Sunday, March 12, 2017
Trump likely fired US Attorney Bharara to sabotage ‘troublesome’ investigations
By David Ferguson
Saturday evening, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin appeared by phone to discuss the firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara with anchor Ana Cabrera.
Mediaite.com said that Toobin believes Bharara was axed because he was pursuing lines of investigation that would prove “troublesome” to the Trump administration.
“The question arises,” Toobin said, “Is there something either that the Trump administration doesn’t want Preet Bharara to pursue, or are there things he knows that he might disclose later that could be troublesome for the Trump administration?”
Bharara was fired by Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions after he refused to comply with a Justice Department order for 46 U.S. Attorneys appointed by the Obama administration to vacate their posts immediately.
The call for the resignations came less than 24 hours after Fox News host and indefatigable Trump booster Sean Hannity called for a “purge” of federal officials appointed by the Obama administration.
Bharara has a reputation as a Wall Street enforcer and was looking into criminal allegations against Fox News. In 2012, Bharara’s office successfully extradited and prosecuted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was known as “the merchant of death.”
He is believed to have been investigating connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government. In his statement after the firing, Bharara said, “I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”
Saturday evening, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin appeared by phone to discuss the firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara with anchor Ana Cabrera.
Mediaite.com said that Toobin believes Bharara was axed because he was pursuing lines of investigation that would prove “troublesome” to the Trump administration.
“The question arises,” Toobin said, “Is there something either that the Trump administration doesn’t want Preet Bharara to pursue, or are there things he knows that he might disclose later that could be troublesome for the Trump administration?”
Bharara was fired by Attorney Gen. Jeff Sessions after he refused to comply with a Justice Department order for 46 U.S. Attorneys appointed by the Obama administration to vacate their posts immediately.
The call for the resignations came less than 24 hours after Fox News host and indefatigable Trump booster Sean Hannity called for a “purge” of federal officials appointed by the Obama administration.
Bharara has a reputation as a Wall Street enforcer and was looking into criminal allegations against Fox News. In 2012, Bharara’s office successfully extradited and prosecuted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was known as “the merchant of death.”
He is believed to have been investigating connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government. In his statement after the firing, Bharara said, “I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”
Saturday, March 11, 2017
'I Might As Well Have Not Voted': Details Of GOP Health Plan Leave Trump Voter Appalled
By Brad Reed
Donald Trump this week signaled his support for the House Republicans’ new health care bill — but it looks like that legislation is going over like a lead balloon with his base.
Not only are the Trump diehards at Breitbart News bashing the plan as “Obamacare 2.0,” but even some casual voters are worried about the president’s plan.
ABC News this week talked with North Carolina resident Martha Brawley, a 55 year old woman who cast a ballot for the first time in her life for Donald Trump. Brawley says that she voted for the president on the hopes that he could bring down the cost of health care — but she’s been appalled so far by what she’s seen from the Republican Congress.
“I voted for Trump hoping that he would change the insurance so I could get good health care,” she told ABC News. “I might as well have not voted.”
Brawley was particularly upset when she learned that, under Trumpcare, she would receive a paltry $3,500 tax credit to buy insurance. At the moment, she gets a federal subsidy of around $8,688 to buy insurance from Obamacare.
“All these people who talk in politics have insurance,” she told ABC News. “People like me don’t.”
Donald Trump this week signaled his support for the House Republicans’ new health care bill — but it looks like that legislation is going over like a lead balloon with his base.
Not only are the Trump diehards at Breitbart News bashing the plan as “Obamacare 2.0,” but even some casual voters are worried about the president’s plan.
ABC News this week talked with North Carolina resident Martha Brawley, a 55 year old woman who cast a ballot for the first time in her life for Donald Trump. Brawley says that she voted for the president on the hopes that he could bring down the cost of health care — but she’s been appalled so far by what she’s seen from the Republican Congress.
“I voted for Trump hoping that he would change the insurance so I could get good health care,” she told ABC News. “I might as well have not voted.”
Brawley was particularly upset when she learned that, under Trumpcare, she would receive a paltry $3,500 tax credit to buy insurance. At the moment, she gets a federal subsidy of around $8,688 to buy insurance from Obamacare.
“All these people who talk in politics have insurance,” she told ABC News. “People like me don’t.”
One Brief Example Of The Insane Hypocrisy Of The GOP On The Health Care Bill
Posted by Rude One
It's really one of the weirdest things in the American Health Care Act, the bullshit bill that bullshit Republicans rolled out so their bullshit president could declare that he was St. Donald fighting the Affordable Care Act dragon. From pages 10-16, the bill's authors lay out the conditions by which MegaMillions and Powerball and other winners would have to pay for their own damn health insurance. That new part takes up a tenth of the length of the entire 66 page bill that escaped Mario Kart character Sean Spicer jigged around and pointed at for its brevity, contrasting it with the monstrously huge stack of pages that make up Obamacare (yeah, the black guy's was bigger and you could do more with it).
And the lottery section is just bizarrely precise in talking about the conditions when a lottery winner wouldn't be able to get Medicaid: "a State shall, in determining such eligibility, include such winnings or income (as applicable) as income received— (I) in the month in which such winnings or income (as applicable) is received if the amount of such winnings or income is less than $80,000; (II) over a period of 2 months if the amount of such winnings or income (as applicable) is greater than or equal to $80,000 but less than $90,000; (III) over a period of 3 months if the amount of such winnings or income (as applicable) is greater than or equal to $90,000 but..." You get the idea.
Obsessively detailed, no?
This is easy to mock in a "God, how fucking dumb are they?" kind of way. Except, instead, looking at why this language is in the bill reveals something just a little more sinister about the hypocrisy under which the GOP is operating to commit this health care fuckery.
One of the reasons that Republicans are desperately trying to cram the bill through like a limp cock on an unlubed asshole is because the Congressional Budget Office hasn't finished its scoring of the bill to see what its effects might be. When the CBO is done, it will likely reveal that the AHCA is, as previously mentioned, a bullshit bill that will cost a ton of money and kick millions of people off health insurance. Republicans in the House, at least, are trying to maintain the illusion that they're not just complete twat mites who want to straight up murder people to give the wealthy a tax cut, but, yeah, that's pretty much what's going on.
A cynical reader might be thinking, "Well, sure, everyone loves the CBO when it gives them the numbers they want. What's the big deal?" But that's not quite cynical enough.
See, the lottery exclusion up there was actually first brought up in 2016 because, apparently, there are enough winners to make a big damn difference: "Using the typical per capita cost for Medicaid adults, this provision would reduce direct spending by $475 million over the 2016-2026 period." You know who came up with that nearly half-billion dollars in savings because of a seemingly odd provision? The Congressional Budget Office.
That's the depth of hypocrisy occurring here. The Republicans need the CBO's figures to write their goddamn bill, but they are running scared from the CBO when it comes to the final bill's effects on Americans. That's the incredible dickishness involved here.
It's really one of the weirdest things in the American Health Care Act, the bullshit bill that bullshit Republicans rolled out so their bullshit president could declare that he was St. Donald fighting the Affordable Care Act dragon. From pages 10-16, the bill's authors lay out the conditions by which MegaMillions and Powerball and other winners would have to pay for their own damn health insurance. That new part takes up a tenth of the length of the entire 66 page bill that escaped Mario Kart character Sean Spicer jigged around and pointed at for its brevity, contrasting it with the monstrously huge stack of pages that make up Obamacare (yeah, the black guy's was bigger and you could do more with it).
And the lottery section is just bizarrely precise in talking about the conditions when a lottery winner wouldn't be able to get Medicaid: "a State shall, in determining such eligibility, include such winnings or income (as applicable) as income received— (I) in the month in which such winnings or income (as applicable) is received if the amount of such winnings or income is less than $80,000; (II) over a period of 2 months if the amount of such winnings or income (as applicable) is greater than or equal to $80,000 but less than $90,000; (III) over a period of 3 months if the amount of such winnings or income (as applicable) is greater than or equal to $90,000 but..." You get the idea.
Obsessively detailed, no?
This is easy to mock in a "God, how fucking dumb are they?" kind of way. Except, instead, looking at why this language is in the bill reveals something just a little more sinister about the hypocrisy under which the GOP is operating to commit this health care fuckery.
One of the reasons that Republicans are desperately trying to cram the bill through like a limp cock on an unlubed asshole is because the Congressional Budget Office hasn't finished its scoring of the bill to see what its effects might be. When the CBO is done, it will likely reveal that the AHCA is, as previously mentioned, a bullshit bill that will cost a ton of money and kick millions of people off health insurance. Republicans in the House, at least, are trying to maintain the illusion that they're not just complete twat mites who want to straight up murder people to give the wealthy a tax cut, but, yeah, that's pretty much what's going on.
A cynical reader might be thinking, "Well, sure, everyone loves the CBO when it gives them the numbers they want. What's the big deal?" But that's not quite cynical enough.
See, the lottery exclusion up there was actually first brought up in 2016 because, apparently, there are enough winners to make a big damn difference: "Using the typical per capita cost for Medicaid adults, this provision would reduce direct spending by $475 million over the 2016-2026 period." You know who came up with that nearly half-billion dollars in savings because of a seemingly odd provision? The Congressional Budget Office.
That's the depth of hypocrisy occurring here. The Republicans need the CBO's figures to write their goddamn bill, but they are running scared from the CBO when it comes to the final bill's effects on Americans. That's the incredible dickishness involved here.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Trump Fires All 46 Remaining US Attorneys Out Of Fear That Obama's Out To Get Him
Less
than a week after President Trump made his allegation that President
Obama wiretapped him, he has fired all 46 remaining US attorneys that
were appointed by Obama.
Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said in an email that all remaining holdover United States attorneys had been asked to resign, leaving their deputy United States attorneys, who are career officials, in place in an acting capacity.
“As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States Attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice,” she said in the email. “The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to tender their resignations to ensure a uniform transition.”
Before Trump made his wiretap allegations against the former president, he blamed Obama for the leaks that have plagued his administration.
The mass firings come less than a day after Sean Hannity viewer Trump watched the Fox News host call for a purge of everyone who worked against him in government. Fox News and conservative websites are fueling Trump’s paranoid mentality.
It is not unusual for presidents to replace the US attorneys with their own appointees, but most presidents outside Clinton in 1993, do this gradually. They also don’t gut the attorneys at the Justice Department days after accusing the former administration of wiretapping them.
The Friday massacre style dismissal reeks of Trump administration paranoia. The Trump administration believes that holdovers from the previous administration are the problem.
The mass firing isn’t unprecedented, but it a sign of the mounting instability within with the White House.
Moscow's work didn't end on Nov. 8, 2016
Rachel Maddow Says Helping Trump Become POTUS Was Only The Beginning Of Russia’s Operation
The MSNBC star said events that have unfolded during Trump’s time in
office show that “Russia may now be reaping its reward, maybe getting
what it wants out of the United States government as payback for running
the successful op that helped install the new head of the American
government.”
During the opening of her show, Maddow said that it’s one thing for the Trump campaign and its officials to meet and seemingly work with the Russians during the campaign – but it’s becoming apparent that the election may have just been the opening act of Moscow’s operation.
The new developments that Wikileaks – the same folks that worked with the Russians to expose hacked DNC emails last year – released a trove of classified CIA material is further proof, Maddow says, that the Russians are likely still trying to meddle in U.S. affairs at the direction of Vladimir Putin. Instead of influencing an election, the goal now seems to be disrupting and undermining U.S. intelligence agencies.
Like usual, there is a connection between the latest WikiLeaks release and the President of the United States.
As Maddow pointed out, Trump supporter Nigel Farage, who recently had dinner with Trump, met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange just two days after the classified CIA information was reportedly released by the organization. When asked why he was visiting Assange, Farage said he “couldn’t remember.”
While the focus is rightfully on Russia’s involvement in last year’s election and what connection the Russians had with the Trump campaign, it’s also important to consider that Moscow now may be influencing our government. In other words, the election may have just been the beginning.
Maddow brings that point home:
Maddow says there is growing evidence that Moscow's work didn't end on Nov. 8, 2016 – that was only the opening act.
During the opening of her show, Maddow said that it’s one thing for the Trump campaign and its officials to meet and seemingly work with the Russians during the campaign – but it’s becoming apparent that the election may have just been the opening act of Moscow’s operation.
The new developments that Wikileaks – the same folks that worked with the Russians to expose hacked DNC emails last year – released a trove of classified CIA material is further proof, Maddow says, that the Russians are likely still trying to meddle in U.S. affairs at the direction of Vladimir Putin. Instead of influencing an election, the goal now seems to be disrupting and undermining U.S. intelligence agencies.
Like usual, there is a connection between the latest WikiLeaks release and the President of the United States.
As Maddow pointed out, Trump supporter Nigel Farage, who recently had dinner with Trump, met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange just two days after the classified CIA information was reportedly released by the organization. When asked why he was visiting Assange, Farage said he “couldn’t remember.”
While the focus is rightfully on Russia’s involvement in last year’s election and what connection the Russians had with the Trump campaign, it’s also important to consider that Moscow now may be influencing our government. In other words, the election may have just been the beginning.
Maddow brings that point home:
The Russian government attacked our election. The Russian government was in contact with multiple Trump campaign sources while they were doing it. Russian nemeses in the American government – U.S. State Department, CIA – are not faring well since Donald Trump came to power. Is the operation that Russia started during the campaign, is it over? Or are they still running it? Are we still in this now?It’s unsettling to consider the possibility that Russia, after helping put Donald Trump in the White House, is still influencing U.S. affairs. But there is mounting evidence that Moscow’s work didn’t end on Nov. 8, 2016 – that was only the beginning.
Bernie Sanders rips ‘phony billionaire’ Donald Trump: ‘We have a president who is a pathological liar’
By Travis Gettys
Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-VT) accused President Donald Trump of lying in an effort to undermine
democracy and gather authoritarian powers for himself.
“What he wants, I think, is to end up as leader of a nation which has moved in a significant degree toward authoritarianism where the president of the United States has extraordinary powers, far more so than our Constitution has provided for or the values of the American people support,” Sanders told The Guardian.
Sanders pointed to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the chairman of the House Science Committee, who urged Americans to get “unvarnished” news directly from the president instead of trusting the media.
“That is unprecedented in American history,” Sanders said. “George Bush was a very conservative president, I opposed him every single day. But George Bush did not operate outside of mainstream American political values.”
Sanders faulted the Democratic Party for ignoring the economic displacement of the working class to focus on Wall Street and liberal elites, which he said allowed a “phony billionaire” to win election to the White House.
“There needs to be a fundamental acknowledgement that the model of the Democratic party has been a horrific failure — no ifs, buts and maybes,” Sanders said. “Democrats have lost over 900 legislative seats in states all over this country. There are states where there is virtually no Democratic party at all. When an election takes place the Democrats can’t even put up a candidate for the US Senate.
That’s how pathetic it is.”
Those failures have left the Republican Party as the last defense against Trump’s authoritarian ambitions, Sanders said.
“These are very scary times for the people of the United States and, because the Unites States is the most powerful country on Earth, for the whole word,” he said. “The bad news, the very bad news is that we have a president who is a pathological liar.”
Bernie Sanders (Good Morning America)
“What he wants, I think, is to end up as leader of a nation which has moved in a significant degree toward authoritarianism where the president of the United States has extraordinary powers, far more so than our Constitution has provided for or the values of the American people support,” Sanders told The Guardian.
Sanders pointed to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the chairman of the House Science Committee, who urged Americans to get “unvarnished” news directly from the president instead of trusting the media.
“That is unprecedented in American history,” Sanders said. “George Bush was a very conservative president, I opposed him every single day. But George Bush did not operate outside of mainstream American political values.”
Sanders faulted the Democratic Party for ignoring the economic displacement of the working class to focus on Wall Street and liberal elites, which he said allowed a “phony billionaire” to win election to the White House.
“There needs to be a fundamental acknowledgement that the model of the Democratic party has been a horrific failure — no ifs, buts and maybes,” Sanders said. “Democrats have lost over 900 legislative seats in states all over this country. There are states where there is virtually no Democratic party at all. When an election takes place the Democrats can’t even put up a candidate for the US Senate.
That’s how pathetic it is.”
Those failures have left the Republican Party as the last defense against Trump’s authoritarian ambitions, Sanders said.
“These are very scary times for the people of the United States and, because the Unites States is the most powerful country on Earth, for the whole word,” he said. “The bad news, the very bad news is that we have a president who is a pathological liar.”
Paul Ryan: "Did You Know Insurance Works Like Insurance?"
Posted by Rude One
Blithering ass pimple Paul Ryan, a man who looks like he's perpetually contemplating how he can get away with getting fucked by a horse dick, said one of the stupidest things anyone in politics has said recently, and that's even counting every word out of Donald Trump's dumb, leathery, old man mouth.
Using the filmstrip of the damned that is PowerPoint, Ryan attempted to explain what is so bad about the Affordable Care Act's insurance mandate, and, in doing so, demonstrated that you can make anything seem sinister with a colorful pie chart.
"The fatal conceit of Obamacare is that we’re just gonna make everybody buy our health insurance at the federal government level. Young and healthy people are going to go into the market and pay for the older, sicker people. So the young, healthy person’s going to be made to buy healthcare, and they’re gonna pay for the person, you know, who gets breast cancer in her 40's, or gets heart disease in his 50's," Ryan said.
You following that so far? Now let's have some motherfuckin' pie: "So take a look at this chart. The red slice here are what I would call people with pre-existing conditions, people who have real healthcare problems. The blue is the rest of the people in the individual market, that’s the market where people don’t get health insurance with their jobs, or they buy it themselves. [For the record, the blue is about 80% of the pie] The whole idea of Obamacare is the people in the blue side pay for the people on the red side. The people who are healthy pay for the people who are sick. It’s not working, and that’s why it’s in a death spiral."
In other words, the insurance works, well, just like fuckin' insurance works. Exactly like insurance works. Every kind of insurance. Your car insurance? Homeowner's? Yep. But, hell, let's put insurance aside for a moment.
By Ryan's reasoning, there is no reason for there even to be a society, let alone a government. Some of you don't have children and you pay property taxes, which, in most states, goes to fund schools, which you don't use because, hey, you don't have any fuckin' children.
Jesus fuckballs, this is even more of a scam than health insurance because there's a good chance you're gonna go to a doctor some day. If you never have kids, you never take advantage of the school system. Why the fuck should you have to pay for it?
You know why we pay for schools for other people's kids? Because that's what the fuck you do or your entire society turns to shit (unless we start sending kids back to work all those coal mine jobs that Trump has promised). And that's why you pay for other people's health care. Because if you don't, you will end up paying, through emergency room visits, lost productivity, and more.
My insurance that I've paid during this relatively healthy time of my life is a hedge against the time when I get cancer from the soon-to-be poisoned water or have a heart attack from watching cock knobs like Ryan attempt to explain why the basic model for the existence of insurance is wrong. I'm not gonna forego insurance because I'm paying for someone's chemo now. What a fuckin' tool I'd be.
And, look, we shouldn't even be talking about fuckin' health insurance. We should be talking about a national health care system that eliminates the profiteering corporations. But we're Americans, and, goddammit, we want people to suffer because we think it's better that people have a fantasy idea of "freedom." Motherfucker, we have jobs and shit to do. And Ryan wants you to take the time to figure out how to get the best price on that stent surgery that you need. That's not freedom. That's fucking with people's lives and making them believe they are free when they are just slaves in your chains of market forces.
Towards the end of his TED-talk from hell, Ryan gave away the game, the real reason why the House GOP is attempting this nonsense: "We, as Republicans, have been waiting seven years to do this. We, as Republicans, who fought the creation of this law and accurately predicted that it would not work, ran for office in 2010, in 2012, in 2014 and in 2016 on a promise that we would -- if given the ability, we would repeal and replace this law. How many people running for Congress and the Senate did you hear say that? How many times did you hear President Donald Trump, when he was candidate Donald Trump, say that? This is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing Obamacare. The time is here. The time is now. This is the moment. And this is the closest this will ever happen."
We're all just victims of a tautology that has ensnared the GOP. They swore up and down that they would repeal the Affordable Care Act, and now that they can repeal the ACA, they have to repeal the ACA because they said they would repeal the ACA and now they can repeal...
Except they can't unless they get a critical number of Americans to think, "Wait, I shouldn't pay for shit I'm not using right this second," which, sadly, is probably a convincing argument to the selfish pricks who voted for these assholes like Ryan.
(By the way, the ACA isn't in a "death spiral." Premiums have gone up for just 3% of all Americans with health insurance. That's what we're arguing about here. It's all a fucking game.)
Blithering ass pimple Paul Ryan, a man who looks like he's perpetually contemplating how he can get away with getting fucked by a horse dick, said one of the stupidest things anyone in politics has said recently, and that's even counting every word out of Donald Trump's dumb, leathery, old man mouth.
Using the filmstrip of the damned that is PowerPoint, Ryan attempted to explain what is so bad about the Affordable Care Act's insurance mandate, and, in doing so, demonstrated that you can make anything seem sinister with a colorful pie chart.
"The fatal conceit of Obamacare is that we’re just gonna make everybody buy our health insurance at the federal government level. Young and healthy people are going to go into the market and pay for the older, sicker people. So the young, healthy person’s going to be made to buy healthcare, and they’re gonna pay for the person, you know, who gets breast cancer in her 40's, or gets heart disease in his 50's," Ryan said.
You following that so far? Now let's have some motherfuckin' pie: "So take a look at this chart. The red slice here are what I would call people with pre-existing conditions, people who have real healthcare problems. The blue is the rest of the people in the individual market, that’s the market where people don’t get health insurance with their jobs, or they buy it themselves. [For the record, the blue is about 80% of the pie] The whole idea of Obamacare is the people in the blue side pay for the people on the red side. The people who are healthy pay for the people who are sick. It’s not working, and that’s why it’s in a death spiral."
In other words, the insurance works, well, just like fuckin' insurance works. Exactly like insurance works. Every kind of insurance. Your car insurance? Homeowner's? Yep. But, hell, let's put insurance aside for a moment.
By Ryan's reasoning, there is no reason for there even to be a society, let alone a government. Some of you don't have children and you pay property taxes, which, in most states, goes to fund schools, which you don't use because, hey, you don't have any fuckin' children.
Jesus fuckballs, this is even more of a scam than health insurance because there's a good chance you're gonna go to a doctor some day. If you never have kids, you never take advantage of the school system. Why the fuck should you have to pay for it?
You know why we pay for schools for other people's kids? Because that's what the fuck you do or your entire society turns to shit (unless we start sending kids back to work all those coal mine jobs that Trump has promised). And that's why you pay for other people's health care. Because if you don't, you will end up paying, through emergency room visits, lost productivity, and more.
My insurance that I've paid during this relatively healthy time of my life is a hedge against the time when I get cancer from the soon-to-be poisoned water or have a heart attack from watching cock knobs like Ryan attempt to explain why the basic model for the existence of insurance is wrong. I'm not gonna forego insurance because I'm paying for someone's chemo now. What a fuckin' tool I'd be.
And, look, we shouldn't even be talking about fuckin' health insurance. We should be talking about a national health care system that eliminates the profiteering corporations. But we're Americans, and, goddammit, we want people to suffer because we think it's better that people have a fantasy idea of "freedom." Motherfucker, we have jobs and shit to do. And Ryan wants you to take the time to figure out how to get the best price on that stent surgery that you need. That's not freedom. That's fucking with people's lives and making them believe they are free when they are just slaves in your chains of market forces.
Towards the end of his TED-talk from hell, Ryan gave away the game, the real reason why the House GOP is attempting this nonsense: "We, as Republicans, have been waiting seven years to do this. We, as Republicans, who fought the creation of this law and accurately predicted that it would not work, ran for office in 2010, in 2012, in 2014 and in 2016 on a promise that we would -- if given the ability, we would repeal and replace this law. How many people running for Congress and the Senate did you hear say that? How many times did you hear President Donald Trump, when he was candidate Donald Trump, say that? This is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing Obamacare. The time is here. The time is now. This is the moment. And this is the closest this will ever happen."
We're all just victims of a tautology that has ensnared the GOP. They swore up and down that they would repeal the Affordable Care Act, and now that they can repeal the ACA, they have to repeal the ACA because they said they would repeal the ACA and now they can repeal...
Except they can't unless they get a critical number of Americans to think, "Wait, I shouldn't pay for shit I'm not using right this second," which, sadly, is probably a convincing argument to the selfish pricks who voted for these assholes like Ryan.
(By the way, the ACA isn't in a "death spiral." Premiums have gone up for just 3% of all Americans with health insurance. That's what we're arguing about here. It's all a fucking game.)
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Rachel Maddow Drops Major Reality Check: Trump-Russia Collusion Looks Increasingly Likely
The
MSNBC host told America to "get back to the main point," which is that
it's slowly looking like the Trump campaign was working with Russia to
topple Hillary Clinton.
In her opening segment, Maddow focused on a so-far unsubstantiated dossier released in January that details damning links between Trump and high-ranking Russian officials. While Trump and his apologists try to muddy the waters, point fingers, and deny any wrongdoing, more and more of that controversial dossier has become verified as truth.
As Maddow said, pieces from that document continue to fall into place, which is slowly raising the likelihood that Russia and Trump’s campaign worked together.
Rachel Maddow notes that while the dossier of intelligence about Donald Trump ties to Russia remains unconfirmed, pieces of it have checked out upon investigation by the press, though the primary government investigators are former Trump campaign officials.
Maddow said:
Forget all the salacious personal stuff. Forget all the stuff that made the White House so mad when this was published. The bottom line of this dossier, the bottom line allegation, the point of it is that the Trump campaign didn’t just benefit from Russia interfering in our presidential campaign. The point of this is that they colluded, they helped, they were in on it. The money quote from this dossier is, “The operation had been conducted with the full knowledge of Trump and senior members of his campaign team.” That’s basically what this whole dossier alleges – that the Trump folks were in on it. There were multiple people close to Trump, involved in the Trump campaign, who were in contact with the Russian government about the Russian government’s attacks on Hillary Clinton, while those attacks were happening, while Russia was waging these attacks. Overall, yes, we still have to describe this as a sheaf of uncorroborated allegations, but little pieces supporting that bottom line thesis really do keep falling in line.Maddow then listed the series of Russian revelations – and secret meetings between Trump associates and the Russian officials – that have come out over the past several weeks, despite initial claims from the president that nobody on his team met with the Russians during the campaign.
It turns out that more than a half-dozen Trump associates are linked to Russia, including Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, Carter Page, J.D. Gordon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Michael Cohen.
As Maddow noted in her coverage, it was reported by Politico on Tuesday that one of those associates, Carter Page, was given permission by the Trump campaign last year to make a visit to Russia in the heat of the 2016 election cycle.
The president himself even met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before giving a campaign speech last year.
All of these bits of information are turning what was previous an unverified dossier into a credible document implicating Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in what would be the biggest political scandal in U.S. history.
Even though there is so much going on in our politics right now, much of it disturbing and distracting, we must not lose focus on this scandal.
Monday, March 6, 2017
'A Low, Low Moment For Washington' | Morning Blow | MSNBC
Over the weekend in a Saturday tweet storm, Trump accused
President Obama of tapping his phones during the 'sacred election
process' and saying it was 'Nixon/Watergate.'
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Katt Williams TOTALLY DESTROYS DONALD CHUMP!!
Katt Williams destroys Donald Trump in this 2017 stand up - jokes on how Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Trump's campaign promise of Mexican paying for the wall, Katt talks about trump speech and behavior, Katt also talks about Trump's hair and groping women/sexual assault and Melania Trump.
Without mentioning directly, Katt made a reference to the Katt Williams fight hinting why he could not wait to start a new year.
Without mentioning directly, Katt made a reference to the Katt Williams fight hinting why he could not wait to start a new year.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Democrats Double Down On LOSING: Elect Corporate Tool DNC Chair
Tom Perez wins the DNC Chair.
Jimmy Dore breaks it down.
Jimmy Dore breaks it down.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Bannon-Trump Are Taking America From The People
Bannon
is a "dangerous person driven by an authoritarian ideology. This is a
mean, vicious, intolerant group. I’ve never seen anything like this."
*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*
One of the things too many Americans don’t understand is that without a functioning government, their lives would be very similar, if not identical, to people living in third world places like Somalia and Yemen. Republicans have intimated their intent to completely dismantle the government to give the rich, corporations and religion free rein to trample the people underfoot, but they have never openly called for destroying the government like the Trump and his ultimate superior Steve Bannon.
And make no mistake, when Bannon calls for “dismantling the administrative state,” he means completely destroying the government that fundamentally protects Americans from a dictatorship. A dictatorship, by the way, that Sean Spicer accidentally admitted is what the Trump and his administration really is. More on that later.
If Americans weren’t inherently stupid, they would know that the “administrative state” is not a terrorist cabal out to kill off white people, steal their bibles and guns, or drive them into poverty.
What the “administrative state” entails is fundamentally laid out in the Constitution and is precisely what keeps Americans from being ruled by a dictator and enslaved by oligarchs. The administrative state includes things like the separation of powers, regulatory oversight of predatory corporations and financial institutions, agency rules that keep Americans’ food, medicine, and water safe, and a variety of domestic social programs affecting every American alive; all of the things that Trump, Bannon, the Kochs and no small number of Republicans want or have wanted eliminated.
This week at the CPAC meeting, Trump’s chief strategist Bannon explained that Trump’s agenda and ultimate goal is really taking apart every aspect of the government; save its ability to wage war on anyone or any nation that fails to abide Trump’s tyranny. He said, that “deconstruction of the administrative state” means eliminating the system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that infringe upon one’s sovereignty. If you look at these [Trump] Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction.”
Now, too many Americans actually believe that everything Trump intends in “deconstructing the administrative state” is going to make them incredibly wealthy, give them everlasting life in American Heaven, and make America an Aryan Christian Utopia. It is a stupid mindset and one Republicans have counted on to stay in power for the past eight years.
However much Republicans want to “dismantle” the United States government, including everything that protects the people, Bannon said the Trump White House is digging in for a long conflict to transform Washington and upend the world order. He said to all Americans that, “If you think they’re going to give you your country back you are sadly mistaken. Every day, it is going to be a fight.”
Bannon was not implying that “the media” would never give “your country back,” he meant the Trump administration. It is baffling, and a complete mystery, why anyone would think or believe that the “media” owns the country, or is so in control as to fight to avoid having to give it back to the people.
That one statement is even more telling, and terrifying, than admitting Trump appointed Heritage Foundation nominees to “deconstruct” the agencies they are now running. Bannon, like his underling Donald Trump, fully intends to “reorder” America, and the world, in his own image. It is curious indeed that no-one at CPAC questioned “who” is not going to give “your country back.” Thus far it is only the Trump waging a daily fight to keep America out of the hands of the people; including stupid conservative people.
What Bannon is really saying is that there indeed is a dictator in the White House and that America must be transformed by the Trump-Bannon; not the people. Press secretary Sean Spicer said something similar a couple of months ago when he said only a dictatorship would ever consider subduing the press; this week the Trump dictatorship barred journalists from press briefings in a blatant suppression of the free press. Trump, with valuable assistance and instructions from Bannon is intent on fulfilling his most cherished role of “authoritarian” dictator that any sane human being knew was his plan all along; Bannon just expedited Trump’s ascension as a vicious authoritarian tyrant faster than even Trump imagined possible.
That assessment is precisely what Ohio’s former governor, Ted Strickland (D), said about Bannon. He is a “dangerous person driven by an authoritarian ideology who, I fear, has more influence than anyone in the administration. This is a mean, vicious, intolerant group. I’ve never seen anything like this in my political life.”
Maybe Mr. Strickland has never seen it in America, but history is replete with examples of the Trump-Bannon partnership whether it was Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, Italy under Benito Mussolini, or Russia under Trump’s facilitator Vladimir Putin. However, it is Bannon’s intent on “upending the world order” that makes Trump closer to Adolf Hitler than Putin or Mussolini.
According to Steve Bannon, America is now Donald Trump and he has no intent of ever giving it back to the people. Republicans have long worked to restrict the federal government’s oversight of anything remotely related to keeping the people safe, economically or health wise, but even they never openly claimed their overarching goal was destroying the government; and that is what Bannon means in “deconstructing the administrative state.”
The real tragedy, and it is incredibly tragic, is that there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop the Trump Bannon. Democrats are powerless to do much more than rant and rave about the injustice of allowing a tyrant to take down the government, and the people can resist, but at the end of the day Republicans run the government Bannon and Trump will “deconstruct” according to their stated purpose, and wild applause from stupid conservatives at CPAC.
That is what happens when stupid people, stupid racist people, think purging Mexicans and Muslims from America is more important than defending “their” democracy and “their” country. A once proud nation that will die a premature death because a bonafide dictator, Steve Bannon, is in the White House with his pet Trump on a very short leash with a very powerful “shock collar” in case he gets out of line.
**The above article is commentary by R Muse**
Right-wing pundit Laura Ingraham bounced $42,000 check to AP trying to save her floundering website
By David Ferguson
Right-wing radio host and author Laura Ingraham is facing a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press after she bounced a check to the wire service for unpaid fees and lost revenue on her website LifeZette.com.
Mediaite.com reported on Saturday that the AP is suing Ingraham and LifeZette for $50,000 in a suit filed Friday in Washington, D.C. Superior Court.
In July of 2015, LifeZette reportedly signed an agreement with the AP to pay $4,200 per month for the rights to run AP content on its homepage. In February, 2016, the AP canceled the deal due to non-payment.
Ingraham’s company, Ingraham Media Group Inc., sent the AP a $42,611 check last month, but it was returned by the bank over insufficient funds. It was then, Mediaite said, that the wire service chose to take legal action.
“Per the filing, the AP is looking for a total of $49,267. That amount includes $24,937.21 for unpaid fees and $17,674.50 for the revenue AP claims it lost after it was forced to suspend LifeZette’s account. (These two totals equal the amount of the bounced check.) AP is also seeking additional funds in interest and attorney fees,” wrote Mediaite’s Justin Baragona.
Ingraham launched LifeZette in late March of 2015 with the goal of providing conservative readers a one-stop news source in a field already crowded by other outlets like the Daily Caller, the Washington Free Beacon and Breitbart.com.
The website came under fire last year for its perpetuation of “fake news” conspiracy theory stories about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In spite of its credibility issues, LifeZette was one of the first media organizations called on by Press Secretary Sean Spicer in early press conferences in the White House briefing room, which raised hackles among professional journalists.
Ingraham herself said in late 2016 that she was briefly considered for the position of White House press secretary before the job when to Spicer, formerly a high-ranking official in the Republican National Coalition (RNC).
Talk show host Stephen Colbert accused Ingraham of racism over controversial passages in her book The Obama Diaries, which came out in 2010 and featured racially-charged digs at President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
In addition to being abominably written, Colbert told Ingraham that the book relies on “hideous, hackneyed racial stereotypes.”
Colbert asked Ingraham during a notoriously uncomfortable interview, “What are the odds that Barack Obama’s private musings would completely and perfectly match up with the narrative that the right is trying to push about him?”
The book portrayed Michelle Obama as a glutton who ate barbecued ribs at every meal and Obama himself as a selfish egomaniac with a grudge against white Americans.
Right-wing radio host and author Laura Ingraham is facing a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press after she bounced a check to the wire service for unpaid fees and lost revenue on her website LifeZette.com.
In July of 2015, LifeZette reportedly signed an agreement with the AP to pay $4,200 per month for the rights to run AP content on its homepage. In February, 2016, the AP canceled the deal due to non-payment.
Ingraham’s company, Ingraham Media Group Inc., sent the AP a $42,611 check last month, but it was returned by the bank over insufficient funds. It was then, Mediaite said, that the wire service chose to take legal action.
“Per the filing, the AP is looking for a total of $49,267. That amount includes $24,937.21 for unpaid fees and $17,674.50 for the revenue AP claims it lost after it was forced to suspend LifeZette’s account. (These two totals equal the amount of the bounced check.) AP is also seeking additional funds in interest and attorney fees,” wrote Mediaite’s Justin Baragona.
Ingraham launched LifeZette in late March of 2015 with the goal of providing conservative readers a one-stop news source in a field already crowded by other outlets like the Daily Caller, the Washington Free Beacon and Breitbart.com.
The website came under fire last year for its perpetuation of “fake news” conspiracy theory stories about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In spite of its credibility issues, LifeZette was one of the first media organizations called on by Press Secretary Sean Spicer in early press conferences in the White House briefing room, which raised hackles among professional journalists.
Ingraham herself said in late 2016 that she was briefly considered for the position of White House press secretary before the job when to Spicer, formerly a high-ranking official in the Republican National Coalition (RNC).
Talk show host Stephen Colbert accused Ingraham of racism over controversial passages in her book The Obama Diaries, which came out in 2010 and featured racially-charged digs at President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
In addition to being abominably written, Colbert told Ingraham that the book relies on “hideous, hackneyed racial stereotypes.”
Colbert asked Ingraham during a notoriously uncomfortable interview, “What are the odds that Barack Obama’s private musings would completely and perfectly match up with the narrative that the right is trying to push about him?”
The book portrayed Michelle Obama as a glutton who ate barbecued ribs at every meal and Obama himself as a selfish egomaniac with a grudge against white Americans.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Donald Chump = "The Tiger Woods Of Hypocrisy"
Seth Meyers nails Trump for golfing after criticizing Obama for it
In his “Closer Look” segment Thursday, “Late Night” host Seth Meyers noted that many members of Congress would probably prefer to be outside in the sunshine instead of in the hot seat at a town hall.
“You played golf six times in one month,” Meyers said. “Are you the president or a San Diego dentist? Now, some of you are asking, ‘But didn’t he criticize [President Barack] Obama for playing golf. What about that?’ Well, you would be forgetting that when it comes to being a hypocrite, Donald Trump has a zero handicap. He’s the Tiger Woods of hypocrisy!”
Meyers said that most people probably don’t care but it seems that Trump seems embarrassed because his team has worked hard to hide the fact that he’s golfing as much as he is. He cited the White House schedule as announced to the media, which stated Trump would be attending meetings over the weekend. A professional golfer blew his cover, however, when he revealed he was golfing with Trump. The spokeswoman said that Trump played a couple of holes, golfer Rory Mcilroy revealed Trump played all 18 holes.
“No one plays a ‘few holes’ of golf,” Meyers said. “Anyone up for four holes?”
Meyers reported that Trump’s team has been “so shady” that they refuse to even let the press watch the games or even know who he’s playing with. He assumed it has to do with unflattering photos of Trump that surface after he’s seen playing.
“If you looked like this when you golfed, you’d ditch the cameras too,” he said.
Meanwhile, Republicans are contending with angry constituents. A New York Times story cited one man that brought his Congressman a bottle of Tums saying that he’d be needing them over the next several months.
“We’re all going to need Tums because I’m pretty sure it’s the closest things Republicans have to a replacement for Obamacare,” Meyers joked.
Even when Rep. Jason Chaffetz mentioned Vice President Mike Pence he was booed. Meyers noted that Pence has the honor of being booed at a Broadway performance of Hamilton as well as a town hall in Utah.
See Meyers’ full video below:
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