Friday Reads: Just another Manic Newsday
Posted: March 24, 2017 Filed under: Afternoon Reads | Tags: Affordable Health Care Act, Paul Manafort, tRumpcare 79 Comments
Good Afternoon Sky Dancers!
I don’t know about you, but I can barely keep up with the breaking news this week. I feel like I’m caught in a whirlpool of unbelievable events and emotions. I’m going to be like BB yesterday and just try to list them. I’m not sure I have to time to truly analyze or elucidate anything. Maybe the chaos is working in their favor on that account. At least news reporters are assigned desks and topics. Some of them must be very busy. Here are the three top stories: T-Russia, T-RumpCare, and T-Rump Syndicate shenanigans.
First, up is that notorious Foreign Agent, obsequious Trump neighbor, and former Campaign Director Paul Manafort has volunteered to testify to Congressional Intelligence Committees. Congressional Clown Car Chauffeur Devon Nunes announced it today. It will likely be a closed session.
Manafort has also offered to be interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a Senate source.
Both Intelligence committees are investigating Russian interference in the US election.
The White House this week rushed to distance itself from Manafort after the revelation that he signed a multimillion-dollar contract with a Russian oligarch in 2006 to help advance Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests around the world.
The story fueled the growing controversy over the Trump team’s ties to Russia, which was rekindled Monday when FBI Director James Comey publicly confirmed the bureau is investigating whether Trump associates coordinated with Moscow during the 2016 presidential race.
Nunes also said Friday he has asked Comey and National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Rogers to brief the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session.
Nunes cautioned that he does not expect to receive documentation from the NSA regarding his claims that Trump campaign associates were possibly monitored by the intelligence community on Friday.Nunes said he expects to have more information from the NSA by “early next week.”
But he categorically denied that his decision to make public the information on the issue that he does have was coordinated by the White House.
Nunes continues to be underfire for what appears to be collusion with the White House to cover up the Russian Involvement with the Trump Campaign which is so obvious now that a grade school kid would call “shenanigans!!”
So you can read more about this unfolding story at CNN too as well as the recent announcement that Republicans are using closed meeting formats which is not making Democrats happy. Nunes is really in over his head on all of this.
The House Intelligence Committee chairman and the panel’s top Democrat publicly disagreed Friday over the handling of their investigation into Russian meddling into the US election, coming after the announcement that President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman agreed to testify before the committee.
“Yesterday, the counsel for Paul Manafort contacted the committee yesterday to offer the committee the opportunity to interview his client,” committee chairman Devin Nunes announced during a news conference. “We thank Mr. Manafort for volunteering and encourage others with knowledge of these issues to voluntarily interview with the committee.”Nunes also announced that the committee is bringing in FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers for a second briefing, this time behind closed doors so that they can provide more information. The committee is also delaying its March 28 hearing, a decision infuriating Democrats on the committee.
“Chairman just cancelled open Intelligence Committee hearing with (former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper, (former CIA Director John) Brennan and (former deputy Attorney General Sally) Yates in attempt to choke off public info,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee tweeted moment before going to speak to the press Friday morning.
Schiff refused to say whether he thought Nunes should step down from his position, telling reporters, “What’s really involved here is the cancellation of this open hearing and the rest is designed to distract.”
You can view the Nunes presser at that link also.
GOP leaders have done the WHIP count on Trumpcare and it appears that they do not have the votes they need to pass it. This may be a very big test of both Paul Ryan and Kremlin Caligula’s ability to whip a vote.
House GOP leaders aren’t confident they have enough votes to pass their embattled health-care bill, according to a senior congressional aide, and are already considering what to do if the measure is blocked before a do-or-die vote hours away.
House Speaker Paul Ryan went to the White House Friday to brief President Donald Trump ahead of the vote. Vice President Mike Pence canceled a trip to Arkansas to be in Washington for the vote, a White House official said.
The Trump administration is doubling down on its demand that House Republican leaders hold a vote Friday on their embattled health-care bill without any changes. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the vote will proceed as scheduled Friday afternoon.
“It’s not a question of negotiating any more, it’s understanding the greater good,” Spicer said at a news conference. “This is it.” The president, he added, has “made it clear this is our moment.”
But an influential GOP member said he’s not sure they have the votes.
“I’m not sure we’ve landed it,” Mark Walker of North Carolina, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee of House members, said Friday morning. “I’m hopeful that we can get there today but at this point I don’t know how many we’re short.”
Tensions among House Republicans were high, said Chris Collins of New York, the first House member to endorse Trump last year.
“There’s some divisiveness within our conference now that’s not healthy,” Collins said. “I’ve never seen this before. People are just refusing to talk to each other. They’re storming past each other. This is not good.”
Paul Ryan is CYA mode this afternoon.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, facing a revolt among conservative and moderate Republicans, rushed to the White House Friday afternoon to inform President Trump he did not have the votes to pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to decide whether to pull the bill from consideration.
The president and the speaker faced the humiliating prospect of a major defeat on legislation promised for seven years, since the landmark health legislation was signed into law. President Trump had demanded a vote regardless, which has been scheduled for Friday afternoon. But House leaders were leaning against such a public loss.
The House opened debate Friday on what would have been one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in years, a bill that would have rolled back a major, established social welfare program, a feat that is almost unheard of.
Meanwhile, more Trump ethics violations are on the horizon: “After Promising Not To Talk Business With Father, Eric Trump Says He’ll Give Him Financial Reports”.
Eric Trump sits behind a desk on the 25th floor of Trump Tower in New York City, dressed in a slightly less formal version of his father’s go-to power uniform—blue suit, white buttoned-down shirt, no tie. There are reminders of Donald Trump everywhere in this office, including the TV in the corner that beams out wall-to-wall news about the president any time his son turns it on. Amidst it all, Eric Trump, who now manages the Trump Organization with his brother Don Jr., wants to emphasize that the Trump business is separate from the Trump presidency.
“There is kind of a clear separation of church and state that we maintain, and I am deadly serious about that exercise,” he says, echoing previous statements from his father. “I do not talk about the government with him, and he does not talk about the business with us. That’s kind of a steadfast pact we made, and it’s something that we honor.”
But less than two minutes later, he concedes that he will continue to update his father on the business while he is in the presidency. “Yeah, on the bottom line, profitability reports and stuff like that, but you know, that’s about it.” How often will those reports be, every quarter? “Depending, yeah, depending.” Could be more, could be less? “Yeah, probably quarterly.” One thing is clear: “My father and I are very close,” Eric Trump says. “I talk to him a lot. We’re pretty inseparable.”
So, this is what it’s like to live in a Banana Republic.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Reportedly Ryan is currently at the WH showing tRump “the numbers” — they just don’t have the votes — and asking tRump what he wants to do. Paul Ryan’s “trumped-up” reputation is now in tatters.
There are now 34 GOP no votes.
Is that primarily the Tea Party or the Movement Conservatives? Do you know?
Freedom Caucus and moderate Repubs.
Good grief! There are actually moderate Repubs left?
Kasich types, I guess. MSNBC keep calling them “moderates.”
And their phone lines are ringing off the hook. They’re hearing from lots of angry constituents.
David Corn:
Nunes (Kind of) Confesses He Went Off Half-Cocked
tRump just threw Flynn under the bus. The National Enquirer is calling him a “Russian spy” based on anonymous WH sources. Either Flynn is already talking to the FBI or he soon will be.
http://americablog.com/2017/03/national-enquirer-brands-flynn-russian-spy-trump-just-threw-flynn-bus.html
oy.just.oy. It’s really coming apart at the seams now.
I can’t wait until Flynn and his son start singing.
Do you think they would be cutting deals this early on? I wonder if Manafort is looking for a way out, too. What an oily crowd.
They have both been very quiet. My guess is they are already talking.
if Manafort volunteered to talk to committee, would that suggest it will be just an interview without him being under oath?
David Frum called that americablog piece re Enquirer “important.”
John Lewis speaking in the House right now. He’s fired up.
I missed him, will catch him on video, I hope.
According to republicans Paul Ryan made a very brave decision! HA!
Melissa has it:
http://www.shakesville.com/2017/03/healthcare-vote-update-john-lewis.html
Thank you! Like us, we absolutely defend our country’s innocent children, and stand for those who are left out, and left behind! We want health care for everybody! Women, and children are always hardest hit, always.
Jennifer Palmieri at the WaPo:
The Clinton campaign warned you about Russia. But nobody listened to us.
You’d think Obama could have done more to break this wide open, I’ll never forgive him for that.
The news gets crazier every day.
Just saw on twitter that Comey is at the White House, according to ABC News. I’ll look for a link.
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Lol. As for Manafort volunteering to be interviewed by the committee, it all depends on if he’s under oath or not.
Exactly. WH claims Comey was just there for a routine meeting. I don’t buy it.
You know he will refuse to be under oath……….Doesn’t fit into their games.
Let’s hear it for Rep Hastings!
I swear I love that man, he’s not ignoring us, but protest those that think they can step all over the working poor, and drastically hurt them.
Wow!!!! Giving em’ Hell is how we need to proceed on every issue.
And remember, this was all known before the election.
I’m going back to something more situated in reality for me…at least, since I’m ready the James Whale biography. Frankenstein on TCM. I can’t take real life shit anymore.
Good to take breaks from this.
JJ I watched Gojiro (Godzilla) on TCM last night – hahahahahaha
It was the first U.S. release of the Japanese original before they added Raymond Burr.
Oh honey, coming up…the Gorgon. Give it a try. It is lovely.
Christopher Lee and a gorgon with snake hair? I’m in!
They also have Wizard of Oz on after that. I’ve seen it 5 million times but it’s my favorite movie of all time. It always makes me happy.
This is the biggest story in all of the woodpile of stories and it will break this shit wide open. Putin and Erdogan are partners of necessity, evil intent and exploitation and Erdogan wants this dissident. We’re going to find trump’s fingerprints all over this. trump is a criminal and has been for decades. The only thing that added an air of legitimacy to him was the Apprentice. We’ll be saying goodbye to this rogues gallery of characters sooner rather than later. I can’t wait to see who sings first and who sings loudest. It looks like Woolsey is already terrified because he knew what was happening weeks before he resigned.
Health care bill has been pulled. No vote today.
Hey! Sounds like a victory for today at least.
It’s dead. Both Trump and Ryan say they are moving on to taxes.
Can we put them both in a day care center run by women?
https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/845359210468536320
He called his buddy Robert Costa.
he also called Maggie Haberman of dishonest New York Times…
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https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/845354289300193280
Good! Let them beat each other to death.
An enemies list.
Where have I heard that before?
Ryan saying he’s proud of the bill. He’s only doing this job to help people. LOLOLOLOLOL!
Mean rich people.
I can’t help but wonder where he got his training in helping people. Somebody pinch me.
Paul Ryan is the laughing of the GOP and that’s feat.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/845350439663128577
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rflmao
I just had the weirdest damned phone call. It was a so called DNC fund raising solicitation that I am convinced was really a Repuglican troll.
The guy basically said that the Nunes hearings are a sham because there is no evidence that Il Douchebag did not do anything wrong and that Debbie Wasserman-Shultz was a bigger problem in the election.
I usually don’t answer those calls, but I thought it might be fun to bait a Bernie Bro, listen to his spiel and then tell him to ask Bernie for the money, but didn’t I get a surprise.
The Repuglicans are the scum of the earth.
Weird. No way it was a DNC fund-raiser. Fits right into the Repug playbook. You might want to pass this along to the DNC.
Yeah, and FBI, you know the Russian connection is at work.
I just had a call from someone saying they were from the DSCC , really high pressure. First it was triple matching, then quadruple matching. I kept telling him that I don’t give over the phone. Very strange call
Weird again. Definitely smells trollish. Tell the DSCC.
Everybody, if you get these sort of calls, ask for names, details, and report to the DNC or whichever org they were pretending to be. Perhaps the state agency that investigates scams, too.
https://twitter.com/AlGiordano/status/845400305604923393
I laughed so hard at Trump and Ryan, and the republicans. I loved me some Pelosi today!
Pelosi was beaming like a 20 year old today. She got a chance to rub trumps nose in it and she didn’t fail to do so.
Maggie Haberman said Trump seemed quite disciplined in his phone talk to her. Could it be he’s zipping his lips a little because he is a bit scared after the Comey visit.
I would imagine Comey might be mad about Nunes’ behaviour, running off the squeal to Trump yesterday.
I cracked up today when he basically said he hasn’t seen any information. Said that everybody’s, especially the media has been picking on Trump, and that’s why he went to him first.
In other words what he really was saying: I am brought and paid for!
I keep thinking of Boomer’s comment: “feels like being stuck in a spy thriller.” It really does.
It’s all going to come out and it’s going to be glorious!
Soon, soon, soon….
From your lips, BB.
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Okay, so here’s an interesting angle: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/22/1646138/-Manafort-made-Pence-the-VP-they-talked-regularly-during-the-transition
Manafort was evidently wire tapped or caught on camera, etc. This quote is from a November 30th Daily Beast article:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/30/torture-lobbyist-paul-manafort-still-advising-donald-trump-on-cabinet-picks.html
Could Pence be caught in this?
Here’s Palmer Report spinning the conspiracy tale:
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/mike-pence-appears-donald-trump-transition-team-member-caught-wiretap/2036/
Does this sound plausible?
I saw another report on Manafort being responsible for Pence, and having to really sell that to Trump who didn’t want him at first. I can’t help but believe that if Manafort wanted Pence, there’s something Putinesque about Pence.
Yeah. I wonder what the FBI picked up between them.
I think that has to be it. Nunes saw Pence’s name in the intercepts and freaked out. Wow.