A.M. Links: Obamacare Vote in Senate, Trump Trashes Jeff Sessions, Russia Reportedly Arming Taliban
-
Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote today on the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
- Former House Speaker John Boehner: Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare….It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."
- President Donald Trump is attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Twitter. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" Trump tweeted today.
- "The Taliban have received improved weaponry in Afghanistan that appears to have been supplied by the Russian government, according to exclusive videos obtained by CNN, adding weight to accusations by Afghan and American officials that Moscow is arming their one-time foe in the war-torn country."
- China is strengthening its 880-mile border with North Korea.
- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is reportedly considering resigning from the Trump administration.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote today on the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
As they proceed toward failure.
Hello.
Boehner truly is a cuck.
Boehner is, to me, the quintessential establishment Republican.
Barf.
Too bad he's right.
The repeal option evaporated when Obama won re-election. The goodies have been in the fireplace stocking for enough years now that enough people have gotten used to them and will scream, and cry sob stories, to frighten enough Senators into voting to just trim Obamacare around the edges.
The current situation really has nothing to do with Obama's re-election.
Its RINOs in Congress who do not want to make Trump look good. If they repeal ObamaCare and institute tax reform, Trump will get the credit and he will definitely win re-election in 2020.
Of course, a Republican Congress failed to repeal ObamaCare every year during Obama's presidency and he won re-election.
But Trump is a RINO. Didn't you mean Never-Trumpettes?
No, Donald Trump is the Last True Defender of Republicanism, and every other Republican in Washington is a faker. Just ask lc1789, he'll tell you over and over and over again.
Well, obviously, it's the fringe of the party that always gets ignored that defines what a real Republican is, not the mainstream of the party.
Republicans could try to offer better goodies. They claim to have all the answers, don't they?
Like Bush's prescription payout?
BOOOOOSH!
Bush failed to understand that there is only one Santa Claus, and he's a Democrat.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is reportedly considering resigning from the Trump administration.
It's never the ones you want.
Sessions, Perry, Carson are all completely incompetent. Tillerson is in way over his head.
Mnuchin is just okay but unneeded.
Worst cabinet ever.
Tillerson is in way over his head.
What Secretary of State wasn't?
Jefferson.
The entire previous administration was incompetent. This is an improvement.
LOL do we even know what Carson is doing? That fact that he isn't in the news constantly threatening our freedoms tells me he's more comptetent than not. Last thing we need is "competent" f-----g technocrats.
If Carson actually manages to leave his post without ever getting his name in the news, I'd say he did his job rather well.
Better yet if he sends everyone home and shutters the place too.
And you're an idiot. Geithner was superb during the financial collapse and they limited the damage the Bushpigs caused.. Obama had Robert Gates at defense as they got out of the Iraq disaster. Energy actually had someone who knew energy - a SCIENTIST! No GOPer respects science.
Shorter Buttplug: "GURGLE BURGLE BUSHPIGS DERPITY HURR GOLD AT $100 AN OUNCE BY THE END OF SUMMER OGGLE BOGGLEY OBAMACARE ISN'T A FAILURE PEANUTS!!"
He can't help it that you're all fake Libertarian wingnuts.
Obama never pulled troops completely out of Iraq.
In fact, Obama's entire presidency had American troops in combat operations. Obama and LBJ share that worst presidents fact.
Troop levels went from 150,000 down to 1000 to maintain the Bushpigs 104 acre, multi billion dollar embassy there? Built at the expense of US taxpayers?
You're an idiot too.
I know the truth hurts.
It was still 1000 troops involved in combat operations.
I am surprised you call me and Obama idiots.
>>>Bushpigs
2002 called, said "no."
Are you serious.
'Bushpigs'? This again? Obama doubled down on everything the 'Bushpigs' did - including the idiotic TARP.
Gates? Again, seriously? Are we supposed to be impressed? A career apparatchik who served as Director of the CIA under Bush? That's what we're supposed to be aspiring to here?
And the DoE is not about science. Its never been about science. Its been about 'energy policy' - on a national scale. And not only have we seen that things done on a national scale are done fucking horribly but we've seen that 'policy' is solely about politics and reality has nothing to do with it.
I mean, c'mon man. What are you trying to accomplish here? What is your purpose for sticking around. Every time you make a claim someone comes around and points out how far off from reality your claim is - and yet you'll continue to repeat it so its not like you're here to fact-check yourself.
You're not here to expose yourself to 'what the other side thinks' because you *still*, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, think we're all a bunch of Republicans and Reason is a right-wing mag - you still have no idea what we're about.
And its not even community - you just get insulted over and over and over. Why take that? Why take that when its obvious that you're not changing minds here. You're not 'making the world a better place'. You're just getting laughed at and mocked.
Fuck man - we don't go to Progressive and Conservative sites and scream and fling poop at them. Why can't you show the same level of courtesy.
The problem is, he believes that he is the One True Libertarian.
Wait, is that a rule, or just guidelines?
Obama doubled down on everything the 'Bushpigs' did - including the idiotic TARP.
You're a complete moron. OBama and Geithner RECOVERED all of Bush's TARP money plus interest. They made a huge profit on it. To this day profits are rolling in from the GSEs directly to taxpayers. You don't hear the GOP bitching about Fannie and Freddie anymore, do you?
To this day profits are rolling in from the GSEs directly to taxpayers.
My checks must have gotten lost in the mail--sort of like your bet payment.
Butt: Is that the Lefty narrative? Government Socialism created a profit?
Not only did the fed overpay for "troubled assets" therefore subsidies were given, but much of the TARP money was never paid back by the actual companies that received the money. Some companies did pay back the money with interest.
TARP info
Additionally, you had over 151 TARP fraud cases and bankruptcies of businesses bailed out were not counted.
TARP=failure
Is that the Lefty narrative? Government Socialism created a profit?
It is an accounting fact, you idiot. I know conservatives are fact adverse but you are fact immune.
https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/
Outflow was $625 billion. Inflow $713 billion.
Hayek said you conservatives are dumbasses and he is right.
Butt: From Propublica
The Bailout Scorecard
Last update: Jul. 17, 2017
Altogether, accounting for both the TARP and the Fannie and Freddie bailout, $625B has gone out the door?invested, loaned, or paid out?while $390B has been returned.
I know reading is hard for you.
INFLOWS: $713 billion Money returned and paid to Treasury as interest, dividends, fees or to repurchase their stock warrants.
But TARP caused Republicans to accept a one-time increase in federal spending of 800 billion dollars. Obama took that as the new baseline.
And Trump said "sounds about right".
...and kept spending.
OBama and Geithner RECOVERED all of Bush's TARP money plus interest. They made a huge profit on it. To this day profits are rolling in from the GSEs directly to taxpayers.
You'd think someone who does nothing but lie would be better at it than you are. Sad!
Yeah, right ... and right now mortgage securities account for about one-half of the Fed's $4.4 trillion balance sheet.
"the DoE is not about science. Its never been about science. Its been about 'energy policy' - on a national scale."
Well, it's largely about nuclear weapons. Hell, a third of its budget is spent on cleaning up the messes of nuclear waste that the federal government has created.
It's not surprising that you idolize geithner since neither of you pays his taxes. And only someone who couldn't get his baking soda volcano to 'splode would be impressed by the 'paint your roof white' or the 'haircut, what's that?' dynamic duo at energy.
I'm really surprised you didn't name De Vos.
There's just too many incompetent KKKorporate wingnuts to list them all.
President Donald Trump is attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Twitter.
Are we Cruz-ing toward a new AG?
I'm kind of hoping for The Judge.
I doubt anyone with a future career in politics will want to work for Trump because he constantly throws his people under the bus. So my guess, Chris Christie.
You cannot get Christie under a bus.
Not without serious damage to the bus.
big enough for a 1.8 and drive train...he can *be* the bus
China is strengthening its 880-mile border with North Korea.
China doesn't want to have to deal with refugees when the rotten foundation finally gives.
But borders do not matter, amirite? Those North Koreans are only without documents. They're not illegal. Hell, it's not even really their fault.
Yes, because China is a sterling example of how a free society addresses problems.
But borders do not matter, amirite? Those North Koreans are only without documents. They're not illegal. Hell, it's not even really their fault.
Clearly, empowering border agent thugs to round up any escaping slaves caught fleeing North Korea and return them to their psychotic government to be tortured to death is the liberty-maximizing solution here.
I, too, think North Koreans should stay in their own damn country.
Are they getting advice from Trump on building a wall? Trump's a great wall builder, nobody knows as much as him about building walls.
Oh they'll get advice on wall-building from Trump. In great detail. And great length. Whether they want it or not. And he'll do it while standing on the Great Wall, completely oblivious as to how poorly that wall stopped illegal immigration.
They'll pretend they don't speak English.
The Great Wall was never intended to halt raids from the steppes - its main purpose was to slow the raiders down when they were escaping with their loot, so that the banners could catch up to them.
Wonderful - we'll spend $400 billion to build a wall when simply making wire transfers to Mexico could accomplish the same thing for almost nothing.
Chinese built the only wall you can see from space.
You can't actually see it from space without optical enhancement.
not what she said?
Yeah, that's actually a pretty dumb trope, considering the Great Wall is narrower than a lot of highways - and no one ever brags about being able to see I-95 from space.
The only man-made thing visible from space without a telescope is Holland.
And the pyramids.
Speaking of dumb tropes.
NASA info
The Pyramids are visible... using a telescopic lens, sure. Same with the Wall. Same with everything, really, depending on the telescope.
Your license plate is visible from space.
Does anybody do fact checking. There's no way the China-North Korea border is 880 miles.
Seems that a bunch of sources say it's 880 miles. It sure must zig and zag a lot because it looks like 500 miles at most on the map.
Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."
'Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace the income tax.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."'
'Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace the Constitution.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."'
....
I think it's time to refer to him as 'Twump'.
I happen to have a vewwy good fwiend in Wome named Biggus...Dickus...
Welease bwyan!
I want you fighting wabid wild animals within a week!
...accusations by Afghan and American officials that Moscow is arming their one-time foe in the war-torn country.
The lesson of Afghanistan? You always end up fighting your former proxy and arming your former enemy.
Now that the US government has proven that it is incapable of outdoing the Greeks, Arabs, British, and Russians in subduing Afghanistan, it's only natural to see if it can outdo Napoleon and Hitler in subduing Russia.
McCain ... could provide a critical vote to open debate on the GOP bill.
This is why Senators pull down the big bucks.
...Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."
Boehner said that two minutes after it was enacted.
The leadership and charisma just pour off of him. Like water off of a hydrophobic material.
So.
Is McCain gonna get a standing ovation and win an ESPY?
Not unless he cuts his dick off.
It's not like he's used it since about 1991.
Former House Speaker John Boehner: Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."
My shocked face is straight up worn out, let me tell you.
The change in Tillerson's tone followed a stressful week for the secretary of state. He was found to have violated U.S. sanctions against Russia while working as CEO of Exxon Mobil.
"Lock him up!"
What's sad and pathetic about that Trump tweet criticizing Sessions for being "very weak" on going after Hillary is that there are others in the Trump administration who have no taste for going after Hillary - there was that one guy who said if he was President Hillary would be behind bars and yet right after getting elected tamped down "Lock her up!" chants at his rallies with a "No, no, she's suffered enough" indication that he had no intention of going after his good friend Hillary.
I bet that if Trump gives Sessions the boot, the Left will make Sessions a hero just like they did with Comey.
I don't know why the left are so much better at following through on all their crazy promises.
Can't tell if it's a ploy to create a distraction and rile up his base, or if he found some of his koolaid in the back of the fridge and drank it. He dropped the act after he won the election, but now he's gone back to it.
Could be he's just a crazy ass hole with no semblance of a coherency.
Alt-text: "Pull my finger before I burst!"
That finger is too short to pull.
John Brennan and James Clapper call for a coup.
I've had it with these two so I'm just going to come out and say it: these guys both deserve to be put up against a wall and shot in the back of the head for arming and training some of the worst people on earth in ISIS and Al Qaeda to kill Americans and other innocent westerners, and even worse than that, for intentionally leaving their subordinates to die in Benghazi in their pathetic attempt to try and cover up this despicable operation.
I've had it with these two so I'm just going to come out and say it: I'm a fascist retard
FTFY
If thinking Clapper should swing from a tree for the shit he pulled while head of the DNI (like straight up lying to Congress that the NSA wasn't spying on Americans) is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Anyone who values the rule of law should want to see Clapper serve a long prison sentence, yes. After his fair and public trial, decided by a jury.
About the only thing that can be accomplished by Mikey's Nazi fever dreams of shooting traitors by summary judgement is more violence and chaos.
I don't have a problem with a jury trial before he goes up the rope.
So like snowden then.
Simple Mikey: He's Had It With Those Two Rapscallions
It shows that these are traitors and should have their security clearance revoked. Not that they use them anymore anyway.
After comments like these, anyone who thinks some bureaucrats don't undermine the Constitution are fooling themselves.
A high-level source speaking on condition of anonymity has told me Trump is talking with Jared and Ivanka and Bannon about switching to the Democratic Party. Just changing the letter after his name from (R) to (D) makes all the media examination and criticism go away.
That would be interesting -- the Dems would fall over themselves running away from him.
It just might work. But then people won't like him as much, because we love whomever the media hate.
President Donald Trump is attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Twitter.
Barely-coherent public chastisement is certainly the appropriate way to handle a misbehaving subordinate.
I'm starting to regret the wish I made on that cursed monkey's paw that Jeff Sessions would be publicly humiliated for being such an asshole.
You have to be specific with those cursed monkey paws.
The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote today on the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.
You know who else is going to hold a procedural vote on the Republican failure to repeal ObamaCare as was promised? The People.
Funny how Republicans are so scared to repeal ObamaCare because people will vote them out of office and then they get voted out of office for not repealing ObamaCare.
China is strengthening its 880-mile border with North Korea.
Where is Shikha Dalmia to discuss how the Chinese should have open borders and protecting your border is stupidly racist?
They can't be racist...they're both asian.
Former House Speaker John Boehner: Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."
Why is it that politicians have to be out of office before they tell the truth?
No obligatory DEATH SPIRAL!! COLLAPSE! BLOOP! DERP!! from Boehner.
You really are fixated on this "death spiral" thing, aren't you. It's a bit unhealthy.
I'm fascinated by all mass delusion like that - especially religion.
That's right, another unhealthy obsession of yours, making sure everyone knows how much you hate religion.
"President Donald Trump is attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Twitter."
I'm sorry, but did I miss the part where Sessions was not hired by Trump, Trump is not his boss, he is not in Trump's cabinet, and he serves at the pleasure of the President?
Which is better:
1. Trump fires Sessions and that's the end of it.
2. Trump twits dumb things about Sessions on the Internet and they both end up looking like idiots.
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
Trump calls McCain a "hero" for returning to the Senate to vote after calling him a pussy for getting captured in Vietnam.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....epeal-vote
What a scumbag politician Trump is. And his idiot followers thought he was sincere.
Look at Buttplug defending warhawk McCain like a whipped dog. Eat shit, turdlet.
To Democrats it the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" schtick.
Does the douche-baggery of this president know no bounds?
The AG you nominated is not performing the way you expected. The solution is, of course, to chastise him on Twitter like a teenage girl.
Why not? The media chastises Trump on tv and in print like teenage girls.
Didn't Obama chastise the certain Supreme Court justices in public like a teenage girl?
"And what about Abraham Lincoln chastising the South like a teenage girl!?"
You may be an even more pathetic poster than Mikey. He at least has his years of huffing glue to blame for his addled thoughts, what's your excuse?
What about FDR chastising all those Japanese-Americans he locked in concentration camps like a ......?
The way Trump is criticizing Sessions and over what is unprofessional. Obama's past crass behavior towards SCOTUS does not make it better.
Obaaaaama!
Obama called out a terrible SC decision who everyone appreciates has fundamentally fucked democracy in this country. If there was ever an appropriate time to break "decorum," as if you ever cared about that in the first place. Certainly you can't while defending Trump.
Obama was right! Down with freedom of the press! Censorship now! Censorship always!
Equating the first amendment with the Kochs controlling an entire political party is the entire problem, sweetheart.
Giving the government the power to suppress media critical of politicians is not a solution to that perceived problem.
"Everyone"?
Ah, yes, the "two wrongs make a right" theory. As long as he can point to someone else doing something, it's perfectly acceptable for him.
The difference is Obama is no longer the president, and "the media" never was. Have some basic standards for how a president should act.
China is strengthening its 880-mile border with North Korea.
"We gonna buiwd a gweat warr. It'rr be best warr you eva see. It'rr be beautifur warr. You rove it."
What the hell does China know about building walls?
"Democrats' 'Better Deal' Aims To Reclaim A Populist Image"
[...]
"They are leaning heavily on a re-branding of their greatest hits ? more and better-paying jobs, lowering health care costs and cracking down on the what are seen as the abuses of big business."
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/24/.....list-image
And when this goes op the flag pole with no salutes, we'll get the "I wanna give 'em away but my wife won't let me!' deal.
Nothing says "we are just like you" like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The funniest thing is Democrat leaders know their party is doomed.
Al Gore: One hit wonder:
"An Inconvenient Sequel review ? Al Gore's new climate change film lacks heat "
https://www.theguardian.com /film/2017/jan/20/an-inconvenient- sequel-review-al-gore-climate -change-documentary
Power point is so last decade.
Oh, and the sub-head "Truth to Power" is quite amusing; he's a poor, powerless twit who has the 'truth'? Who's the 'power'?
ManBearPig! Swoosh...
I'm surprised Deblasio wasn't there to make it all about himself but I guess he was too busy hiding vagrants for his show-ride of the subway.
Oops, that was supposed to be a reply to Dems rebranding themselves.
Any of those predictions coming true yet?
Palin's Buttplug|7.25.17 @ 9:47AM|#
"...Obama had Robert Gates at defense as they got out of the Iraq disaster..."
I didn't know that drugs stronger than weed had been legalized, but I'll have what he's taking please.
John Boehner: Republicans are "not going to repeal and replace Obamacare.... It's been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it."
Because this is how you rate government policy and/or legislation on whether or not it should continue to be policy/law...
Case in point: slavery.
It was around too long and the American people had gotten accustomed to it.
I knew Boehner was a Democrat.
(they fought a pretty big war over that issue)
Who's rating it? He's saying how it is, and he's very likely right.
Ought differs from is.
President Donald Trump is attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Twitter. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes
And he's the worst thing you've done so far as prez. for a variety of other reasons. Fire him please.
Rudy Guiliani is warming up in the AG bullpen.
I will see your Guiliani and raise you a Preet Bharara.
Chris Christie is ready for his comeback.
China is strengthening its 880-mile border with North Korea.
BUILD. THE. (great!) WALL. //MCGA
>>>China is strengthening its 880-mile border with North Korea.
wall. big wall. see it from space.
President Donald Trump is attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Twitter.
So is it safe to say that Trump is now just trolling everyone? He trolls Democrats, Republicans, the media, Mexicans, foreign leaders.... Can someone tell him there is life on Mars and that his poll numbers stink over there? Maybe then we can see how he trolls them.
US rocks are bigger than Mars. Redder too.
Terrible planet, just terrible. Nothing but rocks and ice, not classy at all. Believe me.
very nice post. I like it. Thanks for sharing this information.
Tinder is the best online chatting application. Try it.
http://www.tinder-pc-download.com/ tinder for pc
http://www.tinder-pc-download.com/ tinder download