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.

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...