US General Election 2016

Yep, but Trumpsters don't care. He makes George W. Bush look like Goethe, but people judge on perceived principles rather than brain function.

https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/859821197990797312

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/05/04/every-republican-who-voted-for-this-abomination-must-be-held-accountable/

{{Bye bye American health care (what there was of it) hello medieval times! Thank fuck I was not unfortunate enough to be born American! To those unfortunate enough to have been, um try not to get ill, ever.....}}

I think you're being too pessimistic Petty. The bill is still miles from being law.
Now the bill goes to the Senate, and we've got no idea what the Senators will do with this hot potato, but I guarantee it's not going to pass easily or in it's current form!

{{ I really hope you are right David- far as I can tell Republicans are celebrating a plan whose reducing in medicare would instantly deprive 10 million poor of health coverage, increase costs for the elderly by up to 5 times, make whether or not you get any health care a state lottery, and if you got life saving surgery under obamacare and require long term medicine to recover from it, or to stay alive, then you probably cant afford to pay for it any more so best invest in a funeral instead!
And thats before the number crunchers work out the total amounts who will lose coverage.

I often wonder with Republicans and Tories (Republicans are far worse though) if they will ever have a 'mitchell and Webb maybe we are the baddies moment'

}}}}}

The thing is, Obamacare does badly need some serious fixing. It has from Day 1, but up until now Congress has been too fixated on partisan gamesmanship to actually look under the hood and see if they could make improvements like they're theoretically supposed to.

I'm not holding my breath you understand, but this would actually be a rare and wonderful opportunity for the Senate to put together a list of bi-partisan fixes and send them back to the House as part of the reconciliation while the gridlock is broken.

I was hoping that would happen, but once the House Republicans saw fit to bow to the Freedom Caucus and took out anything that would benefit those this bill is supposed to help, I lost all hope.

For the "Freedom" Caucus, low income = freedom to die

At the very least I expect this will trigger a discussion in the Senate that will cross party lines, and I expect some kind of bipartisan proposal will eventually come out of it. Even if it doesn't pass, just having the discussion after 8 years of partisan gridlock would be a step in the right direction...

Might be the politically stupidest move yet..

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/09/james-comey-fbi-fired-donald-trump?

Not sure it's politically stupid, as Comey managed to piss off both sides, but it does feed into suspicions.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2017/may/10/donald-trump-fires-fbi-director-james-comey-reaction-live?page=with:block-5913439be4b0a8ea08b6d08c#block-5913439be4b0a8ea08b6d08c

It is more about the consequences, and obviously timing. If the democrats were in a majority Tump would be on borrowed time (if the allegations are true). Now moderate republicans are starting to get worried. The timing of this was a true disaster, but if they have something to hide, perhaps this shows they were pushed into a corner?

If the allegations are true....though there are no real allegations just rumors of possibilities...then firing Comey would be about the stupidest thing they could do because it frees him up to speak his mind.

I think it's just Trump bowing to whoever spoke to him last, I no longer think he even has the brains to attempt a cover-up.

I think there is a lot going for the allegations being true now. Notched handling can only explain so much, either way, this has needed independent investigation from the get go.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/10/us/politics/congress-statements-comey.html?

Oh yeah, it needs independent investigation. But between believing Trump is capable of orchestrating a cover up, and believing that he's just being swayed by someone who appeared two weeks ago, I'm going for the path of least resistance.

I can't help but remember this is a man who made a very successful TV career and a small fortune out of arbitrarily firing people. I makes him feel strong and powerful. I don't think it's going to work so well for him this time though.

then again I could be completely wrong about the timing.  Comey had asked Sessions and Rosenstein for more funding for the probe just days before he was fired. Hmmm....

Edit: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/us/politics/comey-russia-investigation-fbi.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2
(it drives me crazy how sites just repackage what is read on another site, in this case Business Insider just rewrote the NY Times story)

http://www.businessinsider.com/comey-rosenstein-trump-russia-probe-funding-2017-5

https://twitter.com/fatherjohnmisty/status/862124288694001664

Supposedly in my language but it kinda needs a translation...?

An american artist billed Father John Misty improvised a folk dirge on the fireing of Comey

It was the actual words I wanted translated.

It seemed to be his pianist who came up with the song.

I think they call it a colab

"James Comey was fired in the month of May / James Comey was fired from the CIA.*
Well he had Hillary's emails / And there was a recipe, recipe for risotto."
*apparently intentional for the rhyme

The rest... not so sure

Oh, actually I see FJM was singing, for some reason when I first saw it I got the impression the piano man was doing the singing.