From Andy Slavitt:
Andy SlavittVerified account @ASlavitt
My tweets soon summing up what is happening on Trumpcare tonight and what it means.
Follow if interested.
2- Senate will vote on a bill tonight. There is still no text, no CBO score & GOP Senators themselves ridicule it.
3- The Senate will vote on the bill anyway and justify passing it by pretending it’s a procedural vote. It’s not.
4- There are 3 possible outcomes if the bill passes the Senate: it becomes law, it becomes worse, it fails. In that order.
5-The “fraudulent disaster” as Graham called it can become law 3 ways -House passes it -Goes 2 conference, passes -Goes 2 conf, then 2 House
6- Although Ryan says there will be a conference, as @igorvolsky says, don’t count on it.
7- If it does go to Conference, that Conference will need to play to the Freedom Caucus’s interests & hug the contours of the House bill.
8- The House bill, for those who don’t remember, is an even bigger day nightmare than what the Senate will pass.
9- And this means that Medicaid would be dramatically cut.
10- It’s possible the conference will fail 2 pass anything. Not much reason to think they can succeed where Congress has continually failed.
And, from Topher Spiro:
Topher SpiroVerified account @TopherSpiro
Topher Spiro Retweeted Chris Murphy
This is what I was talking about last night. @SenateDems are a united force.
Where things stand: debate time runs out at 9:30PM, then voting could begin. Still no bill, CBO score, or final parliamentary rulings.
Does anyone really believe Paul Ryan won’t fold like a cheap suit when Trump demands that he pass skinny repeal ASAP to get a win?
THIS IS INSANE. Health care for millions depends on whether Lindsey Graham thinks House assurances pass the pornography test.
Hey John McCain, RonJohn, and Lindsey Graham: WAKE UP. The House invoked martial law without limiting it to going to conference.
Seriously, blue state folks—this tool is EXACTLY what you've been waiting for. How it works: https://t.co/HWulNbjk48 pic.twitter.com/K0zZy2EVes
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) July 27, 2017
Chris MurphyVerified account @ChrisMurphyCT
Senate packs repeal bill w conservative priorities + Trump says he loves bill + House readies w martial law = THERE WILL BE NO CONFERENCE
#SkinnyRepeal bill: Defunds @PPFA & funds "community health centers," including anti-abortion CPCs—fake clinics that lie about abortion. pic.twitter.com/TZyleAdbr5
— Reproductive Freedom for All (@reproforall) July 28, 2017
BREAKING: CBO Score is out! Premiums will be 20% higher in EVERY year 2018-2026 under Senate Freedom bill.https://t.co/aUF16dbrXe
— Andy Slavitt 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 (@ASlavitt) July 28, 2017
NEW: CBO says 16 million will lose coverage with the Freedom Act.
Ahh, Freedom.
— Andy Slavitt 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 (@ASlavitt) July 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/joanarensman/status/890779621448228865
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/890769963711172609
Never forget that this healthcare fight is about real people. Millions of people.
This story from the NYT points this out:
“For months it’s been: ‘Here’s a bill, we’ll vote. No, we won’t … Except that for us, this is not a game.” https://t.co/jhGPIssRqL
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 27, 2017
UPDATE: I went to bed sad, folks.
I’ll be damned. McCain voted NO with Collins and Murkowski.
Didn’t see that coming.
I also have to give Collins and Murkowski cred for standing strong.
McCain comes to the front, loudly says "NO" then walks off: pic.twitter.com/vsQ1EolKiM
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) July 28, 2017
People are legitimately crying right now outside the Capitol as they are told Murkowski, McCain and Collins voted against skinny repeal pic.twitter.com/zI3o9xOndY
— Marianna Sotomayor (@MariannaReports) July 28, 2017
Stunned McConnell blames Democrats after crucial health care loss https://t.co/STfOJVB1vV via @ludacristiano pic.twitter.com/iGCbs8G26g
— POLITICO (@politico) July 28, 2017
Not
For
A
Nanosecond
Did
A
Single
Democrat
Waver.Both chambers. They were rock solid. They faced the assault unified, and held the line.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/891055714831147009
LOL
https://twitter.com/RaquelWillis_/status/890922814521319428
https://twitter.com/bravenak/status/890910950496149504
https://twitter.com/amandarivkin/status/890970182302052352
https://twitter.com/NicholsUprising/status/890913047518347267
Respect.
Clayton Cubitt
✔
@claytoncubitt
Dolly Parton’s dad never learned to read. She started a program which sends a book every month to children in need. 92. Million. Books. https://twitter.com/dollyslibrary/status/879761586306654210 …
1:15 AM – Jul 27, 2017
This was one of the funniest takes on the McCain vote.
I LOL everytime I read it – hilarious.
Watch The Shocking Moment John McCain Killed The Republican Health Care Bill
There is so much going on in this clip. I can’t stop watching.
Originally posted on July 28, 2017, at 9:54 a.m.
Updated on July 28, 2017, at 2:58 p.m.
David Mack
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/891091419171041282
“I hear hurricanes a’ blowin’…”
NPR on Priebus’s exit:
https://twitter.com/NPR/status/891046270202253313
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/891046384870281216
https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/891061199315644421
https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/891053602134994944
https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/891049674580402177
Yeah, this is all going somewhere we haven’t been before.
What will it take for the GOP controlled Congress to act? That is the question.
They need to remove him before something terrible happen. People are afraid, can’t sleep with this monster in the WH. There is chaos with him every single day.
Yeah, I certainly feel the anxiety.
https://twitter.com/metkelaw/status/891056695341961219
Breaking News: Reince Priebus out as Chief of Staff
Reince…write the book
follow the thread:
1/ They said Obamacare wouldn’t do anything to reduce the number of uninsured pic.twitter.com/nkHhwVYZHc
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) July 28, 2017
The Nevada Senate race is going to be lit. Check out what @SenDeanHeller’s opponent, @RepJackyRosen, sent out at 5 AM NV time. pic.twitter.com/JXoc16eYnJ
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) July 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/BLCKDGRD/status/890966576811388929
Courage.
https://twitter.com/jessicalustig/status/891014277771010050
That’s Trump’s idea of backlash. He knows who does not support him. He knows who gets the worst of police brutality.
He openly encouraged police to commit even more violence upon blacks and people of color. This is straight thug mobster mentality and he don’t give a fk.
https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/891019904018677761
A reminder that Trump’s call today for Police Brutality and more ICE troops will later require mass detention camps pic.twitter.com/kpqsPwzUfN
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) July 28, 2017
I sat down at 2:30am and wrote a behind the scenes account of last night’s health care debate. Here it is. https://t.co/qeyLMNKGrN
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) July 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/891015656702967808
https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/891005850420224001
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/891024305320062977
this POS right here
OMG. How could he not see the little boy? What a jerk.
He is a horrible person😠
Mueller Is Under Trump’s Hood, and It’s Making Him Crazy
by Martin Longman
July 28, 2017
Nick Penzenstadler and Steve Reilly of USA Today have a piece that will be seen in nearly every hotel, including Trump’s, in the entire country. It details the eleventy-billion ways that Donald Trump is made vulnerable by Robert Mueller’s investigation into his business practices.
It’s interesting to realize that Mueller could be perusing Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns right now, as well as Trump Corporation’s emails, without the president even being aware of it. I guess I had envisioned that Trump would be tipped off that Mueller was heading in that direction, but it appears that it can all be done through judges’ orders and without the need to go to Trump’s lawyers and accountants.
Knowing how Trump has run his businesses in the past, I know for a fact that he doesn’t dot his i’s or cross his t’s, so he must be losing his mind at the idea that the FBI is under his hood peaking around. He must be thinking “I’m the most powerful man in the world and I can’t even send my pitbull lawyers after my adversary!”
I think he’s basically in panic-mode at this point, and there might even be a small part of him who is worried about others beside himself. Like his children.
His desperation to get Mueller dismissed is obvious, as is his sense of urgency. But, so far, all he’s done is build an obstruction of justice case against himself and tip off Congress so they can block him from making any moves. He can’t do anything but fume as the wheels of justice churn closer and closer.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/891018835180040193
BWA HA HA HA HA
80 yrs old & smooth AF! Lol! 🔥🔥🔥
STONE COLD, STONE COLD-COCKED THEM ALL
*BOOM*!
Trump Has Not Yet Begun to Lose
by Martin Longman
July 28, 2017
People close to Secretary of Defense James Mattis say he is “appalled” by the president’s decision to make a shift on transgender policy via Twitter. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on the verge of resigning, mainly out of frustration with the president and his staff. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry is in charge of our nuclear weapons and was duped into spending a half hour with a Russian phone prankster who he thought was Ukraine’s prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman. Trump wants to fire his beleaguered attorney general who is pissed at him. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke just alienated the senator with the most influence over his department by threatening her state with petty retribution for her vote against Trumpcare. Trump’s first press secretary quit in disgust, which came shortly after his second communications director quit in disgust. Trump’s new communications director just said that his chief of staff is a “paranoid schizophrenic,” that his top advisor “sucks his own cock,” and that he wants “to kill” the rest of Trump’s staff for leaking. Trump’s “paranoiac” chief of staff is preparing to exit.
Trump’s former campaign chairman is quite possibly going to jail and is likely in plea negotiations to avoid that fate. Trump had to fire his first national security advisor who is quite possibly going to jail and is likely in plea negotiations to avoid that fate. Trump’s son was nailed dead to rights for talking to Russian spies about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton, turned in essentially by Trump’s son-in-law who also met with Russian spies. They both have lawyers, as does Trump’s daughter. Trump has a growing army of lawyers, none of whom he listens to at all.
And this (and much more) was happening before Trump’s push to repeal Obamacare died in the Senate last night, and before Special Counsel Robert Mueller announces a single indictment of anyone in Trump’s inner or outer circles. As I’ve been saying, the real problems haven’t hit yet. Wait until the Republicans discover that they can’t raise the debt ceiling and the country is about to default on its debts and cause a global recession. Wait until the Republicans can’t pass a budget or can’t pass a continuing resolution and the government shuts down. Or, more accurately, watch what happens to the party when its leaders need to go to the Democrats for help and get no help or cover from a White House that has no understanding of practical reality. Wait until we’re asked to follow Trump’s leadership during a crisis on the Korean peninsula or he inadvertently starts a crisis there by making careless tweets.
The failures so far have been spectacular, but they’re just the warm up act. The real consequences are just on the horizon, and all queued up to hit us between Labor Day and Halloween.
Trump has not yet begun to lose, and we’re all going to lose with him unless something preemptive is done by people in responsibility who currently show no signs of having any wisdom or any guts.
Trump says that he’s okay with police being rougher on arrested suspects, such as hitting their head on police car. Crowd of police cheers.
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) July 28, 2017
Funniest thing you will read today.
I disagree with the teacher:
This kid deserved an “A”
https://mobile.twitter.com/DemWrite/status/890638813105594368
IT’S EVERYTHING! 👏🏽💪🏽👏🏽🙌🏽
Is that Mitch McConnell standing in front of him? Looks like he’s been cold cocked. SO SWEET!
https://twitter.com/funder/status/890938602347167746
Sally Yates: Protect the Justice Department From President Trump https://t.co/LFvLObnNZs
— Mary Frank (@Fran_Neena20409) July 28, 2017
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/890988743955546113
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/890995804076466176
https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/890984409297551361
Don’t fuck with Ms Maxine!
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/890945961878409216
Truth is, the privileged prick didn’t feel the need to answer Maxine’s question.
Google’s homepage links here today. Google, y’all.
https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=Honoring%20the%20Silent%20Parade
A battle is done. The war continues.
Liberal Librarian July 28, 2017
Last night I was speaking on Twitter with our very own Churchlady, and I had this realization:
……………………………………………
The war didn’t start on November 9. It’s a war as old as the Republic. It’s just that now it’s in its terminal phase. It’s in the part where it does the most damage, destroys the most lives.
Trump often says that we’re in a war to save civilization. In this he’s right. This war is to define what kind of civilization we will have, and Trump and his fascists are on the side of the barbarians. It’s a war to determine whether our world advances or falls into the chasm. It’s a war between hope and nihilism. It’s a war to put an end to the proposition that some people are more equal than others.
Last night we won a great victory. It was all the sweeter because it was unexpected. It showed that all the work we’ve done since November 9 does have a payoff. It’s hard. It’s frustrating. But that’s war. War is not easy. War is not kind. War demands sacrifice. And it will demand more sacrifice over the coming months and years.
Enjoy the victory. But the struggle continues.
Health Care Fails and the Reckoning Begins
by Martin Longman
July 28, 2017
I learned a long time ago not to put my hope in John McCain, but I did always have it in the back of my mind that he’d be the kind of guy to know that revenge is a dish best served cold. He could have ended this from Arizona without coming back to Washington at all, but he showed up in person, voted to let the charade proceed, kept everyone needlessly in suspense, and then shivved the president with a smile on his face:
Given that he caused needless stress to millions of Americans and set up Mitch McConnell to look like the biggest ass in the world, a desire to hurt Trump in the most theatrical fashion possible is the only real explanation for why he had things play out this way.
I Went to Harvard Law with Anthony Scaramucci. Here’s What He Was Like.
Like the president whom Scaramucci would go on to serve, getting rich was the goal, and winning was everything.
by Richard D. Kahlenberg July 28, 2017
Like the president he serves, Anthony Scaramucci, the flamboyant new White House communications director, likes to reference his Ivy League credentials. In a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Scaramucci was asked whether he would have attended a meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised to supply dirt on Hillary Clinton. While Donald Trump Jr. took the meeting, Scaramucci bragged that as a Harvard Law School graduate, he probably wouldn’t have gone himself. When asked about whether Trump could pardon himself, Scaramucci offered that he wasn’t sure, but he did get an A- in constitutional law from Harvard Law professor Larry Tribe.
What was the young Anthony Scaramucci like at Harvard Law School? And what might those early years tell us about President Trump’s new favorite aide, whose brash New York style is rightly earning Scaramucci the moniker, “mini-me”?
Scaramucci was in my first year section at Harvard Law School more than 30 years ago, and even then, he was known as a big personality. He was an exuberant figure who proposed to his girlfriend on a Times Square billboard. He made a brief appearance in a book I wrote called Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School. In the volume, I used the real names of professors—who were well known—but gave the young, non-famous students pseudonyms. Anthony Scaramucci’s was Joe Sisorelli.
…………………………………..
I don’t remember whether Scaramucci had already embraced right wing politics back at Harvard, but if he had, he was nevertheless a popular presence. He was a showman then, is a showman now, and he may just succeed in advancing Trump’s agenda.
In retrospect, though, there was another side to the gregarious and wise-cracking Scaramucci that was more unsettling. Many of us had come to law school hoping to be the next Thurgood Marshall advancing civil rights or Ralph Nader promoting consumer protection. Two-thirds of us entered law school saying we wanted careers in public interest law, but most of us instead became corporate lawyers. Referencing the then-popular TV show, “LA Law,” I wrote: “A number of students come wanting to be Atticus Finch and leave as Arnie Becker.” If most of us sold out, we nevertheless agonized over the decision of what type of law to practice.
Scaramucci, however, skipped law altogether and went straight to investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He would later go on to found a group of global hedge funds known as SkyBridge Capital.
Couple caught in ‘financial spiral’ jump to their deaths
By Shawn Cohen, Tamar Lapin and Natalie Musumeci
July 28, 2017
A pair of Manhattan parents claiming financial woes jumped to their deaths early Friday – leaving double suicide notes pleading that their two kids be cared for, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
The bodies of the man, a 53-year-old chiropractor, and his wife, 50, were found in the middle of the street on 33rd Street between Park and Madison avenues in Murray Hill after the pair jumped from the ninth-floor window of a 17-story corner office building on Madison Avenue at about 5:45 a.m., police said.
The man, whose office was on the same floor of the building where the couple jumped, claimed in a typed suicide note found in his pocket, ““WE HAD A WONDERFUL LIFE.”
The woman had a suicide note in her pocket that read, “in sum and substance,” according to a source, “‘Our kids are upstairs, please take care of them.’”
Y’all, I just checked Facebook and the haters are out in droves, they’re letting John McCain have it. Please send him a positive note right here…TY
https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form
Obamacare Lives
By Jonathan Chait
I remember where I was and how it felt when the House of Representatives held the deciding vote to establish the Affordable Care Act. It was a feeling of elation, but, sitting in my living room by myself, an oddly solitary one. I ran out into the street of my residential neighborhood, half-expecting jubilant V-J Day–style crowds. But it wasn’t just that my neighbors were at work. The months and months of legislative grinding had cast a pall of depression over even many enthusiastic Obama-voting liberals, who saw the health care law as hardly worth celebrating.
The death of Obamacare repeal, in the early morning hours of Friday, July 28, was a very different experience. “Nothing in life is so exhilarating,” as Churchill is reputed to have said, “as to be shot at without result.” Obamacare has gained not only positive approval in broad opinion polls but a genuine mass following. Hundreds of thousands of Americans rallied to its defense, making its repeal impossibly painful for the Republican government that had once assumed it would sweep the law away in a January lightning strike.
…………………………….
That commitment to destroy the law became an albatross around the governing party’s neck. Perhaps even more than Trump’s buffoonery, the party’s relentless drive to please its activist and donor base by fulfilling the promise of repeal has broken the faith of the downscale white voters who rely on the law for their access to medical care. The repeal crusade is a fiasco of historic scope, opening the door for Democrats possibly to recapture Congress.
Health-care policy will change. The Trump administration has powerful weapons to sabotage the functioning of the markets. But the world before Obamacare will never return. Health-care reform defied progressives for decades because the uninsured were a disorganized and politically voiceless group. Obamacare has transformed the non-constituency into a constituency. Republicans have had to promise to protect them, and when they tried to break that promise, it summoned a backlash unlike anything they could have imagined. The outpouring of political organizing to save the law shocked its would-be repealers. The movement to save Obamacare takes its place among the great social causes in American history.
“The movement to save Obamacare takes its place among the great social causes in American history.” https://t.co/fueq9wNbgw
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 28, 2017
DAMN YOU, PBO!
LOL
Donald Trump’s War on the 1960s
To the president and his fans, the ’60s undermined what was good and virtuous in America.
BY LEONARD STEINHORN
JULY 27, 2017
Donald Trump and his supporters may be waging battles against the press, immigrants, voting rights, the environment, science, social welfare programs, Planned Parenthood and what they label political correctness and the deep state.
But to them these are mere skirmishes in a much larger conflict. The president has essentially declared an all-out war on the American 1960s.
What he and his followers hope to do is not necessarily turn back the clock to the 1950s, but rather restore a social order, value system and “real America” that they believe was hijacked by the liberal culture, politics, thought leaders and policy priorities that emerged from the ’60s.
An October 2016 PRRI survey found close to three-fourths of Trump voters and white evangelical Christians bemoaning an American society and way of life that to them has changed for the worse since the 1950s. Donald Trump has become their cultural and political reset button.
To be sure, no immigration policy or insistence on saying Merry Christmas will reinstate the 1950s in America. A nation that was 87 percent non-Hispanic white in 1950 will be 47 percent in 2050. Seven in 10 Americans claimed church membership during the ’50s, but now just 20 percent of millennials say churchgoing is important and almost 40 percent say they have no religious affiliation at all.
But while the president and his supporters can’t reverse demography, they are trying through rhetoric, symbolism, policy and politics to resurrect an iconic post-World War II Norman Rockwell version of what it means to be authentically American.
To them, the ’60s undermined what was good and virtuous in America. In their sepia-toned view of our history, it was a triumphant military, a white working class and a Father Knows Best conception of nuclear families, moral values and suburban bliss that made America great.
In this America we saluted the flag, revered the police, attended church, trusted authority, respected tradition and venerated sturdy, stoic, upstanding lunch pail heroes who earned their American dream without griping or government assistance.
It’s not that religious and ethnic minorities are absent from this history — they gave America character, after all and we all need to show our melting pot tolerance. But how nice it was that they knew their place, didn’t get too uppity and honored the primacy of Christians and whites who, the story goes, steadied and built the United States.
America was much more of a community before the agitators caused all the problems, wasn’t it?
House Republicans want a special counsel for Clinton, not Trump
07/28/17 11:16 AM
By Steve Benen
Sometimes, the line between House Republicans and their caricature becomes blurred.
In other words, if Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have their way, we’d have two parallel investigations: one special-counsel probe examining the Trump-Russia scandal, and another special-counsel probe going after Hillary Clinton.
There’s no reason to believe the Justice Department will take such a request seriously, but we live in deeply strange times and it’s probably best not to make any assumptions.
Also note, even if there is no second special counsel, the House Judiciary Committee is poised to move forward with a Clinton investigation of its own. The Washington Post reported this week that the GOP-led panel has begun requesting documents for a new round of Clinton-related scrutiny.
All of this, coincidentally, follows Donald Trump’s recent insistence that Clinton’s imagined “crimes” face an investigation.
The House Judiciary Committee’s actions are laughable on their face, but they’re all the more jarring when one remembers that this same panel has refused to do any meaningful work on the Russia scandal. A foreign adversary launched an espionage operation to subvert an American election – the most serious attack against the United States since 9/11 – and the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee, which has unique responsibilities in this area, has largely ignored the entire affair.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/890955465118683136
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/890952041211854849
Now you know how we feel about YOU, Zombie-eyed,Eddie Munster Granny- starver !
The choice cannot be more clear.
They are on the record for plans that were horrific and would inflict harm upon MILLIONS.
NOW, they need to be nailed to the votes. Make them stick like superglue. It should be in every ad against them for 2018.
The GOP tried to harm you and your family.
The Democrats didn’t.
It really IS that simple. Period.
Contact Numbers for Senators Murkowski and Collins. Call them and thank them:)
Sen. Murkowski: 202-224-6665
Sen. Collins: 202-224-2523
The Darkness and the Rot
By JOSH MARSHALL
Published JULY 26, 2017 10:44 PM
excerpt:
Trump Says GOP Should Just Let O’Care ‘Implode’ After Repeal Effort Withers
By CAITLIN MACNEAL
Published JULY 28, 2017 6:41 AM
After the Senate’s latest effort to repeal Obamacare failed early Friday morning, President Donald Trump proposed simply letting the Affordable Care Act “implode” before working up replacement legislation.
……………….
Trump’s proposal to let Obamacare “implode” is not a new one. He has offered several different strategies for replacing the health care law as Congress has struggled to come up with a bill that enough lawmakers can agree on. He’s now circled back to letting Obamacare fail.
McConnell: O’Care Repeal Failure Is A ‘Clearly Disappointing Moment’ For GOP
by NICOLE LAFOND
Published JULY 28, 2017 8:12 AM
A seemingly stunned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t shy about the “clearly disappointing moment” his party had just endured and openly blamed Democrats for not engaging “in a serious way” to help the American people, after Republicans failed to pass a skinny Obamacare repeal bill early Friday morning.
“I imagine many of our colleagues on the other side are celebrating, probably pretty happy about this,” McConnell said from the Senate floor after the plan was blocked by three Republicans. He said he felt “regret” and “disappointment” that his party couldn’t drum up a simple majority to pass the minimalistic repeal bill.
“This is a disappointment, a disappointment indeed,” he said. “Our constituents have suffered through an awful lot under Obamacare, we thought they deserved better, which is why I, and many of my colleagues, did as we promised, voted to repeal this failed law.”
Conservative Pundits Melt Down After Senate Repeal Effort Dramatically Fails
By CAITLIN MACNEAL
Published JULY 28, 2017 9:58 AM
After the Senate’s bare-bones bill to repeal Obamacare suddenly crashed and burned in the wee hours of Friday morning, conservative pundits went into full freak-out mode, blasting the Senate for its failure.
Some specifically aimed their ire at Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain cast the final, decisive vote on Friday morning against the bill, bringing the Senate’s third stab at repealing Obamacare to a grinding halt. His vote against the measure shocked Republican senators standing in the chamber, especially since he returned to the Capitol earlier this week to cast a vote that allowed the Senate to proceed to debate on the legislation in the first place.
This last twist left conservative pundits reeling. Former Republican presidential candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was so angry with the three senators who voted down the bill that he suggested changing the way senators are elected.
Acting ICE Director: Deportation Of Non-Criminals Has Gone From ‘Zero To 100’
by MATT SHUHAM
Published JULY 27, 2017 3:58 PM
The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday that the agency’s deportations of non-criminal undocumented immigrants has gone from “zero to 100” in the first six months of the Trump administration.
Thomas Homan made the comment during a White House briefing when asked if the administration was highlighting the activity of violent transnational gangs like MS13 to characterize a much larger deportation effort that includes largely law-abiding undocumented people. A reporter referenced reports that the largest spike in deportations under the Trump administration has come from undocumented immigrants without any criminal record.
Remaining in the country without authorization, while still punishable with deportation, is a civil offense — as opposed to criminal offenses like jumping a border fence or forging an identification document.
“Under the prior administration, noncriminals were not a priority,” Homan said. “So when you go from zero to 100, of course you’re going to see the biggest rise in that.”
“The executive orders are clear,” he said. “Anybody who reads the executive orders — no population is off the table. So noncriminals, yeah, those that have got a court order from a judge who refuse to leave, we’re looking for them. Those who enter the country illegally, I’ve said it a hundred times, that is a crime, to enter this country illegally.”
Aping His Boss, Scaramucci Tries To Use DOJ Like A Personal Enforcement Arm
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND
Published JULY 28, 2017 6:00 AM
White House staffers aren’t supposed to just call up the Justice Department or FBI and complain about a personal grievance. Yet that is exactly what newly-minted Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci claimed to have done during a combative Thursday morning CNN interview, disclosing that he had contacted Attorney General Jeff Sessions and various “buddies” in the FBI over his concerns about leaks coming from senior White House staff.
“You know why I like bringing up the Department of Justice and the FBI?” Scaramucci said. “Because people who’ve done something wrong, it makes ‘em nervous.”
These comments came hours after Scaramucci offered an expletive-filled rant to New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza about how he believed his rival, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, was behind the latest leak, and that he’d “called the FBI and the Department of Justice” about this “felony.”
Setting aside that his concerns were sparked by misplaced anger over reporting on his financial disclosure form, which is a publicly available document, the Scaramucci kerfuffle marked just the latest example of a member of the Trump administration attempting to use the Justice Department as something of a personal enforcement arm. President Donald Trump has been the most public face of this norm-shattering: the FBI director he fired, James Comey, testified that the President asked him to swear his loyalty and end a federal investigation into ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Contacts like Scaramucci’s run up again longstanding, binding regulations that strictly limit contact between the White House and Justice Department. Since the Watergate era, each new attorney general and each White House general counsel has laid out an updated version of their contact policy, dictating that only senior members of each body may be in contact with each other about investigations, and even then only in very specific instances.
Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel who led investigations into President Bill Clinton, laid out the importance of this division in a Thursday Washington Post op-ed.
“The attorney general is not—and cannot be—the president’s ‘hockey goalie,’ as new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci described Sessions’s job,” Starr wrote. “In fact, the President isn’t even his client. To the contrary, the attorney general’s client is ultimately ‘We the People,’ and his fidelity has to be not to the president but to the Constitution and other laws of the United States.”
Soon Paul Ryan Will Boehner Himself
by Martin Longman
July 27, 2017
Rachael Bade of Politico has an excellent article on a topic I’ve been writing about now for more than half a decade, which is the true governing majority in the House of Representatives. Back before John Boehner lost his job as speaker, I could see that he had no future as the speaker if he insisted on simultaneously being the leader of the House Republican caucus. I encouraged him repeatedly to face reality and strike a deal with the Democrats to create a functional majority that reflected the actual group that was willing to pay our debts on time and keep the government operating by passing appropriations bills.
I, of course, knew that Boehner lacked the foresight, creativity, cunning, or independence of mind to follow my advice, but I also knew he was doomed if he did not. He tried to govern with the majority he had, and it wasn’t a Republican majority so the hardliners orchestrated his defenestration.
Paul Ryan finds himself in the same situation, although his first true tests haven’t occurred yet. The difference is that his centrists, who are his most crucial members for actually governing, are more organized and rebellious than they were under Boehner. They have already sunk a number of bills, blown up more than a couple of legislative plans, and they’re sick and tired of being forced to imperil their reelection by taking unnecessary votes that divide their constituents. They’re telling Ryan to quit holding votes as negotiating and messaging tools and start negotiating the budget deal and debt ceiling with the Democrats.
The centrists have always had more clout than they’ve been willing to use, but their influence is at a high point at the moment because they’re not just the folks who can give Ryan the votes he needs to avoid a government shutdown and a credit default, they’re also the folks most likely to lose in the midterms. In other words, their political interests have to be considered more now than ever, because Ryan can’t remain Speaker if they get wiped out.
Paul Ryan ain’t shit. Never has been, never will be this savvy, intellectual, ‘young gun’ folks tried to make him out to be.
BREAKING: After 7 years, 81 anti-ACA votes, thousands of wasted hours, Republicans fail again. #SkinnyRepeal is dead and #ObamacareLIVES! pic.twitter.com/a2zmRUc6yD
— The Baxter Bean (@TheBaxterBean) July 28, 2017
FAILURE, FAILURE, FAILURE
And who are the folks who votes for these FAILURES?
FAILURES!
Some rarely-seen photographs from this day in 2004, when then-state sen. @BarackObama gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention: pic.twitter.com/adIVBDtLeX
— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) July 27, 2017
In the wake of failure, McConnell looks for someone to blame
07/28/17 08:46 AM—UPDATED 07/28/17 10:06 AM
By Steve Benen
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saw an opportunity to take health care benefits from millions of American families, and it’s hardly surprising that he’d feel bitter disappointment now that his efforts have failed. But this Politico piece suggests McConnell’s not playing the blame game especially well.
There are a few ways to look at whining like this. The first is to just see it was pathetic: as became obvious last night, McConnell couldn’t convince his own members to follow his lead. For him to blame the minority party for refusing to help him undermine Americans’ interests is impossible to take seriously.
The second is that McConnell is plainly wrong about what Democrats were willing to do. As we discussed weeks ago, Democrats practically begged to work with Republicans on health care. They put their appeals in writing for months. GOP leaders ignored every appeal.
McConnell considered a bipartisanship approach, in a rather literal sense, the worst-case scenario. In March, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) characterized bipartisanship as the one course of action he simply did not want to even consider.
But even putting these details aside, let’s not overlook the fact that McConnell is perhaps the last person in the country who should be talking about engaging in health care policymaking “in a serious way.”
Strike Three: Republicans’ health care crusade collapses in Senate
07/28/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Health care advocates have reason to be relieved this morning.
What now?
Well, Senate Republicans have now run out of bills. “Repeal and replace” was voted down on Tuesday; “repeal and delay” was voted down on Wednesday; and then “skinny repeal” came up one vote short last night. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared last night, “It’s time to move on.”
Right, but what does that mean in practical terms?
No one, including Senate Republicans, can answer that with any confidence. At least in theory, senators can now begin work on some bipartisan measures intended to strengthen the current system and shore up areas in which the Affordable Care Act is struggling.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/27/17
Trump employs Christie-style bully politics in health bill push
Rachel Maddow points out the parallels between the bully tactics at the root of the Bridgegate scandal and the pressure Donald Trump is trying to put on Senator Lisa Murkowski by threatening Alaska, noting also that Chris Christie’s former campaign manager now works as Trump’s political director.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/27/17
Expert: ‘Nothing can stop Bobby Mueller’ despite Trump’s efforts
Tim Weiner, historian of the FBI and CIA, talks with Rachel Maddow about the Republican effort to discredit the FBI and the Trump Russia investigation, and what Donald Trump doesn’t understand about the FBI.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/27/17
GOP deploys counter narrative amid continued Trump disgrace
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest embarrassing spectacle from the Donald Trump administration and points out the facets of a solidifying Republican counter narrative that aims to discredit the FBI and the Trump Russia investigation.
Love this Turtle tweet
https://mobile.twitter.com/BR_DougFarrar/status/890809258563915776
Russia cuts U.S. diplomats in retaliation to new sanctions https://t.co/LcmJvGF9Py pic.twitter.com/8PoUGrDCu2
— The Hill (@thehill) July 28, 2017
Oh, look. It’s the headline and front page photo from McConnell’s hometown newspaper.
Sweet. pic.twitter.com/HF5PzDFUOz
— emigre80 (@emigre80) July 28, 2017
In America.
In 2017
As Urban League gathers in St. Louis, NAACP issues a Missouri travel warning
Silverman at Balloon Juice points out the importance of the defeat of Trumpcare last night:
Call your Senators.
1. If they are Dems, tell them thank you.
2. If they are GOP and NOT named Collins, Murkowski, McCain, tell them that they are on the record and will be judged accordingly.
3. Even if you’re not in their state, call Collins, Murkowski and McCain and thank them.
I know that I was all..
We gotta fight fight fight..
But, we needed this win.
Silent Parade of 1917.
The Silent Parade, one of the first mass protests against lynching and anti-black violence in the United States, is the subject of a July 28, 2017 Google Doodle that commemorates its 100th anniversary.
The parade took place on July 28, 1917 along New York City’s Fifth Avenue, and, as Google notes, the only sound “was the muffled beat of drums.” Google chose the Silent Parade for a Google Doodle to honor “those whose silence resonates a century later.”
Google’s support for the Equal Justice Initiative is huge. EJI has the research and Google has the technology to put it out there for the whole world to see. It is just the beginning…
Wow. It’s 3:10 AM here in AZ.
I figured I may as well see the carnage now rather than later. And I am so RELIEVED.
John McCain came through for us. I hoped for that but I didn’t expect it. He was under a lot of pressure, to be sure, and I hope it doesn’t kill him. But thank God he listened to the people this time.
It would have been a very, very sad legacy for him if he had allowed this abomination cross the finish line and I am so relieved that he saw that.
I think what might have influenced McCain’s vote is that Jan Brewer expanded Medicaid under Obamacare before she left office, and it’s working well in Arizona. Before leaving office, Brewer realized that expanding Medicaid in Arizona wouldn’t only provide healthcare to the state’s citizens who needed it but would reduce the state’s healthcare costs, saving it money. I remember following the Arizona expansion closely. Some Republicans in the Arizona legislature tried to stop the expansion, but Brewer stood firm and worked to get it. I was afraid McCain would vote for the “skinny repeal” bill and screw his own citizens, and I’m relieved that he decided not to. McConnell doesn’t care about healthcare. His main focus was do rack up a “win” for Trump, and to dispel the notion, which so happens to be true, that although Republicans control both houses of Congress, they cannot govern. That this bill failed to pass confirms what I’ve thought all along: Republicans know they’ve been lying their butts off about Obamacare for seven long years, and while they were doing it, they also knew the law was working. Their attempt to repeal Obamacare is based on pure spite. They hate the idea that our first black president was able to do something they’ve failed to do. Although I don’t qualify for Obamacare, I took this matter to the Lord in prayer on behalf of millions of my fellow citizens, and he answered my prayer request that this “skinny repeal” bill wouldn’t pass, and it didn’t.
You’re spot on, Majiir. McCain said several times that he was consulting with Gov. Ducey (who is, of course, a Republican). That is what they told me when I called in. And, yes, the Medicaid expansion is working well in Arizona.
There is just so much pressure put on these GOP representatives to march in lockstep with their party. But, for crying out loud, what could they possibly do to McCain? McCain was free to vote his conscience if he chose to do so and I believe that is what he did. He reclaimed, at least for the moment, his reputation for being his own man. And I have to believe that the gratitude he will get from the people of Arizona (who also put immense pressure on him) is a greater reward than a slap on the back from the demonic possessed Mitch McConnell.
I would like to think that McCain looked back down that long tunnel of time and maybe remembered some things, maybe he remembered his friend Ted Kennedy, maybe he remembered some folks he knew way back when before he was a multi-millionaire. Maybe he looked ahead a little ways and thought about how he wanted to be remembered.
But he did the right thing last night and I will definitely call and thank him.
https://twitter.com/chadfreeman/status/890834094669479936
Agreed. Theses evil MOFOs are not going to ever stop trying to destroy us.
https://twitter.com/Ihnatko/status/890829504565923840
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/890818361294110721
Thanks to everyone for the sustained fight…know that it was hard.. But 👏👏👏
BRAVO
Rikyrah, your blog posts on this Trump / GOP healthcare debacle have been excellent.
I went to bed 😢..
Woke up to this news.😄😄😄😄😄
Thank you Warrior PRINCESS, for all your posts bringing the REALITY of the EVIL that lurks in our country, especially our government and the folks that are voted in who actually HATE OUR GOVERNMENT.
Ditto.
Good Morning,Everyone 😄😄😄
TGIF, Everyone.
McGrumpy claimed a piece of his legacy last night with that NO vote. He can go to his grave with some semblance of RIGHT after unleashing the ‘Sno Ho’ on our country.
https://twitter.com/SDIndivisible/status/890758099874852866
https://twitter.com/MarkWarner/status/890821466714849280
https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/890807095024603137
Thanks to all you hard working folks who made phone calls,emailed, marched,attended town halls to #RESIST the evils of #Trumpcare
SALUTE‼️
Rikyrah, thank you for your hard work in informing our community about the evil of Trumpcare. Mad props! 👊🏽
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/890837932415889408
McCain had a visit from the Grim Reaper, carrying a big boom box like Radio Raheem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnmPDzyLMU4
For most of his career, McConnell has been lying by claiming that his evil anti-American/democratic votes are “what Americans want.” He didn’t realize until early this morning that what we want is very different from what he wants. Thanks for posting this pic, SG2. McConnell has long needed to be brought down a peg or two. The failure of this vote isn’t only an embarrassment to him, it’s a major fail for the Talking Yam in the WH, and I am soooo pleased. This was an epic flame-out for Trump & Co.
Republicans control all 3 Branches of Government and can’t pass any major legislation. KARMA IS REAL
FAIL, FAIL, FAIL
FAILURES
KARMA has come to collect for the obstruction you brought against Pres Obama @SenateMajLdr. Sowing & Reaping is a Spiritual Law. #SkinnyRepeal
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/890809508594761728
Good morning, Chicas!
SkinnyRepeal FAILED -Final vote: 49-51
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/890811285759066113