Comey: Trump Campaign officially under investigation by the FBI

[Paranoid Android]

You gravely understate how critical the Obamacare repeal is to the GOP platform at present.

You don't think Fox News and right wing radio is spinning it on the Democrats right now? Plus by letting Obamacare sit out there and not really improve or even repeal it (I agree its not great), they will get to bash it until infinity.

It's sad we are so hyper-polarized that it is true that a good 40-45% of people will like or hate Obamacare no matter what. Again, I don't want people to be blind to its flaws and how people were sold a bill of goods on some of the shit. In some world with unicorns and rainbows I wish both parties would actually work on a bill or improvement to fix our damn healthcare.

Did I mention Single Payer? Yeah.

[Elegiac]

We just want a repeal not a repeal and replace.

Yes, and here's the rub: the only people who want a blanket repeal are hardline teabaggers. Most people do not want a return to how things were before Obamacare, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that even a flawed piece of legislation like the ACA is better than nothing.

The Republicans cannot deliver on their promise of repeal without serious political consequences, nor can they afford to leave it in place. The fact that they have demonstrated no workable alternative to the ACA is going to hurt them in the long run with both moderates and teabaggers.

[drakensoul]

We just want a repeal not a repeal and replace.

That won't happen for the same reason this shit didn't pass -- 20M losing their insurance.

Find reality. Requires you to be on-grid.

[Elegiac]

You don't think Fox News and right wing radio is spinning it on the Democrats right now? Plus by letting Obamacare sit out there and not really improve or even repeal it (I agree its not great), they will get to bash it until infinity.

They'll try, but there's a limit to how far the truth can be stretched. After months of gloating about how the GOP controls every aspect of the government, to turn around and blame the Democrats for being unable to get even a repeal passed isn't going to fly with any but the most stupid.

[Skroe]

One bad bill that didn't get voted on and the party is over?

Are you new to politics? Yes. That is what happens. That is exactly how things work.

In 2013 Barack Obama failed to follow through on the Red line vs Bashar al-Assad in Syria. First he tried to get a UN Security Council Resolution to allow for bombing of Syria. Russia was going to veto, so he moved to effort to NATO. David Cameron lost the vote in Commons in the UK, and since NATO decisions must be unanimous, that nixed that plan. His last redoubt was a Congressional authorization of military force. Congress was not going to give it to him... so Obama did nothing, and got bailed out by Vladmir Putin. This exposed Barack Obama as someone who is a bluffer... who can be waited out, and with that act alone, zeroed domestically and internationally his political capital from his re-election. Barack Obama, post Red-Line, was a hugely diminished figure, and he wouldn't have been if he got the AUMF and bombed.

In 2005 George W Bush attempted to Privatize Social Security. He said in 2004 with his re-election "I earned political capital and I intend to spend it". And he spent it alright. The failed Social Security push, which his own party failed there very much like here, effectively ended his Presidency a year after he was re-elected. Bush rates that, by the way, as his biggest failure.

The failure of Clinton Healthcare Plan of 1993 effectively wiped out Bill Clinton's political capital. In 1994, Republicans retook the majority in a wave election. Bill Clinton's political fortunes did not recover until he defeated Bob Dole in 1996.

In 1987 Ronald Reagan stuck to the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court long after it was clear that there was no way in hell he was ever going to get confirmed. Bork's eventual failure, in conjunction with Iran Contra pretty much ended the Reagan Administration as a governing power then and there.


So yes. Donald Trump is in a world of trouble.

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We just want a repeal not a repeal and replace.

That. Is. The. Problem.

SOME, but enough, Republicans want Repeal. MORE Republicans want Repeal and Replace. And Trump's failure to bridge that through patient negotiation - again, Pelosi took nearly a year, Trump quit after 20 days - created this mess.

You do not speak for a unified party. You speak for a faction of a faction that just warred against another faction. What you wrote here Barnabas, is emblematic of how Trumpcare's failure came about. What _you_ want, is not what lots of other people with an (R) next to their name and the voting record want.

[Paranoid Android]

Between Comey's testimony, the wiretapping lie blowing up, then the Trumpcare disaster, the Nunes idiocy, and now Manafort agreeing to testify, this week has been an utter and complete disaster for Donald Trump. And the two weeks prior were as well.

Off Topic. Nunes is a real piece of shit. There was a thread were some poster tried to spin that first press conference when Nunes went to the the W.H. as a evidence Trump was the poor little victim. Then the piece of dog feces of course apologizes, not for being wrong but knowing he might lose his chair. So what does this piece of shit do? Unilaterally cancels the hearings.

I'll give Nunes credit. I thought nobody could get ahead of Jason Chaffetz as a piece of shit, but this guy shot to the top. There are some crazies like Gomart (sp?) and McConnell is so hypocritical. At least they are not pieces of shit.

[Barnabas]

Yes, and here's the rub: the only people who want a blanket repeal are hardline teabaggers. Most people do not want a return to how things were before Obamacare, and it's becoming increasingly apparent that even a flawed piece of legislation like the ACA is better than nothing.

The Republicans cannot deliver on their promise of repeal without serious political consequences, nor can they afford to leave it in place. The fact that they have demonstrated no workable alternative to the ACA is going to hurt them in the long run with both moderates and teabaggers.

They saved their seats. Not everyone is tea party that wants it gone. Yes it's extremely flawed. All ACA has done is make health insurance a requirement and made the healthcare industry even more money than they have before.

[Elegiac]

That. Is. The. Problem.

SOME, but enough, Republicans want Repeal. MORE Republicans want Repeal and Replace. And Trump's failure to bridge that through patient negotiation - again, Pelosi took nearly a year, Trump quit after 20 days - created this mess.

You do not speak for a unified party. You speak for a faction of a faction that just warred against another faction. What you wrote here Barnabas, is emblematic of how Trumpcare's failure came about. What _you_ want, is not what lots of other people with an (R) next to their name and the voting record want.

Moreover, the teabaggers don't seem to understand that what shifted the last election was a thoroughly anti-establishment sentiment. Ergo, moves that are blatantly 'wealthcare' run into extreme political risks.

Plus the optics of taking away healthcare from millions of Americans simply to prove a point doesn't fly outside the idiots that vote for Tea Party candidates.

[Paranoid Android]

That. Is. The. Problem.

SOME, but enough, Republicans want Repeal. MORE Republicans want Repeal and Replace. And Trump's failure to bridge that through patient negotiation - again, Pelosi took nearly a year, Trump quit after 20 days - created this mess.

You do not speak for a unified party. You speak for a faction of a faction that just warred against another faction. What you wrote here Barnabas, is emblematic of how Trumpcare's failure came about. What _you_ want, is not what lots of other people with an (R) next to their name and the voting record want.

Be honest, @Skroe. Republicans believe that healthcare is not a right.

[Elegiac]

They saved their seats. Not everyone is tea party that wants it gone. Yes it's extremely flawed. All ACA has done is make health insurance a requirement and made the healthcare industry even more money than they have before.

Both are true, but not the entire truth. There are a lot, and I mean a -lot- of people who are now covered and have a reasonable expectation of being able to weather their medical costs without sliding into bankruptcy as a result of the ACA. A lot of the horror stories about inflated premiums are not, funnily enough, the result of Obamacare - they're almost universally occuring in states that opted out of the Medicaid expansion and did not set up adequate insurance exchanges. In essence, the blame's on them.

And no, the only people who want it gone with no replacement are hardline teabaggers. Everyone else wants it either reformed or replaced with something better; and it's clear now the only 'something better' is a public option.

[Paranoid Android]

Yeah, it pretty much ended the Reagan administration as a governing power... until George H.W. Bush(the VP of Reagan's administration) was elected president a year later continuing their control of power for another 4 years.

Letting in the Tea Baggers was one of many steps of selling their soul to the devil. I think it is true that the current Republican party does not want to govern, which you kind of need in a government.

I know I bash the Republicans and people may think I hold the Democrats as angels. At least they are trying to govern in my opinion. Sadly if the Republicans came with a legitimate health care bill. You would get Dems on aboard.

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Moreover, the teabaggers don't seem to understand that what shifted the last election was a thoroughly anti-establishment sentiment. Ergo, moves that are blatantly 'wealthcare' run into extreme political risks.

Plus the optics of taking away healthcare from millions of Americans simply to prove a point doesn't fly outside the idiots that vote for Tea Party candidates.

How many faction of the Republican Party do they have. Yeah the Republicans want a BIG tent. A tent with all the fucking crazies. Tea Baggers and now populists/nationalists. What's next?

[Barnabas]

Are you new to politics? Yes. That is what happens. That is exactly how things work.

In 2013 Barack Obama failed to follow through on the Red line vs Bashar al-Assad in Syria. First he tried to get a UN Security Council Resolution to allow for bombing of Syria. Russia was going to veto, so he moved to effort to NATO. David Cameron lost the vote in Commons in the UK, and since NATO decisions must be unanimous, that nixed that plan. His last redoubt was a Congressional authorization of military force. Congress was not going to give it to him... so Obama did nothing, and got bailed out by Vladmir Putin. This exposed Barack Obama as someone who is a bluffer... who can be waited out, and with that act alone, zeroed domestically and internationally his political capital from his re-election. Barack Obama, post Red-Line, was a hugely diminished figure, and he wouldn't have been if he got the AUMF and bombed.

In 2005 George W Bush attempted to Privatize Social Security. He said in 2004 with his re-election "I earned political capital and I intend to spend it". And he spent it alright. The failed Social Security push, which his own party failed there very much like here, effectively ended his Presidency a year after he was re-elected. Bush rates that, by the way, as his biggest failure.

The failure of Clinton Healthcare Plan of 1993 effectively wiped out Bill Clinton's political capital. In 1994, Republicans retook the majority in a wave election. Bill Clinton's political fortunes did not recover until he defeated Bob Dole in 1996.

In 1987 Ronald Reagan stuck to the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court long after it was clear that there was no way in hell he was ever going to get confirmed. Bork's eventual failure, in conjunction with Iran Contra pretty much ended the Reagan Administration as a governing power then and there.


So yes. Donald Trump is in a world of trouble.

- - - Updated - - -



That. Is. The. Problem.

SOME, but enough, Republicans want Repeal. MORE Republicans want Repeal and Replace. And Trump's failure to bridge that through patient negotiation - again, Pelosi took nearly a year, Trump quit after 20 days - created this mess.

You do not speak for a unified party. You speak for a faction of a faction that just warred against another faction. What you wrote here Barnabas, is emblematic of how Trumpcare's failure came about. What _you_ want, is not what lots of other people with an (R) next to their name and the voting record want.

So in 8 in 10 republicans isn't a majority? That's how many want a repeal. The replace part is secondary and always has been secondary. Again one bad bill doesn't mean the party is over.

[Skroe]

Yeah, it pretty much ended the Reagan administration as a governing power... until George H.W. Bush(the VP of Reagan's administration) was elected president a year later continuing their control of power for another 4 years.

Bush distanced himself from Reagan in 1988. Reagan barely campaigned for him. Furthermore Dukakis was probably the most miserable candidate possible that year.

But the biggest reason is that Democrats had no recovered from losing 48 states in 1984. The last remnant of the "New Deal" Democrats were in their final decline in 1988, and the Centrist "New Democrats", that Bill Clinton would be at the center of, were still forming. The Democratic Party was in transition.

It's also worth noting how different Bush was from Reagan in every sense. They were political opponents in 1980. Bush represented the establishment that Nixon, Ford, and Eisenhower hailed from. Reagan represented the far more conservative Barry Goldwater-wing. The 1988 victory marked the final win for the historic establishment, and their defeat in 1992 (split ticket with Ross Perot / the Reform Party), and the spread of more Goldwater-Republicans in 1994 represents their party in transition as well.

Which is to say, Bush '41 winning the Presidency is not at all indicative of a return to grace for Reagan.



See that dip in 1987? That was Bork + Iran Contra. And that also places Reagan a full 12 points ABOVE where Donald Trump is today.

But regardless of polls. Bork was the last big political initiative of Reagan. It was treading water for nearly two years after, much like Obama after his Red Line failure.

[wolfpackfan]

The problem within the Republican Party is that it two parties flying under one banner. You have the Tea Party far right Freedom Caucus, and then the Moderate. These 2 groups have VASTLY different ideals on many issues (like Healthcare). It will be extremely difficult for them to agree to something on any major issues. Tax Reform, up next, is going to be even harder.

[Elegiac]

The problem within the Republican Party is that it two parties flying under one banner. You have the Tea Party far right Freedom Caucus, and then the Moderate. These 2 groups have VASTLY different ideals on many issues (like Healthcare). It will be extremely difficult for them to agree to something on any major issues. Tax Reform, up next, is going to be even harder.

The best thing that can happen at this point is for the GOP to flush the shit as it were, getting rid of the social conservatives of the tea baggers and drawing the blue dogs away from the Democrats. The field will then consist of an economically progressive party and a fiscally conservative one, with general agreement on most social issues.

Basically, the fundies and the teabaggers need to be made aware there is no place for them in politics.

[Skroe]

Be honest, @Skroe. Republicans believe that healthcare is not a right.

I'm not sure that is universally true. I think it's a good deal more complicated than that.

The idea of paying $200 a month for medical insurance for an individual to live is insanity. I think on the balance, the idea of insurance being just for something catastrophic, and not for things like drugs or routine doctors visits with the right regulations could be a better one.

It really depends on the approach. We should look at Japan or Singapore's models. What I just described up there is another route. There is no clean solution. I do know though that every year, we spend $10 billion - $20 billion more on Medicare and it's eating up ever more of the pie. The transfer of wealth from young to old needs to stop. Everyone should have healthcare, and healthcare should be cheap, but spreading the cost through Federal government-run systems may not be the answer without strict regulation (Japan).

Again, Americans are stupid as fuck about this. We think we're innovating. We're not. We're entirely full of shit. We need to look at Canada, Singapore, Japan, the UK or France... pick a model and implement it.

But no, being a largely full of shit country nowdays, we'll pretend healthcare is some kind of achievement.

[Paranoid Android]

I'm not sure that is universally true. I think it's a good deal more complicated than that.

The idea of paying $200 a month for medical insurance for an individual to live is insanity. I think on the balance, the idea of insurance being just for something catastrophic, and not for things like drugs or routine doctors visits with the right regulations could be a better one.

It really depends on the approach. We should look at Japan or Singapore's models. What I just described up there is another route. There is no clean solution. I do know though that every year, we spend $10 billion - $20 billion more on Medicare and it's eating up ever more of the pie. The transfer of wealth from young to old needs to stop. Everyone should have healthcare, and healthcare should be cheap, but spreading the cost through Federal government-run systems may not be the answer without strict regulation (Japan).

Again, Americans are stupid as fuck about this. We think we're innovating. We're not. We're entirely full of shit. We need to look at Canada, Singapore, Japan, the UK or France... pick a model and implement it.

But no, being a largely full of shit country nowdays, we'll pretend healthcare is some kind of achievement.

Well, to keep it simple. Insurance, pharma, medical facilities, etc should not profit off my health.

[Skroe]

That was mostly the Iran Contra. Bork was more of a footnote in that issue.

Uh... no. Sorry. Iran Contra was popularity. Bork represented the end of Reagan's ability to press policy. That's why I separated them. Losing 42-58 was a rejection of Reagan who had put his entire political weight behind Bork.

Keep reaching.

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Well, to keep it simple. Insurance, pharma, medical facilities, etc should not profit off my health.

Pharma should. For profit scientific research is wholly legitimate. Government intervention, patent laws and poor regulation retard the effect of cost controls though. Drugs should be cheap. But you should have to pay for them.

[Barnabas]

Both are true, but not the entire truth. There are a lot, and I mean a -lot- of people who are now covered and have a reasonable expectation of being able to weather their medical costs without sliding into bankruptcy as a result of the ACA. A lot of the horror stories about inflated premiums are not, funnily enough, the result of Obamacare - they're almost universally occuring in states that opted out of the Medicaid expansion and did not set up adequate insurance exchanges. In essence, the blame's on them.

And no, the only people who want it gone with no replacement are hardline teabaggers. Everyone else wants it either reformed or replaced with something better; and it's clear now the only 'something better' is a public option.

No it's happening in states like California that is supposedly the golden child for ACA. If you live in SoCal you get the better end of the bargain. If you live in NorCal you pay a lot more. You pretend like it's the same everywhere when it isn't even in the same state. Check some of the states websites and you'll see what I mean. They don't even lie about it. Some uninformed people spread lies but it's that is changed when you see with your own eyes their data. You keep bringing up the tea partiers and I'm anti federalist. If they believed in civil liberties then I'd support them but they like the democrats do not.

[Paranoid Android]

The problem within the Republican Party is that it two parties flying under one banner. You have the Tea Party far right Freedom Caucus, and then the Moderate. These 2 groups have VASTLY different ideals on many issues (like Healthcare). It will be extremely difficult for them to agree to something on any major issues. Tax Reform, up next, is going to be even harder.

Oh no. They now invited the populist, nationalist wing under their tent. Ironically its not diverse pretty much white men still. Remember when Republicans were free trade and yeah capitalism! Now all sudden its build walls, waste money, tariffs, force businesses to build here in U.S. and all those restrictions.