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June 23, 2017 11:57 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 68 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“The ambition and focus that propel you to success can also be your downfall.”

–Judy Smith

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68 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. NPR has a good graphic to understand and compare the effects of the ACA, the House AHCA, and the latest Senate draft "Better Care Reconciliation Act". I can't find it in an image file, but here's a link to the page.

    It looks as though it will kick a lot of people – elders and disabled out of nursing homes, when their "100 days of skilled nursing care" is over.  Remember those Republican ads about death panels and throwing Grandma off a cliff? I never want to hear from those vicious liars again.

    It gives states discretion to decide what are "essential health benefits". My guess: Viagra will be covered, but not contraception.

    States can also decide how much to cover "pre-existing conditions", and whether to force the ill and disabled to get insurance from an expensive "pool".

    Planned parenthood services: (not abortion – that's already not allowed for Fed $$) but cancer screening, contraception, STD prevention. Forget it. Cut.

    Medicaid for those with disabilities: Cut. Bigger cuts than the House bill. There were good reasons for the disabled people who occupied McConnell's office, and got arrested and carried out. Video here

    Mental health services. Not covered after 2019. But hey, mentally ill people can still own guns, so there are those "second amendment remedies", right?

    Rich folks: $592 billion tax cut.

    This must not stand.

    1. Rich folks: $592 billion tax cut.

      You mean some of that $$$ won't trickle down to sick and disabled people?

      Meanwhile, the Centennial State’s junior senator continues to study the bill carefully.

  4. In Missouri, it might soon be legal for landlords and employers to discriminate against women for using birth control… (Newsweek provides a little blurb here…) This is not far from just discriminating against women, since 90%+ use birth control at sometime… How this is different from discriminating on the basis of race or interracial marriage I do not know… Of course the soon-to-be law also allows discrimination for abortion and has some SLAPP provisions, too… 

    The Missouri governor called a special legislative session to deal with this pressing issue, after St. Louis passed an ordinance prohibiting such discrimination.

      1. Thanks for the bill text. To summarize:

        * Limits delivery of "abortion information" recital to referring doctors or the providing doctor only (not nurse practioners or other qualified professionals.

        * Makes medical abortions subject to per-case governmental review.

        * Requires a pathology report on every abortion

        * … which only a pathologist (not and otherwise certified board examiner) can perform, with government intervention if the pathologist can't keep up.

        * Requires a yearly report to the legislature on all abortions within the state. Personal info is excluded.

        * The legislature fully supports so-called abortion alternative clinics, which often provide misleading information; these clinics must be allowed to operate without any oversight, and no question can be made of the services (information) they provide.

        * Abortion facilities are subject to all of the requirements of a hospital.

        * Abortion doctors must reside in Missouri

        * Abortion facilities (but not any other health provider) are subject to at least one annual unannounced inspection.

        * Allows pretty much anyone to deny service to any person if that person is going to use the service even indirectly for abortion. (This explicitly includes real estate transactions. "Indirectly" in legal terms includes staying in an apartment while getting an abortion. And I'm pretty sure you're aware that religious conservatives find many birth control options to be abortions, which provides the pathway for discrimination for use of birth control. "Your honor, Missouri code section 188.125, paragraph 5 specifically says that it is the property owener's religious belief that allows me to refuse to rent to the promiscuous harlot accusing me of violating her so-called rights, but I overheard her say she uses an IUD, and that is abortion in my religion.") Technically this portion of the bill only prevents local municipalities from enacting protections, but it is so specific that a judge, not finding such protections at the state level, would have to read the section as explicitly carving out an RFRA style religious protection.

              2. So after saying "read the bill," it's pretty clear you never read the bill. 

                Then after posting that, you tell others to get a life.

                Do you do stand-up, too?

                1. Can a woman living in MO get an abortion. Yes

                  Can a woman living in MO get birth control. Yes

                  But, but, but, but, but, but.
                  100 % approve of Democrats getting abortions.

                  1. So old, white Republican men create artificial, non-scientific, not-medically-necessary barriers between a woman and her doctor based on religious and political bias, and our resident old, white Republican male goes "So?".

                    If men could get pregnant, abortion would be available for free at every corner drugstore.

                    1. So all races of Democrats and women complain, "MO is making it too hard to kill our unborn children".

                    2. No Pear, I'm pretty sure this is just about old white guys in the Republican Party that pass laws telling doctors how to practice medicine, and invading the privacy of women who face difficult choices as it is.

                      The hypocrisy is that abortions are easily available to well-off Republican women (and their Republican husbands, lovers, etc), so the impact of these laws fall mainly to those women (and families) without the means to jump through all the unnecessary hurdles old white Republican male legislators can set up.

                      You would have been a barrel of laughs in the 1600's and 1700's.  Plenty of women misbehaving then — witches and adulterers that needed branding.  Menfolk thought they were doing right by their religion and principles back then too.

                       

                    3. The one thing old, white ,Republican men can never face is their monumental hypocrisy when it comes to matters of a sexual nature. Fully, but blindly, embracing a Christian Male Imperative that he cannot admit, he does not see the inequity inherent in his view that others should make decisions for those he deems incapable of doing so themselves. 

                      One can only imagine how different his world view will be when he discovers that God is an indigent black women in Uganda who needs an abortion because she was raped by a soldier and cannot support a child…particularly when that child is the product of hatred and violence, not love and appreciation.

                      Pious Pear is good at looking down his nose and judging others….exactly what his "savior" told him to not do. As you say, Davie, the wives and daughters of Republicans like to "ride the monkey" as much as any other women in the world…and when they get in trouble, they have plenty of resources available to solve those "problems".

                      They just won't talk about that.

                       

                    4. I like your if men could get pregnant line.  It reminds me of an illegal immigration line.

                      If illegal immigrants voted Republican there would already be a 100 foot wall on the border.

                  2. Missouri (frequently pronounced as "Misery") after all is the state that put the term "legitimate rape" into the political lexicon.

                  3. No problemo, Pear. We'll just put in laws which penalize male masturbation, like this Texas proposal:

                    That’s why the the Houston Democrat on Friday filed House Bill 4260, which would fine men $100 for masturbating and create a required booklet for men with medical information related to the benefits and concerns of a man seeking a vasectomy, a Viagra prescription or a colonoscopy. The bill would also let doctors invoke their "personal, moralistic, or religious beliefs" in refusing to perform an elective vasectomy or prescribe Viagra, among other proposed requirements in the bill.

                    Rectal ultrasound exams are required before any prescription can be written.

                    After all, every sperm is sacred.

                     

                  4. The bill effectively makes medicinally induced abortion unavailable.

                    It slows down the abortion process by imposing requirements that are medically unnecessary – only a doctor can read the patient the spiel on the supposed consequences of abortion, the building can't be open without a qualified practitioner (no early check-ins, no non-abortion services that might not need a practitioner, no scheduling…), each abortion has to be reviewed by a pathologist, and things grind to a halt if he/she is overwhelmed…

                    It prevents regulation of anti-abortion "alternative" clinics (say, from saying they're an abortion clinic, or from spouting complete untruths), misleading women in need of medical advice.

                    It attempts to close abortion practices by requiring they be hospital-level facilities, and requiring the doctors to live in-state. (Not sure if any Missouri abortion clinics meet this standard; pretty sure that, under different wording, the courts already struck down most of these provisions.)

                    And it gives women seeking abortions pause because they may lose even the roof over their head for getting one.

                    Asking if a woman can get an abortion in Missouri is disingenuous; if a single woman managed to get a legal abortion in the state over a 10-year period despite all the hurdles, you would say "yes". The question is: are abortions properly regulated under this bill and others already in place, so that abortions may be properly and safely available. The answer to that question is an easy "no".

    2. It does look as though the "no birth control for my employees" bill is an Arizona bill. The video attached to the Newsweek article refers to Arizona House Bill 2625.

      Missouri's SB5, on the other hand, sets up onerous restrictions on women seeking abortion. Women would have to see videos, listen to lectures, view pamphlets, sign statements, all with the intent to coerce her to change her mind about the procedure.

      It also looks as though it has some TRAP provisions aimed at shutting down abortion facilities. There's an attorney general provision which looks chilling; I think it means that they will actively pursue criminal charges against anyone who violates the above conditions.

      It's unusual for Newsweek to be so sloppy, but it has in fact conflated the abortion laws of two different states. So Pear is halfway right. I'd expect not to write that often.

      But it's also true that neither state is on solid ground health-wise; this will not improve womens lives, nor the lives of their other kids, since 60% of women seeking abortions have other kids. I did.

      In my opinion, the whole "abortion is murder" is an excuse for people to be judgemental and condemnatory about other's lives, and to ignore the immorality in their own.

       

      2. What…..they are not required to pass a written test after watching the video and reading all the materials to demonstrate that they paid attention?

    1. All hail, #ProsperityJesus

      After a private meeting with the Koch Brothers, VP Pence gave a passionate speech to Focus on Family, describing President Trump as an “unwavering ally" of Christian evangelicals – calling him “a leader, a believer, a timeless defender of the values that will make America great again.”

      1. I’m not shocked. Pence has no self-respect left. He signed the turn-away-the-gays law and watched his chances of being reelected drop through the floor. So he sold his dignity and his vaunted morals for a shot at the Vice Presidency with The Yam. At least, he avoided the humiliation of having his ass handed to him in the gubernatorial re-elect. What's that the Christians say about pride and destruction?

  6. DO NOT READ IF OFFENDED BY CRUDE SEXUAL INNUENDO

    Miss McConnell out and about the country giving free sexual favors (their choice*) to once and for all get this fine specimen of a "health care bill" passed for his patrons.

    * – B*'s not covered by any previous plan and subject to impeachment based on whichever way the wind blows.

    1. Your two posts are exhibits A and B as to why it would be very bad to try and impeach Trump.

      Trump protects the country from Pence, the #1 political toad and lap dog for the religious right.

      1. Why impeach Trump?  He is destroying the Repunlican brand.   The Doofus in chief is the greatest recruiter the Democratic Party has ever had.   In the four special elections, Dems ran an average of 8 points above their usual performance in heavily Republican districts.

        Get used to the phrase Speaker Pelosi.   You'll hear it a lot in 2017.

        1. You mean 2019, I assume?  The woman in Georgia beat the Dem in large part due to ads associating him with Pelosi. And you missed my point about Pence.

    2. Zapper, I really don't understand what you're on about. Colorado Springs is the next big treasure trove of Dem votes? We should oppose the evangelicals more ferociously? Do an all-abortion-all-the-time policy platform? (It's been tried) Throw us a bone, here.

       

      1. Dems hiding behind their front doors is the problem. I know they do as I was one, and when I did get active they came out of the wood work. 

        But it goes in cycles and doesn't seem to hold. (Both my daughters were ready to become life-long Dems in ’08. We know what happened there: the adults “pivoted” while Republicans attacked every word, step, action.)

        Big Time Dems in Denver – who get paid to do this stuff – can't figure out how to help? 

        As President DJT would say: "Sad."

    1. Maybe — self-preservation is usually one of a politician's highest priorities, and among all the descriptive terms used about Gardner, politician ranks right up there with con man, Koch sucker, hypocrite, etc.

      The interesting thing about the Koch brothers objection is that they want it to be more like the original House bill — total destruction of Obamacare and while you're at it, wipe out Medicaid for good measure.  The trillion dollar tax cut is just a fair return on the $400 million they're investing in their next set of puppets in Congress.

      The challenge that they face is that with only a slim majority in the Senate, they have to resort to the Byrd Rule — reconciliation.  That means they can only change parts of the law that are budgetary in nature.  There are a lot of policy items that probably don't meet that criteria (defunding Planned Parenthood for example).

      But the wild card is that the Senate Parliamentarian is the referee on all such matters, and so the Republicans are busy working the ref pretty hard.

      I mentioned the reconciliation problem in this morning’s post. The GOP’s dilemma, and the reason for the weird “three stage” repeal that Trump and Ryan keep mentioning, is that they can only use the 51-vote reconciliation process in the Senate to repeal budgetary provisions. Anything that doesn’t count as “budgetary” — like the regulations that set forth ObamaCare’s “enhanced health benefits” (EHBs) — must be excluded and repealed separately, either by Tom Price rescinding those regs via an HHS order or by the GOP somehow finding 60 votes in the Senate for a second bill that would repeal them. That’s been a major sticking point for House conservatives like the Freedom Caucus. They want to get rid of those regulations right now! No can do, though, says Paul Ryan. If we stick them in a bill that needs to pass the Senate via reconciliation, that part of the bill will be excluded under the Senate’s rules because it’s trying to undo non-budgetary measures via a process that’s explicitly limited only to budgetary stuff.

      But wait. What if reconciliation … did let you repeal some non-budgetary regulations so long as you could make the case that they’re kinda sorta budgetary after all? Mike Lee’s been consulting with the Senate parliamentarian about it and, well, while she hasn’t definitively said that they can do it, she hasn’t said that they can’t either:

      But the end game may be to let Trumpcare fail, and just get on with the tax cut (you know, because deficits actually don’t matter, right?).  

      They can continue to sabotage the ACA little by little over the next 4 to 8 years so that their predictions of a collapsing market is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

      1. self preservation is usually one of a politician's highest priorities

        It's more than that; it's the prime directive. The nice thing about voting "no" for Cory is that he can go to his masters, the Crotch Brothers, and tell them how he successfully carried water for them, then he can go to the peons who actually vote in Colorado and tell them that he protected them. A win/win situation.

  10. Rumors of Justice Kennedy retirement. Bennett urges bipartisan support for historic Senate precedents and Supreme Court protocols. 

    Half of that is true, the other half is truth in waiting. 

    1. I hope all those Jill Stein voters who couldn't stand the thought of soiling their pristine hands by voting for Hillary are pleased with themselves now.

      1. The same type of "pious green" voter also voted for Ralph Nader's Ego in 2000, which denied Al Gore the presidency. My thought; knowing a number of Green party members as I do; is that they haven't a clue beyond their own rigid ideology. I'm a strong conservationist, but there also has to be a bit of common sense mixed in.

  12. Well, we made it — our 49th wedding anniversary is today.   We got married in a rush because my draft notice came.   Wanted to finish school first, so my honeymoon consisted of cutting a wednesday geology class I needed for my degree.  But I went to the lab that afternoon.  

  13. Never seen Digs curse so much. (More than me!) Yeah, this issue at the breaking point and 1 or 2 R's might have a pang of conscience. 

    But don't count on it. 

    Elections have consequences. Letting lies and subterfuge fester for 8 years and pretending a politician can remain above politics cannot be undone by a few viral videos of the unwashed dying at the hands of the "washed".

  14. Mike Pence to Focus on the Family: President Trump is your ally

    http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/23/mike-pence-focus-family-colorado-springs/

    1.  

    2 days ago – Pence is the first vice president to speak at a gathering of the …. Founded in 1977, Focus on the Family has become one of the nation's top …

    The Latest: Pence visits Focus on Family amid change – The …

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/…pence…focus…family…/7de4132e-5834-11e7-840b-…

    2 days ago – — The Latest on Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian ministry in Colorado (all times local): … Vice President Mike Pence urged religious conservatives to get active in the health care debate. Pence spoke at Focus on the Family in …

    Pence visits Focus on Family amid change for religious right | Fox News

    http://www.foxnews.com/…/pence-visits-focus-on-family-amid-change-for-religious-right.htm...

    2 days ago – – Vice President Mike Pence's visit Friday to Colorado to celebrate the anniversary of Focus on the Family came at a time of change for the religious right during the age of President Donald Trump.Focus on the Family was once well-known for its involvement in politics.

    'Handmaids' protest Mike Pence's 'Focus on the Family' remarks in …

    https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/…pence-focus-on-the-family…/22680732/

    1.  

    2 days ago – Protesters dressed in garb made famous by "The Handmaid's Tale" stood in opposition toPence on Friday as Trump's second spoke in …

    Pence visits Focus on Family in Colorado Springs amid change for …

    http://www.9news.com/news/politics/pence-visits-focus-on-family-in…/451524009

    1.  

    2 days ago – COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence's planned visit to Focus on the Family comes at a time of change for the …

    Remarks by Vice President Pence at the Focus on the Family 40th …

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/…/remarks-vice-president-pence-focus-family-40th-anni…

    1.  

    2 days ago – THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you, Jim. Thank you, Jim, for the kind introduction and for the warm …

    You visited this page on 6/24/17.

    Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Focus on the Family – KRDO

    http://www.krdo.com/news/colorado-springs/…pence…focus-on-the-family/559190513

    1.  

    2 days ago – Vice President Mike Pence made a stop in Colorado Springs on Friday to speak about his support for Focus on the Family.

    VP Pence visits Focus on the Family for 40th anniversary – KOAA.com …

    http://www.koaa.com/story/…/vp-pence-visits-focus-on-the-family-for-40th-anniversary

    2 days ago – Vice President Mike Pence visits Colorado Springs today as the key note speaker for Focus on the Family's 40th anniversary celebration and a …

    The Latest: Pence visits Focus on Family amid change – KKTV.com

    http://www.kktv.com/…/Vice-President-Pence-to-visit-Colorado-Springs-Friday-430277523...

    1.  

    2 days ago – (AP/KKTV) – The Latest on Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian ministry in Colorado (all times …

  15. Of course…tax cuts for Princess Ivanka should be our national priority. In fact, our entire royal family should be free of taxes and enjoy a tax payer-funded income that will make the rest of the worlds' monarchs swoon with jealousy.

    How else will Eric and TS (Two Scoops) Jr. be able to afford to travel the world and bravely slaughter big scary animals…from a distance…with high powered rifles…under the protection of watchful locals. Such men….

    America Is Great Again! Thanks, Vladdy!

    1. He probably won't beat Ryan, but it's about time somebody made him sweat his re-election. He's gotten lazy and yet more arrogant (if that's even possible).

  17. Put Pelosi out to Pasture. 

    "If we're not in power we can't help anyone." — Tim Ryan on MTP this AM

    Is that not clear to everyone here?

    Pelosi has been a prime Democratic leader since 2006, when she took impeachment off the table, and Republicans have run roughshod over us (except for The Exception) since then.

    1. Tim Ryan is not exactly impartial here. He wants Pelosi's job. While I like his politics OK (except for that part where he was anti-ACA because it would fund abortions), I don't see real leadership skills on his part. Whatever you say about Pelosi, she can "whip it" like no other. Can this 43 year old say the same?

       

       

    2. If you replace her, please make it Maxine Waters.  Please.

      Nothing puts the progress in progressive like an 80 year old with dementia.

      2. Maxine would probably make a kick-ass whip. I wouldn't want to see that struggle over leadership right now, though.However, should Nancy choose to step down, the job would probably go to Steny Hoyer or Julian Castro, both of whom have been deputy whips.

        Also on the whip team are John Lewis, Keith Ellison, Diana Degette, Jan Schakowsky….and others. A deep bench.

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