Happy HUMP Day, Everyone!
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
#MuslimBan 1 blocked
#MuslimBan 2 blocked
#MichaelFlynn Fired
#Trumpcare vote pulled
#MuslimBan blocked order extended
SUCH A LOSER….
https://twitter.com/AP/status/847277567618949122
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/847283504433856512
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/847283814220955648
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/847107168511954945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefault%26version%3D6523923a6565f82a2abd9f366610f729%26f%3Dpragmaticobots%26t_i%3D58135%2520http%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252F%253Fp%253D58135%26t_u%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252Fwednesday-evening-thread-hump-day-wind-down%252F%26t_e%3DWednesday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Hump%2520Day%2520Wind%2520Down%26t_d%3DWednesday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Hump%2520Day%2520Wind%2520Down%26t_t%3DWednesday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Hump%2520Day%2520Wind%2520Down%26s_o%3Ddefault%26l%3D
https://twitter.com/ELLEmagazine/status/847135301831217152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheobamadiary.com%2F2017%2F03%2F29%2Fpaid-leave-a-necessity-not-a-luxury%2F
From the ELLE article on Maxine Waters:
excerpt:
BWA HA HA HA HA H AH HA HA HA HA
LOL Maine snatched ERRY-BODY WIGS!
https://twitter.com/Frank_Schaeffer/status/847139599537393665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheobamadiary.com%2F2017%2F03%2F29%2Fpaid-leave-a-necessity-not-a-luxury%2F
https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/847187643561578497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheobamadiary.com%2F2017%2F03%2F29%2Fpaid-leave-a-necessity-not-a-luxury%2F
My President-44 did this :)
https://twitter.com/LazaroGamio/status/847046740666671104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefault%26version%3D6523923a6565f82a2abd9f366610f729%26f%3Dpragmaticobots%26t_i%3D58015%2520http%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252F%253Fp%253D58015%26t_u%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252Fwednesday-afternoon-thread-duran-duran-week%252F%26t_e%3DWednesday%2520Afternoon%2520Thread%253A%2520Duran%2520Duran%2520Week%26t_d%3DWednesday%2520Afternoon%2520Thread%253A%2520Duran%2520Duran%2520Week%26t_t%3DWednesday%2520Afternoon%2520Thread%253A%2520Duran%2520Duran%2520Week%26s_o%3Ddefault%26l%3D
CenterforReproRightsVerified account @ReproRights
BREAKING: Arkansas Governor signs first-ever measure forcing doctors who provide abortion care to investigate their patients’ motives.
https://twitter.com/williamjordann/status/847221365224673281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefault%26version%3D6523923a6565f82a2abd9f366610f729%26f%3Dpragmaticobots%26t_i%3D58135%2520http%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252F%253Fp%253D58135%26t_u%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252Fwednesday-evening-thread-hump-day-wind-down%252F%26t_e%3DWednesday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Hump%2520Day%2520Wind%2520Down%26t_d%3DWednesday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Hump%2520Day%2520Wind%2520Down%26t_t%3DWednesday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Hump%2520Day%2520Wind%2520Down%26s_o%3Ddefault%26l%3D
DROWN, MUTHAPHUCKA,
DROWN
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/847094864923803648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheobamadiary.com%2F2017%2F03%2F29%2Fpaid-leave-a-necessity-not-a-luxury%2F
#45 CNNOT BE TRUSTED
PERIOD
https://twitter.com/th3j35t3r/status/847071572066271236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefault%26version%3D6523923a6565f82a2abd9f366610f729%26f%3Dpragmaticobots%26t_i%3D58015%2520http%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252F%253Fp%253D58015%26t_u%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252Fwednesday-afternoon-thread-duran-duran-week%252F%26t_e%3DWednesday%2520Afternoon%2520Thread%253A%2520Duran%2520Duran%2520Week%26t_d%3DWednesday%2520Afternoon%2520Thread%253A%2520Duran%2520Duran%2520Week%26t_t%3DWednesday%2520Afternoon%2520Thread%253A%2520Duran%2520Duran%2520Week%26s_o%3Ddefault%26l%3D
Deleting citations will delete artic warming, doncha know!
Wigs are being SNATCHED this week.
We are not playing with you “PEOPLE”
BEAT.THAT.ASS. ANGELA
BEAT.IT
TELL IT
Angela Rye destroyed Walsh.
Angela on live TV: Ya’ll WHITE “MEDIOCRTIY” is working overtime!
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/847160611909881857
Meanwhile in KRISPY KREME LAND:
Chris Christie to lead Trump White House drug commission
Ending opioid addiction was a centerpiece of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, as well as Christie’s.
Whelp! If Bridget and Bill get hooked on opioids in prison, they’ll have a savior in their former boss, Krispy Kreme!
https://twitter.com/MatthewArco/status/847156761840771074
How The Extremism Of The Freedom Caucus Could Open A Chasm In The GOP
by Nancy LeTourneau March 29, 2017 11:22 AM
Regular readers here might know that I don’t tend to go for hyperbole. But dating back to the Obama years, I have tended to refer to the House Freedom Caucus and their allies in the Republican Study Committee as the “lunatic caucus.” They are the ones who drove John Boehner crazy when he was Speaker and eventually engineered his ouster. That is in no way a suggestion of sympathy for Boehner, but simply a recognition of the deep fissures that developed among House Republicans.
With the failure of the bill to repeal Obamacare, it appears as though more Republicans are starting to catch on to the idea that the lunatic caucus is a problem for them. Jonathan Swan reported that “President Trump feels burned by the ultra conservative House Freedom Caucus and is ready to deal with Democrats” while Mike Allen says that “Top officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue tell me they don’t see how they can change the House Republican math that killed health reform.” Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), current chairman of the NRCC, recently said, “I think we need to start negotiating with Democrats instead of the Freedom Caucus. They don’t know how to get to yes.”
There seems to be a pretty big shift underway. Especially following the 2010 midterms when Republicans gained control of the House, the lunatic caucus was valuable to them as a means to enforce obstruction of Obama’s agenda. But at least some in the GOP seem ready to jettison them now.
While it’s probably not true that the House Freedom Caucus contributed all of the potential “no” votes for Obamacare repeal (moderates seem to have produced just as many), the entire effort to alter the bill in order to get it through the House was focused on meeting their demands. In other words, Republicans played this one to please the lunatics and came up short. Now they’re questioning whether or not to repeat that fatal flaw. That is what’s driving them to consider working with Democrats. Take a look at what Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said about any future attempts to tackle health care: “It’s clear it needs to be done on a bipartisan basis.”
What is interesting to note about this is that getting to the place where Republicans talk about working on a bipartisan basis is something that was never possible during Obama’s tenure. It’s not – as some in the media continue to claim – because he didn’t try. A lot of liberals were mad at him specifically because he tried so hard. But pretty much throughout his two terms, Republican obstructionism held.
The White House’s Nunes Gambit Failed
by Martin Longman March 29, 2017 12:30 PM
I never agree with David French of the National Review, but his call for Rep. Devin Nunes to step down as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is spot-on. He isn’t trying to convince me, however. He’s trying to convince Republican voters and lawmakers. As a result, I don’t know if he’ll be convincing with his appeals to common sense, but he might get somewhere with his effort to put the shoe on the other foot:
This argument still has to overcome the “it’s-okay-if-you’re-a-Republican” (IOKIYR) disposition of so many conservatives. There’s a definite tolerance for win-at-all-costs ethical calculations on the right that is simply not as powerful on the left. There’s also an unwillingness to facilitate anything that might lead to a premature end to the Trumpian experiment, although that feeling is not strong in Congress compared to the far-removed counties that gave Trump his Electoral College victory.
So Murdering Joke thinks Steve Bannon should be fired, in order to save #45’s presidency?
It’s a little late for Trump to try reaching out to Democrats
03/29/17 11:25 AM—UPDATED 03/29/17 11:30 AM
By Steve Benen
After Donald Trump won the presidency, he found himself in a seemingly enviable position: he would not only lead the executive branch, he also had a Republican Congress to do his bidding. The president decided that Democrats, when they weren’t being ignored, could be freely mocked without fear of consequence.
After years in which Beltway pundits implored President Obama to be as bipartisan as humanly possible, the word effectively disappeared from the Beltway lexicon. Trump would be a proud and unapologetic partisan in the White House, leading an era of Republican dominance.
At least, that was the idea. The Washington Post reports that the president is suddenly realizing that his assumptions and instincts may have been wrong.
……………………………………
Consider this from a Democratic perspective.
An outlandish Republican president, who lost the popular vote and won in part thanks to illegal intervention from a foreign adversary, rose to political prominence by pushing a racist conspiracy theory about his Democratic predecessor.
After the election, he mocked Democrats, chose cabinet nominees he knew Democrats would hate, made no effort to reach out to Democrats on any issue, continued a crusade against his Democratic predecessor and defeated Democratic opponent, pushed a radical policy agenda that no Democrat could support, and has offered Democrats nothing in the way of possible concessions in order to reach a consensus on key issues.
And it’s against this backdrop that Trump is reportedly hoping Democrats will help get his flailing presidency on track.
I can almost hear the laughter from Chuck Schumer’s and Nancy Pelosi’s offices.
Why Trump is suddenly eager to cut funding for medical research
03/29/17 10:47 AM—UPDATED 03/29/17 11:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump, who ran on a platform of America “winning,” has been losing quite a bit lately. What the president may not appreciate is the fact that his troubles are likely to get worse before they get better.
The White House’s radical budget proposal is already deeply controversial – and likely to face quite a bit of resistance on Capitol Hill, even from his Republican allies – but it refers to a spending blueprint Trump has in mind for the next fiscal year. What’s less appreciated is the administration’s plans for the current fiscal year, which runs through September.
Politico reported, for example, that Trump “doesn’t want to wait until next year to slash government spending on everything from education to mental health programs”; he wants to cut billions of dollars in spending right away. The White House’s latest plan includes deep cuts to the State Department and the National Institutes of Health – which is why you’ve probably seen headlines about Trump wanting to “cut $1.2 billion from medical research.”
Military spending, meanwhile, would get a boost, while $2 billion would go towards Trump’s border wall.
All of this, according to the White House, should be approved by Congress in the coming weeks – before current federal funding is exhausted on April 28.
LOVE THIS GIF
Trump’s ‘big’ jobs announcement points to Obama-era success story
03/29/17 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump declared with pride yesterday morning, “Big announcement by Ford today. Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!” Soon after, Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to the president, added that Ford’s investments come just “two weeks after” Trump’s meeting with auto-industry executives.
The implication wasn’t subtle: Americans are supposed to believe that the president met with industry leaders, which led to Ford’s good news soon after.
But the White House’s latest effort to take credit for good economic news is eerily similar to its previous efforts – which is to say, it was wildly misleading. CNBC reported:
A company spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeef that “the majority of what was announced” yesterday was the result of “the 2015 UAW contract.”
Steven Rattner, who oversaw President Obama’s successful rescue of the American auto industry eight years ago, noted the news and asked, “When will [Trump] stop misleading people?”
Liza, where are you?
Trump Will Resign By The Summer — Here’s How It’s Going To Happen
Allan Ishac
A prediction so logical, so entirely plausible, you’ll be feeling more positive by the time you finish reading this post
Mark your calendars, people. The Great White Dope will leave the presidency of his own accord by the summer. It will happen in August, to be more precise. On August 18th, if you need to send out invitations for the resignation party.
https://extranewsfeed.com/trump-will-resign-by-the-summer-heres-how-it-s-going-to-happen-f8e80ee4be1e
Ha ha, I love this.
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/847062240008265728
https://twitter.com/jonathanjewel/status/847096299631493120
They’re desperate to go back to the Civil War days.
Terrific comment from BJ about the ZEGK and the sham of Trumpcare:
THIS
Medicaid expansion referendum headed to Maine ballot
By Christopher Cousins, BDN Staff
AUGUSTA, Maine — Mainers will vote in November on whether the state should expand its Medicaid program, following the validation Tuesday of a petition to do so.
…………………..
The citizen-initiated bill, An Act to Enhance Access to Affordable Health Care, seeks for Maine to provide Medicaid services through MaineCare to qualifying people younger than 65 years old, whose income is below 133 percent plus 5 percent of the nonfarm income official poverty line.
ALEC’s Push For A Constitutional Convention Reaches Wisconsin
Wisconsin State Senator Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) wants a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and he wants a new constitutional convention to ratify it.
A constitutional convention makes for a snappy hashtag, #ConCon. But, as GOP leaders in Idaho recently discovered, it is a dangerous and impractical idea that could result in a “runaway” convention and substantial rewrites to the U.S. Constitution.
ALEC Politician Advances ALEC Idea
Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, if 34 state legislatures “issue a call” for a constitutional convention, Congress must convene one. By some counts, the right-wing only needs six more states.
ALEC is so gung-ho about the constitutional convention idea that it has multiple “model bills”pushing the idea and a “how-to” manual on how to achieve it.
Kapenga is a long-time member of the corporate-funded American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). ALEC is so gung-ho about the constitutional convention idea that it has multiple “model bills”pushing the idea and a “how-to” manual on how to achieve it. ALEC hosts workshops and events for several pro-convention groups, including the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force. It also promotes a much broader effort to re-write the Constitution byCitizens for Self Governance. That group is led by “Tea Party Patriots” co-founder Mark Meckler and Wisconsin dark-money man Eric O’Keefe.
Kapenga’s Senate Joint Resolution 18 calls for a constitutional convention and states that the resolution represents a “continuing application” for a convention. This language is included so the resolution does not have to be renewed, and in hopes of preventing its repeal by future legislatures. Senate Bill 107 states that the GOP-controlled legislature and the governor will appoint seven delegates to the convention, and attempts to provide for the replacement of delegates if they go off-script. Senate Joint Resolution 19 commits the state of Wisconsin to follow a set of convention rules and procedures drafted by the “Assembly of State Legislatures.” Kapenga and friends founded the organization to advance the constitutional convention idea, and that group too has presented at ALEC.
Mercer group running $1M pro-Trump ad blitz
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY – 03/29/17 09:10 AM EDT
A group of wealthy backers of President Trump is launching a media blitz in 10 states highlighting the president’s achievements.
The nonprofit Making America Great, run by Rebekah Mercer, will air $1 million in television ads and is carrying out a $300,000 digital advertising campaign, Bloomberg News reported.
The ads, beginning Wednesday, will air in 10 states — including West Virginia, Michigan and Florida — where a Democratic senator is up for reelection and President Trump won the vote in the presidential election. They will also air in Washington, D.C.
“Our group will be a conduit to highlight President Trump’s achievement to the rest of the country,” said Emily Cornell, who is moving from the Mercer-funded data firm Cambridge Analytica to run Making America Great’s day-to-day operations.
“We are here to promote successes and hold accountable broken promises — not just to those who voted for Trump, but to all Americans.”
The group’s chief strategist David Bossie said the group has the “full support of the White House.”
Scarborough: Bannon trying to ‘help his falling standing’ in WH
BY JOE CONCHA – 03/29/17 09:16 AM EDT
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough says White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is “trying to save his hide inside the White House” following reports of another effort to try to repeal and replace ObamaCare after failure last week.
“This is idiotic for them to be talking about this because … they’re just pointing back to their failures of last week and the week before, and the broken promises,” the “Morning Joe” host said to open the show.
“Mitch McConnell has got it right. Democrats have what they want. They have the status quo. Let’s just see how that works out,” he continued.
Scarborough said Bannon, the former chairman of far-right website Breitbart, is behind the renewed push on healthcare.
“Why is Steve Bannon — is he trying to help his falling standing inside the White House? Scarborough asked, calling Bannon a “website operator until August of ’16.”
Top House Republicans favor funding key ObamaCare payments
BY PETER SULLIVAN – 03/28/17 12:03 PM EDT
Key House Republicans on healthcare say they want to find a way to fund ObamaCare payments that they previously sued the Obama administration over.
The payments, known as cost-sharing reductions, reimburse insurers for providing discounted deductibles for low-income ObamaCare enrollees. If the payments were canceled, insurers warn they could pull out of the market because of the hole left in their budgets, causing chaos.
GOP lawmakers previously filed suit against the Obama White House over the payments, arguing they were being made unconstitutionally, without a congressional appropriation.
President Trump’s company pursues second Washington hotel https://t.co/Mylt0zZ6W1 @OConnellPostbiz
— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) March 29, 2017
Does Trump Really Want a Grand Bargain With Democrats?
by Nancy LeTourneau March 29, 2017 8:00 AM
After a devastating defeat on health care, it might be that Trump is ready to jettison the idea of working with the House Freedom Caucus.
Jonathan Swan is reporting that for his next act, the president might attempt a grand bargain with Democrats.
………………………..
That has led them to a bit of an “oops, maybe we made a mistake” conclusion.
Quick Takes: Medicaid Comes of Age
by Nancy LeTourneau March 28, 2017 6:00 PM
* A silver lining to the ugly cloud we witnessed in the attempt to repeal Obamacare is that – due in part to it’s central role in the ACA – Medicaid came of age.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/28/17
Cyprus helping US in Manafort finances investigations
Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Cyprus is trying to shed its reputation as a place for laundering dirty Russian money and is helping the U.S. in its investigation of former Donald Trump campaign manager Manafort.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/28/17
Trump aide Manafort’s money trail traced through Cyprus accounts
Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about the investigations into former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s use of Cyprus bank accounts to process large amounts of money.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/28/17
Trump aide Manafort’s real estate deals raise suspicion
Rachel Maddow reports on how a pattern of real estate spending and borrowing by former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort follows a pattern experts say is used in laundering money.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/28/17
Fired US attorney at nexus of multiple Trump scandals
Rachel Maddow reports on the number of investigations tied to Donald Trump that were being conducted through the office of Preet Bharara before the Trump administration fired him as U.S. attorney.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/28/17
Trump White House lesson: Seek factual information elsewhere
Rachel Maddow looks at the facility with which the Donald Trump White House lied about their desire to produce a military spectacle as part of the inauguration ceremony, and notes the lesson that Trump’s White House is not a useful source for factual information.
#45 is a complete NATIONAL DISGRACE, and I have to believe that the unforeseen forces are at play to take this muthafucker out.
Trump’s lawyers try to shield him from sexual misconduct lawsuit
03/29/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
In the weeks leading up to the presidential election, nearly a dozen women came forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. The Republican denied each of the allegations and vowed to sue the women after the election.
Like so many of Trump’s claims, the promise turned out to be untrue, but that doesn’t mean the accusations are behind him. On the contrary, one of the women has now sued the president for defamation, and as USA Today reported, Trump’s attorneys have responded to the litigation by saying he should be immune from the lawsuit – because he’s too busy being president to be distracted by the case.
Trump’s lawyers – his private counsel, not the White House counsel – told the court this week the case could “distract a President from his public duties to the detriment of not only the President and his office but also the Nation.”
Republicans roll back the clock on Internet privacy protections
03/29/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Advocates of Internet privacy protections received some very bad news yesterday. Slate’s report summarized the developments on Capitol Hill nicely:
Politico tweeted overnight that the House voted “nearly unanimously to revoke broadband privacy rules.” That’s not even close to being true: the House voted 215 to 205. Literally zero Democrats voted for the bill, while nearly every Republican voted for it. In the Senate, the same legislation passed 50 to 48, again along party lines. (Sen. Rand Paul missed the vote, but was a co-sponsor of the legislation.)
In February Trump told reporters he had NO dealing with Russia. “And I have no loans with Russia. I have no loans with Russia at all.”
Yet in 2013, after Trump addressed potential investors in Moscow, he bragged to Real Estate Weekly about his access to Russia’s rich and powerful. “I have a great relationship with many Russians, and almost all of the oligarchs were in the room.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past-ties-russian-mobsters-organized-crime/98321252/
DA PHUQ?
BREAKING: Trump Administration Omits LGBTQ People from 2020 Census and American Community Survey https://t.co/WZm8pBqhmM #lgbtq pic.twitter.com/vNxet7I8bG
— The Task Force (@TheTaskForce) March 28, 2017
Schock staffer was FBI informant, court filings reveal https://t.co/ANavFENqqQ pic.twitter.com/HOPqSBGW9q
— The Hill (@thehill) March 29, 2017
Good Morning, Everyone 😄 😄😄