Bigly Boy Donald Trump’s bigly foray into masterminding the takeover of American healthcare died an inglorious death on Friday. Speaker Paul Ryan ended up pulling the Trumpcare/Ryancare bill at the last minute on Friday afternoon because his own caucus was in disarray and Republicans were split between “I’m scared sh-tless that old people will yell at me at my townhall meeting” and “this bill doesn’t do enough to punish old people, sick people and women!” It was actually a good day to be sane. It was a good day to laugh at the sad, unbigly Republicans.
But of course a bigly fascist is never so dangerous as when it is wounded. Apparently, Emperor Baby Fists has been lashing out at all of his perceived and very real enemies. He even held a little press conference in the Oval Office to call Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer “losers” and blame Democrats in general for his failure to whip votes for the Republican health care bill. He also tweeted this:
ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2017
“Explode” is the verb we’re going with here? It’s almost like he wishes he could weaponize Obamacare. Don’t get me wrong – I have issues with Obamacare too. My rates have gone up as insurance providers have stopped participating (I see you, Anthem). But the answer isn’t “punish women for having babies.” The answer is a nuanced bill to fix how providers participate in the exchange. The ACA won’t “explode,” but it will inflate costs. The problem is that the only real answer will be found if and when the Democrats get back in power.
Also: apparently Bigly Baby Fists was super-mad that Jared Kushner wasn’t in DC to help him out with the healthcare. I would imagine Bigly was probably upset that Jared missed him going vroom-vroom in his bigly big rig too.
While the rest of his senior staff scrambled to squeeze votes for President Trump’s flailing health care package, one person remained notably absent for most of the week: Jared Kushner. Along with this wife, Ivanka Trump, another key cog in the president’s inner circle, Kushner was on vacation until Thursday, skiing with family in the posh Colorado town of Aspen. Paparazzi caught Jared and Ivanka taking leisurely strolls, enjoying ice cream cones with their three kids and winding their way down the slopes.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, Trump was fuming. According to a source close to the president, “[Trump] is upset that his son-in-law and senior adviser was not around during this crucial week.” Kushner did appear at the White House on Friday during the last gasps of the Obamacare repeal effort.
A White House spokesperson flatly denied the President is frustrated with Kushner. It has not been entirely clear what specific role Kushner, who has no Capitol Hill or Washington background, would have played in a legislative effort. When Ivanka and the kids took off for Aspen last weekend, sharing a ride on Trump’s private 757 jet with Donald Trump, Jr. and his family and Eric and Lara Trump, Jared did stay behind in Washington. However, he only worked Monday, and by that evening was himself flying out to join the rest of the Trump clan. On Tuesday, an Instagram photo from Lara Trump showed Kushner and Ivanka on top of a mountain. And as the week wore on and it was clear back home on that Trump’s cornerstone campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare was floundering with lawmakers, Jared remained out West, leaving to Vice President Mike Pence, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway the arduous task of selling the plan on Capitol Hill.
Kushner’s plan to stay out-of-office this week while the health care package faltered could mean he’ll get some of the blame from his father-in-law. Trump is reportedly already pointing fingers at his top staffers for what he considers shoddy support. Or, Kushner could perhaps avoid the entire debacle; the Orthodox Jew typically stays away from work after sundown on Fridays.
I wonder about this. While I don’t doubt that Bigly is a giant “I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I” toddler who blames everybody else for his own failures, I always believed that Ivanka and Jared were mostly exempt from his tirades and blame-gaming. Of course, they aren’t saying Bigly is mad at his precious Ivanka. But Jared? I imagine orange tears being shed and self-pitying howls of “How could you leave me, Jared??”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
jared reminds me of a baby head on a man’s body
seemingly benign then he turns around and it is professor quirrell
Oh my god I SNORTED at your comment
That was nothing short of a beautiful comment hahaha
oh my thank you both
OMG hahahaha
It was a garbage bill and the fact that ANYONE voted for it is awful. Sorry trump didn’t have his hand held during the crash and burn.
My rep was going to vote yes. I will be voting no for him the next time he is up for reelection.
They will find a way to destroy Obamacare. He doesn’t want to make America great again. His goal seems to be to destroy Obama’s legacy, he’s so obsessed with/jealous of him.
That’s what seems to be the focus. Instead of carefully working on improvements, they just wanted to toss the whole program (no matter who was adversely affected). The bill they quickly tried to hustle through had several serious flaws, and I am glad sanity prevailed (for now).
Yes. Don’t underestimated that weasel, HHS Secretary, Tom Price. He’s going to take his scalpel to the ACA,
I am enjoying watching the Republicans eat their own this weekend. (Grabs bag of popcorn, along with mimosa 🍹).
He will try and states will sue him and he will lose.
He also might not be around much longer if NY continues its investigation and presses charges against him.
Right. Obamacare is what it is because Republicans have fought tooth and nail to undermine it. It’s too bad it wasn’t enacted the way it should have been. Someone on NPR said attacking Obamacare right now is like someone murdering their parents then lashing out because they’re an orphan.
I think ACA is safe for now because trump has such a short attention span. However I agree they will try to dismantle it but the result will be the same…people will take them to task if they mess with it.
When the Dems get back into play they do need to fix how insurers buy into ACA. Anthem isn’t covering it because Obama blocked their merger. That shouldn’t be allowed.
Very interesting piece in the Washington Post about the real reason the Republicans were in such a hurry to dismantle the ACA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/25/why-republicans-were-in-such-a-hurry-on-health-care/?tid=pm_business_pop&utm_term=.73355558fa8d
Good article thanks
It was the 7 year anniversary of the ACA on thurs i think. I believe that trump and Ryan had plans to dismantle it on the anniversary so they could get the most press and be lauded as republicans heroes. Trump prob proposed it to Ryan as his baby, great chance for Ryan to make a big name. But it failed, haha.
Snowflake, yes. And they were so confident that some congressmen ran ads taking credit for repeal and replacing. Oops!
They can easily gut it financially and make it explode through budgeting changes. The problem that nobody in the Republican Party wants to acknowledge is that Obamacare is the most conservative option that still manages to provide maximum coverage. Basically – Democrats beat them to it. It leaves the capitalist system in place while subsidizing where necessary for lower income families. It’s a true hybrid model, and about as workable as a capitalist system can get with the sheer cost of modern systems.
I think what Obamacare might have actually done in the long run is awaken us to the reality that single payer may be the inevitable result of modern medicine. A system as expensive as ours is cannot sustain itself on a model where companies seek profit.
Single payer has always been the only solution to health care for everyone. But it smacks of that dirty “s” word — socialism. So it has not happened. I am totally in favor of it. Medicare should be expanded to cover everyone with the appropriate increase in FICA taxes to pay for it (another reason it hasn’t gone anywhere).
I wonder if it would really increase our taxes that much? What we pay out of each paycheck to our health insurer would go to a single payer system instead, right? Health insurance premiums are our second largest monthly expense and I think that’s true for a lot of people in the US. That doesn’t include our out of pocket expenses when we haven’t met our deductibles or someone ends up needing stitches or an x-ray at the ER. Surely the tax increase wouldn’t be more than what we pay now if you include all health expenses.
FWIW- One of my kids had strep throat last month. The bill to see her pediatrician for maybe 5 minutes and get the strep test was $147 because we haven’t met her deductible yet. I’m sure there are parents who have to skip the strep test- and therefore antibiotic prescription- due to cost and hope for the best.
Single payer should actually cost you less, because your current system is by far the most expensive in the industrialised world. That is, even though millions of Americans can’t get the care they need, the US still pays far more.
Speaking of which, I’ve just had a double hip replacement and when my surgeon was explaining the risks, he noted that some of the more common ones were only common in the US and vanishingly rare in other industrialised countries. Why? Because the surgeons are only doing a dozen or so each year. My surgeon typically does 350 joint replacements per year. He told me many of his US colleagues simply aren’t getting the practise, so the error rate is much higher.
The reason was the real shock: So many people in the US can’t afford hip and knee replacements.
This is so shocking! The pain these poor people have to endure … without hope of respite! No wonder there’s an opiate epidemic. Seriously, this has to be part of the cause: if many people can’t get the medical treatment they need and have, instead, to rely on painkillers.
It’s just utterly baffling that a wealthy community like the US can let people suffer and die just because they’re not rich. Serious question: do Americans who oppose single payer really believe the rest of the western world is not free, has “death panels” or endures poor quality health care? Seriously?
Another question: wouldn’t universal health care vastly lower employment costs? In your peculiar system where your employer is expected to pay for your health insurance, isn’t this a huge on-cost to employers, and a suppressor of new job creation?
Genuine question. I know there are experts of all sorts on Celebitchy, so I fully expect to be enlightened.
I wish the media and Democrats will get a backbone and stop falling into his hands. This guy was elected by 30% of the population and lost the popular vote. He has NO mandate, yet the press has fallen for his spin that he is “trying to keep his promises to his voters”. That’s not what the POTUS does, that’s what a dictator does. A POTUS works to help the entire country.
And Democrats defending themselves because of Trump’s latest tweet and letting him spin the story from a inability to lead his Republicans to “the bill failed because of the Democrats”. Dude just don’t engage, think Kellyanne-like, change the subject back to Trump’s failure.
The replacement to Obamacare did not pass because it was terrible. Even the Republicans did not like it. If itwould have been a suitable replacement it would have passed.
Any suitable replacement would not have pleased the Freedom Caucus. They wanted nothing short of a full repeal. Any version that catered to them made it impossible for moderate republicans support that version. Real change will have to wait until Dems are back in power because perhaps the moderate republicans will work with them.
How is the winning going Trump? All this winning must be intolerable..
Karma is one woman you don’t piss off because she will always win in the end with her patience, strength and justice..
Bigot (that’s a typo and it’s perfect) Boy actually said “I never promised to repeal and replace Obamacare”. I thought I was beyond the point of being shocked at his blatant lies, yet I was truly shocked by this one.
“Repeal and replace” is one of the few sane-sounding justifications that people used to justify a vote for him (because it sounds so much better than their racist, xenophobic, hateful reasons for voting).
HOW is anyone still supporting him. Literally H O W HOW?! I truly can’t understand.
ITA, it seems Trump supporters are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
on http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com you can find all his tweets on repealing and replacing Obamacare. Seeing all his unhinged tweets on one site is actually quite scary. O_o
It seems he literally cannot help himself, clearly lying to him is as easy as telling the truth. It really is unreal to behold. Especially someone in the office of POTUS.
I’ll go a step further and posit that lying is easier for Trump than telling the truth. Trump sees Truth as the enemy.
Aetna pulled out because the Obama administration ruled out a merger with Anthem because of antitrust issues. Aetna also was counting on Trump admin to reverse stand. Hopefully more companies will enter exchange but I have a feeling they are going to let it die then come back and repeal.
Yes, this is the real news story detail that Repubs and news media never highlight. The insurance companies are greedy, so they are pulling out in different ways until they get more cash. They should not have been allowed so much power in the ACA setup.
As for Tr*mp, he just missed Ivanka taking notes and holding his hand through the debacle, which I still suspect was his and Ban*on’s plan to destroy Paul Ryan.
I secretly wonder if Trump hasn’t realized that Obamacare is pretty good, and only tried this bill to appease his base. Thus, he didn’t care if passed or not. He probably figured, if it passed, great, but if it didn’t, oh well, I’ll just blame it on Ryan.
Rapunzel – you are giving the Orange Idiot way too much credit. You really think he has any individual, analytical thoughts? If it Is not squirted out of President Bannon’s ass then the thought doesn’t exist.
Rapunzel, I think you’re exactly right, Trump didn’t care at all it passed, he has no ideology and no real knowledge of or opinions on something as complex as healthcare.
What happened was they got a much bigger influx of sick people than they expected. When claims exceed premiums, it’s not sustainable. I’m not saying insurance companies are all altruists at heart — they aren’t. But they also can’t survive when they pay more out than they take in.
That’s true bluhare, but the original ACA actually originally had a mechanism in place that would have eliminated the risk to insurers. The “risk corridor” was set up to reimburse insurance companies for excessive losses that could possibly occur if claims exceeded premiums. That was one of the pieces of the ACA that was to be put in place to encourage insurers to offer plans in all markets, even ones that were unknown, or might not be profitable at first. The risk corridors were only to be in place for a limited time: the ACA required plans to provide certain essential benefits, some insurers had never offered plans with that mix of benefits across all markets, and therefore didn’t have the plan experience data to be able to set premiums at a profitable level from the start. If they priced to low, the risk corridor program would reimburse them; if they priced too high, they would pay back into the risk corridor. Then the following year they could reprice their premiums to achieve a reasonable profit, the market would start functioning as most insurance markets do (pooling the risk) and the risk corridors could be phased out.
But…duh duh duh! … wait for it… the Republicans – surprise! (Marco Rubio and company) cut most of the funding for the risk corridors, so it took away that protection for the insurers, leading to companies pulling out of markets because of losses (or risk of losses) and also leading to higher premiums and limited coverage options for people seeking insurance in many markets.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/01/22/explaining-risk-corridors-the-next-obamacare-issue/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-obamacare-problems_us_58cc48e3e4b0be71dcf4d685
On top of all the awful adjectives and nouns we can use to describe this man, we now need to add coward and wimp.
Trump doesn’t have the fortitude or guts to say himself that he wants to put the blame on Ryan and wants him to step down from being Speaker.
Instead, he tweets telling people to watch a tv show and has a B-list Fox News show host deliver that message to his followers, congress and Paul Ryan!
The man is a clown… a shameless piece of sh*t clown.
ITA. After all the huffing and puffing, we are seeing this bully for who he really is – a coward and a wimp with no political clout or coalition.
While he’s on his 13th golf trip of his administration. Don’t forget that, especially after all the hullabaloo they made about Obama’s golfing.
Drumpf will so go down as the worst president in US history.
He may go down as the worst human in history.
Oh, he’s got some pretty good competition for that one.
But he’s certainly trying to give them a run for their money, @bluhare.
I can just imagine it: DJT giving himself a pep talk, “Of all the worst humans in history, I’m the best at it. People say it, they tell me, good people, lots of people. “There are a lot of awful people around, but Donald, you’re a natural, you’re the most worst human being ever!” “Bigly, bigly!” That’s what I’ve heard, anyway. You ask them, people love me, they love me. Have you seen the protest crowds? They are the biggest anywhere, the most enormous crowds ever! And not just here, but across the country, the world, more crowds than anyone ever. Did you see them? I’ve said it before, I could shoot people on the street, right on Fifth Avenue Ppew ppew ppew! and people still would love me!”
You’re kidding right? Hitler, Stalin, and that lot are the worst…not trump.
I will never understand why universal healthcare is such an unappealing idea to so many Americans. (That’s not an invitation for an explanation I have had it explained to me but coming from a country where it’s a basic part of our life it’s sad how unappealing it is).
I’m an American and I don’t understand it at all, either. I don’t WANT to live in a dog-eat-dog, Darwinist society where people who fall behind are left to suffer in the street and die with no dignity, where children who are born a step behind have no help and don’t even get to see a doctor when needed. It’s a constant heartache for people with a decent conscience.
As my husband (whose family is from Norway) always says, people are so angry at the thought of their taxes going up, and point to countries with universal health care as idiotic because of the taxes. But in reality, if people bothered to crunch the numbers, it makes far more financial sense. I would GLADLY fork over more in taxes if it got me universal health care and better maternity leave.
Totally agree, Patricia, except for the unfair implication about Darwinism. Evolution has given us our instincts for love, altruism, cooperation, family and community just as much as it has given us the urge to compete and to fight.
Our best instincts are totally as “Darwinistic” as our worst.
The idea of universal healthcare has been demonized by the right. I think that’s the main reason it’s unappealing to people. People who don’t do their own research and just mindlessly swallow and then parrot the talking points.
I’ve never understood it either. Universal health care just seems to me to be the way to go. Even with Obamacare, there are a lot of uninsured people out there, although it’s better than nothing. Sort of like a bandaid on an arterial wound. But I’ve read that the reason the new piece of garbage bill wasn’t going to pass was because the Freedom Caucus (the tea partiest of the tea party) thought it was too lenient. Jeez.
i often wonder if the Obamacare is the way it is because he was trying to appease or placate those obstructionist Republicans that dogged his every move? i wonder if USA would’ve gotten universal healthcare otherwise.
much like ICE’s operation cross check was in part put in to make those immigration-hating repubs happy.
also, that it took the nightmare of Trump, Trummigration, Trumpban, Trumpcare to make more people realize that “hang on a sec, maybe single care IS a good idea… obama come backkk….”
The affordable care act is actually the Republican plan put forth by the right wing heritage foundation. It was stripped of some of the better parts as it worked it’s way through congress. Universal coverage is the only thing that makes sense, but Obama knew it would never get through. Maybe in a few years, I hope. It is a horrible thing for someone to die from lack of Healthcare in this country, but it happens.
You are exactly right, lower-case deb. The republicans watered it down tremendously.
Here’s what I will say as someone who is not anti-universal care but not excited about it either – my biggest concerns are 1.) infrastructure and 2.) cost coverage for universal care. The US is enormous and has a highly variable level of industrial development. Some places are extremely well developed and self-sustainable. Other places, like the deep rural South, are still staggeringly impoverished and poorly resourced. In order for universal care to be legitimate, we’d have to address that issue. Next, the tax hike required to cover such changes will be substantial – and Boston can tell you how Americans feel about taxes – and will more than likely hit the middle and working classes, which are already struggling under the weight of school debt and stagnating wages, the hardest.
I think it’s the inevitable resolution to all of this, but I can understand why people are afraid of such a massive change. It would take years of reform and trial and error to get it off the ground, and it’ll suck for a long time before it’s fully functional.
But would single payer require a huge tax hike? The US as a whole spends far more on health than all other industrialised countries for a worse result, because the current system is so expensive, wasteful and encourages price-gouging.
If all the money currently spent on health by Americans were to be redirected to a single payer system, you’d have far more than you need for a first-class system without having to find a single extra red cent.
Re my claim of a “worse result”: I know there are a few health measures where the US rates highly, but on really important ones like infant and maternal mortality and life expectancy, the US rates poorly compared to other industrialised nations.
And of course DT had to go on Twitter and advertise Judge Pirro’s show, where she calls for Paul Ryan to step down, cause this was his fault, not DT’s since DT doesn’t have experience.
Turning on Ryan is a bad idea, Grumpy.
Eta: That was originally Trumpy, but Grumpy works too!
IMO this is not only a major blow for Trump but shows what a mess the GOP is. They were whining about Obamacare for years without developing their own plan to replace/improve it. And Trump blaming Democrats for their lack of support is almost hilarious. How is that perceived in the States?
Sane Americans know that the GOP controls both House and Senate and that there’s no way the Dems were responsible.
Sane Americans also know that Trump won’t take the blame for ANYTHING. He really is human garbage, an utter embarrassment.
There’s a lot of insanity currently in play, unfortunately.
And we’ve come to this.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4349390/Violence-breaks-pro-Trump-rally-California.html
Dailyfail now reporting DT had dinner with Jarvanka, and all I forgiven.
kushner’s role is obvious – he applies the tush ointment when ivanka changes daddy’s diaper.
Yass. 🤣
Not that I really care about the dynamic between Kushner and Trump, but I don’t really buy this. Not to mention the fact that there was no reason Trump and his goons had to try to ram this through in such a short time and then just yank it and walk away like petulant children. My favorite tweet, from Rex Huppke, was something like “I’ve spent more time trying to like Wilco than Donald Trump spent on trying to repeal Obamacare.” Ha.
That tweet is funny!
And for the record, I love Wilco.
I’m a Wilco fan, too! But still his point was well taken. I’ve spent more time trying to choose a flavor of Lay’s potato chips than Trump spent on trying to repeal Obamacare. His inability to focus, and to dig deep into a complex issue. has never been more apparent.
And Spicer is trying to sell the point that Trump worked “so hard” on this for weeks. What do they not understand that it takes more than “weeks” (and bullying people to vote for it) to come up with a good plan. Not to forget it was all done under lock and key. Blaming the Dems is ridiculous as the House and Senate are Republican ruled. They couldn’t get their own party on board, much less the Dems, who they totally left out of the process.
Agreed-I think any issue between 45 and Kushner is wishful thinking and not reality.
And really, him yanking the repeal had everything to do with not wanting to admit he lost and now he can technically say that he didn’t since it didn’t go to a vote. Now he can say he saw that the Democrats and some disloyal Republicans hated him and America and were trying to make him look bad, so he pulled it before they had the chance, like it was somehow an act to protect the country from their malevolence.
As for Wilco, I don’t know that much of their stuff, but I did love the song they had on the first season True Blood soundtrack. Also, I’m going to see Son Volt in May with a Wilco obsessed friend. Cool story, bro. 🙂
Check out Uncle Tupelo, when Tweedy and Farrar were together. Their first album, No Depression, is very good.
The knives are already coming out for Paul Ryan, there are reports some Republicians want him to step down. As for Trump being angry at Jared, I just don’t see that happening. He is married to his golden child, Ivanka so he would not want to upset her. He might be jealous of Jared but not angry with him.
Trump is cornered like a wounded animal and is now lashing out. This is when he will “act first ” and think of the consequences later. That is when he can do the most damage
Breitbart is attacking Paul Ryan too.
Good. Let them fight each other. Neither will win. Trump can get Ryan to step down, then Ryan can get Trump impeached. Win-win situation.
Yup. He turns off enough moderate sane Repubs and we will have ourselves an impreachment! Even his butt boy Nunes will turn on him.
I don’t believe for a minute Trump is angry at Jared or his “plastic princess”. I think Trump purposely sent them away so as not to associate them with the healthcare failure. Nor do I believe Trump’s kind words about Paul Ryan. I’m guessing this is all an underhanded game to get rid of Ryan.
I think you’re right. Everything is more tightly orchestrated than we think. All the chaos is a smokescreen. I suspect that Tr*mp the mob boss has used this tactic for years.
That’s an interesting theory. I just read an article about the Jeanine Pirro show on Fox that Trump promoted (lol), she’s calling for Ryan to step down. The funniest thing she said was that Trump “expended valuable political capital” to try to pass the bill. As if Trump cares or even knows the first thing about trying to build political capital.
Jared hated the bill and has been telling Trump for weeks that it was a piece of crap and he shouldn’t be working on healthcare first. That’s why he left-he wasn’t about to stick around and have to get sucked into trying to defending it or promoting it.
Ryan should step down as speaker. He cannot build and manage a coalition.
Dems need to step up with bills to fix Obamacare’s issues. Now. And make the GOP look even more incompetent.
Dems need to roll the dice and go full tilt on endorsing single payer. Any attempts to fix Obamacare will be shot down by Rethugs & Trump….they are doing everything in their power to undermine and destroy the program. But since the health care issue is now front and center on everyone’s radar, why not introduce legislation for Medicare for all, i.e., single payer. IMO, Dems have nothing to lose on this one.
The Dems would be Gods if they got every American the same benefits as Congress. If we have money to up the military budget and build a wall, we have money for good single payer healthcare. This needs to be the Dems’ argument.
Agreed!
Totally agree. I wish there was a Change.org petition demanding single payer. We should all contact our Congressional reps demanding legislation on single payer.
The Dems need to go after governors and state legislatures. The biggest problems are in the states that never regulated insurance before and did not fully implement all provisions of the ACA and they tend to be very red. Swap out those state seats, put people in them who care, fully implement the ACA in the state, start regulating those insurance companies and file lawsuits against Price if he isn’t enforcing the law.
And no, regulating them doesn’t leave you with nothing. MA and CA have the highest regulated insurance industries and they have the plans that consistently rate highest in consumer satisfaction. That’s where this “buying across state lines” idea is so very dangerous. Sure, the premiums in state B are so much cheaper than what’s available in state F. That’s because State B doesn’t protect its consumers and allows insurers to sell empty plans that don’t cover much and pay really low rates to providers that the consumer has to cover while State F mandates more services and the cost of living is higher and the providers get paid better.
I was glad to see our Rep. Jim Cooper, mayor Megan Barry, our State Rep Jeff Yarbro and other progressive politicians at the Human Rights Campaign Fund gala in Nashville last night. Barry and Yarbro gave rousing speeches calling for getting more Democrats in office in Tennessee. A lot of money was raised for the HRC LGBTQ Superpac. Over 700 people attended, the largest one ever. Encouraging sign!
Oh, also, I had a chance to meet Rep Cooper, and he was positively giddy over the defeat of the Repub health care bill and said that everyone needs to keep calling and protesting.
Dems need to be more proactive rather than reactive. A fifty state strategy should be employed to tackle gerrymandering and retake local and state legislatures. The push should come from both bottom up and top down. Enact solid healthcare legislation at the state level and at the the national level build the case for single payer.
What’s really going to be interesting is seeing whether Trump decides he’s never going to get anywhere with the Freedom Caucus, and he will deal with the Democrats instead.
But will his ultra-wealthy, ultra-right wing backers, the Mercers, allow this? Or will Trump treat them like his bankers and welch on the promises he made them?
Trump’s family sure is costing taxpayers lots of dollars. I guess his supporters think that’s okay just like they think it’s no big deal Russia tampered with the election. If they have no problem with any of that, I’d say they hate America. If they are pretending to be patriots, they should act like it instead of dancing to the USSR’s tune.
As for Trump’s twisted logic, ignorance and lies about health care I guess in the end it’s irrelevant. I think this failure could be good for the ACA as now FINALLY after how many long obstructionist years Republicans will stop trying to Repeal and finally work with Democrats to fix it. The heroes here are all the people at the town halls who protested.
has he given up Bronzer for Lent?
he looked pale in that last picture.
No time for spray tan when you’re busy trying to deprive folks of medical care and tweeting lies about your connections to Russia.
My insurance was raised from 600 to 900 a month and they want an 1850 deductible upfront on mental health care alone. 30 co pay for a PCP and 50 for a specialist. I’m wondering how much money I will save if I elect to get a lobotomy and have my female organs removed so I can go about living like the average Trump supporting male with no ovaries and a constant stream of stupid drool running down my footie pajamas.
When the government started talking insurance reform I was hoping that meant keeping these mafia I mean insurance son of a bishes in check with how they treat doctors and patients but NOPE. Its all terrible. But at least now they are still forced to cover mental and vag care. Bunch of shotty basTURD idiot pieces of crap politicians.
Kaiser, again, thanks for continuing to give us a safe forum to vent and comment on these issues that affect us all so deeply.
The Orange One is tweeting nasty at the Freedom Caucus this morning for allowing women to still visit Planned Parenthood. So much for Princess Plastic the Corrupt helping women through her influence on Daddy.
Unless Kushner has some secret background in public health programs, he would have been useless and that’s what these idiots don’t get. The Republicans are saying that he couldn’t answer any health policy questions in their meetings and phone calls with them. He is clueless and he has surrounded himself with the clueless. Ryan held himself out as a healthcare policy wonk for years but it became obvious he doesn’t know the basics of how insurance works; he just repeats the same old GOP healthcare talking points that have been floating around for two decades now (tax rebates, medical savings accounts, high risk pools, buy across state lines, block grant Medicaid, vouchers for Medicare), convinced they are marvelous, when those policies were examined during the Clinton healthcare reform push, several times afterward, and again during the ACA Senate hearings in 2009 and found to be really bad. He barely understands the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Price is no better and is in it for his own profits, violated ethics rules while in the House and is under investigation in NY for insider trading and other corruption charges. Having a MD and being an orthopedist does not make one an expert on public health programs. It makes one an expert on knees.
A clueless person surrounded by clueless people — exactly! The inexperience is shining through every day.
Princess Plastic-the-Corrupt always takes off for vacation when she sees a big L heading Daddy’s way. Remember how she went on vacation with Jared when Daddy started losing to HRC during the campaign?
And of course she conveniently headed for the hills as his healthcare plans started heading south. Because as a “fake woman’s advocate”, why stick around and pretend to care about Moms and kids losing healthcare coverage. Why come back to Washington and fight against your Dad appeasing those in his party who want to get rid of prenatal care, mammograms and rational women’s health coverage? As if!
We all know mini-me in a dress is just like her father-only there to enrich herself. It’s really depressing that only the teen mags are the ones providing good reporting on Ivanka Trump’s corrupt soul.
If you want to know what Trump’s next moves are look for anything that is considered Obama’s legacy. He is not about doing anything for this nation. He and his fools are about erasing Obama’s legacy. Any Policy that Obama was behind that is what Trump is going after. He has such deep seeded hate for Barack Obama. I don’t know if it is a racial thing or he is still pissed that is claims about Obama not being born in this Country didn’t break the MAN. He is jealous of Obama. He hates that he could not make Obama engage with him in a back and forth. He wants Obama to attack him and that is why anytime things don’t go his way he or his talking heads try to make it all about Obama. You see it in the “Crowd size” obsession. He is driven by his hate of Obama. Nothing more and nothing less.
When Barack Obama was in office, he attended some event and Trump was in the audience. Barack was at the podium and made some joke about the nonsense of him not being born in the US. Everyone laughed, except Trump who sat there stone faced and a look of hatred on his face. There is some deep rooted hatred towards Obama, almost like a vendetta he wants to fulfil and erase any mention of the Obama administration. Something is very wrong with Trump
Exactly.. that is it. And you can see it and hear it when he talks. Barack Obama won his election 2 times. Like it or not. And Trump and his cronies hate that fact. It eats him alive. He is classless and ignorant. He knows it. And he hates how at ease Barack is and was in office.
Yeah, I think it sickens and arouses Chump’s very core that Obama got as far (and probably could have easily gone MUCH farther) WITHOUT privilege and pardons. Just haaaaating what he cannot, will not EVER have – natural charisma. Even my 10 yr old niece guessed he was harping on Chgo only bcuz this where Obama proudly called “sweet home” & our mayor is a longtime Obama ally.
Chump probably secretly wants to wear Barry Baby’s skin, someone his own class regularly oppresses, demonizes, or ignores, and that irks (= scares) the shit outta him!
Nemera–it’s a racial thing. Trump has hated African-Americans way before his days preventing them from renting apartments in his family’s buildings. He spent much money trying to get the Central Park Five convicted and still won’t admit they were innocent. The fact that a black man took a position a rich white man “should” have burns him and his fellow GOP 1%-ers to this day.
I hate to agree with malevolent traffic cone here, but he’s supposed to be his senior advisor, shouldn’t he be there for one of the most important weeks of the new government?
Anyway I enjoyed that glorious mess especially Paul Ryan’s memes :p
No-he wanted nothing to do with this piece of garbage. It was the perfect week to go on a family vacation.
“Malevolent traffic cone”
You win all the desserts today!
I particularly like that Ryan posted on one of his Twitter accounts on Friday that he was going to GUT the ACA, well, somebody was gutted Friday but not the ACA.
What I really love is the addiction to this idea that somehow it was the Democrats who sank this horrible Trumpcare bill. Did you already forget that the Republicans control the House and Senate? He literally did not need a SINGLE vote from that side of the aisle-he just needed his party to fall in line and he couldn’t even do that.
For all that, my sense of victory is brief. The bottom line is the the right didn’t vote no for any altruistic reason (at least, not many). The hard liners wouldn’t get behind it because it wasn’t horrible ENOUGH, and that was AFTER Paul Ryan tried to make it more cruel and restrictive than it already was. The other concern, of course, is that 45 even now is figuring out some ridiculous form of revenge to try and bring people back in line. He was made to look foolish and now somebody will be made to pay, and the only tiny bit of comfort I get out of that is that hopefully Paul Ryan is losing sleep right now worrying about his job-few things would make me happier than to see the evil little toad who so arrogantly chuckled about having dreamt of destroying Medicare since he was at keggers in college (man, he must have be fun at parties) be forced out of office.
My last concern is about the Democrats themselves. Our party has a pretty bad history of not capitalizing on success, so I hope that changes. We have been given a small window of good fortune here-please do NOT sit around and gloat and assume the hard work is done and that the rest will sort itself out.
I read that Bannon personally threatened the Repubs to vote for it. He said they had no choice (well they do. They don’t answer to the president, they answer to the people). Now that they spurned the agenda, idiot Bannon told orangino to keep an enemies list. Unless they are planning to use poison like Russia, again these are empty threats. Congress ultimately answers to the people.
I just love how he blames Democrats for the failing of this bill while 24 members of his own party wouldn’t vote for it either.
Imho, Donald Trump is a scary combination of arrogance and ignorance.
Reports are that members of the Freedom Caucus (the far-right Republicans who refused to vote for the Ryancare bill) stated that when Trump met with them he did not seem to have any real understanding of the bill or of healthcare in general.
Further reports were of Trump continually asking his various aides “Is this a good bill?” and now, after defeat, asking his various aides “Whose fault is this?”
All of which indicates what deep do-do Trump is in. And what deep do-do we the citizens of the U.S. are in with him as our President.
Certainly there have been other men who became POTUS who were inexperienced. They surrounded themselves with experienced people who guided them. And that’s where a lot of the problem in the Trump White House is coming from. He has surrounded himself with the wrong people. Bannon is no more experienced in governing than Trump is.
I am not a Republican and I don’t hold their values. I’ve wanted to see Medicare-like healthcare coverage for all citizens for many years. I am pro-choice. I’m a proponent of an expanded food stamp program, because I don’t think anyone should be going hungry in our country.
Trump said he would implement healthcare for all, better than Obamacare. That’s what he said and that’s why a whole lot of people voted for him. Those people were so gullible to believe his promises! I didn’t believe 1/10 of what he promised, not that I would have voted for him anyway.
But I think this healthcare debacle is going to hurt Trump alot with his base supporters. Even though they may have been okay with Trump’s “twitter lies”, when people realize they are not going to get their promised healthcare, his supporters will drop away.
Why did the so-called Freedom Caucus give Trump a standing ovation. I don’t get that unless they knew the ACA Lite would fail and it was all a game.
Manafort, Page, and Stone are now willing to have interviews with investigators. There are reports that the FBI has flipped Michael Flynn to fry a bigger fish. Andrea Mitchell reported Friday that a source told her that the WH is purging information to cover themselves.
I believe Nunes went to Emperor Zero with this information under the guise he had real intel for the “so-called” prez. Nunes is probably also scared he is named in the investigation (hence his sweaty appearance with Jake Tapper), his delaying the next hearing, and closing it to a public forum. Just FYI, clapper said there’s nothing there because the Feds kept him out if the loop deliberately.
And finally, Comey visited the WH Friday unannounced (spicer never mentioned it during the briefing that that was on Emperor Zero’s schedule).
Oh it’s going to be a wonderful week!!!
I hope the lot of them go to the pen. And wouldn’t you just hate to be Sean Spicer? I think he’s probably had a very bad weekend. Right now he’s got the worst job in the country. Working for a crook is bound to be stressful. Tough!
As LightPurple said above, thank you for this safe space to vent. Something horrifying happened yesterday, and I felt like I absolutely needed to talk to someone about it. And then, I realized with sadness that I’d have to wait a day, because you guys are really the only people that understand. This is slightly OT, but also not, because it pertains to all this crazy Trump shit.
People in our country have legitimately been brainwashed. I didn’t know how bad it truly is until I saw the results right in front of me yesterday, and it felt like someone had scooped my chest out with a trowel.
So, a few days ago, Maddow and some other outlets started reporting on the details of the Russian cyber warfare campaign that was waged against Clinton last year. The reporting was about how Russian bots would innundate Clinton-based social media posts with anti-Clinton, pro-Trump propaganda throughout the campaign season (and it may still be happening). Specifically, these Russian cyber soldiers infiltrated several pro-Bernie-Sanders Facebook groups and spammed them with anti-Hillary memes, enough so that the page admins noticed it and tried to tell people what was going on.
So, I learned these disturbing things a few days ago. The yesterday came, and I made the stupid mistake of trying to say something positive about Hillary on Facebook. Within mere minutes, THREE mid-twenties, straight white dudes (I know I can’t assume, but they fit the profile of your typical Bernie bro who would be looking at the aforementioned Facebook groups) whom I barely talk to jumped up in my comments to spout all this same anti-Hillary propaganda. I mean… shit that was just demonstrably false or twisted to the point of falsehood. Shit that you could google in 50 seconds if you wanted the truth. “Hillary defended a rapist and said it was the victims fault,” not the whole or true story at all. “Hillary got kicked off of Watergate,” just absolutely untrue.
And it hit me like a fucking Trump Train. These Russian cyber soldiers inundating Bernie supporters with anti-Hillary propaganda? They did it. It worked. I saw it right in front of me. These people are absolutely brainwashed by Russian misinformation and it is the most chilling, heartbreaking thing I’ve ever seen. I had an existential freak out before I went and did some yoga in the woods and tried to be sane again.
In the end I know all I can do is believe in what I know to be true and fight tooth and nail for that truth, while trusting that somehow the universe is just and will reveal the truth to everyone soon. But I also know that there are people that will never hear it. There are people that will live their whole lives believing that Hillary is a monster. Even as she continues to fight the fight, when she really has every right to stop giving a fuck. But I also realized that she doesn’t need me to fight her battles for her, trying to convince brainwashed people that she deserves credit for her years of public service. She needs me to keep my focus on what’s really happening right now– the budget cuts, the attempts to dismantle healthcare, the attempts to cover up the truth about what really went down to get Trump into the whitehouse. And that I will do.
#ResistandPersist
The bot thing sure explains a lot and Hillary definitely got the wrong end of that stick. Maddow put those pieces together beautifully and it’s important to note that it’s still going on today. Some of the more outrageous, hateful, hysterical comments about Hillary did work unfortunately. Too bad we can’t unwind time. Bots I think can also rig polls and I think that might explain how Trump did so well in the online polling, defying what we were seeing and hearing in those debates which Hillary won but Trump took credit for winning. He’s such a cheat and a crook!!!
Oh Shambles, I feel your pain. I read about the bots not long ago and felt truly terrified and helpless. I would be even more frightened if we didn’t have such a strong resistance, and evidence that we’re making an impact on this horrible administration, that’s for sure.
Esmom,, speaking as a fascinated foreigner, it’s wonderful to see the resistance emerge so strongly and to see Americans rally to fight for their institutions that are supposed to govern and protect them. It’s a scary fight against the ultra right and mega rich but it’s inspiring!
@shambles.
Sorry to hear this insanity. I know you been on here (the safe space) for a while and I appreciate the discussion points you’ve brought up now and since I’ve been first reading, then commenting, on posts about Emperor Zero.
You have a ton of like-minded people here for support, so keep that in mind.
Californian who resists and persists!
And thank you to Kaiser who keeps all the maddening info present here with us!
@Shambles, I’m with you on everything you said 1000%. It is heartbreaking and sobering. But organizing with others and resisting at every level and taking local action, we can get these assholes out of office.
I also read about the Bots thing a while ago. It really is disturbing, because the misinformation plays into the distrust that some people have for Hilary, and keeps stoking their hatred. I also read that, unfortunately, these Bots are also now trying to influence the European elections.
@shambles, I have family members who have been brainwashed by bots plus fox and Limbaugh propaganda. It is gut wrenching, but I learned to stop fighting with them and just give my energy to calling legislators and marching. Hang in there.
Thanks for the solidarity, you guys. You’re the reason I’ve been on this site for, what, 4 years now? I haven’t kept track, lol.
But know that I needed this, so thank you for listening. I believe that we have the power to keep the sanity alive, and you guys help me to keep believing. Xoxoxoxo
Need a new tee?
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Shambles, thanks for sharing your story.
I personally have made no efforts whatsoever to “convert” a Trump supporter. Because I believe it to be a waste of my time. Listening to or reading my opinions or recitation of facts is not what will change the mind of a Trump supporter.
What I have been doing is regularly emailing the offices of both my own congressmen and selected others. I do not have the time or patience to make phone calls, so I use short emails – no more than 3 very short paragraphs.
This is an article worth reading about the value of contacting our legislators:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/16/this-is-what-its-like-answering-all-those-phone-calls-to-congress/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.7621ad0e7b80
Thanks for that link. It’s so good to know that emails and letters do have an impact.
It’s great that the bill was a failure, but Republicans and Republican run states are playing fast and loose with the ACA to ensure that it doesn’t succeed and if it doesn’t succeed they will not acknowledge the role they played. Instead, they will be screaming, “Look, look it exploded just like we said it would!!” Meanwhile, they are still doing a disservice to the American people. Unsurprisingly, the ACA works well in California, wonder why? SMH
What’s the holdup on the Russia stuff? Why hasn’t Comey come out with the truth yet? These lunatics need to get out of office. Our democracy and the fate of millions of people quite literally depend it. Trump’s baby fit over this is pretty priceless though. Only bright spot in the news of the past several months. Also where’s Obama? Why isn’t he giving us a voice of hope or reason right now?
If things are as bad a some think or believe he can’t rush this. This affects the entire Nation. He has to have every i dotted and t crossed. We are talking about the President and his Administration. He can’t be arrested just like that. Nor his people. I’m amazed at the fact that they have been able to keep so much out of the press.. I think the Intel community can’t stand Trump. Don’t trust him and are not giving him the REAL INFO.
It was stated that Comey did the smartest thing he could under these circumstances. Announced that there was an Investigation. And therefore Protecting it because Trump would have done something to stop it. This way he can’t fire Comey and not make it look like a cover up. I also wonder if they laid a trap for Nunes to see it he was Legit or a Mole. He of course ran to Trump. Which lets us know that he has no problem leaking information to the person under investigation. This is going to get ugly. And Trump knows something. I was watching some show and one of the guys said that Trump better find a better lawyer. Because his people advising him are Junior League and our of there league
@justjj: It took Nixon over two years to resigned after the break in. These investigation ps can last from months to years. I’m hoping DT will be gone in two years. I believe BO is doing the right thing, by staying out of their illegal presidency nonsense. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows DT is not qualified to be president of the US. Their house of cards will come tumbling down in due time.
It could be years to investigate Watergate-and that was much simpler than this. Also- Obama above all else is measured and calm-there is no way he’s going to come out and get into this mix. That would be totally out of character.
Yeah, and the Repubs’ nerves are raw and exposed. Anything Obama says now would quickly be used as the perfect distraction from their own party’s failings so early in this administration. It would be about what Obama has said and not what Chump is doing.
Who gets time off only just 2 months in a new job?
Mr Art of the Deal actually lost votes when he stomped around threatening people to vote yes. Seven years to come up with a new plan, power in the White House and House and Senate, and they failed. I hope this remains a huge weight on Ryan until he’s gone.
Threats, intimidation and bullying tactics towards the people on his side. The hell is he thinking? I would have been tempted to vote the opposite of what he wanted, despite my wishes. Bannon calling a group together and ordering them, ORDERING them to vote yes on the bill. Who the blank does he think he is? He got set straight.
Probably just jealous of all the time Jared got to spend with ivanka.
Did you all read he gave Angela Merkel a fake NATO invoice at their meeting, to the sum of some 300b?
What an f*cking asshat. She took it with her usual aplomb, but what a disgraceful thing to do.