks on the line with no political payback. These voters may not only kill Obamacare. They may kill any chance of meaningful health care reform, ever. It’s a huge political risk with very little political gain. Many of them got single payer too! They got a public program- Medicaid. One of the voters quoted in the piece says Medicaid is the best insurance he has ever had. It didn’t matter.
Kay
The people who promote single payer as politically beneficial for Democrats have to explain states like Kentucky. Bernie Sanders has to explain Kentucky, because according to populist political theory, covering white lower income people with a single payer government program was supposed to make them flock to Democrats. In fact, once they got it would be “impossible” to take away because they would rise up and vote against Republicans who took it away once they had it. That was the political calculus that was supposed to be at work here. What happened? These people are literally voting against their own single payer health coverage. Some of them are actual cancer patients so there’s no “I won’t get sick” assumption here.
These people are voting on something else. We can cast around for what that “something” might be but it has become more and more clear it wasn’t that Obama “abandoned” them. Obama knew damn well none of them voted for him and he’s the ONLY President who gave them access to affordable health care- often FREE coverage.
Kay
Trump has already abandoned these people and all but one who are quoted are still supporting him.
That lady in the piece who survived cancer with Obama-provided health insurance? She does not care how she pays for treatment next time, obviously, since she apparently gave it little or no thought. I don’t know- you tell me. Democrats are supposed to spend years on another health care law, survive yet another extinction-level political drubbing on her behalf? Other than pure altruism, why would they do that? They can put in a pretty good plan at the state level in states they control. These GOP voters without health care need Democrats more than Democrats need them, at this point.
Ruckus
@Kay:
@Kay:
And people wonder why I’m mad and disgusted. Old saying that you can’t fix stupid. And nearly half of this country is trying to prove it daily.
Camembert
@TenguPhule:
So what you’re saying is that CANDIDATE X is willing to take our money, drink our booze, and then vote against us, too? This is not an endorsement!
Camembert
@Kay:
You know, it wasn’t absolutely required that the law take five years to kick in. That was to hit a completely arbitrary budget target. The law was coming on during a recession; it might have been a good idea to queue up new government spending as quickly as reasonably possible. It’s not like they used the intervening time to actually solve the tech problems.
I think you’re right that both sides are in some senses excessively optimistic. Berniecrats were/are hoping that white folks could be induced to vote their own interests if the pot got sweet enough. Establishment folks were hoping that they could coast by on elite support. It might just be that electing a black guy means the white social contract is simply over, and we should tend our gardens and move to blue states.
MoxieM
@Mnemosyne: … 12 hours later, s/b packing & watching Comey hearings, but.. yeah, we call that codependency theory thinking.
JDM
@FlipYrWhig: @Ruckus: @different-church-lady:
Not sure if any but FlipYrWhig picked up on the dryish snark. Yes, what would satisfy them is just what Lincoln said in his Cooper Union speech would satisfy the slave states; just say they’re right and we’re wrong. That’s what’s at bottom of all these articles, even if the writers, and the editors who assign them, don’t realize it. I agree with those who say we should go the opposite way, therefore inspire others to vote instead, work against gerrymandering and voter-blocking laws, and let these people – if they ever decide to wake up and stop hitting themselves – follow later.