Firing a Catholic priest, having teenagers arrested for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, Paul Ryan just doesn't give a f*ck anymore.

I am blowing this Popsicle stand, so fuck all of you!

Courtesy of the NYT: 

The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for. 

The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role since he was nominated in 2011 by Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Catholic. In an interview, Father Conroy was categorical: His departure was not voluntary. 

“I was asked to resign, that is clear,” Father Conroy said. As for why, he added, “that is unclear.” 

“I certainly wasn’t given anything in writing,” he said. “Catholic members on both sides are furious.” 

Father Conroy said he received the news from Mr. Ryan’s chief of staff. “The speaker would like your resignation,” Father Conroy recalled being told. He complied.

Father Conroy does have a theory about why he was fired:  

Though Father Conroy said he did not know whether politics were behind his departure, he pointed to a prayer he had given on the House floor in November, when Congress was debating tax overhaul legislation. 

“May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle,” he prayed. “May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”

Conroy says that he was chastised after that prayer for getting "too political," and not long after that he was out.

However Paul Ryan says "Nuh uh. that's not why I did it."

Courtesy of Politico:  

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tried to quell the controversy Friday morning by addressing his decision to fire Father Patrick Conroy during a private GOP conference meeting. Ryan said Conroy's ouster wasn’t politically motivated, as some have speculated. He said it came after complaints from multiple members about how the Jesuit priest wasn’t meeting their “pastoral needs,” as several Republican lawmakers exiting the meeting put it.

Oh yeah, how many priests do we know that were fired for not providing enough Jesus juice to the flock?

(Actually this is the first time in history that a priest has EVER been given the old heave ho by the Congress.)

But Ryan's scorched earth policy did not end there.

Naomi is in high school, she just got arrested while peacefully protesting outside of Paul Ryan's office. Naomi has a message for @SpeakerRyan. Please retweet this and tweet out the link to make sure he gets it.@_naomi_abigail_ #DworkinReport #NeverAgainhttps://t.co/gWXJmCndr4

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 27, 2018

Apparently since Ryan has no plans to run for reelection he is not even going to pretend that he is not a festering pustule on the face of humanity.

I am one of those who has known that Paul Ryan is a hateful little prick since he first came on the scene.

Now with one foot out the door he no longer seems interested in hiding that fact.

While Republicans pretend it is not going to happen Trump's lawyers prepare the groundwork to fire Robert Mueller.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

The Supreme Court is set to hear a seemingly minor case later this month on the status of administrative judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission, an issue that normally might only draw the interest of those accused of stock fraud. 

But the dispute turns on the president's power to hire and fire officials throughout the government. And it comes just as the White House is saying President Trump believes he has the power to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. 

Trump's Solicitor Gen. Noel Francisco intervened in the SEC case to urge the high court to clarify the president's constitutional power to fire all "officers of the United States" who "exercise significant authority" under the law. "The Constitution gives the president what the framers saw as the traditional means of ensuring accountability: the power to oversee executive officers through removal," he wrote in Lucia vs. SEC. 

"The president is accordingly authorized under our constitutional system to remove all principal officers, as well as all 'inferior officers' he has appointed." 

In addition to representing the administration before the Supreme Court, Francisco, a former law clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, could be in line to oversee the Mueller inquiry if Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein is fired. Atty. Gen Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the investigation. 

Peter Shane, a law professor at the Ohio State University, called Francisco's argument a "radical proposition," and one that goes beyond what is at issue in the case. The justices said they would focus only on how the SEC in-house judges are appointed. But Francisco is asking them to go further and rule on the "removal" issue. 

"The solicitor general is obviously trying to goad the court into a broad statement about the removability of all officers of the United States," Shane said. "Were the court to make any such statement, it would surely be cited by Trump as backing any move by him to fire Mueller directly."

To be clear there really is no other logic reason to do this other than to gain the ability to fire Robert Mueller.

This would allow Trump to do that directly, and not have to jump through the hoops of firing Rod Rosenstein and then attempting to hire a replacement that would do the firing for him.

And while all of this is happening, we see this response to protecting Mueller from Paul Ryan.

Paul Ryan refuses to allow a vote on a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller, even if it passes the Senate. https://t.co/mxGf16vSZf #MTP #MeetThePress pic.twitter.com/S0h6IZQMqw

— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 15, 2018

I actually think that Ryan KNOWS that Trump is preparing to fire Mueller and that is most of the reason that he is not running for reelection.

He knows that once it happens he will get the blame for not protecting the Special Counsel and he will be so vilified that he could not get elected dog catcher in this country. 

With Paul Ryan announcing his retirement it is smooth sailing for his openly racist former opponent.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Until early Wednesday morning, Paul Nehlen was little more than a racist, anti-Semitic sideshow in Wisconsin politics. Unless you happen to be a white supremacist, chances are you’ve never heard of him. His political résumé consists of one failed 2016 bid to capture the Republican nomination for a congressional race in Wisconsin, and a favorable shoutout from fellow white supremacist Donald Trump on Twitter. 

Paul Nehlen was not to be taken seriously, until suddenly he became the Republican front-runner to defend the congressional seat currently held by the most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives.

Nehlen’s first primary challenge against Ryan was unremarkable. He made a few headlines by endorsing Trump’s campaign early, something Ryan himself was reluctant to do. Sarah Palin publicly supported Nehlen’s insurgent campaign, but it ultimately did no good: Ryan captured his party’s nomination with almost 85 percent of the vote. 

But after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Nehlen — like so many other virulent white supremacists and neo-Nazis — was emboldened. He began openly embracing classic anti-Semitic rhetoric, sharing deeply offensive memes on Twitter and the online white supremacist clearinghouse Gab. Whatever hesitation he had to publicly share his racist views melted away as well. 

His online behavior finally got him banned from Twitter in February, when he attacked actress Meghan Markle for her biracial genealogy. 

He isn’t without his supporters, though. As he alienated more and more normal Americans, he gained notoriety among the drudgery of the internet. During a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last year in which a peaceful protester was murdered, Nehlen tweeted messages of support for the rally’s organizers, saying “Incredible moment for white people who’ve had it up to here & aren’t going to take it anymore.” After a white supremacist participant was revealed to be the murderer, Nehlen echoed Donald Trump’s response, blaming bad actors on both sides for the incident. 

Nehlen’s comments earned him favorable coverage by white supremacist media outlets like the podcasts of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and crying Nazi Christopher Cantwell, as well as Breitbart, which tried — unsuccessfully — to scrub their fawning coverage of Nehlen.

White supremacist, early Trump supporter, endorsed by Sarah Palin, oh yeah this guy is DEFINITELY going to do well with that 30 to 40% of hard core Trump voters.

Appears to me this could be an easy pickup for the Dems if they play their cards right.

Paul Ryan is reportedly tapping out.

Courtesy of CNN: 

House Speaker Paul Ryan is not seeking re-election and will retire from Congress after this year, his office announced Wednesday. 

"This morning Speaker Ryan shared with his colleagues that this will be his last year as a member of the House," Ryan aide Brendan Buck said in a statement. "He will serve out his full term, run through the tape, and then retire in January. After nearly twenty years in the House, the speaker is proud of all that has been accomplished and is ready to devote more of his time to being a husband and a father." 

According to two sources with direct knowledge, in calls this morning with his leadership team, Ryan made clear much of this decision was about spending time with his family, but also noted that he planned to leave after this Congress and didn't think it was fair to his district or the GOP conference to run for re-election only to leave right after. 

A source familiar told CNN that Ryan called House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy about his retirement before the news broke. 

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, has been in Congress since 1999 and became House speaker in 2015.

This...is...huge...news.

Ryan did not want to be Speaker in the first place, but he clearly enjoyed being in politics and using his position to screw over poor people at every opportunity.

If he is throwing in the towel it is likely because he realizes that the Democrats will almost certainly be the majority in Congress after the midterms, and that his days as Speaker are over anyhow.

He might also fear the "Iron Stache," and realize that he is going to be humiliated in this next election cycle and wants to get out while the getting is good.

Can you say "Blue Wave?"

Only about 2% of those polled reported any benefit from the new GOP tax bill.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Only 2 percent of American adults reported receiving a bonus, a bump in pay or another perk due to the Republican tax overhaul passed in December, a new survey found. 

Twenty-seven percent of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they believe the legislation will increase the amount they pay in taxes, while 24 percent said they think they will pay less in taxes and 23 percent did not anticipate their tax payment will be altered. 

A third of the respondents polled said the new legislation made them more likely to cast a ballot for a Democrat, while a quarter of those surveyed said the same for a Republican. 

GOP lawmakers have commended companies like Walmart for announcing bonuses or additional employee benefits due to the tax law’s passage late last year. Democrats have slammed the legislation, which President Trump signed into law before the New Year, as a tax cut for the wealthy.

Oh yes, the bonuses. About that...

Courtesy of Vice:

Consider the one-time, $1,000 bonuses for employees that many companies, like Comcast and AT&T, have announced. First of all, one-time bonuses, while nice to have, are not wage increases. The promise of the tax cut was not that it would let companies throw a few bucks in the employee tip jar, but permanently raise pay. Bonuses don’t make up for stagnant wages, as Southwest Airlines’ mechanics union, which has been locked in a contract battle for over five years, told the company. 

The Comcast and AT&T bonuses were also announced late last year, allowing them to be written off as a business expense in 2017. If a business gave a bonus in 2017, it went against the 35 percent corporate tax rate then in effect. If were to give one this year, the bonus would only go against the new 21 percent rate. In other words, it was cheaper for businesses to announce bonuses in December than January, suggesting we may not see much of their kind again. 

But Comcast and AT&T in particular serve as the poster children for dishonesty in this matter. Because around the same time that they made a big show of rewarding employees with bonuses, both companies quietly engaged in layoffs. Comcast fired 500 members of its sales department before Christmas, and AT&T is eliminating “thousands” of jobs, according to its union, the Communications Workers of America. “We believe there's more than 4,000 people AT&T has (notified of layoffs) across the country,” Larry Robbins, vice president of CWA Local 4900, told the Indianapolis Daily Star.

Just to do the math on this, $1,000 bonuses to 200,000 AT&T workers is $200 million. Cancelling 4,000 jobs at the median US compensation of $59,000 per year (some of the workers affected likely earned less) would actually amount to a higher number, and unlike the bonuses, those layoffs are permanent. More to the point, any $1,000 bonus for workers is a drop in the ocean compared to chopping the corporate tax rate by 40 percent, as the Trump tax cuts will. AT&T, according to calculations from economist Dean Baker, will see $2.4 billion in annual savings from that tax cut, more than ten times the likely cost of its the one-time bonus. (Neither Comcast nor AT&T immediately responded to a request for comment.)

Also keep in mind that as Wal-Mart handed out bonuses, and promised a wage increase, they also suddenly closed Sam's Clubs all over the country, including every single one up here in Alaska.

Donald Trump is going to lie about all of this during his State of the Union speech, which is yet another reason I will most likely be watching Netflix instead.

The good news, Wal-Mart is giving out $1,000 bonuses to some employees and raising their minimum wage to $11.00. The bad news, they are closing 63 of their Sam's Club stores, including all of those in Alaska.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Walmart has announced that it will lay off thousands of workers across the country as it closes dozens of Sam's Club locations. 

The announcement comes on the same day the retail giant announced it was raising its starting minimum wage for new employees to $11 an hour. 

The company told Business Insider that 63 Sam's Club stores will close. 

Some locations reportedly stopped business suddenly on Thursday without giving advance warning to employees.

Along with the higher minimum wage, Walmart announced earlier Thursday that it would expand parental leave and give some employees one-time bonuses of up to $1,000 following the passage of the GOP tax overhaul.

Well that last part's nice, you know for those Wal-Mart employees who managed to keep their jobs.

Ironically the announcement about the store closings only happened after Paul Ryan made these remarks:  

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) praised Walmart's gesture to raise its employees' wages on Thursday, calling the tax bill a major help to middle-income families. 

"Today marks 20 days since the Tax Cut and Jobs Act became the law of the land," Ryan said. "Already, this new law is helping to improve the lives of middle-income families across the country. You saw the announcement from Walmart just this morning: more than a million Americans are due to receive their bonuses because of tax reform."

You know if this weren't so damn pathetic it would almost be funny.

I first learned about this when I received a text yesterday informing me that all of the Alaska Sam's Club locations had suddenly locked their doors.

Courtesy of KTVA: 

All Sam’s Club locations in Alaska are closing, as part of an unannounced nationwide rollback of the Walmart-owned wholesale club’s stores. 

KTVA viewer Joe Gerace, owner of the Chevron gas station outside the Dimond Fred Meyer, said he visited an Anchorage Sam’s Club location for before-hours business shopping Thursday and found security officers turning customers away at the door.

Now personally I'm a Costco shopper so this does not directly affect me, but it does mean that suddenly there are a bunch of unemployed Alaskans looking for new jobs.

Blake "Ducky PJ's" Farenthold will not seek reelection amid accusations of sexual harassment.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Representative Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican who settled a lurid sexual harassment claim with his former communications director for $84,000 and faced accusations from other aides that he ran a hostile workplace, announced Thursday that he will not run for re-election, saying the allegations have become “a political distraction.” 

He is the fourth lawmaker in two weeks to announce his eventual departure from Congress amid the swirl of sexual allegations and the sixth this year. 

In a nearly five-minute long video posted on his campaign’s Facebook page, Mr. Farenthold denied the sexual harassment allegations from his former communications director, Lauren Greene. But he admitted, with unusual candor, that he had run an “unprofessional” workplace and that his own temper sometimes got out of hand, describing himself as “profoundly sorry” for his conduct. 

“I’d never served in public office before. I had no idea how to run a congressional office, and as a result I allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional,” Mr. Farenthold said. 

“It accommodated destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes,” he went on, adding, “and I allowed the personal stress of the job to manifest itself in angry outburst and too often a failure to treat people with the respect that they deserved. That was wrong.”

Gee ya think?

By the way that "I'd never served in public office before" excuse is extremely weak.

Farenthold was first elected in 2010, when he was about 49 years old.

He was a fucking adult! He was not some frat boy who suddenly got to play Congressman for a day.

By 49 years old you should know not to talk about your female employee's boobs, get shit faced on the job, and act like an out of control asshole to your staff.

As it turns out Farenthold may have been given a little shove by Speaker of the House, and Eddie Munster lookalike, Paul Ryan.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Rep. Blake Farenthold, who's under fire for accusations of sexual harassment, is not planning to run for re-election, a Republican source familiar with situation told CNN on Thursday. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke with Farenthold, a Texas Republican, twice late Wednesday. Rep. Steve Stivers, who chairs the House campaign arm, also met with Farenthold. 

"Look, I had a couple of conversations with Blake Farenthold," Ryan said at his weekly news conference. "I think he's making the right decision to retire. There are new stories that are disconcerting. Unacceptable behavior has been alleged in those stories. And I think he's made the right decision that he's leaving Congress. And that reflects on the conversations we've had."

This is now becoming a thing with Ryan who also recently had to give the boot to Trent Franks, who was trying to get at least one of his female staff members to let him plant his demon seed in their womb.

This new role has Ryan talking about leaving Congress as well:  

House Speaker Paul Ryan has had soul searching conversations about his future with friends, some of his close friends tell CNN. 

Those people close to Ryan told CNN they believe it is possible that he could leave Congress after the 2018 midterm elections, if he can achieve his goal of passing GOP backed overhaul of the US tax system. Some say his departure could possibly happen even sooner. Some friends indicate that Ryan may be suffering from a bout of "Trump-haustion," but others believe there is serious contemplation of leaving Congress in 2018.

Ryan is now denying the accuracy of this reporting, but that is what they all say right before they resign.

So we will see.

Under the cover of darkness the Republicans pass massive tax overhaul.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The Senate passed the most sweeping tax rewrite in decades early Saturday, with Republicans lining up to approve an overhaul that will touch almost every corner of the United States economy, affecting families, small business owners and multinational corporations, with the biggest benefits flowing to the highest-earning Americans. 

Senators voted 51-49, as Republicans approved the nearly 500-page bill in the early morning hours after lawmakers received a rewritten version, which contained significant changes from the original bill that passed two Senate panels last month along party lines. The last-minute revisions prompted an outcry from Democrats, who said it was impossible — and irresponsible — for lawmakers to read and digest a significant piece of legislation in such a short period of time. 

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader and Kentucky Republican, called it “a great day for the country.” 

The president praised Republican lawmakers on Saturday morning on Twitter, saying, “Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!”

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said in a statement that with Senate approval “we will move quickly to a conference committee so we can get a final bill to President Trump’s desk.”

But, speaking on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, called the Republican approach “a process and a product that no one can be proud of and everyone should be ashamed of.”

As explained by Senator Jon Tester last night, this bill was handed to the Democrats with only a handful of hours before the vote, and with revisions being added almost up until the last minute.

I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. One page literally has hand scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better. pic.twitter.com/q6lTpXoXS0

— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) December 2, 2017

Many of those revisions contained sweetheart deals for Senators who were previous hold outs like Susan Collins:  

Several amendments that Collins offered were incorporated into the bill, including the restoration of a $10,000 deduction for property taxes and a lower threshold for deducting medical expenses. 

Collins touted the ability for her to get changes into the bill as crucial to her decision to ultimately be able to support it.

And Lisa Murkowski:  

Senate Republicans passed legislation early Saturday allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of a tax reform package, moving closer to fulfilling a long-time GOP goal. 

The passage of the bill marked a significant achievement for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who has introduced legislation to open a portion of the Alaskan refuge to drilling every term she has served in the chamber, only to be blocked by Democrats. 

“This small package offers a tremendous opportunity for Alaska, for the Gulf Coast, and for all of our nation,” Murkowski said before the vote. “We have authorized responsible energy development in the 1002 area.” 

This has already received significant backlash from conversations groups: 

A major conservation group is blasting the newly passed Senate GOP tax bill for allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), calling the bill “simply shameful.” 

“Opening the Arctic to drilling as part of this tax plan is simply shameful. The Arctic Refuge isn’t a bank—drilling there won’t pay for the tax cuts the Senate just passed,” National Audubon Society President and CEO David Yarnold said in a statement Saturday.

Actually it is not likely to bring in much money at all as the cost of new drilling is quite high in Alaska and with the price of oil plunging the risk to cost ratio may mean that few, if any, new wells are dug.

In the meantime the bill did repeal the Obamacare mandate which means that the healthcare of millions of Americans will likely be affected by the vote.

The editorial board of the New York Times called it an "Historic Tax Heist":

The bill is expected to add more than $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, a debt that will be paid by the poor and middle class in future tax increases and spending cuts to Medicare, Social Security and other government programs. Its modest tax cuts for the middle class disappear after eight years. And up to 13 million people stand to lose their health insurance because the bill makes a big change to the Affordable Care Act. 

Yet Republicans somehow found a way to give a giant and permanent tax cut to corporations like Apple, General Electric and Goldman Sachs, saving those businesses tens of billions of dollars.

All in all it is a truly terrible bill, which is why the Republicans demanded that it be passed late last night, because they well knew that if the American people had the opportunity to really know what was in it that they would take to the streets with pitchforks and torches. 

Paul Ryan does a macho man cosplay in order to convince morons the Republicans are serious about building a border wall.

RT if you agree→ It is time for The Wall. pic.twitter.com/s5MO8SG7SL

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) August 1, 2017

Damn, when it comes to failed attempts to appear manly I swear Paul Ryan has no rival.

I mean really.

Let's face it you Howdy Doody looking mother fucker, THERE IS NOT GOING TO BE ANY WALL!

Sure somebody is going to dig some post holes, and undoubtedly somebody will do a little surveying, but ultimately the wall has about as much chance of materializing as Paul Ryan's balls have of finally dropping and allowing him to reach puberty.

Paul Ryan is too afraid to be confronted about Trumpcare to hold any town halls.

Hey no town halls right now, until we are finished screwing you over.

Courtesy of Slate:  

House Speaker Paul Ryan won’t hold public town hall meetings because he’s concerned about protesters coming in from outside his district. Ryan, who once seemed to relish overflowing town halls, seemed to make the policy official after holding several closed-door meetings with constituents. 

“I don’t want to have a situation where we just have a screaming fest, a shouting fest, where people are being bused in from out of the district to get on TV because they’re yelling at somebody,” Ryan told reporters in Madison on Friday. “That does nobody any good. What I want to do is have a civil, good, quiet conversation with constituents.” That is why Ryan says he has been “looking for new and creative ways to interact with my constituents in a civil way.” 

So far, these “new and creative ways” have meant telephone town halls, meetings with constituents behind closed doors with pre-arranged questions and no follow-ups, and office hours.

Another Republican coward who talks big in private, but is too afraid to face the music when his constitutions want him to explain how he can take health care away from millions of Americans. 

Donald Trump seems to be abandoning Trumpcare.

Keep smiling exercise boy, I am planning to screw you over once your back is turned.

Courtesy of the AP:  

President Donald Trump told Republican senators Tuesday that the House-passed health care bill he helped revive is “mean” and urged them to craft a version that is “more generous,” congressional sources said. 

Trump’s remarks were a surprising slap at a Republican-written House measure that was shepherded by Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and whose passage the president lobbied for and praised. At a Rose Garden ceremony minutes after the bill’s narrow House passage on May 4, Trump called it “a great plan.” 

The president’s criticism, at a White House lunch with 15 GOP senators, also came as Senate Republican leaders’ attempts to write their own health care package have been slowed by disagreements between their party’s conservatives and moderates. 

Trump’s characterizations seemed to undercut attempts by Senate leaders to assuage conservatives who want restrictions in their chamber’s bill, such as cutting the Medicaid health care program for the poor and limiting the services insurers must cover. Moderate GOP senators have been pushing to ease those restrictions. 

Facing expected unanimous Democratic opposition, Republicans will be unable to pass a Senate bill if just three of the 52 GOP senators vote “no.” Alienating any of them could make approving the measure trickier for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who’s been hoping for a vote before Congress’ July 4 recess.

According to the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin this might have repercussions for all of the conservative's future policy decisions:  

The Senate was unlikely to come up with its own bill before this episode; now, that possibility becomes even more remote. Trump cannot be trusted to support what Republicans put out, so why go out on a limb for extremely unpopular legislation? If they pass Trump’s tax cuts, they run the risk that Trump will call it a giveaway to the rich, or if they pass repeal of Dodd-Frank, they might get labeled Wall Street pawns by the president. He’s loyal to no one and believes in nothing, so whenever their actions draw criticism, Trump will be among the first to cut and run, decrying the very action he demanded his party take. 

Ironically, as Republicans refuse to distance themselves from Trump’s egregious behavior, scandals and ethical shortcomings, he repays them — by creating the perfect soundbite for Democratic ads in 2018.

Gee who could have predicted that an impulsive self absorbed megalomaniac would act this way?

Oh that's right, most of us.

Popcorn anyone?

100 eighth graders boycott picture with Paul Ryan during Washington field trip.

Courtesy of Common Dreams: 

One hundred eighth grade students refused to be photographed with Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan during a field trip to the nation's capital because they "didn't want to be associated with a person who puts his party before his country," as one student put it. 

According to reporting, roughly half of the 200 students who traveled from South Orange Middle School in New Jersey protested the photo-op on Thursday, watching instead from a parking lot across the street. 

"It's not just a picture," eighth grade student Matthew Malespina told the local ABC News affiliate. "It's being associated with a person who puts his party before his country." 

Most recently, Ryan has come under fire for forcing through legislation that would strip healthcare from 23 million Americans.

Well look at that, we now live in a country where eighth grade students have more integrity than the entire Republican party. 

Looks like the future might be in good hands after all.

I love the smell of impeachment in the morning.

Okay so many of us on the left have been talking impeachment since even before Trump was ever sworn into office.

Let's face it at that time it was just some wishful thinking by a bunch of lefties who were angry and confused by the outcome of the 2016 election.

But that is no longer the case my friends.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Restive Democrats urging the impeachment of President Trump are amplifying their case Wednesday following new reports suggesting Trump pressed the FBI to drop a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) spoke out at a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting Wednesday morning, underscoring the urgency of removing Trump, whom the Democrats increasingly see as a national security liability. 

Also Wednesday morning, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who joined the impeachment push earlier in the week, took to the House floor to trumpet that call, characterizing his decision as a ”position of conscience.” 

"This is where I stand; I will not be moved,” said Green. “The president must be impeached."

Okay well this is a little more official since it is coming from actual Democrats in the House, but let's face it without Republicans on board there is no way to remove Trump from office.

But wait....

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

For the first time, Republican members of Congress have gone on record suggesting that one of the scandals engulfing President Donald Trump could be an impeachable offense. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that if Trump did indeed ask former FBI Director James Comey to drop the bureau's investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, then that would constitute grounds for impeachment, according to the Hill's Cristina Marcos.

Amash was actually the second Republican lawmaker to suggest that Trump's alleged effort to shut down the Flynn probe could be an impeachable offense. "Any effort to stop the federal government from conducting an investigation, any effort to dissuade federal agents from proceeding with an investigation, is very serious and could be construed as obstruction of justice," said Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) on CNN Tuesday night. He added, "Obstruction of justice—in the case of Nixon, in the case of Clinton in the late 90s—has been considered an impeachable offense."

Now only two House Republicans making these statements certainly does not constitute a groundswell, but it IS the first step.

And in my opinion it is a step on a path that many other Republicans will soon find themselves on as well.

In less than four months Trump has suffered one self inflicted wound after another, and the wounds just keep getting deeper and deeper.

It does not seem possible that leaking that classified information to the Russians, and having it revealed that he attempted to get the FBI Director to drop that Russian collusion investigation, is survivable even by Donald Trump.

And we know for a fact that there are still more scandals to come. 

Right now the Trump White House has zero credibility, so even if there WERE a false story printed by a news outlet very few people would believe a denial coming from the Trump Administration.

With a seemingly endless supply of gaffes and no credibility with the American people it feels like it is all done but the crying.

But here's the rub.

The first in the line of succession after Donald Trump is VP Mike Pence, who is perhaps in many ways even more dangerous to the country than Donald Trump.

Mike Pence does not believe in a woman's right to choose, does not believe in marriage equality, does not support legalized marijuana, is pro-school vouchers, is not a supporter of clean energy, and plays just as fast and loose with the truth as Donald Trump.

Replacing Trump with Pence might seem like a good trade, but in fact it is not.

However if by some miracle Pence were also impeached, or forced out of office right along with Trump, that would leave Paul Ryan as the next in the line of succession.

I think we all know just what is wrong with having Ryan in the Oval Office. (The man has never met a social program that he thinks should last one more day.)

So even though it seems more likely than ever that Trump may be impeached what exactly does that solve for the Democrats?

Not a whole hell of a lot.

But there is one somewhat comforting thought. Donald Trump is a scorched earth personality type, so when the effort to remove him from office actually kicks off he is going to go on the attack.

By the time they pry Trump's stubby orange fingers from the doorjamb of the White House front entrance, he may have so damaged his named successor and the Republican party that the Dems could run Anthony Wiener in 2020 and still take back the presidency.

In the meantime I suggest all of you stock up on popcorn, because this three ring circus is just getting started.

Caught between a rock and a hard place Sarah Palin attempts to defend both Donald Trump and the Freedom Caucus, but throws Paul Ryan under the bus without a second thought.

Okay, stay calm, I can do this.

Courtesy of the Wasilla Wendigo's Facebook page:

1) Freedom Caucus members who opposed the Trump Movement in 2016 were dead wrong to do so, as proven by we who are on the front lines of the real (hurting) world knew from the start that only Donald Trump could defeat Hillary Clinton and her liberal media minions. Thank God, literally, Trump won, or we'd hit the rocks under Obama 2.0 with Hillary at the helm. Guarandamnteed.  ("Guarandamnteed?")

2) But they learned... and the Freedom Caucus just saved us from Obamacare 2.0, which would have codified the unaffordable, unsustainable, unwanted government-controlled medical Ponzi scheme that the vast majority demanded be stopped. (Only an idiot would call that train wreck Obamacare 2.0. Oh that's right, I forgot.) If Barack Obama had proposed that government-forced unfunded insurance mandate, not a dang Republican would have voted for it.

3) Since when do the duly elected - actually standing on Republican planks to empower the people and build a great nation via government shrinkage (Is that what Todd calls it?)- deserve to get clobbered by RINOs, liberals and neophyte public servants all at once, without Conservatives and Independents stiffening the spine and proclaiming we've got their back? Freedom Caucus members need to hear it. Especially those who since the Trump Movement roared across the country realized we're dead serious about D.C. fulfilling campaign promises to create a smaller, smarter government to salvage our sovereignty and solvency. ("Smarter?" Has she seen the intellectual lightweights this man has appointed to his cabinet? Oh I forgot, that IS her peer group.) I'll bet they hear loud and clear we'd suffer under TPP, blown up debt ceilings, bogus "stimulus" packages full new government entitlements created by politicians picking winners and losers in our fragile economy, and other boondoggles they may have previously been conjoled (Not a word.) into supporting under GOPe leadership. (Okay is she not aware that Trump has his own "stimulus package" coming in the form of  a trillion dollar infrastructure package? I mean it will likely fail, but that is still his plan. So is she encouraging them to block that plan?)

4) Interesting the Freedom Caucus is hammered for previously going along with Big Government types acting as Congressional leadership. Well, so did everyone else in their ranks! Lesson learned. I'm sure they now realize Speaker Paul Ryan - who's only adult life experience is growing government - does not speak for pro-private sector freedom-loving Americans. (Look I am all for piling on Paul Ryan, but he was only doing Trump's bidding with that healthcare plan. Whether Palin wants to admit it or not.)

Now, get it together, GOP. We didn't spill our blood, sweat and tears building tracks for the Trump Train to lead to a land of disarray and democrat empowerment. (Oh come on! That was where it was headed before it even left the station.) Those of us who spent our political capital to usher in positive change - losing jobs and friends along the route - will use obstruction as fuel to barrel through the next election too, ensuring even more D.C. shake-up. (So to be clear, even though HER president is now in the White House, and the Republicans are in charge of both the House and the Senate, Palin continues to encourage her supporters to work as obstructionists and to undermine government efforts at every step. Good to know.)

- Sarah Palin

It looks as if Palin is taking a page out of the Jeanine Pirro playbook and attempting to excuse Donald Trump, as well as the artist formerly known as the Tea Party, of any wrong doing while laying all of the blame on Paul Ryan whose job is only slightly less enviable than Sean Spicer's.

However defending BOTH the Freedom Caucus AND her orange tinted boyfriend is going to prove increasingly difficult if Trump keeps tweeting things like this:

The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017

I see a very explosive head on crash coming in the near future.

I wonder if Palin will become a casualty of that, or if she will jump off the Trump train before it happens?

Trumpcare is dead. Update!

President Trump just called me. Still on phone.
"We just pulled it," he tells me.

— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 24, 2017

Courtesy of WaPo:

House Republican leaders abruptly pulled a Republican rewrite of the nation’s health-care system from consideration on Friday, a dramatic acknowledgment that they are so far unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act. 

“We just pulled it,” President Trump told the Washington Post in a telephone interview. 

The decision came a day after President Trump delivered an ultimatum to lawmakers – and the defeat represented multiple failures for the new president and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). The decision means the Affordable Care Act remains in place, at least for now, and a major GOP campaign promise goes unfulfilled. 

The decision also casts doubt on the GOP’s ability to govern and to advance other high-stakes agenda items, including tax reform and infrastructure spending. Ryan is still without a signature achievement as speaker – and the defeat undermines Trump’s image as a skilled dealmaker willing to strike compromises to push his agenda forward.

Trump has previously said that if this fails he wants to move on, so there is little chance the Republicans will attempt this again.

And let's face it they really don't want to anyway.

The response on Twitter was epic!

Holy smokes. This also entirely destroys the president's bluff for the next round of negotiations. He just straight up folded.

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 24, 2017

Substance matters. The reason Ryan, Trump, etc, could ever make a persuasive argument for this bill is there wasn't one to make.

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 24, 2017

Congratulations @realDonaldTrump on your complete and utter failure on repealing ObamaCare. #Loser pic.twitter.com/FEyziQo6RL

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 24, 2017

Trump will want to pass the blame, as if #Trumpcare wasn't his even though he campaigned for it. Ryan will be the scapegoat. Popcorn please.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 24, 2017

I think Trump just set the record for becoming a lame duck president.

— Gryphen 2009 (@Gryphen2009) March 24, 2017

Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for the next Trump failure.

Update: Even Paul Ryan gets it.

Trumpcare dies again. What happened and who's to blame? https://t.co/fdfO2D24jQ pic.twitter.com/7V0ll088lx

— Salon (@Salon) March 24, 2017

Update 2: Trump says the real losers today were Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

Pres. Trump after health care bill is pulled: "I think the losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, because now they own Obamacare." pic.twitter.com/JRguYcvstN

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 24, 2017

No buddy, YOU were the loser today. And so were the rest of the Republicans.

By the way according to the CBO Obamacare is in no danger of "failing" anytime soon. 

Trumpcare vote cancelled! Republicans simply do not have the votes.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The House will not vote on the Republican health care bill Thursday, a GOP aide said, further putting efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare in jeopardy. 

The decision came after multiple high-level and tense meetings at the White House and Capitol that failed to broker a compromise. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan abruptly postponed, for a second time, a scheduled press briefing, instead staying behind closed doors to negotiate. 

The conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members appear to hold the key to any agreement on a final bill, met with President Donald Trump earlier Thursday. The session started with a standing ovation for the President, but there was little obvious progress they could point to, a GOP source said. 

One senior administration official described the meeting with one word: "Intense."

Apparently Trump had been on the phones last night and today desperately trying to convince holdouts to vote on the bill, but in the end it was not enough.

You were given many lies with #Obamacare! Go with our plan! Call your Rep & let them know you're behind #AHCA ➡️ https://t.co/xAX4GJiO8z pic.twitter.com/qp90G49e0j

— President Trump (@POTUS) March 23, 2017

Trump has already stripped the bill down to its bare bones in order to get conservatives on board, making it essentially dead on arrival in the Senate.

Get a load of this courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Trump had agreed to many of the demands that the most conservative House Republicans had made, including ending requirements that health insurance plans provide a basic set of benefits like maternity care, emergency services, mental health and wellness visits.

I bet the bill still covers Viagra though. What do you want to bet?

I have no idea if Ryan and Trump will eventually be able to finally whip up the votes needed to pass this thing in the House, but there is no doubt that whatever pernicious piece of legislation passes muster with rabid Right will never make it through the Senate.

This thing is as dead as Trump's hopes of winning a second term.

Here is Nancy Pelosi schooling Donald Trump and Paul Ryan on how to get a bill passed.

Pelosi with 🔥🔥 for GOP decision to insist on vote today.

"Rookie's error, Donald Trump… Clearly you're not ready." pic.twitter.com/zBmTUtruxy

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 23, 2017

That my friends is an epic burn!

John Oliver explains the new GOP health care plan as only John Oliver can. Update: The CBO weighs in.

Courtesy of Slate:  

On Sunday night’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver broke down some of the major issues with AHCA—the “Ted Cruz of healthcare legislation.” One of the biggest is that the proposed system of flat-tax credits could really harm lower-income Americans while benefitting insurance companies and the wealthy. And while Paul Ryan may be excited about “defederalizing,” “block-granting,” and “capping,” pushing up to $370 billion worth of Medicaid costs onto the states over the next ten years doesn’t quite get Oliver’s engines revving in quite the same way, because Ryan’s plan could mean millions of the country’s poorest citizens will lose their coverage. 

In fact, many of the people who will be hurt the most by the AHCA are lower-income Americans, older Americans and those living in rural areas, people who broadly fall into the category of Trump’s America. “Which is pretty frustrating,” noted Oliver. “It’s like if the people of Pompeii voted for the volcano.”

Actually you know a conservative health care bill is dead in the water, when both Rand Paul and Sarah Palin say it is dead in the water.

Which is a good thing, since the creators of this plan are essentially the very definition of a "death panel."

Update: I wrote this yesterday before the CBO had released its report. Now that it has things appear even worse that John Oliver reported.

Here is how Vox's Ezra Klein explained it: 

The AHCA would increase the uninsured population by about 24 million people — which is more people than live in New York state. But the raw numbers obscure the cruelty of the choices. The policy is particularly bad for the old, the sick, and the poor. It is particularly good for the rich, the young, and the healthy. 

Here, in short, is what the AHCA does. The bill guts Medicaid, halves the value of Obamacare’s insurance subsidies, and allows insurers to charge older Americans 500 percent more than they charge young Americans. 

Then it takes the subsidies that are left and reworks them to be worth less to the poor and the old, takes the insurers that are left and lets them change their plans to cover fewer medical expenses for the sick, and rewrites the tax code to offer hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich. As Dylan Matthews writes, it is an act of class warfare by the rich against the poor. 

The result isn’t just 24 million fewer people with insurance: Of those who remain insured, the pool is tilted toward younger, healthier people who need help less, because many of the older, poorer people who need the most help can no longer afford insurance. As German Lopez notes, a 64-year-old making $26,500 would see his premiums rise by 750 percent. 750 percent! And with that 64-year-old gone, premiums are a little bit lower, because the pool is a little bit younger.

Grim isn't it?

Currently the White House is trying to discredit this CBO report, but as it turns out their own internal analysis was even worse:

A White House analysis of the GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare shows even steeper coverage losses than the projections by the Congressional Budget Office, according to a document viewed by POLITICO on Monday. 

The executive branch analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade, versus the 24 million CBO estimates.

Donald Trump promised that nobody would lose coverage and that more people would be insured.

Of course only an idiot would have believed he was telling the truth.

Paul Ryan lies right to the face of a former Republican cancer survivor.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

At Thursday’s event, which was sponsored by CNN and moderated by Jake Tapper, Jeff Jeans introduced himself as a lifelong Republican who once worked on the Reagan and Bush campaigns. “Just like you, I hated the Affordable Care Act,” he told Ryan. 

But then, at 49 years old, Jeans was diagnosed with a curable type of cancer. His doctors gave him just six weeks to live if he didn’t pursue treatment. 

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today alive,” he said. “I rely on the Affordable Care Act to be able to purchase my own insurance. Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?”

In response Ryan literally lied to this man by telling him that the Republicans would never do that, even while the Republicans are actively working to do that. 

The Republicans do NOT have a plan for replacing Obamacare, and they know it.

If they take away the protections in the Affordable Care Act people like Jeff Jeans will be kicked off their health care plans by greedy insurance companies and they will surely die without adequate coverage.

I would urge every single family who loses a loved one due to the Republican lies, to blame them in their obituaries, and to send them a copy of the bill for the end of life care no longer covered by insurance.

Heartless POS!

President Obama issues sanctions against Russia for interfering in our elections.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

President Obama has expelled 35 Russian nationals and sanctioned five Russian entities and four individuals for an alleged cyber assault on Democratic political organizations during the 2016 presidential campaign, the White House announced today. 

“I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election,” Obama wrote in a statement. “These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behavior.” 

Obama noted that all Americans “should be alarmed by Russia’s actions” which were designed to “interfere with the U.S. election process.” 

“These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government,” Obama said. “Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences.”

Yeah they do, and the worst one is that we now get that tangerine colored asshole getting his slime all over the people's White House.

Apparently Obama broadened an April 2015 executive order giving the President the authority to punish foreign actors who carry out cyberattacks against the U.S.

Obama also announced that the Department of Homeland Security and FBI will declassify “technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity” to help networks defend against “Russia’s global campaign of malicious cyber activities."

In other words non-government security experts will now have the means to prevent and possibly track hacks directed against us from Russia moving forward.

Paul Ryan has already come out in support of the sanctions, saying they are "overdue," and it appears that they are supported by the vast majority of the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, which makes any attempt by the Trump Administration to roll them back especially tricky.

The FBI and Homeland Security also released a joint report detailing the different threads they have followed linking Russia to the hacking of the DNC, Clinton Campaign, and John Podesta.

That will make it especially hard for Trump and his supporters to deny that Russia was behind the hacks that interfered with this election, as well as raising suspicions concerning anybody who still denies that fact.

As a matter of fact it appears that Obama has Trump and Putin a little boxed in here.

Paul Ryan claims he has no problem with Donald Trump tweeting lies and conspiracy theories so long as he fixes this country's "big problems." Boy do I have bad news for Paul Ryan.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has no problem with President-elect Donald Trump tweeting lies and conspiracy theories, including dangerous allegations of mass voter fraud in the recent presidential election. 

In an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Ryan said he could not prove Trump’s baseless claim that “millions of people voted illegally,” which the president-elect tweeted to his millions of followers last Sunday. 

“I don’t know. I’m not really focused on these things,” Ryan said when anchor Scott Pelley asked him about Trump’s blatant lie. 

“I have no way of backing that up. I have no knowledge of such things,” he said. 

When Pelley continued to press him, Ryan said that the fact that the president-elect of the United States circulates false information on social media is not a concern to him. 

“It doesn’t matter to me. He won the election,” he said. “The way I see the tweets you’re talking about, he’s basically giving voice to a lot of people who have felt that they were voiceless. He’s communicating with people in this country who’ve felt like they have not been listened to. He’s going to be an unconventional president.” 

“Who cares what he tweeted, you know, on some Thursday night, if we fix this country’s big problems?” he added. “That’s just the way I look at this.”

If you ever wondered if there is an ounce of integrity remaining in the Republican party I think Paul Ryan just answered that question for you.

No.

Perhaps the most chilling part of Ryan's response is the "I have no way of backing that up" statement.

Because that signals once again that we are living in a fact free world in which Paul Ryan either does not know who to trust for accurate information or is too afraid to learn that his party's president is pulling "facts" out of his ass.

This also signals to the American people that the Republican establishment cannot be counted on to keep Trump in check, and will instead give him carte blanche to do as much damage to the country as he sees fit while they sit on their hands. Just like they did when George W. Bush was in office.

In short, we are fucked.