"You come explain to the American people how 24 million of them lost coverage." —Elizabeth Warren challenges GOPers https://t.co/KrjxJQ59FU pic.twitter.com/ebS28YSyAF
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 23, 2017
Handy district-by-district guide to ACA enrollment beneficiaries, compiled by @charles_gaba https://t.co/l3ULGR1mxe
— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 21, 2017
Whip it good! Love this @NPR effort to find where every member of Congress stands on #AHCA. Look up yours: https://t.co/qn0kuZdUwL
— Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) March 22, 2017
senior House aide tells me leadership intends to hold AHCA floor vote tomorrow even if bill lacks votes needed to pass
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 22, 2017
LEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY MMJENKINS https://t.co/ABB9e96OCZ
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) March 22, 2017
This is a tactic: Daring Members to explain to their voters why they tanked repeal/replace after 7 years of promises. => https://t.co/SNoH3NkQEl
— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) March 22, 2017
Picture rank & file Rs. Your right flank is rewriting the bill in secret & you're supposed to put your career on the line based on result
— Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) March 23, 2017
Dear #GOP moderates: Vote no on #Trumpcare & you may lose primary. Vote yes & you will lose the general. Good luck! https://t.co/g4vTewS4SX
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 21, 2017
the case for passing Trumpcare is that it has to be passed, which is not a good case https://t.co/lfRYN027s8
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) March 22, 2017
WereBear
Talk about a face that cries out for a fist in it…
PsiFighter37
Someone should post the transcript of Trump’s interview with Time Magazine. It’s horrifying how stupid he is, and the end takes the cake for encapsulating his petty mindset.
WereBear
And I never see any “passion” in the ZEGS… except for the way he discovered that there was a career path in being a ZEGS.
Himself… that’s what he’s passionate about.
dr. bloor
If I see one more tweet or article about “moderate” or “rank & file” R’s being in a “bind,” I’m getting naked and heading up to the clock tower with my deer rifle. This is an easy call if you’re not a fucking greed-obsessed nihilist.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@dr. bloor:
This is an easy call if you’re not a fucking greed-obsessed nihilist.
Nowadays that’s a requirement for being a Republican…
martian
Why do people even talk about #GOP moderates like it’s a thing?
This is not a thing.
hovercraft
@WereBear:
Which one?
Wait, I think I know this one, all of them Katie.
efgoldman
1) You go Liz!
2) This is incredibly useful. Can all those RWNJs really think there won’t be consequences for taking even rudimentary insurance from 70-80k people in their districts? Does being an ideological asshole really mean that much to them that they’ll take the risk politically?
I think for at least a couple dozen of them, the answer has to be “no”
hovercraft
@martian:
They’re delusional, they are trying not to give in to despair, they don’t want to appear churlish?
Obama treated them like normal people for 6 years, and even after they proved themselves to be petulant ghouls, he was still chastised by the village for not working with them. I guess the lesson taken by some is that “both siderism” is so deeply ingrained that they must pretend that such a species exists.
laura
@WereBear: Save the fist, this is a job for a boot to the face -repeatedly.
Elizabelle
They’re psychopaths.
People without decency.
Chris
Unfortunately, they’re more afraid of the right wing than they are of the general public or anyone else.
“It was the same with the whole Russian machine. Fear was the impulse. For them it was always safer to advance than retreat. Advance against the enemy and the bullet might miss you. Retreat, evade, betray and the bullet would never miss.”
Elmo
@efgoldman: They’re betting that those 70-80K don’t vote. It isn’t a bad bet, really.
Iowa Old Lady
They want the vote today because it’s the anniversary of the ACA vote. IOW, it’s the kind of symbolic action they love–sort of like “repealing” the ACA repeatedly even when Obama was in office.
As far as I can tell, this is about wiping Obama off the books while also giving tax breaks to rich people. So it’s two-fer.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
Chris
@Iowa Old Lady:
And hurting poor people. And hurting poor people. Never forget that one.
Iowa Old Lady
@Chris: True. The Iowa legislature is about to pass a bill forbidding cities or counties to raise the minimum wage above the state level, which is the same at the national one. What do they have against people earning a living wage? What problem are they solving through that bill? It boggles the mind.
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
jeffreyw
They will be able to say “we reduced your premiums like we said we would”. They will be right. The ACA is dead. They made it all about getting insurance and carefully elided mentions of health care except where they conflated the two. I hope I am wrong.
oldster
Get on the phones, people!
I talked my reps office in DC this morning and said, “Is Tom Reed going to vote to strip Essential Health Benefits from the people of Upstate New York?”
The poor kid on the other end kept trying to dance. Every time he danced, I would keep hammering it:
“Tom Reed voted to strip Essential Health Benefits from Americans.”
This is what they need to hear now, and they need to be terrified that they will hear it on the campaign next year.
Now get on the phone, please, and hammer it home to your own congress-critters. Politely, of course, and keeping in mind that not *every* intern in a Republican office is a fascist-in-training (only most of them–and certainly the one who kept lying to me this morning.)
germy
gene108
@efgoldman:
They’ve pissed all over their constituents for decades, told them it’s a warm, yellow, rain, and get rewarded for it.
In the last 23 years, outside of 2006 and 2008, there has be NO downside risk.
And even that brief tailspin was “corrected” by 2010.
Even if they lose in 2018, there is no reason for them to think cannot win it all back by 2020 or 2022, at the latest.
Republucans control the media. The media, usually, happily repeats the GOP line that the piss falling on their constituents is a warm rain. The GOP is held to no standards, while they are able to hold Democrats to exacting standards.
It’s not much of a gamble, when you’ve been “duh, winning” for 20 of the last 23 years.
NotMax
How long will they hold open the vote past the ‘official’ 15 minute deadline?
Half hour? 1 hour? Friday?
germy
@gene108:
“Healthcare is an entitlement. And entitlements will bankrupt our nation!”
gene108
@Iowa Old Lady:
But American politicians get so little of it. None of them cash out like a Putin, or politicians in other countries. They enrich the Kochs, Mercers, Devos, et. al. for something other than money, because fir the extra $100 million in tax breaks they give a billionaire, next to nothing flows into their pockets.
They are sociopaths. Period.
They enjoy hurting people and being dominated by the rich.
Corner Stone
@WereBear:
You’re going to need to be a little more specific. I mean, I only have two fists and there are only so many hours in a day.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so, when this bill is re-reviwed by CBO, presumably it’s going to look even worse, and the flaming bag of poop Ryan is tossing at McConnell will have broken glass in it. An anonymous Freedom Caucus goon said last night McConnell is calling the shots with his group. We’ll see
Corner Stone
Shouldn’t Chairman Nunes be in cuffs about now?
Chris
@germy:
You’ve really got to appreciate how completely, psychotically out of whack a society has to be to think that guns are a right, but health care is an entitlement.
Corner Stone
“First, assume a can opener…”
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Corner Stone:
IOKIYAR, always…
Chris
@gene108:
Yep.
Plain old greed can’t explain it anymore, if it ever could. There are far more profitable things to do out there, even for CEOs, than trying to hostile-takeover an already stingy and anemic safety net. Obsessive hatred of the poor and more generally “those below,” and a need for status, matter a lot more than money.
Pogonip
Washington Post reports they caught the guy making all the synagogue threats: he’s a 19-year-old dual Israeli/American citizen, being arraigned in Israel today. I hope Adam’s mom sees the story so she’ll know the guy is off the street.
Eric U.
there are Democrats in Congress that are further right than what used to be considered a “moderate” republican. Not many, the tea partiers took most of them out. For republicans, “moderate” means they can say things that are deeply racist subtly enough that they have plausible deniability if called on it.
My republican congresscritter says he can’t vote for AHCA. He’s a squish though.
Roger Moore
In better news, a man in Israel has been arrested in connection with the Jewish Community Center bomb threats.
The Dangerman
How is it that Devin Nunex isn’t arrested already?
Actually feel a little sorry for the Dude; said it before, I met the guy, with about 3 other people in the room, a little over a decade ago. Bit of an asshole than but I didn’t get the full on treasonous prick vibe from him. Clearly surrendered to the Dark Side.
Major Major Major Major
@Chris: You have the right to BUY guns, just like Paul Ryan will give you the right to BUY healthcare.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m going to chime in on something – can we stop using the phrase “poor people” and/or fetshizing the notion of poverty?
The reason I say this is that because across large swaths of the country, particularly the South, the Ohio Valley, Appalachia and the Rust Belt (which appears to extend to the outskirts of Philadelphia, Boston and Albany these days, the term “poor” is generally equated to “deliberately unemployed lazy moochers, generally black”. The reality is that the people who benefit most from the ACA work really hard, often at multiple jobs, and would be better described as “lower wage workers”. It isn’t that they’re under or unemployed, it’s that they’re undercompensated and unappreciated.
That’s the way you save this program, is by talking about the need for it among working people.
NotMax
Open Thread.
Anyone else watching Hotel Beau Séjour on Netflix?
If one can make the leap past how outlandish and elastic the central concept is, pretty good albeit grim crime drama.
Yarrow
Just called the far right wingnutty Congressman whose district is next to mine. My zip code is also in his district, so even though he’s not my Congressman I called anyway and gave my zip code. Asked the intern who answered the phone what his vote would be on the bill: “The Congressman is still undecided on that.” I asked her to urge him to please vote no. “It’s a bad bill!” If he hasn’t decided by this morning, I’m going to take that as a hint the bill may not have the votes.
I also called my Dem Rep who is standing strong to vote against, so just reinforcement.
Keep calling, everyone!
Corner Stone
They are writing the bill on the day they expect to vote on it?
“I was returning some pants. I took a short cut in a subway tunnel and fell in some mud, ruining my pants. The very pants I was returning.”
dlm
Just made another phone call to the office of Ryan Costello-Republican-PA06 district. No one is answering any phones in DC or his West Chester office.
I left a message stating, if this bill passes and he votes for it, 24 million uninsured American citizens will march on Washington. We will march to your local offices. We will march to your houses.
You will face us.
john fremont
@Elmo:Or won’t be able to, thanks to Atty General Sessions and whatever he’s planning
jeffreyw
@NotMax: We are watching it, alternating episodes of The Americans so as to stretch them both out. A very good show.
dr. bloor
@Corner Stone:
Never gets old, does it?
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I thought the Freedom Caucus was in the House. How is McConnell calling the shots in the House?
@Corner Stone:
Yes. Yes, he should.
Barbara
I have called. I have urged a few people very pointedly to call and posted the NPR link so that others can figure out who to call. Between this and our traitorous president it’s all I can do to act normal around my kids.
oldster
Ryan just postponed his presser, scheduled for 11:30a, until 3:30p.
That’s good news; it means he does not yet have the votes.
Thanks to everyone who is phoning: this is the crunch time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
don’t know– by telling Cruz, Lee and Paul what to say to spook those horses? speaking for the Kochs, Cato and Heritage– who are all still opposed, I think–? it was kind of surprising, I thought Cruz et al hated McConnell and vice versa
dlm
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m so glad you said this. Thank you. It needs to be pointed out, you have to qualify for programs. They are not free. Medicaid will come after my estate and take dollar for dollar, what they paid for my care including premiums. You have no idea how many people don’t know about the Medicaid Recovery Act. I have told this to my rep. more than once.
Yarrow
@oldster: Very good news!
Did they have a time scheduled for the vote? Or was it just “today” in general?
D58826
@jeffreyw:
well your premium will be 0 when you can’t afford a policy.
Hafabee
I called my Rep, Alex Mooney WV-2 (he’s a carpetbagger from Maryland who took over from Capito when she left the house for the senate). The DC office couldn’t care less, did not even ask my name. The local office, when I asked how the Rep was planning to vote, replied “he does not share his views with us.” A conversation ensued, he took my name and address, and I end by asking of the Rep really more interested in saving Ryan’s career over the health and lives of his constituents.
ArchTeryx
So, by the end of today I’ll know whether the panic attacks I’ve been having since Trump was elected have been justified or for naught. I truly hope it’s the latter. This turkey passes, I have a disaster plan, but the end product is not something I seriously want to contemplate this morning.
satby
@NotMax: I’ll have to check that out as I enjoy most of your recommendations. Have you seen Hand of God on Amazon? I didn’t realize it was a mystery series, so it’s tempting me. As soon as I finish my Crownies binge.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I heard last night that Comstock had come out for it, but I guess the bill has changed three or four times since then.
Yarrow
What in the world? Way to represent the people–communicate nothing with your voters.
Tazj
@oldster: I just called Chris Collin’s office and asked if he was voting for the Republican healthcare bill in the house. I asked the same question you asked “is he voting to strip Essential Health Benefits from Americans?” They said “yes”, and I said that I don’t like to spend money on politics but will spend all I can(I will) to make sure he’s voted out, because he’s horrible. I’m sure they don’t care at all. it’s a very Republican district, with many moneybags that love him, but I called. Now I have to calm down, even though I didn’t raise my voice or use bad language.
NotMax
@jeffreyw
Heads up to keep an eye out for Ingobernable, arriving on Netflix tomorrow (IIRC).
Major Major Major Major
@dr. bloor: on the flip side I’ve always been partial to the “well, it only works for perfectly spherical cows in a vacuum” joke.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: by encouraging them, through Cruz or Lee, to ask for more and more poison pills? honestly I have no idea, I was surprised to see it last night
themann1086
On the “what moderate Republicans?!?” line: a more accurate formulation is “Republicans representing moderate districts”. Sure, they sure as hell aren’t moderate, but they have to at least appear to be to get reelected.
NotMax
@satby
Haven’t seen that. Don’t have Amazon Prime membership; monthly budget will stretch only so far.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: didn’t Cruz convince the House to shut down the government one time?
And am I the only person who read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie: a Child’s Guide to Essential Negotiations?
ArchTeryx
@themann1086: I’d like to say voting for this turkey of a bill will strip that mask off for all time. There is nothing moderate about stripping insurance from 24 million people out of pure, raw spite for the previous administration.
But one thing I’ve learned about supposed “moderate” conservatives: Too often it’s all just a mask on their part, too. Scratch beneath it and you find an embarrassed but adamant Tea Partier. They’re just as tribally Republican as out-and-proud Confederate flag wavers.
schrodingers_cat
Republicans are destroying the country to enrich themselves and their wealthy patrons. Racism and misogyny are the candy to keep their base that won’t gain monetarily, on board.
amk
So, when does the latest shitshow begin? Today?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: yeah, that’s why I’m surprised that Lizza reported (retweeted) that it was McConnell calling the shots. I thought they thought Mitch was a total cuck
@amk: scheduled vote has been pushed from 11:30 to 3:30, Paulie has postponed a Chicago fund-raiser, and apparently they’re taking the Freedom Caucus back over to the White House so the master negotiator can make a deal by giving them everything they want
Cermet
@Iowa Old Lady: When the Kock sucker brothers want this bill to fail, you know that it is bad … for the thugs! The ACA, the kock suckers know, is sinking and will harm the dems in the mid-terms; if the repeal occurs, then the mid-terms will cause a lot of thugs to go down. The senate has a chance to change hands, as well.
Major Major Major Major
Ok, “fun” exercise time: this is the worst piece of legislation since…
USA PATRIOT Act?
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
I thought the punchline was “if we assume a spherical horse moving on a frictionless plane…”
Corner Stone
Saw this off Rick Wilson’s twit feed. Somebody say “what what!”
BREAKING: Former Russian MP shot dead in Kiev city centre. Was testifying against #Ukraine’s ex-President Yanukovych
ArchTeryx
Heck, if the bill fails, I’ll finally be able to put my one-note song to rest and start talking about stuff that I really *want* to talk about, such as the latest treasonous tripe coming from Trump or the nuclear-level derp I’ve witnessed in World of Tanks (and the RL tankers I’ve shared laughs over them with).
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
truth
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
Nobody knows, since they haven’t finished writing it yet.
Barbara
@Cermet: I can never accept the premise that causing people pain is the best path to power. I just can’t do it. I don’t accept that the ACA is sinking, either, though it is clearly stronger in some places than others. Therefore, I reject your strategy. I also find your commenting to be very conveniently timed with strategic voting.
randy khan
@NotMax:
It depends. If it gets to 22 no votes, they may try to stop it in the middle and say “never mind.” If they hang at 19 or 20 no votes, they’ll hold it open until the end of time if necessary.
I continue to think there’s a big chunk of brave Sir Robins in the GOP caucus who don’t plan to vote until they know which way it’s going. If it fails, it may fail bigly.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: Wikipedia, the world’s foremost authority on jokes ?, says cows in a vacuum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow
hovercraft
A ‘sea of despair’: Early death among white, working-class Americans might be tied to poor job prospects, research says
Princeton economists studying this group’s mortality spike say career struggles can compound over time through family dysfunction, social isolation, addiction and obesity.
By Joel Achenbach and Dan Keating
I’m, sure these people are most anxious to see Obamacare repealed, it’s not like they need it or anything. As I’ve said many times now, the amount of sympathy I have for them can fit into a thimble, fuck em, they did this to themselves and to all of us.
ArchTeryx
@Barbara: A lot of the time it isn’t the best path to power unless you’re a reactionary. People in pain, most of the time, will basically find someone “beneath” them to kick down on and vote accordingly, not vote to kick *up* at the people causing them the pain. They’ve been trained from birth to kick down and that’s just what they do when times get rough.
Take a good look at what’s happening in Europe, supposed bastion of enlightened liberalism, if you want plenty of modern examples of it. If you want to go even farther, take a good hard look at 1930s Germany.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@oldster: So I really liked that question you posed to Reed, and decided to ask the same question of my MoC, Rod Blum of Iowa”s First District (he’s one of the mysteriously missing congressional reps – has yet to meet with his constituents). You may be surprised to know that not one of his offices is answering the telephones this morning.
Barbara
@The Dangerman: You don’t surrender to the dark side. The dark side knows that you will never affirmatively say yes if asked, so it gradually puts you in a position where you have surrendered without realizing what you have done. That’s why Congressional reps should not be entering into business ventures with Russian citizens.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
Wow, so many people not on the best of terms with Putin and his cronies are dying of natural causes. How coincidental and fortuitous for Putin.
amk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks. And the fucker zegs was gonna a fundraiser on this day?
The Dangerman
@randy khan:
I think it passes the House, with the the ballless shits (maybe that’s a bit harsh; how about ball challenged) praying the Senate kills it.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Keep calling Comstock. She doesn’t deserve to be in that district and she is one good turnout election from being out. She knows it, everyone knows it. If half of what Trump has proposed comes to pass her district will be one of the hardest hit in the nation for federal employees. She should be the queen of no.
ArchTeryx
@hovercraft: In a way I *do* have sympathy for them. As I posted above, they’ve been trained from birth that kicking up is lethally dangerous, and kicking down is both safe and encouraged, so they kick down. When they find that kicking down has left them, nonetheless, unemployable and about to lose their one lifeline, they either go adrift, rudderless – thus the opiate addiction rate – or they fall back on the hate trained into them.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Depending on what you are trying to estimate, those are not bad assumptions.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@NotMax: We’ve been watching it here at Chez Kate – you’re right: pretty absurd premise, but once you accept it, really entertaining. Keep in mind, tho – I like grim – even more so in times like this.
Major Major Major Major
@ArchTeryx:
This is asking for literal Christ-like levels of empathy, which I do not have, fuck them, they can stop voting for people like Donald Trump any second but don’t.
randy khan
I realized yesterday that our beach place is in a Republican rep’s district, so I’ve started calling – they can’t tell on the phone where I’m registered to vote, and I have a good address there. He’s one of the people listed as a no in the last NY Times list, but I figure it can’t hurt.
The constant rejiggering of the bill is driving me crazy. I know it’s a good sign, but it’s still bonkers, and makes me worry that they’ll accidentally find the sweet spot.
ArchTeryx
@The Fat Kate Middleton: So do I. I’ve been busy rewriting one of the single most grimdark stories ever to show up on the big screen, John Carpenter’s version of Who Goes There? (i.e., The Thing) as a campfire story. There are parts of The Thing I still consider unwatchable even 35 years later, and decades before the sterile CGI gorefests that clutter up the horror scene today.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: White people working at wages that put their family income at close to the federal poverty level (FPL) are defined by their work. Black people working at wages that put their family income at close to FPL are defined by their low income. It’s infuriating.
ETA: It might be subtle, but by characterizing some people at or close to FPL as working class and others as poor, in your mind you are making a kind of binary sort between those who merit advancement and those who are just stuck. They ARE poor. It defines them. It’s so unfair.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I’m trying to estimate a spherical cow on a frictionless plane…
@Major Major Major Major: Right. Trump voters are a different breed than apathetic nonvoters. The latter might still be entitled to some empathy.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: What exactly are you trying to estimate? The cow’s acceleration?
ThresherK
@D58826: The corollary is that a policy which covers nothing would be free. Well, except for the overhead…
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Tipping point, of course.
(Protip: Seriously, don’t try to tip cows. It won’t work out well for anybody.)
Yarrow
@ArchTeryx: Been thinking about you and calling and calling my Reps, even adjacent district ones. I hope the push back of the time of the vote is a good sign.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@satby: I watched three episodes of Hand of God – *hated* it. And @NotMax: , I watched it on Netflix.
bemused
Robert Reich reported not long ago a former Republican Rep told him GOP legislators are afraid of their teaparty, hardcore wingnut constituents, not only losing votes but afraid for their own physical safety from them if they don’t legislate far, far right. I had a thought that maybe GOP should also be afraid of them if they cut all their healthcare coverage and gave all the tax breaks to the wealthy instead but then realized that it would take teaparty and Trump supporters quite awhile to get that and blame the real perps, if ever.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: yep. Trump voters are adults and I will treat them like adults.
Iowa Old Lady
@Corner Stone: Wait. This someone else beyond the guy who went out the window yesterday?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Hafabee: I couldn’t get through to any of Mooney’s numbers. Also couldn’t get through to Captio’s numbers. At least Manchin answered.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@ArchTeryx: Ooo, haven’t seen this! I’ll def look it up. Thanks!
Chris
@bemused:
After the Gabby Giffords shooting, IIRC, several moderate Republicans who’d been getting death threats just resigned.
hovercraft
@Elizabelle:
Speaking of unethical:
Ivanka Trump’s West Wing job isn’t just unethical. It’s also dangerous.
By Helen Klein Murillo and Susan Hennessey
Ivanka Trump is a reassuring presence in an unpredictable White House
By Ed Rogers
Most of these people have sold their souls to the devil. The good news is they’ll go down with the ship, ’cause it’s going down, that’s why he calling for all hands on deck. Meanwhile as the band played on….
Today’s The Day The House Repeals Obamacare … Or Not!
Talk about chicken running around with their heads chopped off, keep calling, they’re running scared.
MomSense
Simon Maloy FTW! HAHAHAHA!
mali muso
I live in Comstock’s district and am trying to get through on the phone. Just hearing busy signals at the moment. Will continue to try. . This district is seriously gerrymandered, so she’s trying to thread the needle to keep the rural Tea Partiers as well as the saner folks up more in NoVa at the same time.
GregB
The Democrats should send a secret envoy to tell Ryan that the will give him a guaranteed 8 votes.
That would then allow Ryan to write off 8 of his GOP votes.
Come time to vote, every Democrat votes against the bill offering a grand ratfuck.
Ta daaaa!
Two can play at political nihilism.
bemused
@gene108:
I agree. Psychopaths who love to make people suffer.
rikyrah
@Corner Stone:
Not.enough.coincidences.in.the.Western.World.
Jeffro
@Barbara: seconded…she’s a horrible person behind that smiling face
Corner Stone
@Iowa Old Lady: Since G&T is under the knife today I will play RUS expert.
Yes, the guy thrown out of a fourth floor window was an attorney for a Putin foe. Who happens to also be dead. This latest news indicates a guy testifying against a Ukrainian Putin ally got shot dead in the head on the street. Apparently that’s like number 11 or 12 depending on how you count, all in the last few months.
rikyrah
the EVERLOVING PHUCK?!?!?!
Disgusting: The AHCA now has a clause that allows states to revoke Medicaid if a women hasn’t gotten a job 8 weeks after giving birth!
— National NOW (@NationalNOW) March 22, 2017
Major Major Major Major
@GregB: hehe. Remember when Ryan held a vote on the too-awful-even-for-him RSC budget so that conservatives could vote yes for scoring purposes, with no expectation the bill would pass… then the Dems en masse changed from ‘no’ to ‘present’, and they had to extend the vote while Ryan scrambled to whip enough no votes to kill it?
Barbara
@mali muso: But more and more of the “rural folks” are also federal employees with long commutes. And if we are successful in this year’s gubernatorial election, that district will not continue to be gerrymandered for her benefit.
Barbara
@GregB: That’s how TARP went down, except Nancy Smash didn’t trust the “guaranteed” yes votes from Republicans and pretty clearly had some kind of system in place by which individual Democratic reps would vote the same way as a Republican they had been paired with, guaranteeing failure if not enough Republicans voted for it.
bemused
@Chris:
Are there even any moderates left?
I know how tribally loyal Republican friends, family, neighbors have always been and think some of the more moderate are struggling now with the direction of the GOP. They are not talking and look pained if current events come up. Not enough of them as far as I can judge yet. Those folks are still riding the crazy train even though they don’t seem to have any idea where it’s going and or where they will end up.
WereBear
@hovercraft: Sigh. I know these people, I grew up around them, I struggled my best to not be one.
They try to go through life with a minimum of thinking. They are even willing to be worked like sand hogs towards that end. But the Feudal Age has ended. No one wants serfs, even though serfs is what they want to be.
pamelabrown53
@Yarrow: #40.
Just tried calling (again) my own asshat rw congressman….annnnd the mailbox is full!!! I’m livid.
TS
@rikyrah: Unbridled hate against women. Force them to have children and give them ZERO support. The Grand Old Farts love it.
There are no words in any language to describe the horror these folks want to inflict on the people they are supposed to “represent”.
Llelldorin
Called my Congressman and got right through, for all the good that does, given that I’m in Rep. Swalwell’s district. Ah, well, I guess he can use an attaboy?
Neldob
The last moderate Republican was either Bill Clinton or Eisenhower.
I picked up a scrap of newspaper from 1949, Ike is quoted
On another note a subhead is – Rats Swarm Into Town of Sprague
hovercraft
@ArchTeryx:
I hear you and your empathy, but I’ve got my hands full trying to support and empathize with people who are blameless, you did nothing to deserve having a gun at your head with a bunch of sociopaths fingers on the trigger. There are millions of people who didn’t ask for this who are about to have their entire lives screwed up, and in far too many cases may lose their lives, I don’t have the time, strength or energy to waste on people who have so much hate and or disdain for other people that their instinct is to vote against their own best interests just so they can shit on other people.
As a liberal my instinct is to band together and work together to tackle whatever the problem is, for them it is to hunker down and see how much they can grab before the shit hits the fan. In the bunker you’ll eventually run out of crap, out here in the in the community, by pooling our resources we stand a better chance of surviving.
I’m not saying they will be excluded from the solution, just that right now while people are fighting literally for their lives, I don’t care about a bunch of ignorant assholes who chose to put them selves in this situation. As a liberal, my preferred outcome will in the end save them too, we don’t believe in helping only some, so they’ll benefit, but only because our solutions benefit all not just a few.
mali muso
@Barbara: Good point. We live in hope…
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: well, shit, now it’s sure to pass the House. I can’t wait to hear Brave Sen. Collins explaining why this isn’t a deal-breaker as she runs away from her convictions.
D58826
ot –
How do you spell Treason?
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/844705318307270659
Omnes Omnibus
Just called Mark Pocan. He is a firm no, but I wanted to offer support and encouragement.
Goblue72
It’s gonna pass. Ryan & McConnell need this out of the way fast so they can move on to their primary objective, a corporate welfare bill later this year.
He’s already admitted it.
Barbara
@WereBear:
This is the saddest part. When I read some of these interviews with Trump supporters who want businesses to come to their community so that they can have jobs with health insurance, I want to ask them, “but who are these people starting businesses? How did they get to be someone who can give you a job? Why can’t you (or someone who grew up around here) be the one to start the business?” The question almost answers itself. But if you are a worker bee, as most of us are, you have to have the kind of skills that others want to pay you for. You can’t get around that just because you are employed by someone else. They just happen to live in states, for the most part, where their elected representatives don’t value investment in people. They don’t see how that diminishes their own prospects, the ones who want to stay, as much as it does the prospects of others, the ones who would like to leave.
Omnes Omnibus
@Neldob:
Ike, sure. But it’s crap about Clinton.
Baud
@Neldob:
I wish our side would give up the bullshit tripes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Goblue72: shut the fuck up, Dwight
Betty
@hovercraft: Good articles, but I would appreciate a warning when the link is to the Washington Post because of my limited access as a non-subscriber. Thanks in advance.
hovercraft
@Baud:
Do tell, I’m assuming there’s a great anecdote that you can work into your speeches?
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thank you. But who is Dwight? (Donny, I would get the reference.)
Called Dave Brat’s office. Staffer said calls running both for and against; says Brat is still a no. I thanked him and asked the congressman stay a “no.”
ArchTeryx
@The Fat Kate Middleton: The Thing was widely panned when it was first released (against E.T. for chrissake) but time did amazing things to its reputation. It’s now considered one of the most horrifying movies ever made, and probably the closest to H.P. Lovecraft the big screen will ever see.
I’m a biologist. It takes a LOT to turn my stomach. This movie managed to do it.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
What? Don/t you know there was a time when the peasants were back in the fields within hours of giving birth, they’ve gotten lazy, 8 weeks is plenty of time.
EVIL, THEY ARE PURE, UNADULTERATED EVIL.
Chris
@bemused:
Doesn’t matter. The simple fact of being marked “moderate” is enough to get the hate-brigade after you.
ArchTeryx
@hovercraft: Well, it’s not empathy, it’s sympathy. And it’s limited mostly to folks who don’t know any better. There are quite a few Trump supporters, including a couple I know, who DO know better and voted for my death anyway. I told them that fact, and kicked them summarily out of my life.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Barbara:
I understand it, but it is important to inspire a level of empathy among people who might not otherwise care due to their pre-existing biases.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I think its high time that we admitted that BS dead-enders and JS voters are not on “our side”.
Major Major Major Major
Hey, look, trolls, bye.
Hafabee
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: I found the Martinsburg office the most “responsive”, in the most generous possible interpretation of that word. But the DC office was simply oozing with I-don’t-give-a-shit-what-you-think-itis. I saw on his FB page a comment that they just hang up if you tell them you are not in his district. He, and Capito before him, is the typical machine Republican, voting however the leadership tells them to, doing no legislating of any substance.
hovercraft
@Betty:
Sorry will try to remember. If not you can right click on the link and “inspect elements” to see where the link is and decide if you want to use your limited access.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: When I am tempted to use the word “poor” I use the word “low income” or “low wage” in some form, which, I think, connotes that we are talking about working people whose income is less than a certain level, which varies greatly depending on family size and place of residence. “This bill will make it nearly impossible for low income workers to purchase insurance.” It’s not as easy as saying “poor people” but it captures the essence of what is going on. Even the Medicaid expansion population, by and large, are participating in the labor market, whereas the traditional Medicaid population were typically not, or at least not as consistently.
Aleta
A different better video than one posted last night:
An 18 year old dog adopted out of a shelter by a guy who’s grieving over his last dog.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/dc/18-year-old-dog-surrendered-to-shelter-finds-loving-new-home/424397419
Corner Stone
Poor, poor Paulie Blue Eyes. So very misunderstood! He cares deeply about taking away your health care. Can’t you see that? This is all your fault for making this so difficult and contentious. He had a plan to do this the right way, a nice clean repeal, but you wouldn’t let him! And now this is happening. He didn’t want it to be this way, but since you’re going to make him.
Barbara
@Corner Stone: Not true. In order to get $800 billion of tax cuts become deficit neutral it had to be attached to something that would offset it. Repealing the ACA without more actually makes the deficit go up.
No One You Know
@Chris: That’s a bumper sticker I’d put on my car.
Grung_e_Gene
@laura: Boot to the Head…
ArchTeryx
@Grung_e_Gene:
People talking in movie shows…
People smoking in bed!
People voting Republican…
Give them a boot to the head!
doG, I needed that this morning. The Frantics are always fun, and grossly underrated compared to far more well known comedy troupes such as Monty Python.
hovercraft
@ArchTeryx:
You’re a better person than I am, I’m well past the point of even feeling sorry for them.
As I’ve said several times, they are the addict you keep helping, holding their hand through rehab, getting them back on their feet, over and over again, but now they’ve turned on you, they are breaking into your house and wrecking shit, endangering your family, I have no sympathy for them left, now I’m just pissed and calling the cops, and I hope they throw the book at you.
tybee
@Betty:
opening a “private” window in your browser will get you around that limited number of views…
SiubhanDuinne
@hovercraft:
Yes they are. Here are a couple of summary paragraphs from a story newly up at the NYT:
No One You Know
@Chris: Then they should get protection and do the right thing. Why do the whack jobs get the loudest and last say?
ArchTeryx
@hovercraft: I think it comes down to understanding something about human nature and the realization that immiseration doesn’t produce liberal outcomes – it produces extreme right-wing ones. Even if you don’t go Godwin, look what happened to the Bolsheviks! Look what nearly happened to us before FDR stepped in! We easily could have thrown in with the Nazis in WWII and quite a few of our moneyed class wanted to do just that.
“Heighten the contradictions” is the rallying cry of those too privileged to think it can happen to them. It almost never works out, and is that tiny bit of odds in your favour worth the death of millions?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Dwight K Schrute, from the American Office, a bitter, self-important, know-it-all cubicle drone loser. It’s how I picture that one in real life.
Aleta
Letter by Hawaii Representative Beth Fukamoto to Hawaiian Repub Party to resign from repute’slicanism (via autocorrect). (The Party of Ill Repute’ism works for me.)
http://twitdoc.com/view.asp?id=361109&sid=7QMT&ext=PDF&lcl=2017-3-22-Resignation-Letter-sf1.pdf&usr=bethfukumoto
Aleta
@Betty: Try clearing the specific cookies from your browser, and restart the browser.
Chris
@No One You Know:
I’m not saying they shouldn’t. I’m just saying that’s not what they did.
It’s kind of badass by contrast that Giffords was back at work, despite not just death threats but an actual near-execution. But hey, our people are the special snowflakes and they’re the rough men who stand ready to do violence on our behalf, or so I’m told…
Aleta
@Baud: > I’m trying to estimate a spherical cow on a frictionless plane…
Calculating who you’ll bet on at the races today?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@SiubhanDuinne: They, so far, have not ever paid a price for being evil. They are inoculated against being evil by having created an alternate reality for their base. This is the result of marinating in right wing propaganda vomited out daily by hundreds of AM radio stations, cable and network TV channels, multiple publishing houses, and thousands of websites. We are always playing catch up.
Barbara
@Aleta: I guess she’s a no, then. I assumed she was anyway.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara: I think she’s a state rep. I think HI’s national delegation is pretty solid blue, except for whatever shade of whacky Tulsi Gabbard is.
hovercraft
@ArchTeryx:
I’m not naive, I am bitter. That is why I’m writing them off, they’ve been socialized this way and nothing we say or do changes that. Yes some of these people were desperate enough to vote for Obama in 2008, but that was only because the sky was literally falling for them, they were losing their jobs, houses, savings, Obama was a lifeline. But as soon as they got to shore they reverted to their hateful selves. That is where my lack of sympathy and empathy comes from, they resented their rescuer because in the process of rescuing them he also rescued those people. These are people who cannot be reached so I won’t spend any energy trying. I’ll focus on the people who are apathetic, and I’ll be comforted by the fact that when they do better, we all do better even those who in my opinion don’t deserve it. History shows that eventually when things get bad enough people do pull together, it doesn’t last, but it’s in those moments that the big god things get done. Today is a test, have enough people benefited from Obamacare to scare away enough republicans away from destroying it? Fascism and extremism rise during times of strife, I know this, but there are enough people out there who don’t believe the republican lies to stop them, the question is can we mobilize enough of them to stop the carnage.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You’re right. I just checked. It’s puzzling to me that someone like her ever would have joined the Republican party.
msb
@ Aleta
Come join us, Beth!
Bruce K
Don’t know if this was covered in a previous Open Thread, but apparently Chuck Schumer’s come out and said that he’s going to push for a cloture vote on Gorsuch – i.e. filibuster. I suspect he’s gotten the message that there’s no longer any point in comity with McConnell (or, more likely, that he’s reached the point where, to quote Picard, “the line must be drawn here”).
bemused
@Chris:
That’s the truth.
Captain C
@D58826: Or, “your premium is slightly lower than your Obamacare Silver plan. Sorry about the infinite deductible.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
That we know of. But I can’t imagine what it must do to one’s soul, mind, and body, to go through life largely motivated by cruelty, hatred, resentment, exclusion, and the infliction of misery. So maybe they’re paying an internal and far more lasting price.
bemused
@Barbara:
I’d like to see more emphasis in the media about how the middle classes, from lower to higher middle income earners, will be negatively affected by cuts to Medicaid alone. How many people can afford pay for a disabled relative who is in a facility now paid for by Medicaid or quit a job to care for the relative in their home for one example?
Bill
On the non-substantive front, I think it’s cool that David Crosby put on a suit and showed up for Senator Warren’s speech.
Barbara
@bemused: With Medicaid it works like this: The greatest number of people relying on Medicaid are low income (indigent) and young, but basically no less healthy than average. Because most of them are healthy, they tend not to use it except for wellness, emergency visits, and maternity care (the things Republicans are most determined to cut, btw). Nationally, 40% of births are covered by the Medicaid program, with a high of 70% in Louisiana and Maine and a low of 30% in North Dakota and Virginia. States like California are a bit over the average at 50%. The other categories of beneficiaries — disabled children and adults (who might or might not also be getting Medicare benefits), and adults in nursing homes — are far less numerous but far more dependent on having the benefit. The per person outlays for such people are much, much higher. They would die without it, or their families would quickly be impoverished. I do understand the desire to focus on how valuable Medicaid is to so-called middle income people. Otherwise, it is easy to pretend these people don’t exist or you won’t be one of them.
Miss Bianca
@Roger Moore: This is one of those moments where you just have to say, “WTeverlovin’F?”
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Orange, she is a Modi bhakt.
Tazj
This guyYou’re hilarious Sen. Roberts
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t think they have an “inner life” where they reflect on anything, what was the movie where the Native Americans said you’re and animal until you become a human. They aren’t humans in that sense.
Aimai
@Barbara: very good point!
ruckus
@hovercraft:
The amount of fucks that I have for any republican could all fit on the tip of the bow of that world’s smallest violin that people are looking to play for the shitgibbon’s discontent with the job he stole with the help of the Russians and the political party of traitors.