14 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Someone has to say it.

   Trump stinks.

   Stay upwind my friends.

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2. Every major patients' rights group in the USA took out full-page ad today to urge a No vote on repeal of the health law. Every. Single. One.

   

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3. In 1989 Donald Trump used a charity's money to pay his son's $7 registration fee for the Boy Scouts.  

   Trump boasts about his philanthropy. But his giving falls short of his words.

   There was then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) and former mayor David Dinkins (D). TV stars Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, who were major donors. And there was a seat saved for Steven Fisher, a developer who had given generously to build the nursery.

   Then, all of a sudden, there was Donald Trump.

   “Nobody knew he was coming,” said Abigail Disney, another donor sitting on the dais. “There’s this kind of ruckus at the door, and I don’t know what was going on, and in comes Donald Trump. [He] just gets up on the podium and sits down.”

   Trump was not a major donor. He was not a donor, period. He’d never given a dollar to the nursery or the Association to Benefit Children, according to Gretchen Buchenholz, the charity’s executive director then and now.

   But now he was sitting in Fisher’s seat, next to Giuliani.

   “Frank Gifford turned to me and said, ‘Why is he here?’ ” Buchenholz recalled recently. By then, the ceremony had begun. There was nothing to do.

   “Just sing past it,” she recalled Gifford telling her.

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   1. His performance at the Boy Scout Jamboree yesterday was beyond mortifying. It was like he was trying to show the Scouts what happens when you try to flout every aspect of the Boy Scout Code.

      "Who the hell wants to talk about politics,?" the President asked, before regaling the children with 40 minutes of his version of politics, including booing his predecessor, cheering for the end of Obamacare, and denigrating the news media.

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      1. Speaking of 'flouting'…

         Trump just revealed a covert CIA program — over Twitter

         It was in the middle of a tweetstorm.

         President Trump just broke a major taboo: In a late-night tweet attacking the Washington Post on Monday, he confirmed the existence of a covert CIA program to arm and train Syrian rebels to remove Bashar al-Assad from power.

         "The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad," the president tweeted.

         It's a stunning admission, even though the program was a well-known secret. The CIA rarely, if ever, confirms or denies stories about its operations, even if they're reported in the media. 

         And while the president has the authority to declassify this information, his casual disclosure of a highly classified operation — on Twitter, no less — will only exacerbate the ever-growing rift between him and the nation’s intelligence agencies. 

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      2. Boy Scouts of America isn't exactly set up for rapid response to a political assault like Trump's. But I wrote to the current Scout Executive of the Council over the area where I was a Scout, suggesting that while they could not have blocked Trump's inappropriate remarks, they needed to act.

         At its next available opportunity, Boy Scouts should speak out on its own values, pointing out the President's remarks did not live up to several points of the Scouts Law. In no way can I see where all of the remarks reflect the duty to be Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous and Kind. And the organization should point out it aspires to something better than the response shown by the thousands of Scouts who responded favorably and enthusiastically to Trump's partisan remarks.

          And quickly, I received this reply: 

         Thank you John. Your comments are appreciated and well based. I will share your thoughts with our national leadership when I am in Dallas next month.

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         1. And you're expecting what? This is an organization that hates gays. BSA leadership is in his camp. They're just going to shut up and hope that the Trump stink doesn't stick. 

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4. John Boner……..speaking truth to wing nuttery…..

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/boehner-predicts-republicans-will-never-repeal-and-replace-obamacare/2017/07/24/e4190718-70d9-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.55c83b6a01b3

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5. Does anyone have an update on vote count. NY Times still shows 48 Republicans voting yes, 2 voting no, and 2 (McCain and Johnson) yet to vote.

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   1. Any news on how Gardner voted???? . . . 

      

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      1. Funny.

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6. Ya think?

    

   Senators on hot mic: Trump is ‘crazy,’ ‘I’m worried’

   After Reed praises Collins’s leadership of the hearing, she laments the administration’s handling of spending.

   “I swear, [the Office of Management and Budget] just went through and whenever there was ‘grant,’ they just X it out,” Collins says. “With no measurement, no thinking about it, no metrics, no nothing. It’s just incredibly irresponsible.”

   “Yes,” Reed replies. “I think — I think he’s crazy,” apparently referring to the president. “I mean, I don’t say that lightly and as a kind of a goofy guy.”

   “I’m worried,” Collins replies.

   “Oof,” Reed continues. “You know, this thing — if we don’t get a budget deal, we’re going to be paralyzed.”

   “I know,” Collins replies.

   “[Department of Defense] is going to be paralyzed, everybody is going to be paralyzed,” Reed says.

   “I don’t think he knows there is a [Budget Control Act] or anything,” Collins says, referring to a 2011 law that defines the budget process.

    

    

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7. Well, Cory Gardner is finally on record. He is among the 50 Senators and one Vice President voting in favor of bringing the Health Care measure to the floor for debate.

   Among Republicans, only Collins and Murkowski did not support the measure.

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   1. So they're going to debate….something. Full repeal, no replace? "Lite" repeal (only the mandate and medical device tax go?) The Senate BCRA Version 1 or 2?

      Nobody knows. This was a loyalty test, not legislation. Absurd.

      The Washington Post has a whip count of which Senators are in which camp. Our profile in cowardice, Cory Gardner, is listed as "unknown / unclear".

      Keep those calls and emails (and visits and marches and protests) coming, folks.

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