Schadenfreude?

I would be lying if I said that, since Trump started his long, slow meltdown, I have not had my moments of Schadenfreude. But the present crisis, although it really does look like the turning point that will likely end in the premature end of his horrible, horrible presidency, is nothing to celebrate. Our country is wounded by these events, and we will be lucky to emerge on the other end without damage that will be very, very hard, and take a long time, to repair. And that's not even addressing the damage Republican policies will inflict, to the extent they are able to enact them. That, in fact, is about the only silver lining: Trump's corruption and ineptitude will have derailed a good deal of the Right Wing agenda. 

Petition: Tell Senate Democrats to REFUSE business as usual until a fully independent special prosecutor is appointed

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I just signed a petition telling Senate Democrats to refuse to allow business as usual until a fully independent special prosecutor is investigating Trump, and I

​'d like to suggest you do so​

, too. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Comey_Shutdown?sp_ref=303655619.4.180932.e.576211.3&referring_akid=.11044146.X86oP0&source=mailto_sp 

​

New York Times translation

Digital automatic translation (such as Google Translate) is already useful, but it isn't the equivalent of human translators yet, and may never be (although I'd bet it will). So, when a publication like the New York Times has to decide which languages are important enough to translate the contents of the daily digital edition immediately so it can appear timely, they obviously can't do dozens. You might expect French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Hindi, maybe. But they only do two, probably because of resource limitations. And which two? Spanish. Not surprising. Chinese. Which even a decade or two ago would probably have seemed very odd. But now, well, it's the obvious choice.

This cannot just be allowed to happen without consequences!

Look, we always knew McConnell was and is a party hack who cares nothing for something even as basic as the Rule of Law. But saying there's no need for additional investigation is so outrageous that I truly hope and expect there will be an enormous backlash. Folks. We CANNOT let this just go by as if nothing had happened. Trump and his thug cronies MUST be called to account. And if the institutions of our government fail, we must take to the streets to demand that this matter be investigated impartially and the law be enforced.

No Compromise.

No normalization.

No cooperation till this happens.

No let up on our own party until they have the spine to stand up for our country.

Stupid Party and the plan to destroy Medicaid

If the Stupid* Party, despite clangorous pleas from their own Governors, hospitals, medical associations, doctors, and even many health insurers, goes ahead to gut and destroy Medicaid, they will create such an ungodly mess that the ONLY SOLUTION will be Enhanced Medicare for All, aka Single Payer. I don't hope for that, because literally millions will suffer, and hundreds of thousands will die, as a direct result of Stupid Party stupidity, but that is what will happen. And in the process the Stupid Party will lose the White House, both houses of Congress, and if their current extreme stupidity continues, eventually even control of the Supreme Court. And that will serve them right, but at what a price!

(* Definition of Stupid, in case you doubt it: quality of a person whose habitual actions harm others, despite little or no appreciable net benefit to himself or his community. I submit that the fact that one party in this country overwhelmingly practices stupidity, while the other, by and large, does not, is well nigh irrefutable. And which is which should not even be a question).

Old White Male Power's last gasp

I guess I am somewhat insular... nearly everyone I know is appalled by the retrenchment of White Male Power symbolized by the news photo this past week of a bunch of old white men gathered around the Old White Man in Chief to celebrate the meaningless passage of their huge Tax Cut and Ruination of Health Care Act of 2017... in only the House... with no chance that anything like it will become law. But if you sometimes have difficulty articulating to others the BIG PICTURE of why this is terrible, and OBJECTIVELY, FACTUALLY bad for America, I highly recommend this website, and, for an introduction, the excellent Ian Masters interview from yesterday with Stephan Schwartz.

http://www.schwartzreport.net/

https://fdmedia.org/background_briefing/may-7-2017/ 
(Segment 3)

Trump supporting elimination of Filibuster even for Legislation?

So now we read where Trump supposedly favors eliminating the Senate filibuster even for legislation.

Of course, the fear is, if that were to come to pass, that the Republicans, who now control both houses, the presidency, and the Supreme Court, could simply legislate their entire agenda without impediment.

But I'm not extremely worried (just somewhat). For several reasons: 1. McConnell is unlikely to go along with this, for his own reasons, and increasingly members of both houses are not that intimidated by Trump's bloviation. 2. See 1. For the same reason, and because the Republican party is sharply ideologically divided, they are unlikely to unify around a systematic policy agenda. (Although they could indeed do a LOT of damage, which would take a good long while to fix, so No. 1 is a critical line of defense). 3. Although there is a pretty serious short term downside risk of very bad consequences, in the long run, eliminating the filibuster for legislation is both good for progressive policy outcomes, and probably inevitable, now that the confirmation filibuster has already been permanently trashed. And, after all, it IS totally undemocratic, so with the future in mind, its demise should be accepted if not, immediately, celebrated.

If they do end up doing this, our resistance will have to kick up into War Emergency Overdrive. Resistance, including making it clear to Republicans in the House and Senate that they could well lose re-election if they destroy the social safety net that so many of THEIR constituents and supporters take for granted, has so far saved the ACA and prevented a massive tax cut from taking shape and sailing through (which was feared, and which may still happen). Resistance, even in the face of a simple majority Congress, could prevent the evisceration of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Progressive Taxes, and Fundamental Environmental Protections. But it will require truly MASSIVE activism on a scale dwarfing even the AntiWar movement of the Vietnam era.

Ready?

Republican Dithering may indeed kill the ACA Exchanges

It is unbelievably frustrating, as TPM reports, that the sheer ineptitude and dithering of the Republicans is creating so much uncertainty in the ACA Exchange marketplace that it will likely turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy: the exchanges will fail for the same reason stock markets often crash. Which is artificially induced uncertainty about the future of the "rules." If they would just quit messing with a system that works more or less (since they clearly have no intention of making the PROGRESSIVE fixes it actually needs), it would probably work OK until we can get rid of them in the next round of elections. But that may well not happen. Thanks to the uncertainty as to whether the critical subsidies will still be there for the next few years, the ACA likely WILL enter a death spiral, but not because of inherent flaws; rather because the government is not reliable. Sheesh. Now, in all likelihood, when the time comes, we'll have to start all over. And create Medicare for All. Which is a good thing. But in the meantime, people will suffer and die. And the blame goes nearly 100% to Trump and the Republicans in Congress.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-subsidies-gop-derp 

One grows weary

One grows weary.

The Republicans are a tripartite unholy alliance of Far Right Wingers (Tea Party), Ayn Randian Libertarian Ideologues who basically actually believe the kool aid that "low taxes and minimal government" is best for the people (ignoring that it is ALWAYS hijacked by the rich and powerful), and purely self-interested billionaire oligarchs, whose ultimate icon is Trump himself. These people seek to DESTROY the postwar prosperity for the great mass of the people that most Americans are still clinging to, at least as a myth.

Take this ridiculous, but fundamentally SINISTER proposed pair of huge cuts to the taxes the very richest pay. The first, dishonestly labeled "health care reform," is really nothing but a massive tax cut, eviscerating the taxes on the very rich and health care corporations that funds the subsidies that make Obamacare work (to the extent it does). The cuts are made up for by "something really great" all right, for BILLIONAIRES. Ordinary people get totally unaffordable health care, and at least 25 million will end up with no insurance. It also, stealthily, effectively ends MEDICAID, on which tens of millions of Americans depend for health care. People will die. Republicans don't care.

The second, the truly breathtakingly dishonest, mendacious and nakedly greedy 1-page "plan" Trump touts as tax reform, is the polar opposite of what he promised. It amounts to an enormous tax slash for people like him, with almost no tax benefit to ordinary people. It would explode the deficit by $5 trillion over ten years. Which will come out of essential government services. Only the military will escape massive cuts. Any idea that "growth" would offset these massive cuts is lunacy; we have seen repeatedly that just the opposite happens.

And as if that weren't enough, the Randites like Paul Ryan are working on a truly nefarious plan to eliminate payroll taxes. Sounds great, huh? But their motive isn't to help the middle class. It is to ELIMINATE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE. Don't believe anything else. Of course they won't try to do it all at once, but that is their game plan.

These people are EVIL. Period.

RESIST.

Peace.

Trump / Le Pen

Trump has made it pretty clear he favors the overtly racist, fascist Le Pen in the French presidential election. The shame of that is almost unbearable to those of us who actually believe in American democratic traditions.

Newsflash: Donald Trump is a moron

Trump's moronic comment about the worst (and least likely to pass) tax cut called a health care bill yet ("Really, really good") proves it. This man is not only deranged and incredibly, dangerously ignorant, he is JUST PLAIN STUPID. I guess he's good at a kind of assholery that can be useful in extorting money out of people (y'know "the art of the deal"), but does he really believe that throwing 30 million people or more off of health care, and allowing health insurers to sell stinking turds that cover absolutely nothing and call them health plans will go over with people who were promised "something much, much better" than Obamacare? I mean there are diehard Trumpists, but people NOTICE when Pa comes home from the hospital with a $1 million unpayable hospital bill because his "insurance" allowed by the Republicans' idiotic law, for which he paid a huge chunk of his income, was really nothing more than a scam. And they talk to their neighbors. And pretty soon EVERYBODY KNOWS it's just a piece of shit designed to cut taxes for the richest and screw everyone else.

Uh, no to CalExit

I toyed with the idea of a CalExit initiative (expanded to include the whole West Coast)... just to send a message. (Obviously, there is virtually no chance of successful secession, and if there were, it would be fraught with so many problems no one should even consider it unless the situation became a whole hell of a lot worse than it is). But in any case it turns out this effort is a deliberate distraction, actually being backed by a Russian oligarch! So, uh, no. Never mind.

Williams and Zakaria have crossed the line of no return with Trump Sycophancy

Let me just call out the fawning of, in particular, Brian Williams and Fareed Zakaria, over TRump's preposterous Tomahawk stunt. These (among many other lapses) disqualify both of these men from ever being taken seriously again.

Calexit?

I wish I could say I take this seriously, because I really would support it (with a caveat that I would want the Petition to explicitly state that California intends to invite other Western States to join a new union of Pacifica), but I don't think there's any chance at all this could actually happen. 

A Brief History of Secession (Why Calexit might not be as crazy as you think)   by Richard Striner 

from American Scholar, Spring 2017 

(Attached) 

Demanding a Bipartisan Commission with Subpena Power and a Special Prosecutor

And I just sent this to my two senators and my Congressman: 

Dear. []: 

The questions being raised in the Comey hearings and more generally constitute a constitutional crisis. Democrats must present a united front, and demand a bipartisan commission, with subpoena power, and the appointment of a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of all the issues raised, including tax returns, Russian influence, any collusion with the Russians, emoluments and conflicts of interest of the president and all top executive officials, and any other related issues. The cloud of suspicion and probable cause to believe multiple impeachable offenses may have been committed is not serious enough that Democrats should say that UNTIL these processes are in place and functioning, they will not consent to any routine business, confirmations (including of Gorsuch), or legislation not actually an emergency. If they want to proceed on their own, so be it, but I don't think they can. This situation is grave and cannot go on. 

Thank you. 

Rejecting Gorsuch on Legitimacy Grounds

I keep pluggin' away. This is what I sent to my two Senators just now. 

Dear (Sen. Wyden): (Sen. Merkley): 

I believe Democrats must stand against any Supreme Court nomination of this president for two reasons: 

1. The seat was stolen. This hurts the court, as Dahlia Lithwick has stated. Democrats should say that they will not consent to any nominee other than Mr. Garland. Let them approve the nominee on their own... if they can... and if they kill the filibuster, that's on them, and we lose nothing from it anyway. They will do it eventually regardless, and in the meantime we get nothing. 

2.  There is a serious cloud over this presidency and its legitimacy. The Republicans refused to even hold hearings on the flimsy idea that the president had only a little MORE than a year to go. Well, this president has called into question his legitimacy, his fundamental mental health, and whether there is probable cause to believe he may have committed multiple impeachable offenses. No nominee for the SCOTUS from this president should even be considered until these issues are resolved, and Democrats should say so in a united front. 

PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THE CONFIRMATION OF GORSUCH AND PLEASE DEMAND RESOLUTION OF THE TRUMP CRISIS. 

Thank you. 

[signed]

Trump like Tyler

My friend Sam says Trump will go down in history like John Tyler (who became president when Harrison died suddenly). Weak, despised, unpopular, and ineffectual. 

I kinda hope he's right. 

It's time to say it ~

 

DONALD TRUMP MUST RESIGN IMMEDIATELY. 

Trump's Divisiveness

    It's absolutely amazing that Trump's approval is as HIGH as 37%.

    It is also significant that it remains the case that a very large majority of Republicans still supports him. That will probably rule out impeachment. I hate to acknowledge that, but I think it's true. The Republicans in Congress will not do it, because they can't see that it will help their re-election prospects. The era, if there ever was one, of responsibility in American politics, is over.

    Still, think about it. Almost 75% of Republicans support Trump, but his national support is only half that. That means almost everyone else doesn't support him. (Remember, nonvoters and Independents outnumber both Republicans and Democrats). It also means our nation is divided more sharply not only ideologically but regionally, in terms of social class, and, to varying lesser degrees racially and ethnically, as never before.

    What a dreadful situation. We must strive in every way, being more active than ever, to bring about change from the bottom up!

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

I just mailed a whole slew of postcards to state representatives and senators here in Oregon urging support for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Already passed in Washington, California, New York, Illinois and enough other states to combine to 165 electoral votes, the uniform statute, when enacted by enough states to amount to 270, will take effect, requiring those states' electors to be pledged to vote for the candidate who WON THE POPULAR VOTE, as tallied in the official vote tally. The law is expected to pass muster in the courts as a proper Interstate Compact, because under existing case law where powers of the Federal Government under the Constitution are not involved, interstate compacts do not require Congressional approval. The governing portion of the Constitution, a mere 17 words, is very clear in granting the exclusive power to the states to determine how their electors would be chosen. (In fact, the current winner take all in 48 of the 50 states is not in the Constitution, and did not come to predominate until the 1880s).

If your state has not already passed NPV, please get involved in getting it passed. 2 of the last 5 elections did not result in the person who won the vote of the people becoming president. This must never be allowed to happen again.

PLEASE GET INVOLVED to make sure that is the case.