When you remind them that the GOP took over 50 votes for repeal….And ask them what they thought that meant….
Gymnastics ensues, as to why fat meat ain’t greasy.
I’m going to continue to ask this….STOP WRITING THESE ARTICLES.
Honestly? I don’t care.
Stop.trying.to.make.excuses.for.these.people.
They voted for him. Elections have consequences.
They thought that it was going to affect THOSE PEOPLE.
Now, they’re waking up to that THEY are ‘THOSE PEOPLE.’
From the NYTimes:
G.O.P.’s Health Care Tightrope Winds Through the Blue-Collar Midwest
By ABBY GOODNOUGH and JONATHAN MARTIN
MARCH 19, 2017DEFIANCE, Ohio — James Waltimire, a police officer on unpaid medical leave, has been going to the hospital in this small city twice a week for physical therapy after leg surgery, all of it paid for by Medicaid.
Mr. Waltimire, 54, was able to sign up for the government health insurance program last year because Ohio expanded it to cover more than 700,000 low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. He voted for President Trump — in part because of Mr. Trump’s support for law enforcement — but is now worried about the Republican plan to effectively end the Medicaid expansion through legislation to repeal the health care law.
“Originally the president said he wasn’t going to do nothing to Medicaid,” Mr. Waltimire said the other day after a rehab session. “Now they say he wants to take $880 billion out of Medicaid. That’s going to affect a lot of people who can’t afford to get insurance.”
As Republicans in Washington grapple with how to meet their promise of undoing the greatest expansion of health care coverage since the Great Society, they are struggling with what may be an irreconcilable problem: bridging the vast gulf between the expectations of blue-collar voters like Mr. Waltimire who propelled Mr. Trump to the presidency, and longstanding party orthodoxy that it is not the federal government’s role to provide benefits to a wide swath of society.
If they push forward the House-drafted health bill, which could come to a vote as early as this coming week, Republicans may honor their vow to repeal what they derided as Obamacare, but also risk doing disproportionate harm to the older, working-class white voters who are increasingly vital to their electoral coalition.
…………………..
The region has voted Republican in presidential contests for decades, but its support for Mr. Trump — he took 64 percent of the vote in Defiance County and an even larger share in most of the surrounding counties — was more resounding than for any candidate since Ronald Reagan. Yet many people here tend to have conflicting values that make repeal of the health law appealing on its face but ultimately hard to swallow.
“People in this community are very conservative. They struggle with the federal budget deficit, and they like the idea of personal responsibility,” said Phil Ennen, the president and chief executive of Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers, which has a 75-bed hospital in Bryan. “But at the same time, we have a lot of friends and family and neighbors who just don’t have a lot going for them. There is a population out there that needs Medicaid. That’s the dilemma.”
They struggle with the federal budget deficit?
Bullshyt. They didn’t give a rat’s ass about the budget deficit until a Black man became President. They support Republicans and care about the budget deficit?
Whatever. Republicans don’t give a shyt about the budget deficit. Now that they are in charge, you don’t hear one phucking word about the deficit, as they propose policies that will explode it.
They like the idea of personal responsibility?
OH SPARE ME!!
Like other people who qualify for Medicaid DON’T believe in personal responsibility. Utter BS. They need Medicaid just like all ‘THOSE PEOPLE’ do. They just want to wrap themselves up as something special because of the lack of melanin. But, it’s not working out that way, is it?
Uh huh.
Uh huh.
Ametia, I agree. Rikyrah is on fire. She isn’t leaving any stone unturned.
Haman lied trying to get Mordacai hung, but was hung in his place. Likewise, Trump lied trying to get President Obama a felony, but it’s backfiring on him. You don’t lie on folks, especially those that did you no harm and think there is not a price to pay. You reap what you sow..
Now, Trump is trying to install his daughter in the West Wing in National Security to see what she can snoop and find out regarding the investigation of his ties to Russia. Like father, like daughter, she’s his corrupt seed alright. I wouldn’t trust her far as I see her. Notice how Trump brags on her, but never does he brag on his sons or Tiffany.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/ivanka-trump-white-house-236273
I see that demon in her eyes.
Btw. can someone tell me what is Chris Hayes talking about. Why doesn’t MSNBC give his spot to someone else or cut his time on air to 30 minutes? He grates my nerves for some reason.
Bait and switch. How come the Amendment just can’t set up the tax credits? And, for how long, Boo?
TOTAL bait and switch. So, that they can blame the Democrats when it fails to get to 60 votes
……………………………………
GOP leaders pile on sweeteners to sell Obamacare repeal
The revisions are part of a last-ditch effort to get the measure passed.
By Jennifer Haberkorn, Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey
03/20/17 06:36 PM EDT
House Republican leaders are poised to release Monday evening an expansive series of changes to their Obamacare repeal bill in a last-ditch attempt to win enough support to get the bill passed.
Requested by President Donald Trump, the amendment includes perks for restive conservatives who wanted optional work requirements and block granting in Medicaid, as well as a potential olive branch to wary centrists who demanded more help for older Americans to buy insurance, POLITICO has learned.
The amendment would establish a reserve fund of at least $75 billion for tax credits to help the core constituency that propelled Trump to the White House: Americans between 50 and 64, who would see their premiums skyrocket under the current repeal plan. But the amendment would not set up the tax credits – it would instruct the Senate to do so, forcing House Republicans to take a vote on something the upper chamber would do later.
The amendment is also expected to repeal Obamacare’s taxes a year earlier than originally planned, a win for conservatives who want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act as quickly a possible.
https://twitter.com/Eugene_Scott/status/843956938278916097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
MERKEL, ABE ENDORSE FREE TRADE WITH JABS AT TRUMP RHETORIC
3/19/17 AT 6:22 PM
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke up for free trade at a major technology fair on Sunday with jabs clearly pointed at an increasingly protectionist United States.
Both called for a free trade deal to be reached quickly between Japan and the European Union, in comments made after G20 finance ministers and central bankers dropped a long-standing mention of open trade in their final communique after a two-day meeting in Germany.
Neither leader named the U.S. government as they opened the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, but both used the opportunity to distance themselves from protectionist tendencies coming from the Trump administration.
“In times when we have to argue with many about free trade, open borders and democratic values, it’s a good sign that Japan and Germany no longer argue about this but rather are seeking to shape the future in a way that benefits people,” Merkel said
https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/843885653691678720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/robferdman/status/843888228079951872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Richard EngelVerified account @RichardEngel
A sr US official told me he’s worried if there’s a major event, like terrorist attack, trump/allies will take more power, point of no return
https://twitter.com/jupiter896/status/843930481439784963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/mefeater/status/836985667867590656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Uh huh
Uh huh
“They thought that it was going to affect THOSE PEOPLE.
Now, they’re waking up to that THEY are ‘THOSE PEOPLE.’”
And there it is.
willful ignorance
(noun)
The practice or act of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguments because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs.
This practice is most commonly found in the political or religious ideologies of “conservative” Americans.
Many times it is practiced due to laziness–people not wanting to have to do the work to rethink their opinions, the fear of the unknown, the fear of being wrong, or sometimes simply close-mindedness.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=willful%20ignorance
MOFO HATES WOMEN. Does this include your wife, Neil?
SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch said women ‘manipulate’ maternity leave, Boulder graduates say
Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch told law students that “many” female job seekers abuse maternity leave and must disclose plans to become pregnant, a former student has alleged.
The federal judge told a University of Colorado Law School class last year that companies should “ask females about their family and pregnancy plans to protect the company,” according to a letter former student Jennifer Sisk wrote to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sisk said Gorsuch, a visiting professor at Boulder, posed a hypothetical scenario in a Legal Ethics and Professionalism class in April that debated if a married job candidate with student debt should disclose to a potential employer that she wants to start a family.
“He asked the class to raise their hands if they knew of a female who had used a company to get maternity benefits and then left right after having a baby,” Sisk wrote.
http://nydn.us/2mkxOvR
How to Con Black Law Students: A Case Study
Elie Mystal
MARCH 20, 2017
This month, Bethune-Cookman, a historically black university in Daytona Beach, Fla., announced an “affiliation” deal with Arizona Summit Law School, a for-profit institution in Phoenix. A joint scholarship program will send Bethune-Cookman students and students from other historically black colleges to the law school. Other programs, including intensive LSAT prep classes, have been announced as part of the deal.
Bethune-Cookman doesn’t have a law school, so it makes sense that it would want to partner with an accredited institution. But there’s a problem: Arizona Summit, formerly known as the Phoenix School of Law, may be accredited, but only 25 percent of its graduates passed the Arizona bar exam on their first try last year.
That’s an embarrassing result for any school. To compare, the law school at Arizona State posted a 77 percent pass rate for first-time test takers of the same bar. Statewide, 64 percent of first-time test takers passed. In other words, Arizona Summit’s results weren’t even in the ballpark of respectability.
Arizona Summit can’t blame the aptitude of its students for its low bar passage rate. The median LSAT score at Arizona Summit is 143, which is on the low end, but about the same as the median score at Florida A&M University College of Law. Still, over half of Florida A&M law school graduates passed the Florida bar last summer. And Florida A&M charges about $14,000 in yearly in-state tuition, a fraction of the cost of Arizona Summit, which charges about $45,000 in tuition and fees per year. That doesn’t include the cost for Bethune-Cookman students to move from Florida to Phoenix.
……………………….
But encouraging African-American students to attend Arizona Summit will not help them achieve their goals. It will hobble them. Going to a law school that doesn’t prepare most of its students to pass the bar is not an “opportunity,” unless “opportunity” means being saddled with debt that you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to pay back.
For-profit schools like Arizona Summit prey on students with high aspirations but little knowledge about how the postgraduate system really works. Many black students aren’t just the first people in their families to go to graduate school — they are the only people they know in the game. Information passed down from family, friends or mentors is hard to get when you don’t have people in your life who have been there. Too many aspiring black students are trying to piece together education plans based on career fairs and Google searches.
It really is this simple
Liberal Librarian
March 17, 2017
The release of false prophet Donald Trump’s budget yesterday has everyone up in arms.
I could wail about its cruelty. It eliminates funding for Meals on Wheels (which is the one which strikes the conscience the most), after-school programs, scientific research, the arts, and on and on, while massively increasing spending on “security”.
I could write a stirring piece asking “Where will you stand when you’re held to account?” Will you be with those of Light or those of Darkness?
I could call for the masses to rise up and take to the streets and make the earth shake.
But none of those address the core of our problem: How did we get here?
Let me digress for a bit to speak about international affairs.
On Wednesday, voters in the Netherlands took to the polls to elect a new parliament. All of Europe—and, indeed, the world—had eyes cast on Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, and environs. Fascist rabble rouser Geert Wilders had been riding high in polling for months, and his party had, until just recently, been projected to win the most seats in the legislature. (Not a majority—that’s nearly impossible—but it would have been the largest party in parliament with the right of first refusal to form a government.) Polling leading up to Wednesday had taken a bit of wind out of Wilders’ sails; however, as 2016 showed, polling ain’t what it used to be. Many were looking on in nervous apprehension.
Then something “miraculous” happened: the Dutch turned out in droves to vote. Turnout was at 80%, the highest in three decades.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/17/17
The danger in letting Russia’s hacking slide
Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton campaign manager, talks with Rachel Maddow about the unprecedented nature of the Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign and what it portends for the legislative process if not addressed.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/17/17
Insider’s view of Russia’s election hacking
Glen Caplin, senior national spokesman for the Hillary Clinton campaign, gives Rachel Maddow the play-by-play of how the DNC’s computers were hacked, and staffers’ e-mails made public
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/17/17
Trump scandals overshadow Navy’s biggest corruption case
Rachel Maddow details an epic Navy scandal involving prostitutes, $2,000 bottles of wine, fancy cigars, and lavish meals, which, were it not for the steady drip of Trump scandals, would be front page news.
Donald Trump is running out of foreign leaders to alienate
03/20/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s a scene so familiar, it’s almost a cliché: a foreign leader visits the White House, and there’s an Oval Office photo op in front of the room’s fireplace. The American president is on the right, the foreign leader is on the left, and the two share a hearty handshake to demonstrate a friendly, cooperative relationship.
In the Trump era, the scene has been rewritten. Last month, the U.S. president welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House, and Trump repeatedly pulled the Japanese leader’s arm as some kind of bizarre power move, culminating in a hilarious post-shake look from Shinzo. Last week, as The New Republic noted, it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s turn to sit across from Donald Trump, leading to “one of the most cringe-inducing staged events in political history.”
The same afternoon, the U.S. president made a bizarre joke about the NSA having monitored Merkel’s communications, needlessly raising a point of contention between the two countries in order for Trump to further his new favorite anti-Obama conspiracy.
Soon after, Merkel participated in a White House meeting, where she was inexplicably seated next to the president’s adult daughter, Ivanka Trump. “On a day filled with awkward moments,” Politico noted, “probably none was more cringe-worthy to German eyes than the picture of the president’s glamorous daughter … perched next to no-nonsense Merkel as she praised her father’s commitment to job creation.”
Tillerson: ‘I’m not a big media press access person’
03/20/17 09:20 AM—UPDATED 03/20/17 09:27 AM
By Steve Benen
About a month ago, Politico reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was concerned about public perceptions surrounding his work. The more people – inside the United States and around the world – believed the former ExxonMobil CEO was out of the loop when it came to the White House’s major foreign policy decisions, the harder it would be for him to do his job.
To that end, the report said Tillerson “asked his aides to find ways to improve his media profile.”
A month later, either Tillerson’s priorities have changed or someone has changed his priorities for him. Slate explained:
Of course, in his capacity as the nation’s chief diplomat, Tillerson’s needs aren’t nearly as important as our needs. He now helps speak for 319 million Americans, not the stock holders of an oil giant.
Traditionally, secretaries of state have seen interaction with journalists as an integral part of the job. Tillerson – who, like Trump, had literally zero experience in public service before joining the administration’s cabinet – doesn’t seem to care.
GOP senator acknowledges Americans’ ‘right’ to health care
03/20/17 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
In Democratic and progressive circles, Americans’ right to health security is a given, on par with citizens’ rights to public education and access to clean water. But in Republican circles, the resistance to such an idea is strong. Once the public believes Americans are entitled to affordable health care, simply as a basic proponent of citizenship, GOP plans in this area become untenable.
It was therefore surprising to see Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) of Louisiana offer these comments to the New York Times.
…………………….
It’s an important development for a few reasons. First, it’s a reminder as to why congressional Republicans fought tooth and nail to kill the Affordable Care Act in the first place: once Americans have an important social-insurance benefit, and families come to rely on it, scrapping the benefit becomes politically unrealistic.
If “the right for every American to have health care” now exists, Democrats and Republicans can argue about the details of how best to recognize that right, not whether the right deserves to be recognized in the first place.
Second, acknowledgements like these reinforce the impression of Barack Obama transformed the nature of the conversation. Indeed, much of the current health care debate is playing out on the terms the former president defined several years ago. The idea that a conservative Republican senator from a red state would acknowledge “the right for every American to have health care” would’ve been very hard to believe before the Obama era.
Trump and his team don’t want to talk about his golf game
03/20/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump played golf again over the weekend at his course in Florida, marking the 11th time he’s hit the links since taking office eight weeks ago. Under normal circumstances, no one would care about this, since just about every modern president has done the same thing.
But with Trump, the circumstances are a little different. A month ago, for example, White House officials gave misleading information about the president’s time on the course, and yesterday, as the New York Times noted, Team Trump seemed reluctant to say much of anything on the subject.
We know, however, that Trump did play. One of the president’s friends posted a picture online leaving little doubt, and Trump’s “very little” comment made clear that the golf outing, which his aides were reluctant to acknowledge, actually happened.
https://youtu.be/HsGrPYZgaCg&rel=0
Published on Mar 7, 2017
On March 30th, a newly discovered and extremely rare photo of courageous abolitionist and Civil War spy Harriet Tubman (c.1822 – March 10, 1913) is set to be auctioned off by New York City auction house Swann Galleries. In response, the Harriet Tubman Home, a 32-acre newly designated national historical site in Auburn, New York, which survives on minimal donations to keep the homestead on which Tubman lived for more than 50 years open to the public, is launching its first-ever crowdfunding campaign, #BringHarrietHome. Set to go live on Tuesday, March 7th, the non-profit’s goal is to inspire the wide and generous support of the public so it can raise the funds necessary to participate in the auction as a competitive bidder and bring Harriet home.
Together, we can #BringHarrietHome. Support this campaign now on Women You Should Fund at https://www.womenyoushouldfund.com/pr…
Ametia,
This is the Tuesday Open Thread :)
GMTA
I’ll delete it. It deserves ITS own thread
LMBAO@
“Gymnastics ensues, as to why fat meat ain’t greasy.
Good Morning,Everyone😐😐😐
BWA HA HA HA Rikyrah, you’re starting the week off taking THOSE PEOPLE to the woodshed..
I see steam coming from your SWITCHES!