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

gov of kansas vetoed Medicaid expansion, thx gop for demonizing the aca so thoroughly that states continue even today to turn down free money for basic assistance to the most vulnerable populations

https://mobile.twitter.com/dnvolz/status/847461355502280705

@marcorubio suffered from Russian active measures during the election, Clinton Watts tells Senate Intel Committee. Rubio looked startled

Hm hm hm

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39435786

from latest PPP poll (which has him at -13%)

We find that if evidence comes out that proves conclusively that members of Trump's campaign team worked in association with Russia to help him win the election, 53% of voters think he should resign to only 39% who believe he should continue to serve as President.

this fuckin country

Campaign team vs. guy himself, FWIW.

right, but I mean even though it's an abstract question where voters bring their own presumptions, I would presume if it was found conclusively that his team worked with Russia, there would probably also be evidence corroborating the suspicion that the WH has tried to obfuscate the investigation. for Nixon it was the coverup (and the coverup of the coverup)

esp since any time whispers came out about Russia, Trump insisted his people were 'clean'

The article cited a 2002 story in the Hill in which Mike Pence said that “he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.”

fucking weirdo

does she have to physically restrain him from slamming drinks and doing body shots or something?

Dr. Roy Godson at Senate committee hearing: Russia started investigated interfering in election in 2009; developed platform in 2010, hacking first attempted in 2015, targeted/deployed on public throughout 2016. Also possibly implicated in Brexit vote.

a man who knows his temptations xp

Also possibly implicated in Brexit vote

umm waht

Language couched as something like "due to belief in Russian disinformation strategies and capabilities, as well as similar M.O. In Eastern Europe going back to 2004, we suggest close examination of results of Brexit..."

senate committee seems like it is actually doing real work? or am i wrong

what if all along pence has been the doug stamper to captain combover's francis underwood? next season of 'house of cards' will be EPIC

Of course - Russia's long term goal is to dismantle NATO and the eu

brb gonna pitch a sitcom where donald trump and david cameron are forced to share a cell after being found guilty of involvement in vote-tampering

I am not sure Cameron got the result he was after.

Maddow had a segment last night about how #calexit is spearheaded by a dude in Russia

i'm sure he didn't but i wouldn't mind seeing him clapped in irons anyway xp

It's unsurprising to me that there are GOPers who wouldn't call for Turnip's resignation if active collusion were proven. The ends justify the means. Who cares how he got there. He's there now and he's totally going to work for us! The cognitive dissonance is strong with this lot.

never forget that hrc was the most corrupt candidate in history

Good tweet https://twitter.com/costareports/status/847468423734976513

a history of huffing fuel would explain a lot about trump's decision-making tbf

all is forgiven as long as the rich get their tax cuts. that's all the GOP / koch/fox/norquist nation gives a shit about

https://twitter.com/dnewhauser/status/847454607852814337

Rep Chris Collins says Tuesday Group met last night agreed they won't meet or work w Freedom Caucus. "If that call comes in just hang up"

does the gop have sufficient votes in the house to move legislation without cooperation from the FC?

FC is like 25-28 people (with one guy that just left), right?

Rep. Raul Gri­jalva, who co­chairs the Con­gres­sion­al Pro­gress­ive Caucus with El­lis­on, agreed, not­ing that the “ex­treme pos­ture” of Trump’s policies has riled up the Demo­crat­ic base to the point that mem­bers who work with him run a risk, even if they bring home in­fra­struc­ture pro­jects.

“That’s got to be a hell of a bridge. I’m talk­ing eight lanes. It bet­ter be worth it,” he said.

https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/649860?oref=t.co&mref=twitter_post&unlock=UC49MYE85UIOOAHT

at that point they almost need Dem votes to advance any measure

The article cited a 2002 story in the Hill in which Mike Pence said that “he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.”

Have any of the Clash of Civilizations people glommed on to a future where fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims unite against the rest of us infidels?

xpost Yup. FC has to be on board or nothing happens, really.

how well, exactly, did Trump or Ryan do in math?

"if we grow 30 more replicant Reps in a lab and program them to be Republican, then we can pass our legislation!"

Replicant Republican Reps

Meanwhile in the Senate. (Keep in mind Isakson just had major surgery.)

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/847471836363345920

Senate Majority so fragile that Isakson being rushed back and Pence to break tie on regulation rollback after Collins, Murkowski defections

every GOP'er running in 2018 is gonna have to figure out which side of 20 Trump's approval rating is gonna be

Sure, but the calculation won't be as simple as looking at Trump's national approval number then running either against or for him.

They'll need to know the approval rating in their district, and also the approval rating relative to their Democratic opponents as well as relative to that of Democrats generally. They may also have to consider third-party effects and threats to turnout.

The final formula is like

(TrumpApprovalInDistrict - DemChallengerPositives) * PriceOfAvocados) = (AverageDailyTemperature + GDP) - LikelihoodOf3rdPartyRun) / AggregateRGBValuesOfCandidateNeckties

Math is hard!

Meantime:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/freedom-caucus-donald-trump.html

Regarding a meeting yesterday at the WH attended by Heritage Action types et al and Trump's 'conservative outreach director' Paul Teller -- a meeting that wasn't supposed to be leaked but of course:

Thomas Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch — a conservative legal advocacy group that successfully sued the Obama administration for the release of Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails — made a pointed pitch for the release of all documents pertaining to the Russia controversy, according to people who attended the session in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.

Mr. Fitton, the participants said, told Mr. Teller that Mr. Trump needed to be committed to a policy of extreme transparency about contacts between Russian government officials and Trump associates during the 2016 campaign, including Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.

He also asked Mr. Teller and other administration officials present to more rapidly approve bottled-up Freedom of Information requests about Russia and other topics — likening the foot-dragging on legally mandated disclosure to what he said was the Obama administration’s flouting of immigration laws.

Mr. Teller nodded, took notes and was noncommittal, an activist in attendance said.

Given Fitton and what he's done, I'd call that a bit of a warning shot to the WH.

Also of note, regarding this morning's tweet:

Mr. Trump’s message on Twitter was not impulsive: Mr. Bannon and his staff have been closely monitoring the president’s posts and using them as leverage in negotiations.

Dan Scavino, an aide who controls Mr. Trump’s official White House Twitter account, recently moved into Mr. Bannon’s West Wing office where he closely monitors social activity by and about the president, according to two officials.

One administration official, speaking, as were others, on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the meetings, said it was a long overdue attempt to keep conservatives from criticizing Mr. Trump publicly.

I mean, good luck with that.

Meanwhile in the Senate. (Keep in mind Isakson just had major surgery.)

v reminiscent of a play i saw in London about Labour chaos in '70s UK

i dunno what's worse, that trump's apparently loose-cannon tweeting does indeed come straight off the top of his dome or that he and bannon are agonising over every single word in the belief that they're master strategisers

I believe both these things to be true.

I know Trump's popular in the districts he won, but if I were a Freedom Caucus zombie at this point I could give a flying fuck about one of his tweets.

"You want someone to primary me? Bring it on."

medicare / social security for all, or go home, congress

as an aside, i'm surprised that more articles don't mention that the freedom caucus is entirely composed of men. no big deal, just three dozen people who all happen to be men. cynthia lummis was once part of the freedom caucus but she decided to retire from politics after her term was up, for some crazy reason.

sorry I was in a meeting and missed the window on this but I'm posting it anyway:

@marcorubio suffered from Russian active measures during the election, Clinton Watts tells Senate Intel Committee. Rubio looked startled

No, that's just his face.

I am pretty sure you have to pass a Void Comp test to prove you have no empathy to be able to join the GOP. Its a basic requirement.