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

On March 8, Trump met with a small group of conservative activists with hopes that their groups would get behind the bill. Someone with direct knowledge of the meeting described it as “a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit,” with the president boasting about how “great” the bill was and his aides seconding his assessment “like a Greek chorus.”

Yeahhhhh, that's one way to describe it.

lol

this doesn't sound like a very good idea....

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/845477304436510720

@aravosis
Andrea Mitchell reports that White House officials are “purging their cell phones” in expectation of getting subpoenaed.

Suspended by goodell

http://ambassadors.net/archives/images/pelosi-gavel.jpg

feelin this

good memories, nice contrast

An actual lunar simian wearing a toupee and taking all his notes in permanent marker would still be more competent than this. I'm not buying y'alls metaphors.

So I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon, and I know that a lot of more moderate Dems don't actually want it, but from a strategic point of view, why, exactly shouldn't every Democrat/lefty given airtime/column space about healthcare for the next year just repeat "Medicare for All" until their voices crack? It's popular, it's a clear alternative vision, it takes them out of the weeds of the rhetorically convoluted ACA, it taps into all this #resistance energy, and it makes Republicans talk shit about seniors' favorite thing the government does.

They should do exactly that and more than a few already are, like my freshman rep Pramila Jayapal who is amazing and the best

72 cosponsors.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/676

With the GOP completely falling on their face, yet still saying that a fix of obamacare is needed, Dems might even be forced into picking an alternative vision, such as Medicare for All. This has got to be the stupidest fucking thing a US party has done in decades.

But i though twitter told us he was a dictator

Oh no, he's into US politics now.

(continue to feel it wd be auspicious to mark a significant defeat w/a new thread)

Agreed.

Well:

Instead, Democrats watched as a roiling, well-organized “resistance” bombarded Republicans with calls and filled their town hall meetings with skeptics. The Indivisible coalition, founded after the 2016 election by former congressional aides who knew how to lobby their old bosses, was the newest and flashiest. But it was joined by MoveOn, which reported 40,000 calls to congressional offices from its members; by Planned Parenthood, directly under the AHCA’s gun; by the Democratic National Committee, fresh off a divisive leadership race; and by the AARP, which branded the bill as an “age tax” before Democrats had come up with a counterattack.

Congressional Democrats did prime the pump. After their surprise 2016 defeat, they made Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) the outreach director of the Senate caucus. Sanders’s first project was “Our First Stand,” a series of rallies around the country, organized by local Democrats and following a simple format. Elected officials would speak; they would then pass the

microphone to constituents who had positive stories to tell about the ACA.

“What we’re starting to do, for the first time in the modern history of the Democratic Party, is active grass-roots organizing,” Sanders said in a January interview. “We’re working with unions, we’re working with senior groups, and we’re working with health-care groups. We’re trying to rally the American people so we can do what they want. And that is not the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/03/24/left-out-of-ahca-fight-democrats-let-their-grass-roots-lead-and-win/?utm_term=.81cb3e9a9790

where's the tax returns?

I got'em, right here.

i say we stick with the monthly threads... otherwise they'll proliferate crazily. plus easier to find shit later. a tall bookcase of three-ring binders with monthly labels on each one.

Can we switch to sharpie markers though? I heard that's what the pros use

with diet Cokes for everyone

I can imagine him sipping Sharpie ink and making notes with Diet Coke.

As was said on Twitter, lawyers definitely involved:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/infowars-apologizes-for-pizzagate-coverage/article/2618409?custom_click=rss

Meantime, I guess Napolitano had to get himself back into the news without Fox around:

https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/03/andrew-napolitano-supreme-court-shortlist-trump-236488

This speech by Schiff from a few days ago worth noting

https://lawfareblog.com/rise-autocrats

so if trumplethinskin colluded with putin to steal the white house, and now the GOP can't even repeal "obamacare", and here we are, can we revise our preconception that wealth = competence, and restore the highest income tax rate to what it was pre-reagan? this experiment has gone on long enough, no?

nah we haven't all died yet

Only then can we be a control group.

conservative Philip Klein makes a concession:

One has to admire the commitment that Democrats and Obama had to delivering something they campaigned on and truly believed in. They spent 13 months getting the bill from an initial concept to final passage, and pressed on during many points when everybody was predicting doom. They had public hearings, multiple drafts of different bills, they kept negotiating, even worked into Christmas. They made significant changes at times, but also never lost sight of their key goals. They didn't back down in the face of angry town halls and after losing their filibuster-proof majority, and many members cast votes that they knew risked their political careers. Obama himself was a leader, who consistently made it clear that he was not going to walk away. He did countless rallies, meetings, speeches — even a "summit" at the Blair House — to try to sell the bill, talking about details, responding to criticisms of the bill to the point that he was mocked by conservatives for talking so much about healthcare.

The contrast between Obama and Democrats on healthcare and what just happened is stunning. House Republicans slapped together a bill in a few weeks (months if we're being generous) behind closed doors with barely any debate. They moved the bill through committees at blazing speed, conducted closed-door negotiations that resulted in relatively minor tweaks to the bill, and within 17 days, Trump decided that he'd had enough, and was ready to walk away if members didn't accept the bill as is. It reminded me of the scene in "Duck Soup," in which Groucho Marx portrays Rufus T. Firefly, leader of the fictional Freedonia. Firefly conducts a cabinet meeting that he starts by saying he'll take up old business. One official says, "I wish to discuss the tariff." Firefly responds, "Sit down, that's new business." When nobody has any old business to discuss he decides to turn to new business. "About that tariff —" the same official interjects. "Too late," Firefly responds, "That's old business already."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-cave-on-obamacare-repeal-is-the-biggest-broken-promise-in-political-history/article/2618413

hail Firefly!

“What we’re starting to do, for the first time in the modern history of the Democratic Party, is active grass-roots organizing,” Sanders said

meh, he's not really a Democrat, shaddap old man

love Bernie but lol @ the idea he's first person to do grassroots organizing in the democratic party. c'mon man

An emergency meeting of the House Republican Caucus was called shortly before the scheduled vote. As it was announced, the House went to recess, with Democrats shouting in a taunting manner, “Vote, vote, vote”, daring Republicans to bring the bill up. They did not.

there can't be enough news stories that contain the phrase "Democrats shouting in a taunting manner" to suit me

MODERN history, Tracer. You know, since the Golden Age of Television started.

"We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, faced with the biggest loss of his career. "And now in three months' time we tried to go to a governing party. We will get there, but we weren't there today."

maybe someday you'll get to where you understand that the Social Security benefits which paid for your expensive private college tuition is a good thing, too, congressperson galt

Sounds like this damages Bannon's reputation as well. Which I'm fine with:

https://www.axios.com/inside-the-trumpcare-meltdown-2329417172.html

When the balky hardliners of the House Freedom Caucus visited the White House earlier this week, this was Steve Bannon's opening line, according to people in the conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building:

"Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill."

“He'll take your call and invite you to the Oval Office, but he just wants you to say nice things about him on TV,” the source says he told Napolitano at the time.

oh christiepaws

Doesn't scan so good, but it's got potential for a stanza-ending blues lyric imho.

Hey baby, come to the White House tonight
I ain't lookin to get in no fight,
I just want you to say if you can
Tell it to the stuffed suits out at CNN
Baby, can you dig your man?
He's a righteous man
Tell em baby, can you dig your man?

AHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/basketball-fans-treated-to-ads-congratulating-republica-1793629526?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

man someone had fun pressing "play" imo

i hope poor milo's doing okay now that people have finally said "no" to daddy

Hey baby, come to the White House tonight
I ain't lookin to get in no fight,
I just want you to say if you can
Tell it to the stuffed suits out at CNN
Baby, can you dig your man?
He's a righteous man
Tell em baby, can you dig your man?

― Neanderthal, Saturday, March 25, 2017 9:54 AM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Get Henley on the phone, I smell a new single...

what would Don say about these happenings?

Get Over It!

to add to the bannon quote that ned mentioned above, here was trump's contribution:

The report described a meeting that Trump had with members of the Freedom Caucus, in which members pelted him with "wonkish concerns" about specific aspects of the Republicans' bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Trump cut them off, according to the report, wanting to keep it simple.

"Forget about the little shit," Trump said, unnamed sources told Politico."Let's focus on the big picture here."

That reportedly did not sit well with members in attendance.

"We’re talking about one-fifth of our economy," an unnamed member told Politico's Tim Alberta.

"...and that little shit's name...was Reince Preibus. I'm Paul Harvey."

gooooood day!

The great one speaks!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/845645916732358656

ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!

A separate response:

https://twitter.com/KT_So_It_Goes/status/845661683628564481

Sitting back & letting your voters go broke until they love you more is a bold political strategy

On Friday evening, a somewhat shellshocked president retreated to the White House residence to grieve and assign blame. He asked his advisers repeatedly: Whose fault was this?

Increasingly, that blame has fallen on Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, who coordinated the initial legislative strategy on the health care repeal with Speaker Paul D. Ryan, his close friend and a fellow Wisconsin native, according to three people briefed on Mr. Trump’s recent discussions.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/us/politics/trump-health-care-defeat-gop-civil-war.html?_r=0&referer=

trump-health-care-defeat-gop-civil-war

that's a nice URL, wish I could have shown myself this the morning of Nov 9