Trumpcare isn’t dead yet. I won’t be surprised if the Freedom Caucus caves and votes for it this afternoon. If you live in a district with a Republican Congressional representative, get on the phone and tell them to vote against it pronto if you can. Try district offices as well as the DC office.
Things will get worse, not better, for Republicans if they pass this piece of shit onto the Senate. But there’s a real risk of this thing passing, becoming a law, and ruining millions of lives. So let’s kill it now while we can.
Update by Dave Anderson
You've got about 45 minutes to call your reps and put the nail in this coffin. (202) 224-3121. https://t.co/Yh0HvnOHVR
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) March 24, 2017
Mike J
Even if your MoC is a Dem, call and tell them you’re against TRyancare. They’re using the phone call numbers to show how unpopular it is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/24/per-house-members-phone-calls-on-the-gop-health-bill-run-35-to-1-against/
Mnemosyne
Another lyric from the same song is even more apropos:
Well, I remember when the lights went out
And I was trying to make it look like it was never in doubt
She thought that I knew
And I thought that she knew
So both of us were willing, but we didn’t know how to do it
Jim, Foolish Literalist
O, Paulie. You thought you could ride this rabid, drooling, farting, mangy beast.
Chris
Yeah, even if the Senate could be trusted, passing the House would give this thing momentum that I don’t want it to have. Better for it to die right here right now.
Ithink
God I hope the ideological purity ponies of the Radical Right give this P.O.S legislation the proper slaying it deserves in the House, but at least it’ll implode into a million bloodied chunks once it goes to the Senate.
Even a majority of the wingnuttiest G.O.P Senators know this absolute political suicide at this point of it being a third rail welfare service to allow it to pass through. And if it does manage to get all the way to Dolt 45’s desk, we’re 101% jack screwed as a nation under unhealthy distress until January 2019…
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s bullshit. Trump wants a win. He doesn’t care about the details of what passes, but he wants all those stories about Trump the Deal Closer and so forth.
Elizabelle
Dave Brat remains still a NO. All right, you marvelous Ayn Rand devotee with a divinity degree, from Tea Partying central Virginia. I will think happily of you today.
FWIW, his DC office has a message on from Brat himself about high call volume and call back later. That’s new; usually it’s voicemail.
zhena gogolia
@dmsilev:
That’s the line being taken in WaPo. Made me vomit.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wonder if Reince shared any of his Bailey’s Irish cream over cereal for breakfast with blue eyed jackhole Paul Ryan.
He’s been giving his marching orders, and into the breach he goes.
Cacti
I fully expect the “freedom caucus” to fall in line at the last moment.
Following dear leader is what Republicans do.
They’re hardwired for it.
dmsilev
TPM just now:
(no sourcing given)
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Not like there’s any backstory about healthcare reform. It’s all about the politics. All about the horserace.
Bad, bad, bad journalists.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: I think Trump wants a win, but he’ll settle for an enemies list.
RoonieRoo
I’m enjoying that we are simpatico for completely opposite reasons as Red State and related blogs. Mostly just incredibly amused by it. I’ve been trying to call my nutjob McCaul but the lines is constantly busy – which I suppose is a good thing. When I get through, I will say that if this is important to him than he needs to vote no and then work on actual full repeal. I don’t want full repeal but he doesn’t need to know that right now. I just want to do what I can to motivate that no.
Elizabelle
@Cacti: I don’t think there’s anything in it for the Freedom Caucus, and they’ve been promised more sucking on the Koch Brothers’ knobs for cash.
Maybe the Freedom Caucus promised to shine like diamonds when Trump gets around to cutting taxes for the wealthy and deserving with “tax reform.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: I think he wants to update his enemies list with an eye on the Russia investigations
@Elizabelle: “Dude, that’s like all sugar and dairy, gimme a red bull and vodka”
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major:
But the next Census isn’t until 2020! Can he wait that long?
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: Just give him a big truck to play in and he’ll be set until 2020.
LAO
This is pretty interesting.
ETA: Explains a lot about Republican “no’s”
RoonieRoo
Serious question, how bad would a vote failure/implosion damage Ryan as the Speaker in GOP eyes?
pamelabrown53
@Chris: #4.
Actually, I’m not sure that their would be enough momentum for it to pass the Senate. There is so much horse trading to make the bill breathtakingly cruel and bad that we don’t even know the breadth and depth of it’s depravity. Which means that the yeahs are voting blindly. They have no idea about the level of blowback that will likely be visited on them.
While I understand that Turtle has promised to put the POS on the floor “immediately” for a vote, “immediate” in the Senate is not immediate in the true sense of the word. First of all, it’s likely to get bogged down in the amendments process. This is good because each day will bring headlines about how mindblowingly bad the bill will be.
I hope all you intrepid phoners are having better luck than some of us who have republican reps. whose mailboxes have been full for days.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Does the White House have a sandbox anywhere on its grounds?
rikyrah
Trump’s conflict-of-interest troubles come roaring back
03/24/17 10:40 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s admittedly challenging keeping up with all of Donald Trump’s scandals and assorted controversies, but we’re occasionally reminded that he maintains ownership of business ventures he refused to divest from. The enterprise, we’ve been assured, is in the hands of the president’s adult sons, Eric and Don Trump Jr.
As recently as two weeks ago, Don Trump Jr. insisted that there’s no cause for concern, and that the current arrangement is working out well. “I basically have zero contact with [the president] at this point,” the younger Trump said at a Republican fundraiser.
In a new interview with Forbes, however, it appears his brother has a different perspective. In fact, Eric Trump had all kinds of interesting things to say about his family’s controversial business arrangement.
Richard Painter, the former chief ethics lawyer in the Bush/Cheney administration, told Forbes, in response to Eric Trump’s comments, “It just means that a lot of what they say is malarkey because the president isn’t distancing himself from the business.”
randy khan
@dmsilev:
I’d love to be a fly on the wall for *that* meeting.
ETA: Not to worry, though, if the bill fails – the meeting will be leaked from both sides, with competing narratives for us to enjoy.
Hoodie
Looks like Freylinghousen may have put a knife in Paulie’s ribs. They’ll want to change the subject, so get ready for a fat round of tax cuts.
Major Major Major Major
@RoonieRoo: I imagine the fallout would be pretty spectacular in public. Behind closed doors they don’t respect him anyway.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@dmsilev:
Trump never fails, Trump can only be failed. So the blamestorming with be fierce it doesn’t pass. Remeber Trump is the CEO president so the buck stops at some underling.
debit
Doug, you give the best earworms.
amk
dmsilev
@randy khan: Don’t worry, I’m sure some “senior White House official” will leak the meeting results. Or Tweet it.
ArchTeryx
Just called my Congresscritter, Paul Tonko (D-NY20). He’s a diehard Democrat so of course is opposed to the bill, but I registered my support and told his staffer the stakes for me. My life is on the line with this vote. I also mentioned I’m a PhD and gave her my name, so that’s easily verifiable. Letting her know that it isn’t just poor black folks whose lives are on the line here – that shouldn’t matter, but it does with this crowd.
randy khan
@RoonieRoo:
A lot. But for the Freedom Caucus, that’s a feature, not a bug.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@amk: damn you trump, for making me applaud David Frum. Again
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He was destined for greatness from the beginning. When he was born his father said “And we shall call him Major. And he will look serious on CBS News and he will ask Obama if he is content with the Iran nuclear deal.”
XTPD
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Release the blamestorm, to make your motherfucking brain worm,
A strange form, something barely lyrical,
Donald the Douchebag, Pence’s pseudo-spiritual.
Major Major Major Major
@pamelabrown53:
Ehhhh, that’s not super true. Remember the final ACA senate vote, on the reconciliation package? Took like eight hours.
hedgehog mobile
Called DeGette’s office to thank her for opposing Tcare. Staffer grateful for yhe thanks and said she is doing everything in her power to stop this “terrible legislation.”
amk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Frum has been an ‘onest notrumper from the very beginning unlike the rest of the pathetic asslickers.
chopper
if they end up getting this piece of dreck passed, trump gets a lifeline, but in the long run he and the GOP are boned. they’ll own part and parcel the inevitable tsunami of liquid shit this policy will bring. of course if it passes trump will be extra insufferable for a while.
still don’t understand how his so-called ultimatum is supposed to have worked. teabagger congresspersons understand that trump doesn’t control what legislation gets allowed on the floor of the house, right?
Ridnik Chrome
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Frum has a long, long way to go before he works off all the bad karma he earned during the Darth Cheney administration. But lately he’s worked off a little of it…
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
They forced the Obamas to remove the playground they’d installed for their girls before they left. No wonder Donnie looks like he doesn’t have enough to keep him occupied.
p.a.
Rethug safety net = meat grinder die.
pamelabrown53
@Major Major Major Major: #36.
Wasn’t that 8 hour vote possible because the amendment process had been completed? It sounds like you’re referring to the vote after the final House/Senate reconciliation process. Now, I understand that Turtle and Pence could further decimate senate rules by over riding the Parliamentarian but that in itself will create havoc from the blowback. If you still think I have it wrong, I’m willing to listen.
Major Major Major Major
@chopper: I really do think Trump is just trying to get people on record as opposing him so he can fuck them over later.
Fair Economist
If the bill is going to fail (as seems likely) Ryan is better off not calling a vote. Forcing the Republicans to take a stand on something so divisive among Republicans and unpopular with everybody else is going to hut them politically, and not just in 2018. Any Representative in an even vaguely competitive district will have to spend time, effort, and – most importantly – vote stances trying to recover their support. It will make it far more difficult to pass anything controversial – which is most of the the items on the ZEGS’ agenda.
Ridnik Chrome
@Major Major Major Major: Go Injuries!
amk
it’s still msm talk, so pinch of salt
Anya
Looks like rightwing idiological purity ponies managed to humiliate Ryan. I am in such a gloomy state that I am only anticipating bad news but we might win this one because the bill was not dystopian enough for the ultra-crazies.
Major Major Major Major
@pamelabrown53: Reconciliation != “reconciling the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill.”
Reid held what they call a “Vote-a-rama” where everybody, including the minority members, get their amendments voted down one after the other, because if you amend a reconciliation bill it has to be re-scored and sent by the parliamentarian again, which is a bigger time-sink than sending it back to the house. (Reid actually started the votes while the parliamentarian was still deciding.)
germy
[email protected]
Anyone know when the vote will occur?
LAO
@amk:
LurkerNoLonger
@ArchTeryx: I’m next door in NY-19. I called Faso’s office this week and urged him to vote NO.
Chyron HR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
LIL’ DONALD: “I wanna sign the law like a big boy! I wanna, I WANNA! (pretends to drive truck, makes ‘Vroom Vroom’ noises with his lips)”
germy
Emerald
I sent a letter to Issa and called his DC office yesterday. No response to the letter, but the phone guy was actually quite courteous, a major change from the last time I called several years ago.
In both my letter and phone call I maintained complete respect, as though I thought Issa were a reasonable person. It was a stretch, but I did it.
The only thing the worries me is that I had no trouble at all getting through on the phone.
Anya
@amk: He’s the fucking speaker, he doesn’t need Trump’s permission so why is he humiliating himself like that? Not that I am complaining. I enjoy every humiliation and every disappointment inflicted on ZEGS.
MomSense
Can’t help but chuckle about this. 45 and Ryan thought this presidentin’ legislatin’ thing must have been easy if the black guy could do it.
Wonder if theyare tired of all the winning?
Timurid
@amk: What that meeting might look like…
amk
@LAO: shitler’s vengeance ? or bannonazi’s vengeance ?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@RoonieRoo:
I don’t have the answer, but I hope the fallout on Ryan is terrible. I hope it leaves him sobbing, dyspeptic, unmanned (as the expression goes).
I despise his faux sincerity, the “thoughtful” blue eyes, his shirt sleeves and tie but no jacket “let’s get it done” posing.
Patricia Kayden
@amk: Is everyone Trump dupes a victim though?
Major Major Major Major
@MomSense:
Not to mention a lady!
Mike J
@LAO:
The real question is, does Ryan have the stones to remind trump the president doesn’t order jack shit in congress?
Turgidson
@Cacti:
You know, these freedumb caucus dolts seem to be wired differently than the Republicans we got used to watching vote obediently for whatever atrocity GWB and Tom DeLay shoved under their noses. They think they are there to repeal (and not replace) the federal government, and this bill doesn’t sufficiently do that for them. They’ve already shown they don’t fear their leadership’s wrath.
So while I’m still half-expecting them to find a way to “yes” at the very last moment, I feel like it’s more out of habit than out of belief. These chuckleheads might stick to their “right, but for unfathomably awful reasons” guns here.
amk
@Anya: ‘cos, he has always been a smarmy, corrupt boneless asskisser of the rich & powerful?
Major Major Major Major
@Turgidson: They’re ideological extremists. Them having enough numbers (and Tea Party nutjob voters backing them) to actually exert influence is a relatively new phenomenon.
LAO
@Mike J:
Nope.
amk
LAO
@amk: hmm. Good question — may be both Trump and Bannon agree on this one.
ETA:
Hal
@chopper:
I still don’t see where the silver lining is in passing this bill, even in the short run. People are going to be outraged if this shit bill is signed. Trump might have the support of his lock her up/always Trump supporters, but that’s not going to make much of a buffer.
What I don’t get with Trump’s thought process is that he could have sat back and let the bill fail, and then claimed this was a crappy law all along and not what he meant when he went on 60 Minutes and other places talking about how great this bill would be. He could have let Paul Ryan own this thing, but I guess he’s obsessed with proving he’s a great negotiator.
pamelabrown53
@amk: #47.
I’m perplexed as to why Ryan gives a doGdamn to what Trump wants.Probably about wanting Trump to share the blame? Still,from all I’ve read via Breitbart excerpts (never clicked on the site), Bannon wants Ryan gone. But then again, Wing Nut “Logic” is, to me, an oxymoron I just can’t wrap my head around.
Major Major Major Major
@Hal:
This could still be his plan. It will of course be executed poorly.
amk
attaboy. go, get’em, natzi.
Chris
@Anya:
Because as far as the base is concerned, Trump is God, and none of these people want Trump to show up in their districts at primary season endorsing the other guy. (I mean, have you seen Congress’ approval ratings? Gallup routinely lists it dead last in its list of American institutions by degree of public trust).
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major:
Everyone knows ladies just don’t have the stamina.
Elizabelle
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I’d love if it becomes obvious the MSM reporters who built Ryan up as a “wonk” have the splinters fall from their eyes. He’s a conman in a “sincere” suit.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s all a result of the paedophile rule. Used to be they could water down a shitty bill enough to peel off a few Dem votes. Since Hastert, Republican leadership only counts Republican votes. If they could target Dems to put them over the line, they could get a very, very bad bill passed, have the cover of bipartisanship to protect them, and tell the “Freedom Caucus” to go piss up a rope.
MomSense
@pamelabrown53:
I’m sure someone has the goods on ZEGS. Ha. Wonder what was in his emails?
Anya
@Timurid: More like
pamelabrown53
@Major Major Major Major: #49.
Thanks, M4, for contributing to my understanding of Senate arcania.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: While the Hastert Rule thing doesn’t help, it still wasn’t this bad before Obama came in and drove everybody insane with his blackity blackness.
CNN says “Speaker Ryan is telling Trump he doesn’t have the votes and asking what to do next, watch Spicer soon”
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major:
Agreed. Trump is all about revenge. He’s going to abuse them on Twitter and if he has any dirt on them he’ll leak it.
TenguPhule
@Patricia Kayden: Some men fall from grace. Some are pushed. And some just jump in eyes wide open.
amk
over/under on twitler going to his southern corrupt den for a weekend of
golfingranting & raving?TenguPhule
@amk: Impossible to bet on certainty.
rikyrah
Republican vows to ‘explain’ health care plan after it passes
03/24/17 12:51 PM
By Steve Benen
For Republicans, it was an instant classic. In 2010, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made the case that Americans would appreciate the Affordable Care Act’s benefits once it was fully implemented, the hysterical fictions pushed by reform’s opponents faded away.
“We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy,” the Democratic leader said at the time.
And while much of the right has been endlessly fascinated by this quote, pointing to it as proof of Democratic nefariousness, consider where we’ve ended up seven years later.
Major Major Major Major
Re the post title, I love that song, and apparently trump thinks the legislative process is quite a Mystery Dance indeed. Of course the next line is “don’t bury me cuz I’m not dead yet”…
@TenguPhule: that’s not true.
GregMulka
I called Ann Wagner’s office because tilting at windmills is awesome. I got a live person. Almost froze.
bupalos
I’m pretty OK with however this goes down at this point. The absolute best option is for all of these guys to sign on, holding their noses, hating their bill, despite these rifts having been opened up in the house. And for that bill that the house still doesn’t agree on and which still has embedded controversy to head to the senate to blow holes there too, before finally being sunk. But analogy to football would be we’re down 7 but have a 1st and goal on the 1 with 1:30 left on the clock. Best case is you score leaving the other team no time on the clock to do anything. But nothing wrong with running it in on the 1st play, just know there will be more defense to play here no matter what happens.
Redshift
@Major Major Major Major:
NYT says the same, and that Trump wants them to go ahead and have a vote even if they know it’ll fail. Ryan is apparently trying to explain to the toddler-in-chief why that would be a bad idea.
Major Major Major Major
@Redshift: well, it would be a bad idea for Ryan. For Trump it would just give him another swamp to rail against.
Anya
<a href="
“> This is a good burn. I am so glad Nancy Smash is finally being recognized by the MSM.
amk
but twitler’s only concept is humiliation, not fucking no-confidence motion.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Okay fine, you can get suckers and idiots to bet against certainty. But surely nobody on Balloonjuice would be stupid enough to……
SatanicPanic
Spicer is saying the vote is still on. Sounds like Trump is trying to force Ryan into holding a vote. I wonder if he’ll cave.
brendancalling
@Mike J: and if your MoC is a wingnut, call them and represent YOURSELF as a wingnut and tell them to vote No on Obamacare Lite.
JMG
@Chris: Every President who’s tried that has failed dismally, starting with FDR in 1938. I doubt Trump’s base matches what FDR had.
Elizabelle
CNN chyron: vote is at 3:30 p. Also that White House “left everything on the field.” Yeah, right.
Spicer: President spending a “working weekend here in Washington.” Is that a first??
Spicer: 7th anniversary of Obamacare; opportunity to see there is never another year with it.
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog mobile: yeah! I am faxing Tipton again today.
germy
Aleta
@Hal: When they told him that the bill said “Trump gets things done. Trump keeps his word,” he attached himself. Now he’s hearing that the bill says “Trump is a liar.” “Trump supporters are losing.” “Trump is a loser.”
Yarrow
@Anya: Ohhhhh…NANCY SMASH!
OGLiberal
@dmsilev: This. The bill could be one sentence, “Give everybody a peanut butter and jelly sandwich”, but if it passes on his watch he will tout is the greatest, winningest, most spectacular healthcare bill ever passed in the history of humanity. And his cult will be right on board.
I think this thing passes the House because no matter how tough they sound, no matter how they claim to hold dearly to their conservative policies and beliefs, the tea baggers/Freedom Caucus/etc are still scare shitless of the firebreathing members of Trump’s cult and those cult members want Trump to win and have a barnstorming victory tour more than having a bill that adheres to conservative principles…or whatever. And they know Trump will be sure to lay all the blame at their feet if this doesn’t pass – and he’ll blame them for good Americans being stuck with the evil that is Obamacare. He and his folks have already said as much, pretty bluntly.
Gelfling 545
So according to TPM the House Appropriations chairman has come out against the bill. Also one of the NJ reps says constituents can stop calling he’s voting no & won’t be convinced otherwise. Apparently his pffice can’t handle the flood. Chris Collins says congresspersons are not even on speaking terms today but I doubt anybody talks to him anyway.
Elizabelle
Spicer: “The president made it clear last night. This is it.”
Says the president has given it his all. Pathetically, that might be true.
But sounds like they want this over. Up or down.
hueyplong
All I ask is a legacy of endless enmity and settling of accounts within the Republican Party. That way no innocent people will be hurt.
SatanicPanic
@OGLiberal: But he’ll also blame them if the bill sucks and people hate it. He’ll say something like “they lied to me! You can’t trust these politicians!” There is no winning with this dude.
Yarrow
@SatanicPanic: If Ryan does cave and hold the vote, it’s certainly worth discussing what Trump has on Ryan. What was in Ryan’s emails? Does he have any dealings with Russia? Dead girl/live boy?
sukabi
@chopper: don’t think any of them understand how the government functions….or even what their jobs are.
Major Major Major Major
@JMG: just because it won’t work doesn’t mean trump wouldn’t try.
Elizabelle
“Is the President comfortable with Obamacare continuing?”
Spicer, heatedly: “No, he’s not.” And another plug for how hard Trump has worked.
amk
Aleta
@pamelabrown53: Ryan hoped to get Trump’s supporters for 2020?
Chris
@JMG:
Maybe, and maybe it’s not rational for the teabaggers in Congress to be afraid of Trump, but I’m pretty sure they are anyway.
trollhattan
Last night I watched the John Oliver video clip of Trump’s budget director saying he used Trump’s campaign speeches to set fiscal policy and draft the administration budget. Mind=boggled. It’s like setting a restaurant menu by watching preschool toddlers play with the plastic food. Only it’s the country, not a restaurant and the toddlers aren’t old enough to show signs of sociopathy.
Elizabelle
“You have a president who is going to sign the bill if you pass it. And now is it.”
Never mind if it’s a shit sandwich that is way worse for Americans. He is ready to sign it. Courage.
sherparick
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: He and his personality cult will win, and it will be great, no matter what happens.
“Trump voters don’t really seem to care if he governs well, as long as he’s perpetually at war with people they hate. And on some level Trump himself doesn’t seem to care what his overall approval rating is, as long as his admirers admire him a lot. He basks in that intense adulation.” http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2017/03/if-he-loses-on-health-care-will-trump.html
This should not surprise us. Hitler still had 30% of the German population even as Red Army was blasting “the Bunder” with 90mm direct fire and the Allied Armies were overrunning the Reich, up until he put the bullet through his head. Ditto with France and the cult of Napoleon. There is certain % of the population that loves a death cult.
Patricia Kayden
@Chyron HR: Lol!! **snort**
This is who so many of our fellow citizens thought would be a fit President. It’s downright embarrassing.
bupalos
@Hal: For what you’re suggesting he would have had to sit down and read a short summary of the bill and had some inkling what it was about. He wouldn’t do that, I’m not sure he could. He has no idea. And it doesn’t matter, he’s in constant historical revisionism mode. It will turn out he hated this bill all along and totally knew it was going to fail because it was a betrayal of AMERICA FIRST principles. Now who’s up for a round of golf?
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
I think it shows Ryan is weak and not especially bright. Moar iron-pumping photos, stat!
Yarrow
@Elizabelle:
If the healthcare bill goes down, what in the world would he be working on? Oh, wait, there’s probably some Trump business related event over at the government-subsidied Post Office Hotel.
Elizabelle
“It is not about improving the bill anymore.”
The horsetrading has stopped?
Chris
@OGLiberal:
Unfortunately, I would tend to agree.
Major Major Major Major
@Chris: then why would Ryan be begging trump not to make him hold a vote?
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Fuck the fucking NY TImes email alert:
“Paul Ryan Rushed to the White House to Tell President Trump …”
Made me wonder if he will brag later how fast the “rush” was. He is a wonk who is buffed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“I told them I would tweet at them, strong tweets, powerful. They still said no. They’re terrible. We’ll see if the drink tea, maybe, whattaya think of that folks, do they like tea, Russian tea?”
We may have reached a point where this is Brian Blessed’s audition tape for playing trump.
of course trumpy will never fling his wig, that will be his last hold on self-control
Yarrow
I don’t agree with Rick Wilson’s politics, but his #NeverTrump Twitter game is strong:
Patricia Kayden
@SatanicPanic: But at what point does the buck stop with Trump since he holds the highest political office in this country (and arguably, the world)? Attempting to throw the blame on lower-in-the-food-chain politicians won’t look good, even to his supporters. It’s weak.
sukabi
@Fair Economist: didn’t the Kochs put up a $$$fund to support those Gops who vote NO on trumpcare…
TenguPhule
@Yarrow:
Yes.
SatanicPanic
@Yarrow: promise of a job after Ryan gets booted? in Russia, probably.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: That reads as if someone else rushed him to the White House to meet Hair Fuhrer. Sad.
Elizabelle
I could swear Spicer just said some people are “asking why can’t you just do it in one foul swoop.”
On question about any regrets on attempting healthcare legislation first?
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle: “some people are asking” == daddy trump screamed about
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve called every day this week, and I’m not on any MoveOn lists. The ratios I’ve seen, negative vs positive, are huge. I hope there’s some way to get final tallies out there.
I wonder if no-voting R’s want them out to justify themselves.
ETA: looks like COmstock’s a no, maybe eFreylinghousen really was the signal “moderates” were waiting for
TenguPhule
@Patricia Kayden:
Trump can never fail, he can only be failed.
His supporters are unsalvagable. They’ll turn on the rest of America before turning on Trump.
pamelabrown53
@MomSense: #79.
One can only pray that someone has the goods on ZEGS. I’m rooting for a major fallout where neither Trump or Ryan pretend that they’re “working together”. It will only drive the wedge deeper. Plus, IMHO, that wedge will extend to the White House where Pence might be prone to support Ryan and the faux populist “ethno-nationalists” want to move on: they have their version of havoc to reek.
Elizabelle
Fuck the Fucking New York Times’ lede on buff Paul Ryan RUSHING to the White House to inform the president.
Revolt among conservative and moderates. How do we describe those who are not revolting? I guess the Party before Country caucus.
bupalos
@Elizabelle: Hmmm. That’s an interesting way to put things, and I’d like to see how he delivers the “now is it.” Is that like a 4 years “now” or a 4 months “now?”
Elizabelle
@Major Major Major Major: I think you are correct there. LOL.
TenguPhule
Paulie Boy to spill guts to the Intel Committee
Please be on the lookout for Russians with firearms or Polonium in the DC area.
Hoodie
I suspect the “moderates” are really the ones killing the bill, the freedom caucus is just giving them cover. That bill is a death sentence for any GOP rep in a Clinton district. The freedom caucus also wants it to fail for similar reasons – they make hay by bitching about Obamacare, not by actually coming up with a replacement. If that turd passes, they reap the whirlwind too. They kill it with purity demands, which makes it unpalatable to the moderates. Now we’ll just get the tax cuts they really wanted, anyway, without the charade of healthcare reform. The ACA will die from administrative neglect, and they’ll blame Obama.
Redshift
@amk:
I agree; Trump has no concept of procedure or policy, only bullying and “winning.” I suspect he thinks forcing them to vote is a brilliant negotiating tactic, and will make a bunch of them switch to voting for it.
Elizabelle
Ooh, gotta say, that Fuck the Fucking New York Times article only gets better. Next paragraphs:
Because it’s suicidal, you moron fucks.
SatanicPanic
@Patricia Kayden: Short of a miracle, I don’t think there’s anyone on the Republican side who is going to come out of this looking good, besides McConnell, who is awfully quiet right now. Maybe the Freedumb Caucues because at least they stood on principles. So I don’t know if it will work, but what other play does Trump have?
Elizabelle
@Redshift: Whereas, it may be that even more of the Party before Country types change to a NO, if it’s inevitable the bill will fail.
bluehill
From a purely political standpoint, it seems like either outcome would hurt the repubs and cast some doubts in the minds of Obama/Trump dems and moderate repubs. If AHCA defeated, ACA (supposedly) stands and fervent anti-ACA voters po’d. Ryan’s job in jeopardy. Trump goes after repubs that voted no forces them to choose between Ryan or him. If AHCA passes, Trump voters that benefit from ACA and know they would be hurt by AHCA may express displeasure in the mid-terms.
TenguPhule
Pregnant women need to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps, says HFC
The bill is shit, the Republicans solution, add more shit to it.
WaterGirl
@Mike J: I’m going with no on that question.
Elizabelle
@SatanicPanic: Don’t you think the GOP moderates who came out early will look good?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hoodie: I’d love to know what role non-House people are playing, McConnell, Rand Paul, Kasich, McCain/Graham on behalf of Flake and Heller. Lots of wheels within wheels, I suspect. Cruz made noises that made me think he’s already thinking there might be room or reason to be in a primary in 2020. The dog that’s not barking, to me, is Ben Sasse– Paul Ryan 2.0
Lizzy L
The Democratic House members are tallying the phone calls and emails they are getting for/against the AHCA, and using that info to put pressure on their Republican colleagues. Right now the calls are running 35 to 1 AGAINST the bill.(YAY!) So even if your Rep is a Democrat, call his/her office, and let the staffers know how vital you think this issue is. If you can’t get through on the phone — I tried, and got a busy message — send an email. My (D) Congressman, DeSaulnier, is totally opposed to the bill, so I sent him an email to thank him for his opposition.
If they take the vote, and it fails, or if they decide to pull the bill and not vote, T will blame everyone else — Ryan, the Democrats, Obama, Hillary Clinton, the media, the “left”, the House members, everyone. He will take no responsibility at all.
trollhattan
They’ve gone full Nixon, only without the competence portion.
Major Major Major Major
@SatanicPanic: Mitch is fucking teflon.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Wait, all the research I’ve seen shows that women have more stamina than men. Oh, wait, never mind. They don’t care what the research says.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: You know what’s revolting, NYT.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: The thing about teflon, when you put enough pressure on it, it starts to unravel.
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She’s in an actual swing district, so it’s a good sign overall if she’s decided she’s more afraid of non-conservatives energized over the threat of losing coverage than wingnuts energized over breaking the idiotic repeal “promise.”
SFAW
@MomSense:
Were they on Hitlary’s server?
Oh, wait, that server wasn’t hacked, now was it?
zhena gogolia
@Emerald:
You have more self-control than I do. My U.S. reps are all great Democrats, so I don’t need restraint when calling them, but my state senator is a RWNJ, and I lose it when I call his office.
SatanicPanic
@Elizabelle: fair point, they might. At least, relative to everyone else.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
Or the personal warmth/charm.
pamelabrown53
@Aleta: #114.
Possibly. Yet, to me, it’s hard to see how Ryan would continue to kiss Trump’s ass when Trump’s erratic behavior continues to contribute to his downward spiral. It’s a vortex that Ryan can’t escape.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
Turtle’s going nowhere, has fours years left on his term and li’l Rand as his senior senator successor, which is pretty good life insurance. (Stupid Kentucky)
Only way to get at Turtle is take away his senate majority leader jerb.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Everyone and everything Trump touches turns to shit. Anyone willing to smear themselves in his feces deserves every bad thing that happens to them. I can’t wait to see Ryan try to pretend he’s not smeared in Trump feces.
trollhattan
@SFAW:
Good point. Instead of “Sock it to me?” we get Twitler yelling at a truck.
amk
amk
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I love that this happened during SpicyTime!
D58826
keep thinking of Obama when he said that why would we want to give the keys back to the same people that drove the car into the ditch the last time they had them.
didn’t take long
to prove how correct he was.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: So he gets a Polonium tea retirement, in other words?
Major Major Major Major
@amk: so of the two options I’ve felt likely–passing by 2-3 or failing by 40+–we’ll be going the latter route, I guess.
Yarrow
@trollhattan:
Going to war with his own party. That sounds like it’ll end well.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Is it possible that the Republicans are in disarray ?
Elizabelle
If we had President Hillary, this ACA drama would not be going on.
All the MSM GOP knobsuckers would be talking about this week’s investigations of … whatever. If she’d ordered that Yemen raid that got the SEAL killed (Ryan Owens), his face would be on tea towels and tee shirts.
But I will take the GOP immolating, with possible hearings on actual treason coming up. Long due for it.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow: Rooting for mass-murder suicide-bombing by one of their own that kills them all.
amk
@Major Major Major Major: Kinda Pass, I win, Lose, I win, innit?
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
I was thinking more in line of taking the senate in ’18, but whatever floats your boat.
Also, too, Russia thing keeps popping up in the oddest places.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@D58826: to quote Luther’s translation: “Y’all motherfuckers wouldn’t lisss-ssssennnnn!”
Major Major Major Major
@amk: well, it’s the numbers that make it an actual prediction.
amk
Surprising the usual dem bashing troll squad hasn’t turned up yet. putin held back the money?
Doug R
@Hoodie: Change the subject? Is that why they rushed into an unplanned last minute photo op to sign a paper saying the keystone xl can go ahead?
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I thought you were referring to Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible. Caused a bit of headscratching over here.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Wait, former as in a former American who spied on Russia or former as in they worked with a RUSSIAN who spied on Americans?
Kropadope
@amk:
I can sub in if you need a foil.
Turgidson
@Yarrow:
And the hilarious part is that Bannon has been on the record as hating the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver’s guts for years now, so even though Ryan is not going to be on the “opposed TrumpCare” shit list, he’s already on the Bannon shit list as well as soon to be on the “Made Trump Look Bad” shit list.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer fucking fraud and sociopath.
zhena gogolia
@TenguPhule:
Article says, “The job was handed to former KGB agent Gennady Vasilenko, who declined to comment on the matter.”
TenguPhule
@amk: More like they died of natural causes (as being thrown out of a high rise building will naturally cause gravity to kill you). Putin seems to be cleaning up as many loose ends as he can as the whole thing looks to blow.
Redshift
@Yarrow:
They still haven’t figured out that Trump doesn’t have a party. He has people who serve his whims, and enemies who must suffer his vengeance. Of course, he’s pretty incompetent at vengeance, too, but he doesn’t know that.
Can’t remember who it was I heard yesterday proposing the best defense against Trump’s promises at the meeting yesterday to campaign against anyone who doesn’t go along and make sure they lose: ask him “what’s my name? what state and district am I from?” Chances are he doesn’t know either, which makes the threat somewhat hollow. (Yes, Bannon could undoubtedly look up the “no” votes, but then he’s the one deciding who should be undermined, not Trump.)
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well done!
I would like to see Luther come back, even though we don’t have Barack anymore.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: Hey, thanks for watching what others won’t, and folks like me can’t.
Comedy in near-real-time.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
I take it to mean the latter although one could read it either way. Vlad’s a “former Russian spy” so they seem to do pretty well in retirement.
moops
@Redshift: Trump cannot imagine that being on Trump’s shitlist could be an electoral advantage. That it could be to their advantage has not even entered into his imagination. They get to claim the long missing Moderate Republican title merely by opposing Trump on a few madly unpopular and reckless bills. His coming out to campaign against them could be a wash if Trump continues to poll down in the gutter. If they think they have enough powder to hold up to a primary challenge, then they are safe and opposing Trump in Clinton districts is a lock to get re-elected. They get re-elected and let low-information voters from 2016 express their buyer’s remorse.
TenguPhule
@zhena gogolia:
JFC, I can’t…I mean….WTF.
WaterGirl
@Doug R: Can I just say that if President Obama had just signed an executive order related to gay rights that the world would be a very different place right now.
marcion
In-jur-ies! In-jur-ies! Let’s root for GOP in-jur-ies!
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
From a few articles I’ve read, the savvy Villagers seem to think he will put it up for a vote ASAP, with no time for amendments, etc. because he knows it will fail in the Senate and he just wants to move on to more important (to him) stuff like gigantic, humongous tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
TenguPhule
@marcion: Casualties. Root for Casualties.
Injuries let them off too lightly.
amk
@moops: Yup, I never believed tripe about twitler’s teflon coating and he has been spending his small political capital at a reckless speed. If this goes down, his wet dream of tax cuts for his billionaire pals will also be a non-starter most likely.
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
I think you are very bigly correct here.
@Redshift:
Yep. This is Trump’s secret vulnerability, at least for now.
Redshift
@Hoodie:
Except the whole reason they did healthcare first was to lower the baseline by cutting the Obamacare tax increases, so the cuts in their tax “reform” bill would go from that baseline, lowering them to the point that they could go through reconciliation. If they don’t have that cut first (and the corresponding cuts in spending), they either have to scale down the other tax cuts or be subject to a filibuster.
(And unsurprisingly 45 doesn’t understand any of this, since he keeps talking about how he wanted to do taxes first.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: I do think Martin Luther coined the term “motherfucker”, in middle German, but I was thinking of this.
.
amk
Miss Bianca
@TenguPhule: “The agency worked with a former Russian spy to hunt for information that would show conflicts of interest between Clinton’s role as Secretary of State and her interests as a private citizen and leader of the Clinton Foundation.”
Yeah, let’s let that sink in for a moment. The RNC hooked up with a guy who works with the Russians to…investigate HILLARY’S alleged “conflicts of interests”?
“Yeah, sounds like a good idea! What could possibly go wrong with THIS scenario?”!
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: injuries are casualties.
Kropadope
@amk:
Typical borrow and squander Republican.
Elizabelle
@amk: Next month is the big scientists march/Earth Day.
I don’t see why we can’t have people out in the street every month for something. The last thing America needs is more tax cuts for the wealthy. We could make that a nonstarter.
amk
amk
@Kropadope: LOL. Indeed.
randy khan
@Major Major Major Major:
Fingers crossed, but it’s beginning to look that way. So far as I can tell, not one of the undecideds from yesterday has moved to yes, and several have moved to no.
Peale
@amk: Yeah. Trump is more efficient.
amk
amk
amk
The whole tweet thread (?) nails the pos zegs mercilessly.
amk
@Elizabelle: I think there is already a big scientists march in the works, but not sure it’s on that day.
Ruckus
@Turgidson:
Little paulie doesn’t have the balls to get everyone to fall in line. While drumpf might be mentally a 5 or 6 yr old, paulie is around 10-11. He has an idea how to throw a tantrum but not a good one and that isn’t what is required to get one’s way in a crowd as deranged as the republican side of the house in any event. The hard right is not scared of him, he holds little power over them for he has little to nothing to offer them. In the past some of the dems might deflect but I’d bet they’ve been told that if they do they will be primaried and face a massively costly run.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So glad somebody known played the Eddie Haskell card (for you younglings, it means something to those of us who remember when Walkmans were a miracle technology). If only Chuck and Cokie could see through the schtick like Ward and June did.
satby
@LAO: shared that pic on the Indivisible South Bend FB page. Good encouragement!
moops
@amk:
Tax cuts for the wealthy are not controversial in the GOP. The party will unite just fine. It will be up the Dems to hold together and filibuster against a tax cut. Not easy. If AHCA had passed, then they could force through a tax cut under reconciliation. If this dies, then there is no free money on the table.
McConnell can deliver the Senate on a tax cut eventually, and the GOP house will unite to put it through. They thought a mad fearful rush on AHCA would give them buckets of money to hand out. They miscalculated.
It would have been better to push through huge tax cuts, then make up fantasies about the Yuge growth that would happen (while shutting down the CBO) then suddenly turn tune and become major deficit hawks to push through cruel cuts in the safety net. Health Care being just one of Ryan’s desired ways to injure the unfortunate. They could go after lots of social programs. They still will. But Trump is not likely to have a useful threat. The Party doesn’t need Trump. If Trump makes an actual enemies list then a special prosecutor is going to be named to look into election influence from foreign powers.
Redshift
@amk:
It’s definitely that day; April 22.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Depends on the severity. I’d rather not leave that to chance.
D58826
from cnn
or whose knife will have the finger prints
I must be in a largely D area becasue my super market is trotally out of popcorn. Heck they don’t even have beer and chips. Looks like the bread/milk shevles before a snowstorm :-) :-)
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/politics/trump-health-care-latest/index.html
Fair Economist
@amk:
Probably busy trolling right-wing sites, given all the dissent on the right over TrumpDoesn’tCare.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
On entering the White House: “Goodness Melania, those are fetching pearls! Is Donald about?”
On encountering Pence: “Hey fuckface, where’s Donny, banging another keno girl? Now get lost, twerp!”
On encountering Trump: “Mister President, what a wonderful surprise! I must say, your brilliant plan is coming together amazingly well!”
OGLiberal
@SatanicPanic: Oh, yes…no doubt. And his cult followers will believe him, quickly forgetting that after initial passage he call is the greatest thing since Trump Steaks. He’ll also blame Obama but that’s par for the course.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: You do an excellent Eddie Haskel!!!
edit: I might just have to go to the tv machine and see if there is an episode of leave it to beaver coming up.
Major Major Major Major
@moops:
Russia has Republicans’ emails.
hovercraft
Aww poor baby.
Keep calling make them know that there will be consequences.
JMG
If there is a vote, the Republicans who’ve said they’re voting “no” will hate Trump very much. Either they’ll be on record opposing a President who’s still popular with Republicans (although could change by Nov. 2018) or they switch their votes and look like total four-flushers just to get the bill to the Senate where it might not pass, or worse, it does.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
A super power I don’t take lightly. Use it unwisely and people can be harmed. Plus it frightens the dog.
germy
@hovercraft:
There are people calling hourly in support of the bill? Is it one person disguising his voice?
amk
@D58826: shitweasel vs shitler – who will win in passing the buck?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Oh well, never mind.
MSNBC reporting:
amk
beebs fp
Knife-edge vote looms for ‘Trumpcare’.
Love it they call it tcare under scare quotes.
Major Major Major Major
@JMG: if there’s a vote the No’s will probably find themselves with a lot of company.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
“Traitorous, stupid and mendacious is no way to go through life, son”
debit
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Is Nunes the stupidest man on the face of the earth? Rhetorical question is rhetorical.
Elizabelle
@JMG: This bill is popular with 17% of the American public.
Even in a redhot red district, that is still a lot of opposition. I do not understand the appeal of voting for a losing proposition.
amk
schrodingers_cat
@JMG: I hope you are getting paid for the relentless R cheer leading.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mike J: and @Major Major Major Major:
I say this a lot, but it’s a big deal: Even Hastert didn’t USE the friggin’ Hastert Rule much. And the one he talked about was way less draconian than what they’re using now. This was Boehner’s turd, and if he hadn’t been so obsessed with obstructing Obama and Pelosi, the ‘Freedom Caucus’ would have had no power over him. Ryan is just too stupid to not keep up what he was handed.
JMG
@Major Major Major Major: Probably. And everyone in the caucus, yeses and noes alike, will have good reason to hate Ryan for being such a wuss as to not pull the bill just because he’s ascared of Trump.
amk
@JMG: The trend is against all your past & present assertions.
Elizabelle
@hovercraft:
The English. It burns.
bemused
@Brachiator:
Trump does have a party, the Trumpitarian Party.
patroclus
Man, I hope the reports are right and this excrement sandwich goes down. Lives are literally depending on it.
JMG
@schrodingers_cat: It’s not cheerleading to say those Rs are in a cleft stick. It’s just analysis of their position. Tough to win at any competition if you don’t study your opponent.
hovercraft
@germy:
No they are calling hourly to make sure that he still opposes the bill. They may be South Jersey hicks but they aren’t that dumb! Well maybe they are. they think that ZEGS can twist his arm enough to switch to a yes.
amk
@bemused: which is basically a shrinking rump now.
Elizabelle
@JMG: Do you live in a Trump-happy area? Am wondering if it’s skewing your perceptions.
You’re a frequent commenter, with a lot of good observations, so I don’t get the Eeyore schtick.
schrodingers_cat
@JMG: You have been asserting that they have already won. In every single comment, that I have come across.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
what on earth is Comey doing at the White House now? Getting fired?
amk
mebbe twitler wants comey to arrest zegs, like RIGHT NOW, DAMMIT?
Steeplejack (tablet)
@WaterGirl:
Two episodes coming up Monday morning on third-tier cable channel MeTV.
OGLiberal
@debit: Somebody I know had two theories to explain Nunes’ inexplicable act – 1) he’s Trumps lapdog and, as part of the transition, may have been on the monitored calls or knew about others who were or 2) wants nothing to do with this whole shitshow and figures that doing what he did will give him an easy out to recuse himself, even though he’s committee chair.
Or, he could just be stupid.
hovercraft
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
Doesn’t matter, Twitler and his hordes got what they wanted, someone to validate his fever dreams. Now those impolite foreign journos ask rude questions, he has “proof” he was spied on, the head of the House IC said so. Nunes can’t un-ring that bell, who knows, there are still hundreds of positions open, maybe he’ll get to fill one.
amk
ooops, there goes the veep trump card.
Major Major Major Major
@Frankensteinbeck: that is all very true, thanks for the clarification.
Elizabelle
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Jebus. This is a reality show.
Maybe he’s being replaced with Judge Napolitano, since that shitweasel is (temporarily) pulled off Fox News.
amk
exactly.
GregB
Nunes has been running a ratfucking operation for the White House from day one.
That the three goons, Stone, Page and Manafort are all coming out in unison to appear before Congress sounds like a cock up.
Now we find out if Comey is in the tank for Trump.
Kropadope
@amk:
Is it too much to hope that he’s there to arrest Hair Furor?
@OGLiberal:
Perhaps all of them, Katie!!!
germy
@hovercraft:
I thought he meant the callers were trying to armtwist him into a yes vote.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Elizabelle:
Giuliani would replace him. What the everloving fuck would happen next?
bemused
@amk:
Ha!
Elizabelle
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Gag.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
But that’s just fake research.
bemused
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Haven’t seen wizened troll Rudy in the msm for awhile, not since he got so much attention for saying Trump called him asking how to do a Muslim ban. Prison is where I’d like to see him.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: It was so good I had to save it in a spot where I can read it again later!
amk
dunno if it’s a maddowesque hype. we will see.
Corner Stone
About the only thing MSNBC has done right recently is to have markedly less Hugh Hewitt on their air. Now that we are at sub-Nixonian levels of deceit, lying and treason they needed someone who could without fail fluff this WH and the GOP leadership. ENTER: Hugh Hewitt!
hovercraft
@amk:
But I thought that Dense was going to show Uncle Joe how to do it right, Joe couldn’t get the republicans to play ball with Obama and his socialist agenda, but Dense was an experienced good guy who would not only unite the republican with the White House, but also get some democrats to play ball. What happened, now he can’t even get republicans to stick with Twitler and ZEGS? But ZEGS and him are such good friends, so simpatico!
trollhattan
@GregB:
Possibly related.
jonas
Never say never, I suppose, but I think you can put a fork in the AHCA — it’s done. The no votes are firming up and it’s not even going to be close. I think they’ll just pull it.
TenguPhule
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Getting their alibis straight. Russian agents, the lot of them.
amk
tobie
@GregB: Agreed. Nunes is as straight as a corkscrew. But he’s also dumb, and he’s starting to come apart at the seams. What Comey is up to is anyone’s guess. Adam Schiff is sharp as a tack and is watching all of this carefully. That’s the most reassuring thing I can think of at the moment.
Corner Stone
@debit:
Well, since you asked…
Nunes must be in some hole so fucking deep that light can’t escape it. The poor bastard is getting hit in the face by the batwing doors coming and going. At this point it is professional malpractice by his staff to allow him in public or fer god’s sake in front of a microphone.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Aw shucks [stares at shoetops]. My you’re looking nice today, is that a new hairstyle?
amk
yup, conning and moving on ain’t gonna gititdone any more, donnie.
Yarrow
@Redshift:
Trump is a Republican. The Republican party nominated him for president. They had a big convention to do it and everything. He’s a Republican. He’s the leader of the Republican party. They are one and the same. Never let anyone forget it.
D58826
@debit: might be but in the GOP caucus there is a lot of very high grade (low grade??) competition. but in the world he still has to beat out the dumbest man on the internet
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (tablet): Wow, I can’t decide if I want to watch the one where Beaver learns that Miss Landers is engaged or the one where he tries to take his freckles off with sandpaper.
I’ve scheduled both!
P.S. Have you not checked your email lately or are you studiously not replying to my messages? :-)
Frankensteinbeck
@jonas:
I hope. I really want this to die. If it does, they’re stuck having to overcome a Senate filibuster, and that ain’t happening. I wish I could trust that it’s dead, but I’ve learned painfully that probabilities are probabilities, and even a 5% chance of everything going to Hell can come back and bite you. It LOOKS like it will die.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Mnemosyne:
They forced the Obamas to remove the playground they’d installed for their girls before they left.
It’s not like Trump has any kids (at least living the White House) who would love to have their own playground….
moops
Comey at WH is probably because Manafort volunteered to appear in front of the House and Senate intelligence committees today. Whether planned or a surprise, Trump needs to take this seriously.
schrodingers_cat
@Kropadope: तुम्हारे मुंहमें घी शक्कर *
*Ghee and sugar in your mouth (I wish what you say comes true)
Corner Stone
I know that according to some here we are supposed to stand behind TRMS thick or thin but she really damaged her credibility with the way she handled that situation.
WaterGirl
@amk:
This may, indeed, be everything Trump has. In every possible way, Trump is a weakling.
bupalos
Alright! My rep David Joyce flips to no. Kind of had a feeling with how fast they were picking up the phone. That’s a canary in the coal mine there too, if he’s jumping I don’t think this thing is going to be terribly close. I’m going to say 30-40 defectors in the end.
hovercraft
Fox’s Stuart Varney Loses His S**t: ‘The Republican Party Is A Disgrace’
By John Amato
Fox Business’ Stuart Varney, the acerbic host who usually saves his acid tongue for Obama and the Democrats, instead railed against the entire Republican establishment for refusing to pass the AHCA bill today, which he believes puts their entire agenda in jeopardy.
He opened his show with a blistering argument with Rep. Louis Gohmert, who is part of the Freedom Caucus and remains a no vote.
He then sparred with Freedom Caucus lover Charles Payne, who believes that if the bill should go down in flames, it’s no big deal.
Varney said, “Do you not think this is a political cat astrophe for the Republican Party? – and the very first thing that comes up for a vote, they lose? They’re not unified, they lose. We’re playing politics here. It is not aquestion whether it’s a good bill or a bad bill, This is political reality. Pass this thing and govern.”
Interesting definition of “governing” you got there, Stuart.
Payne used the standard trope that since Trump is not a politician, nobody cares if he’s not successful with this bill. And what matters is long-term success for the Republicans (which on Varney’s program means tax cuts for the rich, every day, all day.)
Even though Trump has embraced this bill and the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan is being used as the scapegoat if it fails. Payne said, “I really wish Paul Ryan wasn’t in charge of it from the very beginning. that is where they blew it.”
Varney then brought on Juan Williams and opened up with a vicious monologue, “I personally believe that at this moment in time the Republican party is a disgrace. I’m serious. I am serious.”
“We elected the Republicans to run the House, the Senate and the White House and the very, very first thing that comes up on the legislative agenda they vote no, they’re split. They can’t do it. they can’t govern. I am really fit to be tied. Go ahead, have fun. ” he said.
Juan Williams was very happy indeed, “Well, I don’t want to have fun at your expense. I see you fussing with Louie Gohmert and Charles Payne. I think you’re in pain. I think you’re having a tough moment.”
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: Another of those Brits that MSM loves so much.
TenguPhule
@hovercraft:
In light of Varney’s freudian slip, I am amendable to seeing he is strangled to death first before being staked out and set on fire.
Corner Stone
Awww, poor man baby POTUS. He-uhns didna wanna do anything about health care! Precious wanted something sexy first like that tax care stuff! But they made him! They-uhns tricked man baby POTUS!
moops
@Yarrow: Party unity is more a function of the Speaker and the Whip. Has the House Whip even made an appearance? political threats are supposed to come from the Whip when they are from your own party. Does Trump even know this, or anyone in the WH?
Elizabelle
@hovercraft: Another psychopath heard from.
Fox News has too much to answer for.
Fresh thread? The final countdown?
amk
TenguPhule
@moops:
No. This has been another edition of SATSQ.
MCA1
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: The leaks would turn from a steady drip to a cascade. We’d have tapes of actual surveillance released, I’d bet. Oh, and Drumpf’s approval ratings would crash through the 30’s and into 27% territory, because firing Comey would be an obvious admission of guilt/obstruction of justice for anyone not in the cult.
TenguPhule
@MCA1:
That wouldn’t worry me as much as the possibility that Comey is leaking information to Trump like Nunes.
When the deep Russian agents are forced to blow their cover, shits gonna get real.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@MCA1:
Louise Mensch believes he’s going to be the hero in all this. I just can’t suss out his role in all this at all.
amk
tbogg unit?
Frankensteinbeck
@Yarrow:
The Republican Party’s voters preferred him over all other candidates, and he got their votes just fine in the general. He is what they want. They’re the party of Your Racist Uncle, and they support stupidity, cruelty, and minority-blaming conspiracy theories. That’s who they are, voters and most of the elected figures. Shoveling everything to the rich was just riding the back of that tiger.
Yarrow
Turned on CNN out of curiosity. A reporter at the White House said he wanted to do other priorities like tax cuts but, “It was explained to him [Trump] that healthcare had to go first.” It was explained to him? He really has no idea how the government works.
rikyrah
I tallied up calls to my office about #TrumpCare, the Republican ACA repeal plan:
217 support Trumpcare
3298 oppose it
That’s 93% opposed.
— David E. Price (@RepDavidEPrice) March 23, 2017
For the record, I’ve received:
1,241 calls, emails, and letters asking me to oppose Trumpcare
1 call asking me to support it.
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) March 23, 2017
amk
via beebs
These fuckers went head in first.
Corner Stone
This continued belief in our institutions still amazes me. They are not failing us. They have failed.
Unless Comey perp walks people out of the WH we’re in for a long hard ride.
germy
Serious analysis from WaPoJay C
@TenguPhule:
“Oh, look! I got a present! A bottle of “Polonium” vodka! That means it’s from Poland, right???”
Ruckus
@Redshift:
You can think that in the traditional sense but it’s wrong in the current climate. He got a much bigger turnout than was expected by most. What he doesn’t have is any political expertise. He won because he appealed to enough people to form a political party out of the conservative side of the aisle. He sucks partially because he isn’t a politician, he’s a blowhard, self aggrandizing, shithead who got enough of the people in enough places to vote for him to win an election. He may have cheated, lied, colluded with a foreign power, to do it, but he did win. That’s a political party. That he can’t actually do the job at all was and is readily fucking apparent, but it is still his job now.
He appealed to the rabid conservatives and he got enough of the rest of the conservative voters to roll over and give him the republican party. That he is not getting all of the conservative members of the house and senate to love him will tear him up, but that comes from his being himself. At some point, apparently very early on in his term, he is going to piss off a good portion of the people, including some of those that voted for him, by doing what he does, try to get everyone to worship him rather than even attempt to actually do the job he asked for.
Corner Stone
James Comey has one chance to actually live up to the hero self-image he holds of himself. Orange jumpsuits for the orange one, his family and his entire WH. Perp.Walk.
amk
the original orange man is loving this shitshow from sidelines.
Frankensteinbeck
@amk:
What backroom discussion would there be? This bill is Ryan’s wish list. Gut medicaid in a way that sounds technical and smartified, and pass a giant tax cut for the rich. Oh, and slash a lot of regulations to ensure corporations can fuck their most vulnerable customers over, hard. If he doesn’t get this, he doesn’t want anything else.
bupalos
@Hoodie: How they gunna do tax cuts without a deficit-positive CBO report?
Elizabelle
@germy: Great. Does that now mean Trump is going to see that House members do not get their pay? Or he just stiffs those who performed the agreed upon duties.
Boo! I’m so skeered.
Chris
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
I bet if the playground had included a toy truck Trump would’ve let it stay.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone: Comey is forever doomed to never find his moral compass.
Brachiator
Was there a news report that a vote is coming at 3:30 ET?
hovercraft
@germy:
So he still hasn’t figured out that contractors report to either their shareholders, who just want to make money, and “conservatives” report to people who just want the opportunity to stay alive?
All rightie Twitler, this is a very sound strategy, I think you should totally stick to your guns, tell them it’s your way or the highway. Show your fans how tough you are, make a list of the no’s and campaign against them.
You are such a strong leader, keep it up!!
The Moar You Know
@Jay C: Sure does, let’s slam that shit. You drink first.
Gretchen
Tried to call. My rep isn’t answering his phone. It rang and rang and rang.
randy khan
@hovercraft:
That was me. I apologize to the Congressman, but I did try to restrain myself a bit and didn’t call every 30 minutes.
By the way, he has a lousy answering system on his phones, both in D.C. and in South Jersey.
Ruckus
@TenguPhule:
Comey has a moral compass. Of course it’s broken and spins at 10,000 rpm rather than point him in any realistic moral direction but he does have one.
randy khan
@amk:
I dunno. It sounds like Trump put everything *he* could put into, with that short attention span and all. Heck, he even threatened members of his own party.
rikyrah
@tobie:
His business partners have TIES TO PUTIN.
dogwood
@Chris:
The Obama play set was donated to a local daycare center with a nice plaque attached. I doubt the Obama girls even used it the last 6 years; kids grow up. I don’t think it should have remained on the WH grounds since it was a family thing not some permanent fixture like Jackie’s rose garden or Michelle’s vegetable garden.
hovercraft
@Ruckus:
His “party” is starting to unravel.
glory b
I posted above, Ryan leaving the capitol to tell the white house he doesn’t have enough votes to pass the health care bill, per the NYT.
Corner Stone
Somebody just got FUCKING ROASTED!!
Steve in the ATL
@Corner Stone:
And then someone perp walks Comey out of FBI HQ
hovercraft
@randy khan:
Good for you, I called Frank Pallone to thank him, his interns were happy and I’m sure a lot less stressed, see what happens when you do the right thing?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@glory b:
This day is why they hid the bill at first, then told everyone they just had to vote on it right away, sight unseen, before the resistance to it got organized, and rolling. There aren’t enough bad things in the world to happen to that smug psychopath.
randy khan
WTOP (DC news radio) is reporting that the bill has been pulled.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: perp walks all the way down.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Vote got pulled. LMAO
Elizabelle
Won a battle in a long, long war.
Ruckus
@hovercraft:
Of course it is. He is a blowhard, shitheaded asshole. Always has been. It’s why he appealed to the people he did. It’s that they are finding out what it’s like to have to live with themselves that hurts them the most. (And it is undeniable that drumpf will never, ever learn that.) They are assholes too. This was their shot to be assholes in front of everyone. But when the shit hits the fan, they get hit as well, and they get to find out that isn’t all that nice. They thought their shit didn’t stink and they found out that it really does.