The Politics Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

 

He's officially the human shield for Trump on these wiretap allegations so he'd better get used to being on the hot seat.

[Khan]

 

Yes, Mary Fallin is a Republican.  She's also a shill for the energy industry.

[Roman]

Figures.

[DramatistDreamer]

Meanwhile, a series of coalition-led airstrikes conducted in the Mosul area of Iraq this month, is said to have killed at least 200 civilians- the highest number of civilians killed in an American led airstrike since 2003.

 

U.S. Investigating Mosul Strikes Said to Have Killed Up to 200 Civilians

 

 

Edited March 29, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[Wales2004]

California took my Amazon.com shopping joy away and they even tax Prime membership. You can actually wander from city to city in California and end up paying different sales tax rates and we are about to have another increase to help the homeless (which I hope does go to that project and not something else). I know that Pete Wilson (a republican) asked for a temporary sales tax hike to help after the Oakland earthquake in 1989, when he was governor and that tax became permanent.

 

I tried to read some of his explanation yesterday and it sounded as if he made the whole thing up. He held two press conferences that day and said how he had to let Trump know but there was nothing in what he said that sounded like solid evidence. He said he was going to share what he had with the committee but what he claimed to have seems to be nothing because then he said he was waiting for something. He made it all worse by calling off the public hearings and offering Manafort, along with pretending not to know who Roger Stone and Carter Page are.

[dragonflies]

 

 

 

 

[marceline]

 

I noticed that too. It was a nice bit of message discipline. I know a lot of people think that the Dems are in disarray and in some ways they are but I'm definitely noticing more cohesiveness.

[JaneAusten]

The best part is on twitter this AM I saw that Lindsey Graham's townhall was packed with people. And these are not all little Trumpbots showing up.

[Roman]

were they screaming at him? how were they behaving?

[JaneAusten]

I didn't watch but no screaming just a packed house with lots of Indivisible folks. Some pushing for better healthcare(improvements to ACA, some concerned about the Russia stuff, some with muslim ban.

[DRW50]

You've all likely already heard about this, but it looks like we're getting sustained efforts to undercut the protest movement against Trump by blaming it all on George Soros:

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/conservatives-soros-indivisible-trump-protest-group-236439

[JaneAusten]

Just so people know the movement is not naïve to success, Our Senator Durbin held a townhall in Bloomington Il last evening and basically told Indivisible folks that while this was an important victory, elections win respect  and that the work needs to continue. So our local groups sort of indirectly led by the main Chicago group below, will continue their own focus on Local Elections(WE WON A BIG LOCAL ELECTION IN BERWYN IL) and state election efforts, they are going to reach out to help Ossoff in Georgia. The group I am working with is going to do some phone banking for James Thompson in Kansas for the next 2 weekends.

 

https://www.indivisiblechicago.com/take-action-1/2017/3/25/saturday-march-25th-support-jon-ossoff-in-georgia-6th-witness-slips-for-hb780

 

As for George Soros, the same people who want to believe it will. The same people who want to believe all the people who show up at Townhalls, the millions calling their local reps are all paid by Soros, will. Can't worry about what they think or do.

[Vee]

We can worry about the future all we want, but the survival of Obamacare (in any form, and it will be worked on by both sides for good or ill but it will endure) is a tremendous triumph for the American people and for Obama's legacy, and an unmitigated disaster for both Trump and the GOP, who are now under a high-powered lens over their inability to govern with control of each chamber of government. There is no overstating that today and there has been and will not be a positive spin for them on this issue outside of perhaps Fox News (and even they're calling it a massive failure).

 

First there's Trump and Bannon:

 

Finally, the Politico take on the AHCA disaster.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Vee

[JaneAusten]

I was looking for the article in Politico I was reading this morning(can't find it now) but they talked about how it's possible that maybe just maybe there can be work across the aisle on healthcare. NO one is going to convince me this is some sort of hallow victory. Movements don't come all at once they come in small pieces. Out of the 35 no votes I believe 20 of those came from non Freedom caucus members. 

 

There are people like Rep Freylinghuysen who might now realize it's time to reach across the aisle and try to improve what is there.The ONLY reason these people swung to NO was because of pressure from constituents and fear of getting beat in 2018. And trust me while Peter Roskam here in Illinois is now in what is a purple district in Illinois(Clinton won it by 7 points) he's been in Trump's corner for months now and he only backpeddled a bit on this due to pressure from voters. He never did come out as a definitive one or the other(that's why I wanted a vote) but this damaged him a lot as does his overwhelming support of Trump in a district that doesn't like him.

 

If the Bernie people want to believe the George Soros crap let them.  They would only believe it because that is what they want to believe.

[DRW50]

 

I wasn't really suggesting you should. I just posted it because it was their tactic. I don't think most people care about George Soros. I don't think most care about the ACA either, really. I guess at least those who do showed up to speak their mind when it counted.