How John McCain tried to undo the greatest political mistake of recent history

So by now, you've probably heard the GOP fight to repeal Obamacare is dead....for like the 5th time. And while some GOP members want to keep fighting, this time around most of them are pretty much resigned to the fact the fights over they failed.

Thats right, the GOP has failed at the thing they ran on for the last 4 elections. They failed at the one and only consistent promise they made in election after election after election. They failed at something they managed to do successfully, only to find it vetoed when Obama was president.

How did this happen?

Its simple......it was never supposed to work. This entire quest was never EVER supposed to be about repealing and replacing healthcare coverage for millions of Americans. No this entire thing was about repealing and replacing the greatest political mistake made in the last century....Obamacare.

Confused? let me explain. The current american healthcare system ISNT Obamacare. its actually officially named the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, and would likely be offically known as "Affordable Care"   "Affordcare" or just straight up "Healthcare" if it wasnt for the Republicans creating and getting the public to use the name "Obamacare"

And thats a problem for 2 reasons
1) At its heart Obamacare is actually a Republican idea. Its based on "RomneyCare" in Massachusetts which itself was based on the Republican healthcare plan put forth by Republicans during the Clinton Administration to oppose HillaryCare, and was spawned inside the Heritage Foundation, one of the major groups behind the Tea Party movement.

In short, if think the current healthcare system is better than the one before the passing of the ACA, its the GOP who should get a lot of the credit....but they dont because they named it "Obamacare" and then lied about their participation (for example the imfamous part of the bill that was slandered and intentionally misinterpreted to lie about death panels was written by a Republican), so no one realizes they should get some credit.

2) Speaking of credit....which president passed Medicare into law? Medicaid? Social Security? I dont really think that many people know...especially among those who were born after the programs were implemented.

Its going to be much much easier in the future for people to remember which president passed "Obamacare" because its named after the guy. And generally speaking Americans think highly of presidents that they can associate with positive things IE FDR and the "new deal" Lincoln and the Civil War, Reagan and the Berlin Wall collapse,  Jefferson and the Constitution, Wilson and winning World War 1

Now this is true even when the presidents record has some major problems. As example: FDR made it harder for Jews to come here when the Holocaust started, Lincoln believed blacks were inherently inferior to whites and would have kept slavery to stop the civil war in a heartbeat,  Reagan sold weapons to terrorists and paid to train what became Al-Qadea, Jefferson owned slaves, one of which hes famous for repeatedly raping from the time she was like 15, and Wilson was a raging racist who re-segregated the federal government, and loved the Pro KKK birth of a nation film.

My point is, if Obamacare is seen as good, and its associated with Obama, in the minds of all future Americans, well Obama was an amazing president, no matter the rest of his record. Which is kinda a bad thing if your entire purpose as a party was "We hate that guy".

Now to be fair (sort of) to Republicans, the name "Obamacare" predates the passage of the ACA....they named it that during the legislation stage because the reverse is also true, a president who is associated with a bad thing is seen as a disaster in the future no matter their record.

So they created the Obamacare name because they were hoping the ACA would fail (this is why none of the them voted for it) and then presumably they could come in a few years later after winning an election and pass their own version of a healthcare bill likely more or less identical to the ACA.

Granted the cynicism of that strategy.....that people will basically hate this idea that we actually secretly like, so we get the credit later for passing it and can use it to forever ruin the other guys reputation, is one of the major reasons the GOP wound up in this mess.

If you think some republicans would realize the inherent cynicism there, and start prepping to move before anyone else noticed, youd be right.

The biggest break the GOP caught was that the ACA's implementation was going to be delayed several years. If they made up things, like say death panels, to turn people against the law before it actually happened...and therefore could repeal it and eventually present their own plan.

Dont believe me that republicans realized literally from day one how badly they miscalulated and immediately tried to get out of the hole they dig themselves into?

The ACA was signed into law on March 23th 2010. That same day, Senator Jim DeMitt (who would leave congress to go run the heritage foundation, the group that created what eventually became the ACA in the first place)  and Rep's Michelle Bachmann and Steve King introduced bills into congress to repeal the ACA. 14 Republican State Attorney Generals also filed suit that same day.

Keep in mind as this point the ink wasnt even dry on this thing. So yea, the GOP realized pretty fast how badly they fucked that up.

And by this point they had already set the ground work for the identical replacement idea, with then Minority Whip Eric Cantor saying in an interview published in January of 2010 that if the ACA passed Republicans would want to repeal alot of it...but not all of it, since it had some good parts and the GOP would NOT campaign for full repeal.  For the record, Cantors comments would be echoed by other republicans (including Senators Corker and Burr) in the up coming months.

But then the Tea Party happened....and everything started to go to shit. The Tea Party which was born a libertarian movement go co-oped by FOX news and the republican right wing fringe,   and they HATED Obama and Government so they damn sure hated a government program created by Obama and they wanted it out instantly. Steve King, an early adherent to the Tea Party spoke out against Cantor's faction saying “if we leave any component of it in there, it has, it’s just become a malignant tumor that’s attacking our liberty and our freedom and it’s diminishing our aspirations and it saps our overall productivity as a nation,”

Trying to reach a compromise between these two sides is what lead to the idea of "repeal and replace" in may of 2010.

Basically they could repeal the ACA, and then pass another more or less identical bill instead and claim they saved us from Obama and they fixed the healthcare system.

The first attempt at this was in May 2010 with a 9 page bill.....that like all future GOP plans until about 2017, looked pretty much like a lose framework of the ACA.  Hell they took the idea of "pass something that looks basically like the ACA" so far that in 2012 the ran Mitt Romney, the guy who successfully implemented the first real version of the ACA as their candidate because his healthcare program was better than the ACA.

This weird dichotomy of we hate it/we love it would continue though 2010, Republicans like then Tea Party backed Senate Candidate Marco Rubio would sign a pledge to repeal ALL of the ACA, and also to keep the preexisting condition coverage and keeping kids on parents insurance until 26 parts of the bill.

Now in fairness to the Republicans, they did pretty well in 2010. As the ACA wasnt anything more than a piece of paper at the time, they could and did freely demonize the bill without that many people noticing they wanted to keep so much of it it couldnt possibly be as bad as they said.

Fast Forward to 2011 where the newly GOP controlled House would pass the first of 50 different bills to repeal the ACA...and in every single case by a much much much large margin than the attempt that eventually passed in 2017.

Notice of course I say "repeal" the ACA, not "repeal and replace". While the GOP did have the occasionally replacement plan (most of which got instantly shelved the minute the media noticed it was pretty much the ACA under a different name), they didnt really need to vote on those. See all the experienced politicians knew all the votes they took were never going to become law, and therefore never actually had to worry about any impact from them.

The mistake the Republicans made here, which bit them in the ass 6 years later, is that it seems many of the newly elected Republicans didnt get that part. They didnt seem to realize the votes to repeal the ACA were totally for show and were done specifically because they wouldnt pass and it would allow the GOP to play off the anger they had made up with their supporters to win the next few elections.

Now I know what your thinking, what I'm saying sound good/sounds like a steaming pile of shit (depending on your inherit bias coming up) and either way all I've shown you is like my opinion man.

So you want some support for what I'm saying....fair enough.

Quoting an interview from the Washingtonian from last week with former Majority Leader Eric Cantor (who was Majority leader during much of the Repeal/Replace push)

"Asked if he feels partly responsible for [Republicans] current predicament, Cantor is unequivocal. “Oh,” he says, “100 percent.”

He goes further: “To give the impression that if Republicans were in control of the House and Senate, that we could do that when Obama was still in office . . . .” His voice trails off and he shakes his head. “I never believed it.”

He says he wasn’t the only one aware of the charade: “We sort of all got what was going on, that there was this disconnect in terms of communication, because no one wanted to take the time out in the general public to even think about ‘Wait a minute—that can’t happen.’ ” But, he adds, “if you’ve got that anger working for you, you’re gonna let it be.”

It’s a stunning admission from a former member of the party leadership—that the linchpin of GOP electoral strategy for the better part of a decade was a fantasy, a flame continually fanned solely because, when it came to midterm elections, it worked. (Barring, of course, his own.)"

There you have it folks....the guy responsible for all the Repeal votes saying even he didnt believe they could actually do this and only did it to capitalize off angry voters for electoral success.

In fact, as early as 2012, it should have become clear to the GOP they were in deep deep trouble as far as people/new members of congress actually having drunk enough of the repeal/replace kool-aid to no longer realize what the real goal was.

Coming into the 2012 election then Senate Minority Leader McConnell said he didnt really want to vote on repeal again...at least not until after the election maybe. McConnell was forced to change his mind after several conservative groups threatened to throw a shit ton of money into having him removed from office in his reelection...if they couldnt force him to resign first. For what its worth, in his reelection campaign in 2014, McConnell was forced into the position of running against the ACA and for its full repeal, while also promising not to repeal Kynect, the state exchange set up by Kentucky as part of the ACA.  Because as it turns out, now that its going into affect, people really like "Obamacare"....though republican demonization has successfully soured them on the name.

This of course creates a bigger problem for the GOP. Among the half who remember this is a scam to change the name and not much else, they have to start putting out alternatives even closer and keeping more of the ACA.....which the half of the party too damn stupid to realize the scam hate.

Keep in mind, in 2013, as the "WE LOVE OUR STATE HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE SUCKS ASS"  division was starting up, the half of the GOP not in on the scam shut down the government over the funding of Obamacare. They lost so badly in the bill to reopen the government they had to agree to accelerate parts of the ACA's implementation. So its not like they didnt have fair warning that even among people who hated Obamacare, they may not have hated it as much as congress thought, given again, they had to back down and reopen the government after everyone blamed them for all the other services they lost. 

Now given that the ACA didnt even start to go into affect until 2012, and not full effect until 2014, you can see how fast the public turned around on the idea....within a year the GOP was already being forced to defend it and just obscure what they were defending. Hell by 2015 the GOP was writing legislation to save the ACA from earlier actions taken by the GOP.  In fact by that point they'd basically given up on the repeal idea all together, and instead the idea had been to tweak the ACA and take credit for the tweaks to claim it was a new program. Even Candidate Donald Trump had been onboard with the scam as a candidate....his website claimed he had 10 different proposals to repeal Obamacare...of course you dont need 10 proposals to repeal the ACA, that only takes 1. You need 10, if and only if, the plan is to tweak the ACA and then claim its a different program.

And given they never wanted to repeal the program at all, and enough republicans are around who remember this is a scam, its not surprising they cant seem to get it done now in 2017, even though they were very unexpectedly handed the chance thanks to Trumps surprise victory in the 2016 elections.

And thats something else to remember too.....the GOP never expected to win the white house in 2016. If youve been reading my blog for a while, especially in 2015 and 2016 I pointed out repeatedly the number of times were saying things suggesting they had already given up the 2016 election and preparing to battle with President Hillary Clinton to get her out of office in 2020.  This likely would have given them a better exit strategy....they would have had 4-8 more years to slowly wind down the assault on the ACA (recognizing that it was here to stay) and move on from what would have been a decade+ long war to something else without it being as obvious.

But then Trump won....and shit looks like they are going to have to carry through on this campaign promise they didnt really want to do anyways.  And since they never wanted to do it, theyd never given any actual though to it.....hence why the GOP was so so fractured over what exactly to replace Obamacare with.

Its why they failed on the first attempt in the House.....in 7 years theyd never needed to plan that part out. Yet they had promised their voters it was a thing they would do on day 1. So they were never able to plan anything out. Yes they got something out of the House, but it was already known when that happened it would never pass the senate.

And the senate, its worth noting, has a much slower turn over rate due to those longer terms, so the senate also has a higher concentration of Republicans who are senior enough to remember the entire replace idea was a scam.

Which is why after 4 months of work and multiple attempts that all got pissed down the tube and the final repeal bill (Skinny repeal) went down in defeat. But not without making Obamacare the most popular its ever been as people realized all the benefits it gave them that the GOP wanted to take away.

Now of course publicly, John McCain is getting all the credit....and some people are trying to argue Collins and Murkowski should get some too as they were consistent no votes.

But trust me when I tell you, they are far far far from the only people in the senate who actually oppose the bill. Remember up until a few hours before the final vote, something like 10-12 republicans, including McCain were on the fence.

Of course we found out later McCain had made up his mind before.....early enough to tell Democratic Senate Minority Leader Schumer which way he voting. In fact Schumer and former VP Biden had been reaching out to McCain for days, an its highly unlikely he was the only one they reached out too.  The big shock is that apparently none of this was known to Mitch McConnell at a minimum. 

So why did McCain play the part of undecided in the run up to the vote? political cover for his colleagues

Many republican senators found themselves in a tight spot on the last vote....the bill was so precision focused it went only for the mandates the GOP had raised the most hell about for years.  So for most of them there was no good excuse not to vote for it.

Murkowski and Collins had an excuse....the same one they had always had, they come from the states most likely to be crushed by the effects of repeal that they are safe if not even helped (in collins case) by voting against the bill.

Other senators didnt have that luxury....their voters had drunk so much of the GOP bullshit kool-aid, they couldnt not vote for the bill without losing their seats. At the same time, they couldnt possibly allow the bill to pass and not risk losing their seats when their voters realized exactly how much bullshit they had been tricked into swallowing when repeal went into effect.

And the precision focus of the bill meant people like Shelly Moore Capito, Lindsey Graham and Dean Heller (among others) who had managed to create excuses for previous no votes on technicalities and issues with the bills, had by doing so created a situation where they had to vote for this as it had none of those problems. If they didnt, theyd be voted in in primaries.

 Now to be clear, I'm not excusing their votes. The fact they voted for the "skinny repeal" bill even though they all thought and said it would be a disaster if it became law is definitely something they should be held to account for, and likely should all lose their seats, and they are just praying you forget about it in 1,3 or 5, years when they are up for reelection. Im just explaining why they bothered with the maneuver at all.

So how does McCain factor into this?

Simple: He's not running in another election ever again.

Now he hasnt publicly said as much yet, and no one else will either because its incredibly brash, rude 

and morbid as can be to bring it up, but the fact of the matter is, John McCain's form of brain cancer has a 4% survival rate  over 5 years for people in their 40's and 50's. The older you are from that, the lesser the chance of survival. And McCain is about to turn 81.

Now I dont wish death on ANYONE, so I personally hope John McCain is alive and well in 2022 when he would be up for reelection, but the only way he even has a chance is to devote all of his time and effort to beating cancer. And he cant do that and be a senator at the same time.  Now he may choose to try (id be surprised) but he has to know even if he does he wont be able be an absentee senator and win in 2022.

So in essence John McCain is immune to any political fallout or consequences from the Right wing over his vote. There is nothing they can do to him.

Furthermore to be honest, they cant even really attack him that much.......because if they try to they public is going to think they look like dicks for attacking a guy with brain cancer. So they basically have to let the matter drop. (this by the way is also why Murkowski and Collins arnt exactly rushing for their share of the credit)

Which is perfect for the Republican party as a whole...if you cant talk about the repeal bills failure, you cant really talk about repeal. Which gets them out of the circular firing squad they found themselves in, where not repealing Obamacare would get them killed in primaries from the right, and repealing obamacare would get them killed in the general election

Admittedly some major damage was already done. The GOP has already started workings with democrats to find ways to improve the hated "Obamacare"...and the Democrats took the lead on that the minute the last repeal bill went down. So the democrats are likely to get at least half the credit for any improvements to the thing they already get the credit for creating. The GOP therefore gets left with the scraps on the credit....but they will take it as it will help to convinced the voters who turned on them over their repeal crusade, that they actually dont just want to harm or kill them to give the rich a tax cut.  It wont be enough, many of them are going to lose their seats in the next election...but at least they have an a route to rebuilding....not to mention changing the subject

Plus as another hit they are going to take, thanks to the "word  association" of Obamacare Barack Obama will be seen by the people of the future as a great president...meaning the republicans completely failed at their objective. But I think the GOP decided they would rather live with that than live with the backlash of what would have happened if they had passed the skinny repeal bill and got left holding the bag.

Or at least that was the plan. It appears Donald Trump, desperate to do something ANYTHING at all on any issue at all, forgot the whole thing was a scam (despite being in on it before), and sent his team out on TV today to basically demand the Senate keep fighting and losing on this issue. Office of Budget and Management Director Mulvaney says its official white house policy the senate keeps working to repeal Obamacare. President Trump believes if the senate doesnt keep fighting this dead issue they are all quiters and Kellyanne Conway is promising that Donald Trump will decide if hes going to implode Obamacare this week.....presumably with the intention of forcing the senate to do this again.

So at the end of the day, it appears John McCain may have been too little too late. He tried to reverse the biggest political mistake of  recent memory, and get the GOP out of this mess....but the presidents a kool aid drinker and now the GOP may wind up shooting themselves in the face a few more times as their party continues to crumble and look incompetence and unable to govern over the miscalculation of being against "Obamacare" but for most of their own idea, the ACA and the fallout from it, and lying to their voters about it.

Mar-a-lago Nights: The Ballard of Donnie Dumb-Dumb

So earlier this week, Donald Trump had a sit down interview with the New York Times. And it went about as well as all of his interviews do.....though admittedly this time he didnt go on TV and admit to obstruction of justice, so I suppose it could have gone worse.

Seriously though, I surprised Trump hasnt fired whoever it is in the white house who keeps scheduling these because they NEVER go well.  Instead of a sit down interview with the President of the United States, and all that title is supposed to suggest about the capabilities of the person holding it, it instead winds up being a 1-on-1 with Trump's true self Donnie Dumb-Dumb. (yes I know the nickname is childish....thats kinda the point, it fits well with Lyin Ted, Crooked Hillary, ect I wanted to give him a nickname in his own language)

Donnie Dumb-Dumb is the Donald Trump that he tries hard to hide from the world when he tries to convince them hes a success at anything, Donnie Dumb-Dumb is the result of a life time of never bothering to learn anything because no matter how bad you fucked up, you had money.  Donnie Dumb-Dumb is what happens when you use that money to hire people to tell you only the things you want to hear, and never tell you bad news or even intellectually challenge you or ask you to learn anything.

And if you want to know why Donald Trump's presidency is failing, or why the entire republican agenda writ large seems to be in trouble, its usually due to the existence of Donnie Dumb Dumb.

Now unfortunately the NYT has not released the entire conversation they had with Trump, but have put out a ton of excerpts. What that means though is that instead of going in order like I usually do, this one if going to be a bit random in order.

Anyways,
Donnie Dumb-Dumb moment #1: Why the Republicans cant pass Trumpcare.

"So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan. Here’s something where you walk up and say, “I want my insurance.” It’s a very tough deal, but it is something that we’re doing a good job of."


$12 a year for insurance? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Dumb-Dumb thinks insurance costs a dollar a month.

Well that actually explains a lot....such as why Trump seems to think he can cover everyone with great health insurance and do it so cheaply......he apparently doesnt know how much it costs.  Or how it works.

You dont start paying into healthcare at 21 so that you can go somewhere in 50 years and be like "Hey I'd like my money now". In fact, as far as I know, thats not how any kind of insurance works. That is how social security works I guess....though again its no where near $12 a year.

But as I said, it does explain quite a bit. President Trump cant come up with a healthcare repeal plan, because Donnie Dumb Dumb thought it was social security. So of course no one is listening to him, and republicans arnt getting any leadership from him.

Donnie Dumb-Dumb moment #2: Some kinda dumb and creepy shit about the french  
   
"After that, it was fairly surprising. He [President Emmanuel Macron of France] called me and said, “I’d love to have you there and honor you in France,” having to do with Bastille Day. Plus, it’s the 100th year of the First World War. That’s big. And I said yes. I mean, I have a great relationship with him. He’s a great guy."

No, its not the 100th year of the first World War Dumb-Dumb. That war ended 99 years ago. Its not still going on.

Nor does Bastille Day  have anything to do with World War I. Its the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789.

TRUMP: [Macron] a great guy. Smart. Strong. Loves holding my hand.

INTERVIEWER: I’ve noticed.

TRUMP: People don’t realize he loves holding my hand. And that’s good, as far as that goes.

TRUMP: I mean, really. He’s a very good person. And a tough guy, but look, he has to be. I think he is going to be a terrific president of France. But he does love holding my hand.

If there is one thing Donald Trump is not obsessed about its his hands. No not obsessed at all....just mentioned it 3 times in 3 sentences.....kinda creepy....but not overly sensitive about them, no sir.  
 
Donnie Dumb Dumb moment #3: Russian Winter

TRUMP: Well, Napoleon finished a little bit bad. But I asked that. So I asked the president, so what about Napoleon? He said: “No, no, no. What he did was incredible. He designed Paris.” [garbled] The street grid, the way they work, you know, the spokes. He did so many things even beyond. And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death. How many times has Russia been saved by the weather? [garbled]

[crosstalk/unintelligible]

TRUMP: Same thing happened to Hitler. Not for that reason, though. Hitler wanted to consolidate. He was all set to walk in. But he wanted to consolidate, and it went and dropped to 35 degrees below zero, and that was the end of that army.

We found out not to long ago that Dumb-Dumb thinks Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un, are all the same "gentleman" in North Korea. So I guess we shouldnt be too surprised that he doesnt know there were multiple french rulers named Napoleon, and the one who commissioned the redesign of paris was nephew of the one who invaded Russia.

Also apparently Dumb-Dumb thinks Russia was invaded in a single day? Or if Napoleon had left a few hours earlier he would have succeeded, but his homework was due or something. Honestly I'm not entirely sure what the fuck Dumb Dumb is babbling about with nights and extracurricular activities.

The one thing I know for sure is Napoleon's men didnt exactly freeze to death. Napoleon was actually fully prepared for Russian winters....the problem was, Russia had the warmest winter in a century the year he invaded, and therefore the rivers actually didnt freeze so he couldnt supply his men.  Though shockingly Dumb Dumb is almost right about Hitler, he wasnt consolidating his forces, but he did expect that he would face the 1 in 100 years warm winter and didnt prepare.  

Donnie Dumb Dumb moment #4. No English

TRUMP So, I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe [Shinzo Abe of Japan], who I think is a terrific guy, and she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English.

INTERVIEWR: Like, nothing, right? Like zero?

TRUMP: Like, not “hello.”

Yea about that: This is a speech given by PM Abe's wife:

So yea, she definitely speaks some English, dont know if shes fluent, but she can damn well say hello.

So either, Trump is lying here, because thats what he does for fun, or Mrs. Abe spent a few hours pretending not to know english so as to not talk to Trump and he totally bought it....which is hilarious if true.

Donnie Dumb Dumb moment #5: When he threw his son under a bus, and backed it up over him

TRUMP: [Putin and I] talked about Russian adoption. Yeah. I always found that interesting. Because, you know, he ended that years ago. And I actually talked about Russian adoption with him, which is interesting because it was a part of the conversation that Don [Jr., Mr. Trump’s son] had in that meeting. As I’ve said — most other people, you know, when they call up and say, “By the way, we have information on your opponent,” I think most politicians — I was just with a lot of people, they said [inaudible], “Who wouldn’t have taken a meeting like that?” They just said——

INTERVIEWER: The senators downstairs?

TRUMP: A lot of them. They said, “Who wouldn’t have taken a meeting like that?”

INTERVIEWER: You asked them about it at lunch?

TRUMP: Nah, a couple of them. They — now, that was before Russia was hot, don’t forget. You know, Russia wasn’t hot then. That was almost a year and a half ago. It wasn’t like it is, like it is radioactive, then. Russia was Russia.

First: Putin didnt end the anti american adoption thing years ago.

Second: the reason that policy exists is because of american sanctions put on Russia. Russia will remove the policy when we remove the sanctions. Which means you talked sanctions with Putin...which to be fair, on its own is perfectly fine

Third: According to your son Dumb Dumb Jr, the lady he met with wasnt a Representative of the Russian government. However according to you its interesting they would talk to you after talking to Jr. So it seems like your admitting the lady your son talked too was believed by your side to be part of the Russian government. Incidentally if this is true, this is literally the same thing Mike Flynn originally got in trouble for, and carries a possible 5 year jail sentence. Something tells me your not getting a fathers day gift from Jr any time soon.

Forth: "Part of the conversation"? Whats the rest of it? because according to Jr, the ENTIRE thing was about adoption. So yea, whats the rest of it? what else did you guys not tell the public yet

Fifth: Unrelated to all the above, the fuck happened at the end there? Notice how fast "a lot of them" went down to "a couple of them"? right about the time it was suggested the "lot " of them could be tracked down and asked if they would have been as stupid as Dumb Dumb Jr.

Donnie Dumb Dumb moment #6: It turns out I'm not the only person in the world and whats a lie?

TRUMP: Yeah, I think so. In retrospect. In retrospect. You know, when he wrote me the letter, he said, “You have every right to fire me,” blah blah blah. Right? He said, “You have every right to fire me.” I said, that’s a very strange — you know, over the years, I’ve hired a lot of people, I’ve fired a lot of people. Nobody has ever written me a letter back that you have every right to fire me.

[crosstalk]

BAKER: Do you think in hindsight, because of what’s happened since then

TRUMP: Comey wrote a letter.

HABERMAN: Which letter?

SCHMIDT: To you? To the F.B.I. staff or to you?

TRUMP: I thought it was to me, right?

BAKER: I think he wrote it to the staff, saying——

TRUMP: It might have been——

BAKER: That “the president has every right to fire me.”

TRUMP: It might have been. It was just a very strange letter to say that.

BAKER: But do you think in hindsight, given that——

TRUMP: What was the purpose in repeating that?

BAKER: Do you think what’s given that——

TRUMP: Do you understand what I mean? Why would somebody say, “He has every right to fire me,” bah bah bah. Why wouldn’t you just say, “Hey, I’ve retired …”
So apparently Dumb Dumb has trouble figuring out that a letter released to the FBI wasnt actually for him.....its almost like he doesnt realize the FBI exists. Also I love the suprise when the interviewers suggest that. He's like "oh...well yea, I guess that makes sense, I had never considered it might not have been for me despite not being given to me"

Also notice Donnie just a bit confused why Comey said the president had the right to fire him, when a lie (he was retiring) would have been simpler. And Republican wonder why they cant seem to get anything done with Dumb Dumb in the white house......


Donnie Dumb Dumb Moment #7: Hope theres some room left under that bus.....


TRUMP: Look, Sessions gets the job. Right after he gets the job, he recuses himself.

BAKER: Was that a mistake?

TRUMP: Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.

HABERMAN: He gave you no heads up at all, in any sense?

TRUMP: Zero. So Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. I then have — which, frankly, I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, “Thanks, Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.” It’s extremely unfair, and that’s a mild word, to the president. So he recuses himself. I then end up with a second man, who’s a deputy.

HABERMAN: Rosenstein.

TRUMP: Who is he? And Jeff hardly knew. He’s from Baltimore.

TRUMP: Yeah, what Jeff Sessions did was he recused himself right after, right after he became attorney general. And I said, “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I would have — then I said, “Who’s your deputy?” So his deputy he hardly knew, and that’s Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein, who is from Baltimore. There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any.
First: Of course Jeff Sessions recused himself. This is something everyone should have agreed was a good idea. Ok so pretend your a Trump supporter and you think Trump's totally innocent, which would you prefer? Jeff Sessions investigating a campaign he worked on, and claiming they didnt do anything wrong...and you should totally trust him on that, because its not like he could possibly be covering his own ass, or would you prefer someone with no connection to the campaign clear you so there is no question that it really IS nothing to see here and not an ass covering?

Yea well see Dumb Dumb may not understand that. 

Second: OK I suppose its possible Trump does actually understand that....but the problem is, Trump is actually guilty of something. Now it makes sense, of course youd want your hand picked guy in charge of the investigation because you're expecting him to cover for you.  Now it makes perfect sense why youd be mad he recused himself and didnt tell you before hand. And why it would be extremly unfair that your about to get caught for your own crimes.

Granted, even if that was the case, I wouldnt say anything implying that to the news, but then again Im not a Dumb Dumb.

Third: Ok so if being from Baltimore is a problem, if Jeff Sessions allegedly not knowing who the guy is is a problem,  and if you dont know who Rosenstein is....WHY DID YOU APPOINT HIM?

Wait....you do know YOU appointed him right?......Oh No....Dumb Dumb, did you sign the nomination paper without reading it first?  Did Bannon make you do it? Was Preibus bullying you?  Did Kushner say you could borrow his toy? Damn it Dumb Dumb....

Donnie Dumb Dumb Moment #8 Wait why'd I fire Comey?
TRUMP: Look, there are so many conflicts that everybody has. Then Rosenstein becomes extremely angry because of Comey’s Wednesday press conference, where he said that he would do the same thing he did a year ago with Hillary Clinton, and Rosenstein became extremely angry at that because, as a prosecutor, he knows that Comey did the wrong thing. Totally wrong thing. And he gives me a letter, O.K., he gives me a letter about Comey. And by the way, that was a tough letter, O.K. Now, perhaps I would have fired Comey anyway, and it certainly didn’t hurt to have the letter,

So Donnie was going to fire Comey on the word of a guy he just said was totally unknown and trustworthy...except not cause he might have done it anyways...Looks like Dumb Dumb forgot which excuse hes supposed to be going with to stay out of legal trouble here. He also just implied the letter was good cover for firing Comey if he was going to do it anyways. Someone please read Dumb Dumb the 5th amendment.....slowly, and use small words.

Donnie Dumb-Dumb Moment #9: He aint no Nostradamus
SCHMIDT: Last thing, if Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line?

HABERMAN: Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is?

TRUMP: I would say yeah. I would say yes.[...]

HABERMAN: Would you fire Mueller if he went outside of certain parameters of what his charge is? [crosstalk]

SCHMIDT: What would you do?

[crosstalk]

TRUMP: I can’t, I can’t answer that question because I don’t think it’s going to happen.

This morning it was announced that Bob Muller crossed the red line....he's looking at Trump's personal, family and business fiances.  But hey, generally thats why you dont tell someone investigating you "Dont you dare look here" because thats exactly where they are going to look.....

Anyways, that wraps up the 8 biggest times (cause the last one doesnt really count) that Donnie Dumb Dumb took front and center stage in the most recent interview with President Trump. And I got to say, as someone who assumes Trump will be impeached or resigned, I for one am grateful that Donnie Dumb Dumb exists, cause hes a huge help in accomplishing that goal.

How to get to The Impeachment of a President

In November of 1998 Newt Gingrich tried to impeach a president, now 19 years later, it seems he may get his wish.

And this isnt entirely a cheap shot at Gingrich either....his attempt to impeach Clinton might actually link into the future impeachment of President Trump.

So despite what was written on the articles of impeachment for Clinton, the public case was basically the guy was immoral cause he was cheated on his wife and was having all of these affairs and Gingich and rest of the GOP keep bringing up new stories and new allegations to attack Clinton with...what his wife called a "vast right wing conspiracy", and some of these allegations started prior to the actual impeachment proceedings

Well one of the "Conspirators" was a gentleman named Peter W. Smith, who back in the 1990's actually worked for Newt Gingrich's political action committee.  Smith was the one who went digging into some reports by Arkansas State Troopers and eventually led him and David Brock (at the time a conservative and working with Smith) to one Paula Jones...the first of many well known stories about Bill Clinton's affairs.

Now how does this have any bearing on Donald Trump's possible impeachment nearly two decades later?

Simple. Smith never gave up the cause. He kinda made it his lifes mission to attack the Clintons.  And not too long after then Candidate Trump suggested the Russians did hack and should turn over Clintons emails during a campaign speech, Smith decided to test that exact theory.

So he, and a group he put together to assist him with this task reached out to Russian hackers and operatives to try to acquire the emails.  Of course this wound up being futile because while its true Hillary's servers COULD have been hacked, but as the FBI itself determined there is no evidence it was.

But thats not to say his attempts were inconsequential. Far from it. In fact based on the timeline Smith gave to the Wallstreet Journal, it seems possible that it was Smith's attempts at reaching out to the Russian hackers, that were picked up by the FBI and used as the justification to start the investigation into collusion between Trump and Russia in the first place, as the intercepted communications mentioned trying to get the Hillary Emails to the Trump campaign.

However, it should be noted Smith denies working for the Trump Campaign, and they deny employing him....and that seems to be true.

But wait I hear you ask, how does this get Trump impeached? Afterall didn't I just prove it was possible the communications the FBI intercepted originated with someone outside the Trump campaign, and therefore actually clear the Trump campaign of any wrongdoing?

Nope. Because it turns out, just like in the 1990's Smith wasnt working alone...he claims he had a partner....Michael Flynn. And not just Michael Flynn either, Smith claims that the Flynn Intel Group, Flynns consulting firm was partnered with him, and that Michael Flynn Jr was actually one of the members of his investigative group.

Now for what its worth, Flynn Sr, Jr, and the firm have all refused to comment on the connection, but the Trump campaign allowed it was possible Smith was working for Flynn in his role as a private individual but not as part of the campaign.

In short, what this means (if true) is that Smith's efforts were directly connected to a member of the Trump campaign, and therefore the Trump campaign was in fact attempting to collude illegally with Russian operatives. It may be worth noting here that Smith says he is pretty sure several of the groups he got in contact with that either claimed they had or could obtain the emails were connected to the Russian government. (though even if they arnt it doesnt really matter, colluding with any foreigner to interfere in an election is a crime)

But even this would just prove that one member of the Trump campaign was engaging in illegal activity, it doesnt prove Trump did. And had Trump just let things play out he'd likely be fine right now.

But he didnt...instead he made 2 major mistakes that now make this rise to the level of an impeachment level threat to his presidency.

Mistake 1) He refused to fire Mike Flynn when first first got caught
Mistake 2) He fired James Comey and went on TV and stated it was because of "that Russian thing"

Now admittedly I already covered the details and as step by step of the Flynn firing a few blogs back so I wont waste time rehashing it here, but if you want the full version click here.

But basically of those 2 events the important facts are these:

Trump didnt fire Flynn [who he already knew was taking money from the Turks] for 18 days after the FBI alerted him to [what would be from trumps point of view, additional] possible wrongdoing by Flynn with Russia, and appears to have only fired him because the media got the story. This is in stark contrast to Paul Manafort who was canned almost immediately after Trump became aware he was working for a Ukrainian group funded by the Russian

After being fired Flynn tried to get an immunity deal.....suggesting he had something on Trump.

Then we move on the James Comey firing. Trump has already said it was because of the Russia thing, and at the time the focus of the investigation was the already fired Mike Flynn.

So, based on those 3 things, it seems Trump for whatever reason didnt want to fire Flynn and tried to prevent him from even being investigated, for an as of then unknown reason. And that Flynn at least seemed to think no matter what he got in trouble for, he had something worse on the President.

And well, this would seem fit perfectly into the "holes" of the above summery.

Consider, if Donald Trump at least knew about (if not outright asked or suggested it in the first place) Flynn working with Smith to reach out to foreign agents to hack the US government, it would be the perfect reason for him to want to keep Flynn on his staff no matter what, to make sure Flynn couldnt sell him out for what is definitely illegal and would be seen by many as an act of treason (it probably isnt but good luck convincing people of the difference).

It would also explain the reports coming out from time to time that Trump wants to and expects to bring Flynn back to his circle after the investigation concludes. He needs to keep Flynn close by.

And it would explain why even after Flynn was fired, Trump still tried to protect him from the investigation by firing James Comey, to stop the FBI from finding out about this.

And lastly it would explain what Mike Flynn though he could offer in exchange for immunity. And if I was Donald Trump i'd be up at night wondering if the reason he was turned down was because at the time this was so disconnected from everything else, the FBI didnt know about it yet and didnt realize the value of what Flynn had, or if they already knew, and therefore Flynn had nothing to offer him.

Now admittedly this entire thing has two major bits of speculation in it. The first is the assumption the Smith is telling the truth about working with Flynn, which its possible he was not.

The second is the assumption that Donald Trump knew about it. Its possible he didnt, and hes just stupid and the entire thing is a series of unfortunate coincidences.

But the problem for Donald Trump, at least from an impeachment standpoint, is only one of this bits of speculation matters.  We dont actually need conclusive proof Trump knew about any of this to impeach him, a "preponderance of evidence" that he probably did or should have is enough. After all, its been 45 years and we still cant conclusively prove Nixon knew about Watergate. (Quick show of hands by the way, anyone think he didnt do it? ANYONE?)

And thats where Trump's other problems feed into this.

First, while not claiming to directly work with them, Smith did claim he could get access to and had talked with Steve Bannon, Chief White house Strategist, and Kellyanne Conway, another of trumps advisors.  And well the more people in Trumps inner circle knew about the Smith, the higher the likelyhood Trump did do.

Second. At the moment Jared Kushner, the Presidents son in law and possibly his most trusted adviser (giving all the responsibility hes given), is being investigated for money laundering on behalf of the Russians. The investigation appears to hinge on two things, buying a building for more than its fair market value, which he then loaned to Deutsche Bank, which happens to be Donald Trump's biggest creditor, and at the time was involved in a russian backed money laundering scandal in which as part of it, Deutsche Bank would reemberse via rent people with accounts at the bank who over-payed for buildings, which is how they effectively cleaned the money (just to keep the explanation kinda simple if also imprecise). It should be noted by the way that this deal was worked out by Marc Kasowitz, who is currently severing as Donald Trump's personal lawyer defending him from the special prosecutor.

Kushner is also alleged to have had a private meeting (that he later failed to disclose on his security paperwork) with the heads of Vnesheconombank a bank run by the Russian government, that also happens to be another Trump creditor. At this meeting Kushner is alleged to have tried to set up a back channel line of communications between the Trump Campaign and Vladimir Putin, specifically to discuss Syria, and the point of contact he suggested for these conversations was Mike Flynn.

Third: (And this is new). The other day Trump and TV show Morning Joe got into a bit of a spat. Now to be honest with you, this would normally be totally irrelevant if not for the fact that both sides claim they had previously been in contact over a national enquirer story that was going to out the fact that the Morning Joe co-hosts had been carrying on an affair behind one of their spouses backs  (for the record, they deny the affair, claiming the relationship started after both were divorced).

Now Trump claims the two hosts contacted him to see if he could get the enquirer to pull the story, given that he and the owner of the enquirer are close friends and he refused, which is legal.

Morning Joe on the other hand, claims Trump's administration contacted them, and threatened them with having the enquirer run the story unless they both personally apologized to him for running negative coverage of him on their show. Furthermore Morning Joe claims to have kept copies of all the communications between them and team trump, as well as notify their employers NBCUniversial at the time of the original conversations a few months back. Lastly they are also claiming that the person who contacted them was Jared Kushner. It should be noted if Morning Joe is telling the truth Team Trump would have broken laws on extortion and coercion, in DC (where Trump lives) New York (Where morning Joe is) and the federal level.

What I'm getting at is, there are enough other things going on right now to easily paint a picture of a corrupt administration. So proving Trump's personally knowledge isnt necessary as a preponderance of evidence is starting to suggest that their is too much going on for him not to have some idea unless he's intentionally trying not to.

Nixon, again was never proven to have direct knowledge of anything, instead the "proof" stopped with the second incarnation of the "Watergate Seven" most famously H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman.

Trump, its starting to seem may have his own haldeman and ehrlichman, Kushner and Flynn, who seem to be connected to .

Now I'll admit, this narrative here isnt all inclusive. For example it doesnt really explain Jeff Sessions' motivations or reasons for repeatedly committing perjury as far as his interactions with the Russian Ambassador, why he either didnt object to James Comey's firing, warn Trump it would blow up in his face (which is his job), and/or went along with the original bullshit justification, and as an result may expose himself to conspiracy charges, if shit hits the fan

It also doesnt explain Devin Nunes' motivations for his involvement, back when he was supposed to be investigating Trump and instead helped participate in a white house stunt in which he pretended to brief them on new information he'd uncovered that exonerated them, only to have it come out the information he briefed the white house on was given to him in secret the day before by the white house.

Nor does it deal with Roger Stone, a long time Trump adviser who claimed direct access to and influence over Wikileaks, who is under investigation for unknown (but believed to be related to Trump) reasons by the FBI.

However all of that suggests only that there is still more to come and that the pit around Trump is going to get deeper and deeper.

But, again assuming Smith is telling the truth, what we have now for the first time ever is an thread tying the original FBI investigation to the Trump campaign that also explains the fills the holes in that particular charges public narrative.

Which is exactly what you dont want if your trying to avoid impeachment.