So yesterday, when Donald tweeted a video of him beating up a man whose head was replaced by the CNN logo, there was at least one group of people that didn’t hide its ecstasy. Minutes after Trump sent his tweet that many immediately characterized as a greenlight for violence against the media, members of the controversial subreddit The_Donald were celebrating. Why? The video that Trump tweeted on Sunday morning appears to have originated from the infamous group that has long been known as a hub for racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and misogynist content. And Trump’s apparent endorsement showed he is “one of us,” noted a post in the group that celebrated how “Dr. President Trump uses /r/The_Donald for shitpost inspiration.”
Reuters reports the video appeared to be a modified version of a 2007 appearance by Trump at World Wrestling Entertainment’s WrestleMania 23 promotion, in which Trump “takes down” WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
Playbook: “The president has just sent his 33 million followers a video of himself pummeling a man covered by the CNN logo. CNN anchors and reporters — indeed, anchors and reporters from many media outlets — have been threatened and harassed. The president tweeted this message from the comfort of his summer golf home in New Jersey, surrounded by Secret Service. Meanwhile journalists are in the field, across the country and the world.”
CNN responds: “It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters.”
.@AndyMills_NJ gets pics of Christie lounging on a state beach closed to the public during government shutdown https://t.co/FVfC5jkCdQ pic.twitter.com/kO1tDjOYM1
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) July 2, 2017
Families across the East Coast had their Fourth of July weekend plans ruined by a New Jersey government shutdown that closed state parks, beaches, and historical sites just as residents from the region were planning to head out on vacations. The state government shut down at midnight on Friday meaning many would-be vacationers headed to the state beaches only to be turned away (municipal parks and beaches remain open). One family whose plans were not affected? Governor Chris Christie’s, who were able to have a whole beach to themselves thanks to the shutdown.
If Donald Trump doesn’t finish his term, what kind of leader would his successor be? https://t.co/aLit8RSgaV pic.twitter.com/jcUUG1KqgO
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) July 2, 2017
“The Trump administration is debating whether to launch a governmentwide effort to question the science of climate change, an effort that critics say is an attempt to undermine the long-established consensus human activity is fueling the Earth’s rising temperatures,” the Washington Post reports.
“The move, driven by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, has sparked a debate among top Trump administration officials over whether to pursue such a strategy.”
“Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who once described the science behind human-caused climate change as a ‘contrived phony mess,’ also is involved in the effort.”
New York Times: “Pruitt has moved to undo, delay or otherwise block more than 30 environmental rules, a regulatory rollback larger in scope than any other over so short a time in the agency’s 47-year history.”
This is the idea that would convince Paul Ryan to impeach Trump https://t.co/pDJKmmDMGt
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 2, 2017
“Republican senators, back in their home states this week, have one constituent whose influential views on health care they will likely hear whether or not they hold town-hall meetings: their governor,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“These governors, some of whose states stand to lose billions of dollars in Medicaid funding under the Senate health bill, are likely to press senators to keep as much funding as possible. That pressure reflects a risk taken by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), perhaps unavoidably, in deciding to delay a vote on the GOP health-care bill until after this week’s July 4 recess.”
“In states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, many Republican governors are urging senators to resist the Senate bill, which would cut $772 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade.”
Los Angeles Times: Meet the 6 governors leading the charge against the GOP Senate health plan.
The Sunday Times says Donald may make a surprise trip to the UK: “Ministers are on the alert for a flying visit to Britain by Donald Trump this month. Senior government officials say they expect the American president to make an unscheduled stop at his Aberdeenshire golf course as part of his trip to Europe to attend France’s Bastille Day celebrations on July 14.”
“Theresa May’s team are on standby for Trump to visit Downing Street as well. It is understood that any visit would be confirmed only 24 hours in advance so anti-Trump protesters did not have time to disrupt his visit.”
A new study from the Urban Institute provides state-by-state estimates of the impact of the Senate Republican health care bill on insurance coverage and costs. Nationwide, they find that there would be 24.7 million more uninsured people under the proposed law by 2022 — that’s up more than 80% from this year.
Sen. Ben Sasse told CNN that he is troubled by President Trump’s latest attacks on the news media because he is concerned about the danger of “weaponizing distrust.”
Said Sasse: “There’s an important distinction to draw between bad stories or crappy coverage and the right that citizens have to argue about that and complain about that and trying to weaponize distrust. The First Amendment is the beating heart of the American experiment, and you don’t get to separate the freedoms that are in there.”
So what do we think about Tom Carper’s discussion here? He is also on the “single payer is up to the states” talking point.
I am also over the talking points about Medicaid being an impediment to work. When Walmart provides actual instructions to some of its employees to get Medicaid, you are already talking about people who are working.
With single payer initiatives foundering in Vermont, Colorado and most recently California, plus the failures to expand Medaid in GOP controlled states, the states approach increasingly appears to be a dead end.
Even if one comes to fruition, like the singular example of Romney care in Massachusetts, it still fails to provide universal coverage.
So you can see why the “states-are-the-laboratories-for-democracy” messaging would appeal to the two anti-medicare-for-all Senators.
Passing the buck to the states prevents a national healthcare system while they avoid any accountability for it’s absence or failures.
“Romney Care” is NOT a single-payer system. It is similar to the Affordable Healthcare Act in that there are multiple private insurers issuing policies. Single Payer cannot work in individual states (or even a regional conrtact) because the federal government controls federal insurance programs (Medicare, Tri Care) and largely funds Medicaid, In addition, federal law prohibits the states from regulating self-insured plans. States have regulatory authority only over private insurance plans with policies issued in their states (not employer plans where the central offices are out-of-state) and over their own self-funded state employee plans.
A single payer plan, whether something new or allowing people to buy into Medicare, must be a federal plan.
Thanks, Mitch. It makes sense to me that even in spite of the Feds controlling large bits of the insurance market, that any single payer plan needs some scale to have any chance at being successful. I think that this is one of the things that doomed the Vermont effort.
The Vermont study concluded that the plan would result in a 10.5% increase in payroll taxes and 15% increase in personal income taxes-just to cover those the state had jurisdiction over.