Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Bark louder, little dog.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Not all heroes wear capes.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Come on, man.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

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Because I am not a naturally nice person myself, I fear a lot of the “If Trumpcare passes, here’s a person who will suffer and probably die” narratives simply don’t work on Republican voters. Too many people, even the people you know and sometimes love, look at those sad tales and think: Here’s a worthless meatbag gobbling up my tax dollars, and I’ll never get so much as a THANKS SUCKER in return. Yes, that’s a terrible and selfish response, but spoiler: A great many people are terrible and selfish, when they’re sure nobody’s watching!

On the other hand, those sad narratives are for sure energizing for the rest of us, those who possess the basics of human empathy (even if it took us years of grim practice to learn). Just be sure you know your audience. Some people want to save the baby ducks. Others just want not to lose their own personal jobs / relatives / lives — and if they can be convinced saving the baby ducks is what it takes, they’ll be out there collecting armloads of fluffy little peepers…

Mr. Charles P. Pierce:

… Unless there’s a procedural snag of which I’m not aware, I don’t know why the Senate majority wouldn’t punt this until August, and do so at the last minute. The accelerated schedule is insane; even Republican senators are complaining about it. It would give them more time to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, which Sean Spicer threatened to do in today’s audio-only daily briefing. (Jesus, people. Just turn the cameras on and see what happens.) It would give them another month to make the cosmetic changes necessary for the “dissenters” to come around. It would give them the fig leaf of a “process” they could cite.

Of course, it also would give the opposition a month to increase its already formidable momentum. Tough call for McConnell, but that’s why he gets the big money.

McConnell needs to ram this monster through while he can, before enough sheep GOP senators get spooked at the thought of having to defend their vote to their voters.

Apart from facing down the haters, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Because I am not a naturally nice self-delusional person myself, I fear a lot of the “If Trumpcare passes, here’s a person who will suffer and probably die” narratives simply don’t work on Republican voters.

    Fixed.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    audio-only daily briefing. (Jesus, people. Just turn the cameras on and see what happens.)

    This is their karma for bitching about Hillary’s press conferences.

  7. 7.

    Derelict

    Oh, this bill will pass. Susan Collins and the rest of the moderates will wring their hands about how their consciences are torn by the thought of millions losing their insurance. And then she and they will vote for it because nobody SHE knows will suffer because of it.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “If Trumpcare passes, here’s a person who will suffer and probably die” narratives simply don’t work on Republican voters.

    Because only those people will die make it a feature, not a bug

  10. 10.

    Mustang Bobby

    2010: Democrats lose control of Congress for making healthcare available to 20+ million people.
    2018: Republicans keep control of Congress for taking healthcare insurance away from 22+ million people?

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly: Thank dog. I hope he stays a no.

    @Derelict: Please don’t be such a surrender monkey. It’s very possible some of the GOP senators are aware voting for it could endanger THEIR careers.

    #No Eeyores, people. Stop this shit.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Guardian is on Jay Sekulow’s trail: Trump lawyer’s firm steered millions in donations to family members, files show

    He founded Case in 1988 to build on a successful appearance at the US supreme court on behalf of the group Jews For Jesus, after an earlier career as a real estate attorney ended in bankruptcy and legal disputes. Sekulow has gone on to use Case as a platform for legal action to defend Christians against perceived encroachments on their rights.
    Case raises tens of millions of dollars a year, much of it in small amounts from Christians who receive direct appeals for money over the telephone or in the mail. The telemarketing contracts obtained by the Guardian show how fundraisers were instructed by Sekulow to deliver bleak warnings about topics including abortion, Sharia law and Barack Obama.
    ….
    Sekulow has assured supporters that his organization “does not charge” for its services. “We are dependent on God and the resources He provides through the gifts of people who share our vision,” he wrote in a letter sent to contributors.
    For years, the nonprofits have made a notable amount of payments to Sekulow and his family, which were first reported by Law.com. Since 2000, a law firm co-owned by Sekulow, the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, has been paid more than $25m by the nonprofits for legal services. During the same period, Sekulow’s company Regency Productions, which produces his talk radio show, was paid $11.3m for production services.
    Sekulow also personally received other compensation totalling $3.3m. Pam Sekulow, his wife, has been paid more than $1.2m in compensation for serving as treasurer and secretary of Case.
    Sekulow’s brother, Gary, the chief operating officer of the nonprofits, has been paid $9.2m in salary and benefits by them since 2000. Gary Sekulow has stated in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings that he works 40 hours per week – the equivalent of a full-time job – for each of the nonprofits. Filers are told to specify if any of the hours were spent on work for “related organizations”. He does not.
    Meanwhile, a company run by Gary’s wife, Kim Sekulow, has received $6.2m since 2000 in fees for media production services and for the lease of a private jet, which it owned jointly with Jay Sekulow’s company Regency Productions. The jet was made available for the use of Jay and Pam Sekulow, according to corporate filings.
    Jay’s two sons, and Gary’s son and daughter, have also shared at least $1.7m in compensation for work done for the nonprofits since 2000.

    There’s more, lot’s more:

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Jolly is our local “reasonable Republican.” Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist turned him out of his seat. In my most Pollyanna-ish vision of the future, a Trump-decimated Republican Party would arise from the ashes with folks like Jolly.

  16. 16.

    NobodySpecial

    @Derelict: There’s at least five solid no’s this minute, if you add Johnson. It’s looking more and more like a burning tire around the GOP neck. Quit doing the enemy’s work for them.

  19. 19.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    By Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker June 23

    President Trump has a new morning ritual. Around 6:30 a.m. on many days — before all the network news shows have come on the air — he gets on the phone with a member of his outside legal team to chew over all things Russia.

    The calls — detailed by three senior White House officials

    Innocent people always contact their defense team, every day, to start the morning – amirite

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    I’m out of here. If you guys want to wallow in cynicism while we still have time before the Senate vote, have at it. I have no appetite for this.

    Jesus, even David Fucking Brooks has woken up: The G.O.P. Rejects Conservatism

    Worse, this bill takes all of the devastating trends afflicting the middle and working classes — all the instability, all the struggle and pain — and it makes them worse. As the C.B.O. indicated, the Senate plan would throw 22 million people off the insurance roles. It would send them to private insurance plans that they could not afford to buy. Under the Senate bill, deductibles for poor families would be more than half of their annual income. The plans are so incompetently and cruelly designed that as the C.B.O. put it, “few low-income people would purchase any plan.”

    This is not a conservative vision of American society. It’s a vision rendered cruel by its obliviousness.

    The “moderate” Senators and others are going to have no political cover. They might not give a flip about their human constituents, but they are into self-preservation. Their Republican whisperer is distancing himself from this bill.

  21. 21.

    NorthLeft12

    A great many people are terrible and selfish, when they’re sure nobody’s watching!

    Anne, I have to strongly disagree with this ^^^!
    My experience is the exact opposite. Most, and I mean most people, want to do the right thing, and on their own will usually do it. It is when they are in a group of people that the worst seems to come out. I am as cynical as anyone, and have a very low opinion of the intelligence and empathy levels of the average human being, but normally in a face to face contact people will show kindness and extend charity.
    Don’t ask me why they vote Republican though, because I am a Canadian socialist and could not conceive of supporting anyone who tries to identify as a centrist or moderate.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly: More:

    In addition to receiving payments for salaries and contracts, the Sekulows have also entered into a series of unusual financial agreements and property deals with their own nonprofits.
    In one arrangement, Case paid a company owned by Jay Sekulow to sublet office space from 1998 to 2002. The location was not publicly identified but in corporate filings during that period both Case and the company cited the same suite in an industrial park in Lawrenceville, Georgia, as their headquarters.
    Case said in a government filing that the sublet deal was “based on fair market rate”. The then owners of the building told the Guardian that Sekulow’s company paid them $7,700 per month to rent the space, totalling $462,000 for the entire five-year lease. But previously unreported Case accounts say the nonprofit paid Sekulow’s company more than $700,000 for the sublet, attributing some of this total to telephone and utility bills.
    …..
    In another deal, Sekulow’s wife Pam, Case’s treasurer and secretary, bought a “retreat property” in North Carolina from Case in 1998 with help from a $245,000 loan out of the nonprofit’s funds. The Case board, controlled by her family, then decided to forgive $217,742 of what Pam owed and count this as compensation, the previously unreported accounts say.
    Having taken control of the property, the Sekulows then remortgaged it at market value, and continue to own it today. Case said in the accounts that the house sale to Pam Sekulow “represented estimated fair market value”.
    Case separately loaned Jay Sekulow $209,968 in 1999. Over the following years, the Case board voted to forgive $211,305 of the loan and interest payments – more than the original amount Sekulow had borrowed – and classify all this as compensation.
    ……
    In 2004, the Case board also wrote off $769,143 that it was owed by Amerivision, an Oklahoma-based firm selling telephone services where Jay Sekulow was a director. Amerivision had recently declared bankruptcy. Despite suffering such a loss from the relationship, Case lent Amerivision another $187,500 in 2005. The Case board further agreed to accept “donated equipment” from a production company owned by Sekulow instead of the $43,402 that company owed the nonprofit.
    The Sekulows also received assistance from Case in their accommodation. A townhouse in Washington bought by Case with $1.5m in contributions from its supporters has been used as a residence by Sekulow’s son Jordan, who is a director of the nonprofit. Jordan and his wife remain registered to vote at the property.
    For several years, Case leased yet another property it owned to Jay Sekulow’s parents. Case accounts said Sekulow’s parents paid the nonprofit $1,550 per month to rent the unidentified house, based on an estimate of “fair market rates”.

    Who needs a gold mine when there are Christians?

  24. 24.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Benjamin Wittes‏ @benjaminwittes

    tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

    580 replies 1,772 retweets 6,293 likes

    Benjamin Wittes @benjaminwittes

    3 things:
    1) Not all ticks are related to Comey.
    2) Fuse length remains uncertain.
    3) Interesting preemptive defense of collusion happening.

    430 replies 2,351 retweets 6,227 likes

    Wittes‏ is Comey’s sidekick. He’s obviously signaling something BIG is about to explode on collusion.

    Which would explain Rod Rosenstein’s odd statement 12 days ago calling on the public not to believe pending articles based on foreign intelligence services, the sudden recall of the Russian Ambassador, Trump’s flacks switching from “there’s no collusion” to “collusion wouldn’t be bad”, and now Trump openly denying there are any tapes.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    If Trumpcare passes, here’s a person who will suffer and probably die”

    I don’t think it will be covered like that locally. They’ll go to health care facilities- providers. We have a local daily newspaper and I know that’s what they’ll do. The hospital will be harmed and so will the two walk-in clinics. As many people as are on Medicaid here I think it closes the walk-in clinics. They only popped up since Medicaid expansion. It’s shaken out here to be that people with private insurance go to the medical group and people with Medicaid go to one of the two clinics. I know some of the people with Medicaid don’t go to the medical group because they can’t- they owe the medical group money from before they had Medicaid.

    I’ve been calling my Senator but I don’t feel sorry for the adults who will lose care. They had this. It wasn’t a theory. Obama expanded Medicaid. They either voted for Trump or didn’t care enough to vote, because Trump took 70% in this county and now they will lose it. If “Trump that Bitch” and “lock her up” was more important to them than care for their chronic heart disease and high blood pressure and diabetes and all the rest, then no one can help them.

    I do feel sorry for their children. Their parents make 10 dollars and hour and can’t afford health care and that’s not the fault of their children. Schools will lose a lot under this. Schools get Medicaid funding because schools are mandated to provide services for children with disabilities who need them. Trump was already cutting a billion from public schools. This is another cut.

  26. 26.

    ArchTeryx

    Look, I’m the biggest Eeyore there is on this, and even *I’ve* dropped the act and have converted to full battle mode. Right now the bill is stalled. Stalled doesn’t mean “dead” as we learned with the House, but it does mean that Senators are feeling the heat in a serious way, enough to blunt McConnell’s momentum. And who knows? Maybe one or two of the Monster Caucus is actually getting queasy at the idea of mass murder directed at their *own f*cking consitutents*.

    So bring blowtorches and turn up the heat in a BIG way. I know I’m calling Schumer and Gillibrand today to thank them for fighting this battle.

  27. 27.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    John Schindler @20committee 20h20 hours ago

    Trusted member of Trump’s inner circle has told family & friends that he knows both he & POTUS are going to prison.

    1,224 replies 4,020 retweets 9,359 likes

    John Schindler @20committee 20h20 hours ago

    Remember when I said our Foreign Intel partners know everything about Trump?

    Yeah, that.

  28. 28.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Here’s what Donald Trump tweeted today: “The real story is that President Obama did NOTHING after being informed in August about Russian meddling. With 4 months looking at Russia under a magnifying glass, they have zero “tapes” of T people colluding. There is no collusion & no obstruction. I should be given apology!” (link).

    In other words, he knows there are tapes, he knows they’re going to leak eventually – in his haste to counter those tapes, he just admitted there are tapes.

    This is a remarkable development because, while Palmer Report has been bringing you various reports for months of insider sources claiming there are recordings of Trump-Russia collusion, it’s remained far enough under the radar that the mainstream media still hasn’t touched it. And yet now Trump has issued this oddly specific denial insisting that there are no such tapes.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    Also, and I feel like I can say this because I talk to so many of them- they were pretty damn cavalier about holding onto Medicaid. This “I’m okay, I’m on the Buckeye” and then not bothering to vote has to stop. It was like pulling fucking teeth getting “the Buckeye” – Christ almighty the fight went on for 6 years. They could, you know, join in fighting every once in a while.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    Also, and I know this is a rant, but Medicaid is single payer. I mean it’s state and federal but it’s single payer government health insurance to them. I talk to them. They love it. If you had crap insurance Medicaid is much better insurance.

    Yet. They didn’t vote to save it in Ohio. So we better come up with another excuse because I’m pretty sure that’s not Hillary Clinton’s fault. She shouldn’t have to explain their own godammned health care program to them. Do they have some role in this, or do they just get to go to rallies and scream at people?

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @Kay: If people want Democratic values and Democratic results, they need to support Democrats. It’s as simple as that.

  40. 40.

    ArchTeryx

    @Kay: Yeah. I live in New York State, which has vowed to fight Trumpcare with every iota of its being, and *I* didn’t take keeping Medicaid for granted. In fact, I thought I was guaranteed to lose it when Trump was elected, which would doom me to slow, painful death.

    And I voted like my life depended on it. Because it did. Then spent the rest of the night lamenting at how fucking stupid and *venal* the people of this country really are, especially all those Real Amurican Country Sparrows everyone’s been harping on about.

  41. 41.

    MJS

    @Elizabelle: Stay. This place needs optimists, badly. Whether on this issue, or the “all is lost, Trump hasn’t been tried, convicted, and tossed in jail yet” crowd, there are far too many negative predictions made here. The present is bad enough.

  42. 42.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: next these unelected judges will say you can’t bring an assault weapon to the Super Bowl.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @Baud: That the pathetic MSM just sits there and passively obeys is breathtaking. You know they wouldn’t if a Democratic administration tried to keep the cameras off, and that alone would lead the news every night. Instead the stenographers of the press corpse let Scary Spice push them around. My contempt bucket is empty, it gets dipped into so much.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    Marco Rubio is such a chickenshit bastard. He’s avoiding constituents like the plague, but to make it look like he’s getting input on the AHCA from someone other than donors, he’s meeting in DC with aides from the wingnut governor and wingnut state legislators. Nice boondoggle all around. I’ll still call the craven worm today, as I do every weekday. It’s getting harder and harder to keep the contempt out of my voice, but I’ll try.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @satby: To be fair, if President Hillary had tried it, half this blog would be attacking her and taking the media’s side. It would be even worse at the less desirable places on the Internet. The Dems can’t count on people having their backs when they act tough.

  47. 47.

    beth

    I can’t link on this but in today’s Post and Courier there’s a quote from Lindsey Graham saying that 15 million people are losing their insurance because they no longer have to pay a fine and they choose to be without insurance, which is a bad decision he doesn’t agree with, but their decision nonetheless. They really have nothing but contempt for us, don’t they? These bastards have broken something in my heart because I can feel nothing but hatred for them.

  48. 48.

    NobodySpecial

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Paul says he’s a no. I’m taking it at face value because he loses nothing if the bill goes down in flames. McConnell doesn’t like him and doesn’t support him, so he loses nothing from opposing it on his Aqua Velva cred.

  49. 49.

    Kristine

    Once again, a conservative sees that flash on the road to Damascus BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO HIM. It just seems that unless they have personal experience with something, they want to deny it to others or don’t see the need for it (insert your preferred helpful life-saving it here) period. Then you hear KA’s oh so clueless ‘just get a job’ w/o a thought given to the fact that most folks on Medicaid are children and folks in nursing homes.

  52. 52.

    ArchTeryx

    @Kristine: And remember, a lot of folks on Medicaid have jobs. Their employers are just too chintzy to insure them, or are small businesses that can’t afford to.

    “Just get a job” is the sort of stupid, venal response that fell out of favor in the Depression and should have stayed out of favor, but old lies never die, they just hibernate.

  55. 55.

    Sab

    @Kay: I just hope Portman doesn’t get bought off on some nonsense about the opioid epidemic . I have a stepson with issues there. I love him and hope he does well, but his situation is based on bad choices he made. My autistic grand-daughter didn’t make bad choices. My elderly dad’s nurse’s aide son with MS didn’t make bad choices. I didn’t make bad choices with my pre-existing condition. We are all going to be totally screwed if this bill goes through. And one of my two Senators doesn’t give a rats ass if a huge proportion of his constituents get screwed. Democracy isn’t supposed to work this way.

  58. 58.

    Tripod

    Nice polite racists don’t get this will be the end of their employer provided insurance.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s getting harder and harder to keep the contempt out of my voice, but I’ll try.

    Not me, I laced my comments with all the contempt I could cram into them. Told Blunt he and his were morally bankrupt. Screw that “Being nice so they will listen to me nonsense” He has never listened to me before, he isn’t going to this time either, so I may as well reduce my blood pressure a little by venting.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    I hope he doesn’t get bought off too, but I do think the opiate thing is a public health issue so I want it treated as such. While it is true Ohio Republicans only cared about it when it became white and middle class, addicts still need treatment because if they don’t get it, it cycles down and they lose their kids, go to jail or prison, and thus everyone pays for untreated the same as treating.

    I would just like to noted by political scientists that they got single payer health care and they didn’t get it from Donald Trump and they just eagerly voted to take it away—from themselves. You and I know goddamned well that Hillary Clinton, who was partly responsible for getting lower income children covered, would not have cut Medicaid. So much for political pay back on expanding health care to the working poor. They must be voting on something else, huh?

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    More than three-quarters of the world has little or no confidence in Donald Trump’s global leadership and his signature policies, with support for the American presidency collapsing fastest among America’s traditional allies in Europe, according to new polling by the Pew Research Center.

    In many countries, support for the US president is now below that of George Bush in 2004, following the Iraq invasion. Globally, two-thirds of respondents describe Trump as “arrogant and dangerous”.

    The research conducted across 37 countries shows a median of 22% have some or a great deal of confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. Almost three-quarters (74%) have little to no confidence in the Republican leader.

    By contrast, in the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.

    The polling also shows that the low level of support for the president is leading to a decline in support for wider American values. Just 49 % expressed a broadly positive view of the US, compared with 64% in surveys carried out 2015 and 2016.

    For the first time in Pew research history, most Canadians no longer regard America as a force for good in the world.

    Just 43% of Canadians have a positive view of their neighbour.

    The two major countries expressing faith in Trump’s ability to be a force for good are Israel and Russia.

    The US president has persistently low ratings across Latin America and Europe, where medians of only 14% and 18% respectively have confidence in his leadership. Only 5% in Mexico and 7% in Spain have confidence in Trump.

    The survey also finds that Trump is personally disliked globally, with most seeing him as arrogant, intolerant and dangerous, while few think of him as well-qualified or as someone who cares about ordinary people.
    …..
    In contrast, just 6% of Germans said they believed Trump was qualified to be president; 13% believe he cares about ordinary people; and 91% regard him as arrogant, 81% as intolerant, and 76% as dangerous.

    In the UK, 89% see him as arrogant, 77% as intolerant and 69% as dangerous. Globally, 65% think Trump is intolerant and 62% that he is dangerous.

    Making America grate again.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    More than 15,000 Americans were losing their jobs each day in June 2009, as the US struggled to climb out of a painful recession following its worst financial crisis in decades.
    But Jay Sekulow, who is now an attorney to Donald Trump, had a private jet to finance. His law firm was expecting a $3m payday. And six-figure contracts for members of his family needed to be taken care of.
    Documents obtained by the Guardian show Sekulow that month approved plans to push poor and jobless people to donate money to his Christian nonprofit, which since 2000 has steered more than $60m to Sekulow, his family and their businesses.

    This is how the country will really collapse. The grifter sector will outnumber the non-grifter sector and there won’t be anybody left to steal from.

  68. 68.

    geg6

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    This. Told Pat Toomey’s lackeys that he’s a lying, murdering piece of scum. That I will work my heart out to toss his vile behind out of office. Fuck comity.

  69. 69.

    zhena gogolia

    @MJS:

    I liked that Jon Favreau tweet yesterday about leave the predictions to the pundits. Work NOW on fighting this thing.

    On another topic, I’m not a disciple of Masha Gessen, but she did an excellent analysis of Stone’s Putin interviews yesterday in the NYT.

  70. 70.

    Oldgold

    Last night while doing the crossword and listening to MSNBC (they don’t call me Mr. Excitement for nothing), I had a disconcerting and disorienting feeling that this can’t be reality. Do any of you, from time to time after observing this political freak show, feel like you have fallen in a rabbit’s hole?

  72. 72.

    Kay

    In other grifter news, I watched a documentary about Herbalife. It was fading as a giant rip-off until they found a new market- recent Latino immigrants.

    Madeline Albright peddles it. I mean, my God, Isn’t she embarrassed? She had to take that job? It was impossible for her to turn down the position? She has to take 2000 dollars from poor people?

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    @Mustang Bobby: Normal Congressional election year: 95+% of incumbents get re-elected.

    2018: Wave election that breaks the model, or more of the same?

    The foundation we work on now will have a lot to do with how things turn out next year. But even next year isn’t the end of the story, of course. The 2017 elections matter more than usual this time, also too. Every contest matters. We have to fight them every single day.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gene108: Trailer trash, meth heads, high school dropouts, atheists, etc etc etc. No matter what the situation, they are those people because bad things never happen to good people like us and if they do well, it must be God’s will.

  75. 75.

    Sabta xoneys

    @Kay: Mary Taylor hopes the Ohio response to the opioid epidemic only covers her kids. Two rich entitled kids. So much tax savings.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m civil with the aides/interns I reach on the phone (or whomever, if anyone, is responsible for tallying voice mail responses) on the same principle that I treat customer service reps at evil corporations like human beings worthy of basic courtesy. Now, if I ever happen to run into Marco Rubio himself…

  78. 78.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Trailer trash, meth heads, high school dropouts, atheists, etc etc etc. No matter what the situation, they are those people because bad things never happen to good people like us and if they do well, it must be God’s will.

    and the really ironic thing is that a lot of folks making judgemental statements like that fall into the same categories.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m civil with the aides/interns I reach on the phone (or whomever, if anyone, is responsible for tallying voice mail responses)

    I’m over it. In this economy they could find a job that doesn’t involve aiding and abetting in the deaths of thousands and the immiserating of millions. Every single one of those aides are there because they want to be and they believe in what they are doing.

  85. 85.

    Tenar Arha

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Yeah, I read that one from last week, geez time’s fluid under this administration. Anyway, if that was meant to control and stop the incriminating tweeting it didn’t help. I’m imagining that every morning some poor associate of his lawyers is opening Twitler’s Twitter with the “what fresh hell is this?” that we all have lately.

  90. 90.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: You are so right. Dems can never ever be good enough and we need to change that. The spinless Dem meme makes me crrazy. Dems had courage to vote for ACA knowing they would lose seat and at least one’s life was threatened (mine) by Right to Life. That’s just one reason why I hate Slanders so much. So quick to judge Dems and ACA without putting anything on the line. Effer.

  91. 91.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: A lot of people have been insulated from their own stupidity because of the investments mostly by Democrats (FDR and LBJ) made in the post Depression and the post WWII era. You can’t draw on your bank balance forever. BTW the stupid is pretty strong in the crunchy types that decry Monsanto and have stickers for BS on their car too.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NorthLeft12:

    My experience is the exact opposite. Most, and I mean most people, want to do the right thing, and on their own will usually do it. It is when they are in a group of people that the worst seems to come out.

    There’s been a lot of discussion lately about how people behave in large disasters, in which the normal systems of society and government break down. There’s a popular assumption that most people turn into wild, violent barbarians in such a situation and society becomes a war of all against all. It’s not true–most of the time, the first instinct of most people in a disaster situation is to become helpful and cooperative.

    What causes awful behavior is when somebody else, usually someone with money or power, believes they’re going to be dealing with barbarians and reacts in fear. Or when short-sighted or evil leaders tell them to.

  95. 95.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Derelict:

    Oh, this bill will pass. Susan Collins and the rest of the moderates will wring their hands about how their consciences are torn by the thought of millions losing their insurance. And then she and they will vote for it because nobody SHE knows will suffer because of it.

    Yes, it will fail first time threw because they were “No” and then sekret compromise and then it will speed right threw like the House. That way all the unsafe Republicans can tell their voters “I was a NO, see, it was the other guys so vote me in to maintain their majority”

  97. 97.

    Phylllis

    @beth: Heh. He was roundly bold at the Riverdogs game a couple of Saturdays ago. I can say for certain at least two of those boos were from me and the hubby because Lindsay = soulless shitbag.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Trump administration is considering taking a harder stance against Pakistan for supporting terrorist groups in Afghanistan, but experts warn that pressure alone will not bring peace.

    Similar tactics have failed in the past, and analysts warn that the US can only influence the south Asian country by coupling force with diplomacy, which president Trump seems to shun.

    And attempts to strong-arm Islamabad could push it deeper into a growing alliance with China and Russia, and lead to more instability.

    China, in particular, offers Pakistan an opportunity to counter the strengthened union between the US and India, whose presence in Afghanistan the Pakistani military considers an existential threat.

    Among the tools considered by the Trump administration, according to Reuters, are expanding drone strikes, withholding aid and revoking Pakistan’s status as a major non-Nato ally.

    But attempts to bully Pakistan into submission will only drive Islamabad further towards China, said Ayesha Siddiqa, author and research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

    “It also means that in Afghanistan, there will be more violence. Pakistan sees Afghanistan as an American-Indian project against Pakistani interests,” she said.
    …..
    Economically, China has long surpassed the US in importance in Pakistan. The crown jewel in China’s Pakistani venture is a $62bn infrastructure project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. But China has also acquired everything from power companies and contracts to collect garbage to stakes in the Karachi stock exchange.

    “It’s unprecedented and very different from what Pakistani-American relations ever were. While the US invested in Pakistan, its dominance will never be like what the Chinese will be,” said Siddiqa.

    So much winning.

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    @Kristine:

    Once again, a conservative sees that flash on the road to Damascus BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO HIM. It just seems that unless they have personal experience with something, they want to deny it to others or don’t see the need for it (insert your preferred helpful life-saving it here) period.

    I know…it’s ridiculous..

    How about being a human being with PHUCKING EMAPTHY!!

  100. 100.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kathleen: Are you going to the rally in Piatt Park tonight? I’m hoping to get there by six. I’ll be holding a “Don’t Block Grant Medicaid” sign (I already have it, else I would make one saying something about No Caps).

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kathleen: Liberals, in general, really, really don’t like the feeling that they’re just partisan courtier types, cheering for their team. They want to believe that they’re people of principle who are capable of criticizing their own leaders and keeping them focused on what’s important. But it makes it difficult to get them all to cooperate, or to support whatever compromise can actually become legislation.

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    @gene108:

    Also wish they would point out 2/3 of Medicaid expenses goes for senior care.

    THANK YOU!!

    I have been pointing this out for awhile now..

    the TRUE Poster Child for Medicaid should be a White Grandma and Grandpa.

    I don’t get how nursing home chains aren’t calling the contact numbers of their patients and telling them…

  106. 106.

    Ohio Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: At least some of those young people answering the phones are volunteers, which is even worse. They are not dependent on the job to make their rent, it is completely optional for them.

    Well, maybe they are learning something from all of our calls. Education researchers can tell you how many times a new concept has to be introduced to various categories of students before it is absorbed. They are getting a lot of repetition from me alone.

    As far as the civility/tone question, I ask myself, Do I think the Tea Partiers were low-key or rabid?

  108. 108.

    MattF

    @rikyrah: Apparently, ‘senior’ living is a hotbed of Trumpism. My former neighbor (a retired municipal bond attorney who was an avid Clinton fan) called me several weeks ago and fumed about his new neighbors.

  109. 109.

    rikyrah

    @Oldgold:

    Do any of you, from time to time after observing this political freak show, feel like you have fallen in a rabbit’s hole?

    yep. and I wanna wake up from the nightmare.

  113. 113.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    @Kay:

    It’s something I want to scream from the rooftops, especially at the people who hated the ACA because it wasn’t single-payer. Medicaid is our oldest comprehensive single-payer program, but they won’t lift a finger to save it.

  114. 114.

    Ohio Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: Another thing I sometimes do toward the end of my calls is talk about how important it is to be intellectually and spiritually courageous and consider new ideas, even if it is difficult.

    I tell them I hope they can have the strength to reconsider what they are doing, working where they are, in regard to their value system. I say, I don’t think a nice person like you wants people to die before their time (I often quote the 2009 Harvard study that estimated
    40,000 Americans died each year as a result of lacking coverage).

    I do this because over the years I have determined that many people benefit from extremely explicit teaching. You have to spell out exactly what you are trying to teach them and why.

    It may or may not do any good but I am at the point where I want to have my own fun with these calls. Ask my husband, he will tell you I revel in being obnoxious.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    Problem isn’t just 22m uninsured. It’s the vision of a system where average insurance has a $6000 deductible & bad chronic illness coverage.
    — Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) June 27, 2017

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    Remember: The health care bill isn’t over until the bill is dead. If we raise our voices together, we can win this fight — (202) 224-3121.
    — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 26, 2017

  118. 118.

    rikyrah

    I honestly haven’t heard 1 decent argument in favor of Trumpcare.
    We need to get millionaires their tax breaks now isn’t even an argument.
    — LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) June 27, 2017

  121. 121.

    rikyrah

    I’m unfamiliar with the economic theory that says tax cuts for billionaires trickle down to working people in the form of health insurance.
    — Jason Kander (@JasonKander) June 26, 2017

  122. 122.

    rikyrah

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/trumpcares-cbo-score-spells-a-politicaland-public-healthdisaster

    All the cable networks on Monday night led with the 22 million uninsured, because it’s the biggest number and because it’s the “out-year” projection, which is what these reports always emphasize. But politically, the far more important number is 15 million. The CBO projects that the Senate bill would create 15 million more uninsured in 2018. That’s next year. An election year.

    That is to say that 68 percent of those expected to lose their coverage are going to lose it in the bill’s first year. The Republicans are gonna throw 15 million Americans off the insurance rolls in an election year? That’s a lot of people. Divided by 435, it’s around 34,000 people per congressional district, but of course the distribution won’t be even, and there will be many districts—toss-up districts—where 60,000 or 80,000 people will stand to lose their coverage. And states where half a million will lose coverage. How’d you like to be a Republican incumbent House member or senator defending that next fall?

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ohio Mom: I closed with Matthew 25: 42-45 because I know they are all Christianists. I said I knew they weren’t listening to my words, that maybe they would listen to Jesus’s, but they won’t. They have already justified it in their own minds and nothing Jesus ever said would matter. At least for that one fleeting moment they had to face their own hypocrisy.

    For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

    Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

  132. 132.

    Kathleen

    @Matt McIrvin: I agree with your assessment and think that can be a positive trait (though there are certainly many liberals who are more than happy to join the. Bernie cult).

    In times like thse there are also too many liberals who cling to their “must be open minded and see both sides” self image. at all costs and that is a huge problem.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    @Quinerly:

    And, when I say stolen, I mean the following:
    1. White men show up in the middle of the night with a lynch mob and tell you that you can die with your land, or leave.
    2. White men, working in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, to bankrupt the farmers (what do you think Pigford was about?)
    3. Banks redlining Black farmers so that their land can be taken when foreclosed upon.
    4. Falsified deeds – putting White people on the deeds owned by Black farmers.

    Like I said…STOLEN STOLEN STOLEN

  138. 138.

    The Moar You Know

    Last night while doing the crossword and listening to MSNBC (they don’t call me Mr. Excitement for nothing), I had a disconcerting and disorienting feeling that this can’t be reality. Do any of you, from time to time after observing this political freak show, feel like you have fallen in a rabbit’s hole?

    @Oldgold: Funny you should mention that. Yeah. I do. A lot. More like reality went bad or something, but yes. This is not the future we were supposed to have.

  139. 139.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    Or the sense to ask themselves how “safe” they really are and realize how easily and quickly it could be them. They’ve seen it happen to people in their own crowd, family friends but it doesn’t seem to sink in that they aren’t special and disaster won’t touch them.

  141. 141.

    chopper

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    effective commercials here would involve some cognitively impaired old lady being removed from the home cause her Medicaid ran out and being dropped off at her MAGA hat wearing idiot son’s house and he’s scared to fucking death.

  143. 143.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kathleen: It is a laudable impulse in general, but it can make liberals easy to gaslight, with accusations like “You just think that because you worship your hero Obama” or whatever. It’s endemic both with NPR-centrist types who constantly feel the need to give conservative ideas a fair hearing, and with “not a dime’s worth of difference” purity lefties.

  144. 144.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Common sense wins the day in court: The St. Louis Zoo is no place to carry guns, a judge has ruled..

    Won’t last for long. The wingnuts down the street will pass some law next session to get around this.

  146. 146.

    The Moar You Know

    The grifter sector will outnumber the non-grifter sector and there won’t be anybody left to steal from.

    @Kay: See for example: Russia, Mexico, Albania, Philippines.

  147. 147.

    Laura

    @rikyrah:
    5. And if you are a black farmer who carries cash and are pulled over by an LEO, your cash will be confiscated and you will have no legal means of getting it back even if you are never charged with or convicted of a crime.

    With liberty and justice for some.

  148. 148.

    rikyrah

    As their health plan falters, Republican leaders reach a crossroads
    06/27/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 06/27/17 08:59 AM
    By Steve Benen

    ……………………………………………..

    To pass the regressive bill, Senate Republican leaders can lose no more than two of their own members. At least for now, the tally appears to be well above two – and the number of GOP opponents is growing, not shrinking.

    And that leaves Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) with a limited number of options.

    1. McConnell can hold the vote anyway. I don’t doubt that McConnell wants to pass this monstrosity, but the GOP leader isn’t delusional. If he counts heads, realizes he doesn’t have the votes, and doesn’t expect to get then, McConnell has the option of bringing his bill to the floor, watching it die, and then moving on to something else.

    2. McConnell can punt. This week has been designated the make-or-break week for the Senate Republicans’ health plan, but that’s because of a self-imposed deadline. There’s no reason McConnell can’t do exactly what the GOP-led House did: pull the bill temporarily, allow for some behind-the-scenes negotiations to continue for weeks (or months), and revisit the issue at some point down the road. There’s literally nothing – substantive, procedural, etc. – that says the vote has to be this week.

    3. McConnell can start throwing money around. The CBO found that the Republican plan reduces the deficit by over $300 billion in the coming years. That effectively gives Senate GOP leaders a pot of money to play with, allocating it in such a way to curry favor with his skeptical members. Indeed, McConnell could even start applying the available money to take some of the rougher edges off his far-right proposal.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    The White House’s international credibility collapses in Trump era
    06/27/17 10:03 AM
    By Steve Benen

    ……………………………………………………….

    All of this was bizarre and sharply at odds with the evidence. But perhaps more importantly, it’s also terribly inconvenient for the GOP now that those same criticisms actually apply to a Republican president.

    Although he has only been in office a few months, Donald Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States. Trump and many of his key policies are broadly unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined steeply in many nations.

    According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. This stands in contrast to the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.

    The sharp decline in how much global public trusts the U.S. president on the world stage is especially pronounced among some of America’s closest allies in Europe and Asia, as well as neighboring Mexico and Canada. Across the 37 nations polled, Trump gets higher marks than Obama in only two countries: Russia and Israel.

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    With support for the ACA growing, Republicans go after single payer
    06/27/17 09:22 AM—UPDATED 06/27/17 09:46 AM
    By Steve Benen

    For the last several years, Republicans have defined themselves by their hatred for the Affordable Care Act. That, however, is quickly becoming a greater challenge: “Obamacare” is not only a successful policy, it’s also the most popular it’s ever been. Public support for the ACA is quite a bit stronger than public support for Donald Trump, congressional Republicans, or their regressive health care alternative.

    And that’s led some Republicans to shift their posture a bit. Unable to win a debate over the Affordable Care Act, GOP officials have turned their attention toward a single-payer system.

    Last week, for example, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “If we don’t get this done and we end up with Democratic majorities in ‘18, we’ll have single payer. That’s what we’ll be dealing with.” Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) added that Congress has to pass an unpopular far-right bill, no matter what, because the alternative is single payer, “and that’s socialized medicine.”

    At yesterday’s untelevised White House briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer seemed quite animated on the subject.

    “But make no mistake about it that Obamacare is dying. And the reality, as I mentioned last week, is that, when you look at the majority of House Democrats, they support a single-payer, $32 trillion bill backed by Bernie Sanders. That’s what the alternative is.

    “It’s not a question of Obamacare versus the American Health Care Act. It’s a question between we need to accept that Obamacare is dead, we need to understand that the reality is that what the choice is is between putting in a system that is affordable and accessible, or a single-payer $32 trillion healthcare plan that the majority of House Democrats support.”

    It’s a shame that White House officials struggle this badly to keep up with the basics of the debate. We know, for example, that the Affordable Care Act is neither “dying” nor “dead.” It may make Trump World feel better to believe this, but for those who still take reality seriously, the claim just isn’t true.

    It’s also a shame that Republicans no longer see the fight against the ACA as one they can win, so they find it necessary to change the subject.

  151. 151.

    The Moar You Know

    Been thinking. Long term ramifications. If the Senate passes and this gets signed into law, the long term effects would be to saddle blue states with even more of the poor and the financial burden of taking care of them. Over a few decades, this turns into de facto ethnic cleansing.

    I don’t see how, sooner or later, one side or the other avoids leaving the Union.

  153. 153.

    kindness

    The biggest problem Democrats have faced has always been that many of the people Democrats work hard to help don’t vote. Many of those folks won’t vote no matter what you do for them. It’s a heavy burden carrying water for those who refuse to carry their own but will bitch up a storm if they find they have no water.

    So I go with Enlightened Self Interest. I’m voting for things I want and I want it to helps others.

  154. 154.

    The Moar You Know

    You are assuming that all the poor are of a darker hue.

    @schrodingers_cat: Not at all. I should have properly used a term more along the lines of “class cleansing”, but we don’t really have a good term for that.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    @rikyrah: He doesn’t even understand the distinction between socialized health insurance and socialized medicine. Canada has socialized health insurance. The UK has socialized medicine. (And people like both systems a lot, so I don’t see what the problem is, really.)

  156. 156.

    D58826

    Dick Poleman makes GOP behavior easy to understand:

    Check out this Associated Press report about a private Koch brothers confab over the weekend:
    “At least one influential donor has informed congressional Republicans that the ‘Dallas piggy bank’ is closed until he sees major action on health care … Texas-based donor Doug Deason has already refused to host a fundraiser for two members of Congress and informed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., his checkbook is closed as well.
    “‘Get Obamacare repealed and replaced …,’ Deason said in a pointed message to GOP leaders. ‘You control the Senate. You control the House. You have the presidency. There’s no reason you can’t get this done. Get it done and we’ll open it back up.’ [Deason] has encouraged nearly two dozen major Texas donors to follow his lead …
    “At least one Koch official warned that the Republican Party’s House majority could be in jeopardy if the GOP-led Congress doesn’t follow through. ‘If they don’t make good on these promises [to kill Obamacare] there are going to be consequences, and quite frankly there should be,’ said Sean Lansing, chief operating officer for the Koch network’s political arm, Americans For Prosperity.”

    Not hard – follopw the money!!!!!!!!!
    http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/national-interest/item/105131-heres-why-republicans-could-nix-health-coverage-for-22000000

  157. 157.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    Republicans, turning America into a third world shithole, everyday and everyway.

  158. 158.

    Mnemosyne

    @D58826:

    “At least one Koch official warned that the Republican Party’s House majority could be in jeopardy if the GOP-led Congress doesn’t follow through.

    So, basically, the Republicans are fucked no matter what they do. They can implement a huge tax cut for their donors and risk pissing off their voters, or piss off their voters but still get millions for their re-election campaigns.

    I’m guessing that they’re going to go with their donors on the assumption that they can suppress enough votes (or get the Russians to meddle enough) to win anyway. Fuckers.

  159. 159.

    frosty

    @geg6: On the few occasions I haven’t been sent to voicemail I’ve been short sweet and to the point with Toomey’s lackeys. I’ll have to up my game. If they don’t like it they can think about who and what they’re working for and reconsider.

    In other news I called Gov Wolf’s office and asked him to call Toomey and explain exactly what the Senate bill will do to the people of PA.

  160. 160.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Just called and emailed my GA Senators AGAIN about the Republican shit-show of a bill. Yesterday I dinged them on the CBO score. Today I encouraged them to not be left behind, that here’s a chance to show leadership along with Senator Collins of Maine but that the window will close rapidly as more Senators wake up and smell the coffee. The poor receptionist at Isakson’s office didn’t seem to appreciate that. Ha!

    Tools for calling/emailing/etc are here:

    https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resource/impact-of-trumpcare-by-state/

    If you’re in GA, call now. There was no waiting; phone was answered on second ring.

  161. 161.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Thoroughly Pizzled: I still recall the first time I experienced the miracle of Medicaid. My dad had had his first heart attack, was going well, and now we were in the second round of visits to get everything in order. We figured that there would be boatloads of bills and paperwork and ???

    Nope.

    It was all real simple. All covered. Minimal paperwork. Absolutely no hassles. Nothing. Just a happy patient, and as near as I could tell, happy providers.

    It would be such a shame if every American of every age and socio-economic level had to suffer under such a draconian system…

  162. 162.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @The Moar You Know: You are assuming that all the poor are of a darker hue and are ethnically uniform.

    No, they are assuming that statistically speaking, more Democratic voters will die as a result of the bill than Republican voters. So this is one more move on the Republican perpetual majority front of the political combat in America.

    Voter ID requirements, gerrymandering, and killing off Democratic voters, all part and parcel of the same despicable Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to end the New Deal, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Public pavement of highways, public mail service, public water systems, public sewer systems, public health agencies to inspect restaurants. All a Commie Plot to Republicans, all to be killed off.

    Then everyone can be a serf again. Former Democratic voters, anyway.

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