Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

So many bastards, so little time.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

The revolution will be supervised.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Thursday Morning Open Thread: If We Can Keep It…

Thursday Morning Open Thread: If We Can Keep It…

by | 169 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
.

Apart from staying alert for the next assault, what’s on the agenda for the day?

*************

No sooner than time, the Media Village Idiots’ Conventional Wisdom may be shifting, which is in our favor. Jonathan Lemire, at AP, “Analysis: Trump unlikely to avoid blame for health care loss”:

… Trump took office armed with Republican control of both houses of Congress and an ambitious agenda that would begin with the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. Six months later, the collapse of the GOP plan was a sharp rebuke for the president, who was unable to cajole or threaten Republicans to stay in line and who exerted little of his diminished political capital to see through a promise that had been at the core of his party since Obamacare became law seven years ago.

The president’s disjointed support for the health care plan did little to persuade Republicans to support it, and the fact that his approval ratings had dropped below 40 percent didn’t help either.

Trump never held a news conference or delivered a major speech to sell the bill to the public. He never leveraged his popularity among rank-and-file Republican voters by barnstorming the districts of wavering GOP senators. And he never spearheaded a coherent communications strategy — beyond random tweets — to push for the plan…

Sounding almost like a bystander during his brief Oval Office remarks Tuesday, Trump six times expressed “disappointment” that the Republican effort had failed. And he insisted the fault rested with Democrats and suggested Obamacare should be left to fail on its own.

I’m not going to own it,” Trump insisted. “I can tell you that Republicans are not going to own it.”

Democrats blasted Trump’s blame game, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying his refusal to accept responsibility demonstrated “such a lack of leadership.”

“That is such a small and petty response,” Schumer said. “Because the president, he’s in charge. And to hurt millions of people because he’s angry he didn’t get his way is not being a leader.”…

The conservative House Freedom Caucus defied him and ignored his Twitter threats. The two senators who withdrew their support Monday night, effectively killing the bill, didn’t even give the White House a heads-up before announcing their decisions. And even though Trump allies have threatened to aid primary challengers to a pair of on-the-fence senators — Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada — the Republicans did not cave, potentially setting a worrisome precedent for the White House as it tries to move ahead with the rest of its stalled agenda…

Reader Interactions

169Comments

  1. 1.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Trump never held a news conference or delivered a major speech to sell the bill to the public. He never leveraged his popularity among rank-and-file Republican voters by barnstorming the districts of wavering GOP senators.

    Sounds like someone who lacks, what’s the word… Oh, stamina.

    ETA: Good thing we avoided that ‘low energy’ Hillary.

  4. 4.

    TriassicSands

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    More than stamina, he lacks any idea of what is in these bills or how to talk about health care except in the most general of terms. Apparently, he bragged Wednesday about how much he knows about the subject and how impressed those in Congress are with his impressive knowledge.

    Amazingly, Trump is still talking about how great the GOP’s health care plan is. It’s impossible to keep up with just how stupid he is and how unaware he is of how obvious it is that he’s stupid. It’s equally clear that he knows nothing about what is in any of these bills or even how health insurance works, since he keeps mixing up health insurance and life insurance. It seems to be a problem for most right wingers. Scalia, in an extraordinary show of ignorance, made it clear that he didn’t understand how insurance in general works — those who aren’t collecting are paying for those who are.

    Unfortunately, there can’t be any accountability when Trump’s supporters are just as stupid as he is.

  8. 8.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @TriassicSands: Oh, I know Trump is a moron. Remember, he faulted HRC for her lack of stamina during the campaign and called, I believe Marco, ‘Low Energy’. All Trump seems to do is golf and he can’t even walk the course.

  9. 9.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    Yeah, it comes as a complete shock. Until Trump came along to ‘splain it for us, everyone thought health care was just about the simplest thing going. We’re lucky to have a person of such towering intellect in charge. His masterful handling of the Senate’s recent successful consideration of the BCRA was a textbook example of sheer intellectual firepower at work. Without Trump’s intervention the BCRA might have failed.

  10. 10.

    eclare

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That sounds wonderful! Can’t wait to see the pics. The clearest sky I have seen in America was at Big Bend National Park, which is a wonderful park, but about 100 miles outside Bug Guts TX, which means it is way out there.

  11. 11.

    eclare

    @TriassicSands: Although I will argue a more skilled person (well, carbon based life form) like Cruz might have prevailed, so honestly, I am grateful for gross incompetence in this one area. And I’m just catching up to the news, really, he embarrassed Heller like that? Senators are not lackeys or caddies, wow, they have their own egos, wow.

  13. 13.

    TriassicSands

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You’re right about his lack of “stamina.” He’s shown it repeatedly – – like in Europe when he took the golf cart when everyone else walked. I never doubted that you know he’s a moron. At this point only a moron would be unaware of that undeniable fact.

    If only there were someone in the media with the chutzpah to ask Trump about his obvious, real life lack of stamina. Sigh. Of course, that would be the last question that person ever got to ask of the current president.

  15. 15.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    Trump is never reluctant to embarrass another person in public. His insensitivity — cruelty — is an important part of who he is. It’s impossible to overstate what a POS Trump is.

  16. 16.

    eclare

    @TriassicSands: It’s all projection, all the time. And I do believe, eventually, someone will ask. Just like I think (maybe like to think) the CIA likes this country and will leak to save it. So far seems to be working.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Been a weird week. Gonna be an even weirder day. After letting the Woofmeister back in, I went to feed him. What in the… Is that a …. Torn on the light and…. YES IT IS!!!! A mouse swimming laps around his water bowl.

    I call Miss Kitty over. Hey you! You’ve got a job to do over here! MK looks at it. Looks at me. Where’s my breakfast? I want breakfast! I don’t do wet mice! That is soooooo below me. Breakfast! Where is it? I want it now! Now! Now!…

  19. 19.

    eclare

    @TriassicSands: You are right, I keep thinking Trump wants wins and losses, and he doesn’t. He wants cruel domination, and everyone else can go to some prison in GoT.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Sen. Claire McCaskill said Wednesday that she would be willing to put the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act on the negotiating table in a bipartisan attempt to fix the legislation.

    Killing me softly.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Trump is now attacking his own administration, including Jeff Sessions .

    “Despite the multifarious threats of the continuing investigation into possible collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia to distort the outcome of the 2016 election, the president seemed to be blithely unconcerned about his choice of words to one of the country’s most powerful news organizations. Asked about his previously unpublicized second meeting with Vladimir Putin at the recent G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, he said the conversation consisted of “pleasantries more than anything else”.

    “Then he voluntarily divulged that the two national leaders had talked about adoption. As Trump himself went on to point out, adoption – commonly considered to be a euphemism for opposition to US sanctions on Russia – was also a main topic of conversation in the notorious Trump Tower meeting last June between his son Donald Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his then campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer with Kremlin connections that was revealed last week.

    “Trump said the common ground between his Putin discussion and his son’s meeting in Trump Tower was “interesting”. It remains to be seen whether Mueller and his team of investigators agree.”

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Trump never held a news conference or delivered a major speech to sell the bill to the public. He never leveraged his popularity among rank-and-file Republican voters by barnstorming the districts of wavering GOP senators. And he never spearheaded a coherent communications strategy — beyond random tweets — to push for the plan…

    Can’t exactly do all that while puttering about a golf course in a cart every weekend.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: She laments the loss of bipartisanship and in her search for it she is willing to meet the Repubs at the halfway point of gutting the ACA by only removing it’s small intestines, half it’s liver and one lung.

  26. 26.

    bemused

    Nostalgically remembering those late afternoon, evening Friday news dumps. Every day is demented news dump now.

  28. 28.

    TriassicSands

    From the Post:

    And now, Republican lawmakers head into the 2018 midterm cycle with a president who appears capable of not having their backs.

    That is hilarious. Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump could be relied upon to “have their backs” should have their sanity questioned. Trump can and will turn on anyone if he thinks it will help him or excuse his own endless failings. He’s whining again about one of his most loyal subjects, J Beauregard Sessions, for doing what he had to do in the Russia investigation — recuse himself. Trump says if he’d known that Beauregard was going to recuse himself — instead of obstruct justice – he would have appointed someone else.

    If breathing required conscious thought, Trump would suffocate immediately.

  29. 29.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sigh, but it is the guts which make it work. If you don’t get everyone into the pool, it doesn’t work. I would argue the penalties are way too cheap….I guess I’m so far out of the loop in my Marxist Socialist Urban dwelling…are penalties really still a thing?

  30. 30.

    Keith P.

    I’m now putting the over/under at a Saturday Night Massacre (Trump firing McCabe, Rosenstein (replacement under orders to fire Mueller), maybe Sessions (confirming a replacement will be a stretch))) at one month from now. Or by early September at the latest.

  31. 31.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    The most stunning part of Trump’s lengthy interview — not once did he say Merry Christmas.

    Unbelievable.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: So my wife decided to give me a most memorable birthday this week. She decided she needed to do something to really shake things up. She fell down the stairs. Broke her sacrum. So I got spend my early AM b-day hours in the ER. She got lots of good drugs for my birthday. I got a dose of sleeplessness. Still haven’t caught up.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: It has long been known that the penalties are not stiff enough and that app doubling them would make the ACA work much better.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    @eclare: No kidding! I thought the Manafort news was important, but by the end of the day we are all saying so the pee tapes exist.
    Remember that great judge from SNL “You’re doing too much. I want one day without a CNN alert that scares the hell out of me.”

  38. 38.

    TriassicSands

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yes, because requiring healthy people to have insurance has nothing to do with how insurance works. Apparently, health insurance is too complicated for Senator McCaskill to understand. Sigh. I guess Trump has to give her a tutorial to bring her up to speed.

    1. Health care is complicated.
    2. No one knew that until Trump, in a moment of intellectual brilliance comparable to that of Newton’s insights into gravity, revealed it to the masses. So-called health care experts were amazed. “How could we have known?” they wailed.
    3. Really complicated.
    4. End tutorial.

    The preceding is a product of Trump University. As such, it copyrighted, trademarked, patented, and protected in every way possible. The fee for having read it is $10,000.00 payable immediately. Thank you for attending Trump U, where learning is second only to profits (and a bunch of other stuff).

  42. 42.

    TriassicSands

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’m sorry to hear that. The lesson is obvious – stop having birthdays, stop getting older. Nothing good can come of it.

    I hope your wife heals quickly. Leave her drugs alone, they aren’t your birthday present.

  43. 43.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TriassicSands: He’s got a way of cutting through the complications to reach us lesser minds. Why, when he invented the phrase “prime the pump” it immediately made all of economic theory make sense. After all, we all deal with hand pumps for water every day on our family farms, so we can all relate to that one.

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: She is moving around the house now. Slowly moving around the house. I am thinking of going to work today, but I am afraid of her taking another tumble down the stairs. So I may not. She’ll probably go back to work next week. Fortunately she works on a computer so she doesn’t need to stand all day.

  47. 47.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    I would argue the penalties are way too cheap

    And of course you are right. But there shouldn’t be any penalties since everyone should be automatically insured from the time they are born (or become citizens) in a universal system. The fact that Republicans can’t understand that is among the great political failings of all time — it dooms countless people to unnecessary suffering and even death, as well as the risk of financial ruin.

    Time to go to sleep…g’night all.

  48. 48.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly: From what I understand, good to get her up and about. But I agree, I would be worried about another tumble, so it might be good to take one more day. Happy Birthday, late!

  50. 50.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: any way she can stay on one level of the house while you’re gone so she doesn’t need to tackle any stairs? Though if I were you I would take the day off and call it a delayed B’day and catch up on that rest.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    @eclare:

    What the fuck? Does no one understand how insurance works?

    Maybe she’s thinking of Cassidy-Collins were everyone got free catastrophic insurance paid for by the government, and with regular insurance built on top of that.

  54. 54.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Has there been discussion about McCain’s brain tumor yet? (trigger warning: link is the the NYT) Reading that this morning and it caught me by surprise. BJ tends to be pretty up to the minute on all things political, so I’m sure it was discussed last night, but if so I missed it.

    It’s being called “aggressive” and sounds like the prognosis is pretty grim.

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    She’s unsteady on her feet and you are sleep deprived. Sounds like a good day to sit on the porch and take naps.

    Hope she feels much better and you get some rest.

  57. 57.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @MomSense:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    She’s unsteady on her feet and you are sleep deprived. Sounds like a good day to sit on the porch and take naps.
    Hope she feels much better and you get some rest.

    And probably not a good day to operate power tools and heavy machinery.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: She’s been working from home, the office is upstairs. I am going to wait and see how she is moving before I decide.

  62. 62.

    bemused

    @Quinerly:

    I so want to see Breaking Good News banners, the Trump family and co-collaborators hauled off to the pen in handcuffs (real jail not comfy detention for the elites) and Russia sanctioned until they can’t stop crying. If only that would happen and cable news actually got real with the banners. I fantasize a lot.

  63. 63.

    satby

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: glioblastoma is an aggressive cancer, but they’ve made some progress with treatment. I had a patient at the office Tuesday who came in for his yearly exam who has so far survived two years. Sunny, optimistic guy taking advantage of every minute which probably has prolonged his life. And he’s much younger than McCain.

  64. 64.

    hueyplong

    @Baud: That sounds right. If Trump felt free to fire General Sessions without CSA pushback, he would have simply done so instead of dropping awkward gangsterish hints in the hope of forcing him to resign.

    No one knew being Jefferson Davis would be complicated.

    Uh-oh. I went and presumed a rational thought process. Forget it.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Catholic nuns in Pennsylvania are resisting plans to build a $3bn pipeline for gas obtained by fracking through its land by creating a rudimentary chapel along the proposed route and launching a legal challenge, citing religious freedom.

    The Adorers of the Blood of Christ order has filed a complaint against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in a bid to keep the pipeline off their land. The nuns’ lawyers argue in court papers that a decision by FERC to force them to accommodate the pipeline is “antithetical to the deeply held religious beliefs and convictions of the Adorers”.

    Gee, I don’t know why that didn’t work for the Standing Rock Sioux.

  72. 72.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Lots of discussion last night. Glioblastoma is indeed a grim diagnosis. Typical lifespan after a diagnosis is under 18 months. 5-year survival is about 10%.

    I had two good friends die of it on the last few years. Not much in the way of pain or quality-of-life issues, but you do die pretty quickly. This is also what Ted Kennedy had.

  73. 73.

    satby

    Yesterday, after a lot of cleanup, I now have a guestroom! It’s not painted yet and probably won’t be before my son and his gf show up, but the bed is assembled, mattress is almost fully expanded, and all signs of the previous kitty occupation have been eradicated.

    I wish I could get an electrician here, I have a couple of lights I want to hang and an outlet box to replace. But I also have to get ready for the market in a few minutes.

  74. 74.

    MJS

    @Baud: At this point, until she makes another nonsensical statement, I’m giving McCaskill the benefit of the doubt and assuming this is simply a symbolic gesture meant to show that the Republicans have no interest whatsoever in working with Democrats on this. My theory is that she is betting the Republicans say “no”, which isn’t a bad bet to make.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I’m not so sure. White people have religious beliefs. Those dirty Injuns are just superstitious.

  80. 80.

    Gin & Tonic

    Incidentally, it is 7:31 am, and a tree service just started their work at my next door neighbor’s. Good thing I wasn’t planning to sleep in.

  84. 84.

    Gin & Tonic

    Also incidentally, I visit my surgeon this morning and get another round of x-rays, hoping that now, finally, four months after my little accident, we get to see some healing of the bone.

  86. 86.

    Tokyokie

    @TriassicSands: I agree with you about Trump’s absolute lack of loyalty to anybody but himself, which is why I’ve been insisting that he won’t pardon anybody. Trump don’t do shit for anybody not named Trump, and he appears willing to throw a few family members under the bus as well.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MJS: @satby: It’s Misery. Claire wants to be re-elected. This is not a game she is playing with them, she is playing the game with us. She is floating this to see what kind of reaction she gets on it from us (her constituents). Believe me, she is serious.

  88. 88.

    Lapassionara

    @MJS: But I am also giving her office a call, just to make sure she knows that some of her constituents are watching, and that we want the ACA strengthened, not eviserated.

  92. 92.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Has anyone asked McCaskill how sacrificing the individual mandate could help to strengthen the ACA? Was she not paying attention when the ACA was passed? Sigh.

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: I will be in touch soon. Yeah she was paying attention and she has been paying attention ever since. She worries at least as much about her political career as she does about the ACA, but when push comes to shove we know which matters more. She is still a politician. It’s our job to explain to her that giving the Repubs an inch or a mile won’t gain her any votes but will cost her more than a few.

  95. 95.

    Oldgold

    Trump’s red line remark concerning Mueller’s investigation represents yet another overt attempt to obstruct justice.

  96. 96.

    hueyplong

    @Patricia Kayden: We’re getting nearly everything on the GOP parade of horribles had the nation foolishly elected Hillary Clinton:

    Endless investigations. Check.
    Nearly constant threat of impeachment. Check.
    American greatness questioned, certainly not “restored.” Check.
    Gridlock resulting in zero legislative accomplishments. Check.
    A tawdry crime family in charge of America. Check.
    Foreign fiasco after foreign fiasco. Check.
    Foreign countries “laughing at us.” Check.
    Decline in respect for American institutions and perhaps democracy itself. Check.
    Failure to build a big, beautiful wall to keep America white, err, great. Check.
    A woman as leader of the free world. Check.

  97. 97.

    Iowa Old Lady

    As I said yesterday, I still pause every time Trump talks about the people he works with as if they worked for him. Frex, in the Times article, he talks about “hiring” Sessions. Sessions reports to him, and Trump appointed him, so that’s kind of right, but it’s also not. The AG works–or should work–for the American people.

  99. 99.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Happy Birthday, Ozark! I am so sorry to hear about your wife. Between all that and the mouse in the water bowl (an enduring image!) Things sound really bizarre at Chez Hillbilly. Like you live in Trumpland or something. My advice is just change your birthday for this year only to this coming Sunday — which is my birthday! We can celebrate together.

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Via LGM: Criminalizing Dissent

    Whatever what one thinks of boycotts as a strategy for opposing Israeli policy, there’s no possible defense for this legislation:

    But now, a group of 43 Senators – 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats – want to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country’s decades-old occupation of Palestine. The two primary sponsors of the bill are Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio. Perhaps the most shocking aspect is the punishment: anyone guilty of violating its prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000, and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.

    […]

    The bill’s co-sponsors include the senior Democrat in Washington, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand, and several of the Senate’s more liberal members, such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Maria Cantwell of Washington. Illustrating the bipartisanship that AIPAC typically summons, it also includes several of the most right-wing Senators such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Marco Rubio of Florida.

    There’s no excuse for any of these Democratic senators to co-sponsor this bill, and this is a major test for Gillibrand if she’s running for president — she needs to pull her support from this bill, and soon. This punishing people for constitutionally protected views and actions.

    The ACLU’s letter is here.

    Free speech? We don’t need no stinking free speech.

  103. 103.

    Marcopolo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Chiming in from the UP of MI where I am on vacay. McCaskill understands how insurance works. At her Mexico MO townhall two weeks ago she floated a few ideas towards how to improve the ACA–and she did acknowledge how unpopular the IM was but the immediately described a scenario where a twenty something dude when he finally earned enough to to either get health insurance or make payments on a motorcycle would of course do the latter. Then when they had an accident w/ head trauma how it would be the folks w/ insurance who paid for his care through higher costs.

    I also know she would like to get R’s on board fixing the ACA (she said this). And at the townhall she mentioned allowing Medicare buy in at age 50 or 55 and possibly requiring everyone to get Health Insurance with an opt out. Basically she threw out a lot of ideas and said she was open to what would work both in getting R’s onboard and in fixing things in the ACA. I would have had to see the entire conversation before I’d jump one way or the other on what her actual position is.

    But as it is right now, the IM does not seem to work very well (that’s the reality of it even understanding the need for healthy bodies in the risk pool) and if jettisoning it to get R buy in on other substantive fixes worked that might be a rational trade off.

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly: I saw that post and it quotes Greenwald, so it doesn’t reflect reality accurately. I suggest finding a more credible source.

    ETA:. Never mind. The ACLU is more credible.

  106. 106.

    gene108

    @TriassicSands:

    Trump is never reluctant to embarrass another person in public. His insensitivity — cruelty — is an important part of who he is. It’s impossible to overstate what a POS Trump is.

    And that is why people voted for him. They did not want someone politically correct. They wanted the biggest jerk they could find.

  107. 107.

    bystander

    Adam Silverman on an earlier thread, re: Jeff Sessions and his unfairness to the President:

    In a normal world tomorrow would be AG Sessions last day as Attorney General as he’d retire because he’d lost the confidence of the President. What will actually happen tomorrow I have no idea.

    I think it means Sessions read the handwriting on the wall, recused himself to insulate himself from further damage, but will never resign willingly so long as he can operate the wrecking ball of the Justice Dept. Trump certainly understands not a jot about how Justice works and is powerless to interrupt Sessions working his racist agenda short of firing him.

    Meanwhile over on the Joe and Meeka Show, where America’s two best loved adulterers who cheated on their spouses and deserted them, are having a tough time working Clinton’s perfidy into this conversation, but Joe found a way.

  108. 108.

    Oldgold

    It is just too damn much all the damn time. Just yesterday:
    1/ He threatens Mueller
    2/ Throws Sessions under the bus for leaving him exposed in the Russia investigation
    3/ Changes our Syrian policy to allign with Russia’s
    4/ We find out Manafort owed the Russian oligarchs $17 million when he took over managing Trump’s campaign for free

  109. 109.

    Patricia Kayden

    @hueyplong: Thank goodness for Angela Merkel!! Now that we have Putin’s Puppet in the White House, we need someone who is trustworthy and she is it. Her dislike of Putin’s is palpable.

  110. 110.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve read that you shouldn’t contact Senators who don’t represent your state, but I’m really tempted to contact McCaskill about this. Our side needs to concede nothing when it comes to this administration.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    The ACLU is more credible.

    I try to link original sources but I never link Greenwald, hence only the LGM (to give credit for informing me) and ACLU links.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Marcopolo:

    But as it is right now, the IM does not seem to work very well

    Because the penalties are about half what they need to be to get more healthy people in. Doing away with it entirely is the exact opposite of what needs to be done.

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    If the left had a Drudge, there would be the siren thingy up with the headline:
    SESSIONS RESIGNATION COUNTDOWN
    And four articles with 75% content overlap discussing how toasty is the Sessions toast.

    But we don’t.

  117. 117.

    low-tech cyclist

    Keep calling:

    Andy Slavitt, who ran CMS under Obama, tweeted last night:

    NEW: The Senate strategy remains the Senate bill, not full repeal with the delay. They are prepared to add back $ to buy “centrist” votes.

    This round isn’t over yet. Mitch will schedule a vote between now and the August recess if he thinks he might be able to bribe or pressure people into voting for the BCRA.

  118. 118.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: No, you are wrong about that. A lefty Drudge would hate Democrats more than Drudge does.

  119. 119.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Immanentize: Why would Sessions resign? All he has to do is publicly praise Trump to the highest and he’ll be just fine. I’m sure he knows how to kiss and make up with an egomaniac since he was one of Trump’s early supporters.

  120. 120.

    A Ghost to Most

    Random headlines from rawstory:

    Napoleon finished a little bit bad’: Trump mangles history in rambling NYT interview

    Creationists sell Christian theme park to themselves to avoid paying $700,000 in taxes

    ‘Too many people afraid of being called racists’: Michele Bachmann says Muslim cop shot woman in ‘cultural’ rage

    Putin is the only ally he’s never betrayed’: Internet loses it after Trump throws Sessions under the bus

    These fuckin’ people.

  123. 123.

    Cheryl Rofer

    My take on Trump’s Sessions complaints:

    Trump disses the people who work for him regularly. There are some exceptions to that: Steve Bannon, the generals (although they often have to go through humiliating contradictions and take-backs), his family, probably a few others I haven’t thought of. They stay on. How many times have we heard that Reince Priebus is about to resign or be fired? This isn’t the first time for Sessions, either.

    Is this a magnificent scheme to distract us from the Russia connections? I doubt that. It’s just stream-of-consciousness (so to speak) word salad. And the people who work for him know that. Like other Republicans, Sessions wants his job so that he can accomplish his purposes. He just told police departments to get more aggressive on civil assets forfeiture. He’s gutting the civil rights division of DOJ. Gotta remove all those illegitimate (read: POC) voters from the rolls.

    Is Trump tired of Sessions? Perhaps. He gets tired of anything in ten minutes or less. But replacing him would mean finding another person who is willing to take his abuse and get Congress to approve him (and yes, it would be a him).

    The interview is meaningless in any ordinary analysis. Nothing will change, although Trump seems to have provided a few more words that will go into the Mueller team’s records.

  124. 124.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Happy Birthday, youngster!

    But I’m a little appalled that your wife insisted on making the day about HER, not you.

    Best wishes to her (and you) for a full and complete recovery, which I assume is possible for a sacrum fracture (but I got my MD from the same mail-order house as Dr. Bornstein, so what do I know?)

  125. 125.

    bystander

    @Patricia Kayden: Sessions’ desire to achieve his racist agenda far outweighs any public humiliation Chump can mete out. Unless and until Chump publicly dismisses Sessions, Sessions will continue voter suppression and mass incarceration at full gallop.

  126. 126.

    Immanentize

    @Patricia Kayden: Because he can’t manage the Department of Justice in these circumstances. It was difficult when it seemed like the President and Sessions we’re on the same page because some of what they are doing is antithetical to the mission now it will be constant questioning of direction and decisions internally. Every effort will bog down or stop But Sessions may not understand that.

    This happened some at DOJ when Clinton and Reno seemed to be opposed on issues (like special prosecutors). But it is like that times infinity right now.

    –. Not that ‘nothing will happen’ is a bad result in this circumstance.

  128. 128.

    germy

    I saw the reddit Q&A with Chris Cilizza, and found this important question (which didn’t get answered):

    Hi Chris, I’m a a journalism major graduating from college in December and I’ve been excited about joining this profession for as long as I can remember. Having said that, I noticed you interned for George Will and went to Georgetown etc etc and I just want to know if you’ve ever seen class lines be a problem for other aspiring journalists? For instance I cannot afford to take unpaid internships or fellowships and only work part-time for our student media because I also waited tables, etc. etc. I feel like my chances have been stunted by my own financial limitations and was wondering if you (on the other side) are able to offer any glimmer of insight into this class-problem that journalism seems to have.

  129. 129.

    Jeffro

    Let’s see: yesterday we had
    – Trumpov bashing Sessions
    – Trumpov warning Mueller not to look into his finances
    – McMaster publicly disagreeing with Trumpov on any number of issues
    and
    – a whole mess of Trumpkins getting ready to testify, publicly and under oath

    It’s Thursday. I cannot wait to see what today brings, and I’m positively ecstatic about what Friday afternoon will bring.

    Also, I brought some extra bottled water and snacks to stash in my desk drawer today…it just seemed prudent…

  130. 130.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Spanky:

    Happy birthday to you
    Happy birthday to you
    Happy birthday to Mrs Spanky,
    Happy birthday to you

    And belly butt scratchin’s toooooooooooo

  131. 131.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    And Sessions is involved in the Russia thing too, so it makes no sense in that way for him to resign or for Trump to fire him.

    Wait…you’re expecting Trumpov to make sense? Cheryl…

    If it looks like the only way to stop/fire Mueller is to get rid of Sessions (he’s already blaming Sessions for the recusal which led to Rosenstein appointing Mueller), then he’ll sure as heck do it (and probably try to intimidate Sessions the way he tried to intimidate Comey). He’ll lie about why he did it, and if Sessions talks, Trumpov’ll lie about that too.

  132. 132.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Spanky: Falling down the stairs is optional. I suggest just ignoring it entirely. My wife was working on a card for me when she fell. No good deed goes unpunished.

  133. 133.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Jeffro: You are making the same mistake you accuse me of! ?

    Look at your plan – at least two logical steps. If Trump fires Sessions, it will be in an instant fit of pique, no logic required.

  135. 135.

    p.a.

    Even amoebas know to move towards what benefits them, away from harm. MAGAs? Not so much. Are we not men? We are Devo. D.E.V.O.

  136. 136.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro:

    – a whole mess of Trumpkins getting ready to LIE, publicly and under oath

    FTFY, you’ll get my bill in the mail.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    Attorney General White Citizens Council has no self-respect…so, he could dog him out everyday of the week, and it wouldn’t matter.

    Trump takes aim at a longtime ally, AG Jeff Sessions
    07/20/17 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    ………………………….

    President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”

    In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.

    Let’s back up for a minute. When Sessions took over as attorney general, the Justice Department was already pursuing a counter-espionage investigation into Russia’s election attack. The probe included scrutiny of the Trump campaign and its interactions with Russian nationals, which created an obvious problem for Sessions: he not only played a role in the Trump campaign, he also had previously undisclosed conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

    Sessions’ recusal, in other words, was a no-brainer.

    But the president is nevertheless convinced the attorney general’s decision was “very unfair” and “extremely unfair” to him. Based on what the Times has published, Trump didn’t explain why he believes this, but figuring this out is a rather straightforward exercise.

    Not to put too fine a point on this, but Trump apparently saw his attorney general as an ally who would “help” the White House on matters like the investigation into the Russia scandal. The only reason it’d be “unfair” to the president for Sessions to recuse himself is if Trump expected Sessions to steer the investigation in a way Trump liked.

    And that’s no small thing. In effect, the president is arguing that the attorney general should’ve overseen the probe in order to protect Trump from any embarrassments or consequences. Even now, months later, the president is fuming, in part because the Russia scandal is intensifying, and in part because his ostensible ally in the Justice Department isn’t cooperating with a cover-up.

  142. 142.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly: @Immanentize:

    My advice is just change your birthday for this year only to this coming Sunday — which is my birthday! We can celebrate together.

    Great solution! Happy birthday to both of you…and warm healing thoughts for your spouses (spice?)!!!

  143. 143.

    rikyrah

    The CBO comes through again.

    CBO shines a brutal light on latest Republican health care plan
    07/20/17 08:40 AM—UPDATED 07/20/17 08:52 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) unveiled a health care plan a month ago, with the hopes of passing it before the 4th of July. Lacking Republican votes, it failed.

    So, McConnell tweaked his bill and tried again. This week, it too fell short. “Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” the GOP leader said in a statement.

    McConnell then said he’d move forward with a “repeal and delay” plan in which Congress would eliminate the Affordable Care Act, and then take two years to try to think of something to replace it with. This proposal, dubbed the “Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act,” was scrutinized by the Congressional Budget Office, which released its report late yesterday.

    A Republican Senate bill to repeal Obamacare would cause 17 million fewer people to have insurance within one year, premiums to jump by 25 percent, and insurers to pull out of counties across the country, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. […]

    After 2020, the CBO estimates, half of the nation’s population would live in a county where there were no insurers at all in the individual market. By 2026, 32 million fewer people would have insurance compared to Obamacare and premiums would have doubled.

  144. 144.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    @OzarkHillbilly: The best people in the world are born in July.

    Harrumph. Birthday wishes rescinded. August is the month for the best people. The very best.

    ETA: Although I will allow that July has resulted in a few good people. So birthday wishes reinstated. Eat cake and have fun!

  145. 145.

    satby

    @Spanky: Happy Birthday to Mrs. Spanky too!

    Yes I’m back. It started raining as I was getting ready to pack the car. No sense going to the market on rain days, only the produce sellers get any business. And rain and soap mix a bit too well ?

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s top voting commissioner questions 2016 popular vote
    07/19/17 04:47 PM—UPDATED 07/19/17 07:39 PM
    By Steve Benen

    American voters were given a choice last year between two major-party presidential candidates, and to the annoyance of the White House, Donald Trump came in second. In fact, Hillary Clinton not only earned roughly 3 million more votes than her Republican rival, she had the strongest performance of any American candidate ever who wasn’t inaugurated.

    This not only denied Trump a credible claim to a mandate for his regressive agenda; it also hurt his feelings. And with this in mind, the GOP president responded to the election results by repeatedly telling people that he secretly won the popular vote, pointing to evidence that exists only in his imagination.

    He is, however, not the only one thinking along these lines. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), the voter-suppression pioneer who’s helping lead Trump’s “voter integrity” commission, spoke today with MSNBC’s Katy Tur, and it led to an interesting exchange:

    TUR: Do you believe Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 to 5 million votes because of voter fraud?

    KOBACH: We’ll probably never know the answer to that question, because even if you could prove that a certain number of votes were cast by ineligible voters, for example, you wouldn’t know how they voted.

    The host, seeking clarification, added, “So, again, you think that maybe Hillary Clinton did not win the popular vote.” The Kansas Republican responded, “We may never know the answer to that question.” Tur, incredulous, said what I was thinking. “Really?” she asked.

    But this led to an equally interesting exchange, looking at the absurd conspiracy theory from the opposite direction:

    TUR: So are the votes for Donald Trump that lead him to win the election in doubt as well?

    KOBACH: Absolutely.

    All of this is deeply ridiculous. We know, because the evidence tells us, that Trump lost the popular vote by millions of votes. We know, because the evidence tells us, that there was no systemic “voter fraud,” and that Kobach’s efforts to prove otherwise are a sham. Common sense suggests he should have no role in a “voting integrity” commission.

  151. 151.

    rikyrah

    The Challenges of Running to Be the First Muslim Governor
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    July 19, 2017 1:54 PM

    One of the Trump supporters I follow on Facebook posted something that grabbed my attention (and not in the way he hoped):

    Be forewarned.
    > Be ready > for an “Obama like” being groomed by George Soros…
    > PRESIDENT ABDUL EL-SAYED?
    > Etch this man’s face and name in your mind.
    > His name is Abdul El-Sayed.
    > He is 32 years old, born in the USA , and an extremely well educated Muslim Doctor in Detroit Michigan. (education funded by George Soros)
    > He is handsome, articulate, charismatic (more so than Obama), and smart.
    > He is sympathetic of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is running for Governor of Michigan.
    > Which is Step 1 in his preparation to run For President Of the United States.
    > He has the potential to be Obama #2, but far more openly Muslim
    > In 2020 he will be eligible to run for President!
    > Democrats’ mouths are watering in anticipation and raising money.
    > Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren is already campaigning for him.
    > Another Trojan horse????

    I suspect that he got a lot of that from this article about Abdul el-Sayed at World Net Daily. Since when does that publication devote an entire article to someone running in a Democratic primary for governor more than a year before the election? The answer is too easy…when they are Muslim. Here is their conclusion:

    “It’s Obama II,” Manasseri said. “Elizabeth Warren will be coming to campaign for him, the Democrats in other states will be raising money for him. The DNC number-two man [Keith Ellison] will be raising money for him. Of course this guy is going to be on the Sunday morning talk shows. He’ll be everywhere. A candidate for governor who is Muslim Brotherhood …if that doesn’t tell you there’s a Shariah swamp in Michigan I don’t know what does.”

    You might suggest that is hardly surprising coming from the Islamophobes at World Net Daily. But in an otherwise informative article published in Politico today about El-Sayed, take a look at the title: “Is Michigan Ready for a Governor Named Abdul?” The point they make is to ask the question of whether or not his Egyptian heritage and Muslim faith will be a problem for white working class people in Michigan.

    This is a perfect example of what I wrote recently about the fact that it is not Democrats who make wedge issues out of things like race/gender/religion. It is the Republicans and their right wing extremists friends who do that, especially in the Trump era. Abdul el-Sayed isn’t running as “the Muslim candidate.” As a matter of fact, given his medical degree from Columbia and his time spent as director of the health department in Detroit, here’s what he said inspired him to run for governor:

  152. 152.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    Yes I’m back. It started raining as I was getting ready to pack the car.

    Happy rain day! (Kinda like a snow day for soap?) So you’ll be working on house stuff instead?

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    The Democrats Aren’t Funding Trump’s Border Wall
    by Martin Longman
    July 19, 2017 3:06 PM

    Since I just wrote a long piece on the disconnect between Republican perceptions of reality and actual reality, I am loath to write another one so soon. But, my word, can they Republicans get any more clueless?

    …………………………………………..

    It is not going to be hard for Democrats to oppose Trump’s wall, and it doesn’t matter if it is a “bollard” wall or a solar energy plant that can power the entire southwest. There will be no votes for Trump’s stupid wall. Perhaps nowhere does President Trump more clearly demonstrate that he’s insane than when he talks about this subject. He wants windows on the wall so people will be able to see the drug dealers on the other side before they hoist 60 lb. sacks of dope over the top and onto their necks. In case you are in doubt about the lunacy of this talk, a typical bowling ball is 15 lbs. Could you throw four bowling balls all at once fifty feet into the air?

    He’s actually hassling the Secretary of Homeland Security for schematics? He doesn’t know that he’ll need a bunch of Democratic votes to get the funding for this and that no Democrat is willing to engage him on his fantasies?

    Supposedly, they will scare Democrats into relenting on this.

    Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) have been working with the White House to introduce a bill by the end of the summer that would cut the current annual level of 1 million green cards by half in 10 years, largely by limiting visas for extended families of legal U.S. residents.

    Cotton, who along with Perdue has met twice on immigration with Trump, said the legislation is popular in key states where Democratic senators are up for reelection in 2018.

    “Donald Trump recognizes that it’s possible to be both pro-immigrant and to believe that immigration levels are too high and skewed against educated, high-skilled, English-speaking immigrants,” Cotton said.

    The strategic thinking among administration members is that they can gain a political advantage on immigration once they begin talking about proposals publicly. The release of the Cotton-Perdue legislation, they hope, will mark the beginning of a public immigration pitch.

  157. 157.

    rikyrah

    How the Election Integrity Commission Is Preparing to Purge Voter Rolls
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    July 20, 2017 7:30 AM

    Yesterday Trump’s so-called “Election Integrity Commission” held its first public meeting. On the same day, Vanita Gupta, former acting director of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, broke some news by telling us how the commission is coordinating with AG Sessions to purge the voter rolls.

    Gupta begins by acknowledging that the commission’s massive request for personal data on voters has gotten a fair amount of attention. She then notes an additional request that went largely unnoticed.

    Lost amid the uproar over the commission’s request was a letter sent at the same time by the Justice Department’s civil rights division. It forced 44 states to provide extensive information on how they keep their voter rolls up-to-date. It cited the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, known as the Motor-Voter law, which mandates that states help voters register through motor vehicle departments.

    The letter doesn’t ask whether states are complying with the parts of the law that expand opportunities to register. Instead it focuses on the sections related to maintaining the lists. That’s a prelude to voter purging.

    Usually the Justice Department would ask only a single state for data if it had evidence the state wasn’t complying with Motor-Voter. But a blanket request to every state covered under that law is virtually unprecedented. And unlike the commission, the Justice Department has federal statutory authority to investigate whether states are complying with the law.

    So here’s how it will go down. The commission will create a national database of voters and look for duplicates. As Gupta correctly points out, they won’t be able to tell two people with the same name and birthday apart. So every instance of the same name and birthdate will be counted as a case of fraud.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    My friend’s husband died of glioblastoma in AZ. They wrote a letter to McCain begging for his help. He advised them to move.
    — Jessica Roy (@jessica_roy) July 20, 2017

    Here’s a link to the story:https://t.co/v36qJSx32O pic.twitter.com/1dSKRkLQqA
    — Marc Oxborrow (@marcxist) July 20, 2017

  159. 159.

    TriassicSands

    @gene108:

    Well, that and the fact that he was going to bring back all — ALL — of the coal mining jobs.

    @rikyrah:

    …raising the question of whether any of them will resign.

    It is impossible to overstate how good it would be for this country if Beauregard would pack up and take his racist butt back to Alabama. Yes, it is possible that Trump would appoint someone just as bad, but it is hard to imagine anyone worse than Sessions.

  160. 160.

    rikyrah

    GOP plan would gut Medicaid by over $800 BILLION DOLLARS. What is $200B supposed to accomplish?
    The gotdahmn nervehttps://t.co/SP9LNEQsr8
    — Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 20, 2017

  161. 161.

    rikyrah

    I do chuckle at these stories. They are the elite of a foreign country. I pretty much assume that they all know English.

    I KNEW the Europeans didn’t speak English to Dolt45, and I was right..LOL

    Japan’s First Lady pretended not to speak English to avoid conversing with racist Trump?
    Not all heroes wear capeshttps://t.co/Is1z3JHgFf
    — Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 20, 2017

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    This has happened a few times before: Trump doesn’t seem to understand the difference between health insurance & life insurance. https://t.co/WLgKtjlNWr
    — David Lauter (@DavidLauter) July 20, 2017

    The president appears to confuse life insurance and health insurance. https://t.co/H1QTlPMlGB
    — Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) July 20, 2017

    In Trump’s understanding, a 21-year old gets health insurance for $12 a year. pic.twitter.com/JG71vk2oe6
    — Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) July 20, 2017

    It seems Trump might think health insurance is the same as the “low monthly price” life insurance from TV ads… https://t.co/lTBiT7EEbz
    — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 20, 2017

    My conclusion after six months fact-checking every word out of Trump’s mouth: there’s no strategy, he’s just a liar. https://t.co/is6QEpd1fA
    — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 20, 2017

  164. 164.

    BC in Illinois

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    @Patricia Kayden:

    I am barely awake myself , but I agree that this is an occasion to be in touch with Sen. McCaskill’s office. I have confidence in her as a dependable ally of the ACA, but I think that trial balloons (which is what I would assume this is) are sometimes floated in order to be shot down.

    Sorry to hear about your wife’s fall, Ozark H. Hope she recovers quickly.

    BC
    (now in Missouri)

    ETA – – Just to defend myself from my “barely awake” comment. Yes, it is almost 9am here in Misery, but I met my son at 6:30 for a half-hour jog, and took my daughter to work at 7:30. I am looking at blogs as a way to be half-awake.

  167. 167.

    NorthLeft12

    @BillinGlendaleCA: That is one of my beefs with modern golfing……the reliance on golf carts. Even though study after study has shown that carts do not reduce the time taken to play a round of golf.
    If they ever want to spice up the professional golf tour, they should make the pros carry their clubs and give them a strict time limit which they must better or be disqualified. The time should be set at a very brisk pace, and if you hold anyone up for more than a minute you have to let them play through the next hole and wait for them.

  168. 168.

    Marcopolo

    @OzarkHillbilly: have been away so no timely replies but as a politician McCaskill, who once again I think understands how insurance works, might see it as a better trade off now to lose the IM, which is the least popular part of the ACA (and not working well and do you want to make it more punitive so it works better but lowers overall support for the ACA as a whole) to get R buying on something else that needs fixing and figure out another way to increase enrollment down the road. I think that may be the calculation she is thinking about. Once again, it is a political trade off.

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