GOPers Rehash ACA Repeal Fail, Trump Goes All In For Georgia Special Election And Horrifying Sea Creatures

April 18, 2017 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [On Recess, GOPers Rehash Their O’Care Repeal Fail: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly]( The Gist: Congressional Republicans are about halfway through a hellish two-week recess, their first since their unpopular Obamacare repeal bill was disastrously pulled from the House floor. [Trump Goes All In On Georgia Special Election With Robocall, Fiery Tweets]( The Gist: As Tuesday’s special election to fill an open House seat in Georgia drew closer, President Donald Trump upped his attacks on Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate leading the race. [Two More Plaintiffs Join Lawsuit Alleging Trump Is Violating The Constitution]( The Gist: Two plaintiffs on Monday joined a federal lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump is in breach of the Constitution by continuing to host foreign governments at his resorts while in the Oval Office, according to the Washington Post.” From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- An Oregon man named Michael Elliott apparently died at peace on April 6 after his “ex-wife and best friend” told him a little white lie: that President Donald Trump had been impeached," TPM's Kristin Salaky reported. “The last thing she said to him was ‘Donald Trump has been impeached.'” [the obituary reads](. “Upon hearing that he took his final, gentle breath, his earthly work concluded.” Agree or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Marshall: "But it’s a simple fact that Google is a big, big, big part of the early 21st century monopoly capitalism story. A huge amount of Google’s value is derived from siphoning value from the creative work or productivity of others and making that into profit for Google. To a degree this is in the nature of most disintermediation and a lot of capitalism. One woman’s siphoning value is another’s creating value. [It’s complicated](. The key though is that Google enforces its actions with an almost unprecedented monopoly power. I’m not sure I know the solution to that. We may even be better off on balance. But we should recognize that it is a fact." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "You look at different things over the years with President Obama. Everybody has been outplayed, they’ve all been outplayed by this gentleman. And we’ll see what happens. But I just don’t telegraph my moves." - President Donald Trump [wouldn’t say whether he had ruled out a military strike against North Korea]( on Monday, saying only “we’ll see what happens.” BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "Many criticize Comey and the Obama Admin for slowness on moving on Putin’s interference in our election. I am less critical when I see what they confronted. All is murk in the world in which Trump lives. One reason that I expect that we will catch him is that there are so many strands of corruption and I expect that one or more of them will leave a record. However, the many strands make the early look extremely confusing. McConnell threatened that he would politicize any attempt to let the people know about Trump ties to our enemy. Until the very end, it looked as if Clinton would win, so it was easy to worry that more publicity about this attack would make it harder for her to govern. This situation is similar to what we now know was Nixon’s treason in asking the South Vietnamese to 'hold off' on a peace agreement. We knew that the South Vietnamese had been asked on Nixon’s behalf, it is only recently that we learned that Nixon personally ordered the treason (Haldeman took notes). The tapes show that LBJ knew of the treason but did not have evidence to pin it on Nixon. LBJ did not reveal it and the rest is history, and the wasted deaths of another 20,000 Americans. This was infinitely less complicated and confusing malfeasance." Related: Dem Rep.: Kushner ['Intentionally Omitted' Meetings With Russians]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- Meet The Actor With A Disability Who Is Helping To Transform A Classic Play ([BuzzFeed]( Ten Horrifying Deep Sea Creatures, Ranked ([Gizmodo]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](