Senate Republicans' bad faith maneuvering has landed them in a no-win situation Kavanaugh-wise

   By Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter Poza

     None of us thought the GOP was going to attempt to hold an aboveboard nomination hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, much less investigate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault. Just how little interest Republicans have in projecting a semblance of decency is still surprising.
Two women have come forward publicly, Dr. Ford, who alleges Kavanaugh assaulted her during high school, and Deborah Ramirez, a college classmate who says he assaulted her at Yale. Ramirez’s account is backed up by classmates’ emails. A third yet-to-be-named woman is being represented by Michael Avenatti, of Stormy Daniels fame. A fourth allegation of sexual assault is being investigated by investigated by Montgomery County.

Republicans were already flailing. Exhibit A: Ed Whelan’s painstakingly ridiculous mistaken-identity theory, wherein he used Google Maps and Zillow floor plans to claim Dr. Ford had confused Kavanaugh with another classmate.

[W]hat’s most shocking about this thread, which Whelan has since deleted, is that Kavanaugh’s defenders appear to have genuinely believed that it would exculpate the nominee. Whelan is no random crank: He is a Federalist Society power broker who has played a major role in the selection of Donald Trump’s judicial nominees—including his good friend Kavanaugh. 

Undeterred by fact, they’ve repeatedly launched attacks on women who share the same name as accusers. It’s not clear whether the misidentification was accidental or deliberate, as one tweet incorrectly linking Ramirez to George Soros was left up even after the right-wing perpetrator had admitted the error.
Republicans are growing ever more desperate, now truly worried about internal cohesion. It’s clear that Republicans should start over. Then again, they shouldn’t have selected Kavanaugh to begin with.
It was already a bad idea to push forward given the near certainty that Kavanaugh’s perjuries will be exposed (to an even greater degree) when his record becomes public, a three-year wait at most. Now, they’re faced with two credible allegations of sexual assault and a third TBD, along with prospective witnesses.
It’s truly become a no-win situation for Republicans. That said, it’s clear what the best of the bad options is.
If the Mitch McConnell-led Republicans who want to “plow ahead” with Kavanaugh succeed, he’ll be the most impeachable justice there ever was. They’ll also pay a hefty price. (Hey, Susan Collins.)
If the GOP cuts bait now, they’ll suffer less for attempting to force Kavanaugh’s confirmation, though that tack’s alienated the public and widened fault lines among Republicans. They’d also get a shot at another, less impeachable nominee.
Why haven’t they dumped Kavanaugh yet?
Ego, for one, and the need to enforce party discipline. Partisanship, for another: Kavanaugh’s the most political pick they could have made. His views on executive power are certainly the most favorable for Trump. Most of all, Republicans do not take sexual assault seriously. Let these factors be their downfall.
   Original From Daily Kos

Russia Aiding GOP in 2018 Elections

Why is America letting Russia get away with meddling in our democracy?
  The most remarkable thing about Russia’s meddling in our democracy is that resident trump has done nothing about it. There are plenty of steps that he could have taken. There are people, including some working just steps away from the Oval Office who could have—and may have—advised him what to do. But trump chose inaction.
   trump and the republican party know that without the help of Russian trolls and bots, that their asses will get kicked on election day.
   I will not get into the fact that Russia owns trump and probably at least a 1/3 of the republicans in Congress.

Republicans Become Enemies of the State

“ Simply put, Donald Trump is more than just intellectually and emotionally unfit to be president—he's a danger to our republic and our sovereignty on every level. And Republicans' continued efforts to insulate him from investigation is a betrayal of our country.”   Read More...

Donald Trump Is An Ass

      So, resident trumpf told some business leaders today that if they fire workers and relocate to other countries that they would pay a tax on their products when they ship them back to America to be sold.

     Really? That dumb fuck thinks that is going to stop them from leaving? It will not.

Guess who will pay for that added tax? You will and so will I in higher prices passed on to us by those companies.

 

GOP Doesn't Want You To Know How Much Obamacare Repeal Will Cost. It Could Be Trillions.

  By Lauren-Mccauley CommonDreams

Republican leaders racing to tear down as many as 20 million (pdf) individuals' healthcare without providing a replacement, it turns out, also don't want the American people to know how much the repeal will cost.

The very same rules package (pdf) in which the GOP had attempted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics also contains a provision that exempts repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, from the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) 10-year cost analysis.

"In other words," reported Shareblue, the news site owned by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock that drew attention to the measure, "the new Republican rules package specifically instructs the CBO not to say how much it would cost to repeal Obamacare"—a provision that "distorts" federal budget analysis "for political gain."

As Shareblue pointed out, following a section of the bill (on page 25) that instructs the director of the CBO to conduct a 10-year cost analysis of each bill reported by the House, a subsection lists the areas to which the directive will not apply:

(4) LIMITATION.—This subsection shall not apply to any bill or joint resolution, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon—     

(A) repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and title I and subtitle B of title II of the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010;     

(B) reforming the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010; or     

(C) for which the chair of the Committee on the Budget has made an adjustment to the allocations, levels, or limits contained in the most recently adopted concurrent resolution on the budget.

Try as they may to conceal the cost of the repeal, an independent study published Thursday estimated that it could cost the states trillions in lost revenue and output.

The study, conducted by the Commonwealth Fund and George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, argues that the repeal of both federal premium tax credits and Medicaid expansion without a viable alternative would result in a $140 billion cut in federal funding by 2019, which in turn would trigger "losses in employment, economic activity, and state and local revenues."

Most of the federal healthcare funding "flows to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and other providers," which in turn hire and pay staff, as well as "purchase goods and services, like clinic space or medical equipment" from vendors who also "pay their employees and buy additional goods and services."

This repeal scenario "would result in nearly 3 million lost jobs by 2021" and widespread state economic losses, the study notes. It continues: "From 2019 to 2023, there will be a cumulative $1.5 trillion loss in gross state products and a $2.6 trillion reduction in business output (combined transactions at the production, wholesale, and retail levels). State and local tax revenues also will fall during this period, dropping by $48 billion."

Next week, the Senate is expected to vote on a budget reconciliation bill that includes repeal of the ACA with no clear plans for an alternative.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans do not want Congress to dismantle the program "until the details of a replacement have been announced," according to new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The survey, published Friday, found:

Forty-nine percent of the public think the next Congress should vote to repeal the law compared to 47 percent who say they should not vote to repeal it. Of those who want to see Congress vote to repeal the law, a larger share say they want lawmakers to wait to vote to repeal the law until the details of a replacement plan have been announced (28 percent) than say Congress should vote to repeal the law immediately and work out the details of a replacement plan later (20 percent).

 With this sort of public opposition, many are hoping that the same organized outrage that led to the Republicans' backtrack on the ethics rule change can also pressure lawmakers to rethink other unpopular—and outlandish—policies. 

Speaking to Democracy Now! on Wednesday, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said that the "flood of calls, emails, and appeals that hit every office in Congress" in response to the ethics panel subterfuge is exactly the way that people will "be able to affect, to resist, and to stop some of the worst instincts that this Congress is going to have."

"Those of us that are in Congress that are opposed to what's going on are a voice," he continued. "But the real power in holding back some of the worst instincts of Trump and the majority in the House and in the Senate is going to come from people themselves. And I think that bodes well, and that is a good example of how that should be done."

Looking forward to the ACA fight, he said that he thinks Republicans are "going to have to back down," particularly in the face of public resistance.

"I think they're going to have a very difficult time coming up with a replacement that deals with pre-existing conditions, that deals with subsidies for poor people and working people," Grijalva said. "But right now, to say repeal is easy. To provide a replacement, which the American people are going to demand, is going to be difficult, if not impossible."

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Republican Congress... How does it feel to kowtow? To bend your knee to a lesser man?

BP in WA

Nearly all politicians aspire to the next level of power.  Especially Republican politicians.  So, I can’t help but wonder…

How does it feel, to grovel at his feet, while listening to him try to string together 3 sentences in a row on the same subject?  To know that this walking, bumbling, squinting, trying-to-project-what-he-thinks-looks-like-confidence pile of hubris just pulled off what YOU NEVER WILL.  That this silver-spoon-in-his-mouth, 4 times failed, bailed out by a reality TV show…. jackass... will be the next PRESIDENT of the United States.  And you never will.  You’ve been bested by a walking caricature.

He doesn’t share your positions on issues.  He doesn’t care about your “agenda”.  He doesn’t care about anything beyond how it will shape Donald Trump’s legacy and fortune.  And you get to lick his boots.  Tell me, how does Trump foot odor infused Italian leather taste?  I do hope you enjoy it, you’ll be tasting it for some time.

So every time you hear him speak... every time you bend a knee before his golden toilet… every time you enter his presence, remember — He is your better.  You serve him.  You, who have long practiced the art of verbal jujitsu to avoid being pinned down by a question — He has no such skill.  You, who have carefully laid out your policy positions in such a manner to secure certain coalitions, and practiced such message discipline — He rebuts his own comments within days, if not hours, if not within the same conversation.  You, who have toiled through so many campaigns, climbing the political ladder so carefully, spending endless, tedious hours fundraising and gladhanding those who would financially support you — He has parachuted in to the top of your pyramid and become Pharoah overnight.

Tell me, Republican politician — How does that feel?

Enjoy it.  You deserve it.

Democrats Who Are Helping Wall Street and Republicans

  We seem to have a crew of Democrats who think that the Keystone Pipeline is a good idea, and they expressed that view by voting with Republicans who want it built.
  But wait, there's more as those same Democrats also sided with Republicans in voting to weaken Wall Street reform.
  Some voted on only one bill, and some voted on both of these bills. they should be sent to the unemployment line in 2016.
     Here is a chart showing who voted and for what they voted on.