Trump inherits great President Obama economy

President-elect Donald Trump said that Barack Obama has been very cooperative with him and his transition team, scary as it is, in turning over a government that was rescued from George W. Bush's calamitous eight years as President. Bush almost put the country in the toilet, but Obama has brought things back to a stability that can be built on. All the time with a GOP Congress that resisted virtually every move the President made.

Unemployment, at the lowest level since 2007, home prices at all time highs, with the middle class getting a pay raise. These words from CNN Money where they quote Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, saying, "The 'Obama economy' deserves a 'B or B+' grade." It's not an "A" but many think it should be, and the the President, in defense of his administration commented:

"Anyone claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction."

 Wages are stagnant, have been for some time, not responding to a cycle where they usually rise when unemployment goes down. One of the reasons is, rather than pay higher wages, companies are going overseas for cheaper labor. But with no inflation, workers at least keep a status-quo, which could change soon if the feds up the interest rates. What matters is that the economy is going in the right direction under Pres. Obama. We'll see where it's going a year from now.

If anyone could f*** up the VA more it's Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Once again it's payback time and this time Pres.-elect Donald Trump has thrust his hand to the very bottom of the barrel to make a selection. It's Sarah Palin for a Cabinet post as Sec. of the Veterans Administration. These veterans are dying and going without proper care now and I cannot envision what VA hospitals will be like with her in control. To begin with, her government experience is being mayor of a dinky town in Alaska, and shortly as the state's governor.

And then there was John McCain who amazingly picked her for his running mate in 2008, when the two of them were beaten in a landslide for the presidency by Barack Obama. They're both losers but Palin is the epitome of deadbeat politicians who keep appealing to more deadbeats who, if they would bother to get informed, would realize what a deadbeat she is. It is beyond me how politics have evolved into individuals like Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Joni Ernst, etc.etc.

Here's the MSNBC coverage:

Dr. Sam Foote blew the whistle on the VA in 2013 after 24 years as a physician in a Veterans Affairs hospital. He worked at the Phoenix facility and when he revealed the devastating details of what happened, the hospital director, Sharon Helman, was fired and a judge sentenced her to two years' probation for receiving gifts illegally. I live in Phoenix, and, as a veteran, followed all the media coverage hoping something very positive would happen from this. It didn't.

And now Trump wants to put a bush-league, would-be politician with no experience in charge of something that is already a fiasco but will certainly get much worse with her at the head. But the bombshell here is the fact that she is closely tied to Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's chief strategist, who was accused of being racist, sexist and anti-Semitic, whose comment "darkness is good" should have given the Pres.-elect a clue. It didn't.

Palin is just more of the kind of judgment it took to pick Michael Flynn, clearly a loose cannon, for national security adviser. And, as one observer pointed out, Trump's transition team "reads like a who's who of some of the worst political villains of the last 40 years." We can only wait and hope but it is very likely that in the next four years--or maybe less--there will be hundreds, maybe thousands of 'I told you so.'

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Rep. John Kline

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today!

Congressman: Rep. John Kline (R-MN)

Total amount received: $40,750
Tel. Number: (202) 225-2271

Trump's presidential run one big bait & switch

Is Donald Trump neurotic?

Donald Trump has reversed himself on many, if not most, of the major issues of his run for president. The poor uneducated redneck souls that so loyally supported him must be seething over these reversals. Considering the vitriol with which he delivered these promises, the Academy Awards should set aside a special Oscar for him this year. Or is the man neurotic and devious enough to have just convinced himself and a portion of the voting public?

Any way you look at it, it is a classic case of bait and switch. Republicans were sure they had lost the Party to an ego maniac who was interested only in national attention for him and his businesses. Well those three factors haven't changed but Trump, for some reason even many political experts haven't figured out, has changed course aligning himself more along party lines. Like his Cabinet picks that "...hew closely to what Republicans have advocated for decades."

He campaigned on the premise that he would be an "unconventional president capable of taking positions all along the political spectrum." It's not clear whether the GOP establishment scared him, if that's possible in Donald Trump's mentality, but what is clear is the fact that this man is now playing ball with the Republican Party, whether he knows it or not. Not only that but he is playing by many of their rules that he so vehemently disparaged before the election.

"David Brooks of The New York Times said that Trump is a threat to the party loyalty that has dominated American politics. 'He is hostile to the Republican establishment,' Brooks wrote. 'His proposals cut across orthodox partisan lines.'" Most think Donald Trump's intentions are to undo most of what the Obama administration accomplished. He'll certainly have a partner in the Senate's resident idiot, Mitch McConnell. Speaking of McConnell...

 "The transportation secretary-to-be, Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, had a solid, anti-union record when she was secretary of labor under President George W. Bush. Chao is well-networked in the most "establishment" Republican circles of Washington."

God help us! 

Trump goes haywire over Clinton's popular vote

Donald Trump harried

And here is another prime example of Donald Trump's instability; he continues to be riled over the fact that Hillary Clinton is more than 2.3 million ahead of him in the popular vote. Instead of enjoying the fact that the Electoral College deemed him President--although that is currently in contention--and going on with the job of planning his presidency, he broods like some second grader who lost his crayons on the way to school. Here's his tweet:

"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."

To begin with, he didn't win the Electoral College in a landslide (306 to 232). Barack Obama won in a landslide in 2008, 365 to McCain's 173. And there is absolutely no evidence the 2016 popular vote was "illegal," although Jill Stein has embarked on a crusade if there were mistakes made or anything intentional favoring Trump in her state recounts. In 2012 Trump made this statement:

"The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy."

Then, a week after the election:

"The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!"

Unstable on the one hand and indecisive on the other. Excellent qualities for a president.

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Rep. Hal Rogers

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today!

Congressman: Rep. Hal Rogers, (R-KY)

Total amount received: $41,400
Tel. Number: (202) 225-4601

Trump's tantrums could start World War III

Daisy Girl

It was the "Peace Little Girl" political ad that gave the election to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide against Barry Goldwater, indicating that Goldwater could not be trusted with his finger on the switch that would unleash "the bomb." The idea was that the Arizona Senator's temperament was not stable enough for the presidency. Did you people who voted for Donald Trump even give this a thought? God knows, he's shown several signs of instability during the election.

Even after winning the Electoral College vote, Trump is steaming excessively over the fact that Hillary Clinton is ahead in the popular vote by over 2.3 million. He even says he would win the popular vote if they deducted the millions of illegal votes; which no one in his campaign can confirm. But that still didn't keep him from going...

"...a little berserk, publishing a series of bizarre tweets pushing back against accurate reporting the president-elect found inconvenient.

This. Is. Not. Normal."

The above, an observation from Steve Benen on MSNBC, who continues with his concern that Donald Trump has yet to mature for the presidency, with his inauguration fast approaching. Benen adds:

"If the pressures of the transition are causing Trump to flip out in response to accurate reporting, I shudder to think how unhinged he’ll be once he bears the burdens of an actual president."

Barry Goldwater would be aghast at the thought of Donald Trump as the next President of the U.S., wondering if his beloved Republican Party had gone mad. In 2016 Hillary used Monique Luiz, who did the original "Daisy Girl" ad and now living in Arizona at age 52, in a version of the original. It pointed out the same possibilities but apparently with no results. I can hardly wait until No. Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, pisses off Trump.