JaneAusten

This is a good thread if you are on twitter from someone who was Harry Reid's Deputy COS and why Paul Ryan is pretty much a failure as Speaker and lays out WHY he was chosen, Frankly I am glad Trump is insisting on a vote, dumb strategy that it is. Even if they don't have the votes, I want to see how a couple of reps from my own home state vote, both from districts Clinton won in November. Both have been non committal up to this point despite the fact that te numbers from people in their districts overwhelmingly do not want the ACA repeated or the AHCA. And John Schindler claims that Flynn has already flipped. He hasn't been seen in days and today the Enquirer you know run by Trump friends had a cover accusing Flynn of being a Russian Spy.

It's being suggested now that the information given to Nunes might have been a test to see if he leaked it because of his own ties to the campaign and transition team.

So do I. There are 2 congressman in Illinois in particular, one who won in a district Hillary won by 7 points, both will definitely go in 2018 when they vote to repeal. And these are not considered swing districts at this point, but even our lameass governor here has pled to these 2 in particular because of the areas they represent and how heavily some in those areas are served by the Medicaid expansion. And for Governor Stupid to do this you know it's bad. Last gasp before the entire Trump family is charged for conspiracy with a foreign government to undermine ours.

Ok I am missing something but didn't Comey actually say this investigation has been going on since July and wasn't there a FISA warrant issue?

I saw that. It's always the people who point the fingers at others that are the guilty party. Remember when KellyAnne Conway and many other GOPers said what a disgrace it was to have a candidate for president under FBI investigation? Ironic now that is.

ANd they refuse to wait for the new CBO score. Plus they just said "Trust them" on making premiums lower on people 50-64 AARP has publicly come out against them and today, issued an ad saying that they have a membership of 38 million people and AARP will be keeping track of how each House rep votes and will be making their members aware of the votes and how they recommend they act based on their votes. Older people actually vote.

I have always found it interesting that this guy has been paraded around as some kind of centrist favorite when he is one of the most zealous idealogues and has been for years. Ayn Rand is also in direct conflict with the beliefs of the Catholic Church and he also claims to be a devout Catholic. Another walking GOP contradiction.

So even with the Tea Party folks on NO I am convinced the ACA repeal will happen in the House as will the new worthless healthcare program. McConnell now threatening GOP senators who vote against it. I know Rand Paul doesn't care(he's not GOP anyway) but I wonder how this impacts someone like Susan Collins who had come out against it. although her seat is not up until 2020.

The new Greenwald target is Louise Mensch, who I admit to being a conspiracy pusher, but part of her analysis has been correct. She was the first one to report the FISA warrant before it was know and it turns out now it's know pretty much to be true. And I don't understand Greenwald at all. Is it that everything America is awful, but he seems to have a narrower target, the democrats. No matter what anyone does it's always back to the awful democrats, the hypocrites, how obsessed the dems are with Russia, how Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, etc. I really don't get it. The investigation was launched last July and they have confirmed Russian interference and their alleged intentions. There is an ongoing investigation. They are investigating potential collusion with the Trump campaign but they will not confirm or deny who is being investigated. Spicer today called Flynn a small volunteer for the Trump campaign, that Manafort played a minor role, obviously trying to distance themselves from those most likely under scrutiny at the present time. Forget Flynn was part of the intelligence briefings provided to Trump when he was running for president and that Manafort was Trumps campaign manager, and that Trumps dialogue on Nato suddenly turned negative when Manafort joined the campaign.

No I doubt it. And I don't think a man mentored by Roy Cohn is scared at this point. He is doing exactly what Cohn taught him.

He also confirmed WikiLeaks was involved.

Frankly I am scared as hell that there will be a terrorist attack orchestrated by those dark money contributors. I would not be at all surprised to discover the Mercers and Kochs have supplied money to ISIS or other terror groups.

I think you have to tune him out. I have for the most part and focus on what is actually being done in Congress and by the White House. That's what I've been doing and it helps being part of a couple of local activist groups who are both engaged in the local elections and focusing on issues vs the person. And it works. I canvassed for a local community who was having town council elections 2 weeks ago and the party I canvassed for which was not the establishment democratic party picked up 60% of the seats on the town council and the mayor skimmed by re-election by less than 300 votes. The turnout was way up compared to most local elections in the past also. So it's things like that which are huge moral boosters and actually make a difference in people's daily lives. It made a lot of us feel that our canvassing and GOTV efforts really made a difference.

Lord knows Merkel has her problems, but Trump's election probably has helped solidify her position in Germany and given her party a greater advantage than it had. I was talking to a friend who used to live in The Netherlands about the election this week and I mentioned the fact that Wilder's party did gain seats. He acknowledged that but he also said that they have lost their own momentum to the Greens who are gaining stature and popularity. and they have lost seats fairly regularly since their high in 2010. He did say they will have challenges considering Rutte's party lost seats and that they are going to have to reach to the Greens for consensus building, which he said hopefully will lead to compromise versus infighting.

I can't watch this fool anymore. He is an absolute embarrassment to this country.

The other part is that for some of these people, Meals on Wheels is the only human contact they have for the day. So these people will not only starve but be more isolated than ever. THis is how we now take care of seniors and disabled?

Thanks for sharing that. I do think it's a positive result and I am actually encouraged by the gains made by the Greens but the battle really starts now. How do the centrists and leftists align. The traditional Labor Party in The Netherlands appears to be dead so what's next. The disturbing aspect is how many seats Wilder's movement now has. Maybe if the Dutch can navigate on a way of uniting the centrists with the left, it might help us learn from it. I actually agree with the comment someone there made about Brexit, although I do think like the electionhere, anti immigrant sentiment helped push Brexit through, some of the other principles behind it are legit reasons why they wanted out of the EU.

I am thrilled about The Netherlands vote. In fact Wilders lost apparently by a much wider margin that expected. Maybe people in Europe are seeing what's happening in this country and seeing what a "populist" takeover means. Let hope this carries over to France. This is encouraging and also makes me sad when I see a 63% turnout when Obama was elected in 2008 as good here.

As someone from Illinois(our state is a mess), our Governor is VERY unpopular primarily because he has done nothing. We also have some old school democrats, and while I am glad we have them now while this billionaire Governor tries to get his Kansas like agenda through(they block and block and have the support to do it), the next mission here is frankly to get them out. THe financial collapse in this state going back to 2008 when so many did is at the feel of both our "good" GOP governors over the years along with these old school democrats. But one battle at a time.

This has been the agenda of groups like the Koch Brothers, the Mercers all along. And this scares the crap out of me more than anything.

The encouraging part was it was a Clinton and Bush appointee who both ruled it was discriminatory.

Another victory for bad voter ID laws. May have been posted already. https://www.thenation.com/article/texass-redistricting-maps-and-voter-id-law-intentionally-discriminated-against-minority-voters/ Can I saw Ari Berman is a rock star of a reporter. He's the only one during the election season and before and after that has reported on any of this. Yet endless stories of the white rustbelt voter.

I'll say that. I don't know how she feels. She's no Trump supporter nor is her husband, but they moved there about 2 years ago due to her husband taking over his dad's lumber business. She has said it's a far cry from living in the DC area where they were before. But she actually asked me why if regulations were lightened why the coal jobs or some of them could not come back. All I could point to was how many former users of coal have switched over to things like wind energy due to coast and cleanliness. She couldn't answer if coal mining jobs have been made safer or if coal usage has been made cleaner. So perhaps there is a possibility but to what end.

I'll tell you guys what my cousin who lives in Kentucky told me, where the ACA is a success by the way. All people there care about are bullets and the bible and while having health insurance is great, many see it as a luxury and believe those coal jobs are coming back with great benefits.

I thought Carl would appreciate this. Chris Cilizza is leaving WaPo and going to CNN. Good for the post and not surprising that the sludgeput of CNN would hire this tool. Between he and Jason Miller, there will be a full team of Trump ass kissers. http://thehill.com/media/323651-chris-cillizza-jumps-from-washington-post-and-msnbc-to-cnn So the CBO has come out with their analysis and next year 14 million people will lose healthcare next year and 24 million by 2026 http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/13/cbo-says-millions-lose-health-insurance-under-gop-obamacare-replacement.html So 52,000 more people are estimated to die each year if this goes through also