Saturday, March 11, 2017

Saturday Morning Reading / Viewing


Let's dive right in (as always, please read articles in their entirety).

-- Martin Longman sees an opportunity for Democrats in Congress to extract some concessions from Republicans who will possibly need their votes on a crucial, recurring matter:
The Democrats have very little leverage to influence policy or stop legislation they don’t like, and so far they aren’t being consulted or asked to provide support for any of Trump’s policies. 
It’s an odd thing that Trump ran successfully by trashing the Republican Establishment but then decided to govern in a way that is completely dependent on them. The Democrats are correct to respond with unflinching resistance, but they should at least explore if the possible inability of the Republicans to raise the debt ceiling on their own will present them with an opportunity to have a say on policy. They have leverage, so the question is really what they can achieve with that leverage. 
It could be as simple as helping craft an infrastructure plan that isn’t a giant looting scheme or something more mundane like a slate of nominees placed on bipartisan commissions. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t come cheap. The Democratic leadership needs to figure out what their “ask” will be. And, needless to say, if Mitch McConnell eliminates the filibuster for Supreme Court judges, the Democrats should be willing to let the world burn before they give any votes to raise the debt ceiling. (our emphasis)
-- The White (Supremacist) House and some toadies in the media are giving neo- fascist malignancy Donald "Rump" Trump credit (a "Trump bump") for the February jobs report that showed a preliminary gain of 235,000 jobs.  Ben White has the context (click on image to enlarge):


-- Paul Krugman weighs in on RepubliCare/ TrumpCare ("a dog's breakfast" bill so bad "its awfulness is almost surreal") and concludes:
Given the sick joke of a health plan, you might ask what happened to all those proclamations that Obamacare was a terrible, no good system that Republicans would immediately replace with something far better — not to mention Donald Trump’s promises of “insurance for everybody” and “great health care.” 
But the answer, of course, is that they were all lying, all along — and they still are. On this, at least, Republican unity remains impressively intact.
Can't argue that if's there's one thing Republicans are adept at, it's lying.

-- They're also adept at monumental, soulless hypocrisy:


Lock him up! Lock him up!

-- Finally, Steven Harper at Bill Moyers.com has a timeline of the Trump- Russia connection that is updated periodically.  It's a good reference and something to track as the scandal unfolds. Wear a mask, though, to protect you from all the smoke.
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