Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_720_noupscale/58d439ee2c00002100ff0171.jpeg

Not even FaceApped

A worthy suggestion, from last month's thread:

can May's thread be titled: "People don't realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?"

― evol j, Monday, May 1, 2017 8:06 AM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Although I think a month of having to look at that quote might actually literally kill me.

I mentioned this yesterday, but this good news isn't getting enough play: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ileana-ros-lehtinen-announces-no-reelection-bid-2018

Can't help but wonder if as a member of the House Intelligence Committee (and the only one to ask a question that didn't pertain to leaking to the press) she saw more Russia shit and thought, "Shit, my seat, redrawn a couple years ago, looks more unsafe in 2018..."

JOHN DICKERSON: But on that crucial question, it's not going to be left up to the states? Everybody gets pre-existing, no matter where they live?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, but the states--

JOHN DICKERSON: Guaranteed?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --are also going to have a lot to do with it because we ultimately want to get it back down to the states.

JOHN DICKERSON: Okay. Is it a guarantee?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look, because if you hurt your knee, honestly, I'd rather have the federal government focused on North Korea, focused on other things, than your knee, okay? Or than your back, as important as your back is. I would much rather see the federal government focused on other things--

JOHN DICKERSON: Let me.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --bigger things. Now, the state is going to be in a much better position to take care, because it's smaller.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-interview-full-transcript-face-the-nation/

I'm not sure I believe in Trump's ability to understand and coherently describe the composition of a sandwich.

Alfred, my thinking re her thinking was more along the lines of "you know what, I don't owe these people shit."

the art boyf is called luc, not luke: luc pascal

his art is kind of bad but not delightfully so :(

oops sorry folks

bad but not delightfully so is the Trump presidency in a nutshell

"People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?
"People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?
"People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?
"People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?

Frederick Douglass might be able to answer that question for him if ever they have occasion to meet.

Should've called this thread "Nobody knew history of the Civil War could be so complicated."

This clip is so perfect, everybody saw this yeah? : https://twitter.com/TheMattWilstein/status/857953230093004800?s=09

And GOP totally caved on the budget! P good for monday morning.

People actually do ask the question, "why was there a Civil War?" Those people are in 1st grade.

Not sure if that worked, here it is in youtube form: https://youtu.be/v9yhDYK834E

Xp

This clip is so perfect, everybody saw this yeah? : https://twitter.com/TheMattWilstein/status/857953230093004800?s=09

― Οὖτις, Monday, May 1, 2017 8:41 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

anthony atamanuik's trump impersonation is so harrowingly good

The Trump presidential library will just be a gaudy room with a few very old playboy magazines sitting on a coffee table.

Fuck rhat cuts off the end of rhat monologue, which is the best part! Sorry

lol the idea of the Trump library

holy shit, i don't know why but that one hits me hard

like, wtf would be in there that he has read or knows about?

Can't watch that clip until after work, but Atamanuik's impression is astounding. I can't remember where I saw him and Adomian doing their Trump/Bernie debate, but Atamanuik's off-handed "I am the beast, I am the beast from Revelations" will stick with me forever.

"World War II, when Japan dropped bombs on Poland, started the war, that was bad."

xxpost It'll be print-outs of Google news stories about Trump, plus maybe some menus from his favorite delivery places. A couple volumes from the Truly Tasteless Jokes series, perhaps?

@ABCPolitics
.@NancyPelosi to @jonkarl: "I never thought I'd pray for the day" when George W. Bush was president again http://abcn.ws/2pxpbyq #ThisWeek

@adamjohnsonNYC
please stop doing this

yeah praying doesn't work

everyone knows that you have to save your prayers for the aftermath of mass shootings, in lieu of actually doing anything about gun control, so that your prayers will be heard more loudly by god, so god will do something.

It is impious to believe we can subvert God's apparent desire to eradicate our species without being too obvious about it.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/president-trump-ends-interview-president-obama-wiretapping-claims

When further pressed by Dickerson, Trump got up and left.

"I don't stand by anything," Trump argued. But he told Dickerson, "I have my own opinions. You can have your opinions."

"But I want to know your opinions. You're the president of the United States," Dickerson countered.

"Okay, it's enough. Thank you. Thank you very much," Trump said, ending the interview.

he is a five year old

What did five-year-olds ever do to you?

Become president.

I'm honestly shocked that he didn't shove a copy of the electoral college map into Dickerson's hand as he stormed out.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-wMTB2W0AAygWC.jpg:large

And then the camera pans down to Trump's hair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TCR5oC5ZQs

Spaceballs might've been funnier if Mel Brooks had put Trump in it.

I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.
I don't stand by anything.

@tinyrevolution
I'm not sure it's true that *everyone* in Tennessee loves Andrew Jackson, since some Tennesseans are descended from people Jackson owned

he thinks he's being treated so harshly, but when you act that stupidly in just about any other context, you get openly mocked and laughed out of the room

as someone observed on twitter: there was a time when spelling 'potato' wrong could get someone labeled as an imbecile and publicly lampooned forever

I'm honestly shocked that he didn't shove a copy of the electoral college map into Dickerson's hand as he stormed out.

― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Monday, May 1, 2017 11:27 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Someone with access needs to swap out his electoral maps with this:

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/SYUaVaEj4cDNEIYH_qxpnhnoYwk=/950x534/filters:quality(90)/2015%2F11%2F18%2F29%2Fcarsonameri.b206d.jpg

in a disturbingly similar alternative universe, ben carson rules that stretch of states between New Vermonticutt and Maine

"I love my people," he says. "They are the greatest people."

And with that, he reaches across the Resolute Desk for a sheet of paper showing a map of the United States. It illustrates the latest figures from the 2016 electoral map, and it is covered in a sea of red ink.

"That's the final map of the numbers — not bad, right?" he says. "The red is us, the blue is Hillary. There is a lot of red."...

He promises, as he did during the campaign, to get rid “of tremendous regulations,” to help American companies compete more easily in the world market and to put more of America’s citizens back to work.

That leads, naturally, to an assessment of his own work in his first 100 days, which is, predictably, that no president “has ever done what I have done” even though “the first-hundred-day standard is ridiculous.”

“Well, I think that the Supreme Court is very important,” he explains, “because every 5-to-4 decision is because of me. And that could go on for 40 years,” since his first appointment to the court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, “is a young man” at age 49.

“Don’t forget, I got him nominated and confirmed in those 100 days,” he adds, not willing to give up the 100-day argument quite yet.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-you-make-a-mistake-here-there-is-nothing-to-work-out/article/2621572

the map handouts totally remind me of a three year old's drawing. 'I MADE THIS LOOK I MADE THIS LOOK AT WHAT I DID I MADE THIS'

LOL

The White House began deploying the advisers throughout the bureaucracy in January, assigning them to report back on what was happening in their departments. But according to several sources, their meddling quickly began to irritate high-powered officials accustomed to running their own shops -- including Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, both former generals; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a successful financier; and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who’s been a Cabinet secretary before.

Mnuchin assigned his minder to the Treasury basement, according to senior officials at the Treasury Department.

"Mmmm yeah, I'm gonna need you to move to the basement. Yeah, that'd be great."

down in the basement with bob "the eagle" bradley

need a moratorium on comparing this asshole to small children. small children are nowhere near as hateful or mendacious as this pouty potty mouth

https://twitter.com/cnbcnow/status/859088622544445441

BREAKING: Market drops after Trump says in Bloomberg interview that he is actively considering breaking up big banks cnbc.com/2017/05/01/sto…

xpost Also never met a kid with such a spiteful lack of curiosity about the world around them.

Trump administration ending Michelle Obama's girls education program

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/01/politics/trump-michelle-obama-girls-education/index.html

"The red is us, the blue is Hillary. There is a lot of red."...

Would someone plz explain to our president that New York has a much larger population and bigger economy than Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah and the Dakotas, even if NY looks smaller on a USA map.

Worth noting that the budget resolution currently before Congress constitutes a massive cave on Trump's part.

For all the talk about Trump shutting down the government to get Wall money, holding Obamacare subsidies hostage or generally bending history or at least Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to his will, Trump got close to nothing in the funding bill meant to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. He ended up crying unclear or “no mas” on virtually all his demands.

Let’s go down the list.

The EPA was slated for massive cuts – roughly 31%. It will retain 99% of its funding.

Trump demanded funding for his border wall. He didn’t get any.

Trump wanted to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health. It’s getting $2 billion of additional funding.

Funding is included for the Obamacare subsidies Trump has threatened not to pay.

There’s no provision for “defunding Planned Parenthood.”

There’s no language to defund “sanctuary cities.”

There are obviously many other things included in the bill. And it’s not like Trump got nothing. But at least on most of the hot button issues he’s pushed as part of his agenda he folded like a cheap suit.

Yes, that’s a cliche. But he folded so bad, it’s really okay. Trump’s first mini-budget is largely a continuation of Obama’s last budget.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/01/stocks-drop-after-trump-says-hes-actively-considering-breaking-up-big-banks.html

ok, where the *hell* did that come from? is he saying stuff randomly?

He's getting dragged over the Andrew Jackson/Civil War thing so he needed to say something to show how important and powerful he is. I'm sure Paul Ryan is on the phone with him right now.

But yes, he's like an internet comments section on shuffle, dispensing horrifying dipshit responses to questions no one ever asked.

Sort of amazed the budget got passed as is, with no battles. It's like after so many days of losing at trying to win they decided they would just rather accept a win by losing.

Continuing resolutions are powerful stuff.

I think the budget issue was being exclusively worked on by Congress. P sure they just started ignoring the white house entirely. I also think the discrepancy in the budget #s referenced above is comparing what passed with Trump's proposed budget, which was never going to pass and was basically a wish list.

This, from a New York magazine piece, made me laugh:

President Trump says his infrastructure plan is “largely completed” and will be introduced in two to three weeks. He also says that he is considering raising the gas tax and breaking up Wall Street’s biggest banks.

But then, the president says a lot of things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObsQ8_58V3Q

When he gets reelected it will be for claiming credit for all sorts of things that never happened just because they sound familiar to voters. They will praise him for successfully building a wall, cutting taxes for everyone, bringing back coal, making Mexico illegal, repealing giraffes, deregulating deep fat fryers.

Lotta white people in that video...

Repealing giraffes must be accomplished in tandem with providing universal hen fap.

David Blight, professor of American history at Yale University:

"He really said this about Jackson and the Civil War? All I can say to you is that from day one I have believed that Donald Trump's greatest threat to our society and to our democracy is not necessarily his authoritarianism, but his essential ignorance—of history, of policy, of political process, of the Constitution. Saying that if Jackson had been around we might not have had the Civil War is like saying that one strong, aggressive leader can shape, prevent, move history however they wish. This is simply a fifth-grade understanding of history or worse. And this comes from the president of the United States! Under normal circumstances if a real estate tycoon weighed in on the nature of American history from such ignorance and twisted understanding we would simply ignore or laugh at him. But since this man lives in the historic White House and wields the constitutional powers of the presidency and the commander in chief we have to pay attention. Trump's "learning" of American history must have stopped even before the fifth grade. I wish I could say this is funny and not deeply disturbing. My profession should petition the President to take a one- or two-month leave of absence, VP Pence steps in for that interim, and Trump goes on a retreat in one of his resorts for forced reeducation. It could be a new tradition called the presidential education leave. Or perhaps in New Deal tradition, an 'ignorance relief' period. This alone might gain the United States again some confidence and respect around the world. God help us."

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/hey-trump-this-is-why-the-civil-war-happened

"forced reeducation"

"god help us" is a pretty appropriate ending for nearly any public statement these days

trump & co have zero concept of history. if they did they'd realize there's consequences for spewing lies and garbage 24/7.

when do they start

Corey Robin:

If Trump were serious about consolidating his power, he might start by, oh, I don’t know, consolidating his power. Because while Trump talks, this is what he’s doing, or not doing:

The Senate has confirmed 26 of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts. But for 530 other vacant senior-level jobs requiring Senate confirmation, the president has advanced just 37 nominees….

...And this failure to consolidate executive power isn’t just in the agencies and departments Trump wants to gut. This is also in agencies and departments Trump wants to expand and empower....

Whatever fantasies Trump may have about the presidency unbound, this man has almost no agenda for consolidating the power of the presidency. It’s a slogan, a rhetoric, a performance, but that’s it.

http://coreyrobin.com/2017/04/29/a-wise-psychoanalyst-once-told-me-sort-of-look-at-what-trump-does-not-what-he-says/

they'd realize there's consequences for spewing lies

dilbros know those actions are merely tactical and the consequence is WINNING.

man I just remembered that whole "imagine there is no such thing as objective reality" and "I achieved all my dreams by writing them on a piece of paper 15 times in a row" thing from The Dilbert Future and suddenly everything makes sense to me

Have we talked about this yet today?

http://www.avclub.com/article/steve-bannons-rap-musical-has-been-found-and-it-so-254566

Truly the man has flow.

Shamilton

Donald J. Trump‏
Verified account @realDonaldTrump

President Andrew Jackson, who died 16 years before the Civil War started, saw it coming and was angry. Would never have let it happen!

He would've unleashed his Calhoun cone army on those rebels!

Clone

Ah yes, the cone army. They are from France.

if they did they'd realize there's consequences for spewing lies and garbage 24/7

yes, but not for him

fuck this stupid fuck

every day everything is dumber. how dumb will shit be in 3 years? can you even imagine?

It's hard to imagine how long three years will be after we start approximating measures of time based on whatever feels right in the moment because fuck you, I say that was an hour that just elapsed, you dumb fact-slingin' libruhl piece a sheeeeeit.

I genuinely feel like the fate of civilization rests on a high enough proportion of people vehemently resisting this stupidity, because if it genuinely takes hold we'll slip into a new Dark Ages and there's no turning back.

you guys have no idea how much I have worked on imagining how to think about how dumb will shit be in 3 years

give us the vision. first the 1000 foot view, than the 10,000 foot view, then pull all the way back an order of magnitude farther than you've ever gone before and give us the view from there, then zoom all the way to the subatomic level view, then spin a wheel with several more view length options and do whichever option is just to the left of the one that it lands on.

https://deadhomersociety.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/muchapuaboutnothing3_thumb.png?w=512&h=384

"between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists
economic factors, both domestic and international played a significant..."
"...Just say slavery"

JOHN DICKERSON: George W. Bush said the reason the Oval Office is round is there are no corners you can hide in.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, there's truth to that. There is truth to that. There are certainly no corners. And you look, there's a certain openness. But there's nobody out there. You know, there is an openness, but I've never seen anybody out there actually, as you could imagine.

JOHN DICKERSON: But he-- what he meant was it's-- all comes --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Sure. Sure.

JOHN DICKERSON: --back to you.

And you look, there's a certain openness. But there's nobody out there. You know, there is an openness, but I've never seen anybody out there actually, as you could imagine.

this is really evocative

https://i.giphy.com/cGUMCNBpzP1w4.gif

#MAGA
by Donald J. Trump

There are certainly no corners
and you look
there's a certain openness

But there's nobody out there
you know
there is an openness

but I've never seen anybody out there
actually
as you could imagine.

I... what was he trying to say there.

One might say that the man is at sea. Or adrift. Perhaps he is adrift at sea.

it's like a Dada comedy sketch

NYT:

WASHINGTON — Congress would allocate more than $120 million in additional money to help cover the escalating costs of protecting the Trump family and Trump Tower under a bipartisan spending agreement that appears poised to pass this week.

About half of the money, nearly $60 million, is earmarked for the Secret Service, with most of it going toward protecting the president while he is traveling and security for Trump Tower in New York City, according to legislation being circulated on Monday.

Another roughly $60 million would be set aside in a rare provision to reimburse localities, like New York City and Palm Beach County in Florida, that have incurred “extraordinary law enforcement personnel costs” associated with protecting Mr. Trump’s residences since Election Day.

i finally got off my lazy internet ass and googled how much the security for obama's family cost. it was $85-90 million...over 8 years. so around $10-11 million per year.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article123335079.html

no big deal, just an extra 110 million per year to protect the trump family

all those millions can't stop the deadliest, most effective assassin of all: time

W liked to keep one eye on the roomba

Is that $120million a year or until the current appropriation runs out in September?

How much is congress asking not to protect him?

Upthread, I believe that what he was saying is that while there aren't any corners in the oval office, the office actually has several doors. There is an openness. People keep going in and coming out. Sometimes Ivanka. Sometimes that Jeebus guy. Seriously, it's very open.

holy shit -- three years of fucking benghazi hearings, and no sanctions for russia interfering in our election?

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/01/corker-russia-sanctions-senate-237855

i repeat -- holy shit!

holy shit!!

good mourning!

Wow @ Colbert last night. "The only thing your mouth is good for is being Putin's cock-holster," yikes.

xposts I think he's literally talking about not seeing anyone outside of the Oval Office windows. This is not someone who's capable of processing the subtlety of a George W. Bush metaphor.

JOHN DICKERSON: It's been said that a rolling stone gathers no moss...

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't know, I left an issue of Rolling Stone next to the toilet for a month, and something started growing on it that sure looked like moss. Horrible.

lol

trump, like drax the destroyer, has no truck with metaphor

I assumed it was a similar comment to the joke about putting a (whatever dumb stereotype) person in a round room and telling them to stand in the corner.
In that there were no corners to hide in or something to that effect.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, everyone thinks that this is very ominous right here. See this? These are phones. These are very, you know, secure phones. But this is a -- very ominous looking because of the red button.

JOHN DICKERSON: What does that get you--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well--

JOHN DICKERSON: -- when you press the red button?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: -- it gets you a Coke or gets you a Pepsi. One or the other, it'd have to be. Any other cola companies I should mention? Right?

what is it with trump and fucking carbonated cola beverages

Makes sense that a sentient fart would need to regularly gas up.

Sorry, 'sentient' may have been an overreach [SYNAPSE FIRES].

Trump literally thought he was being asked about "hiding" physically in the office. And he mentioned how open it was ie. The windows. He can't hide. But maybe he didn't need to hide, because, you know, nobody was ever out there when he looked.

Old Lunch and Tracer otm, he half-expected to see the Failing NY Times crouching on the lawn

i'm finding trump's whole 'no one knew the civil war could be so complicated!' bullshit particularly frustrating at the moment because it made me realise yet again how close he comes to realising something important but then getting lost in his own solipsism

the pattern goes:

1) someone tells trump something pretty much everyone knows but he doesn't
2) he talks about this in public like he's just singlehandedly discovered the ark of the covenant
3) he frames this earthshattering discovery as as something 'no-one knows' or 'no-one talks about'

but he never makes the logical half-step into realising that he wouldn't know about this unless someone told him therefore people must know about it and maybe there's a whole world of knowledge out there he could tap into and, y'know, learn something

what is it like to live life so content in your own ignorance? it must be fucking amazing, i wish i could do it

are all americans born into money as intellectually lazy as this asshole? because oh my god

all available evidence points to 'yes'

xxp That's the same feeling I get when I see all the comments on FB or on newspaper sites that say "The media doesn't talk about {my pet topic} or {this inflammatory thing}." Then you ask, "Well, then how do you know about it?" "Oh, I saw it on CNN."

Agreed. The lamestream media is burying this story! (links to Washington Post)

I would guess he thinks that a basic knowledge of the names and titles of other world leaders is also something special and unique to him. I.e. phrases like "I got a very nice call from Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada."

what is it like to live life so content in your own ignorance? it must be fucking amazing, i wish i could do it

― adolf hitler, the moses hightower of national socialism (bizarro gazzara)

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/03/06/photograph_of_the_reagans_eating_on_tv_trays_in_the_white_house_residence_-_nara_-_198525_wide-1ec921d37b914ed35467a8dacd730d78b3d02bc2.jpg?s=1400

with the possible exception of Poppy Bush, we've had our fill of moron GOP presidents blissful about what they don't know. I can hear Reagan speaking that Andrew Jackson sentence.

i'm expecting him to soon come out w/ Roger DeBris' "I never knew that the Third Reich meant Germany!"

The president of the United States basically has the same engagement with the world he lives in and the people in it that I do with a movie that I put on in the background while assembling a bookcase.

hey, I bet there's a bunch of rich-guy stuff we know nothing about. All kinds of golf tips.

tom buchanan is maybe a more accurate preview of donald than frank underwood?

only losers know history. if you come from a good family, your parents buy you a degree from one of the best schools while you polish your golf game, poonhounding around, living off of trusts / dividends before (sad!) dad dies and you take over the family business

And you don't even have to know anything about the family business, really. Run it into the ground a few times, have your accountant cook the books, voila.

the clip of him ending the interview after getting asked about wiretapping is also insane. like he literally retreats to his desk and starts sifting through a stack of (blank?) papers

They had stick figures with boobs tbf

btw I know this is a cheap joke but lmao @ 1:02-1:12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3fp7aQ6kuM

our president on twitter this morning ~

“The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”

what an asshole

who doesn't love a good 'shutdown' every now and again

I'd wager more shit spews from that hemorrhoidal sphincter than from your average asshole.

his heart could use a good 'shutdown'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t08RN2yPJik

cool bro:

President Trump said on Tuesday that the United States needed “a good ‘shutdown’” this fall to force a partisan confrontation over federal spending, and suggested that he might move to reverse longstanding Senate rules that effectively require a supermajority to approve most major legislation.

The declarations, in a pair of posts on Twitter, appeared to defend a spending package that Congress is likely to clear this week, but that fails to accomplish many of Mr. Trump’s stated goals, including any money to build a wall on the southern border that was his most talked-about campaign promise.

His promotion of a shutdown isn't anything more than him trying to weasel out of the shockingly difficult work of being president. Why not just shut down for the next four years?

send all 50 states into breakout groups before coming back together again and share their new ideas

These are ideas that randomly pop into his head, he doesn't have the patience, focus, or know-how to make any of this happen. How long until the press realizes this and stops reporting on every vapid utterance as if it's something he's actually going to follow through on?

Imagining reince just convinces don that it's all shutdown, sends him in a global rally/golf tour for 3.5 yrs and we move on with pence.

when the ratings go down

xp

I still cannot fathom how he's going to make it through 3 3/4 more years of this

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-0qe3vXgAMVRHc.jpg

i'd missed this one

Discussion just a bit upthread about that excerpt and his inability to recognize or process metaphor.

maybe just troll him with metaphors from now on

"Mr President, some say your Administration is headed over the cliff"

"there's truth to that. it's a tremendous cliff"

"You know, John, I've seen that cliff, it's a high one, extraordinary, really. Some people say it's treacherous. I don't. It's America, an American cliff, you know. And we're gonna make Mexico pay for it."

I've been saying this for a while. Interviewers should be setting him up for fall after fall. Ply him with metaphors, ask him questions that are complete nonsense (possibly including words and names invented from whole cloth), give him lots and lots of rope, teach him how to tie the knots and place it around his neck. Anything that doesn't seem like an overt attack, he will respond to as if he knows what he's talking about. This is such a glaring vulnerability to exploit that it's almost shocking to watch interviewers politely circumvent it over and over.

yay! a way around the filibuster! you go, "conservatives"! tax cuts pay for themselves; deficits don't matter : )

Senate Republicans could simply vote as a majority to extend the budget window beyond ten years (a decade simply being a convention). The budget window could be 20 or 30 years. Then they could pass a huge tax cut for affluent people that expires, but the expiration date would lie so far in the future that it might as well be permanent.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/05/heres-the-republican-trick-to-make-their-tax-cuts-permanent.html

"Mr. President, today we've seen video of citizens in Hurwafistan burning you in effigy over your position on salination rights in the Pan-African Arctic Zone. How do you respond to these demonstrations, which some are calling mollicinent?"

I've been saying this for a while. Interviewers should be setting him up for fall after fall. Ply him with metaphors, ask him questions that are complete nonsense (possibly including words and names invented from whole cloth), give him lots and lots of rope, teach him how to tie the knots and place it around his neck. Anything that doesn't seem like an overt attack, he will respond to as if he knows what he's talking about. This is such a glaring vulnerability to exploit that it's almost shocking to watch interviewers politely circumvent it over and over.

^^^ this x 100, I'm surprised no one really figured it out during the campaign. I mean Republicans are obviously on board with his awful ideas but they always seem to try to distance themselves when he says something truly idiotic.

idk it seems like Dickerson figured it out

the dude was unflappable

Life continues to imitate The Simpsons.

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S04E17/1147862.jpg?b64lines=SE9NRVIsT1JHQU5JWkVEIExBQk9SIApIQVMgQkVFTiBDQUxMRUQgCkEgTFVNQkVSSU5HCiBESU5PU0FVUi4=

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S04E17/1149531.jpg?b64lines=KHNjcmVhbXMp

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S04E17/1151399.jpg?b64lines=TVkgRElSRUNUT1InUwogVEVMTElORyBNRSBOT1QgVE8gVEFMSyBUTwogWU9VIEFOWU1PUkUu

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S04E17/1154536.jpg?b64lines=V0hPTy1IT08h

i'm truly exasperated by how fucked up the motherfucker is.

feel like we've reached a point where you could say that sentence in a crowd in any major city and everyone would know what you're talking about

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-1PMktWsAQPDMm.jpg

O_O

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-statements-on-gdp-growth-in-emerging-and-developed-economies-2017-5

Morning Joe straight up saying Trump has completely lost his mind, "my mother's had dementia for 10 years, that sounds like something she would say"

i wonder if he was watching

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-1N0JrXsAAZDyP.jpg

this is Ivanka fucking trump they are talking about there

WTF !!!!!!!!!!!

his inner landscape is deeply fucked up, largely by his dad (who was a worse monster even than him, and a monster TO him, abt success and failure and winners and losers); before long he's actually going to start seeing figures no one else can see "out there", gazing accusingly in at him through the oval office windows

(the interview makes me think this is already happening tbh)

Morning Joe straight up saying Trump has completely lost his mind, "my mother's had dementia for 10 years, that sounds like something she would say"

― frogbs,

I loathe Scarborough but he looked as defeated as probably Barry Goldwater did when facing Nixon in '74. You knew Joe was sad because he wasn't wearing his glasses!

why are you watching Morning Joe

At this point if he doesn't he gets a headache

bcz he reads the Natl Review, too.

which quote was MJ talking about? GDP? corners in the OO?

There have been rumors flying for months that Ivanka and Jared need to be around Trump to keep a protective eye on him. I wonder, given that their religion keeps them largely out of the picture over the weekend, if he's not actually being more or less sent to Mar-a-lago each weekend for safe keeping, in a safe, familiar place.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/1f2f78d1fd105dbddcb2b06fc279f903/tumblr_n21xe2GUJB1somw7ho5_250.gif

These guys sound genuinely frightened at this point.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) appeared to take a veiled shot at President Trump on Tuesday after the president backed forcing a government shutdown later in the fall.

"Our voters, the people who elected Republican majorities in both Houses and elected this president, did not vote for us in order to shut down the government. They voted for us to govern, as hard as it is," Cornyn said from the Senate floor.

Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, didn't specifically address Trump's tweet from Tuesday morning, where the president wrote that "our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September."

why are you watching Morning Joe

― bought 2 raris, went to chili's (crüt), Tuesday, May 2, 2017

cuz I don't watch porn at 6 a.m. while drinking my smoothie.

a cornucopia of potential replies...

this seems like wishful thinking but idk

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-zeSLzXoAEGka2.jpg

xpost Yeah, it's telling how mum the GOP has been post budget, even as Dem stalwarts are boasting of their wins, as if they know they're fucked and that the best way forward at all is just to ignore Trump. If Trump threatened a shutdown in a few more months I can totally see the GOP once again telling him to GTFO.

is DNC finally pumping money into this shit or are they too busy jacking each other off

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/329454-perez-heads-to-georgia-to-boost-ossoff-ahead-of-runoff

The DNC has been all over Georgia, probably at the expense of some other races

the GOP hasn't even begun to cheat in georgia

our society has become one giant morality play. the trump family is exactly why we need a steep progressive taxation system. fuck you republicans and your voodoo economics doodoo

Da Doo Doo Doo, Da Duh Duh Duh.

suggestions that this whole charade is basically just a blame-shifting exercise (from the Freedom Caucus to the Tuesday Group) seem about right

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/republicans-obamacare-repeal-votes-237871

going through all this dumb shit to make your most vulnerable members even MORE vulnerable to losing in 2018? makes sense..

and fuck you too CNN and "real" republican voters

Eight of the top 10 corn-producing states backed Trump in the 2016 election, and Trump enjoyed a wealth of support from real [rural?] voters. Hemseath did not say that he regretted his vote for Trump, but acknowledged he could eventually. "That is a possibility," the Iowa farmer said when asked whether the NAFTA changes could cause him to regret his vote for Trump. "But when you vote, it is a much bigger picture than that. It is not a one-issue vote."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/trump-nafta-farmers/

I appreciate that the DNC is finally giving a shit about at least some part of Georgia but it'd be cool if they started paying attention to rural black communities down here and not just affluent suburbs

going through all this dumb shit to make your most vulnerable members even MORE vulnerable to losing in 2018?

I guess the Freedom Caucus dream is that these Tuesday Group guys get primaried/lose their seats to more conservative members? A kind of party purge via election. Seems unlikely to me but then these are people that tend to operate in a fact-free environment.

they are operating in a voter-roll purge system, and maybe presume they can pack congress with more 'taxed-enough-already' jackasses

and fuck you too CNN and "real" republican voters

Eight of the top 10 corn-producing states backed Trump in the 2016 election, and Trump enjoyed a wealth of support from real [rural?] voters. Hemseath did not say that he regretted his vote for Trump, but acknowledged he could eventually. "That is a possibility," the Iowa farmer said when asked whether the NAFTA changes could cause him to regret his vote for Trump. "But when you vote, it is a much bigger picture than that. It is not a one-issue vote."

the problem is that if I were a Trump voter I'd get sick of being asked SO WHEN ARE YOU REGRETTING YOUR VOTE? NOW? NOW? so why tell the truth?

I was thinking that Trump's ineffectiveness may insulate him from blowback among his voters as well - ie, "if he's so terrible, how come things are basically still okay?"

logic that is likely to break down at crisis points. But let's all bear in mind how long it took Dubya's post-9/11 numbers to tumble. It didn't really happen until Katrina, and then the financial meltdown in 2008.

But "still okay" implies things were fine under Obama, and they can't say that.

i think the regret might come from them realizing they're not getting a free ticket out of comrade combover's lumbering path of destruction. i can't imagine why someone would have voted for him, but i guess it was partly to fuck over minorities and others your typical selfish "conservative" would dismiss as 'deplorable'. real voters aren't supposed to get fucked over, too!

But "still okay" implies things were fine under Obama, and they can't say that.

I mean in terms of some of the more hysterical fears of the left - deportation forces, nuclear annihilation, econcomic catastrophe, etc. When those things don't come to pass, Trump voters can point to this as proof that Trump's critics are not realistic, he's really an "okay" guy, you don't need all that fancypants learning and book-reading and dignity and shit

basically if the country still exists in 4 years, Trump voters will feel vindicated

(the core of them anyway

Dunno about that. (Them feeling vindicated, that is.)

Former Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton — who once authored numerous repeal bills — said he was against the proposal Tuesday, a day after longtime Donald Trump supporter Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) came out in opposition. Long even rebuffed the president’s personal plea to back the bill in a phone call Monday.

wow, even fred fucking upton is against repeal now.

maybe this will all blow up in their faces so badly that they'll be tempted for 0.00005th of a second to pass any sort of legislation that improves the existing law

hahahahahahahahahaha

no, they won't do that.

well, bear in mind that a lot of these people that already think Trump has "delivered" on his campaign promises. Their primary concern is not facts or actual legislation or anything as complicated as that, it's where they stand in relation to their opponents, their narrative that Trump is sticking it to uppity liberals. As long as the country continues some semblance of functionality and Trump is antagonizing the left, they're secure with their voting decisions.

xp

xp
The plodding "I'm a Republican so I'll vote Republican" and the alt-right goons may be OK with him in 2020, but the key group that got him elected, the "shake things up" / "bring back good jobs" group won't.

Today you have talkradio/Foxsphere and beyond basically yelling "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU" at Trump. A few more repeats of that...

Because what we're seeing Trump as supposed transactional genius basically being reduced to a rubberstamp by Congress.

i bleeve the prez's helicopter just landed outside my window

about to eat, didn't look

DON'T LOOK AT IT KEEP YOUR EYES SHUT

DeMint indicated he'd retire, then announced at a mtg he'd changed mind. Needham threw chair across rm when he left https://t.co/V8BNMP5Xcz

— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) May 2, 2017

Whoa, we're getting embedded tweets now?

I'm not minding.

i personally am angry

Today you have talkradio/Foxsphere and beyond basically yelling "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU" at Trump. A few more repeats of that...

this will all be immediately forgotten as soon as Trump tweets something incendiary/stupid, waves his dick at our "enemies", signs another executive order etc.

lol

“When DeMint went in, Heritage became very political. It changed it from a highly respected think tank to just a partisan tool and more ideological — more of a tea party organization than a think tank,” said Mickey Edwards, one of the organization’s founding trustees and a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma. “Hopefully, Feulner, if he takes over, can help reestablish Heritage as what it used to be during the Reagan years.

being "conservative" means never thinking, only excusing, Heritage, sorry :(

weird I got the impression that heritage is the shadow government since the trump campaign didn't feel like actually hiring anyone to do work once they won

In around 2003 I posted my resume on Heritage's job site for the fuck of it and got a phone call from Rick Santorum's legislative director the next day

missed opportunity

MJ i don't mean to downplay "excusing" as a taxing cognitive endeavor for the 'shadow government'; i bet it's hard work just to wake up in the morning when you work at the Heritage Foundation unless your family is loaded -- just saying the "think" in 'think tank' is not what i consider thinking regarding whatever it is the Heritage Foundation does on behalf of our neo-feudal supply-side overlords

excuse tank . . . never empty as long as there's taxes to cut!

I wasnt arguing one way or another I just got the impression that heritage was as strong as ever and not in need of some putsch by management

I think a big hunk of Trump supporters think of themselves as independent, so when they dangle out the possibility that they might turn on Trump, that is just their "independence" showing. Except they won't turn on him, because they are also racist, xenophobic, etc., and yeah, some of them voted for Obama, but given that he solved racism forever by being elected, unless the dems learn how to move on, well, way can they do? Guess it's the GOP or nothing.

bear in mind that a lot of these people that already think Trump has "delivered" on his campaign promises. Their primary concern is not facts or actual legislation or anything as complicated as that, it's where they stand in relation to their opponents, their narrative that Trump is sticking it to uppity liberals. As long as the country continues some semblance of functionality and Trump is antagonizing the left, they're secure with their voting decisions.

This is true for a lot, totally. My personal go-to window on the trumpiverse/dextrosphere is Ace of Spades. Within that site's commentariat once can see a range of attitudes, including:

1. Killary will Never Be President, so that's a win. Anything else is gravy. Even if Der Trumpissar disappoints us, it's better than what HRC would be doing.

2. It's only been 100 days, give him time. He's working against unprecedented (!) resistance both from the left and from the establishment right. (This attitude is conveniently silent on how much these selfsame people resisted Obama's every move, but let us set that aside for now.)

3. Our Almighty Orange Emperor is being ill-served by bad advisors - the NYC liberal cocktail-party types like the Kushners, and establishment swamp creatures like Preebius.

4. DC corrupts everyone, perhaps - gasp - even our Orange Deity. Yeah I never believed he was principled, but I believe we can still hold his feet to the fire and make him listen to the ones who brung him to the dance - Bannon, Conway, the fired-up base.

5. At least we got Gorsuch and some more immigration enforcement, so that's something.

6. I love that he's swinging his big balls and that he's pissing off the right people - he drives libs crazy, he fights the media and SJWs, he's turning the tide against political correctness.

There is a glimmer of interest in that at least some of these cranks are starting to say "When does the #winning begin?"

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=369537
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=369472

my native texan "conservative" brother-in-law said at christmas there's no such thing as racism in america -- (it's just an excuse for laziness!) since there's been a black president -- despite voting for comrade combover and his birth certificate detectives

some serious gazing into the abyss yr doin there YMP

@pareene
the alt-right guys are trying to teach the president history like a bad indie film protagonist explaining bands to the romantic interest

confused as to whether that's supposed to imply that the alt-right guys know anything about history or not

@nut_bunnies

*puts headphones on trump*

here. it’s a 7th grade history book on tape. it’ll change your life

Even if Der Trumpissar disappoints us, it's better than what HRC would be doing.

@mawilner
"Yes, I did support it," @HillaryClinton says of Trump's #Syria strike. "But I'm not convinced that it really made much of a difference."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

people will abandon trump when somebody manages to come up with a better cult of personality

so, not Curt Schilling

no Shakey, pareene is not confident in the alt-right history book

been a long time, hard to remember that minnesota-born f. scott fitzgerald (princeton) had a lot of complaints about the establishment that grandson of harvard president missouri-born t. stearns eliot (harvard) didn't. what do stupid people talk about?

SEAAAAAAAAN pic.twitter.com/LZ1iTPg4x7

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) May 2, 2017

this is getting closer and closer to a 6-year-old's birthday party

we're just going to give sean some space and let him be alone for a while, and pretty soon he's going to hear everyone outside having fun and he'll find his way back out

my 6-year-old niece is actually really good at defusing these kinds of situations, maybe we can send her in to talk to sean, after 10-15 minutes

what were they asking sean about that caused him to leave? NK? obamacare repeal? the civil war? the holocaust?

http://new1.fjcdn.com/comments/Posted+a+tread+on+4chan+that+said+_6d7b7fc1db65db72ee4e4f154aa47fec.jpg

I've been saying this for a while. Interviewers should be setting him up for fall after fall.

Brandon Friedmant
@BFriedmanDC

I'm telling you guys, next person to interview Trump needs to ask him if slavery was all bad or if there were positive aspects. He'll bite.

has anyone just straight up asked him about how he reconciles his adoration of andrew jackson with jackson's ownership of a couple hundred slaves?

his daughter has taken over the oval office. he's king learing

i know it seems silly, but it's possible that trump doesn't even know that jackson owned slaves, and about the Indian Removal Act. he didn't really understand how NATO worked. he didn't get the whole north korea thing. so it seems very possible that bannon just whispered "andrew jackson is a great role model" in his ear a few times and trump never bothered learning about the details.

i can't believe i'm serious about that but i am. totally wrong place to put this but who cares: i am depressed, not from this but from everything, inside and out, the last several months, so i am going to take a break from the internet for a while because it's no longer helping me

I doubt Trump gave two seconds' thought to Jackson until Obama threatened to take Jackson off the $20 bill in favor of Harriet Tubman last year. xp

funny, like a clown?

It is hard to believe this is happening, but it’s real: The US Department of Justice is literally prosecuting a woman for laughing at now–Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year.

According to Ryan Reilly at HuffPost, Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz was arrested in January after she laughed at a claim from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) that Sessions’s history of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented.”....

As Reilly reported, prosecutors argue that “the laugh amounted to willful ‘disorderly and disruptive conduct’ intended to ‘impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct’ of congressional proceedings.” In court, they have tried to emphasize that the laugh was extraordinarily disruptive, with a US Capitol Police officer claiming that Fairooz laughed “very loudly” and people in the hearings turned around when they heard it.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/2/15518574/desiree-fairooz-justice-department

andrew jackson means dick all to donald trump as soren kierkegaard does. donald trump inherited shittons of property. fuck everyone else. he's got this. mitch mcconnell stole a supreme court seat. inherited wealth rules the united states of america. fuck jesus and empathy : (

<3 u Karl

is it possible that all this time Trump has been conflating Andrew Jackson with Andrew Johnson?

has anybody told Trump Jackson was a Democrat

Andrew Johnson made the same mistake.

Xpost

i love that the subtext of the civil war/andrew jackson stuff is that ol Abe Lincoln didn't do a good job dealing with the civil war

lol

"but he was a Republican!"

Dishonest Abe coulda just negotiated his way out of it if he hadn't been such a low energy cuck

you know what? equality is for suckers. i'm an american

If everybody in Ford's Theatre was armed...

it's possible that trump doesn't even know that jackson owned slaves, and about the Indian Removal Act

Maybe some of the Cherokees were good people. But a lot of them were bad hombres. Not many people know that.

so it seems very possible that bannon just whispered "andrew jackson is a great role model" in his ear a few times and trump never bothered learning about the details.

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, May 2, 2017 2:11 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would say with maybe 80-90% certainty, unless he was directly referred to as such, that it took a little time after Bannon (or whoever) started gushing about Andrew Jackson for Trump to discover that Jackson was a former president. This is a profoundly stupid man who spoke about Frederick Douglass in the present tense, because he probably genuinely didn't know who he was.

Thinkpiece

Our national armchair faces a television, where Trump has already appeared for years, and where he now appears almost constantly. But the armchair metaphor, like the furniture itself, is rather quaint: Trump’s personality, in all its outsized vulgarity, looms over and inside the lives of many Americans in a way that no other President really has before. There is no comfortable distance from which to psychoanalyze Trump, because the man is always onscreen, right in front of us. He is at the doctor’s office and the departure gate, at the sports bar and the auto repair shop. He is on huge screens in Times Square and on the little screens we carry in our pockets. You may yet have been spared seeing Trump on the TV in some fancy restroom, but if you’re among the one in two Americans who check their phones while on the toilet, odds are you’ve had an encounter with him there, too. Trump intrudes into spaces virtual and physical, public, and deeply private. Forget psychoanalysis-as-plague: it’s Trump that’s truly viral.

http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/QP5G0ixHnrqdT4wFWuZV_qgffCo=/950x534/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fstory%2Fthumbnail%2F34540%2F895a9e4f-30bb-4111-a02f-c211042b04ab.png

goatse.jpg

i just got a new windoze computer (never had one before) and i was a little dismayed that the newsy tiles on the start menu of course became a constant stream of trump stories before i had even tried to configure them

so there was a phone call w/ Putin today: Syria, terrorism, N Korea

and here we sit

a silver spoon asshole who'd rather golf than read leads a nation of odysseus anti-virtuosic post-punk badasses. laffer curve

a silver spoon asshole who'd rather golf than read leads a nation of odysseus anti-virtuosic post-punk badasses. laffer curve

― reggie (qualmsley)

when did ian svenonius quit being the sassiest boy in america

mark twain is the number one blues singer in the country. joyce kilmer. blues explosion!

Yeah I can't remember the last time I sat in an armchair that was facing a television. 2002? 2006?

My children (6 and 10) have almost never sat in a chair and faced a television. They just plop down with a tablet wherever they happen to be. Not sure that bears on anything said upthread or anything Blanchard writes. I guess I agree that the metaphor is quaint.

feel real sorry rich fucks can't muster the votes to kill vulnerable americans :(

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/republicans-obamacare-repeal-votes-237871

There's something very No Exit about voting 50 times or whatever to repeal the ACA, then getting both the White House and both houses of congress, and then continuing to attempt to repeal the ACA, over and over, again and again, for eternity.

Jean Paul Ryan

Hell is Other Congresspeople

My reading of this thread today has basically been just chortling darkly and repeating "OOOOOOOOH, my God" over and over again

so it looks like Trump is finally going to sign his executive order legalizing anti-LGBT discrimination in the service of "religious freedom":

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/donald-trump-religious-liberty-executive-order-237888

He's religious free to kiss my ass.

Oh, wait, maybe he's not anymore?

Wonder how long that would last in court, though.

so uh are we going to boycott ourselves now or what? can't isolate the indianas and north carolinas this time around..

That EO is gonna die an immediate death in the court, ACLU and any number of LGBT groups are poised to sue

Hmmm

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/sally-yates-michael-flynn-testimony-contradict/index.html

Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates is prepared to testify before a Senate panel next week that she gave a forceful warning to the White House regarding then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn nearly three weeks before he was fired, contradicting the administration's version of events, sources familiar with her account tell CNN.

In a private meeting January 26, Yates told White House Counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was lying when he denied in public and private that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia in conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak. Flynn's misleading comments, Yates said, made him potentially vulnerable to being compromised by Russia, according to sources familiar with her version of events. She expressed "serious concerns" to McGahn, making it clear -- without making a recommendation -- that Flynn could be fired.

Yates' testimony May 8 will be the first time the former acting attorney general will publicly speak about the White House meeting. A source familiar with the situation says that Yates will be limited on what she can tell the Senate judiciary subcommittee because many of the details involving Flynn are classified, meaning there may only be a few new revelations.

Meantime:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/mark-green-army-secretary-nomination/index.html

The nomination of President Donald Trump's Army secretary is in serious jeopardy, and he could be withdrawing as soon as this week, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Mark Green, Trump's second pick to be Army secretary, is facing what the sources described as a difficult -- if not insurmountable -- path to confirmation amid a backlash over his controversial statements on LGBT issues, Islam and evolution.

national queer march on DC (June 11) needed a boost or two

donald trump colluded with vladimir putin to steal the 2016 US presidential election, and we're all like, don't front too hard because it's not cool

mark twain is the number one blues singer in the country. joyce kilmer. blues explosion!

― reggie (qualmsley)

mark twain was right on regarding polk miller and his old south quartette.

There's something very No Exit...

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, May 2, 2017 5:21 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jean Paul Ryan

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, May 2, 2017 5:29 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hell is Other Congresspeople

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 2, 2017 5:31 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Huis Cloture

whenever i see the word "cloture" i...

think of cloaca?

think of nick laird-clowes

Reporters ask Rep. Issa his position on the revised healthcare bill. "None of your business," he says.

— Cristina Marcos (@cimarcos) May 2, 2017

Many XP, but take care of yourself, Karl.

SALLY YATES MONDAY 8 MOTHERFUCKERS

why are there so many russian agents attached to comrade combover?

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/russian-interference-in-the-2016-united-states-election

Oh boy, now these are going to be duuuuuummmmb

Getting weird out there

Sean Hannity and his lackey Bill Shine blocked me from Fox because I blocked Sean's insane effort to become @realDonaldTrump WH COS

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) May 3, 2017

Sean is sad about this

Roger, with all due respect, I NEVER EVER ASKED to be considered for any WH job, nor would I ever have accepted, nor is that my skill set. https://t.co/P1yczkqL8a

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 3, 2017

demint defenestrated :(

http://www.heritage.org/article/statement-the-chairman-heritages-board-trustees

Oh...my god pic.twitter.com/Mg959tOiBv

— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) May 3, 2017

she prob just saw the picture and didn't read the txt.

Following the whole he-never-wanted-to-win theory, he finally found a way out with that retweet.

The civil war quote, maybe someone already pointed this out and I missed it, but aside from Trump being a dumbass that was a textbook example of concern trolling wasn't it? "I just have a few questions about this issue..."

In this case specifically there's also a strong dogwhistle element. Not saying Trump really intended it that way, but it doesn't seem unlikely whoever's whistling in his ear did.

lol at sean hannity thinking a lack of suitable skills would prevent him from taking a place in trump's administration - betsy devos has a job ffs

Wasn't there a military background guy about a month and a half ago who turned down a cabinet position because he was too integrally involved in his firm to divest from it? Thought the same thing then too.

yeah c'mon dude, get with the programme - flagrant ethics violations are the new normal! fill those boots with all the plunder you can before everyone drowns and/or starves to death!

Well it's great that some people you might not think it of would actually have a sense of ethics but that do0esn't seem to be what is currently prevalent. They're not actually thinking there might be a future in which they might be like prosecuted for corruption or whatever are they?
Trump doesn't have a millennial agenda or something does he?
I heard that Reagan believed in the Rapture meaning that God's kingdom was about to descend so it was the end of times already. Don't really think Trump thinks of a greater power but if time's about to end there will be no repercussions.

Good [unintelligble]!

Hitching your trolley to the Turnip Train is a high-risk endeavor with likely short-term gains and long-term consequences. I would think that anyone who can visualize a moment past, say, June of 2017 would think twice about pursuing that day in paradise.

knox county sheriff jimmy jones (or his people) is running for county mayor & apparently believe otherwise:

Jones said he knows he is known for spouting off and not being politically correct, but he said he thinks people want honesty and someone different, not unlike President Donald Trump.

“Obviously, there’s a correlation, and I think that’s what the people who are out here that work and vote and have jobs every day look at too,” he said. “I think they don’t want the rhetoric. They want somebody to do the things that they think are right because that’s what they would do.”

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2017/05/02/sheriff-jones-officially-announces-mayoral-run/101205012/

this is the guy who pushed to give county police the authority to turn undocumented workers over to ICE under a program that obama nixed but trump is reviving. his quote from that battle: he would "stack illegals like cordwood in the county jails"

They want somebody to do the things that they think are right, like beating up the browns and victimising the poors, because that’s what they would do

I swear to god, this is the Veep-iest shit that's happened yet

oh my god the Mulvaney conference call, via @maddow pic.twitter.com/YPZr1tZfRo

— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 3, 2017

nightmarish

I hope a transom falls on his head:

Ben Carson does not like the creature comforts, at least not for low-income Americans reliant on the government for a helping hand.

As he toured facilities for the poor in Ohio last week, Mr. Carson, the neurosurgeon-turned-housing secretary, joked that a relatively well-appointed apartment complex for veterans lacked “only pool tables.” He inquired at one stop whether animals were allowed. At yet another, he nodded, plainly happy, as officials explained how they had stacked dozens of bunk beds inside a homeless shelter and purposefully did not provide televisions.

Compassion, Mr. Carson explained in an interview, means not giving people “a comfortable setting that would make somebody want to say: ‘I’ll just stay here. They will take care of me.’”

omg the hold music

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck ben carson

I'm reminded of the idea that making a Victorian poor house a harsh regime would make it less alluring for the non-deserving poor.
& still stuck with that the only possible epistemology is that everything is a meritocracy where anybody who does work hard will inevitably succeed and not have adversity of any kind be insurmountable.
Also that idea of karma and teh caste system. If you're badly off in this life you inevitably did something rotten in a past one.

I wasn't sure that Carson would be able to reach the lofty dehumanizing heights of this administration but it would appear that he's rising to the challenge. These guys should really just go ahead and criminalize poverty already, cut to the chase.

one step closer to the vast soylent green factories of etc etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrmZMpm5bZ0

@AlanFisher
Comey says information pumped out by Wikileaks is not journalistic but simply "intelligence porn"

@ggreenwald
Who wants the FBI & CIA Directors to be the arbiters of what is and is not real "journalism"? Apparently, many people do.

journalism: you know it when you see it

apparently, many people do

dude had no issue with Comey being in charge of "journalism" when it was all her emails all the time, of course

http://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377674928i/298275._UY475_SS475_.jpg

dude had no issue with Comey being in charge of "journalism" when it was all her emails all the time, of course

@matthewamiller
Comey's "speak or conceal" explanation falls completely apart when you recall he chose "speak" for the Clinton probe & "conceal" for Trump.

@ggreenwald
This is by far the most compelling grievance against Comey's actions.

I love Wikileaks journalism.

http://mashable.com/2016/09/11/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-health-poll.amp

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/295116-wikileaks-piles-on-to-clinton-earpiece

Especially when they pushed the conspiracy that Seth Rich was murdered, decontextualized an email to make it seem like DNC staffers called Latinos "taco bowls" and tweeted out link to a pizza gate investigation.

bad journalism is not illegal

Comey's not entirely wrong. Context-free document dumps are not "journalism"; they're closer to the uncritical passing on of the words of anonymous spokespeople that's rightly criticized as "stenography."

Wikileaks : Journalism :: IMDB Comments : Film Criticism

Adding: And you don't have to want Comey in charge of deciding what is and isn't journalism to understand the difference, either.

@ggreenwald
One small problem w/ [Comey's] claim, among many, is WL redacted large amounts of info in recent publication of CIA docs:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/wikileaks-cia-hacking.html

The initial release, which WikiLeaks said was only the first installment in a larger collection of secret C.I.A. material, included 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, many of them partly redacted by WikiLeaks editors to avoid disclosing the actual code for cyberweapons.

much love to al franken ~

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/sen-al-franken-presses-comey-trumps-tax-returns-are-relevant-to-russia-investigation/

The contextless document dump vs journalism distinction shouldn't be ignored. Their role in "climate gate" is a good case study http://electionado.com/canvas/1480388925211 . If you went solely off of the way Greenwald and his fans talk about WL you wouldn't have any awareness of the examples I listed or what WL has become in general now and that's a problem if we're going to refer to him on this issue.

Lehey just brought up that a call for a Muslin ban exists *right now* on Trump's campaign site.

my hot take is that we're never gonna get anything useful out of Comey. He will never implicate himself as having done anything wrong to influence the election, and the FBI investigation into Trump + Russia (after being dragged out as long as possible) will not deliver any actionable evidence. Comey's self-interest would seem to dictate that he give the appearance of having conducted a thorough investigation while not turning up anything.

that being the case, these hearings are mostly theater

Greenwald replied (to criticism from Naomi Klein): “I absolutely agree with you that there are very profound concerns about individual privacy that are being trampled over with these [Podesta] leaks and certainly with the ones to come. And we probably haven’t given that enough thought, primarily because what ends up happening is the leaks happen; journalists like me give lip service to the fact that it’s too bad they weren’t curated, they should have been; and then everyone starts digging into them for newsworthy stories. Maybe it’s been rewarding that approach, maybe it’s just not given sufficient attention to it, but I’m not sure what the answer is, because as long as the capability exists, I think people are going to continue to do it.”

Speaking about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published the leaks without curation, Greenwald said: “[T]here are also very extreme concerns from vesting so much power in one person. It’s sort of ironic given that the NSA scandal and all these other scandals arose out of the idea that a tiny number of people, in secret, with no accountability, have been making these choices. And now you have other people posing as their adversaries creating a similar framework for themselves.”

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/naomi_klein_criticizes_glenn_greenwalds_20161019

The only FBI directors who've ever seeped into my consciousness are this guy and Louis Freeh (and Hoover, of course), so...has there ever been an FBI director who wasn't a worthless piece of shit?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjP3buLn9TTAhVq7oMKHcdWD5IQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.worldnomads.com%2Fprimosnomads%2Fphoto%2F21496%2F628887%2FVenezuela%2FThe-most-wanted-Female-Body-Inspector&psig=AFQjCNHfgu9ar4ePyVtf1JXHeemMPf2eyw&ust=1493918662091394

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.116427083.5871/ra,unisex_tshirt,x2200,322e3f:696a94a5d4,front-c,392,146,750,1000-bg,f8f8f8.lite-1u2.jpg

Morbs, do you really think we will think more of the pos Greenwald because he is a hypocrite as well?

Lehey just brought up that a call for a Muslin ban exists *right now* on Trump's campaign site.

― Josh in Chicago

i hope that is literally true, that he is calling for banning muslin

journalists fact check

well this is something. maybe one of these sleazebag trumpublicans will finally be held accountable for their corruption

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/05/02/judge-orders-bondi-to-prove-she-appropriately-directed-companies-to-donate-to-charities

I could totally see Trump calling for a ban on cheesecloth.

Cheesecloth wearing surrender monkeys.

Greenwald's appearance on Pod Save the World last month was pretty good.

http://chicagoist.com/2017/05/03/architects_to_block_out_trump_tower.php

much love to al franken ~

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/sen-al-franken-presses-comey-trumps-tax-returns-are-relevant-to-russia-investigation/

― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, May 3, 2017 11:55 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wtf Comey "I'm not going to answer that question" you partisan hack

in actually significant news, the WaPo's whip count for the ACA repeal vote keeps getting more interesting - Upton and Long come out in support, but the "leaning or stated no" column stays the same (currently 20) and the "undecided or unclear" number keeps going UP (currently 36). Still a little worried something is going to pass but who knows, things seem p shaky.

Senate still not expected to go for it?

unintelligible:

President Donald Trump asserted on Wednesday that the Israel government and the Palestinian Authority “get along unbelievably well.” During a press conference with State of Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, Trump praised Palestinian National Authority for its efforts to combat ISIS.

“I also applaud the Palestinian Authority’s continued cooperation with Israel,” Trump said. “They get along unbelievably well. They work together beautifully.” The U.S. president noted that there could be “no lasting peace” unless all Palestinian leaders spoke out against hate. “There’s such hatred,” he added. “But hopefully there won’t be such hatred for very long.”

He's a regular Dr. King, this one.

“But hopefully there won’t be such hatred for very long.”

MUTHAFUCKIN KUSH IS ON THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS

THIIS IS THE HATRED SONG....

(Nick Cave joeks, dmm)

The only FBI directors who've ever seeped into my consciousness are this guy and Louis Freeh

For a long time the only one I ever knew was William Sessions from the little screen that used to be on arcade games:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Winners_Dont_Use_Drugs.png

he was so wrong

otm

man, that was weird. drugs are bad for a variety of reasons but "making you bad at video games" isn't one of them

I will always associate that screen w/N.A.R.C.

a game I finished/beat while on drugs iirc

that seems like a particularly ineffective game to put that message on, given the central message of N.A.R.C. was "if you sell drugs you will get blown up with a rocket launcher"

President Trump plans to mark National Day of Prayer on Thursday by issuing an executive order that makes it easier for churches and other religious groups to actively participate in politics without risking their tax-exempt status, several administration officials said.

Seems like this won't end well.

there nate goes again

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/

I posted it in the Clinton thread to shut everyone up

I don't get it, wasn't that his take like immediately after election day

Comey's?

Comey's on the take, you say?

so actually the net effect of the letter is similar to a normal polling error

Nate Silver is so 2008

also much better re baseball

a game I finished/beat while on drugs iirc

― Οὖτις

yeah you will never convince me that the people who made narc _weren't_ on drugs

So they're going to try and vote tomorrow. Fun!

Has Issa said how he's gonna vote?

Not yet. He's fucked either way imo so he might as well vote yes

I know it's none of my business, but...

according to this Issa is still "undecided" - if any of these guys are your reps please call them:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-7h_7sXcAAo2eu.jpg

I don't get the rush other than to light the GOP moderates on fire.. and even then, this could be so colossally stupid it damages even non-moderate pols?

President Manbaby wants a "win" is why

I guess the reconciliation clock is ticking too...

8 billion dollars to paper over pre-existing conditions is some bulllllllllllllllllllllls shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

frelinghuysen? jesus christ being on that losing henry clay ticket seems to have some long fucking coattails

http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20170501/Upton%20Amendment.pdf

Nate Silver is why Clinton lost the election

It's gonna pass this time. Stupidity and evil can only be constrained for so long.

yeah banking on the senate to stop this is like relying on the voters to stop trump

Calling Curbelo tomorrow, but he's leaning no.

My rep is a Dem.

But Upton wants to get to yes. He hates Obamacare.

After the 2010 elections thrust Republicans into the majority, Upton overcame concerns with his moderate nature to win the coveted Energy and Commerce Committee gavel.

His presentation to leadership consisted of him pulling out the game Jenga, stacking up the series of blocks into a high pile, as the bemused lawmakers wondered what he was doing.

damn america sonned in a jenga beef

"Concerns with his moderate nature"

gotta bad feeling abt this. no matter how shitty AHCA is, it will be the "win" (in the short term) that they've all been salivating over

What's the win -- passing in the House? It means nothing if it doesn't clear the Senate. If it does, then I'll worry

Once it passes the House (which it will), something will pass the Senate. Something fucked and evil. If not quite as fucked and evil as this, then something maybe 2% less fucked and evil.

^yeah kinda my thinking

health insurance will become hereditary

The vibe as such from the Senate appears to be "Thanks for nothing if you DO pass this, you jerks."

Yeah Senate math is quite different.

Bernie, Warren and the rest of the Senate w/ some bullshit

Strong and tough line of questioning from @Dena. Pathetic and dismal answers from Sanders on every question. https://t.co/6mQ6h72Ynl

— Hussain (@Chemzes) May 3, 2017

http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/senators-un-letter-israel-palestine-sanders-warren

Is $8 billion a lot of money?

Well, one thing not answered in the article is the time period over which this $8 billion would be spent. Is this a one year number? Is it a ten year total? The article doesn't give an answer to this basic question.

To get some idea of the need, the average cost of treating the 10 percent least healthy people is more than $50,000 a year per person. This means that on an annual basis the cost of treating the 30 million least healthy people in the country would be over $1.5 trillion. Many of these people are getting Medicare, Medicaid, or employer provided insurance, but if one-third of them showed up in the high risk pools, then their costs would be over $500 billion a year.

In this case, if the $8 billion is a one-year figure, it will cover 1.6 percent of the cost of treating this population. On the other hand, if it is a ten-year figure it will cover 0.16 percent of the cost of treating the less healthy people who show up in high risk pools. Either way, it is a tiny fraction of the cost, but it would still be nice to know which one it us.

from dean baker obv

People with the highest percentage of preexisting conditions live in states won by Trump, according to Steve Rattner.

he walks on, doesn't look back - he pretends he can't hear her. starts to whistle as he crosses the street - seems embarrassed to be there

he says 'would you respect me- If I didn't have this gun? Cause without it, I don't get it, and that's why I carry one'

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?" She said, "I think I remember the film, and as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it" And I said, "Well, that's the one thing we've got."

If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain, If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain

Too fuckin late, George Will: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-a-dangerous-disability/2017/05/03/56ca6118-2f6b-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.9cf02576c613#comments

so when are they voting on this

The first line of that George Will column is pretty good though

Rumblings on the purported religious liberty EO to come today are that the religious right are let down if not deeply pissed off.

Supposedly a sprightly 40 min of debate on the bill today! We can all be dead by dinner

don't care what they think or care about xp

If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain, If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain

― The Adventures Of Whiteman (Bananaman Begins), Thursday, 4 May 2017 12:01 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pm'd u a dick pic, let's make this happen

im kind of worried about this bill passing

it's going to pass

yeah it's gonna pass

Rumblings on the purported religious liberty EO to come today are that the religious right are let down if not deeply pissed off.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, May 4, 2017 8:39 AM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if the religious right doesn't even like it, why even issue the order at all? Just seems like a recipe for more protests and another court defeat

then again, why anything is a fairly futile question at this point.

the issue is the senate right?

Saw one story that claims the EO is all about making it easier for Trump to fundraise in churches.

acc to NPR this morning the Johnson Rule is hardly ever enforced vs churches

Basic breakdown of what happens next re AHCA

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/republicans-health-care-donald-trump/index.html

Point 5 seems like the key one:

5. The Senate changes it drastically: Senate Republicans have already expressed concern with the end of Medicaid expansion by 2020 -- which is in the House bill -- and it's hard for me to imagine some of the more moderate elements in the chamber will be happy about the pre-existing condition provisions. If the Senate radically alters the bill, which I think is more likely than not, it will have to a) go to a conference committee, and if that committee can report out a deal, then it has to b) be re-voted on by the House. If the bill is moved to the center by Senate Republicans, is there any certainty that the conservative Freedom Caucus will go along with it?

if Trump is personally able to grift a bunch of mega-churches that would be sort of funny i guess

i mean, more so than he already has

Comments from figures like Ryan Anderson, Vander Plaats, et al are saying things like 'fig leaf,' 'weak,' 'symbolic' -- commentators like Douthat are saying the Johnson Amendment's never been a priority among religious leaders he's interviewed over the years, etc. In combination with the optics of AHCA as it stands, Trump will win the conversation of the day but please absolutely nobody.

Would anyone care to offer a quick elucidatory summary of how the House was suddenly able to get their shit together re: taking a tire iron to ACA's kneecaps?

iirc

Paul Ryan rn: Let's just do it and be legends, man

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) May 4, 2017

bitter lol

I mean, per the Senate point above -- there's a sense here that they clearly had to deliver something no matter what, and that by shifting it off to the Senate they can pretty much go 'Not our problem! You figure it out' while still going 'See, we did a thing.' I assume Ryan's two main motivations were simple -- get the ground laid for his beloved tax cuts, demonstrate to his caucus and Trump that he can 'deliver.' Everything else is secondary. Combine that with leadership pressure functioning as it always does in a situation like this and there ya go.

I mean I can already tell ya that Portman in the Senate -- a close Kasich ally and all -- is going to look at the Medicaid changes and go 'yeah right.' Add in Collins and a few more and per the CNN paragraph, a revised bill is a certainty, and that gets punted back to the House eventually.

now it's personal

Andy Slavitt‏
@ASlavitt
ALERT: If you get your benefits at work, Trumpcare bill being voted on today snuck in something to allow them to be gutted & capped.

Under the House bill, large employers could choose the benefit requirements from any state—including those that are allowed to lower their benchmarks under a waiver, health analysts said. By choosing a waiver state, employers looking to lower their costs could impose lifetime limits and eliminate the out-of-pocket cost cap from their plans under the GOP legislation.

A company wouldn’t have to do business in a state to choose that state’s benefits level, analysts said. The company could just choose a state to match no matter where it is based.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/little-noted-provision-of-gop-health-bill-could-alter-employer-plans-1493890203

fun

Some more about what happens in the Senate:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/if-house-passes-gop-health-care-bill-a-steeper-climb-awaits-in-the-senate/2017/05/04/26a901da-30bd-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html?utm_term=.98b2695c37ca

The House measure’s original version, introduced in March by Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), already contained elements at risk of being struck out in the Senate under budget reconciliation rules that allow tax and spending changes but not broader policy changes.

That original proposal initially left many of the ACA’s insurance regulations alone — with the goal of ensuring it would pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan officer of the Senate who decides on what may go in a reconciliation bill — but not all of them.

The version of the bill the House plans to vote on Thursday would undercut the ACA’s insurance regulations even more, by giving states a path to opt out of federal requirements for insurers to cover certain “essential” health benefits — and to allow them to charge sick people the same premiums as healthy people.

The GOP bill would allow insurers to charge older Americans five times what they charge younger people, as opposed to three times as much under current law. And it would enable insurers to hike premiums by 30 percent for people who don’t remain continuously covered. Health policy experts, including conservative ones, have noted that the parliamentarian may decide those provisions need to be stripped out.

Additionally, members of the House will vote on their bill before they receive a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which would measure how much the legislation would cost and how many people stand to lose coverage under it. Senate budget rules require a CBO score that proves the legislation will not increase the deficit after 10 years. The Senate parliamentarian can’t even start reviewing the AHCA without a score from the CBO, and getting that is expected to take several weeks.

So it's not like Trump's signing anything tomorrow after a sudden Senate vote. And right now I'm willing to bet we're actually seeing the high point of this overall effort.

fucking monsters! fuck them all and the monsters that bore them as well

http://✧✧✧.c✧✧.com/2017/05/04/politics/trump-health-care-latest?lf-content=194658442:lb-post-d5d3bf8663d70a4ae50af3a34d1cb✧✧✧@livef✧✧✧.c✧✧&hubRefSrc=permalink

Rep. Chris Collins said his party is confident that "everyone's made up their minds" on the health care bill.

"I think everyone’s got confidence now," he told CNN. "It’ll pass, and I think by two votes."
He added that Democrats are wrong if they believe they'll be able to take back majority in the House because of the health care bill.

"We’re going to run against Nancy Pelosi in 2018," he said. "We’ll remind people in 2018, what’s the rhetorical question, do you really want Nancy Pelosi back as speaker of the House?"

He also credited Trump for the bill, saying "this was Donald J. Trump the negotiator getting it done."

"What finally got this over the line was the President," Collins added.

not sure what happened to the link, but it was one of the live updates at cnn.com

The GOP bill would allow insurers to charge older Americans five times what they charge younger people, as opposed to three times as much under current law.

Um. Aren't these older Americans the ones they rely on for votes?

that was my first thought as well

AARP is already getting ads going on said subject, I gather.

Noticed this comment separately just now but it's a nice corrective to Collins's hogwash:

I watched this bill pretty closely. Take my word on this:

Patrick McHenry did 1,000% more to get AHCA passed than Donald Trump.

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) May 4, 2017

(And also underscores that it's notable that aside from some phone calls the White House has been sitting this out in comparison -- no stories of Steve Bannon trying to act as enforcer. Which tells me they've figured out that if blowback is that bad they can shift blame very easily.)

Meantime, the state of the caucus:

Martha McSally stood up in GOP conference meeting and said let's get this "fucking thing" done.

Yes, direct quote — per members and aides.

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) May 4, 2017

Joe Wilson of "You lie!" fame acknowledges that "I haven't read the word-by-word" of the legislation but says he's read a "brief" on it

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) May 4, 2017

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/04/gop-congressman-i-dont-think-any-individual-has-read-health-bill.html

do be fair none of them read anything which is why there's that stunt policy every few years about not allowing anything to the floor longer than a sheet of paper

(And also underscores that it's notable that aside from some phone calls the White House has been sitting this out in comparison -- no stories of Steve Bannon trying to act as enforcer. Which tells me they've figured out that if blowback is that bad they can shift blame very easily.)

― Ned Raggett,

Some congressman this morning said the "process" worked this time because the president "sat this one out."

they sure shat this one out :(

Would anyone care to offer a quick elucidatory summary of how the House was suddenly able to get their shit together re: taking a tire iron to ACA's kneecaps?

― Jigsaw Pizzle (Old Lunch)

moderates cave. that's why they're moderates. hardliners don't. that's why they're hardliners. the congress has finally figured out that the key to getting anything passed is giving the fc everything they ask for and nobody anything else.

josh marshall's Iron Law of Republican Politics: the ‘GOP moderates’ will always cave

I guess 'perpetual capitulation' sort of resembles a principle.

sucks there's all this health and financial insecurity but hey think of all the taxes congress is saving the wealthy. can you begin to imagine what they've been through these past eight years?

Let's see how long the wealthy stay wealthy when the money consumers would've used on goods and services are instead funneled directly into paying off $8 million medical bills.

Yeah, who am I kidding, they'll continue to be insufficiently inconvenienced by the slowly-dying poors.

My congressman, a fucking little shit.

“Some of my concerns have been addressed, but there are others,” he said, walking out of a closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement.

Curbelo said he was largely convinced by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who rolled out a new amendment yesterday that allocates an additional $8 billion dollars over five years for states that opt out of cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

“No matter where someone ends up in the health care states, even if they are in one of these opt-out states and they haven’t kept continuous coverage, there’s going to be support for him. That’s what the Upton amendment kind of cures. That was important for me,” he said.

the poor will all be healed by getting off their lazy butts and applying for all the millions of jobs that are about to trickle down from the coming tax cut any day now

"kind of cures" are all that's gonna be available to anyone after this abomination

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/health-care-vote/index.html

The mood among House Republicans is jubilant Thursday morning as they prepare to vote for their bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The first test vote easily passed along party lines, with a final vote on the bill expected in the 1 p.m. ET hour on the legislation, would dismantle the pillars of the Affordable Care Act and make sweeping changes to the nation's health care system.

The final vote will be very close, but many Republicans were already in a celebratory mode in a morning meeting in the House basement. The theme song to "Rocky" played as members filed in.

yes, i remember that moment in rocky where he fought and fought and then died because he couldn't afford health insurance

Let's see how long the wealthy stay wealthy when the money consumers would've used on goods and services *poured into guns in ammo as directed by NRA* are instead funneled directly into paying off $8 million medical bills *pointed at them*. xpost and fixed.

i would love it if sylvester stallone appeared and punched them in the face

lol almost fixed, but words are hard.

well he got cancer in Creed but there were no death panels

Kate Upton could have written a better amendment

will the senate pass this tax cut through reconciliation, or will mcconnell nuke the legislation filibuster? i can't wait to find out : )

a glowing NYT story published yesterday claimed as evidence of Senate bipartisanship that members of both parties overwhelmingly want to keep the legislation filibuster. But eh

And here's a press release explaining Ros Lehtnen's no vote.

that makes too much moral sense for a typical republican i'd bet though. to think the TEA party 'took back america' in 2010 crying foul about "passing the bill to find out what's in it". if only more of these people were capable of shame

Obviously nobody knows anything anymore, but "Donald Trump and the GOP took trillions of dollars from their voters and gave them to their donors" is a hell of a message

I should note that my boy Curbelo is one of three reps in South Florida w/ more people covered under ACA exchanges than any other.

Meantime, more on the religious order EO front -- when you've got the Alliance Defending Freedom crew complaining about it...

http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10252

During his campaign, President Trump stated that the first priority of his administration would be to preserve and protect religious liberty. In speeches, he said the Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith will always have their religious liberty protected on his watch and will not have to face bullying from the government because of their religious beliefs. Religious voters took him at his word, giving the president a mandate to affirm and protect Americans’ first freedom.

The current outline of the Religious Liberty Executive Order released by White House officials recalls those campaign promises but leaves them unfulfilled.

I have yet to see any 'typical' religious right activist type of the sort I've noticed over the years give any real praise to this at all, and mostly as noted it's either disappointment or just outright scorn.

Which makes this all the more funny.

At National Day of Prayer event, Trump says if he hadn't won the presidency, "I'd be out enjoying my life."

— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) May 4, 2017

Dude's on a roll today, it turns out:

"I could use some good lawyers" -- Trump says in a Rose Garden ceremony

— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) May 4, 2017

"We're gonna take care of a lot of people, great great people." -- Trump, on today's Obamacare repeal vote.

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) May 4, 2017

Sarlin meanwhile had a good point re the Senate that talk is obviously cheap among GOP types there. (As elsewhere!) So question is, how hard do people want to go to the mat for this in the end.

maybe how like they slide gorsuch in, they want to repeal obamacare pre-impeachment?

sally yates might be bringing hellfire monday

a look inside the GOP house deliberations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUt2BNwG3CE

i wouldn't hold your breath xp

i thought this cut to the core

Finally, some honesty from the GOP: pic.twitter.com/3sKoy4Zuad

— Pixelated Boat (@pixelatedboat) May 4, 2017

pricks are people too, my friend

More from the Senate (and this all makes sense from here):

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/331842-in-senate-pessimism-over-obamacare-repeal

296

Republican senators say they don’t see a way to get healthcare reform over the finish line, even if the House passes a bill this week.

A senior GOP senator said the chances of getting 51 votes for legislation based on the House healthcare bill are less than 1 in 5.

The senator also put the chances that the House bill will meet Senate budgetary rules preventing a filibuster at less than 1 in 5, meaning portions of the legislation would have to be removed.

Lawmakers are keeping quiet about their concerns because they want to help Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), whose job they fear may be in jeopardy if the House fails again to approve an ObamaCare repeal bill.

“Paul Ryan is a talented and thoughtful legislator and leader. It’s important for him to succeed,” said one GOP senator.

So basically they're risking what they are for temporary stability. Who knew!

Further:

Cornyn said the House bill — if it passes — will have to be revised.

“I suspect the bill the House passes will be modified if for no other reason that the reconciliation rules would require it,” he said. “My goal would be if they pass a bill, which I hope they will, it will come over here and we’ll do our best work to cobble together 51 votes.”

Another GOP lawmakers said the House bill will have to be changed “a lot.”

Some senators argue the push in the House could set up the Senate for blame.

“All they care about is getting it out of the House so they can say that the Senate couldn’t pass healthcare reform,” said a second GOP senator who requested anonymity.

Still, this lawmaker said GOP senators are ready to help Ryan out even if it means they shoulder the blame for killing a bill that faces a steep climb to enactment.

“Paul Ryan is a talented and thoughtful legislato

As opposed to an alto or soprano.

maybe the senate GOP will find the upper bracket tax savings parsimonious, and rewrite the bill to cut them further? they can still 'reconcile' if they raise taxes on everyone else who doesn't have enough skin in the game

“Paul Ryan is a talented and thoughtful legislator and leader. It’s important for him to succeed,” said one GOP senator.

It's important to cheer for your kid when he crosses the finish line even if he's in last place but I didn't realize this was a justification for killing people. I wonder if this GOP senator has ever complained about participation trophies.

My Ohio people on Twitter now saying Joyce and Turner are solid "no" votes.

I wonder if this GOP senator has ever complained about participation trophies.

he received one for being on the Debate Team iirc

xp

As opposed to an alto or soprano.

or a castrato

there's still time for him to become a castrato

is that covered under the congressional health plan

no, but members of congress are exempt

Cry, the beloved Speaker

I've covered Paul Ryan for a while. Never seen him so anxious. Fidgeting in his seat; clasping hands, rolling neck, opening/shutting binder.

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) May 4, 2017

Let me know when he shits his pants and dies.

LBJ he is not

I've covered Paul Ryan for a while. Never seen him so anxious. Fidgeting in his seat; clasping hands, rolling neck, opening/shutting binder, snorting coke

I want the last paragraph in Ryan's biography to read, “Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east...”

Indeed.

Cases upon cases of beer just rolled into the Capitol on a cart covered in a sheet. Spotted Bud Light peeking out from the sheet

— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) May 4, 2017

Fidgeting in his seat; clasping hands, rolling neck, opening/shutting binder.... just went full Scanners

WTF who are the two Democrats who just voted for this?

they just changed their votes.

Back to zero.

aaaaand it's passed. good luck guys.

Roffle. Wonder what prompted this?

Amash a late yes.

— Richard Rubin (@RichardRubinDC) May 4, 2017

christ

this is gonna pass by one vote isn't it

it just did

by 2 reps. 217-213.

Making the Senate's job even worse from their standpoint. If this had been an easy majority that's one thing; as it stands, obviously a whole lot of looking at everyone else going to happen.

not sure how the democrats singing 'na na na na hey hey goodbye' on the house floor can be so confident that this will come back to hurt the republicans, but we'll see

Apt Twitter comment: "Now it’s the House’s turn to root for paralysis in the Senate."

yea that's the "hope Trump wins cuz he'll be easy to defeat" thing coming back, how'd that work out?

hey i win this bracket

@SteveRattner May 2
Under (the MacArthur) amendment, here are est hikes in premiums for ppl w/:
Asthma: $4k
Diabetes: $5.5k
Pregnancy: $17k
Arthritis: $26k
Cancer: $140k!

jesus

The attack ad writes itself: the GOP celebrated on the floor of Congress when they took away health care from millions of Americans

If I were Bud Light I'd be desperate not to see those photos.

lol the prevision to exempt Congress from their own shitty healthcare plans is still in there, these guys do not care about the optics one bit

their base doesnt see the optics

cant these congresscritters buy beer thats not disgusting and maybe a brand thats actually american owned?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjuLsvPu0jfUehaLOvUGKoP2aFkWOisH6ahdzDaiXXN8fPq6Hz

the house is gerrymandered as tight as the rictus of betsy devos's "smile" and there are what, 10 more democratic than republican senators up for re-election in 2018? can't wait for the midterms!

I won't go as far as actually wishing it, but I certainly wouldn't discourage a flesh-eating virus from ravaging the bodies and faces of everyone who voted for this thing.

.@Reince exiting gop cloakroom tells me: "The president stepped up and helped punt the ball into the end zone."

— Molly Hooper (@mollyhooper) May 4, 2017

do these guys even watch sports?

you could say he threw the ball into the basketball ring

Enough to find an offsides ploy with Garland and Gorsuch palatable.

As self-described conservatives, they don't seem to respect the past norms very much. I'm all for the media banning the term "conservative" for anyone who can't quote Burke. Reactionary is a a fine term.

And it's already dead:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/senate-wont-vote-on-house-passed-healthcare-bill/article/2622152

Senate Republicans said Thursday they won't vote on the House-passed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, but will write their own legislation instead.

A Senate proposal is now being developed by a 12-member working group. It will attempt to incorporate elements of the House bill, senators said, but will not take up the House bill as a starting point and change it through the amendment process.

"The safest thing to say is there will be a Senate bill, but it will look at what the House has done and see how much of that we can incorporate in a product that works for us in reconciliation," said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

...which will likely pass with the fifty-one votes needed, I suspect, for Maine's Susan Collins is on board

It's less the pass, more the try and put the two together that'll be the 'fun' bit.

wouldn't the reconciliation period be over by then and require 60 votes tho

I'd put safe money on this:

If it dies in the Senate, at least 40% of base voters will enter 2018 thinking Trump repealed Obamacare. https://t.co/foL8wUH8ba

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) May 4, 2017

I would be ok with this scenario

I would like everyone in the Senate to die.

Let's put it to a vote!

xpost -- No wonder you like Ian McDiarmid's performance.

do these guys even watch sports?

Given the number of closeted gays in the GOP leadership, doubtful

He got the punt part right, to be fair.

"The president puts the lotion on the skin!"

These people are all a bunch of lousy punts.

This is a great touchback for the president. Now the senate can run with the bill from the safety of the 20-yard line without having to fear any costly fumbles or head-on collisions.

the taxcut touchback / laffer curveball // 1-2 punch ~ always a winning play : )

Roffle.

a peek inside Breitbart slack from earlier — look for the website to play up meadows big moving forward pic.twitter.com/nQWp0IOGyq

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 4, 2017

who will win the most effective collaborator pageant sponsored by breitbart.com? tune in next week.

nice timing, germany! when do the scarcity wars begin?

http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/800143/Greek-Debt-Bailout-Germany-Angela-Merkel-austerity-IMF-EU-ECB-Athens

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/federal-judge-rules-against-georgia-in-voter-registration-case-for-special-election/article/2622176

The Fake News media is officially out of control. They will do or say anything in order to get attention - never been a time like this!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2017

Republicans celebrate stripping millions of healthcare by chugging Bud Light

As drinking the blood of cancer victims would be gauche, Republican lawmakers are preparing to celebrate the House’s narrow passing of their new, Affordable Care Act-gutting bill by quaffing a few ice-cold Bud Lights out in the Rose Garden. “Cases upon cases” of Bud Light—a thin, watery gruel that presents itself as a better, more patriotic version of something you actually prefer, but really just leaves you feeling like shit—were spotted being rolled into the Capitol this afternoon, moments before the bill passed at 217-213.

[...]

Anyway, Bud Light has thus far been silent on the matter, perhaps not wanting to remind everyone about that time it accidentally sort-of endorsed date rape in connection to a bill that just made sexual assault a “preexisting condition.”

what is with all you commies on twitter now? fat barb offically and proudly endorses capitalism and liberalism

— Barbara (@fat_barb) April 10, 2017

?

ref to Ross-Lehtnin's no vote, I suspect

Am I somehow wrong in thinking that this disgusting bloodfeast is... what America wanted?

Like Twitter is gnawing on our orange pal and its super easy to reconcile "Trump and tiny, rich, racist, sexist power-mad government bullies and vampires love to murder the poor."

But there's like **60 million people** in this country who voted for this, and it was certainly one of the most hot-button issues in the entire campaign not some crazy surprise. Its BAFFLING to me that there are at least 60 million Americans that think heath care should not be a human right, and even more baffling in this economy that there's 60 million Americans so comfortable and healthy that they think we need less health care for everyone

gaze not into the abyss, large portion of those 60 million don't make rational decisions

It's even better than that, when policies fail or falter, they blame the party that tried to help them!

60 million Americans (at least) are supremely selfish and greedy. Their premiums went up (or their cousin's, or their mechanic's, etc) so LAW MUST BE REPEALSED GRRRR GIT ER DUN I NEED $$ FOR MAH FISHIN BOAT

Its BAFFLING to me that there are at least 60 million Americans that think heath care should not be a human right

surely this include the dems who passed the ACA to begin with as a massive hand job to the insurance industry. last year i was unable to afford health care with the subsidies provided, so i had to go without care and was fined a hefty $700 added onto my year-end taxes. what a great plan.

No no, you don't understand, Whiney. Of course they want healthcare. They just don't want OBAMAcare. Any right-thinking American would unquestioningly saw a leg off for the sake of their chosen tribe.

Still have yet to see/hear someone (eg media member, politician) explain that premiums went up mainly cause insurance co's could no longer "risk manage" by denying coverage to "risky" customers, ie those who most need health care.

tbf all Americans have always been told by their leaders that no better alternative to their insane system will ever even be a possibility which is bound to mess with perceptions

the majority of americans want single payer, unfortunately not one dem is willing to fight for it (pelosi explicitly ruled it out again today)

not one dem is willing to fight for it (pelosi explicitly ruled it out again today)

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.)

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/676/cosponsors

I should have said dems w/ a national presence/influence, that does have more signatories than I thought which is cool

I mean you could argue that cosponsoring a bill going nowhere isn't "fighting for" single payer but my own rep is explicitly and vocally in favor of hashtag-medicare-for-all

I think Pelosi's calculus re: single-payer may change if repeal really does go all the way through and the Dems win a House majority in 2018.

sure, maybe, or maybe someone who's willing to stump for it should run against her

will have to wait for her to retire, she's got SF locked up

don't think anyone could credibly challenge her for caucus leadership either tbh. seniority and (more importantly) effectiveness count for an awful lot. She holds the caucus together and gets the votes - more than you can say for the GOP's recent leadership.

true enough, but like half the caucus is on the conyers bill right now and she's still negotiating with herself

discounting some legitimately 'econ anxious' people who may just not pay a whole lot of attention, i tend to think a frighteningly large % of that 60m are craving some indeterminate punitive action for our govt, institutions, (even corps, to some extent) and fellow citizens for deigning to treat lgbqt and POCs almost like full-fledged citizens in this century. the irrationality and concomitant 'acting out' provides some bizarre catharsis which must totally be worth it for them, at least in the short term.

and yeah, when it all goes sideways for them there's a massive, somewhat 'alt-'media push at the ready with an unwavering script about how it's always The Others' fault in just 3 easy steps. p cool.

the majority of americans want single payer, unfortunately not one dem is willing to fight for it (pelosi explicitly ruled it out again today)

^yes and the dems are, to me, pretty stupid not to just keep saying it all day, everyday. if for no other reason than to refocus/ re-center the mainstream narrative a little bit.

so fucked up how ACA causing people to not "keep their plan and their doctor" was a goddamn travesty, with the crocodile tears deluging from Rs, but slashing Medicaid and re-instituting health-history based underwriting is a tremendous victory for the American people. Fuck these assholes forever.

Because I've had a glass of wine, I watched the FOX panel headed by Chris Wallace a few minutes ago and found the mood...subdued? K-Ham thinks nothing will happen: a rickety system will emerge from conference, the president will sign it, and in about ten years we go to single payer because the American public has been "radically" changed to accept health care as a right. Charles Lane said the GOP will get an earful next week during the break and are in danger of losing the House.

single payer=SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. I think US still has too much fear of socialism for that to be a reality any time soon.

then why is Sanders the most popular politician in the country

i got free eyeglasses last week! #mitt2020

socialism is def not the bugbear it used to be, what w the GOP in bed w our Cold War nemesis and European socialism more or less in tatters

Trump just praised Australia's health care system to the prime minister's face. Here's the Dems' attack ad.

then why is Sanders the most popular politician in the country

what

he lost iirc

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/27/how-do-americans-feel-about-single-payer-health-care-its-complicated/

@ crut (as of march, anyway):
https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2017/03/17/fox-news-poll-bernie-sanders-most-popular-politician-america/99323334/

he lost iirc

― sexualing healing (crüt), Friday, 5 May 2017 00:27 (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes but he *woulda* won

even had he won, Bernie wouldn't have had coattails, so he'd've been stuck with a super-hostile congress. btw, we are speculating about an irrelevancy.

I have never said he would have won. it was stated that socialism is scary to people, I was just noting that a self-professed "democratic socialist" is very popular on a national level

what do you think is the % of US voters who identify as socialist, or would say they're supportive of socialist principles in theory?

or dem socialist

I guess my question would be, where would they be exposed to such ideas to even be quizzed on them? certainly not via any pundits, op-ed columnists, or (barring Bernie, who barely qualifies) politicians

I'm not making assumptions beyond the idea that there might be untapped potential for actual left pols to make serious gains

How many socialists/dem socialists hold natl office in US? how bout state-level?
Who needs to be exposed to an idea in order to be prejudiced against it? Not Americans! Socialism=bad just like 1+1=2 for > 1/2 of US voters I'd say. Would like to be wrong!

I have a socialist city council representative!

don't worry, patriots -- repealing kenyacare was just a cover for the big prize: scrapping dodd-frank. tax cuts!

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/dodd-frank-repeal/525474/

.@POTUS tells @TurnbullMalcolm "you have better healthcare than we do." It's nationalized in Australia.

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) May 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/i/moments/860284879799435266

why does the new york state attorney general hate america?

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/statement-ag-schneiderman-house-passage-american-health-care-act

How many socialists/dem socialists hold natl office in US? how bout state-level?

The Dem Party is the major obstacle there; let's not deny it

I pointed out the Australian health care analogy a couple hours ago

xxpost

The word "socialist" doesn't stir Cold War reflexes among most Millennials. Perhaps once half of that cohort passes 40 (around 2025), we can have a healthcare safety net. Or it may take till half the Boomers are dead (around 2035).

last year i was unable to afford health care with the subsidies provided, so i had to go without care and was fined a hefty $700 added onto my year-end taxes.

to be fair, even our system does this, to an extent. Anyone over 30 who earns more than $88k a year has to pay a medicare levy at tax time, if they havent at least taken out basic hopsital cover. Its to reduce the strain on the public system. Wether it does that or not I dont know, wait times here can be long for certain things (hip replacements, etc) but you know, you wont get sent home to fucking die if you get cancer and dont have a job.

And I wont ever pay more than $30something dollars for any prescription medication, regardless of what it is (theres a tiny amount of exceptions, but theyd be insanely expensive/obscure meds)

The US is kind enough to let the drug companies gouge Americans enough to subsidize the cost for the rest of the world

^^^ allowing this was integral to passing the ACA

Oh the US tried to pull that shit on us, too - thats what the Trans Pacific Partnership would have allowed. Thats the only good thing Trump tore up.

i just am getting over bronchitis and i paid $55 for an inhaler because i haven't hit my deductible yet.

One of my tbi meds is $320 a month, but the maker has a coupon for those with private insurance, no govt stuff, for "$3 per pill." So $90, so grateful. $2k/yr is not nothing. An actual coupon.

does it have that dotted line around it for where you cut

Do you guys have access to generics whenever you ask?

Like basically, yeah. I will check next time. Once you file it, it's online for you for 12 months tho. It wasn't so easy to even learn about it at first. So weird wrong and backwards.

In my experience decent pharmacys will both: 1) offer the generic; 2) let you if there's any coupons; and 3) because I'm in NYC, deliver.

Of course to find a decent pharmacy you need a decent doctor and for a decent doctor you need decent insurance

Thats another thing I dont get. You cant just go to any doc you like, and then any chemists you like?

Sorry this is all rather OT I know.

you can if you're rich. that's america!

when pushing for single payer americans will not be asked if they like "socialism" they will be asked if they like "medicare".

I just remembered the time that Momus said 'Tracer is a Progressive'.