TGIF 3/29/19

Yay! Friday!

We don't have a Mueller Report yet, but we have a promise that we'll have it by mid-April, which is good progress and shows a commitment from AG Bill Barr to do the right thing. And that's what he said he'd do during his confirmation hearing.

The best part? He's not going to give Trump or his lawyers a chance to privilege the executive out of the report. That, too, is a good sign that Barr is doing as best he can to make as much of the report available as possible.

And while I don't agree with Nancy Pelosi's take that his summary memo was "condescending" either in tone or approach, I wholeheartedly agree with reports that she suggested her members all "take a deep breath" when news broke last week that Mueller had completed his investigation.

Taking everything into consideration, I think Barr had a good week.

How did some other folks do?

Boy, I think the Republicans thought they were going to have a good week. Barr's summary of Mueller's report came out on Sunday, and there was no collusion and enough conflicting evidence on the obstruction issue that Mueller punted and Barr decided the president wouldn't be charged, and neither would any of his family or any more of his confidants and staffers. Everyone on the Trump News Network was beside themselves with joy, everyone on MSNBC was in tears - what could go wrong for the Red Team?

Their captain, that's what could go wrong.  In the midst of what should have been his best week ever,  Trump decided to tell his Justice Department to abandon the Affordable Care Act once and for all. Except he forgot to tell his team - you know, the Rs in Congress, that he was going to do it.  So now, they've got to come up with a health care plan, in a hurry.

But it gets worse:  twice in court this week, Trump's gang lost. The first loss came when a judge said that it's not right to demand people work to get healthcare, so work requirements for Medicaid are out, at least until the appeals are heard. The second one, which is even more damaging to Trump, was that his fake association plans were tossed. That scheme would have allowed completely unrelated and unaffiliated companies to group together solely for the purpose of buying health insurance that specifically doesn't meet the ACA requirements.  Oopsy.

How can you turn a good week in to such a bad one? Just be your presidential self, I guess.

Now, the speed round:

• Adam Schiff got a vote of no confidence from the entire Republican contingent on the House Intelligence committee. I've suggested that whatever evidence he says he has proving Trump or Trump administration with Russia must be produced immediately. The Rs just want him to resign. He fought back, without producing any actual evidence, but he's got the support of Pelosi, so safe for now.
• The Green New Deal was hammered in a hearing, with some opponents resorting to creative photo editing in order to make their points. Mark Hamill was not happy to have his Luke Skywalker used to rebut the GND by Utah's Mike Lee. 
• Speaking of Mike Lee, he suggested that more babies would be a good way to deal with climate change. Which was not well received, as you might imagine.

I'll leave it there for this week.  

TGIF, everyone.