Trump's America, March 2017: Using His Inside VOICE

there's a decent chance many of them will lose their seats in 2018 if it does get done tho, right?

That very minor little problem, yes.

tbf no-one knew how complciated healthcare could be

It's the rare lose-lose-win-win!

Meanwhile: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/new-documents-say-trump-aide-hid-payments-from-pro-moscow-ukraine-party/2017/03/21/92ec85f2-0e11-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html

KIEV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian lawmaker on Tuesday released new financial documents allegedly showing that a former campaign chairman to President Trump laundered payments from the party of a disgraced ex-leader of Ukraine using offshore accounts in Belize and Kyrgyzstan.

The new documents may revive questions about the ties between the Trump aide, Paul Manafort, and the party of the former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, who has been in hiding in Russia since being overthrown by pro-Western protesters in 2014. He is wanted in Ukraine on corruption charges.

as clean as a hound's tooth crunching on dog shit.

That doesn't sound very clean at all oh wait

I'm sure Dmitri Firtash had absolutely nothing to do with any of this..

for a group that lucked into total power they sure did put themselves in a no-win situation fast

The MP accusing Manafort of hiding payments is the same one who was (almost certainly falsely) accused of blackmailing him. The details around the mystery ledger are extremely fishy but i'd assume that, even if the specifics are fictional, the substance (that Manafort took off-the-books payments worth millions from the Party Of The Regions) is true. The "pro-Moscow" vs "pro-western" dichotomy applied to Ukrainian politics of the era remains moronically reductive though.

I'm proud to announce today the passing of our landmark health care bill that finally repeals Obamacare.

What does it DO? Why, it removes that pesky individual mandate.

Coverage? Well....it's not bad! Deductibles are a bit higher. And those of you that are sick will probably need to join high risk pools for best coverage. You liked those, right?

Cost? Well...it's a ....wee bit higher. But now you have the freedom not to enroll!

Credits? Well, now we base them on age! One suggestion we have is to be poor when you're older instead of younger as you won't get much of a benefit.

so yeah, this is a landmark, definitive health care bill, people will remember this day for sure!

for a group that lucked into total power they sure did put themselves in a no-win situation fast

― frogbs, 21. marts 2017 15:44 (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thing is, they really didn't luck into anything. They lied and bullshitted, manipulated, let Russia hack, told Obama they wouldn't join a bi-partisan condemnation of the hacks, used the hacks. So it's really not a surprise that it has returned to bite them in the ass.

One facet of conservativism is scapegoating and fudging facts in the service of drumming up aggrievement. It works when you're the underdog, punching up and saying that everything is stupid and you could do things better, but it doesn't work so well once you're given the power to realize your unworkable agenda. In that respect, gaining total control of the federal government is the worst thing that could've happened to the GOP.

No matter what happens down the Russian avenue and how much can be nailed down, the unintended/unforeseeable consequences that face us are truly limitless.

Nuke America: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/american-spring-break-revelers-chant-trumps-build-the-wall-while-partying-in-cancun-report/

for a group that lucked into total power they sure did put themselves in a no-win situation fast

These things aren't totally unrelated. It's hard to stay popular when you're in power, because then you're the one saying no to people, you're the one presiding over peoples' lives still being pretty shitty! That's one of the fundamental structural features that makes our system work. Of course that feature is only in play because people obey norms. The fear is always that Trump goes full Chavez -- low taxes for everyone, free stuff for everyone, the economy falls apart eventually but what does Trump care? There are statues of him everywhere and people say "remember how great it was when the benevolent Trump ruled us?" I still think it could go that way but Trump will ahve break the will of the congressional GOP and business interests who actually do have something to lose in this scenario.

Chavez never had a Freedom Caucus threatening him!

I mean, did he? I have no idea. I would have guessed there were pre-existing centers of political power whose resistance he had to overcome at the beginning.

They had warplanes too!

Nuke America: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/american-spring-break-revelers-chant-trumps-build-the-wall-while-partying-in-cancun-report/

― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Tuesday, March 21, 2017 9:55 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Nuke American spring breakers' is a much less controversial stance with perennial bipartisan support.

sprannnng breaaakkkk y'alllll

spring break
forever

would also play better with the base, since they'd be in mexico

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/Elway%20Letter.pdf

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7dOwdHWkAEoOPb.jpg

Good to see Trump's finally tackling the important issues right? ([url=https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/844227333724798977]via[/url)

Ah, Benny Johnson. Once again.

http://www.businessinsider.com/independent-journal-review-ijr-identity-trump-2017-3

On Saturday, Rep. Dave Trott (R-Mich.) had just wrapped up a boisterous town hall meeting in Novi, northwest of Detroit, and he was headed backstage — where a member of his team brainstormed an angle for the news media.

After Trott defended the Trump administration’s budget increase for defense funding, paid for by cuts to discretionary spending, he was booed in a politically potent way.

“We’re going to take that part where they’re booing funding the military, and I’m gonna get somebody to write a story, and we’re going to promote the s— out of that,” Republican strategist Stu Sandler could be heard saying on a video recorded by local TV station WDIV and uploaded by the district’s local branch of the Indivisible project. “It’s un-American crap.”

Sandler confirmed that he was the voice on the tape, telling The Post that he was genuinely put off by the crowd’s reaction.

“I was shocked and appalled at the majority of the audience that booed Congressman Trott when he stated ‘I support more funding for our military,’ Sandler explained in an email. “Our troops deserve better equipment and more pay.”

On Monday’s episode of “Fox and Friends,” a morning show that President Trump watches regularly, co-host Ainsley Earhardt framed the moment exactly the way Sandler wanted it. In a short segment, Trott portrayed himself as a defender of pay raises for the military, standing up to “Bernie Sanders socialists” and other malcontents

this looks productive

https://draftbernie.org/sign-our-petition/

admittedly i prefer the Send the Clintons, Cuomo and Booker Into Space Permanently petition

Oh, OK, you're back. Earlier you posted something that wasn't critical of the Clintons, and I was wondering if you'd suffered some sort of stroke.

XPS

I guess the counter-argument that the Military has enough money and should learn to use it more effectively is one that will most certainly backfire.* As would the comment that even with more money, it's highly unlikely said funds would lead to pay raises or better facilities for the VA, which is really where the money needs to be going rn.

*Related somewhat: I'm already seeing commentary from conservative FB friends about how the Government only partially underwrote Meals On Wheels, and a portion of their budget comes from charity contributions from the public, so why don't you whiny libs ramp up donations to cover...and just die already.

welp confirm him, he has me sold

http://✧✧✧.c✧✧.com/2017/03/21/politics/President-Trump-Latest?lf-content=188682397:lb-post-31793338e90dbb318172edcf3a8c4✧✧✧@livef✧✧✧.c✧✧&hubRefSrc=permalink

ehh fuck it. Gorsuch said LGBTQ "are people"

god forbid any american congressman supports cutting any part of 60% of our budget

Whole lotta pro-life types out there going "ARGH" over Gorsuch's answers today.

really? any tweets?

No, just twicks

lol:

Inside the room, however, Trump did not get into much detail about what needed to be adjusted for the bill to win approval. He focused more on the political risks and rewards of passage, telling Republicans that they “kept passing and passing and passing” repeal bills under President Obama and would be punished if they did not make good on their campaign promises.

“We won’t have these crowds if we don’t get this done,” he said, referring to his Monday night rally in Kentucky.

i.e. "If your bill doesn't pass, my crowds will diminish."

really? any tweets?

Steve Deace's feed is a horrorshow (for them)

https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow

Meantime...

http://theslot.jezebel.com/hacked-texts-suggest-manafort-continued-to-play-a-role-1793469844

Ed O'Keefe
‏Verified account
@edatpost 13m13 minutes ago

Whitehouse: Why did JCN spend $17M to beat Garland and confirm you? Gorsuch: Ask them. Whitehouse: "I can’t because I don’t know they are."

Meantime...

http://theslot.jezebel.com/hacked-texts-suggest-manafort-continued-to-play-a-role-1793469844

yea I kinda thought Spicer's "Paul Mana-who?" routine yesterday was a bit odd.

nbc says there are 26 GOP hard or strong lean nos. 21+ and the bill fails

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/844255620358443008

seems tight enough that they'll limp over the line by thursday

but obviously if any of these people are yours, give them a call

Novi is deep Republican suburbs of Detroit

Whomp whomp

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/21/jared-kushner-struck-out-in-his-first-foray-into-middle-east-diplomacy/

Roger Stone meets the Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4335084/Trump-friend-Roger-Stone-doubles-British-spy-claim.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

'My civil rights have been violated. My right to privacy has been violated,' Stone told DailyMail.com, specifically mentioning the Times article. 'Leaking that, if indeed it was because I was under a FISA warrant, leaking that information would be a felony.'
He declared: 'I have committed no felonies, but the intelligence services have committed felonies to slur my name.'
Later in the conversation, in the midst of a back and forth about his relationship with the president, Stone also said, 'It does occur to me during the campaign that the FBI was quite clearly monitoring my conversations with Trump, candidate Trump.'
He observed that his talks with Alex Jones, Trump adviser Steve Bannon and others, would have been taped, too.

lol i missed this yesterday

“I hate the New England Patriots,” Comey said. “No matter who they play, I’d like them to lose. And I’m at the same time rooting against the Patriots and hoping their opponent beat them because there’s only two teams on the field.”
“By the way if I’m honest with myself the reason I don’t like the Patriots is they represent sustained excellence, and as a Giants fan that drives me crazy,” said Comey, whose comment was greeted by chuckles from the committee.

ignoring the valid points of leaks being illegal and going through appropriate legal channels, not really a good look for Stone and company to be all like "the problem isn't the things I might have done the problem is HOW YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT THEM"

(not that it's any certainty that protocols weren't followed anyway)