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

xxxpost a nationalist party, not a socialist party.

he wants people to unite behind Trump being awesome, and well frankly Trump voters having insurance to finally get their brain trauma looked at will work against that

Entitlement programs aren't truly socialist though they just mitigate the brutality of the market. I don't think Trump and Bannon are as ideologically opposed to these things as traditional Republicans. Trump was talking about "priming the pump" of the market through federal spending just last week

this is a bizarrely pointless detour, guys

I just think he'd love to put Dems and Republicans in the difficult position of opposing something the population would support.

I feel I've aggressively taken down this idea before but no, Trump is not going to back single payer, come on. The idea of him backing *any* plan that boils down to raising his own taxes is laughable, regardless of whatever fantasy political game-change you want to write into it.

― tales of a scorched-earth nothing (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2:05 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this assumes he cares about the deficit in the same way the rest of his party does.

i don't think he's going to try it, but policy reasons are not why.

he's got to know that it would be politically unwise to position himself against every republican member of congress

I think it would be smart. Their ideas are not popular; their xenophobic propaganda is. Trump exposed this during the Republican primaries by ditching the former and tripling down on the latter

I am not sure that linking single-payer to xenophobic, racist nationalism is a strategy we should be hoping for.

otm

Like, "single-payer for all white people" is the most likely expression of what you are talking about, if you want to follow the positions through to their logical endpoint. Maybe that works for you but it doesn't work for me.

I'm not saying I am hoping for it wtf

5D chess theories about trump are silly because he is the last person on earth you should overthink. I don't come up with convoluted theories about why my cat shit in the hallway. Usually it's because it got stuck on her ass as she left the litter box and as a cat she is too dumb to do anything about it.

It would be a nightmare for the democrats moving forward. I desperately hope he sticks with unpopular Republican dogma in his policy proposals.

So effectively you are saying nothing.

There may actually be a few Republican members of congress who would (speaking only for themselves) entertain single-payer or Medicare for all. But it won't happen, not least because it would make all the MAGAhatters' heads explode with incoherent rage. They hate government absolutely, and they love Trumpian ballsiness absolutely. A conflict between those two absolutes would probably cause them to melt.

Again, It won't happen, but I would love to see it if it could.

"He'd be able to say he tried to replace Obamacare with "something incredible" and be telling the truth"

See, this is where you go wrong. Trump can't tell the difference.

I have to confess I'm totally baffled by Treeship's new "hey guys, what if Donald Trump is actually not an ego-driven, rage-fueled imbecile, but secretly smart?" persona.

Trump worship trumps government-hate, as they'll only allow themselves to believe he's 100% awesome no matter what he does.

"let's see where he's going with this"

"He'd be able to say he tried to replace Obamacare with "something incredible" and be telling the truth"

See, this is where you go wrong. Trump can't tell the difference.

― Frederik B, Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2:44 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Again he is not concerned with whether or not anything in reality coincides with what he says has occurred.

Agreed.

Also, if Trump proposed single payer, it would be the most obvious bluff in political history. And Schumer has already said they are open to fix obamacare with Trump. They would call his bluff, he'd have to fold because he can't get his own party on board, the Dems would own single payer, and would make it law in 2021.

Are we pretending now that Trump came up with his own policy positions and executive orders? Because otherwise the question isn't what position he may or may not take but rather what position his handlers may or may not feed to him.

Trump has zero ideas, i guess we're fortunate to the extent that his handlers with actual ideas are also terrible at politics and equally as unlikeable.

i do wish Obama hadn't roasted him though, maybe he should have invited him to the White House for an overcooked steak dinner and a root beer. I mean I'm pretty sure Trump's campaign and presidency is just a long revenge mission.

single payer doesn't directly harm people of color or directly enrich the trump family, no way he'd go for it

guys, there is no way Trump is going to be the nominee, come on

I have to confess I'm totally baffled by Treeship's new "hey guys, what if Donald Trump is actually not an ego-driven, rage-fueled imbecile, but secretly smart?" persona.

Don't have to be that smart to champion a health care model that's been proven to work better than our current one, but that politicians of both parties are loathe to endorse for reasons that are political rather than pragmatic. Especially at a time when town halls across the nation are aflame with people talking about their insane premiums, which were set to double or triple in some cases under the proposed Ryan legislation that Trump believes huniliated him.

This isn't 5-dimensional chess it's like tic tac toe. They'll probaly be too obtuse to do it though. Sorry for opening this tangent.

Unless Fox and Friends brings a story about the country clamoring for single payer, Trump won't know about. And I somehow doubt that they will...

Meantime:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-white-house-and-republicans-blew-up-the-house-russia-investigation

Of note (last Monday being last week, not yesterday):

Last Monday morning, shortly before the start of the hearing, a senior White House official told me, “You’ll see the setting of the predicate. That’s the thing to watch today.” He suggested that I read a piece in The Hill about incidental collection. The article posited that if “Trump or his advisors were speaking directly to foreign individuals who were the target of U.S. spying during the election campaign, and the intelligence agencies recorded Trump by accident, it’s plausible that those communications would have been collected and shared amongst intelligence agencies.”

The White House clearly indicated to me that it knew Nunes would highlight this issue. “It’s backdoor surveillance where it’s not just incidental, it’s systematic,” the White House official said. “Watch Nunes today.”

i doubt trump could even coherently explain what single payer is, let alone advocate for it

I doubt Trump could even coherently explain health insurance.

I gotcher "backdoor surveillance" right here

I was reminded lately of the nurses union leader who said she believed Trump might enact single payer because his wife is European.
http://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2017/01/political-powerful-nurses-union-head-im-counting-on-trump-for-real-health-care-reform-108511

wapo or politico had a story the other day about the heritage foundation basically running point on some of the healthcare legislation because nobody knew wtf they were doing.. unfortunately theyre a little bit better at incubating and prepping supreme court nominees like gorsuch.

I doubt Trump could even coherently explain health insurance.

Paul Ryan can't - remember when he said insurance cannot work if healthy people have to pay more to subsidize the sick?

I mean, it's clear from his budget and other things that Trump is going down an anti-government road but I still think it's worth remembering that he didnt run on that and who knows what would happen if he cuts off the preibus wing. He's out for himself in the end--has no affextion for the gop.

He'd put the congressional Republicans he hates in the position of explaining to their voters why they're not backing him. He'd be able to say he tried to replace Obamacare with "something incredible" and be telling the truth, bolstering his outsider cred which bouyed him to the presidency. Plus it would never pass so his taxes wouldn't be raised.

― Treeship, Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2:09 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he already did this with ryancare and the freedom caucus called his bluff without a second thought. you think they blink if it's single payer instead? huh?

xpost Yes, you beat me to the punch. They're all varying flavors of fucking moronic.

the genius move of letting slip they are creating an enemies list of REPUBLICANS is the craziest thing, what kind of half-assed dark lord plays it like that

also, bannon is nothing if not an ideologue, he would never support this. have you ever read the news? it might help to know a thing or two about these people

I mean, it's clear from his budget and other things that Trump is going down an anti-government road but I still think it's worth remembering that he didnt run on that and who knows what would happen if he cuts off the preibus wing. He's out for himself in the end--has no affextion for the gop.

― Treeship, Tuesday, March 28, 2017 7:19 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good thing he was a cunt to everyone else involved. he needs them now! what a real ass politician.

Treeship, I agree that he doesn't _personally_ have any particular allegiance to GOPers or alt-right fucksticks or South Park Republicans or garden-variety antigovernment yahoos. But he's burned all other bridges by riding on their shoulders (as mayor j notes).

And (as has been noted a million times already) he is not smart or strategic or calculating. He's just a person made of garbage who craves power and adulation. The environment turned out to be perversely ripe for him, but that's all bloos under the bridge.

Anyways he could (theoretically) come out for transgender inclusion, abortion on demand, universal healthcare, unilateral nuclear disarmament, open borders, and, hell, every kid gets a puppy!

But (A) he won't, because he and/or his team knows who brought them to the dance. The agenda to date has been tailor-made for the red hat brigade. They have no incentive to stop tossing red meat in that direction, and every incentive to continue.

And (B) he has no ideas of his own, and he's surrounded by right-wing fucksticks, not left-wing fucksticks. If Bannon did an ideological 180 it's likely that Trump would too. But Bannon won't, so Trump won't (as k3vin notes).

I lost track of why we are even talking about this.

i just don't understand how from day to day you vacillate between being sarah kendzior and this bizarrely naive optimist. here's a piece of advice -- the outlook is never as bleak or as rosy as the most recent data point might suggest. take things as a whole, don't overreact to a couple hours of news cycle, and apply occam's razor. and take a deep breath.

I lost track of why we are even talking about this.

^^ new board description

"People say a lot of things around here, and it's fine. It's politics," Nunes told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Asked whether he was considering Schiff's request, which was later echoed by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Nunes said "no."

Some of his fellow committee Republicans were more colorful in their rejection of calls for his recusal.

"Jesus would not be a satisfactory chairperson to some of my Democratic colleagues," South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy told TWS. "They would complain about his hair.

"I did this for 20 years. I've never met a defense attorney who didn't complain about the prosecutor, usually when they don't have good facts," Gowdy continued. "This is a factual investigation."

gee it's almost like they're arguing against strawmen

feel like "fuck trey gowdy" is a sentiment that can't ever really be expressed enough XP

trey gowdy is obviously salty that everyone talked shit about his stupid haircuts during benghazi

also trey - in your 20 years did the prosecutor go over to the defendants house to show him some cool new evidence in the case against them?

"Jesus would not be a satisfactory chairperson to some of my Democratic colleagues," South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy told TWS. "They would complain about his hair.

otm