Just in: GOP leaders and conservatives agree it's time to give Trumpcare talks a break. https://t.co/bE3ES3Aw21
— Axios (@axios) April 5, 2017
… The Trumpcare blame game is getting worse, with Heritage Action blaming the moderate Tuesday Group for the lack of progress in last night’s talks and House GOP leadership blaming the conservative Freedom Caucus. But everyone seems to agree on one thing: Congress should give the talks a break and go on recess rather than meeting again today…
There had been tentative plans for more talks today between Vice President Mike Pence and Hill Republicans, but there’s now a growing sense that another meeting before recess would be a waste of time.
Wouldn't the better headline be, "GOP leaders and conservatives acknowledge politics reality confirmed from two weeks ago"? https://t.co/BcEPZWCt2d
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 5, 2017
I've got to thank the GOP. Their attacks on ACA have done a wonderful job of revealing how it improves Americans' lives. #ProtectOurCare
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) April 5, 2017
Remember, it’s not bragging if you’ve actually done it.
Apart from schadenfreude, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Roger Moore
Maybe they should start out by trying to figure out what everyone can agree on, apart from uniponies, and work from there. Unfortunately, I’m not sure they’re capable of recognizing what constitutes a serious policy proposal and what constitutes longing for a unipony.
Baud
They should just take a break for the next two years.
WereBear
Republicans in disarray!
Roger Moore
@Baud:
From the Obamacare stuff, yes. Unfortunately, they do have some important other business, like passing spending bills and a debt limit increase.
Phylllis
Looks like we came through all this scary weather with only a few bouts of heavy rain. Fixing to watch a bit of Braves vs Mets, then look forward to wrapping up the last two days of work before Spring Break.
Baud
@Roger Moore: Ok, basic maintenance is fine. Nothing touching on policy.
dmsilev
@Roger Moore:
Tax cuts for rich folks!
(I’m assuming that ‘everyone’ means ‘all Republicans’)
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Allergies suck. If I cough much harder I’m gonna lose a lung. Inhaler and a Steroid shot incoming…
amk
Ahca has become nelson’s ha ha.
germy
So who are we going to war with first? NK, Iran, Syria or Mexico? Or Canada?
germy
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): What are you allergic to?
mai naem mobile
Everybody knows it’s Susan Rice’s fault.
hilts
OT
List of Advertisers Who Have Dropped Bill Orally dba O’Reilly
Updated 4/5/2017, 6:18 p.m.
Mercedes-Benz
Mitsubishi
Hyundai
Lexus
BMW of North America
Constant Contact
Ainsworth Pet Nutrition
UNTUCKit
Allstate
T. Rowe Price
GlaxoSmithKline
Sanofi
Credit Karma
Wayfair
TrueCar
Rollins, Inc
Bayer
Esurance
Society for Human Resource Management
Coldwell Banker
The Wonderful Company
H&R Block
Weather Tech
BambooHR
Jenny Craig
Ancestry
Subaru
Old Dominion Freight Line
Amica Insurance
LegalZoom
CarfFax
Invisalign
Pacific Life
VisionWorks
Stanley Steemer
Eli Lilly and Company
Allstar Products Group
Advil/Pfizer
Propane Council
Reddi Wip
GoodRX
Southern New Hampshire University
Touchnote
BeenVerified
Consumer Cellular
MilelQ
Peloton
h/t https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2017/04/04/here-are-all-the-advertisers-who-have-dropped-bill-oreilly/#7c7ad1a87987
Steve in the ATL
Let’s focus on what’s important here: I have Masters badges for tomorrow, but seem to be stuck in Boston as air traffic in and out of Atlanta is still shut down.
amk
https://mobile.twitter.com/keithboykin/status/849597355611566081
germy
@hilts: Not UNTUCKit!!
WereBear
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Oh, sounds miserable!
Steve in the ATL
@hilts: Rollins, Inc. surprises me. Those people (the Rollins family members who run the company) are total bastards.
geg6
@hilts:
I cannot articulate how much this warms my heart.
Phylllis
@Steve in the ATL: Hate to see them go to waste. How about overnight’em to me. The hubby and I can drive over. Spending Sunday there just wasn’t quite enough.
p.a.
@germy: All the rage on Savile Row!
germy
I wonder if Mr. O’Reilly will address the issue on his show at some point? Or has he already?
Mnemosyne
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
You might also have a touch of that nasty cold that’s going around. The damn thing literally almost killed me by making me choke on a bite of sandwich when I suddenly had to cough in the middle of lunch. Luckily, the Heimlich maneuver really does work, and my lunch partner was level-headed enough to do it. ?
laura
@Steve in the ATL: Fingers crossed for you to get to the greens on time. Bobbabooie!@germy: “UNTUCKit, blouses for men.”
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@germy: Tossup between NK or Syria; Korea will be the more disastrous.
MomSense
@amk:
C’mon Ossoff!!!
Aleta
Why do they give up so easily? Keep going til we can pay with organs!
p.a.
@germy: Has Rush regained many of his advertisers? For a while he was running PSAs and even dead air (reports from some people with strong stomachs who could actually listen to the vomit)
germy
@Mnemosyne: The man who invented the Heimlich maneuver recently passed away. I think he saved even more lives than the man who invented the “rough strip” at the edge of the highway to awaken drowsy motorists.
lollipopguild
@amk: Knocks on wood.
amk
hilts
@germy:
So far, the silence from O’Reilly has been deafening. It would be nice to see if his frequent media critic guest Bernie Goldberg had the guts to say something or that other media critic douchebag on Fox, Howie Kurtz.
@Steve in the ATL: @geg6:
I only wish that O’Reilly could drag the whole fucking network down with him.
germy
@p.a.: Last time I checked in on rushbo it was mostly PSAs. This was a few years ago, though.
Someone in another thread explained that these advertisers aren’t deserting Fox. They’re merely moving away from O’Reilly. Their ads get shuffled to a different time slot, so the station still gets its $$.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Know the feeling, I’ve had “the cold” for the last week. My voice still sounds like I’m going through puberty, but I’m pretty much recovered.
Debbie1
A wise man once said that it’s ok (meh) to step on your d*ck once in a while, but it’s not ok to keep standing on it. Tr*mpcare, the sequel – 2 WEEKS LATER! – is as clear-cut a case of d*ck-standing that I’ve ever seen. Yet, all they could muster was a neutral headline like “Republicans and Conservatives agree…” etc.? Wow!
debbie
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
I’ve been coughing like that for almost two years. My doctor swears I won’t stroke out because of it, but I have my doubts.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I still haven’trecovered from puberty.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL:
We don’t need no stinkn’ badges!
germy
@Baud:
That was in the oppo file the GOP was assembling on you.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: We know that, Baud.
BTW, my Prius died yesterday. Charged the 12V battery last night and revived it. I ordered a new battery today, should be here tomorrow. It’s one of those yellow top batteries.
germy
@hilts:
Uncharacteristic.
lollipopguild
@Debbie1: I hope they spend the near future stepping on their own johnsons and well as each others.
Betsy
Lately I feel that I meet with a brick wall of sexism wherever I go. Work or personal life, leisure or business. Anyone else?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: weird. Did you buy it from a dealership?
Baud
@Betsy:
I’m happy to be sexist to you if that’s what you want, but it feels awkward.
Goku
@germy: Reality, Winston
amk
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Shorter GOP: I think it’s time we start seeing other lobbyists.
Archon
If I were a Trump adviser (which means a cynical scumbag with no soul) I’d recommend massive covert escalation with North Korea that increased the chances of war in which America could conceivably argue that NK are the aggressors, because a “defensive” war with North Korea is pretty much they only way out the shrinking box for the Trump administration.
germy
@Goku:
But that war began during the republican primaries.
lollipopguild
@Archon: I am just hoping that none of the crazed idiots who work at the White House read Balloon Juice.
Debbie1
@germy: Given the sexual nature of the charges, I was struck by Reddi Whip and BeenVerified.
Ok, so how come no one asked the White House’s Spicer to explain why Tr*mp came out in support for alleged molester Bill O’Reilly in April, sexual assault awareness month. Why such silence from Rosa Parks-wannabe Ivanka & her sister-wife, Melanoma?
Goku
@Debbie1:
Maybe because they don’t really give a shit?
TenguPhule
@Baud: Why stop at two?
TenguPhule
@Debbie1:
The really crude and not politically correct answer?
Their mouths only open in two positions.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yes, but it’s used.
ETA: Also from what I’ve been reading, the stock battery’s kind of crappy.
Baud
@TenguPhule: I’m hoping we retake Congress in 2018.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Right, but from a dealership, the battery should be good.
TenguPhule
@Archon:
Not even CNN could sell that load of bull.
TenguPhule
@Baud: But why stop there? Isn’t the end goal supposed to be “No Republican shit happens ever again.”?
Aleta
@Betsy: You could try giving information to your furnace repair guy and see if the other stuff recedes in comparison.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
Hubris. Hubris gets you every time.
Mnemosyne
@Betsy:
I haven’t noticed an uptick BUT I am in a deep blue part of California and work mostly with women.
SiubhanDuinne
Way O/T, despite the fact this is an Open Thread, but does anyone in the BJ hive mind have a connection to someone (private individual or museum or academic program or whatever) that collects or specializes in artifacts depicting African/African-American images?
If you have this expertise, or could put me in touch with someone who does, please get in touch with me at [SiubhanDuinne] at [gmail] dot [com]. Thanks! (Trying to save what I think is a valuable and collectible black doll from the 1920s or ’30s from a garage sale.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Well, it didn’t fail during their 30 day limited warranty. I think I’m better off just getting the aftermarket one, seems to be better for cars that aren’t driven every day.
Chet Murthy
@Mnemosyne: @Betsy: Betsy, (1) I’m male, so can only apologize for my brethren, (2) care to share the geographic region in which you encounter this?
efgoldman
@p.a.:
Probably not. In many markets, his failing ratings mean he’s been moved to smaller and smaller stations, including AM low power and daytimers that no-one much can get. National advertisers don’t pay for that.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: merde!
Anyone interested in a Boston meet up at Logan airport, terminal A? I’m available at least until 10 pm!
SiubhanDuinne
@amk:
Have been in close, regular touch with the Voter Protection folks — I worked with them in 2014 during the Michelle Nunn for Senate/Jason Carter for Governor races, and in 2016 for the Hillary campaign — and even though I live (barely) outside District 6, I’ve volunteered to do poll-watching in early voting and of course on Election Day, April 18. They’re supposed to let me know in the next day or two where and when my assignments are, when I can do refresher training, and how to pick up credentials.
efgoldman
@germy:
Yes, but: Ad rates (how much the network charges to air the ads) vary with ratings. That’s why e.g. Super Bowl rates are so high. Bill O’Nally’s hour is the highest rated on the network. When they move the ads, they have to lower the price, or give make-goods (free ads for the same money).
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
If we weren’t up all night bailing the cellar….
BTW, once morning came, and we could see, we went out to the yard and located the buried, blocked outlet for the French drains. Cleaned it out, cellar emptied out in about an hour, now dry again.
That’s something we need to remember to do every spring.
Aleta
@efgoldman: Not that I’m surprised, but the advertisers’ logic of sticking with Fox is a little odd, since Fox knew that woman after woman had been harassed, but kept exposing other unaware employees to the same risk. That is, it’s odd if we pretend that their reason for dropping OR is moral.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: you can never rely on the French!
I’ll just sit here by myself, eating a large container of chocolate mousse and feeling no guilt about it.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@germy: Pollen, which has gotten worse here on a seemingly yearly basis.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@WereBear: @Mnemosyne: Doc said I’ll be ok in time. Steroid shot was bigger than usual, but coughing stopped almost immediately afterward. Let’s hope that it holds.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He said it could take up to a month for everything to clear up.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@debbie: Two YEARS? Can they not treat it?
WereBear
@Betsy: My town went for Clinton, and everybody is trying to live up to that.
I’m sorry that it’s sucking so much for you: everyone is emboldened now, but you are getting the ugly end of the stick.
WereBear
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Yes, a good sign, I’d say.
Jeffro
Just want to say for the record that I am reading Colson whitehead’s “the underground railroad” and it is excellent.
Two great lines:
1) in another country they would’ve been criminals, but this was America
2). Here was true great spirit, the divine thread connecting all human endeavor – if you can keep it, it is yours.
Give it a whirl sometime soon!
Mike in NC
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): We live on a golf course with a zillion trees and bushes. They say if you didn’t have allergies when you first moved here, just wait a while. I get a sinus infection at least annually due to pollen sensitivity.
Ohio Mom
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Me too.
@debbie: The NYT had one of those guess-the-diagnosis articles a couple of months ago about a man who, like you, coughed for years. IIRC, it was something like a sesame seed stuck in his lung. Which was found with a scope.
TenguPhule
@germy: All of em, Katie.
efgoldman
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Don’t be ridiculous! That would mean the climate is changing, and everyone knows that’s a hoax!
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You know there are other batteries in a Prius, right?
A whole big bunch! ;–)
J R in WV
Years ago, working for the Environmental Protection agency here, I was moved to an office in an abandoned building between an oil and gas pipe-yard in front and two chemical plants out back, Monsanto and FMC.
One of them, I forget which, emitted tons of carbon disulfide, of which the main side effects are 1) insanity, and 2) chloracne, aka eczema at random parts of your skin. Fortunately I got 2) and broke out in a whole body itch.
Family doc may have seen it before, gave me a shot of a combination of steroids, one fast acting and one long lasting. I stopped itching before I got out of the building. I assumed it would go away. The plants are closed and “reclaimed” and I moved offices about the same time. But I still have patches that are scaly and itch.
And I still have prescription cortisone ointment to put it back in the bottle. Bastards! Polluting the very air we breathe.