Another Obamacare Repeal Attempt, or Perhaps a Government Shutdown, Russia Bans Jehovah's Witnesses: P.M. Links

• 

  Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom

  The White House is planning another attempt to repeal Obamacare to coincide with President Donald Trump's 100th day in office.

• Alternatively, the federal government might just shut down. Can't they do both?
• A French police officer was killed by a shooter who was subsequently "taken down" in Paris, according to reports. The Champs-Elysees has been shut down.
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) isn't just declining to run for re-election in 2018. He's considering resigning.
• Russia has banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an "extremist organization," saying the religion poses a threat to "the rights of citizens, public order and public security."
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "amazed" that a judge in Hawaii ("an island in the Pacific") is able to put a temporary halt to Trump's immigration orders.
• Syria has formally asked the United Nations to send in experts to investigate the deadly gas attack from earlier in the month that prompted the U.S. military strike on an airport.
• Bill O'Reilly could receive up to $25 million in severance pay after getting dumped by Fox News.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Commenter's not here, man.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Poke til you broke,
Smoke til you choke,
High til you die.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The White House is planning another attempt to repeal Obamacare to coincide with President Donald Trump's 100th day in office.

So does that mean he'll fail TWICE in his first hundred or does this count as the second hundred?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A French police officer was killed by a shooter who was subsequently "taken down" in Paris...

France is so going to elect its own Trump.

[Zeb]

Who is the female Trump going to grab by the what?

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

I don't think I would let Marine Le Pen grab me by the cock, personally.

[Zeb]

I think I might. Just so I could say that it happened.

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

She would squeeze, brother.

[Jerry on the sea]

Marion on the other hand...

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

She's very electable.

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

I bet she is responsible for many elections.

[notJoe]

Lacist!

[notJoe]

Lacist!

[notJoe]

Gonna go kill me some squirrels now...

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

A French police officer was killed by a shooter who was subsequently "taken down" in Paris, according to reports. The Champs-Elysees has been shut down.

Reefer Madness got him.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) isn't just declining to run for re-election in 2018. He's considering resigning.

I haven't been following. I assume there's a scandal coming down the pike.

[Stormy Dragon]

I think it's more that with the GOP in control of congress and the white house, he's suddenly expected to actually accomplish things, which is proving perilously close to actual work.

So he's departing for the wingnut welfare circuit.

[Red Rocks Baiting n Inciting]

Maybe he could take Tucker's old slot on Fox.

[Juice]

He's going to join Eric Cantor on the stud farm.

[Citizen X - #6]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "amazed" that a judge in Hawaii ("an island in the Pacific") is able to put a temporary halt to Trump's immigration orders.

Let's all congratulate AG Sessions on noticing what Hawaii is. Good job, fella!

[Zeb]

That can't really be a state, though, can it?

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

He has been hating on Hawaii ever since he agreed to let his college roommate "show him a map of Hawaii."

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Alternatively, the federal government might just shut down. Can't they do both?

"It never just goooooooes away" Nick Cage voice.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Russia has banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an "extremist organization," saying the religion poses a threat to "the rights of citizens, public order and public security."

In Russia, only government knock on door.

[Sevo]

And I think they'll offer you a news-sheet, too!

[Jerry on the sea]

AS opposed to the Religion of Peace, which poses no threat whatsoever to the "rights of citizens, public order and public security."

[Shirley Knott]

Somehow, I just can't get the memory out of mind --f the old old SNL skit with the Russian Generals gathered around a map. One says "I know, let's invade Afghanistan. Who ever heard of a Muslim holding a grudge?"

Given Chechnya and various other 'territories', one suspects they'd love to outlaw Islam as well.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I bet they would if they could. But since those places were mostly Muslim before they were part of Russia, the situation is a bit different.

[Brandybuck]

It's because the don't acknowledge the 1563 Council of Trent. Dangerous extremists.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "amazed" that a judge in Hawaii ("an island in the Pacific") is able to put a temporary halt to Trump's immigration orders.

To still find the world wondrous at his age.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Russia has banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an "extremist organization," saying the religion poses a threat to "the rights of citizens, public order and public security."

An oldie but a goodie, must be proud to still be kicking kicking up dust.

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

When are we gonna get our movie about Jehovah, the bank robber that leaves no witnesses?

[Sevo]

Still nothing about this?
"General Motors says Venezuela illegally seizes auto plant"
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20.....plant.html

[Domestic Dissident]

"We mentioned it in the A.M. Links, what the fuck do you want?"

(The standard way Reason handles everything they don't want to spend a whole lot of time on.)

[Brandybuck]

Get with the program, dude!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Syria has formally asked the United Nations to send in experts to investigate the deadly gas attack from earlier in the month that prompted the U.S. military strike on an airport.

The UN going in? Haven't the Syrian people suffered enough?

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is "amazed" that a judge in Hawaii ("an island in the Pacific") is able to put a temporary halt to Trump's immigration orders.

You know what else "amazes" uncle Jeff?

[Red Rocks Baiting n Inciting]

The way you love him all the time, or the way he pulled you out of time and hung you on a line?

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

That people still ask him if he's the guy that played the head nazi in the Blues Brothers movie?

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Syria has formally asked the United Nations to send in experts to investigate the deadly gas attack from earlier in the month that prompted the U.S. military strike on an airport.

So much espionage in this story it's going to win Oscars.

[Jerry on the sea]

Send in Scott Ritter!

[Juice]

He can just do his inspections by webcam.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bill O'Reilly could receive up to $25 million in severance pay after getting dumped by Fox News.

It's easier for a rich man to call everyone a pin head than it is for him... to smoke Camels.... while harassing

I don't know, you figure it out.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

I had trouble with this one too.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Pithy!

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

Bill O'Reilly on Fox News did thrive,
Raked it in the viewers with GOP jive,
Then harried some strange,
His fortunes did change,
And now FUCK IT FUCK IT WE'LL DO IT LIVE!

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

*Polite applause*

[Meh.]

Ha, this was a pretty good one.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Limericks: the lowest form of creative expression.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Fist does nude improve theater.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Former Tennessee teacher, 50, is arrested and his 15-year-old student is found safe in a cabin in northern California five weeks after he 'kidnapped' her

Cummins, 50, who is married and has two daughters and grandchildren, allegedly abducted his former student on March 13 from her home near Columbia, Tennessee, and the two, who were thought to be in a sexual relationship, were last spotted two days later.

If these crazy kids can't make it...

[Zeb]

Hmm. These things are so much easier to judge when it's a teenage boy and an attractive female teacher.

[Juice]

Did he kidnap her or did she go willingly? I guess it doesn't matter since she's under 18 and is not a person.

[Meh.]

Wow, the word "cabin" makes it sound so much more romantic and cozy than the shack actually pictured... but anyway, her mom had 10 kids and isn't allowed to see her runaway daughter because of abuse charges? Sounds like she had a tough life, no wonder she ran away with a seemingly trustworthy adult.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Far too rational a response for this national outrage story.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Is one of those "if you see something, say something" moments? I never get them right.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

I.R.S. Enlists Debt Collectors to Recover Overdue Taxes

So, why is this a problem?

Outsourcing the collection of federal tax debt is "a bad idea," she wrote in a letter to Congress. "It disproportionately impacts low-income and other vulnerable taxpayers, and despite two attempts at making it work, the program has lost money both times, undermining the sole rationale for its existence."

In years past, Ms. Olson said, the outside collectors employed by the government used psychological tricks that may have coerced some debtors into payments they could not afford.

That's the only problem. Also, it has bipartisan support. Duh.

[BYODB]

If they're that poor, why aren't they getting a refund check eh? EH?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

White men. Duh.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

A Lump of Rock, an Otter and a Secessionist

To the rest of the world, this barren, inhospitable and largely inaccessible rock off the coastline of the Shetland Islands is a part of Scotland, on the northernmost tip of Britain. To Mr. Hill, it is the sovereign state of Forvik, whose independence he proclaimed in 2008, arguing that it ? along with the oil-rich Shetland Islands themselves ? is legally neither part of Scotland nor Britain.

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

How does Butch Otter play into this?

[Brandybuck]

Banning Jehovah Witnesses? Why, because they refuse to do the pledge of allegiance? Annoyed Putin by knocking on his door Saturday morning?

[Meh.]

Yeah, the most "extreme" thing I've heard of any of them doing is not accepting blood transfusions, but that hardly seems like something they would get shut down over. There's a theory that the Russian Orthodox Church could be a driving force in this, since they're big supporters of Putin and the Russian government, and this could be seen as a way to keep their base happy.

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Russia has banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an "extremist organization," saying the religion poses a threat to "the rights of citizens, public order and public security."

I would like to ban them from buying up all the land around here and not paying property taxes.

[Juice]

Jealous?

[Crusty Juggler aka "Chad"]

Peanut butter and jealous.

[BYODB]

?Bill O'Reilly could receive up to $25 million in severance pay after getting dumped by Fox News.

I'm no fan, but if I were him I would laugh my way all the way to the bank. Preferably, a maniacal laugh!

[yet another dave]

I'm gonna take wild assed guess and predict he's gonna need that cash for future payouts.... the sharks are circling and they smell blood...

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

I hope they pick his ass clean. He should end up living in a subway tunnel.

[Stormy Dragon]

Supreme Court rules 7-1 that if your conviction is overturned, the state can't just keep the money it fined you anyways:

States Can't Keep Criminal Fines of Exonerated, Supreme Court Rules

Guess who the lone dissent was.

[Chipper Mourning Will Grigg]

Clearance Thomas? WTF?

[Stormy Dragon]

It's not really out of character. Thomas has always been hugely differential to law enforcement.

[Juice]

Need further proof he's not a libertarian?

[Juice]

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) isn't just declining to run for re-election in 2018. He's considering resigning.

Awesome!

[SIV]

Do you know who else banned Jehovah's Witnesses?

[creech]

Howard Dean?