Thursday Reads
Posted: June 22, 2017 Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics 68 Comments
Good Morning!!
This is going to be a quickie post, because I had an air conditioning emergency this morning and I have a dentist appointment this afternoon. Here’s what’s happening.
Mitch McConnell has revealed the secret Trumpcare bill.
The LA Times: Senate unveils secretive GOP Obamacare repeal plan, with a vote likely next week.
SenateRepublicans on Thursday unveiled a sweeping plan to roll back the Affordable Care Act, including a drastic reduction in federal healthcare spending that threatens to leave millions more Americans uninsured.
The legislative outline, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s team wrote largely behind closed doors, hews closely to the Obamacare repeal bill passed last month by House Republicans, but includes important differences. The House version was first celebrated by President Trump in a White House Rose Garden ceremony, though he later criticized the bill as “mean.”
The Senate measure offers more generous premium subsidies for some low-income buyers of insurance compared with the House version, but it also dramatically cuts federal funding to Medicaid, a move that will likely force states to make deep cuts in their healthcare programs for the poor….
Like the House effort, the Senate bill appears likely to produce major losses in insurance coverage as hundreds of billions of dollars in federal healthcare assistance to low- and moderate-income Americans are cut over the next decade….
The centerpiece of the Senate bill is a series of major reductions in federal aid for poor Americans who rely on the government Medicaid program and consumers who currently qualify for federal subsidies to help them buy private health insurance through the Obamacare marketplace.
An expansion of Medicaid benefits currently offered under Obamacare would be phased out beginning in 2020 and shut down completely by 2023, senators said.
The CBO score will come out in a few days. The Washington Post obtained a draft of the bill yesterday: Senate health-care draft repeals Obamacare taxes, provides bigger subsidies for low-income Americans than House bill.
A discussion draft circulating Wednesday afternoon among aides and lobbyists would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s taxes, phase down its Medicaid expansion, rejigger its subsidies, give states wider latitude in opting out of its regulations and eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The bill largely mirrors the House measure that narrowly passed last month but with some significant changes aimed at pleasing moderates. While the House legislation tied federal insurance subsidies to age, the Senate bill would link them to income, as the ACA does. The Senate proposal cuts off Medicaid expansion more gradually than the House bill,\ but would enact deeper long-term cuts to the health-care program for low-income Americans. It also removes language restricting federally subsidized health plans from covering abortions, which may have run afoul of complex budget rules.
Many more details at the link. You can also check out this Washington Post summary published this morning: The Health 202: Here’s what’s in the Senate health-care bill.
Right now there are protesters outside Mitch McConnell’s office. Police are “removing” them one at a time. The cops are actually picking people up carrying them out.
Last night the dash-cam video of the murder by cop of Philando Castile was released. NBC News: Girl Pleads With Mother After Castile Killing: ‘I Don’t Want You to Get Shooted!’
The terrified four-year-old witness to the killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota cop pleaded with her mother to cooperate with police moments after his death telling her “I don’t want you to get shooted,” a newly released police video shows.
The video, which came out with a bundle of evidence from the Castile trial, captures the interaction between Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, and her daughter as they were held in the back of a squad car shortly after the shooting.
In the heart-wrenching video, a handcuffed Reynolds yells “F—!” — and immediately her young daughter begins to cry begging her mother to “please stop cussing and screaming because I don’t want you to get shooted.”
The weeping girl then embraces her mother, who tells her to give her a kiss.
“I can keep you safe,” says the girl, while wiping away tears from her face.
“I can’t believe they just did that,” Reynolds whispers to herself — to which the girl begins to cry uncontrollably.
Reynolds then attempts to get out of her handcuffs, and the girl again desperately yells for her to be calm, out of fear for her mother’s safety.
“No! Please no! I don’t want you to get shooted!” she said.
“They’re not going to shoot me, I’m already in handcuffs,” Reynolds responds in an attempt to pacify the frazzled girl.
I’m in tears just reading that. I saw the video on TV last night and it was horrifying. The cop who murdered this innocent man had no business being a police officer.
Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, during Officer Jeronimo Yanez’s trial (David Joles, Star Tribune via AP
The Washington Post: What the police officer who shot Philando Castile said about the shooting.
This new video showed how quickly the encounter escalated, how fast it shifted when Castile told the officer about the gun he was legally carrying. Along with the footage of the shooting itself, officials also released another account of the shooting: a transcript of Yanez’s interview with two special agents from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency investigating the shooting.
Like the dash-cam footage, Yanez’s comments during his interview were previously revealed in court documents and during his trial, but not widely seen. (According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, an audio recording of Yanez’s full interview with investigators was never played during the trial, and the judge denied a request from jurors to review a transcript during deliberations.) They capture a young officer who says he saw a gun and apparently connected his decision to open fire with the smell of marijuana in the car.
This story reproduces the officer’s interview with investigators approximately 16 hours after the shooting. Read it and watch the video at the link.
Breaking news on the Russia investigation from CNN: Intel chiefs tell investigators Trump suggested they refute collusion with Russians.
Two of the nation’s top intelligence officials told Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and Senate investigators, in separate meetings last week, that President Donald Trump suggested they say publicly there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russians, according to multiple sources.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers described their interactions with the President about the Russia investigation as odd and uncomfortable, but said they did not believe the President gave them orders to interfere, according to multiple sources familiar with their accounts.
Sources say both men went further than they did in June 7 public hearings, when they provided little detail about the interactions.
Head over to CNN to read the rest.
Last night Trump held a “campaign rally” in Iowa. I didn’t watch it, but I guess it was horrifying.
The New York Times: Trump Turns an Iowa Rally Into a Venting Session.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — President Trump said on Wednesday that he was crafting legislation to bar new immigrants from receiving welfare for at least five years. He announced the proposal in a conquering-hero-returns speech in Iowa, his first trip back to the political battleground state since he won it in the 2016 general election.
His mood buoyant after twin Republican wins in congressional special elections the night before, the president also revealed his anticipated plan for putting solar panels on a proposed wall on the Mexican border — an idea he boasted he had come up with himself.
And he — mostly — managed to avoid raising the topic he struggles to stop talking about: the investigations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with his campaign.
“They have phony witch hunts going against me,” Mr. Trump said nearly an hour into a speech that veered off script repeatedly. “All we do is win, win, win. We won last night.”
The rally, Mr. Trump’s first since the end of April, served as a venting session for a pent-up president who has stewed and brooded from inside the gilded cage of the White House over attacks from investigators, Democrats and the news media, his interview schedule drastically pared down and his aides imploring him to stay off Twitter.
Style-heavy and substance-light, the speech went over an hour: an epic version of the fact-challenged, meandering and, even for his detractors, mesmerizing speeches he gave during his upstart presidential campaign.
Raw Story: WATCH: Morning Joe panel slams ‘dear leader’ Trump with horrifying 2-minute mashup of his Iowa lies.
A “Morning Joe” panel examined President Donald Trump’s lie-filled rally in Iowa, where his supporters cheered each falsehood and jeered when he attacked the media.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham compared the display to former President Richard Nixon’s lies during the Watergate scandal, but he said Trump’s rally was even more like something seen in a totalitarian regime like Nazi Germany or fascist Italy.
“Even now, in regimes like North Korea, where the dear leader speaks and we’re all supposed to salute, that what the dear leader says has to be followed, whether it’s associated with reality or not, whether it’s grounded in reality or not,” Meacham said.
The segment opened with a video montage of Trump’s falsehoods, which the panel fact-checked against previous reporting, and Meacham said the president’s lies undermined some of America’s founding principles.
“It’s a cult of the state,” Meacham said. “It’s a cult not of religion and neighborhoods and civic life and an obligation to facts as we perceive them and through common sense, which was a huge part of, really, the American experiment in the beginning. We weren’t supposed to just listen to kings and clerics who for 1,000 years had had a monopoly on dictating the terms of reality. The point of the United States was that we all had the ability to look at reality, make our own decisions and participate in a collective enterprise to govern ourselves.”
Watch the video at Raw Story.
What else is happening? Please post your thoughts and links in the comment thread and enjoy your Thursday!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I woke up this morning to a hot apartment. The air conditioner I had installed is a “portable” unit with a hose that vents to the outside. The hose got disconnected during the night and I had to go out and buy duct tape to keep it connected. So far it’s working.
When I got back home, I noticed the man down the hall was smoking with his door open. This is the second time this has happened after a long time with no smoke. Supposedly, he was quitting by using patches. So I had to call the administrator.
Sigh . . .My problems are minor compared to lots of other people, of course. I’m grateful for that.
Glad the a/c is working with that patch. Awful that you are exposed to the smoke. Seems clear that the smoker has again broken the terms of behavior for him to continue there. I hope action is taken.
I think they’ll evict him if he doesn’t stop. They’ve told me to report anytime a smell even a whiff of smoke. He stuck with it for quite some time. It’s really sad for him.
BB glad the A/C is working again.
It’s only June and we’re experiencing severe heat waves across the globe. In Portugal temperatures helped start that tragic forest fire and out west here in America as we speak temps are over 100. Planes can’t take off in Phoenix because of the heat. I dread this summer and fear we’ve cooked ourselves a lot sooner than we think.
Anyway – stay cool! Tell that smoker dude to try Popsicles instead.
Thanks. I heard about the heat out west on NPR. It sounds terrible.
Mercy, having no air conditioning is an emergency! I can’t begin to think of smelling that rotten tobacco! Wish I would have never started, and damn glad I quit.
Why the Hell Does David Brooks Still Have a Job?
http://www.gq.com/story/david-brooks-trump-whitewater
YES!! I’m so glad he threw Arianna in there…
Driftglass does this sort of analysis – complete with even more colorful prose almost daily.
The Guardian:
Trump says he doesn’t want a ‘poor person’ handling economy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/22/donald-trump-says-he-doesnt-want-a-poor-person-in-cabinet-roles
Because a poor person would know how the 99% have to live. Disgusting that a US president says this. Also disgusting that there’s no outcry from his party, who are viciously enabling him.
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I heard he went on a doozy of a rant in Iowa. He looks like an illegitimate president more and more every day. Must kill him to know he lost the popular vote and it looks like he won the electoral college due to hacks.
How do these sadistic legislators think they got into this world in the first place?
Remember, these are the “pro-life” ones …
It is strictly a push-button issue they use to gain evangelical votes. Exceptions include a few sexually repressed weirdos like Pence – he’s a True Believer.
I like to spit on them sonavitches.
Patriarchy. We’re ALL Soaking In It.
You Snooze You Lose
How Mitch McConnell weaponized our short attention span.
https://slate.com/business/2017/06/how-mitch-mcconnell-wins.html
I feel so insulted by pundits who believe that “we” have short attention spans. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, no problem.
I can’t even listen to the Sunday shows anymore. They frequently describe themselves as so much more immersed in politics than the average viewer. The average viewer may not be a political hack but these pundits are no more capable of determining what’s important than anyone else, and probably less so considering the Beltway Bubble they live in.
Me neither, I am getting sick of this polling bullshitt too.
In some ways I feel for the harried frontline pundo-journalists. They live by the metric of clicks and retweets of their stories. They lose work if their clicks trend down. And not us here (which is why we’re here) but enough people to make a difference to MSM paychecks click on clickbait. So it’s all clickbait.
The real source of the problem isn’t the pundits or journalists. it’s for-profit news.
News turns out to be more like education or justice or medicine. You can make a living at it. But turn it into an investors’ bonanza and in no time it’s a carcass.
Election hackers altered voter rolls: report
They basically targeted Democratic precincts and made it harder to vote.
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/338971-election-hackers-successfully-altered-voter-rolls-report
http://time.com/4828306/russian-hacking-election-widespread-private-data/
2016 was hacked.
We. Were. Robbed.
absolofuckinglutely
Opens up a whole new wave of opportunity in low-income housemaid service jobs.
My Senator! She has more integrity and guts in her small body than the whole R Congress five times over.
German foreign minister goes beyond other US allies to decry ‘nepotism’ of Ivanka Trump role
‘It always bothers me when members of a family, who have never been elected, show up suddenly as official state representatives’, says Mr Gabriel
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/german-foreign-minister-nepotism-ivanka-trump-role-white-house-donald-trump-a7710161.html?cmpid=facebook-post
The grifters get called out for it on the world stage. They should be ashamed but they have no shame nor sense of decency.
Nope. None.
JFC!
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/877949400760373248
Lordy, I believe this for sure.
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Horrifying.
I hate to say this, but I think the Dem strategy of repeating how many millions will lose insurance is flawed. We, or at least I, continually make the error of seeing the world through our own eyes. We’re horrified at the life-or-death problems Dumpcare will cause.
The sad fact is, a lot of voters could not care less. That’s about “poor” people and they’re not “poor” people. I just keep remembering how all it took was a couple of insurance industry ads implying people’s employer-based insurance would cost more by about forty cents. That sank Hillary’s health insurance proposals overnight.
It was also BS, but that’s not my point. My point is that I gather that buried somewhere in this Dumpcare mess are provisions that will increase the premiums (? other costs?) on employer-based health insurance.
The Dems should be yelling about that as loud as they can. The bill would die overnight.
The sad fact is, a lot of voters could not care less. That’s about “poor” people and they’re not “poor” people.
Except quixote, it’s not just “poor” people.
I have a friend whose husband is a chiropractor. He has always bought health insurance through individual plans for his family. Now it’s just him and his wife but they still get their coverage through the individual market. Think about others who are running a business of their own perhaps someone like a baker, florist, perhaps a graphics designer. They will all be affected by this.
I know that, Fredster. And you know that. And everyone who does sees Dumpcare for what it is.It’s in quotes as an attempt to say “in the minds of people who don’t get it.”
They really think they’re immune. Until an ad comes out saying, “Hey. You. John Bloviorski. You will be paying $10 more per week.” Then it’s all hands on deck.
Or so it seems. Maybe I’m getting too jaded.
You had this in there are provisions that will increase the premiums (? other costs?) on employer-based health insurance.
And I saw you had the “poor” in quotes. I was trying to point out there were people who are in neither of those categories who will also be affected by this, uh, plan. I will assume I did not make my point very well.
This “plan” is going to put nursing homes out of business, and disabled elderly people will be dependent on their families. Anyone who isn’t rich depends on medicaid for nursing home care.
And I wasn’t speaking to the medicaid issue(s). I was addressing the individual health care policies, but I agree with you.
No, I was the one who didn’t make my point well. What I meant was that I agree with you. Absolutely. The bill will hurt everybody.
I was on about how to get the base of Republican congresscritters riled up against the bill. Maybe. 😦
I see your point quixote – and I agree the messaging needs work.
We’re too busy defending ourselves against the dreaded “socialist” smear. We should be on offense and hit them on corporate welfare and every other miserable autocratic thing they do. And it should be as nasty as they are.
Yes, the employer-sponsored plans will see big increases in premiums for all except the top executives. I’ve seen it get some attention, but it should get more.
So I made myself curious and actually went and looked it up. The two biggest things:
The Repub bill removes the requirement for essential benefits. Given that maternity and pediatric care, and preventive things like mammograms (expensive!) were EB, that’s thousands of dollars a year out of everyone’s pocket who isn’t a single male.
The reassuring noises made are that non, no, no, it’s merely left up to the states. So if you live in a blue state with lots of people, go back to sleep.
Which leaves out the next wrinkle: insurance companies will be able to define essential benefits for all the states where they do business according to the rules of any state in that group. So, say you’re Anthem and you can choose between Mississippi rules (zero essential benefits?) and NY rules, you’re of course going to be a good citizen and follow NY rules. Right?
Anyway, that’s what I’ve gleaned. I could be all confused, so correct wherever it’s wrong / deficient.
It’s worse than that. Hiltzik has an excellent summary in the LATimes. Hospitalization is an Essential Benefit. Only Essential Benefits cannot have lifetime or annual caps.
So, in one stroke, the GOP has in effect told the insurance companies they can take people’s money without giving any actual medical care back.
Anything expensive will bump into a cap, you can bet your matching mittens on it, so cancer or heart disease or a hundred other things will be uninsurable.
(Sorry to keep adding to an old thread, but this is important.)
One of my sources on cartoon day:
You could blow through your lifetime limit in 1 or 2 yrs with a cancer diagnosis or bad auto accident. Inhumane.
Figures at the link are based on an estimate earlier this month, but it still gives you a decent estimate of the impact.
https://www.axios.com/who-loses-from-new-benefit-limits-2440451694.html
This will destroy the economy. It’s a nightmare.
Trump is the kiss of death for jobs:
!!!
Yeah. This is a real, “Wait! Whaaaaaaaaaat?”
Why don’t we just all apply to be an autonomous republic of the USSR and get it over with?
Read it and weep:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.614f1058aa39
Nevertheless the FBI proceeded to pile on by announcing yet another Clinton email investigation – thus insuring without a doubt the outcome of the election?
Can you see steam coming out of my ears…
Mine too. Millions and millions of us.
Let the election get stolen (I wonder if part of the reason it matters so little is that it was stolen from some woman?) and then act totally helpless because Reasons. But really because doing anything would require facing the fact that there’s a problem.