Skinny Repeal and Steve Bannon’s D*ck: A politics open thread

@Ohlmann:
That’s a lovely comparison. I’ll remember that. Yeah, the ACA really seems to be something of a tar-baby for the Republican Party.

@Axe:
Is McCain that procedure-driven though? I don’t remember him rushing to debate other controversial things; if memory serves he hasn’t exactly been a friend to John Conyers’s recurring bill, for instance. The more I see of him, the more I think he’s just a hateful man who operates on sheer cussedness. When it suits him to have a veneer of etiquette then he’ll have one; when it doesn’t then he’ll suddenly be all maverick and straight-talker.

(Also, a slight digression, but should I have said “tho” instead of “though” in the first sentence of that paragraph? Language keeps changing.)

Also, thank you for telling me about Hirono. I didn’t know that, and now I do. What a badass.

@EJ

Is McCain that procedure-driven though?

I may’ve misspoke (misswritten?). It’s not the rules themselves as much as the decorum of it and the praise such considerations keep getting him. Case in point, this kerfuffle. Only person talks about bipartisanship as much as Obama is John McCain. Remember when he shut down his presidential campaign for a hot sec to go to DC and try to solve the great recession? Basically, he likes being seen to be reasonable and statesman like, until he gets bored/what he wants and goes on to vote in lockstep like he nearly always does. I do think he truly believes his own hype at some level, but not nearly enough to do anything with it when the chips are down. Least that’s my reading *shrugs*

Also, a slight digression, but should I have said “tho” instead of “though” in the first sentence of that paragraph?

The same as through and thru. Same word, same meaning, but, imo, unnecessarily complex spelling in the former. I understood you perfectly, so, at that point, it’s whatever works for you 🙂

Also, thank you for telling me about Hirono. I didn’t know that, and now I do. What a badass

I’m saying! She gives a laugh when she explains that she is now one of those people with a preexisting condition. A real warrior here, and one too few have heard about

So glad people aren’t going to die, at least not yet.

I “like” the bit where McConnell wanted to see what suggestions the democratic party had on health care. What do you bet Hillary Clinton will tweet the link at him?

@ Sinkable John

That was Sanjuro, the sequel to Yojimbo.

@ John and Vicky P

You probably know that the now famous blood gush was a mistake. The effects guy cocked up with the hose pressure. But when he went over to apologise, Kurosawa said he liked it. And thus a trope was born.

Is it possible that Scaramucci’s actually trying to make the T-Rump Administration fail? Like, that he crafted a Drumpf-loving personality just to get the appointment, and now he just plans on exasperating the rest of them and taking a bunch of the other shitheads down with him?

Cause while I understand incompetence is pretty much the norm among the new appointees, his actually seems like the kind that would result in more headaches for their side. So far, I just end up reading him as more of a parody, a la Stephen Colbert’s persona on The Colbert Report.

Then again, I know a lot of people were probably hoping the same about Trump, and we saw how that went.

That video seems to be making a lot more splash among US neo-nazis than it is here in Germany, judging from trying to google it. Once again, they accuse us of being special snowflakes and getting hurt easily! I’d think they’d be flattered – that guy looks like no white supremacist I’ve ever seen (outside of their own fan-art).
Also, German state funded is a bit off. Its from a broadcaster that gets public funding, but is editorially independent. Probably less connected to the state than the BBC is.

Oh, and congratulations, US Mammotheers!

Was listening to the Bob Cesca podcast on the way to the office when he mentioned adult actress Lena Paul is offering free porn to anybody who calls their Senators’ offices regarding the health care bill/travesty. While Bob was like “that’s awesome!”, I can only think “You know… she’s probably another one of the million Americans terrified she’s going to lose her insurance.” And given the regular health screening that sex workers require for their profession, I can’t imagine that their insurance premiums are cheap, if they can afford them at all.

That said, in terms of tactics… work sex into stuff and it certainly becomes more popular. How about porn for voting in 2018?

Okay, so I woke up this morning and I discovered that Skinny Repeal failed because McCain, Murkowsky and Collins voted against it. Amidst my immense relief, one thought surges to the forefront:

John McCain is a grandstanding asshole. That is all.

To be fair, everyone at the White House has equal (and very large) measures of both malevolence and incompetence. I honestly never can tell which one is relevant to the matter at hand; it’s probably both anyway.

It’s a 24/7 reality TV show with no script, malicious actors and captive audience.

Also, German state funded is a bit off. Its from a broadcaster that gets public funding, but is editorially independent. Probably less connected to the state than the BBC is.

It’s actually from a mainstream broadcaster? Cool.

As I said I am far from calling McCain a hero. I am merely acknowledging what he did, both the good and the bad. The thing is I am more looking at the big picture and this little debate caused a bigger setback to little boy Trumpleroy’s plan to fuck over America. It killed all of the GOP’s replacement bills at the more or less same time honestly had there not been a debate McTurtle probably would have put off the vote again until he could strongarm enough people for Pence to fuck people over. He had no assurances that his little trick would work and it blew up big time now. Paul Ryan has already started to shift to tax reform which will be much more difficult for the Republicans to pull off since they planned on using the money they stole from healthcare for that to steal even more money. There is also the fact that Republicans are starting to distance themselves from Trump and with the sanctions bill that was passed with an unvetoable majority Putin will very likely cut his losses on his second bonus for putting Trump in office.

Jr. is far stupider than people give him credit for but about that Russia meeting has was actually too honest. He isn’t wrong when that meeting would be about adoptions but he seems to forget who stopped that program and why. Putin absolutely hates the Magnitsky Act and he has reportedly lost millions due to it. Nice trick trying to cover up that little testimony this week about why Putin hates the Magnitsky Act so much it worked on the MSM unfortunately. I’ll just give you a slightly abridged version, its because Putin has gotten money by extortion and outright murder with impunity the Magnitsky Act has made him accountable if only partly and he is furious.

It all worked out for McCain, though. He’s all over cable news this morning, being lauded.

Anything for Collins and Murkowski? Mazie Hirono? No?

EDIT: Who the hell is McCain trying to impress? He’s not going to make it to 2022, his next election.

Some more news emerging about Trump’s idiocy and recklessness.

Remember that he tweeted this at 08:55

http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/170726092110-trump-tweet-transgender-military-nr-00000822-exlarge-169.jpg

It wasn’t until 09:04 that he sent the second part indicating he was referring to transgender service personnel.

So for nine minutes the Pentagon, which hadn’t had any notice of the announcement, was panicking that he was about to launch military action.

Phew, let’s just hope Russia and North Korea aren’t on Twitter or that could have got embarrassing.

ETA: Ah ninja’d by banned