Donald Trump seems to believe that the GOP tax bill has killed Obamacare. It hasn't.

Pres. Trump on repeal of individual mandate in tax bill: "When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed...Obamacare has been repealed in this bill." https://t.co/8qXJjj5j9V pic.twitter.com/ThnXHuECJS

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 20, 2017

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

Almost none of this is true. Indeed, it reveals the opposite. Trump recognizes that he has no chance to repeal Obamacare, so he is instead pretending to have killed the law that his base loathes (but which the country as a whole likes quite a bit). 

Most of Obamacare remains in place. That includes such things as reforms that have helped hold down medical inflation, the expansion of Medicaid to cover the poor, subsidies for individuals to buy insurance, and regulations to prevent insurers from cherry-picking the healthy and excluding the sick. “When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed. Because they get their money from the individual mandate,” Trump “explains.” 

It is possible he thinks this is true. It isn’t. The law is primarily financed by other taxes. It is correct that repealing the individual mandate will impair the effectiveness of the marketplaces that sell insurance to people who can’t get coverage through their employer. That will make premiums more expensive, and possibly drive insurers out of some markets. States that want to have a highly functioning marketplace will be able to impose a state-level mandate, though, an outcome that could make insurance cheaper in blue states than red ones.

My favorite part of this is how smugly self satisfied Trump looks as he spews his bullshit.

However believe it or not this is not the most awkward statement made by Republicans after they passed the GOP tax bill.

Beating him out by a mile was Orrin Hatch's oral gratification of Donald Trump right out in public.

Here's the transcript of Sen. Orrin Hatch's effusive speech about Trump: pic.twitter.com/fVda0dLoGL

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 20, 2017

Damn, that is hard to read.

But still that has NOTHING on Mike Pence who essentially prayed at the altar of Donald Trump. 

Good Lord, you need to watch this. After Ben Carson's Prayer, Mike Pence actually delivered a prayer of thanks to Trump. Must watch. pic.twitter.com/sAq9OQnQT9

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 20, 2017

"You shall have no other gods before Me."

"You shall not worship false idols."

I can't remember where I read it, but it seemed important.

Perhaps Mike Pence needs to go back to church and get a little Biblical tune up. 

New accuser comes forward and claims that Roy Moore sexually assaulted her when she was only fifteen years old.

"He said 'You're just a child.' And he said, 'I am the District Attorney of Etowah County. And if you tell anyone about this, no one will ever believe you," accuser Beverly Young-Nelson says Roy Moore told her after the alleged sexual assault. (via CBS) pic.twitter.com/3GZNQqIO0A

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 13, 2017

Courtesy of CBS News: 

Nelson describes her first encounters when she was 15 years old working as a waitress at a local restaurant after school. 

She said Moore, DA of Etowah County, was a regular customer where he would often pull the ends of her hair as she passed by and complimented the young girl's looks. 

"I did nothing to encourage this behavior," said Nelson, adding "I did not respond to any of Mr. Moore's flirtatious behavior." 

She said that at the time of the encounters she had a boyfriend and was "not intersted in having a dating or sexual relationship with a man twice my age." 

Nelson went on, describing another incident in which Moore signed a school yearbook of hers when she was 16. 

"He wrote in my yearbook as follows: 'To a sweeter more beautiful girl, I could not say merry christmas, Christmas, 1977, Love Roy Moore, old hickory house. Roy Moore, DA.'" 

She said after the incident, Moore had offered to drive Nelson home after work, during which she alleges he forced himself on Nelson and groped her in a locked car. 

"I trusted Mr. Moore because he was district attorney, I thought he was doing something nice to offer to drive me home," said Nelson. 

She detailed her fighting off Moore in the car as he squeezed her neck, forcing her head onto his crotch. 

She said that Moore eventually gave up, and told her, "You're just a child and he said I'm the district attorney if you tell anyone about this no one will ever believe you."

This woman also says that she told others about the assault, though not at the time that it took place, and informed her husband before they got married.

If that can be verified, along with Moore's signature in her yearbook, I think Moore is cooked. 

According to her attorney she is also perfectly willing to testify before Congress and the Senate under oath.

The other day a former boyfriend also came forward to affirm that he once dated the former 14 year old girl that Moore molested and that she told him the story back in 2009.

Mike Ortiz says he dated Corfman (Roy Moore’s accuser) for 2 years around 2009.
He says during that time, she told him about a sexual encounter w/ Moore when she was young.
Again: Moore calls these claims “completely false & a desperate political attack.”#ALSen pic.twitter.com/T9iCDiIkJr

— Lauren Walsh (@LaurenWalshTV) November 10, 2017

In response Mitch McConnell publicly stated that he believes the women and is calling for Moore to "step aside."

Senators Orrin Hatch and Susan Collins are also calling for Moore to resign.

On the plus side for the embattled Senate candidate more than 50 Alabama pastors just signed a letter of support for Roy Moore and  his campaign.

Moral Majority my ass.

Update: I realize now that nobody can leave comments on any of the posts after the Sean Hannity post from 6:15 this morning (Including me).

No I do not know what is wrong at the moment, but I have been having my own problems with Blogger for several days now.

Hopefully it will rectify itself, but in the meantime if you want to talk about a post you will have to leave a comment on the Hannity post from this morning. 

Senator Orrin Hatch, "My gosh, they're just straight old dumbass liberals anyway." Hey!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) came out swinging against Democrats Friday, telling a room of conservative lawyers that Republicans were ready to give the other party "a taste of their own medicine." 

"Frankly, I intend to win with our candidate for the presidency in 2016, and we will give them a taste of their own medicine," said Hatch. "And we're going to win. We're going to win. These next two years are extremely important. Maybe the most important two years in our history." 

Hatch also drew laughs from the crowd when he made fun of the left for using the term "progressive." 

"I get a big kick out of them using the word 'progressive,'" he said. "My gosh, they're just straight old dumbass liberals anyway."

Well he seems nice.

By the way Orrin Hatch is the guy who once said, "Capital punishment is our society's recognition of the sanctity of human life."

A quote which I must be too much of a dumbass to understand.

I am not sure which "taste of our own medicine" Hatch is planning to give Democrats, but if it means Republicans are going to lay down and allow the Democrats to roll over them, like our people have done for the last six years, well then that seems fair.

As for being progressives, I think I'll take it. After all it sure beats being a warmongering, anti-science, anti-women's rights, old dried up fossil any fucking day of the week.

But what do I know? After all I'm just a liberal, and all we have are logic and facts on our side.

Sarah Palin's endorsement of Orrin Hatch disappoints rapidly diminishing pool of supporters even further.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Expected by many to support Hatch’s first serious challenger, former Utah State Sen. Dan Liljenquist, Palin instead posted a long defense of Hatch on her Facebook page Wednesday. 

“Orrin Hatch is part of the one percent,” wrote Palin. “No, not that one percent you’ve heard about. He’s part of the one percent of national politicians who I think should be re-elected.” Invoking President Reagan’s praise of Hatch as “Mr. Balanced Budget,” Palin cited Hatch’s record as a fiscal conservative, his opposition to “Obamacare” and his support of conservative Supreme Court justices as reasons she supports him. 

But those words prompted an outcry from many of her supporters, who left scathing comments on her Facebook page. 

“Sorry Sarah,” wrote AnnaMarie Stephens. “Nobody needs to be a Senator for life! We’re just so sick of the same ole, same ole.” 

“You have disappointed millions of us, who once appreciated your wisdom,” wrote Steve Hatfield. “Your new-found ‘wisdom’ seems to be more of the cronyism that has kept far too many RINOs in office. No thank you and goodbye.” (RINO is the acronym for the derogatory term “Republican in name only.”

Oooh, the flying monkeys are in a snit now aren't they?

But at this point what do these people expect? The idea that Palin possesses some innate political wisdom that dictates who she endorses is pure Palin mythological mooseshit.

It seems the reason for at least SOME of her recent endorsements are simply because those are the people who ASKED her for one.

People like Nebraska GOP candidate, Deb Fischer, who wrote the following:

I am writing to you as both a fan of your strong, conservative principles and as a fellow female Republican. I have watched your career with respect as you take on tough issues, all while raising a family and serving your great state. Your career has inspired me and so many other female politicians who believe principles should be above politics.

Ass kissed, endorsement provided.  See how that works?

So did Orrin Hatch pucker up as well?  Why yes he did.  

Hatch told the National Review that he has “doggedly” sought Palin’s support for a long time, and that he cultivated a relationship with Palin and her husband, Todd, through handwritten letters and personal phone calls. 

Hatch told the conservative publication that he spoke to Palin early Wednesday. “I told her that I love her and her husband,” he said. “She said, ‘We love you, too,' and that she’s here to help.”

Sort of like getting a hand job from the easy girl in the back of  school bus now isn't it?  I mean ANYBODY can get one, all they have to do is ask.

Look NOTHING scares Sarah Palin more than the idea that she is slipping into irrelevancy. So when anybody treats Palin like her endorsement is worth a shit, how is she able to say no?

Of course the question to ask is, is her endorsement really worth a shit?

Right now I think it can often do more harm than good in a number of places, but does carry some weight in certain deeply red primary races.  (Of course considering how angry she is making some of the Teabaggers that might NOT be for much longer!) However if Palin keeps giving them out to every Tom, Dick, and Orrin who asks her for one, they will soon not be worth the crayon smudged cereal box top they are scrawled on.

And if I were a Republican candidate for office (Excuse me I just threw up in my mouth a little at that thought.), I would certainly consider the fate of the OTHER people that Palin endorsed before getting my herpes free lips anywhere NEAR that ass in the hopes of an endorsement.

I'm just saying.

Sarah Palin again froths at the mouth over President Obama's plan to explain the Affordable Care Act, defends Teabaggers, and then endorses Orrin Hatch over Tea Party challenger. Wait, what?

The interview starts off with Greta asking Palin what her opinion is of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services plan to spend 20 million dollars to promote the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and provide an online tool to track the effectiveness of the health care system.

Gee, I wonder how she will respond?

"This is one of the stupidest things I have heard coming out of the Obama administration."

Wow, who could have seen THAT coming?

Asked about the fact that HHS seemingly ignored a letter from Senator Ron Portman, the top Republican on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight,  asking for details of this advertising plan, Palin responded thusly:

"The President can step in and tell his department head there, Sebelius, to answer the Senator's questions and let the public get to the bottom of this. So here again I'm going to go to the top, and I'm going to point the finger at President Obama who is an absent commander-in-chief, he is an absent CEO from our nation's capital, and he's not doing his job staying on top of his people whom he has put in place to oversee these programs, these contracts, in order to do the people's business."

Seriously? Okay so in Palin's version of being the President, there is no credit provided for killing Osama Bin Laden, ending the war in Iraq, or turning the nation's disintegrating economy around? However if he does not micromanage every response from a cabinet member to a disingenuous Republican trying to sabotage any attempts to explain what the President has actually accomplished, then he is a TERRIBLE commander-in-chief and deserves to be kicked out of office?

Here let me see if I can articulate an appropriate, yet polite response to that. "FUCK YOU!"

Well I tried.

Later in the interview Palin defends the Tea Party (Big surprise) and also defends her endorsement of Texas Teabagger Ted Cruz over Rick Perry's choice, David Dewhurst. (You may remember that some of Palin's robo-calls for Cruz kind of went astray.)

However just when you thought that Palin was all in for the Teabaggers she suddenly pulls a 180 and announces her endorsement for Utah's Orrin Hatch over HIS Teabagger challenger:

"Take for instance my endorsement, that I'll announce first hand here to you Greta, of Senator Orrin Hatch in Utah. I want him to win. I join Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin, and other conservatives,  who would like to see 'Mr. Balanced Budget' return to Washington. He's part of that one percent you hear about. Not that one percent that's mocked and criticized in the press lately, but the one percent of national politicians whom I believe should be reelected, sent to Congress, because of his commitment to see a balanced budget in the United States of America."

This announcement last night drew an immediate, and angry response from self loathing Asian Michelle Malkin:


Instead of staying out of the race, Palin has proactively sided with the ridiculous Beltway barnacle Orrin Hatch, who now poses as a Tea Party godfather while launching bitter diatribes against the fiscal conservative members of Freedomworks. 

I know it is evil but i kind of love watching the Right Wing learn the lesson about Palin that all of us in Alaska learned a long time ago.

Sarah Palin is not with YOU, You are with HER.

She does whatever she thinks is in the best interest of Sarah Palin, and nobody else. If she decides that endorsing a Teabagger is in her best interests, she endorses a Teabagger.  If she believes endorsing a Republican dinosaur like Orrin Hatch is in her best interests, than guess who gets that endorsement?

Trust me there is some kind of quid pro quo happening here, though it may not yet be obvious to the public. Palin is certainly getting SOMETHING for this, as are Hannity and Levin undoubtedly.

However it will ALWAYS be in Palin's best interests to attack President Obama because her hatred toward HIM is actually genuine, and she does not need to consider any pros or cons before going after the man she believes kept her from someday sitting in that Oval Office and launching her attack against Iran.

Which, by the way, is EXACTLY why all of the rest of us should continue to support the President, if for no other reason than that he made sure to keep that crazy person far from the reins of power.