PROGRESSIVE DISCUSSION - MONDAY 7/31

Good morning!

Linda, hope your party was a huge success and that you enjoyed every moment. After all that fun and a few days of house guests, I'll bet you are ready for a rest.

Here we are about to start August, and nothing has changed for the better. JA is still threatening healthcare. We'll see what the General can do to straighten out the mess that is in the WH, but I don't have much hope since the root of the issue there is the JA in the Oval. So it just goes on . . . Will it ever end?

As for healthcare, the WH keeps saying that the American people want repeal. I don't believe that. I can not believe that even his most ardent supporters want the rug pulled out from under people if they truly understand. I think the majority of those people have no idea what repeal would actually mean. They simply have heard the mantra repeated over and over and so they join in on the chorus. It's like a song that keeps running through their head. He threatens to stop the government subsidy payments. Well, if Rs allow that to happen they will have a heavy price to pay when people realize what actually happens when they force Obamacare to fail. But the political consequences don't really matter when you look at the heavy consequences that will be paid within people's lives. Not the JA's life or anyone he loves, because they don't have to worry about it. It's that base of his that will suffer along with many others, but a large portion of his base. He may shoot himself in the foot.

It is long past time for Rs to give up the mantra, and come together and actually work with the Ds to repair what is broken within Obamacare.

Quick HI...Party was great....Everyone seemed to enjoy it. The 2 sons did a great job organizing & were wise enough not to keep it a surprise as origionally planned. I'm straightening & putting house back together, so will post more later. I was somewhat blissfully ignorant of all things JA & politics for the entire weekend, , but am caught up now...UGH!

Just out from Robert Reich . . .

"This morning I phoned my friend, a former Republican member of Congress.

Me: What's going on? Seems like the White House is imploding, and Republicans are going down with the ship.

Him (chuckling): We’re officially a banana republic.

Me: Seriously, what are you hearing from your former colleagues on the Hill?

Him: They’re convinced Trump is out of his gourd.

Me: So what are they going to do about it?

Him: Remember what I told you at the start of this circus? They planned to use Trump’s antics for cover, to get done what they most wanted – big tax cuts, rollbacks of regulations, especially financial. They’d work with Pence behind the scenes and forget the crazy uncle in the attic.

Me: Yeah.

Him: Well, I’m hearing a different story now. Stuff with Sessions is pissing them off. And now Trump's hired that horse’s ass Scaramucci -- a communications director who talks dirty on CNN! Plus Trump’s numbers are in freefall. They think he’s gonna hurt them in ’18 and ’20.

Me: So what’s the plan?

Him: They want him outa there.

Me: Really? Impeachment?

Him: Doubt it, unless Mueller comes up with a smoking gun.

Me: Or if he fires Mueller.

Him: Not gonna happen.

Me: So how do they get him out?

Him: Put someone else up in ’20. Lots of maneuvering already. Pence, obviously. Cruz thinks he has a shot.

Me: But that won’t help them in the midterms. What’s the plan before then?

Him: Lots think he’s fritzing out.

Me: Fritzing out?

Him: Going totally bananas. Paranoia. You want to know why he fired Priebus, wants Sessions out, and is now gunning for Tillerson?

Me: He wants to shake things up?

Him (chuckling): No. The way I hear it, he thinks they’ve been plotting against him.

Me: What do you mean?

Him: Twenty-fifth amendment! Read it! A Cabinet can get rid of a president who’s nuts. Trump thinks they’ve been preparing a palace coup. So one by one, he’s firing them.

Me: I find it hard to believe they’re plotting against him.

Him: Of course not! It’s ludicrous. Sessions is a loyal lapdog. Tillerson doesn't know where the bathroom is. That’s my point. Trump is fritzing out. Having manic delusions. He’s actually going nuts.

Me: And?

Him: Well, it’s downright dangerous.

Me: Yeah, but that still doesn’t tell me what Republicans are planning to do about it.

Him: Look. How long do you think it will be before everyone in Washington knows he’s flipping out? I don’t mean just weird. I mean really off his rocker.

Me: I don’t know.

Him: No all that long.

Me: So what are you telling me?

Him: They don’t have to plot against him. It will be obvious to everyone that he’s got to go. That’s where the twenty-fifth amendment really does comes in.

Me: So you think…

Him: Who knows? But he’s losing it fast. My betting is he’s out of office before the midterms. And Pence is president."

Someone had better be out oiling the revolving door on the white house.