Per Crooks & Liars:
… A frustrated Senator Warren asked Rep. Price direct questions about his own policy prescriptions, but he refused to give a definitive answer, even about the cuts he has repeatedly called for.
Sen. Warren discussed his calls to cut funding and asked, “You recently authored as chair of the House Budget Committee would have cut spending on Medicare by $449 billion dollars over the next decade, is that right?
Rep. Price replied, “I don’t have the numbers in front of me.”
She replied, “I have the numbers.”
He said, “I assume you’re correct.”…
Sen. Warren then brought up Trump’s positions on both health care plans, in which he states there will be no cuts to the programs, funding-wise. She asked if Trump was telling the truth and he replied, “yes.”…
Warren said, “Can you guarantee to this committee that you will safeguard president-elect Trump’s promise and while you are HHS secretary, you will not use your authority to carry out a single dollar of cuts to Medicare or Medicaid eligibility or benefits?”
Price said, “What the question presumes is that money is the metric. In my belief from a scientific standpoint, if patients aren’t receiving care even though we’re providing the resources, it doesn’t work for patients.”
Warren said, “We’re very limited on time. The metric IS money. The President-elect…said he would not cut dollars from this program. So that’s the question I’m asking you. Can you assure this committee you will not cut one dollar from Medicare or Medicaid should you be confirmed to this position?
Price replied, “I believe that the metric ought to be the care that the patients are receiving.”
Warren said, “I’ll take that as a no.”…
***********
Apart from applauding Women Who Take No Shit, what’s on the agenda for the day?
.
When you go for "resolute" and it comes off as "terrified." pic.twitter.com/mhxatmPbY0
— Schooley (@Rschooley) January 19, 2017
We can’t know for sure, but I have a strong feeling this notepad is blank pic.twitter.com/ptAwtmvizl
— Freddie Campion (@FreddieCampion) January 18, 2017
Aleta
These nominees may not be qualified but they sure can follow a script.
Yoda Dog Democrat
Im still hoping for martial law, fuck it.. Anything beats this.
amk
jeez, ignorance combined with arrogance.
Betty Cracker
It’s hard to choose which cabinet appointee is the most appalling, but so far, DeVos strikes me as the most spectacularly unqualified. She was nominated because she’s thrown hundreds of millions of dollars at the Republican Party. There can’t be any other explanation; the ideas she wants to implement nationwide have been tried in Michigan at her behest, and the results are uniformly bad.
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: haven’t had Perry’s confirmation hearing yet…he thought his job was going to be oil and energy ambassador.
Betty Cracker
@sukabi: Perry’s hearing should be good for a few laughs. But even that know-nothing lummox has actually run a large, complex organization. DeVos has never done anything remotely connected to public education besides funding efforts to marginalize it. I was a PTA member when my kid was in public school, which makes me 100% more qualified to be Ed Sec than DeVos. And I am completely unqualified!
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
Hal
@Betty Cracker: I’m trying to decide between who is the most unqualified versus who can do the most damage/cause the most harm, Which could put Devos in the top 3, especially the potential future harm. But I’m still leaning towards Tillerson. Those 63 million acres in Russia are probably calling out to him at night in his dreams.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
she also got run out of Ohio
OzarkHillbilly
@Yoda Dog Democrat:
My wife grew up in Franco’s Spain. As frightened as she is, she would vehemently disagree with you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Yup. Charlie Pierce notes:
It is just so blatant, and the people who vote these grifters into high office again and again don’t seem to care at all.
SiubhanDuinne
Thirty hours remain in Barack Obama’s presidency.
Just 30 hours.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I get a kick that Trump is throwing the press corp outta the WH.
They spent 2 years attacking Clinton day and night, while giving Trump billions and billions and billions of free advertising. They did everything possible to normalize him and abnormalize her. They didn’t think he could win so they didn’t take him seriously and they thought attacking Clinton would get them invited to all of Sally Quinn’s parties.
Right – the media had done this repeatedly, including refusing to take Hitler seriously. There’s an infamous 1922 article in the NY Times lauding Hitler, telling readers he’s not really anti-Semitic, that he doesn’t really believe the hate he’s spewing (as if that makes it okay).
So what does the press get for their efforts: banned from the WH and shoved into a broom closet, while mean girl Sally laughs and points at them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I haven’t thought of this for a long time, but wasn’t Perry indicted for something he did as TX governor? Can’t remember the specifics, and am not going to do the research right now as I’m heading back to bed in a few minutes, but I guess that must have been taken care of at some point. I mean, even T wouldn’t nominate someone under criminal indictment, would he? Well, would he?
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: At this time tomorrow, I’ll be on the road to DC with my sister and a couple of teenagers. We’ve all made mixtapes. Well, I’m still tweaking mine. Any suggestions?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Betty Cracker:
Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult
satby
@rikyrah: morning rikyrah
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Come on, play along.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Betty Cracker:
Also too: “Piss on You” by R Kelly
mai naem mobile
I just feel sick watching CNBC. It just pisses me off that these mofo GOP asswipes got rewarded by stupid Americans for obstruction. I watched the Jimmy Kimmel clip where you have stupid racist mofo idiots who are against Obama care but ACA is good. Only in this stupid country can the Republican sociopaths get away using deceptive names in their legislation(“Clear Skies”) and the Dems not only get.penalized for even attempting to do that (not really) but they then get penalized for the Republicans using a “derogatory” term for the legislation. So it’s heads,Dems lose and tails, Dems lose. Why even bother trying to convince these morons? I know I sound like a wet blanket. I just cannot get beyond this election.
satby
Eve of Destruction -Barry McGuire
Masters of War -Dylan
A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Anything by the Allman Brothers.
satby
@mai naem mobile: The Right wing laid the groundwork after Goldwater’s defeat in 1964, and it took them until the 80s to begin to get a return on their investment. That investment is still paying off now, but the long con is starting to be revealed.
We need to be just as committed, for just as long. We’re always convinced that logic and compassion will win out. I think they will, but they need rabid supporters just like hate does.
amk
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Stephen King has been ‘telling it is’ for a long time now.
rikyrah
Heather Caygle Verified account
@heatherscope
Rep. Gabbard’s office won’t say who is bankrolling her controversial trip to Syria w/ @brespolitico
rikyrah
Laura
@SheWhoVotes
Laura Retweeted Laura
Today—Bernie’s wife, Jane Sanders, and his mistress, the Intercept, are needlessly attacking Tom Perez instead of Donald & Co.
rikyrah
“We can hit him between the eyes with a 2-by-4 and treat him like Mitch McConnell treated Barack Obama,” Perez told the audience at The Huffington Post’s live Democratic National Committee debate on Wednesday.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Elizabelle
Morning all.
Last full 24 hours of an excellent president for four years. And may it only be four years.
satby
@Elizabelle: May it only be 6 months.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Betty Cracker:
Lisa Stansfield, “All Around the World.”
Baud
@satby: True, for Trump. But there’s no way to get a good president in there until 2021.
ArchTeryx
Can’t stay long this morning, as I have to go out tutoring in a couple of hours, but out of all the Cabinet nominees, it’s Price that I fear the most for obvious reasons. This is the man that will disassemble our entire health care safety net if he and Ryan are allowed to get away with it, and gleefully kill me and everyone like me.
satby
@Baud: yeah. But with Trump removed, the rest are weakened. And midterms look more promising.
Elizabelle
@satby: What’s your imagined scenario? Is it resignation in disgrace and a forced new election in six months? That works for me.
Anything that leaves the Republicans in power after a tainted, stolen election does not work for me.
MomSense
So Gov Goodhair didn’t even know what Dept of Energy does until after he was nominated. This is years after he stood on a presidential debate stage and said it was one of the departments he wanted to get rid of if only he could remember the name.
This is inexcusable. The arrogance of a guy who wanted to get rid of something when he didn’t even know what iit did.
Does the Apricot Assmouth know? Could some reporter ask him why the fuck the Texas two stepping twit is qualified? We are going from a Nobel laureate physicist to a guy who almost flunked a meat class.
Yoda Dog Democrat
@OzarkHillbilly: True. It has and could be worse. This place makes me feel young sometimes. Well this is damn well the worst situation I’ve ever witnessed, I know that much.
MomSense
@ArchTeryx:
The basket wasn’t big enough. Now it’s a whole cabinet of deplorables.
debbie
@amk:
Who needs numbers when there are potential grizzlies to deal with?
debbie
@rikyrah:
Her PAC violated Ohio election laws in 2008. She has yet to pay the fine.
satby
@Elizabelle: Whatever gets him out: resignation, impeachment, stroke over the endless mockery; I will be happy with however it goes down.
Bonus happy dance if he gets clearly exposed as a traitor and arrested.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I really fucking hate it that the DNC chair contest has become a proxy war for relitigating the damn primary. The facts are that 1) President Obama moved the ball forward for progressive causes more than any Democrat since LBJ, 2) our 2016 presidential platform was the most progressive ever, and 3) either Perez or Ellison (and every other credible candidate I know about) would be an able champion of progressive causes — the question is who would be the better party builder. And as you mention, there’s an honest-to-Christ authoritarian puppet of a hostile foreign power and a newly empowered austeritarian freak show to oppose. We don’t have time for this bullshit.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Hard Rain’s Going to Fall
satby
@Betty Cracker: evidently authoritarians attached to the cult of personality are found on both sides of the divide.
Edited to be clear: red and blue divide.
debbie
@Baud:
According to Colbert, the Trump team has already formulated their reelection slogan: “Keep America Great.” God help us all.
Elizabelle
@satby: yeah, but Pence or Ryan might be more effective.
Kay
“On time and under budget!” Kellyanne better talk faster. Reality is catching up.
Oh, well. We could have had someone qualified and competent, but for the disqualifying issue of email server management.
kindness
I’m not a scientist but….it seems to me the plan on the Republican side is to burn as much of the (Democratic priorities) house down as they can lay their filthy grubby fingers on right away and when the shit hits the fan blame Democrats.
Yea, I know. Doesn’t take Kreskin or a scientist to say that.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Dare I suggest that this is the perfect trip to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack ???
rikyrah
@satby:
Tell the truth, satby
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Seconded.
ArchTeryx
@kindness: I am a scientist, I am saying it, and ain’t nobody listening to me because I’m an unemployed scientist, which ranks me lower then pond scum or Republican voters in the social order of things.
Waldo
Trying to remain optimistic here, but barring a miracle, the best-case scenario is that tomorrow marks the start of a nationwide rollout of Brownback’s Kansas experiment. With nukes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
So if the choice is between someone who has been committed to a political party for an extended period of time and a hijacker, we go with the hijacker. Right?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: The sad part is most people think Ellison is a fine choice, and he’s a Dem, but he’s not the only fine choice.
debbie
@Kay:
It reminds me of the reorganizations/downsizings I’ve been through. All chaos and insecurity. I didn’t realize this is what was meant by running the government like a business.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Maddow’s segment last night on the scope of their incompetence, with regards to appointments was disheartening. When it comes to the National Security apparatus, it is literally endangering the safety of this country.
I said it before, they are not patriots, and we must include that in every criticism and fight against them.
We wrap ourselves in the flag because we love this country and resent its sovereignty being undermined.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It will be harder than she thinks to dismantle K-12 public school systems from the federal level. Public schools are a unique entity in the US because they have their own local governments and jurisdictions. All that “local control” DeVos pretended to love all thru the hearing? That insulates them from her and they’ve been dealing with the push/pull between local/state and federal it much, much longer. They’re better at it.
If she really wanted to destroy public schools she should have run for governor, but that would entail getting elected so you see the problem.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Now you and Betty are being mean to Wilmer’s folk. We’ve been told over and over again not to bring that whole unpleasantness up, even if they do first.
Bupalos
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: not enough cow-bell.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t use the Book of Faces much, but I get the impression that that’s where a lot of the unpleasantness starts, and then it spreads like a virus.
satby
@Elizabelle: if Trump is removed or forced out, public pressure on the other ones will be pretty fierce. They will be tainted.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Her complete ignorance is what pisses me off. I really do believe that she will attempt to PHUCK with the disabled. And, I hope that she is crucified for it
Kay
@rikyrah:
I’m convinced it’s also the best political approach. “Competence” is above partisan. It’s easy to explain.
It’ll be different in different areas of the country but for Ohio I would use “competence” (performance) and “not Presidential” (image). To a certain extent it will depend on how far Democrats are willing to go. They can implicate Trump in every failure with no context (which is dishonest because they’d be omitting a bunch of factors) but people will believe it because most people aren’t interested in context.
rikyrah
@ArchTeryx:
Complete sociopath
Van Buren
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Cee Lo Green –
Fuck You
Yoda Dog Democrat
@debbie:
This was the slogan, verbatim, for the goverment in the latest The Purge movie… It’s almost as if he’s trying to scare the shit out of me. It’s working.
satby
@Baud: yes, because Wilmer’s got a very effective propaganda set up there. On FB, you would think from the posts that Wilmer was doing the real bitch-slap questioning at the hearings, not Franken or Warren.
Baud
@Kay: I still like the “you were conned” approach, but I defer to the experts.
Kay
@rikyrah:
But that’s where experience is valuable. School districts battle for funding all the time. The federal government has never met their obligation under the disability law- they never funded 40% of what it costs. She’ll be up against people who wake up every day and say “how will we get the money we need?” It’s 60, 70, 80% of their job.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I just use the Book of Faces to put up pretty pictures and see what the kid is up to.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: I only use it to keep up with a couple of people.
Kay
@Baud:
I think “you were conned” is really risky. There’s shame attached to it. “Competence” is values-free. It (pretends) to be objective.
satby
@Kay: @Baud: judging by this, you’re both right
Baud
@Kay: I hear you. It might work with people who are already starting to feel some regret. Gets them off the hook in a way.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Telling the truth just gets the messenger killed.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: No big loss.
satby
@Baud: @BillinGlendaleCA: I use it to spread my special brand of love
(Hope this works)
Baud
@satby:
I’m too scared to click.
Weaselone
@Baud:
As much as we might need these people on our side I’d almost prefer they opted out of voting altogether for the rest of their lives. They voted for Donald Trump. Let me repeat that. They voted for Donald Trump. That means that even if they vote against him next time, there is probably a better than even chance they’ll vote for the next Cheeto Benito wannabe that comes along.
raven
@Baud: It’s just a tool like any other. I have one for work and one where I just don’t fuck around with wingers.
Another Scott
@satby: Facebook login required.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: it is hard to choose – most are spectacularly unqualified, all are incredibly offensive (with Mattis probably been the lone exception on both counts). But that’s what happens when a PEEOTUS with no friends teams up with a self-professed Leninist ( Bannon, in the sense that he wants to bring everything crashing down) and the ultimate RWNJ dunce (Pence)
Baud
@Weaselone: I agree. The Mark of Trump is indelible IMHO. But we need to claw our way through the next four years while figuring out how to defeat this thing permanently.
Jeffro
@satby: it would be pretty easy to move on from his impeachment to what did VP Pence know and when did he know it. Same with Ryan, McConnell, others
Baud
@raven: Sure. I’m just describing what I think is happening. It’s not the medium’s fault per se.
Jeffro
@Baud: speaking of the mark of Trump did anyone see Elliot Cohen’s piece in the American interest today ? Holy cow does he lay it out…
Vhh
@Kay: you are right. The Dept of Education has little money and influence. Mostly jawboning. Devos is clueless, and will be toothless. So too Perry, who will be at the mercy of the pros. Let us hope that Tillerson, competent corp engineerin exec, realizes the stakes and relies on State’s pros rather than Trump loonies. Worrisome that Trump looking to crazies Flynn and Jason, husband of Ivanka, for foreign freelancing, could overshadow State. Mad Dog may be OK at Defense if he can last. GOPer Congress unhinged, but likely to step on its own rakes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I assume you speak of the press? The one that engages in a constant obfuscation of smoke and mirrors in an attempt to appear even handed, in constant fear of being called partisan for the unforgivable sin of uttering a simple unadulterated fact?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I was speaking of myself and the consequences of speaking the truth.
Baud
@Jeffro: I did not.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Muddy Waters- Got my Mojo Working.
satby
@Another Scott: I was worried about that. For FB peeps, it’s set to public.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Ah, got it. Some might disagree.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Van Buren: I love the Gwyneth Paltrow version of “Fuck You” (video)
Shalimar
@debbie: Trump should be optimistic about how the next 4 years would go, even if he wasn’t a narcissist. I do not share that optimism, and “Keep America Great” is going to be hilarious as a slogan in the middle of the 2nd Great Depression. Even funnier, Trump is narcissistic enough to think it isn’t his fault and actually run for re-election in a depression if they haven’t impeached him.
Another Scott
@Vhh: DeVos may be clueless and toothless, but let’s remember that “people are policy”. Edward DeMarco was brought in to head the FHFA as part of the federal response to the home foreclosure and housing bubble crisis. However, he took his mandate as being to protect the taxpayer and Fannie and Freddie above all else, so stood in the way of an effective program. He could have done a lot of good for millions of people, but he didn’t and in many ways made the recovery much worse than it should and could have been.
DeVos needs to be actively and vociferously opposed. I think Diane Ravitch on “1A” had the right approach – no quarter. She’s an extremist, she has no experience in actually “doing” education or anything about education, and her advocated policies have been a failure for 25 years.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Trump’s an idiot too. They still are going to file stories and now they won’t have a bribe to want to keep on the Great Leader’s good side.
Shalimar
@Another Scott: There is no legal way to successfully oppose DeVos. Republicans are getting all of these confirmation hearings over with so they can quickly confirm the nominees as soon as Trump is president. I’m not even sure they will put the confirmation voting on the schedule, just hold it later Friday night and get them all over with. And they have the votes to do that.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
Fiona Apple: Tiny Hands
Jeffro
@Baud: i’ll send a link later when I have time unless someone else puts it up first
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: @Baud: Here it is: Truth in the Age of Trump Eliot A. Cohen
Quinerly
@Jeffro:
Fantastic piece.
amk
@Shalimar: and the founding fathers were quaintly talking about checks and balances. guess they didn’t factor in the innate stupidity and racism and bigotry.
Just One More Canuck
@Betty Cracker: idiot wind
rikyrah
Tom Price withdraws almost $42,000 from petty cash??
Da hail?
MomSense
@rikyrah:
They need to go away now. WTF Jane. Wasn’t enough to destroy a college you need to destroy the political party that we have all worked so hard to build.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: It sounds like wishful thinking.
Social security and Medicare will be weakened, and the ACA will be gone, by that time. Of course, the one percent will receive their tax cut, so all will be well.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
YES, that’s the one.
Got my mojo working but it just don’t work on you (tiny handed tin-pot)!
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Stop exaggerating, it was only $41,950. Loose with the facts libtard……
rikyrah
Malia Obama’s Secret Trip to Bolivia and Peru
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO
JANUARY 19, 2017
The Bolivian guides were convinced it was the blonde. It had to be the blonde. American Embassy officials in November had told three brothers who led guided hikes across Bolivia’s majestic Cordillera Real mountain range that they would soon be hosting an important American dignitary. When a group of teenagers and a small band of American bodyguards showed up on Nov. 24, it wasn’t apparent to the guides that it was the president’s eldest daughter, Malia Obama, and not a blond companion, who warranted the extraordinary security measures.
“There was a blond girl and we assumed she was the important one,” Gregorio Mamani, one of the guides, said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
Only in recent days, after Bolivian journalists broke the story of Ms. Obama’s trip to Bolivia and Peru late last year, did the guides realize who had been in their care during a five-day trek. “She was very humble, chatty, spoke Spanish very well,” Mr. Mamani said. “She was mesmerized by the Bolivian landscape.”
Ms. Obama was afforded no special treatment during the arduous trek, and performed chores, including cooking, along with her fellow travelers, Mr. Mamani said.
The Bolivian news media reported that Ms. Obama, 18, who delayed starting at Harvard for a year, lived with a family in Tiquipaya, a tiny town in central Bolivia. Her trip was organized by Where There Be Dragons, a Colorado company that runs educational trips, a representative confirmed. The 83-day journey is advertised as a means for students to “examine current political trends, social movements and environmental conservation efforts in the mountains and jungles of Bolivia and Peru.”
The Bolivian media reported that President Obama called President Evo Morales to request his government’s cooperation in ensuring discretion and security for his daughter’s trip. White House officials declined to comment and would not confirm that the two leaders had spoken. Mr. Morales often rails about what he calls American conspiracies to undermine leftist governments, including his own. The two countries have not exchanged ambassadors since 2008.
Yoda Dog Democrat
@Weaselone:
This is where I’m at with these frickin losers. Even if it becomes so incredibly terrible that they have no choice but to come off the shitgibbon, they’ll still be right back to square one believing all the same bullshit from all the same assholes in…what? A year? Two? It’s pathetic.
Dont mean to be defeatist. Im not actually. I just dont believe the path is through trump voters. My faith in any of them is at absolute zero.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: I wanna be sedated.
Yoda Dog Democrat
@amk: I grew away from Stephen King’s stories over time, but WOO!, I love that man for his passion. He brings the wood to the campfire. I love it.
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Pick up American Band by DBT. It will put you in the right mood for the march.
rikyrah
The Maddow Segment last night about the poor vetting. The level of incompetence is staggering.
Trump weak vetting of nominees a symptom of poor preparation
Rachel Maddow lists some of the embarrassing details being learned about Donald Trump cabinet nominees while they are in the confirmation process because they were not well vetted beforehand.
JPL
@rikyrah: What an amazing experience, not only for her but for the secret service who accompanied her. Just fascinating, and thank you for sharing the story.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
I guess this all went down around the time the National Enquirer had screaming headlines about Malia being addicted to drugs and in rehab.
manyakitty
@rikyrah: And still owes the state over $5 million. Keeping it klassy!
rikyrah
Da Phuq?
Trump EPA nominee would oversee own lawsuit against the EPA
Senator Ed Markey talks with Rachel Maddow about why he opposes Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA when, even in public office, Pruitt has worked on behalf of fossil fuel companies to undermine the EPA.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: John Lee Hooker and Carlos Santana: Chill out (things gonna change)
rikyrah
This level of incompetence is endangering this country. …LITERALLY
Trump to enter office with gaping holes in major agencies
Rachel Maddow reports on the many director-level positions Donald Trump has yet to fill on the National Security Council with one day left of Obama’s term, and more openings still at the Pentagon and State Department.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: BS is as much a PP (Putin Puppet) as the one who sits in his Tower.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: John Lee Hooker – One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Ivanka is going on a mission to Paris.
Another Scott
@Shalimar: Yes, if they have the votes, they have the votes.
But they don’t have to have Democratic votes. And they shouldn’t get any.
If the GOP wants to destroy the Federal Government, they they should own it. Alone. And face the consequences for doing so in 2018 and later.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
These are NATIONAL SECURITY BRIEFINGS. You should NOT be getting the CliffNotes version.
In intelligence briefings, Trump prefers ‘as little as possible’
01/18/17 12:50 PM—UPDATED 01/18/17 01:06 PM
By Steve Benen
One of the unexpected developments of the transition period has been Donald Trump’s disinterest in daily intelligence briefings. President Obama, immediately after the election, ordered the relevant agencies to make available to the president-elect the same information that’s delivered to the Oval Office, but in a bit of a surprise, Trump largely blew off the information.
Last month, Fox News’ Chris Wallace noted reports that the Republican was only receiving one briefing a week, instead of seven. Trump didn’t deny the accounts, but said it didn’t matter because he’s “like, a smart person.” He added, “I get it when I need it.”
A month later, with his inauguration drawing closer, Trump sat down with Axios yesterday, and referring to the intelligence he’s seen, the president-elect said, “I’ve had a lot of briefings that are very … I don’t want to say ‘scary,’ because I’ll solve the problems.” The exceedingly confident Republican added this in reference to the PDB:
Hmm. President Obama likes to read daily intelligence briefings and pose follow-up questions in writing. Bill Clinton had a similar approach. George W. Bush, during his two terms, changed the briefing process, preferring oral reports from intelligence professionals.
Trump, apparently, has in mind something akin to Powerpoint slides.
The point here is not to chuckle at the obviously unprepared amateur, who, in 47 hours, will be the Leader of the Free World. There’s a substantive angle to this that’s worth appreciating.
manyakitty
@rikyrah: Seconded. It’s inspiring AF.
rikyrah
Trump prepares preemptive falsehoods about his inauguration
01/18/17 11:23 AM—UPDATED 01/18/17 01:59 PM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump declared weeks ago that he intends to “set the all-time record” for attendance at a presidential inaugural. By all appearances, that’s extremely unlikely to happen.
But the president-elect spoke at a pre-inauguration event last night, where Trump made this interesting claim:
As a rule, whenever Donald Trump uses the word “they,” look out. In this case “they’ve” announced “record crowds” are coming to the Republican’s inauguration, but there’s been no such announcement. “They” don’t appear to exist outside of Trump’s imagination.
But relying on “them” will enable Trump to claim a record without regard for actual attendance data. What we’re witnessing is a preemptive falsehood: the president-elect is laying the groundwork for an untrue claim about his inauguration that Trump seems very likely to make soon after he takes the oath of office.
Indeed, he’s already told related falsehoods, such as, ”All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.” This wasn’t remotely true, but Trump made the claim anyway.
And speaking of false claims, CNN reported that two senior Trump transition officials said yesterday that the president-elect wrote his own draft of his inaugural address.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On a positive note, it’s been leaked to Page Six that some Trump advisors have been advocating that he dance with Caitlin Jenner tomorrow night, because it will “mend fences” or some shit like that.
Jeffro
@Shalimar: .
Louise B.
Representative Price is competent – corrupt but competent. He can do a lot of damage.
rikyrah
The ‘most successful’ Dem president since FDR ends on a high note
01/18/17 10:55 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump is entering the White House with the weakest public support of any new president since the dawn of modern polling. The Republican may prefer to see a giant media conspiracy against him – Trump yesterday dismissed survey results as “rigged” – but if so, the scheme incorporates a plethora of national news organizations and polling outfits, each of which show the president-elect with surprisingly awful backing.
There’s a school of thought that suggests this isn’t entirely Trump’s fault. Maybe the public is just in a sour mood. Perhaps Americans, after a long and ugly campaign, are inclined to hold every political figure in low regard, and Trump is simply caught up in a wave of broad public revulsion.
Of course, if that were true, President Obama wouldn’t be leaving office with rising popularity.
Democratic pollster Fred Yang put it this way: “If Donald Trump enters office on a down note, the current occupant is enjoying a second honeymoon of sorts.”
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll, meanwhile, puts Obama’s final approval rating at 60% – one of only four presidents since World War II to leave the White House with so much public support.
Jeffro
@A Ghost To Most: amen!
GregB
@rikyrah:
In an odd twist of history, the leader of the free world, in my opinion, will be a woman named Angela Merkel.
rikyrah
On health care, Republicans consider the meaning of ‘everybody’
01/18/17 09:20 AM—UPDATED 01/18/17 10:41 AM
By Steve Benen
Congressional Republicans recently conceded among themselves that they’ll “never” be able to craft a health-care reform plan that covers “as many people as Obamacare does.” No one, however, told Donald Trump.
The president-elect boasted to the Washington Post this week, “We’re going to have insurance for everybody. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.” Trump added that Americans “can expect to have great health care…. Much less expensive and much better.”
The benchmarks, which Trump has no idea how to meet, were fairly specific: his administration is committing to universal coverage, “much lower deductibles,” and a simpler and less expensive system in which all Americans are “beautifully covered.”
Was Trump over-promising? Yes. Will he fail to meet his own goals? Definitely.
The funny part, however, is watching Republicans deal with the consequences of the incoming president’s rhetoric. BuzzFeed had this report late yesterday:
Ah yes, the misstatement. The incoming president assured the American public that the Affordable Care Act will be repealed and replaced with a system in which “everybody” has insurance, to which GOP lawmakers are effectively responding, “Let’s assume he didn’t actually mean ‘everybody.’”
manyakitty
@satby: Can’t see :-(
rikyrah
The Trump Agenda Poses A Major Threat to America’s Children
Here’s a road map to fight back.
by Olivia Golden
January 19, 2017
In his farewell speech last week, President Barack Obama declared that supporting young people of color is not only a matter of justice but a common-sense investment in our future: “If we’re unwilling to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we will diminish the prospects of our own children — because those brown kids will represent a larger and larger share of America’s workforce.” That’s not just rhetoric. By 2020, children and youth of color will represent half of all people under age 18 If not for these children of color, the American workforce would shrink as baby boomers continue to retire.
Unfortunately, our national future is in jeopardy.
Outside of President Obama’s remarks, there has been far too little attention to the damage that President-elect Trump’s policy proposals and nominees would wreak on America’s children – and America’s future. The policies proposed by the incoming administration and Republicans in Congress would undercut families and take away the core building blocks that now help them succeed.
Let’s start with Trump’s proposal to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Health and nutrition are the cornerstones of children’s lifelong success. Growing evidence shows that children who get help from Medicaid (health insurance) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) in their early years not only do better in childhood but also have better health, educational, and employment outcomes many years later, into adulthood.
Children also do better when their parents get health and mental health treatment – something that’s far more likely today under the ACA than in the past. For example, a mother’s untreated depression can place at risk her children’s safety, development, and learning. So it is good news that, by opting to expand Medicaid under the ACA, 32 states have made mental health care, including treatment for depression, accessible to far more people, most recently demonstrated by a new report from Ohio.
During the Obama years, children’s health insurance coverage soared to the highest levels ever — 94.7 percent — and SNAP lifted 4.6 million children out of poverty in 2015. But the nation now risks a sharp slide backwards. Researchers estimate that even without additional cuts to Medicaid, President-elect Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ plans to repeal the ACA would take health insurance away from 4 million children, and many million more parents.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Compulsive liars lie even if there is no need.
gene108
@rikyrah:
How does the approval / disapproval breakdown by state? If people in PA, MI, WI are still happy with Trump, it doesn’t matter, if CA is 100% against him and skewing the results.
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
Amen.
manyakitty
@rikyrah: I think there will be record attendance, but much like his electoral “victory,” it will be nearly a record low.
rikyrah
Price used his position to profit from stock manipulation. But, tell me how that isn’t insider trading….why he wasn’t arrested….and how the phuck he wasn’t run out of Congress for being a crook, let alone have him ‘qualified’ for a Cabinet position?
rikyrah
GOP ‘unmoved’ by controversies surrounding Trump’s cabinet picks
01/19/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Last month, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) celebrating Donald Trump for having assembled a “dream team” cabinet. It was a curious choice of words – because one would have to be asleep to be impressed with the motley crew the president-elect has assembled.
Some of Trump’s choices appear to have no idea what their job entails. Others have no relevant experience or skills. Some are burdened by damaging controversies. Others are overtly hostile towards the work done by the departments they’ll soon lead. Senate Democrats set out to prove that many of Trump’s nominees had no business being chosen in the first place, and by and large, the senators succeeded.
But nearly all – if not literally all – of Trump’s choices will be confirmed anyway, because as Politico noted yesterday, the Senate Republican majority doesn’t appear to care.
Though filibusters are no longer an option for cabinet nominees, the GOP majority is fairly narrow in a 52-48 Senate. If only a handful of Republican senators balk at an unqualified choice, the Trump White House will have to scramble to find someone else.
But that handful doesn’t appear to exist. Politico’s piece added, “[T]here’s no sign that those GOP defections are coming.”
There’s no great mystery here – partisan loyalties and tribal instincts dominate in Washington to a degree unseen in generations – but Republicans aren’t actually doing anyone, including their allies, any favors.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@gene108:
Problem for Trump is that the areas with the highest levels of support for him are areas that he doesn’t want to live or do business in. He wants to be popular in the cosmopolitan places – NYC, Miami, Hollywood, Chicago (to some extent). Denial of that pleasure will eat at him like a buzzard gutting roadkill.
amk
@rikyrah: why should they? the fucking voters gave out the entire key bunch to them.
Cheryl from Maryland
Song — Warren Zevon, Don’t Let Us Get Sick.
I’m a fed at the Smithsonian. Went to the bank yesterday — it’s located in a State Department annex. They had taken down the pictures of the President, Uncle Joe and Secretary Kerry, just leaving blank frames. I almost cried.
liberal
@efgoldman: I saw something about “a broker purchased the stock w/o telling Price”. LOL.
Chris
@Yoda Dog Democrat:
Don’t hope for it. I certainly don’t. But I’m at a point where I can actually see the U.S. becoming a military dictatorship, not today or in the immediate future, but at some point in my lifetime. Though probably not in the way most people expect.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: If every person in PA, MI, WI now hate trump with every ounce of their being it doesn’t matter.
Skepticat
@Betty Cracker: Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows.”
The cartoon in yesterday’s open thread still makes me tear up, and I’m inutterably depressed–and frightened. I came close to slapping a friend who said, “You can’t do anything about it, so get over it.”
A Bahamian friend (the one who exclaimed when we invaded Iraq, “Dat Bush, he a natural fool!”) just shook his head about tRump* and said, “What’s wrong with dat country? Now nobody’s safe.”
The Cabinet choices make me want to crawl into a cabinet and lock the door behind me.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think we have the same playlist. Another perfect song.
Chris
@rikyrah:
What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
Doug R
@Betty Cracker: A little RAGE is always good.
Woodrowfan
@Jeffro: the comments are largely as toxic as you’d expect though..
bemused
I must really be in denial because I was a bit startled to realize that the dreaded day is tomorrow. I know I can count on peeps here to alert everyone to other DC events that media may (or not) cover that we can watch.
I’ll probably be napping a lot though. The cold I thought was almost gone came back like it was just lurking to strike unaware again. My nose is a faucet, sneezing like crazy, not much coughing. One of our dogs has uveitis but good news is that she doesn’t have blastomycosis. Going to pick up more meds from the vet and maybe find something for the snot waterfall but don’t know what to take. The hot chicken broth with garlic and ginger was helpful so maybe I’ll just stick to that and a lot of other liquids.
Yoda Dog Democrat
@Chris: I phrased that poorly. My hope (dream) is Obama declares martial law, gives us a new election, and we all get to still have our democracy somewhat intact. I know its not happening, nor was that comment helpful, Im just so fucking bummed.
bemused
@Skepticat:
Is your friend a Trump voter? I want to throttle the idiot Trumpbots who say “we won, get over it” but first ask them if they can explain clearly what they think (imagine) they have won.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: I’m on a blues jig this morn. Now listening to Sonny Boy Williamson Take Your Hands Out Of My Pockets
satby
@manyakitty: fixed, it’s public now. I thought it was before. I’m already outed on the net, so I don’t obsess about privacy.
JPL
Monday Trump signs a lot of executive orders, and Tuesday he starts a victory tour. At least that’s my guess.
What I really would like to see, is Tuesday spent with lawyers, trying to evade eviction.
hovercraft
@OzarkHillbilly:
A mission to update her wardrobe? After all she is about to become the most important woman in America, hell maybe even the world, Merkel and her are neck and neck.
Chris
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Agree completely on the mainstream media’s just desserts, and much of Official Washington’s for that matter. It’s not even that I think they deserve this, as so many of our wingnut brethren did, but that they built this, brick by brick for thirty or forty years.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yoda Dog Democrat:
Sheeeeeeit, an unhelpful Balloon Juice comment? Say it ain’t so….. ;-)
Woodrowfan
Drew Magary sums up some of my feelings well in GQ.
http://www.gq.com/story/shut-up-about-connecting-with-trumps-middle-america
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
NYT: Perry Didn’t Fully Understand Role Of Energy Secretary At First TPM link
Perry was prepared to represent the American energy sector abroad and did not understand that he would be charged with overseeing the United States’ nuclear arsenal, according to the New York Times.
“If you asked him on that first day he said yes, he would have said, ‘I want to be an advocate for energy,’” Michael McKenna, a Republican lobbyist who has advised Perry’s campaign and Trump’s transition team, told the New York Times. “If you asked him now, he’d say, ‘I’m serious about the challenges facing the nuclear complex.’ It’s been a learning curve.”
OzarkHillbilly
@hovercraft: She’s going to have to really rough it. She’s going to have to order from the menu in French with out any help, and you know how mean those French waiters are. One little mispronunciation and they will probably be pissing in her Vichyssoise
Yoda Dog Democrat
@Woodrowfan: Hell yea, Mags is the best. Thank you for sharing that.
Jeffro
@Woodrowfan: well shit, who reads comments (except here, of course!) ;)
Jeffro
@Skepticat: “everybody knows” is THE song for this week, these hearings especially
Yoda Dog Democrat
Who are these “intellectual conservatives” Cohen speaks of? Assumes facts not in evidence. I need a footnote with examples.
hovercraft
@OzarkHillbilly:
It almost temps me to link to the :
Someone Is Wrong On The Internet.
and
So You’re Mad About Something On The Internet
;-)
Skepticat
@bemused: She’s a tad shallow. I wouldn’t be able to stand being around her at all if she were the “We won, you lost” kind. I know a fair number of them, but we aren’t exactly … close. I didn’t actually ask this specific person how she planned to vote, but her absentee ballot got into the Bahamian mail system–and she received it three weeks ago. (I voted absentee online, though I’d have returned to the States and driven back to Maine if that had been necessary.)
Skepticat
@Jeffro: For at least the next four years, I fear.
Skepticat
@JPL: This. And I think you’re absolutely spot on about the tour.
LAC
@Betty Cracker:
Big yellow taxi
What’s going on
Vadar’s theme.
If you find any songs that speak on voting in every election, throw that in too.
montanareddog
@efgoldman:
IANAL, I am not sure that is insider trading, which would be using insider knowledge to speculate. Tabling laws that will secretly benefit you financially is more akin to fraud, I would have thought.
hovercraft
@Yoda Dog Democrat:
I’m sure they will cite David Frum, a man with no sole, who while he denounces the vapidity of the GOP and it’s new leader, insists on blaming Obama for all of it. In typical neo-con logic, this all happened because Obama was weak and allowed Russia to rise up, and this scared republicans into losing their minds. Putin invaded Ukraine because we are weak, he would never have invaded a sovereign nation if the Shrub and Darth Vader were still in charge. I’m thinking Georgia and South Ossetia might have something to say about that. But the bottom line is that as with all things, it was not the republicans fault, the democrats made them do it, personal responsibility. There is no such thing as a reasonable republican, you may get some cogent, coherent thoughts out of them, but in the end they always revert to [email protected]Woodrowfan: I’m with Drew Magery on this, fuck em, they are all responsible, they all did this, they created the atmosphere that made this possible.
Thanks Obama.
bemused
@Skepticat:
Your friend sounds like she’s not taking it seriously enough.
I think there is a large number of the we won Trumpers that are gleeful that the “libtards” lost and that’s their main or only vote motivation.
NotMax
The nomination hearings in a nutshell.
“Would you go on record that 2+2=4?”
“That’s a determination which should be left up to the individual states.”
bemused
@NotMax:
Hilarious, I am so stealing that.
Kryptik
So, apparently, our favorite Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin, is all in on the Rick Perry train and has gone on the record as calling him ‘Uniquely Qualified’.
As if we needed any more proof that Manchin is a uniquely mediocre dolt beyond the breadth his situation as a Deep Red State Dem can excuse.
Van Buren
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Xlnt. Somewhere there is a video of a young lady doing an ASL version of it for a class project. Was awesome.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Warren Zevon
Harry Nilsson
Joni Mitchell
The Mamas and the Papas works well as music to drive by, too.
(I tend to favor classical, Gilbert & Sullivan and selected Broadway shows while driving, but realize those are not everyone’s fancy ticklers.)
hovercraft
Courtesy of the GOS
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Many citizens of progressive political persuasion are finding that, soulwise, these are trying times.
To be a liberal in the Reagan era—not to mention being a lefty, pinko, comsymp—strikes most of us as damned hard cheese. Duty requires the earnest liberal to spend most of his time on the qui vive for jackbooted fascism, in a state of profound depression over the advance of the military-industrial complex, and down in the dumps over the incurable nincompoopery of a people addicted to The Newlywed Game.
Beloveds, fear not, neither let yourselves despair. Rejoice. I bring you good news. As a lifelong Texas liberal, I have spent the whole of my existence in a political climate well to the right of that being created by Ronald Reagan and his merry zealots. Brethren and sistren, this can not only be endured, it can be laughed at. … All you need in order to laugh about Reagan is a strong stomach. A tungsten tummy.
—March 1986
bemused
@Kryptik:
The word “unique” has been used when one doesn’t want to commit to praise nor criticism. It reminds me of the Minnesota saying, “Well, that’s different”.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m on a blues jig every day. Only thing I can listen to that doesn’t make me want to smash things.
Jump Little Walter
Tell Me What I done Howlin’ Wolf with the great Hubert Sumlin.
Kryptik
@bemused:
Considering Manchin is introducing Perry for his confirmation hearing and has offered almost nothing but praise, I doubt his use of ‘unique’ is in the backhanded, Minnesota Nice sense.
tobie
@Vhh: At this point my sense is that Dems should resist those nominees who, if approved, will wield considerable powers. That amounts to Tillerson at State who would shape foreign policy, though he showed himself to be staggeringly ignorant about any country besides Russia at the hearing. Next comes Sessions as AG: he will torpedo any serious investigations of Trump and politicize the Dept of Justice in ways that will make Alberto Gonzalez look like a junior varsity player. He will also restrict voting rights to ensure permanent Republican rule. Finally I’d lobby against Pruitt because he will do everything in his power to destroy the planet. Those are the three nominees who can do the most damage. The Dems can and should vote ‘no’ on Devos, Price, etc. but I hope they’ll reserve their verbal firepower and ad dollars to Tillerson and Sessions.
tobie
@GregB:
Yup, and the new alliance will be China and Germany (and by extension the EU) against Russia and the US. Trump wants to put tariffs on goods manufactured in Germany and China? He’s got no clue the kind of trade war he’s inviting.
hovercraft
@bemused:
I’ll throw in “precious” and “special”, not a complement.
Josie
@Baud: Also, Instead of saying, “You were conned.” one could say, “He lied to you.” That takes the burden from them and puts it on the liar.
Elizabelle
@Kryptik: Uniquely qualified.
Bless his heart.
That’s a defensible statement. Perry, to the good, has been an elected governor. Palin territory, yes, but it is an achievement. Perry, to the bad, knows nothing about the Cabinet department he has been nominated to lead. That’s unique, too, because it’s an important position.
Le sigh.
Iowa Old Lady
@JPL: I noticed he said Monday was Day One of his administration. Apparently he doesn’t work weekends.
Chris
@hovercraft:
The argument “OH MY GOD! OBAMA IS NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN!” loses a little something when your follow-up is “and that’s why you should support Oswald Mosley.”
Chris
@tobie:
Well, look on the bright side. At least that would pretty much permanently invalidate the “Democratic Peace Theory” school of “thought.”
Wait, is that a bright side?
Kilgore Trout
@Betty Cracker: New Speedway Boogie by the Grateful Dead. One way or another this darkness got to give.
Courtney Barnett’s cover of it is one of the highlights on Day of the Dead.
Yarrow
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m sure China, North Korea and other countries will pay no attention to the fact that the new president takes weekends off.
Chip Daniels
I’m taking confidence in my belief that Americans love conservative ideas, when they are abstract and faraway, happening to other people.
When they are applied to us individually?
Fuck that, every man jack of those Trump supporters is a flaming socialist.
Very few people have ever had to endure actual unified Republican governance; even people in red states had the backup of the Federal social safety net.
I’m betting that a taste of actual “bootstraps” will give us an edge going into 2018.
For evidence, I offer the recent townhalls where Republican Congressmen came face to face with outraged Republicans suddenly realizing the moochers in question were them.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@Doug R: I think Take The Power Back is going to be my personal anthem for the next 4 years.