Trump, July 2017: Tweet more

"Now I think it's appropriate to ask, what are their ideas?"

Jesus Christ, the selective memory.

1. Obamacare itself (tweaked or un-)

2. HRC's plan (not necessarily great but hardly a secret)

3. Medicare for all / public option

4. Single payer

Acting like there's been nothing but silence and obstruction and no plans presented is really cute and completely disingenuous, Mitch. To be fair, that's more like your party's playbook, so I can see why you might be confused at your age.

"He was so touched and heartbroken and actually teary," Stewart’s campaign manager Arnold Stiefe said.

He's an emotional old soul, Rod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6xbCs3mNc

Has the Donald yet to figure out that this WAS a 51 vote threshold

shhh don't tell him!

The Mooch did his homework. pic.twitter.com/Wku0DF2ovd

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 24, 2017

A fine image for the morning

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xIXIwM0F--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/slfo5ezt30cqp3fx7ls8.png

McConnell makes Obamacare sound like 'The Lottery'. Will no one but the valiant GOP think of the super-rich poor, poor Americans who are hurting so much under Obamacare?

Fuck you, Mitch McConnell.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DF08ZDkU0AA2xDH.jpg:large

the "Obamacare has failed" mega-soundbyte has been repeated so often that some Dems are actually believing it to be true.

it needs help and repair but its 'failures' are greatly overstated and v little pushback on the assessment so far

how the nypost restrained themselves from putting "outsuck" in that graphic i will never understand

We shoudl also note that McConnell didn't switch his vote to NO at the last minute so that he could bring this up again, a sure sign that health care repeal looks – I stress looks – dead.

Any significance to his putting it "back on the calendar" bit?

Has the Donald yet to figure out that this WAS a 51 vote threshold
― Neanderthal

Someone has evidently pointed this out to him in the last five minutes, new tweet up.

A fine image for the morning

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xIXIwM0F--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/slfo5ezt30cqp3fx7ls8.png

― Ned Raggett, Friday, July 28, 2017 10:07 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, now the GOP can go back to doing what it does best -- playing the victim. To paraphrase Troy McClure, it's the role they were born to play, baby!

all the senators would do better if they just dressed in t shirts and shorts

you wanna see Mike Enzi's thunder thighs

the "Obamacare has failed" mega-soundbyte has been repeated so often that some Dems are actually believing it to be true.

doesn't help that i get "OBAMACARE: DONE!" emails from the DCCC every fucking day

When exactly was 'have a mechanic fix that clanking thing' supplanted by 'torch your car and piss on the ashes and trust that another car will manifest even though you can't afford one and aren't sure where a dealership even is'?

Like, why as a society do we seem to be swinging abruptly away from the idea that things can be tweaked and updated and improved? Obama wasn't perfect so let's get a giant psychotic toddler to wreck the entire institution.

XP When your car stopped being a Chevrolet and became an ObamaCar.

somebody should take away the DCCC's mail merge keys

Funniest thing to emerge so far from all this

https://screengrabber.deadspin.com/bah-gawd-its-the-rattlesnake-1797324485

Your lips to god's ears, sir.

Sen. Ted Cruz after failed "skinny" repeal of Obamacare: "No party can remain in power by lying to the American people" pic.twitter.com/wGJIwN2Qpz

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 28, 2017

As someone on the radio pointed out re: Idiot's majority rules suggestion, the bill lost 51 to 49, and there is absolutely zero chance of changing the law so that 49 ever beats 51.

Alternative math

Unless he can pass the amendment "No means yes and yes means no"

This is an unfortunate headline.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/g00/video/2017/07/28/scott_adams_trump_going_public_on_sessions_was_only_way_to_force_attorney_general_to_please_him.html

So he did the one and only thing he could do to influence things and not just surrender and roll over: he went to the public. Do you remember the public? That's us. We're their bosses. President Trump works for us and the Attorney General, he works for us too.

hey dildo, you forgot to mention why opening up yet another massive go-nowhere investigation on Hillary Clinton is a good thing for the American public

49 to 51 is basically the popular vote breakdown, can see why dude's confused.

^^ beat me to it

49 is almost 50, and we all know 50 is the biggest number.

https://plnami.blob.core.windows.net/media/2017/06/rasmussen.jpg

he's 41% at rasumussen now btw which is like 35 in real money

i didn't get why they didn't let heller vote no once it was clear they were going to lose

but then i remembered trump wouldn't understand and would go all in on him if he did that, so what would be the point

like 35 in real money

What about in dog money

I wonder if the Dems can get away with campaigning on repeal and replace in 2018...

49 votes would be 50% if you CA. And you can't count the votes of Senators from New Mexico--only American votes!

leave out CA, duh

in a just world, now would be the time for dems to go all-out on single-payer

you can tell from mcconnell's speech last night that he thinks they have a chance

xpost Nah, I think that would be a mistake, sadly. The best they can hope for are small incremental fixes to what exists, if that. At least until more state govs/legislators go dem.

Dems should pull a reverse GOP and refuse to do anything until several Republicans die and/or lose reelection.

Old Republicans never die, they just harvest the blood of their grandchildren.

Could someone amplify/confirm?

According to multiple reports on Twitter, this morning House Speaker Paul Ryan reacted to the Obamacare repeal failure with a reading of the lyrics to Canadian pop singer Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976’s hit single, "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald."

What went down with McCain and Murkowski clearly chickens coming home to roost for Trump, to some degree. On the former, he had no leverage over the (failing!) John McCain, who he had repeatedly insulted. On the latter, he (or his people) picked a fight with the one person who had leverage over the instigator:

A lot of the media coverage in the wake of the vote will focus on McCain, because he's the most famous, and Collins was always going to vote “no.” But Murkowski’s opposition was equally decisive and perhaps most illustrative of the problems ahead for Trump.

Trump, who won Alaska by 15 points, ripped the state’s senior senator on Twitter Wednesday after she opposed a key procedural motion to open debate on health care.

Later that day, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Murkowski and the state’s other Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, to threaten that the Trump administration may change its position on several issues that affect the state to punish Murkowski, such as blocking energy exploration and plans to allow the construction of new roads. “The message was pretty clear,” Sullivan told the Alaska Dispatch News.

Nevertheless, Murkowski persisted. In fact, she took it one step further and demonstrated that she has more leverage over Zinke than he has over her. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski indefinitely postponed a nominations markup that the Interior Department badly wants.

This demonstrated the degree to which Zinke’s ham-handed phone call was political malpractice. The secretary, or whoever at the White House ordered him to make the calls, clearly doesn’t understand the awesome power that comes with being the chairman of a Senate committee. Only an amateur would threaten the person who has oversight over his agency! If she wants, Murkowski can make Zinke’s life so unbelievably miserable. He has no idea. (The Interior Department did not respond to requests for comment.)

A Murkowski spokeswoman denied that putting off the hearing was revenge or retaliation. Even if you believe that, and color us skeptical, postponing the hearing sent a crystal-clear message to the administration that she is not to be messed with. “I base my votes on what I believe is in Alaska's best interest,” Murkowski told reporters, with a smile.

Senators serve six-year terms, so they’re more insulated from pressure than representatives who are up every two years. Murkowski, who easily won a fourth term last year, is not up again until 2022, when Trump may no longer be president.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/republicans-console-themselves-with-poems-songs-after-healthcare-defeat/article/2629985

xpost

lol “I base my votes on what I believe is in Alaska's best interest,” Murkowski told reporters, with a smile

Back to the intrigue!

"Silence equals assent." @POTUS must model and demand a higher standard. @Scarramuci should be fired immediately. https://t.co/M3HT7xoUG7

— Bob Vander Plaats (@bobvanderplaats) July 28, 2017

Actually Bob I am the higher standard he is demanding. He is very happy with the job I am doing. #swamp pic.twitter.com/pz6NnJMXRk

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scarramuci) July 28, 2017

Seriously, I hope Scaramucci just tells all the evangelical types how weak and useless they are. For a start.

Bother, turns out it was a fake Scaramucci account...but I'm sure the sentiment is real.

Among the poems lawmakers read, Pittenger said, was "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.
"For we have promises to keep," Pittenger recited, "Miles to go before we sleep."

glad Frost doesn't know

xpost Bummer. I am the higher standard! That's like some sort of Sylvester Stallone movie retort.

Harvard math professor Noam Elkies wrote an a capella setting of "Stopping by Woods..." that you can here: http://www.math.harvard.edu/~elkies/mp3/Stopping.mp3