The General 'Murican Politics Thread

[KHCast]

Unless it's something that counters their faiths views a lot of the time 

[Tani Coyote]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/24/news/economy/obamacare-repeal-cbo/

In a dramatic plot twist, the new AHCA bill is still a steaming bucket of crap, but is slightly less bad than the original bill in terms of how many it leaves uninsured - 24 million versus 23 million.

The new bill costs more than the original due to the high risk pool, and with the rollback of regulations, costs of healthcare would go up pretty much across the board for everyone else.

But the real clincher?

Look at the chart. It has one million more uninsured than pre-Obamacare levels. The AHCA will create a situation worse than when Obamacare started in aggregate terms. Now, the US population has grown from 309 million in 2010 to 326 million today.  Taking that into consideration, the uninsured rate drops from 16.1% to 15.6% between pre-Obamacare levels and after the AHCA. But there's still one million more people without care, and those who have care pay a lot more for it. Never mind there's a case to be made that many people who enrolled in care after Obamacare's passing will stay on it anyway, thus explaining the gap; without Obamacare, it's likely that post-AHCA rate would be higher.

It's a disastrous bill, pure and simple.

[Nepenthe]

Alright, welp, so law enforcement is on the scene right now in Montana, where apparently the Republican candidate for their special election, Greg Gianforte, is alleged to have bodyslammed a Guardian reporter. And apparently the dude left the scene.

Here's a witnesses' account on Twitter.

In lighter news, advertisers are pulling out of Sean Hannity's show because he keeps peddling this conspiracy theory that a DNC worker was not killed in a botched robbery, but had a hit on him by Democratic officials because he gave e-mails over to Wikileaks, and he keeps trying to peddle this despite both the family and Fox themselves telling him to STFU.

What is going on in RepublicanLand?

[KHCast]

4 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Alright, welp, so law enforcement is on the scene right now in Montana, where apparently the Republican candidate for their special election, Greg Gianforte, is alleged to have bodyslammed a Guardian reporter. And apparently the dude left the scene.

Here's a witnesses' account on Twitter.

In lighter news, advertisers are pulling out of Sean Hannity's show because he keeps peddling this conspiracy theory that a DNC worker was not killed in a botched robbery, but had a hit on him by Democratic officials because he gave e-mails over to Wikileaks, and he keeps trying to peddle this despite both the family and Fox themselves telling him to STFU.

What is going on in RepublicanLand?

One of the tweets: sounds like it was self defense. 

Guys name is Trump democrat.

lol alrighty then. Not sure how it is from what I've  heard, and self defense does not usually result in body slamming, but k

[-Robin-]

On one hand, assault is typically a one-way ticket to vacating the race.

On the other hand, anti-Hillary memers voted for Trump despite him admitting to sexual assault.

 

 

 

As for Hannity bo Bannity, he lobbed Fox News in with the "liberal media" yesterday as well, so it's clear he's trying to distance himself from the news network. Sinclair Broadcasting is rumored to be looking for Hannity and O'Reilly to go do a news network of their own so maybe he's working on cutting the knot.

[Tani Coyote]

14 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Alright, welp, so law enforcement is on the scene right now in Montana, where apparently the Republican candidate for their special election, Greg Gianforte, is alleged to have bodyslammed a Guardian reporter. And apparently the dude left the scene.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/greg-gianforte-bodyslams-reporter-ben-jacobs-montana?CMP=edit_2221

Now with audio.

Holy shit. He attacked the guy.

Given at least a third of eligible voters cast their ballots early, I still hope there's enough people turning out to cost him the race.

[Nepenthe]

9 minutes ago, Lord Liquir (Ogilvie) said:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/greg-gianforte-bodyslams-reporter-ben-jacobs-montana?CMP=edit_2221

Now with audio.

He literally didn't say shit to warrant that.

EDIT: Ohhhh yes he did. The reporter broke the story that Gianforte owns nearly a quarter of a million dollars in Russian stocks. HMM.

MOAR EDIT: Gianforte's statement:
 

 

[Patticus]

1 hour ago, SSF1991 said:

So hey. Remember how the FBI handled the whole Hillary email thing pre-election? Turns out that may have been based on Russian interference too.

...This whole thing is just an infinite hole of suck. I'm tired of it.

Comey's reputation's getting tarnished before he can testify, which could mitigate some of the damage that his testimony could do to Trump.

[Tani Coyote]

 

Gianforte is desperately trying to do damage control but unfortunately, the statement does not jive with the audio. They are claiming self-defense against an obnoxious reporter, but the audio clearly shows that he just attacked him without warning.

It's gonna be fun to see this campaign burn (if it hopefully does). Montana was the one hope spot for the GOP... if they lose this and Georgia, it's full panic mode.

[KHCast]

11 minutes ago, Patticus said:

Comey's reputation's getting tarnished before he can testify, which could mitigate some of the damage that his testimony could do to Trump.

Lotta convenient shit seems to happen to people Trump ain't a fan of before they can do massive damage to him.

[Patticus]

I'd love to see the GOP in full panic mode, since I've not seen them in that state before.

Dig up, stupid!

[Nepenthe]

"I talked to the family about how difficult this is. Out of respect for the family, I won't talk about this. For now! BUT LET'S TALK ABOUT THE RUSSIA CONSPIRACY THEORY AND HOW I'M NOT GOING TO STOP WITH THIS CONSPIRACY THEORY."

Fuck off, you ant-sized-dick piece of shit.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

3 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

"I talked to the family about how difficult this is. Out of respect for the family, I won't talk about this. For now! BUT LET'S TALK ABOUT THE RUSSIA CONSPIRACY THEORY AND HOW I'M NOT GOING TO STOP WITH THIS CONSPIRACY THEORY."

Fuck off, you ant-sized-dick piece of shit.

Don't talk about God's creations like that!

Spoiler

What did the poor ants ever do to you D:>?

Spoiler

Unless it's one of those fire ants that stung you or something.

 

 

[Nepenthe]

I know that this incident is serious, particularly since the reporter is allegedly having his elbow x-ray'd.......... but goddammit, Twitter knows how to make a good running joke. Read the replies. I'm crying:
 

 

[Dark Qiviut]

My response to Gianforte's assault echoes King's.

[Nepenthe]

A Fox News reporter has more details on the WWE encounter earlier:

Quote

During that conversation, another man — who we now know is Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte's face and began asking if him if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the man, as he moved on top the reporter and began yelling something to the effect of "I'm sick and tired of this!"....

To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff's deputies. 

Party of integrity everyone.

[Tani Coyote]

So basically all but the most hyperpartisan people will believe this now. Even the right wing outlet is saying it happened.

Of course, what with the gradual dropping of conservative pundits, I'm guessing the hard right increasingly sees Breitbart as the only ray of hope in a liberal world, with Fox News having fallen to the liberal hordes.

[SSF1991]

2 hours ago, Patticus said:

Comey's reputation's getting tarnished before he can testify, which could mitigate some of the damage that his testimony could do to Trump.

2 hours ago, KHCast said:

Lotta convenient shit seems to happen to people Trump ain't a fan of before they can do massive damage to him.

I think people are more so concerned with the Russian meddling itself than the Comey letter at this point. Do people think it wasn't the best move for Comey to do the things he did? Yes, there's been criticism of that. I was among the critics at the time this happened. But it's not the absolute crisis going on right now. He's been fired, anyway (although the timing of that was just as bad, if not worse, than the timing of Comey's letter).

[Tornado]

So is this why Far Cry 5 is being set there?

[PSI Wind]

4 hours ago, Tornado said:

So is this why Far Cry 5 is being set there?

Maybe this is all some huge viral marketing for the game

[Volphied]

Meanwhile, in Europe:

 

 

 

 

 

Things are going swimmingly

[Tani Coyote]

Looks like that other leader is scolding him at the way he pushed the guy aside, which is good. Trump, on the other hand, seems to just not care. He's just that important to himself.

That speech is embarrassing though. He keeps framing it as them underpaying, when the countries only promised to reach 2% by whatever year. They're free to "underpay" in the meantime. That's the idea of a "by [year]" in politics. It avoids needing to rapidly alter current spending patterns.

Joe Lieberman has withdrawn his name for consideration, citing appearance of conflict of interest due to his ties to the same law firm Trump regularly uses.

Thank God someone has integrity.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/25/federal-appeals-court-upholds-block-on-trumps-travel-ban-nbcnews.html

Yet another court upholds the injunction against the travel ban. Trump's only hope at this point is to go to the Supreme Court. The administration claims its order is perfectly constitutional due to powers given to the President, not seeming to understand that the President's powers are beholden to limits on infringement of rights. A President can curb travel from this or that country, but they couldn't say "no blacks," for example.

It'll be delicious if Gorsuch casts a vote against the ban. Trump will most likely go on a tirade about Gorsuch "owing" him, because that's how he feels all appointments work. Unfortunately for him, we have this thing called judicial independence. Once they're through the door, they can do whatever they please.

I'm inclined to think the Court won't support Trump. He has insulted judges who go against him, showing not only a disrespect for them, but their authority as well (the "so-called judge" comment comes to mind). They have every incentive to hit him with contrary opinions every time they get the chance. Most officials will say they're disappointed in decisions, but respect it. Not Donald.

The courts generally enjoy far greater respect and approval than any politician, and furthermore: judicial review is something the court gave to itself in the early days of the republic. It has since become a convention that few challenge. Trump openly challenges court legitimacy. That can't stand.

[Volphied]

3 hours ago, Lord Liquir (Ogilvie) said:

Looks like that other leader is scolding him at the way he pushed the guy aside, which is good. Trump, on the other hand, seems to just not care. He's just that important to himself.

That speech is embarrassing though. He keeps framing it as them underpaying, when the countries only promised to reach 2% by whatever year. They're free to "underpay" in the meantime. That's the idea of a "by [year]" in politics. It avoids needing to rapidly alter current spending patterns.

European leaders are now fully realizing that a 12-year-old is the President of the United States of America.

They also now fully understand that Trump doesn't give a single fuck about NATO. He's nothing but Putin's puppet.

I'm gonna drop parts of this tweetstorm by John Schindler. For those who don't know him, Schindler is a former NSA analyst, Counterintelligence officer, Navy officer and a War College professor.

 

 

 

Trump's trip to Europe is now officially a disaster:

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/close-to-a-disaster-foreign-policy-scholar-explains-massive-damage-done-by-trumps-nato-speech/

Quote

President Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a speech at NATO headquarters in which he did not explicitly endorse Article 5, which outlines a policy of collective defense among all members of the alliance.

While this might seem like a small oversight to casual observers, Brookings Institute fellow and top foreign policy scholar Tom Wright said Trump’s refusal to endorse Article 5 has rendered his entire foreign policy trip a “failure.”

“The White House told the NYT yesterday Trump would finally endorse Article 5,” he wrote on Twitter. “The fact that he did not is astonishing and shows that someone in the White House or [Trump] himself took it out. This will come as a huge shock to NATO members.”

Wright went on to say that Trump’s trip can now be considered “close to a disaster” unless he explicitly fixes things by endorsing Article 5 later on Thursday. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will be thrilled at Trump’s refusal to endorse Article 5,” which he described as “unimaginable under any other president.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/the-germans-are-bad-very-bad-trump-pledges-to-stop-german-car-sales-to-us/

Quote

President Donald Trump is ready to fight Germany in an auto battle according to Germany’s Der Spiegel.

Trump got a chilly reception at the NATO summit in Belgium after attacking fellow members. But he was caught pledging a battle with German automakers as part of his anger with “back dues” he feels the country owes to NATO. As CNN’s Jake Tapper noted Thursday, “Trump seems to think it’s like a country club.”

In a discussion about the country’s trade surplus, Trump said. “The Germans are evil, very evil.”

“Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US, and we’ll stop that,” sources told Der Spiegel.

According to the report, EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker took up for Germany explaining that “free trade is good for all.”

According to a report from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” the EU allies were horrified by the willingness of the Americans to view global trade with such a lack of awareness. Trump’s economic consultant Gary Cohn was said to have chided German auto trade during a discussion between the US and Germany and the USA and Belgium. Trump had previously attacked them during another conversation.

“I would say to BMW if they want to build a factory in Mexico and sell cars to the US without a 35 percent tax, they can forget that,” Trump said at the time.

The report revealed that since that comment, there has been “a threat of a criminal tax” in the room.

Trump is bothered by Germany’s trade surplus because many other countries have deficits, particularly the U.S.

 

[Patticus]

I used to think, "Eh, Trump's not so bad really. His agenda's totally stalled, the national political environment is looking very good for a 'Blue Wave' next year, and by then if he gets out of hand I'm sure they could impeach him. What's the worst that can happen?"

But now that he's shown his true colors, colors apparently painted in 1987 during his visit to the USSR, and refused to endorse Article V... the sooner he gets impeached, the better. If Putin doesn't believe Trump will enforce Article V, he will act quickly to take what he can, while he can.

[Tani Coyote]

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/25/530061598/montana-gop-candidates-assault-charge-hangs-over-tight-special-election

It really is gross. Gianforte's assault is being apologized for or otherwise denied as having happened, even now that he's formally charged.

Ryan says it's unacceptable and the NRCC Chair says it's out of character, but both say that ultimately Montanans need a voice and it's up to them what happens next. No, screw that, a guy who is charged with assault should not become a representative, the masses be damned. They can vote in a Republican but it needs to be someone else. We are a nation of laws, not of men, as it goes. Which means you break the law, you get punished. You don't skirt to a get out of jail free card because of a conveniently timed election.

Obligatory shout out to racists. If this was a black man, I highly doubt "innocent until proven guilty!!!" would be shouted as much from the rooftops.