Massie in KY is my Rep. He might have gone to MIT to prove he's smart, but he's also a hardcore libertarian who wrote a bill to end the Dep of Education and co-sponsored one to eliminate the EPA. He pretty much believes that we should all live without a national government and votes "No" on just about everything dealing with it.

I was just coming back. I had no sources, I was watching the vote live and thought it was the winners, apparently is was the idiot losers :)

Guess we all need to move to Australia then...

Trump praises Australia’s universal health-care system: ‘You have better health care than we do’ - The Boston Globe

The gap between younger and older evangelicals is perhaps most noticeable on LGBT issues https://t.co/0HfBnp9Kyz pic.twitter.com/OJpyk1JpRW

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) May 5, 2017

Interesting.

Don't think it is any big secret that Trump has always been in favor of this. If he wasn't so obviously short sighted I would question if passing this abomination of healthcare bill is so important for him so in a few years he can argue for the system he really wants in place.

Does he really want anything other than money and wins?

Power (which is related to wins). He wanted to be president and had a good plan to get there, which included publicly adopting, for the first time in his life, the textbook Republican platform. I think his real views are a lot more moderate and varied, but they're just not an important part of who he is, compared to other things.

People cheering

I think dubb93 is accurate. In a world where everyone isn't playing a political game Trump would probably push for Universal Healthcare. Taking down Obamacare is what was getting him strong reactions on the campaign trail though so that's what he's going with.

I doubt he has a strong enough understanding of the Healthcare system to see the impact any Healthcare bill and relies on people around him to tell him what it does. That's why he keeps insisting no one is losing coverage and it covers pre existing conditions.

Trump is getting mocked by Democrats for not being able to replace Obamacare and he needs that feather in his cap as an accomplishment he can advertise to his base to show he's doing stuff. I think some Republicans are taking advantage of this vulnerability to get this particular healthcare plan through.

Rightfully so, though not exactly for that reason.

He's failed to deliver since yesterday's misbegotten bill did not repeal. This is precisely the sort of failure neither he nor the party needed. It's a definite box checked off the "ya know, what's the point if they aren't going to do anything" list.

Today we have FCC Chief Ajit Pai saying that Net Neutrality actions should be taken preemptively AFTER things are broken. You can't make that kind of stupidity up.


FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Makes Case For Tackling Net Neutrality Violations 'After The Fact' : All Tech Considered : NPR

Also, you've got news of 5 major investment banks moving a crapload of jobs from London to Frankfurt in response to the idiocy of Brexit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-br...-idUSKBN1811GA

Welcome to the potential very near term future of the US folks. 62 million people owe those with functioning human brains an apology.

Brexit should never have been necessary .... if not for the braindead willingness of fools & cowards willing to give up sovereignty in the first place.


Those who voted for Obama even once owe the planet an apology. Then again, so does his mother.

Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do --everybody does. ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2017

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

OMG ROASTED

The thing is though that all those Republicans he just begged to do this want nothing to do with this kind of healthcare law.

True enough. I'm just not sure how committed he is to that party anyway.

Macron wins French Presidental election and stops the far-right movement in Europe, at least for now.

And because we're generally innumerate as a species we'll say the polls were right even though the final margin was further from the polls than the Trump or Brexit polls.

So Trump fired Comey in the middle of his investigation into Trump.

This should be interesting.

Will the GOP in congress finally say no?

Doubtful.

From a quick reading of the ABC News version of the story, it looks like this was related to last week's inaccurate testimony. If so, he kinda provided the rope for his own hanging.

Only at their own peril I would figure. I'm seeing a consistent tone of "well FINALLY" and "it's about time" from the right on my social media.

Failure to indict HRC seems to be lingering on a lot of hearts & minds where he's concerned I guess.

Coney had to go. He broke protocol to influence the outcome of an election. Why didn't Obama do this a long time ago?

So the guy that listened to a Lock Her Up chant at his 100 days rally now fires the FBI Director for being too mean to Clinton?

Bullshit.

So Trump has now fired 3 people who were directly investigating him, the Director of the FBI, the acting Attorney General, and the US Attorney of NY.

But at least Comey will get replaced by someone honest and non-partisan.

No, that's not what I said (if that was meant for me). I said that his recent testimony was inaccurate, which was the key point highlighted in the breaking version of the story I read. That wasn't my take, that was what was being pointed out by a decidedly not-pro-Trump organization.

I've seen, since that post, the impetus being described as "The Attorney General's office made the recommendation to fire the FBI director to the President based on Comey's announcement back in July of last year the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails was closed. The Attorney General's office says that wasn't Comey's call to make."

Now if that is the case, I'm not sure why they waited unless the more recent bit of rope he provided (as described by ABC News) pushed the button.

This seems to be a theme with this administration.

Trump and his corrupt team was just looking for an excuse to help beat back everyone that will accuse him of simply firing someone else that's investigating him. Which will hopefully not work.

As for Comey, I don't think he was working to help either side of the aisle, he's just a completly incompetent dunce that loves the spot light. Not a great combination.

I'm not even sold on the notion that he craves the spotlight insomuch as he was simply overmatched by the job. He kept trying to do -- if I'm being generous -- the right thing ... he just couldn't quite figure out definitively what that was.

I'm not at all sure that there isn't a long game there ... in this case I just don't really see what it is.

There is at least one possible "escape hatch" that I can see possibly for the odd thing about this (supposedly? reportedly?) being based on an AG recommendation.

Sessions was confirmed on Feb 8th. Let's be generous (just work with me here, as an exercise if nothing else) and say it took him a week or two to get various things moving, another 4-6 weeks to review Comey's conduct. That could put things at mid/late April for that recommendation to have been made.

Would it be that unreasonable for the chief executive to give such a thing a week's worth of consideration? Something like last week's testimony (if I have the timing of that right) could then conceivably be the sort of last straw that tipped the scales for agreeing with the recommendation.

If, on the other hand, the recommendation was made weeks or months ago but was only now acted on, the timeline gets harder to situate.

I'm generally okay with Comey being let go but reserve final judgement until I know who the proposed replacement is. I really don't think the investigation can be shut down.

If this is Trump's version of Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre, I'm looking forward to the drama playing out.

Yeah. I think he was fine with the run-of-the-mill stuff, but when the stakes got higher, he tended to bungle things.

My impeachment bet is looking good in the preseason.

Mostly because I'm watching house of cards, but I think they were waiting if/when senate went nuclear. Now they can confirm a much more sympathetic director without a filibuster

Not sure there is a set of testicles in the bunch.

Talking about the Senate committee working on the Health Care Bill again?

I see Trump fired Comey. In Werewolf terms, that is called "bussing"

The leaks that will come out will sure be something.

What a shit show.

Dicatorship 101.

Bill Kristol‏Verified account @BillKristol 4h4 hours ago




Rod Rosenstein has been Deputy AG two weeks. That's a pretty short time for him to have done the work to make so serious a "recommendation."


Bill Kristol‏Verified account @BillKristol 4h4 hours ago





The Rosenstein memo is dated...today. So there was no real recommendation from DOJ. Trump wanted to do it, and they created a paper trail.

And even the most HFC of the HFC is aghast:

GOP's Amash calls for independent commission on Russia after Comey’s firing | TheHill

edit: They didn't think it was going to be a big deal. Apparently, they're the only ones who thought so.

https://twitter.com/ShimonPro/status/862090285584498688

Probably this.

He could nominate Guliani. Not sure if he'd get through even with 51 votes. It has to be someone with no ties to Trump or some senators like McCain and Graham might not go along.

lol

GOP moderates always do what they are told to do. I'm sure Graham and McCain will be very concerned while they cast their Yes votes.

Meanwhile Trump is just spending the morning retweeting Drudge.

This is who 46% of the country wanted to be President.:banghead:

It's disgusting how anyone attempts to rationalize this. If this happened in some far off eastern European place, we'd be mocking them and pointing out how uncivilized their country is.

How does this stay up for over an hour?

CNN now stands for Cardiac Care Network because their ppl are having heart attacks over Trump doing what Dems once demanded-fire Comey.

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) May 10, 2017

Wouldn't Cardiac Care Network be CCN?

I'll take Bad Optics for $400, Alex:

Tom Namako (@TomNamako) | Twitter

In Soviet Russia, America laughing stock.


Oh.. wait, that's not a joke anymore.

Precisely friend.

That's ol' Duck Hunter for ya.

Still only the second dumbest thing a member of that family said yesterday.

White House spokesperson: 'Time to move on' from Russia probes | TheHill

Shut down? No. Being able to stall and get it put on the back burner? Quite possibly and that's almost as good as shutting it down.

No matter what excuse was used to fire Comey it came down to the Russian investigation. Every time it picks up any steam Trump goes on a twitter tantrum trying to point fingers elsewhere and his latest was a couple days before firing Comey.

Until Republicans grow a spine and start calling Trump on his bullshit he's just going to continue doing what he wants.

This is the UK's general take on it TBH

What do you think Trump's phone call to Roger Stone was like this morning when he asked Stone to deny they speak on the phone?

Oh shit...

Cookies are Not Accepted - New York Times

I'm torn. Comey is clearly an idiot. But this is a historically bad time for him to get fired.

They need a special prosecutor for this. But someone who can bring the full investigative power and weight of all of our investigative agencies to bear.

I have no idea how this happens, but it doesn't surprise me that Trump did this.

Meanwhile

West Virginia journalist arrested after asking HHS Secretary Tom Price a question - The Washington Post

Remember the good old days when an argument against electing Hillary was that we didn't want to have to deal with months of congressional hearings and special investigations.

And of course

Woman faces up to a year in prison for laughing during Jeff Sessions hearing

The Deputy White House Press Secretary said today that James Comey committed atrocities so it sounds like Trump may have managed to crack the case of The Bowling Green Massacre.

Oh, and the Deputy Press Secretary did the press briefing today because Sean Spicer didn't come in today after hiding behind bushes yesterday to avoid the press.

Well, since the Holocaust didn't actually happen, its clear that Comey's actions are the worst in human history.

Imagine what our government could do if they put as much energuy in helping people as they do trying to win

I definitely agree that if the Trump Administration was full of people with good hearts and good will instead of people who constantly lie about their involvement with a foreign government that spent large amounts of resources interfering in our election process (the trying to win part) that we would all be better off, even if we had some disagreements in how to accomplish things.

He's a great lawyer, but an awful politician. It doesn't play well for FBI Director...but when he was acting Attorney General, he was fantastic.

(I don't say that because of my namesake.)

Russian State Media allowed into the White House with all their equipmemt. US press not allowed.

America first!

McConnell already said no to that, and Paul Ryan didn't find anything about special prosecutors under Ayn Rand's books, so he probably doesn't know how it would be done.

I laughed hard at the bushes thing yesterday too, but in seriousness, I think it is great and admirable that Spicer still serves in the Navy Reserves and has regular duties.

We're just getting trolled at this point right?

I read that and thought I was reading satire. I had to double check the article because I couldn't believe that hiding in the bushes was an actual thing.

Trump invents the phrase "priming the pump."

Yeah, I was actually talking about you.

BOOM, ROASTED, etc. etc. :p

That cut deep. ;)

We're relatives on different branches. I guess I just wanted to be clear in my fefejse of him. A repirt said he has been considered as someone who tried to do what he felt was right, without regard to the consequences for himself. That's pretty accurate, and why he's out.

As an aside, my rarely used Twitter handle @jcomey has been mistaken, on several occasions, as the account of the former director. I was told I gut-checked America, and many called for my resignation...from the FBI. I have also been tweeted at with Hillary. And Trump. Recently, people tweeted at me, Trump, Preet Bharara and Sally Yates. And Putin.

I'm looking forward to getting back to the twitter private life, and using it just to get more entries to win a Best Buy gift card.

Even if there was stuff about special prosecutors in Ayn Rand's books, he'd just look past that like he does with her anti-religious views.

Hard to come up with a worse day for the Trump presidency than yesterday at this point. At least three different stories regarding the reasoning for the Comey firing (1. at the behest of the DAG, 2. Trump lost confidence over several months, 3. Russia investigation expanding), the Russians in the White House, and being either duped or intentionally allowing Russian press coverage, and Trump hiring outside counsel to respond to Lindsay Graham's business inquiries. But hey, he thrives in chaos and not letting others know what he is thinking, right?

There's this little nugget on that:


Inside Trump’s anger and impatience — and his sudden decision to fire Comey - The Washington Post

I know, anonymous sources and all that.

Trump is pledging to release a "certified letter" that will prove their are no Russian connections.

So that's that, I guess.

Can't link the twitters from here, but Trump is apparently preparing to hang a giant county by county election results map in the West Wing. So his response to all of this is simply: Scoreboard.

I love that people can keep pounding on the Russia thing and he just keeps going and going and going. I keep waiting for him to revive the Lock Her Up chant and start screaming Bengahzi at the press.

He knows how to play the hits. Rick Dees would be proud.

A few caveats. I don't know what qualifications this dude has to make this assessment. I'm not vouching for him. And he is undoubtedly vulnerable to the standard ad hominem "Brooklyn hipster" attack, which we have seen here before. But, with that in mind...

David Roberts on Twitter: "OK, y'all, time for some game theory. Ha ha, jk. It's actually time for some theory of mind! Gigantic tweetstorm to follow. Brace thyself."

Reading the full tweet storm (which is what passes for writing these days I guess) I confess I find this to be basically the most compelling assessment of what Trump really is/thinks. I am guilty of being one of those who have been trying to glean insight into his tactics, and trying to sort out the whole stupid/savvy thing. But reading this, I find it the most persuasive summary of him -- he's basically a goldfish.

Why is this unmasking thing a big deal? If you are talking with a known spy about things that are relevant to our country/government, shouldn't the requisite agencies know who you are? I mean, everything from the R's seems to be about the unmasking, nothing about the actual stuff going on with Russia.

Its not often that people hang things in their office that show how they lost.

It would make more sense to hang an electoral college map.

The bright red county-by-county map is always visually appealing to the red team, regardless of what it "means." If we voted by acre, we could just cancel elections.

Which goes hand in hand with a diagnosis of Narcissism that he's been given. As it relates to ToM and his opinion that he only goes on instinct in the moment and what feels good to him and his desire to dominate:

Of course, from an optics standpoint it looks prettier, but its a lie if you actually look into what its counting... which, I guess doesn't really matter to him.

How is it that the "master negotiator" was "tricked" by the Russians over the whole photog incident? I mean, it's arguably one of the more embarrassing incidents of this Presidency. If it was Hillary that this happened to, Trump would be all over Twitter talking how she was weak and just gave in on everything and that she is a joke of a President.

Well, at least his voters can take solice in the fact that their plan to piss off libtards by voting him into office worked.

Totally worth it.

I haven't heard of it, I mean I just came up with it...

Shortly after the White House says Trump fired Comey because of the recommendations of the AG and Deputy AG...



Rosenstein Pressed White House to Correct the Record on Comey Firing

The deputy press secretary said she heard from countless people in the FBI that they were grateful for Comey's firing. She then ends that thought by saying she doesn't know that many people in the FBI.

Do they just grow them stupid or did they actively seek these people out?

There are some priceless quotes in this Time article:

http://time.com/4775040/donald-trump...ing-president/








This one is just the best.

And then there was this part.

White House: Removing Comey will help bring Russia investigation to end

Gonna nominate this one too:



Yeah, let's turn a question about China into a two paragraph ad for my private club.

I wish I had a job with access to this board in the WH just so I could surreptitiously put a post-it note on the map pointing to Wyoming or someplace with the caption "Nobody lives here." Every damn day.