Friday, March 31, 2017

Friday T-rump STUPID Roundup



With the Wealthy Shepherd's first 100 days in office approaching complete failure, accompanied by a falling approval rate down to 36%, it is a wonder that Donald Trump could herd so many poor souls into his pasture of hate and obscenity; enough to elect him President. A Washington Post poll reports that, "...many Republicans who voted for Trump did so despite their reservations about him — including his temperament and his comments about women, minorities and a disabled reporter." Any woman or disabled person voting for this man is an idiot. Sorry, but true.

Like Daddy, like son. Donald Jr. insults the Mayor of London. Following a terrorist incident in the city when a man ran a car into pedestrians and then fatally stabbed a police officer, the Mayor Sadiq Khan commented the obvious, “Terror attacks are part of living in big city.” The Junior tweeted, "You have to be kidding me?!: Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan." The mayor wasn't being callous, and The Daily Beast wrote that Trump Jr. "goaded" the mayor of the British capital. Goaded defined: a stick with a pointed or electrically charged end, for driving cattle, oxen, etc.; prod. Now the Trump family is into agriculture.

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was investigating a top member of President Trump’s cabinet when he was fired, reports the New York Daily News. That member just happens to be Tom Price, Health & Human Services Secretary, for trading health care stocks even as he was involved in legislation while serving in the House of Representatives. "In December, the Wall Street Journal reported Price traded more than $300,000 worth of shares in health companies over a recent four-year period." Interesting since "Trump had asked him personally to stay on the job."

Jeff Sessions, the raging racist, who also happens to be Attorney General of the U.S., has threatened to withhold funds from sanctuary cities that take in illegal aliens and shield them from the federal government. Sessions is following up on Donald Trump 2016 campaign promises. Reason.com says, "Sessions may not like the idea of sanctuary cities, but sanctuary cites are protected by both the Constitution and by Supreme Court precedent." It's a matter of the 10th Amendment and the "constitutional principles of federalism." Sounds like Law 101. And this is our Atty. General?

Sean Spicer may implode before his boss, Donald John. He's the stupefied doormat between the lunatic and an aroused and pissed off press corp. It's pitiful and everything is right out there for the world to see. Apparently, there was a near meltdown when Spicer got testy with a reporter who got under his "no connection with Russia" skin. After shaking her head at him following her other unanswered questions, he snapped back, “Please, stop shaking your head again.” The mystification is over the fact that Spicer continues to ignore facts on Russia that the FBI is investigating.

President Trump's funding request for a border wall will likely be put on hold. The Hill reports that Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said that Donald Trump's funding request for a border wall between Mexico will be put on hold to later this year. The GOP is more concerned right now with passing a bill to fund the government through 2017. Apparently, the consensus is that FY17's needs will be much more likely to get approval without the wall that most agree will be an exercise in futility. DJ still batting zero.

Who needs medical research? Certainly not the United States. Donald John tried to repeal Obamacare and failed so now he's taking it out on medical research. Charles Kieffer, Democratic staff director on the Senate Appropriations Committee says Trump is targeting science programs along with a 20% cut in National Institutes of Health's budget, asking for an immediate $1.2 billion cut to the agency. There is no doubt that there are areas ripe for challenge, such as the congressional pork that is passed and you can see 2016 right here. But a flat 20% cut? Probably that which helps the needy.


Thursday, March 30, 2017

Trump Internet privacy action spells doom called BIG BROTHER


I worked in the junk mail industry for over 35 years and can vouch for the fact that your personal data is neither private nor is it protected to the extent it should be. So, it comes as no surprise to me that the Congress has just sent Donald Trump legislation that literally obliterates any advances in privacy that former President Obama was able to get passed. Here's the Washington Post's coverage of that milestone by the Federal Communications Commission. It blocked many of the plans of...
"...AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, which had hoped to use their privileged access to user data to build lucrative businesses by targeting advertising across multiple devices."
The greed for data is never-ending and many people ask me, why do you keep harping over the loss of more personal information like this if you claim that most of it is already out there...all over the world? My answer is the same when questioned about my advocacy for gun control, stating that putting more guns on the street won't help the problem like the NRA claims. It just results in more violent deaths as we've seen. Likewise, putting more personal data out there is a huge benefit to businesses wanting to track your personal data, but can end up resulting in more identity theft.

The simplest amount of private information can benefit the identity thieves in finding your most personal and exclusive data, like bank records, passwords, investments, etc. That small need is no more than name and date of birth. That's right, that small measure of data can be matched to your address, which is available everywhere including Facebook, which turns the crooks on to all the bells and whistles they use to walk right into your bank account. If you have never been to the Internet Underground take a look. You'll find your Social security number there if you look hard enough.

So, the Republican morons of Congress, because they want no obstacles in the way of corporate profit, have opened the door to "...what companies could do with information such as customer browsing habits, app usage history, location data and Social Security numbers..." by freeing the likes of AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from earlier restrictions. Here's more from the Senate...
"The Senate has already voted to nullify those measures, which were set to take effect at the end of this year. If Trump signs the legislation as expected, providers will be able to monitor their customers’ behavior online and, without their permission, use their personal and financial information to sell highly targeted ads — making them rivals to Google and Facebook in the $83 billion online advertising market."
Your personal data is sold to junk mail companies for solo offers and their catalog mailings which are in the billions every year. It also goes to other marketers and the financial industry, providing all of them the information necessary to come up with a profile of you that is so scary, it challenges the imagination. It's called targeting, and companies are getting so good that they can very accurately predict the results from any advertising campaign. And get this...
""...the Federal Communications Commission, which initially drafted the protections, will be forbidden from issuing similar rules in the future."
In other words, you no longer have even the minimum of protections, and I would make a bet right now, identity theft incidences will start climbing and 2017 could be a banner year.

Want to know what happens the minute you open your browser and start searching? How-To Geek explains the whole process...
"...your web browser stores data about your browsing history. When you visit a website, your browser logs that visit in your browser history, saves cookies from the website, and stores form data it can autocomplete later. It also saves other information, such as a history of files you’ve downloaded, passwords you’ve chosen to save, searches you’ve entered in your browser’s address bar, and bits of web pages to speed page load times in the future (also known as the cache)."
After reading this, think all is lost? Not really if you choose to use Chrome's "Incognito" window, or Private Browsing, or InPrivate Browsing, sites that will improve your ability to stay private, but are not proof positive. As an example, here is Incognito's caveat...
"Pages you view in incognito tabs won’t stick around in your browser’s history, cookie store, or search history after you’ve closed all of your incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept.
However, you aren’t invisible. Going incognito doesn’t hide your browsing from your employer, your internet service provider, or the websites you visit."
So, with Donald Trump in the White House and as long as Republicans have control of Congress, my advice to you, and also from the top privacy advocates, GO INCOGNITO OR PRIVATE! 

If you're not completely sure yet, read this admonition from Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy...
“Today’s vote means that Americans will never be safe online from having their most personal details stealthily scrutinized and sold to the highest bidder.”
Privacy advocates have been attempting to convince the public for years to be careful who they give their private information to, especially things like your Social Security number and driver license number. Either of those numbers plus a name and address is an invitation for identity thieves to come in and help themselves to everything personal about you. Of course there is some credibility to the fact that the use of this data could help marketers to better target your needs. The problem with these people is, they never know when enough is enough. And the consumer is always the one who suffers.

By the way, the changes in the privacy rules were brought to you by none other than our do-willie Arizona Senator, Jeff Flake, who certainly lives up to his last name. He has been in office for three years and was polled as the most unpopular Senator in Washington, replacing Mitch McConnell. Now, in my opinion, anyone who could replace this asshole must be lower than the bottom of the barrel. Contact Jeff Flake and tell him what you think: AZscheduling@flake.senate.gov Tell him we're all sick of Congress letting big business trample our rights.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

GOP now has total control...or does it?


The Rat Pack...Ryan-Trump_McConnell
Donald Trump's future couldn't be shakier after the defeat of Speaker Paul Ryan's American Health Care Act, but even more insecure is Ryan's speakership. He hasn't led this Congress anywhere but in the direction of those issues he favors. But then, this Congress seems only to have the capacity for the perpetuation of hate and opposition to anything Democrat. Trump has made that ideology a priority from the beginning of his campaigning for 2016, right through the inauguration and into the Oval Office. Senate leader Mitch McConnell is absolutely overjoyed.

But what brings McConnell back to earth is Congress' inability to repeal Obamacare. Here's a look at Donald John blowing off about what he would do, which he didn't do...
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump told the Washington Post after the election. Under Trumpcare, according to Trump, people “can expect to have great health care. It will be in much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.”
And then trump tweeted after defeat: “ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!” Always the psychopathic windbag, that would never admit he was wrong or that he has been soundly defeated...by his own Party. This is basically how it has come down over the years, according to Vox...
"This was bolder and brasher than what more establishment-minded Republicans had said over the years. But it was, fundamentally, similar to promises and insinuations made by Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and dozens of other Republicans. It’s not just that the Affordable Care Act was killing jobs and sentencing people to death panels. It’s that Republicans had some much better plan in their back pocket that would give Americans what they want — cheap, comprehensive health insurance that offers them oodles of choice."
Vox is saying that Trump and Republicans are now paying for this great line of bullshit served up by both, even though it helped Republicans win Congress and eventually the White House at the time. But what happens now, when Trump is behind the eight ball and needs to get tax legislation passed? After the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and then enactment of AHCA failed miserably, he will still be dealing with the same Republicans, needing their support even more so since the savings from Obamacare replacement will not be realized. Where will the money come from for reduced taxes?

And there's much more to be done that Donald John promised the poor souls that supported him. As recent as March 15, in Nashville, he was still talking the repeal of Obamacare and chastising judges for blocking his travel bans. And in Louisville, he delivered his populist and nationalist appeal, no doubt crafted by Steve Bannon, to clamp down on illegal immigration and bar terrorists from America. These rallies are designed to garner public support for Trump's programs, but where he should be focusing his efforts is on Congress.

Leading up to the House vote on Obamacare, both Donald Trump and Paul Ryan had promised their own healthcare bill which the Speaker delivered to a very reluctant and disillusioned Congress. The GOP has been pretty well in sync on getting rid of Barack Obama's health care program with Mitch McConnell leading the venomous attack. Here's what conservatives in general thought of the ACA...
"...it taxes rich people too much, and coddles Americans with excessively generous, excessively subsidized health insurance plans. They want a world of lower taxes on millionaires while millions of Americans put “skin in the game” in the form of higher deductibles and copayments. Exactly the opposite, in other words, of what Republican politicians have been promising."
That last sentence says it all. So much promised but nothing delivered. And with 2018 mid-terms coming, Trump's inability to deliver may well weigh heavily on those Republican districts up for grabs. All of the analysis to date is now outmoded since the healthcare fiasco has shown the weakness in the GOP armor, something that will need vast improvement before any new programs are introduced by the Trump administration. And here are more items on the White House agenda...
"...a $1 trillion investment in roads and other infrastructure and proposed crackdowns on both legal and illegal immigration, will require the support of Democrats, many of whom have been alienated by the highly partisan start to Trump’s tenure."
The one high point Trump had was the nomination of Neil Gorsuch for Scalia's Supreme Court seat which looked to be pretty safe until last Friday...
"Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, may fall short of the votes needed for smooth passage in the Senate next week, potentially dashing Republican hopes for an easy victory after the stinging defeat of the American Health Care Act last week."
The above comment from the Washington Post reflects the turmoil created by Paul Ryan's damaging loss with his healthcare program. But even if Gorsuch misses the 60 votes needed, there's still the "nuclear" option available to Republicans; although a right which would get Gorsuch approved, it hasn't even been tried since 1917. That year, instead, it resulted in reform of the Senate's filibuster rules. Bernie Sanders warned against its use, advice that the GOP should consider since a day will come when Democrats will again control Congress and the White House.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Trump's "The Art of the Deal" shattered by Paul Ryan


In November of 1987, Donald Trump's book, The Art of the Deal, was published and received well by the public. Today on Amazon it is 2,662 overall in books, #2 in biographies and memoirs, #13 in business and money and #22 in biographies and memoirs. That is good, considering the number of books published these days and the reviews are mostly positive. But in the book, he warns his readers "Never seen desperate." Well, he blew that theory during the recent blowout of Ryan’s American Health Care Act proposal. It went down in flames in spite of Donald John's disparaging begging.

The Progressive reports that although Trump pledged not to cut Medicare, Ryan's bill cut it $880 billion from the program, and the Freedom Caucus members wanted to cut much more. Ryan's bill which favors the wealthy and large corporations would...
 "...devastate care for the most vulnerable ACA beneficiaries like the poor, disabled, and elderly. The Ryan plan would produce more deaths by swelling the ranks of the uninsured whose untreated conditions prove fatal."
From as far back as his tax-cutting proposals, to his American Health Care Act, Paul Ryan has been one of the most callous politicians toward the poor and needy of anyone I can remember. I can see why the man gets reelected by looking at the demographics of his 1st District in Wisconsin. Median income over $50,000; 91.1% white; 4.7% black; 5% Hispanic; and 57.7% white collar. Although his last election was close, and the next, well, we'll just see. Here's a stark statistic from the health care industry itself, published in the American Journal of Public Health...
"The Republican plan to replace the ACA would leave 52 million people uninsured in 2026. We know that will lead to many deaths—at least 41,969 and perhaps many times that number."
That isn't just callous. That is cold-blooded greed by Republicans to line the pockets of their constituents. And although the Freedom Caucus had a big hand in defeating the AHCA, Bernie Sanders says "Democrats should take credit for killing a really, really bad piece of legislation." Commenting further "Poll after poll showed that's exactly what the American people did not want." On the other hand, Donald Trump said...
"The best thing we can do, politically speaking, is let Obamacare explode. It is exploding right now," Trump said, adding that the 'losers' in the health care battle were Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer."
And Trump continues to blame the Democrats for the GOP bill's failure, which, of course, is fully agreeable to the Bern. Trump, who refused to blame Ryan for the failure of the American Health Care Act The Guardian said this...
"Speaking afterward in the Oval Office, Trump blamed Democrats for the failure of a bill to repeal the signature achievement of Barack Obama. 'If [Democrats] got together with us, and got us a real healthcare bill, I’d be totally OK with that. The losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, because they own Obamacare. They 100% own it,” he said.'"
And then, after the melee was over, Paul Ryan proceeded to blame everything on the fact that the Republicans are now the governing Party, and that "...comes with growing pains and, well, we’re feeling those growing pains today. I will not sugarcoat this: this is a disappointing day for us.” What Ryan isn't saying is what is wrong with the entire U.S. government right at this moment, is the fact that Republicans are the governing Party. It was also what was wrong with the U.S. government in Geo. W. Bush's tenure from 2001 to 2009. A disaster that almost brought the country down.

So apparently Obamacare is okay for the time being but isn't it interesting just how volatile this piece of legislation is and the effect it has on a certain percentage of the public. Just a week after the 2016 election, the Kaiser family Poll came up with these findings...
"One-fourth, or 26 percent, of Americans favor a full repeal of the health care law, while 17 percent say scale it back, according to the Kaiser poll. On the other hand, 30 percent favor expanding the law and another 19 percent want lawmakers to move forward with the law as it is."
The Kaiser report also found that there was a decline in the percentage of Republicans who want the Act repealed, something that must have had an effect on Paul Ryan's withdrawal of his bill. And here's another insight from Vox into how some Republicans really view the Affordable Care Act...
"Republican leaders and conservative intellectuals, for the most part, didn’t really believe nonsense about death panels or that Obama was personally responsible for high-deductible insurance plans. What they fundamentally did not like is that the basic framework of the law is to redistribute money by taxing high-income families and giving insurance subsidies to needy ones. The details matter enormously to everyday people, but the broad principle is enough to make conservatives reject it."
Wasn't aware there were that many intellectuals in the GOP ranks, but this is a real crowd stopper. Anything republican always comes down to just two factors: 1) How it affects the wealthy; 2) How it affects large corporate business. There is no in between for the average American and until average Americans understand this, voting accordingly, this country will continue to be mired in mediocrity. 

Monday, March 27, 2017

Is Bernie Sanders running for Trump resignation/impeachment?


Bernie Sanders-Chris Hayes MSNBC
Bernie Sanders has been everywhere recently talking about everything from how the Republicans are screwing up to how the Democrats are twiddling their thumbs. As recently as Thursday, he said Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, "...brought the Supreme Court confirmation process to a new low during this week's confirmation hearings." And it was only mid-March that headlines were screaming, "Everyone loves Bernie Sanders. Except, it seems, the Democratic party," headline from The Guardian. It is certain that The Bern is well versed on both sides.

Here's the latest figures on Sanders who is being given the national spotlight regularly these days. 61% favorable, 32% unfavorable. When you look at Donald Trump, who sits in the Oval Office today, DT is only 44% favorable, with an unfavorable rating of 53%. When you take the comparisons even further, Barack Obama had a job approval rating of 69% during his first days in office in 2009. Considering the chaos of the Trump administration, the screw ups they have pulled to date, and the fact that Donald John is incapable of getting any of his programs approved, it can only get worse.

These are Fox News polls and although I do have reservations about anything Fox says or does, I take some comfort in the fact that these numbers are being reported by The Hill, a highly reputable publication. They even mention that Trump's unfavorable ratings have been even worse, rising above 55% at times. Here's The Hill's take...
"The huge popularity of Sanders in the Fox poll tracks virtually all other polling that shows Sanders to be, by a large margin, the most popular political leader in America, and far ahead of Trump, the most unpopular new president in the history of presidential polling."
Bernie Sanders has been rallying against the GOP healthcare bill and the repeal of Obamacare since it was introduced by Paul Ryan and endorsed by Donald Trump. The Bern has his own healthcare plan that is even more universal than The Affordable Care Act, but agrees with The Hill that, "...TrumpCare's unpopularity creates a grave danger of disaster for Republicans in 2018 and 2020." And here are some results of Bernie's efforts...
"...a shocking new poll from Quinnipiac University found American voters opposing the pending Republican healthcare bill by a three to one margin. Fifty-six percent of voters disapprove of TrumpCare (or "RyanCare," or whatever name is attached to the disastrous GOP bill), while only 17 percent support it."
With Sanders popularity today, there is no doubt that he would beat Trump in an election, a point I have made several times recently in an effort to keep Progressives active, with an eye toward the day that Donald Trump implodes and brings the Republican Party down around him. The Hill agrees...
"The consistently high ratings for Sanders, and the consistently low ratings for Trump, show that the real majority in America is the genuinely progressive and genuinely populist view of Sanders, not the phony populism or warped conservatism represented by Trump."
 "If Sanders were running against Trump for president today, he would win by a gigantic popular vote margin and a strong electoral vote margin."
Even across the pond, Bernie Sanders' popularity shines above all other American politicians. Here's the tragic analysis of The Guardian from Great Britain...
"If you look at the numbers, Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America – and it’s not even close. Yet bizarrely, the Democratic party – out of power across the country and increasingly irrelevant – still refuses to embrace him and his message. It’s increasingly clear they do so at their own peril."
Here's a Party, the Dems I'm talking about, who should have learned their lesson in the DNC fiasco with Debbie Wasserman Schultz; the fact that she unethically ramrodded Cliinton to the Democratic nomination, when Bernie Sanders was clearly the choice of the public. But that wasn't even enough. Again, there was Keith Ellison who was a natural to lead charged up Progressives on the left, but the old guard of the Party felt more complacent with a hard-liner, Tom Perez. Here's another startling fact from The Guardian; with U.S. Independents, Sanders has an astonishing +41 net favorability.

Progressives are asking for more--they want the adoption of Sanders' populist policies in retaking governor's offices with good support in the defined areas--but Democrats have their own ideas. The proof in the pudding came in a recent town hall meeting hosted by MSNC's Chris Hayes, and it applied directly to Trump voters. In "Trump country" West Virginia...
...the crowd ended up giving him [Bernie Sanders] a rousing ovation after he talked about healthcare being a right of all people and that we are the only industrialized nation in the world who doesn’t provide healthcare as a right to all its people.
The Guardian chastises the Democratic Party for its past lack of attention to houses of Congress, governorships and state houses across the country [thanks to Debbie Wasserman Schultz], instead concentrating on just a White House loss by Hillary Clinton, blamed on James Comey and the Russian intervention in the election. The ostrich effect, they [the Dems] either have their head in the sand or...up their ass. I go for the latter. Politico reports eventual attention to a positive economic message by the Democrats but...
“For now, aides say, the focus is on slaying the giant and proving to the voters who sent Trump into the White House why his policies will fail.”
Same old, same old, which Clinton tried at the end of her campaign and failed miserably. Bernie's comment...
“There are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.”
Looks like the Dems plan to stay on the bottom of the first-class heap. 

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Can Donald Trump outspeak Kim Jong Un?


Who's craziest, him or me?
When you put two lunatics together, the best one can expect is more lunacy. And that is exactly what we have gotten from Donald Trump since he started on his nefarious trek to the White House. Can't remember a day during and after the 2016 election that something stupid hasn't come from the mouths of Donald John, his handlers or his supporters. It was a perpetual cacophony of mindless jabbering that, in most cases, had no substance whatever. But those poor souls out there ate it up and pushed the man with a dunce cap on right into the Oval Office. It has been hell ever since.

Kim Jong Un, on the other hand, is a lunatic that is much more dangerous than a Donald Trump. At least Donald John has some relatively sane people around him, and then, of course, there are the Democrats, that can rein him in if he really gets dangerous. All of North Korea is scared shitless of Kim, and by the time anyone stepped in to stop the maniac, he could have sent deadly missiles all around the world. This is all prompted by a headline today in the Washington Post: "North Korea says it tested rocket engine ‘of historic significance.’"

That's it, those two words, "historic significance" that made me wonder which of our two village idiots could win the battle of superlatives. So I researched the transcendent comments of each man and this is what I came up with...
  • DT: “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.”
  • KJU: "Want to know what’s more destructive than a nuclear bomb? Words."
  • DT: “I’m really rich! I’ll show you that in a second. And by the way: I’m not even saying that in a brag.”
  • KJU: "The days are gone forever when our enemies could blackmail us with nuclear bombs."
  • DT: “I’m the most militaristic person ever.”
  • KJU: "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest."
  • DT: “I will build a great wall . . . and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me.”
  • KJU: "Past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war."
  • DT: “I would use the greatest minds. I know the best negotiators. I’m in New York – I know the good ones, the bad ones. I always say: ‘I know the ones people think are good.’ I know people you’ve never heard of that are better than all of them.”
  • KJU: The revolution is carried out by means of one's thought.
And I couldn't resist one more Donald Trump classic...
“If you really love this country you have a very, very hard time convincing people that what you’re doing is right and that you’re really smart. And, like, a lot of us are really smart. I’m really smart – I went to the Wharton School of Finance.”
Let's analyze what you've see above. First, the Donald Trump comments are ludicrous and asinine, something you might expect from some unhinged college senior running for class president. Second, Kim Jong Un, on the contrary, should scare the hell out of any American, especially with Donald John in the White House. If anyone could start World War III, it would be these two nutcases.  

Peace!

Thanks to the National Review and AZ Quotes for the quotations.

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Is Obamacare invincible?


It looks like it so far. House Speaker and number one cheesehead, Paul Ryan got shot down again, with him and his group looking at the piece of shit they call a healthcare plan. They pulled it from consideration, rocky Ryan stated, or as the greatest of leaders said, “We just pulled it,” with emphasis on the "We." What this means is that The Affordable Care Act continues to reign supreme for now. It was Donald John's ultimatum on Thursday, either pass our bill on Friday or Obamacare stays. This is just another in a long line of failures for both Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. Time to dump em both!

With this defeat, it is uncertain now if T-rump will be able to push through his aggressive agenda of changing how the government works now to his way. This statement from a Republican who planned to vote for the new GOP healthcare plan is a real downer for the Party...
"Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.), who planned to vote for the legislation, said that Friday would have been the 'first big vote in the presidency of Donald Trump. I think it’s a statement, not just about him and the administration, but about the Republican Party and where we’re headed.'”
Is Byrne admitting the Party has no idea where it's headed, or is he just another befuddled Republican? I vote for both, but as this all becomes more challenging for the GOP, yet more enticing for Democrats, the country goes to hell. The future will be interesting in illustrating the ability of the United States to withstand the likes of a Donald Trump, measuring its capacity to survive in this environment, and see just how long it will take to awaken a dull and apathetic public. America is a strong country but unconscious, uninformed voters have never put us in this position before.

Paul Ryan ontacted every skeptical voter and "Trump had personally lobbied 120 lawmakers, either in person or on the phone," but all for naught. It went down like the Hindenburg, and not because of Democratic opposition, but due to Republicans that think their Party's attempt at replacing The Affordable Care Act is inadequate. Even Vice President Pence, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price jumped into the foray, but the hard-line House Freedom Caucus thought changes made would “raise serious coverage and cost issues.”

If you look closely at the Washington Post article, and it is a good read, you'll see very little participation by Democrats. As a matter of fact, here's one of the few, “You never intended for there to be a health plan of consequence for this nation,” said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.)." He added, “What we will have done is helped rich people. And we will not have helped poor people.” Bingo, and I don't think that is really surprising, just the anemic left trying their best to get on record with the facts. It was really Bloomberg that put it all into perspective after Trumpcare was dumped Friday...
"We should pause and realize what a big deal this is. The number one agenda item for years, the one that most House Republicans campaigned on when first elected, and they couldn't manage to even get an initial bill out of the House. Not only that, but it was clear this week that even though most of them were willing to vote for it, practically no one was enthusiastic about what they had produced. It also polled terribly, and conservative health care wonks hated the bill."
Trumpcare RIP.

Friday, March 24, 2017

Weekend wrap-up of T-rump STUPIDS



It doesn't take much to collect a full body of stupid acts on the part of the Trump administration, but in many cases they are too little for a full-coverage post so I decided to wrap a bunch into a neat bundle and present it to you today. Here they are.

7 of 10 Americans disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the healthcare situation. The Quinnipiac poll also found that DT, the man, is viewed poorly. He even fares worse on a Fox poll than he does on CNN re. healthcare. Donald John, in taking over the GOP's new healthcare bill, has managed to alienate the Freedom Caucus and other conservatives as well, to the extent that a vote on Thursday, March 23, had to be reschedule for today. There simply weren't enough votes on Thursday. IS OBAMACARE INVINCIBLE?

Sean Spicer doesn't like the press and so far they are returning the favor. That is the worst possible position a President's White House Press Secretary could be in, but, then, it reflects the exact position of the President he works for. In this kind of situation the President loses, but more important, the American people lose. Trump ran his 2016 campaign like a war room, and he and his administration are doing the same with the U.S. government. Following a conglomeration of muddled references to Trump's sources on the wiretaps, Spicer ends by saying Obama was helped in the wiretapping by the GCHQ, initials for the British intelligence finding agency. WHEN CONTACTED, THE BRITS SAID NO FREAKING WAY.

Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos allow student loan companies to gouge students again due to a high rise of defaults. Rather than find the cause of the unpaid loans, Trump/DeVos decided to do away with Obama's Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, forbidding agencies from charging fees for up to 16 percent of the principal and accrued interest owed on the loans, if the borrower entered the government’s loan rehabilitation program within 60 days of default. But in one case in particular, a loan company had assessed an exorbitant amount for defaulting, after agreeing to work with the student on a reduced payment schedule. PROVING...YOU CAN'T TRUST BUSINESS.

Nepotism is alive and thriving in Donald Trump's White House. Okay, the latest is that Kellyanne Conway's husband will be given a job in the Justice Department. "If confirmed by the Senate, George Conway would lead an office that would handle legal challenges to major Trump administration initiatives, such as the controversial travel ban." It started out with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband who was made a senior adviser to the President. His first diplomatic venture ended in failure as Great Britain rebuffed his efforts to push back votes on Israeli settlements until after the inauguration, supposedly as a favor to Netanyahu. Then, big daddy's daughter, Ivanka, is set to join daddy's administration as an unspecified, but reportedly influential policy role, and with that comes an office in the West Wing and top secret security clearance. Just what we need, a gang of Trumps out there running around with secrets about this country with no idea whatsoever the importance of what they hold. IN THIS CASE, NEPOTISM SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.

Even the Germans laugh at America's White House buffoon. The Daily Beast reports, "Trump Meets the German Press, and They Laugh At Him," their headline, followed by, "The American President, meeting his German counterpart, keeps taking victory laps, ripping reporters and ignoring the substance of tough questions." You would think the world's top narcissist would back off when going to visit one of the best allies the U.S. has had for years. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reserved and it would appear that she might just have been willing to let Donald John hang himself. He did, even appearing "impatient and restless as he stood at the podium." He continued by mocking a German reporter and later put down the U.S. in a statement about this county's trade failures, particularly NAFTA. BETTER KEEP DT HOME CUTTING THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN.

And finally, this huge Trump billboard that was recently erected in Phoenix of a "...menacing Donald Trump... flanked by mushroom clouds and swastikas configured like dollar signs." It is the blog picture today and, surprisingly, the Trump good-ole-boys haven't gone after it. Yet. It's owner, Karen Fiorito, a California resident, says, "I think a lot of people are feeling this way and I'm just trying to express what I think is on a lot of people's minds these days," followed by, "Something that really concerned us was this idea of a dictatorship where things were going in a certain direction." And if you look very closely at Donald John, you'll see a Russian flag on his lapel. She did the same thing for George W. Bush in 2004. By the way, she says the Donald Trump billboard will stay there as long as he is in the White House. UMMM...MAYBE ENOUGH OF THESE AROUND THE COUNTRY?

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!








Thursday, March 23, 2017

Did Nunes quash all of Comey's work?


Devin Nunes---Whatta I do now?
Could the White House be on the verge of an investigation that could lead to a Donald Trump resignation or impeachment? Either is OK, of course. FBI director James B. Comey both confirms an open-ended investigation for Trump's ties to Russia, plus refuting the president’s claim of illegal surveillance by his predecessor. Got him with both barrels...right between the eyes, and Donald John knows it. Here's the Guardian's assessment...
"The first open hearing into Donald Trump’s alleged Russia connections on Monday ensured that the US president will operate under a cloud of suspicion until either the various inquiries deliver credible public conclusions or Trump leaves office, whichever comes first."
 Comey states there is no way this will be a quickie, rather, an on-going examination of all the facts that surround Trump's long-term association with Russia, and what, if any, effect it had on the 2016 election. It would appear the collection of evidence justifies the inquiry, and the serious attention it has been given by the intelligence community. The next date for a public hearing is March 28, with the ex-director of national intelligence James Clapper and the ex-CIA director John Brennan. Both these men had a part in the January analysis of Russian interference in 2016 to benefit Trump.

This is for sure the most defined advance on Donald John in the "Russians for Trump" PAC in the 2016 elections. But with the staying-power this current effort has, plus the number of Republicans that also believe there is substance to the investigation, in all likelihood we are moving toward an outcome that is not going to be acceptable to the reigning sovereign. Comey has affirmed that he is looking at any ""collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign," according to CNN, including...
"...any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts."
Republicans have repeatedly tried to push the investigation off track by laying the blame on Michael Flynn but here's a real crowd stopper...
"Comey testified that US intelligence agencies were agreed that Russia's aim evolved into an effort during the election to aid Trump over Clinton."
We should remember at this point that the FBI Director is the one who threw Hillary Clinton under the bus in the 2016 election with his letters to Congress re. her email investigation in the last eleven days before voters went to the polls. Further, "They wanted to hurt our democracy, hurt her, help him. I think all three we were confident in at least as early as December," Comey said.

And he tried to put to rest once again Trump's ludicrous charges of Barack Obama's wiretapping Trump Tower during the election stating, "...the Justice Department, along with the FBI, had no information to support the allegations." Adding the fact that "...no president could order a wiretapping operation against a specific American citizen."

So, enter Devin Nunes, House Intelligence Committee Chairman, who is accused today of turning the Trump's Russian connection into another Benghazi...the equivalent of Trey Gowdy. God help us! "Most of the lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee, previously known for its leave-your-party-at-the-door work, had held out hope there could be an independent, bipartisan probe into Russian interference in the U.S. elections," the Daily Beast reports. And here's their assessment of the latest...
"That hope died when their chairman went to the White House, and then the press, to discuss intelligence intercepts involving the 'incidental' collection of communications related to Donald Trump and members of his transition team before telling his own committee about the matter."
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel said...
“What was today? It was the chairman of the committee helping the president create the next distraction,” added Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the committee. “It was an attempt to be a distraction, sow confusion, create false narratives despite the evidence.”
Apparently, Schiff feels now that he can't even receive assurance from Nunes that this can continue as a credible investigation. But Nunes, as a House member investigating Trump and his White House staff must have just come stupid running to the Oval Office, then the media, instead of incorporating the newly found information into the investigation. As DB put it...
"He doesn’t use it as part of the committee’s investigation, but runs to the White House, which is a subject of the investigations.”
Or was Nunes' committee just a smokescreen from the beginning, set up to serve as a future link to the President, giving him fodder for dispute. It should be obvious by now there is not one Republican on the planet that I would trust. With that in mind, where do we go from here?  

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

We need to say goodbye to the Democratic Party


I have been a Democrat all my life; yes, even as a very young boy I remember my father talking about the Democrats and FDR, his New Deal. My dad came from a well-off family in the South, a family at one time I am almost sure had slaves. But the South was Democratic then, all the way, and it was just the right thing to be left leaning. That's changed in the last few years and the Republicans have taken over the South and turned the people there into a conservative stronghold that had a major effect on the 2016 Democratic Primary, particularly for Bernie Sanders.

Did you know Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Democratic Socialist?

But the Democrats today hardly resemble those of FDR's era; in fact you can't even draw a close parallel these days between what they call the Party and what the Dems started out to be. FDR wasn't a Party starter for Democrats, Andrew Jackson has that honor, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the epitome of the Democratic Party, having served four terms in office until his death in 1945. This man set the tone for what the term liberal meant, and followed through with actions that give him a place in history as one of the greatest Presidents of all time.

Here are snippets from the democratic Platform of 1936, three years into FDR's presidency...

  • Protection of the family and the home.
  • Establishment of a democracy of opportunity for all the people
  • Aid to those overtaken by disaster
  • Safeguard the thrift of our citizens by restraining those who would gamble with other peoples savings
  • Early formation of the Social Security concept
  • Expansion of consumer electricity through creation of Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
  • Making homes available to people of meagre incomes 
  • Just treatment of war veterans and their dependents

There are other issues like taking farmers off the road to ruin, worker's pay was increased and hours shortened, actually saved banks and paved the way for a better financial foundation, gave youth the opportunity to stay in school and get an education, which 12 years of Republican neglect had closed, and help for the unemployed. There's more and you can read the complete 1936 Democratic Party Platform here. I want to point out that in every case but one, above, the programs are for the average person, not corporations or the wealthy.

FDR, although born into a wealthy New York family, was a president of the people and his programs substantiated this, but considering the 1929 stock-market crash, some feel he could have paid more attention to a struggling economy; The Great depression lasted until 1939. It is worth noting that the Dow Jones industrial average didn't return to its summer 1929 high until 1954. But as a catalyst, Roosevelt combined a stimulus project with his goals for social equity and created the Rural Electrification Administration to wire the countryside. Perhaps FDR could have used Janet Yellen.

And why take you back all these years down the reminiscing trail to a time some 84 years ago when many of you weren't born or were too young to care what politics was all about? Well, dang it, to illustrate the stark differences in that period, that I might remind you was closer in time to that of the Founding Fathers of this country, that FDR based a lot of his concepts on. As an example, when it comes to corporations...
"To say that the founding fathers supported corporations is very absurd. Its quite the opposite in fact. Corporations like the East India Trading Company were despised by the founding fathers and they were just one reason why they chose to revolt against England. Corporations represented the moneyed interests much like they do today and they often wielded political power, sometimes to the point of governing a colony all by themselves like the Massachusetts Bay Company did."
We've come a long way from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the journey has ended in a disjointed, confused, and divided Democratic Party that seems not to know how to repair itself. Well, it is my opinion that the Democratic Party is irreparable, therefore, dump it and start over. Progressives, in number, passed liberals a few years ago and seems to be the real new face of the Party. It appears that hard party liners like the Clintons, even Obama, do not want to accept this fact and continue to stick to ideology that just doesn't work anymore with a new generation.

It is a fact that Democrats lost more than 1,030 seats in state legislatures, governor's mansions and Congress during Barack Obama's presidency. It can't all be blamed on the man because it was Debbie Wasserman Schultz who neglected the Party as DNC head for five years, until she was recently fired, and these losses finally added up to a catastrophe for Democrats. But it is still hard to understand how the upper echelons of the Party could sit by and watch over 1,000 of their legislative and governor's seats just evaporate. To me, this is the ultimate of political incompetence.

Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, ran for President as a Democrat in 2016, but lost in the Primary due to the killing machine of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair. There were many of us who were supporters of the Bern, and many of us believe today that, until he is given the reins of the Democratic Party, it will remain in its quagmire. Bernie was asked by New York Times Magazine what the Party stands for. His response...
"You’re asking a good question, and I can’t give you a definitive answer. Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats."
The article indicates that his answer is partially for effect, since he does have his own liberal values for what he thinks the left should stand for. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren joins Sanders in a call for revamping the Party, but one still wonders why she didn't swallow what establishment pride she had during the Primary and throw her backing behind the Bern. It could have turned everything around, but she didn't and it didn't. And the 2018 midterms will only be a fight against the Trump administration and for congressional seats to block his legislation. First things first.



Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Latest Trump administration imbecile, Mick Mulvaney, skewered


The Washington Post did it, a clever writer by the name of Alexandra Petri has thoroughly lanced Donald Trump's new Office of Management & Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, for the almost absurd new budget introduced by the Trump administration. Although Mulvaney in this case is just the messenger, he is known so far for comments like this in a press briefing last Thursday...
"White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended the Trump administration's proposed deep cuts to social welfare programs like free school lunches and Meals on Wheels as 'about as compassionate as you can get" for taxpayers.'"
More...
"'Meals on Wheels sounds great,'" Mulvaney said, adding 'we're not going to spend [money] on programs that cannot show that they actually deliver the promises that we've made to people.'"
From SF Gate...
"Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit group that receives funding from the federal government, state and local governments and private donors. 'We serve more than 2.4 million seniors from 60 to 100+ years old each year,' the organization writes. 'They are primarily older than 60 and because of physical limitations or financial reasons, have difficulty shopping for or preparing meals for themselves.'"
Mick Mulvaney will go down in history as just another one of Donald Trump's peons who signed up to say just what the new monarch tells him to say.

But on now to Alexandra Petri's very creative rendering of just what the new Trump administration budget will accomplish.

Cut the State Department by 29%...
"Right now, all the State Department’s many qualified employees do is sit around being sad that they are never consulted about anything. This is, frankly, depressing, and it is best to put them out of their misery. Besides, they are only trained in Soft Diplomacy, like a woman would do, and NOBODY wants that. There's more here...
 Environmental Protection Agency...
"We absolutely do not need this. Clean rivers and breathable air are making us SOFT and letting the Chinese and the Russians get the jump on us. We must go back to the America that was great, when the air was full of coal and danger and the way you could tell if the air was breathable was by carrying a canary around with you at all times, perched on your leathery, coal-dust-covered finger. Furthermore, we will cut funding to Superfund cleanup in the EPA because the only thing manlier than clean water is DIRTY water.

Here's a summary of more quips. Re. Commerce dept., Budget will make us strong enough to fight all natural disasters on our own; Don't need Labor Dept. Future labor will all be on the backs of the women. Forget Healthcare, just punch disease in the nose. Why should we fund Historic Sites. Trump hates parks he doesn't own. Who needs Public Broadcasting or the Bird? Just listen to "audio footage of a Trump son shooting a rare land mammal." U.S. Institute of Peace: Too "wimpy" for this administration. U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, will just make them tougher.

Okay, you get the idea and you'll be glad if you peruse the whole article at The Washington Post.

In an opinion piece by Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, his headline screams, "Trump budget an exercise in stupidity." The words stupid, idiot, and similar descriptions of the genre of the Trump administration have had a field day, and this is a classic example of being right on target. Since Trump's budget's largest item is defense, this is Bookman's comment...
"We spend more on our military than the next eight countries combined, even though five of those next seven countries are strong U.S. allies such as Britain and France. We spend three times as much as China and nine times as much as Russia. In fact, just the increases in military spending requested by the Trump administration — $30 billion for the current fiscal year, and $54 billion next year — swamp Russia’s total annual military budget of $66 billion."
That paragraph should send any level-headed person into an incredible vertigo of confusion when you look at the slashes to programs designed to help the American public that are being drastically reduced or cut altogether. Bookman summarizes how Donald John plans to get all the money for the $54 billion increase...
"...by gutting scientific research, medical research, foreign aid, the State Department, community block grants that support Meals on Wheels and similar programs. The EPA, which today operates on the same budget it had 15 years ago, and with 2,000 fewer employees, is targeted for 31 percent budget cut."
And here's an outstanding point that is just one in a long line of screw-ups this President has made internationally; what will the rest of the world think? Do we yank the helping hand that so many countries depend on to just survive in the name of building a defense program designed entirely for the purpose of spending money to make the corporate world even richer? It gets more ridiculous and more pathetic with each passing day with the outlook even bleaker.  

Monday, March 20, 2017

Populism Bernie Sanders:YES-Populism Donald Trump:NO


Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon's populism seems sketchy from his past, so why is he where he is now, leading ring-nosed Donald Trump down the path for his style of populism and nationalism? Both Trump and Bannon have evoked the name of Andrew Jackson because of his populist beliefs, but Jackson also had to deal with sectionalism between the North and the South, due to the stark difference in economies. The North was industrial, the South agricultural. This became highly complicated when Congress passed the Tariff of 1828, favoring the North.

The reason I bring this up is that, although he would tell Congress what he was going to do, then do it, regardless of their concerns, he did things with a background from experience that had led to his first election in 1828. Andrew Jackson won with and governed with a substance neither Donald Trump nor Steve Bannon could ever claim. So why all the comparisons? It is Bannon's obsession with Jackson's populism and nationalism that the White House adviser intends to steer in the direction of his own version that includes white nationalism along with racism and general bigotry.

Andrew Jackson is from Tennessee. I am from Tennessee. Jackson's view on white nationalism and racism does parallel both Trump and Bannon, according to U.S. News...
"...Jackson's belief that democracy and race were inextricably bound together, that whiteness was a prerequisite for self-governance, fits neatly with Trump's own worldview – a worldview that is coming to define not just Trump's administration, but also the Republican Party."
We also know that Andrew Jackson was also a co-founder of the Democratic Party. And Democrats regularly paid tribute to Jackson for years, until the issue of racism came into focus. You see...
"His policy of 'Indian removal,' an act of ethnic cleansing that killed thousands, moved to the forefront of his legacy, as did the fact that he held nearly 300 enslaved people, the source of his significant wealth."
It was then that Andrew Jackson began to tank with the Democratic Party. It was obvious that, "For Jacksonian democracy to work, non-white people had to be subjugated, either through their removal or their enslavement (and, in later eras, through Jim Crows old and new)." But if the Democrats now shun Jackson, Republicans in the present form of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have picked up the gauntlet and are running with the white nationalism, tinged with racism and feminine hatred. Old Hickory surely had his faults but nothing to compare with the Trump/Bannon debacle.

Concourse tries to explain the insanity of Steve Bannon. The younger Bannon blames it all on the financial hard luck of his father...
"...a hardworking man who spent 50 years working for AT&T, accumulating as much AT&T stock as he could during that time in the belief that it would constitute a safe inheritance for his kids—saw the value of those shares crater during the 2008 financial crisis, and sold them at a loss in a panic."
As an afterthought Stevo contends that he was "outraged" that no one went to jail in the financial community over the chicanery during the Geo. W. Bush administration, Hell, so was I and millions more, but we didn't take it out on people of color nor did we debase women. Hamilton Nolan, the Concourse writer states...
"I am in no position to judge Steve Bannon’s honesty, so I’m willing to assume it’s true that the crash is indeed what spawned his political philosophy. If so, Steve Bannon is an insane man. Has he helped to fix the root causes of the 2008 financial crisis by guiding Donald Trump into the White House? No. He has helped to put in power an ignorant billionaire who has vowed to slash Dodd-Frank and other regulations designed to help prevent another financial crisis, and who has turned the regulation of Wall Street over to a coterie of Wall Street insiders and deregulation zealots."
The Daily Beast reported that Trump's fascination with Andrew Jackson only began in 2013, and there was another short conversation about the former president when there was talk during the 2016 election about removing Jackson from the $20 bill. DB says...
"But the reason Jackson has taken on such a physical and rhetorical presence in the Trump White House is, in fact, primarily because of Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist and the former head of Breitbart. According to officials in the Trump campaign, presidential transition, and administration speaking to The Daily Beast, Bannon would often discuss Jackson’s historical legacy and image with Trump on and after the campaign trail, and how the two political figures were a lot alike."
Bannon even gave Trump a suggested reading list on Jackson. And Trump placed a biography of Andrew Jackson on his desk he frequently pointed out to reporters, but no one could ever confirm that he had read it. All nice window-dressing for an administration in the throes of taking this county back to the dark ages of racist hangings, house burnings, and a Ku Klux Klan that gave rise to the 784 hate groups that now reside in the U.S. Thanks in great part to Donald Trump adviser, Steve Bannon. Let me leave you with this from the Daily Beast...
"The simplest explanation for Steve Bannon’s actual political philosophy is 'He is racist, xenophobic, and has deep-seated resentments and anger issues with origins that we can only begin to explain.'”
God help us all! 

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Trump's new budget exposes lies-Here's big one


Well, it's common knowledge what Donald trump thinks about women from the statements he made during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Remarks like...
"You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything.
Grab them by the p***y, you can do anything."
"About Rosie O'Donnell he said that she was 'disgusting, both inside and out' and that if he were running her show he'd 'look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired.'"
He said about Carly Fiorina, "Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that?"
There's more you can see here but the above shows clearly Donald Trump's disdain for women.

Fast forward to Donald John's first address to a joint session of Congress when he "...promised the American people that he was going to spend his term granting wishes..." then added. "...that he’d invest in women’s health." But along came the emperor's new budget which made his promises look like Pinocchio with a two-foot nose. Lower income and older women are hit very hard with womens' advocates contending...
"...that if the AHCA were to be enacted as-is, Trump’s promised investment in women’s health would be a comical falsehood."
You might say that this statement ["comical falsehood"] pretty much reflects the total of the Donald Trump experience so far. The Daily Beast has been condemning the monarch's budget through the interpretation of the Congressional Budget Office analysis released this past Monday. For starters...
"...24 million kicked off insurance and an additional $880 billion gouged from Medicaid, all in the name of a measly 1 percent reduction in the deficit."
DB says the numbers are really not representative because of the different math between Obamacare and the American Health Care Act. What it comes down to is the fact that this large number will lose their health insurance and older Americans will see increases they simply will not be able to afford. Daily Beast says...
"Allowing premiums for older people to shoot skyward means that a 64-year-old making $24,000 per year will see half of their income go toward the cost of covering medical insurance."
The outset is a family on the cusp of retirement that all of a sudden is bankrupted by their health care costs, and the Republican health care plan leaves them nowhere to turn. Here's another opinion...
“'[Republicans] are doing nothing to invest in women’s health,' Jamila Taylor, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, tells The Daily Beast.
Taylor is particularly concerned with the one-two punch the AHCA gives low-income women and women of color."
 And on the same subject, the GOP is hell-bent on defunding Planned Parenthood, the main entryway for low income women to get the health care they need. The Senate's biggest idiot, Joni Ernst from Iowa, has a bill to redirect their funds. Here's one reaction...
"'If passed, these bills will cause a national health care crisis, leaving millions with nowhere to go for basic care,' said Dana Singiser, vice president of public policy and government affairs for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement."
As you can see, the "comical falsehood" has now turned into a serious tragedy, and it will all be on the head of Donald Trump. 

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Big mouth Trump scuttles his own travel ban legislation


Hawaiian judge, Derrick K. Watson, has shot down Donald Trump's latest attempt to keep immigrants out of the United States. His decision had a great deal to do with the running off at the mouth by Donald John and his bootlicking advisers. To backtrack, the way this man was elected was to trash the America we know and tell all his followers he could make America better, in his words "Make America Great Again." It is his bluster and buffoonery that these poor souls follow, so it is just natural to keep up the act to maintain his popularity. At the expense of our country, of course.

Had he and his minions tempered their statements following the introduction of the second travel ban, Judge Watson might have given it more serious thought, although his decision would have probably been the same, based on substance. This is very similar to Trump's claims of Trump Tower wiretapping, where, against seemingly insurmountable odds, he continues to pursue his charges. The Washington Post reported...
“Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” the Democratic and Republican chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday in a statement.
“He stands by it,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said of Trump’s original claim.
 Politico says, "The federal courts were poised to hold the first version unconstitutional. But it’s not at all clear that the new order will survive judicial scrutiny, either." However, liberal lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, says Trump could win before the Supreme Court. In both cases, just another example of the fact that Donald Trump thinks he can never be wrong, and to carry out his hissy fits he ties up departments of government to carry out his unfounded charges. It is a classic case of putting an oversized ego in front of what is best for his country, and it is totally pathetic...again.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Republican Congress stopped dead in its tracks...by Republican?


Trump's latest political mess
I guess the first question is, is Donald Trump a Republican? We know he isn't a Democrat. Or is there some non-party designation for his highness that was put into play by the political establishment when his eminence somehow became President of the United States? The latter we may never know. The former is displayed every day in a White House that seems committed to confusion and chaos. All travel bans have been shot down by the courts, the repeal of Obamacare, engineered by Speaker Ryan, is floundering, the Mexican wall seems to be going nowhere.

And now this headline from the Washington Post re. Donald John's budget released on Thursday: "Capitol Hill Republicans not on board with Trump budget." Here's how WP described it...
“President Trump on Thursday will unveil a budget plan that calls for a sharp increase in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens of long-standing federal programs that assist the poor, fund scientific research and aid America’s allies abroad.”
Some in Congress have complained that the budget doesn't have enough defense spending, but no one even mentions the fact that there will be drastic cuts to the welfare system. Based on the year 2015, each night 564,708 people were experiencing homelessness. And over 500,000 veterans still wait more than 30 days to see a doctor, in a system rife with incompetence and under funding. If Medicaid is turned over to states, especially those like Arizona, there's no guarantee these people will have adequate coverage, if any at all.

In addition, WP reports there are massive cuts to the arts, scientific research and aid to our allies overseas...
"A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” would increase defense spending by $54 billion and then offset that by stripping money from more than 18 other agencies. Some would be hit particularly hard, with reductions of more than 20 percent at the Agriculture, Labor and State departments and of more than 30 percent at the Environmental Protection Agency."
""It would also propose eliminating future federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Within EPA alone, 50 programs and 3,200 positions would be eliminated."
I don't believe there is anyone out there, I don't care how liberal you are, that will argue with the fact that the government is top heavy and overspends. But there are many on both side of the aisle that question this amount of spending on defense. And we know there are tax cuts for the wealthy on the way, plus, remember all that "pork," those projects in congressional districts that are done for the sole purpose of getting someone reelected. No one talks about this anymore. So, what we are left with is a budget that represents Donald trump's version of Republican ideology.

During the 2016 election, Trump supporters were bellowing the fact that, if an outsider like Donald Trump, a supposedly savvy businessman, took over the White House, he would change things so it would run like a top. Well, here's what the Washington Post had to say...
"Trump was only the latest in a long line of political figures who argued that if someone from outside politics took over the government, he’d whip it into shape with his business savvy and management expertise. The result has been the most chaotic and incompetent White House anyone can remember. As Politico reported Wednesday, 'A culture of paranoia is consuming the Trump administration, with staffers increasingly preoccupied with perceived enemies — inside their own government,' creating 'an environment of fear that has hamstrung the routine functioning of the executive branch.'”
Finally, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said “You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it.” As a Trump appointed member of the team and a conservative republican, I'll let you decide.

Donald Trump Says He Will Be Indicted On Tuesday

  THAT'S TODAY... Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought the case to this point, now looking at a possible indictment. Trum...