Trump 13: More Scandal, More Fun. Yay! :/

[candygirl200413]

So we always knew he is all colorful words under the moon, and this is another disgusting he has done.

What Sort of Man Is Donald Trump? Came out last year but still relevant, especially in regards to healthcare.

Quote

On Sunday, the Times ran a front-page story about Donald Trump’s older brother, Freddy, a heavy drinker who died an early death, back in 1981, at the age of forty-three. Freddy was a free spirit who quit the family real-estate business to become a pilot; Donald was more ambitious, attending Wharton business school and following the lead of his father, Fred, Sr., a developer who built the family fortune.

The article contained some interesting stuff about the young Donald Trump. And, buried toward the end, it also referred to an incident that says something about the adult Trump, what sort of a person he is, and what kind of President he might be. In 2000, during a family dispute about the details of his father’s will, Trump, who was by then fabulously wealthy in his own right, cut off benefits from the family health plan that were paying for the medical care of his nephew’s seriously ill young son.

The Times story didn’t go into much detail about the fight within the Trump family, but it was a bitter one. Heidi Evans, a reporter for the Daily News, who later won a Pulitzer Prize as an editorial writer, covered the story at the time, and she got the goods. This is how one of Evans’s articles, which the Daily News published on December 19, 2000, began:

Even when it comes to a sick baby in his family, Donald Trump is all business. The megabuilder and his siblings Robert and Maryanne terminated their nephew’s family medical coverage a week after he challenged the will of their father, Fred Trump. “This was so shocking, so disappointing and so vindictive,” said niece Lisa Trump, whose son, William, was born 18 months ago at Mount Sinai Medical Center with a rare neurological disorder that produces violent seizures, brain damage and medical bills topping $300,000.

According to Evans’s account, the baby, William Trump—whose father, Fred Trump III, is Freddy’s son—had been diagnosed with “infantile spasms, a rare disorder that can lead to cerebral palsy or autism and a lifetime of care.” (The Times article notes that William did develop cerebral palsy.) This chronic illness required round-the-clock nursing care and frequent visits to medical specialists and emergency rooms. Twice in the first eight months of his life, William stopped breathing. At that stage, fortunately for the baby and his family, he was being covered under a medical plan paid for by a Trump family company.

The situation changed in March, 2000, after Fred III and his wife, Lisa, filed suit in Queen’s Surrogate Court, claiming that Fred, Sr., who died in June, 1999, had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and that his will had been “procured by fraud and undue influence” on the part of Donald, his brother Robert, a New York businessman, and his sister Maryanne, a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey. The will had divided most of their father’s estate, which was worth somewhere between a hundred million and three hundred million dollars, between the families of his surviving children, leaving considerably less to Freddy’s descendants than to other siblings’ children.

Trump and his siblings insisted that the will accurately reflected their father’s wishes. After the challenge, it didn’t take them long to retaliate. On March 30th, Fred III received a certified letter telling him that the medical benefits provided to his family by the Trump organization would end on May 1st. The letter prompted Fred III to return to court, this time in Nassau County, where a judge ordered the Trumps to restore the health coverage until the dispute was resolved. “I will stick to my guns,” Fred III told Evans. “I just think it was wrong. These are not warm and fuzzy people. They never even came to see William in the hospital. Our family puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional.” Fred III’s sister, Mary, told Evans, “William is my father’s grandson. He is as much a part of that family as anybody else. He desperately needs extra care.”

Trump, for his part, was unapologetic about his actions. “Why should we give him medical coverage?” he told Evans. When she asked him if he thought he might come across as cold-hearted, given the baby’s medical condition, he said, “I can’t help that. It’s cold when someone sues my father. Had he come to see me, things could very possibly have been much different for them.”

In talking to the Times reporter Jason Horowitz about the decision to withdraw the medical coverage, Trump said, “I was angry because they sued.” Eventually, the lawsuit was settled “very amicably,” he said, and he claimed to be fond of Fred III, who now works in real estate but not as part of the Trump organization.

It was perhaps notable, however, that the story didn’t contain any comment from Fred III or his sister Mary reciprocating those feelings.

 

[RoseWilder]

There's trouble in paradise for Trump and his staff of sleazebags:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/4/1640181/-Angry-Trump-removes-Priebus-and-Bannon-from-Air-Force-One-manifest

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Before heading off to his so-called "winter White House" in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, President Donald Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went "ballistic," senior White House sources told ABC News.

The president erupted with anger over the latest slew of news reports connecting Russia with the new administration -- specifically the abrupt decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.

And apparently Trump didn’t care who saw this juvenile display.

With Marine One waiting on the South Lawn, Trump and his team engaged in an animated exchange -- captured by press pool cameras peering in through the windows from the White House South Lawn. Trump then left the office for the helicopter, taking the hands of his young grandchildren and joined by his daughter Ivanka and Kushner.

So, naturally, Trump had to continue the tantrum.

As President Trump was in the air aboard Marine One headed for Air Force One on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, a last-minute phone call was made from the West Wing to the team on board the president’s plane with a directive to remove Priebus and Bannon from the manifest, sources said. They would not be coming to the Sunshine State.

 

[JMarie]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/politics/donald-trump-health-care/index.html

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President Donald Trump warned House Republicans Tuesday if they can't pass health care legislation after seven years of promises it could be a "bloodbath" in the 2018 midterm election, according to one member present in the meeting.

Ooh, a "bloodbath."  I'm sure Congress is scared.

[RoseWilder]

Well, it's about time: 

 

[fraurosena]

Well, at least his inconsistency is consistent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/donald-trump-invites-foreign-tourists-white-house-ban-bar-state-department-latest-a7617301.html

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According to the official White House statement, visitors from the UK and elsewhere can apply for places, saying: “If you wish to visit the White House and are a citizen of a foreign country, please contact your embassy in Washington, DC for assistance in submitting a tour request.”

But the British Embassy in the US capital quickly repudiated the announcement, citing the State Department: “The White House website states that foreign nationals interested in touring the White House should contact their Embassy to arrange a tour. 

“However, the Embassy has been advised by the US Department of State that this is on hold. 

“We are therefore unable to process any applications at this time.”

 

[Coy Koi]

On 3/6/2017 at 0:54 PM, 47of74 said:

It's a good thing he's not doing surgery, because it'd be a cold day in hell before I let him cut into me.

While I definitely can't blame you there, the weird this is that by all accounts he is exceptionally skilled and talented as a surgeon. I was really disappointed to learn what a whackjob/asshole he turned out to be, because I've known about him since long before he got into politics, and he always seemed like such a cool guy before! I remember watching a special on Discovery Health or something years ago where he traveled to somewhere in Africa (I can't remember where) to perform a complicated surgery to separate conjoined twin boys who were joined at the head. He seemed so caring and just genuinely nice. His medical credentials would be extremely impressive for anyone, but even more so for someone who didn't have a privileged upbringing. His mom was only 13 years old when she married his 28-year-old father (who, as it turned out, was already married to another woman anyway).

I think the only other person in the Trump administration I'd ever even heard of before Trump was Trump himself, and I'd never cared a bit about him or paid him any attention. So for me, none of them other than Ben Carson have been a disappointing surprise. But he sure turned out to be an absolute piece of shit.

[Childless]

13 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Elite law schools are really tough to get into. But what if you’re Tiffany Trump?"

It will be interesting to see if she gets in.

Why does she want to be a part of that shitty family though?  I'd consider the fact I was raised a country away from Lord Dampnut a stroke of luck and quietly go off into the sunset and live my life far away from that unhinged lunatic.  Count your blessings Tiffany and run.  Run fast!

[Cleopatra7]

55 minutes ago, Childless said:

Why does she want to be a part of that shitty family though?  I'd consider the fact I was raised a country away from Lord Dampnut a stroke of luck and quietly go off into the sunset and live my life far away from that unhinged lunatic.  Count your blessings Tiffany and run.  Run fast!

I also think Tiffany should build a life away from the Trump Show, but logically I can't be surprised that she would seek approval and acceptance from her father. However, it's obvious she will never replace daughter-wife Ivanka in his affections, so I fear she's holding out for a relationship that will never happen. I remember watching a "Where are they now" segment on Marla Maples on OWN a couple of years ago, and Trump was bragging about how great Tiffany had turned out, even though he knew next to nothing about her. He seems like the kind of non-involved parent who will take full credit if a child is a success, despite having done nothing to contribute to the outcome. If Tiffany had ended up dysfunctional, he would probably be like, "Tiffany, who?"

[fraurosena]

Well, well, just look at that!

Paul Ryan also gets his info from Breitbart. Who'd have thought? 

[47of74]

I made the mistake of listening to Der Fuehrer's Face and now have a earworm.  So of course I gotta share this...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, Childless said:

Why does she want to be a part of that shitty family though?  I'd consider the fact I was raised a country away from Lord Dampnut a stroke of luck and quietly go off into the sunset and live my life far away from that unhinged lunatic.  Count your blessings Tiffany and run.  Run fast!

Sadly, it's likely at least partly about the money. She's used to living a certain lifestyle, and I can't see daddy just giving her money for smiling as she gets older. Vanity Fair had an article a month or so ago that featured Ivanka and Tiffany. The article describes an incident where Tiffany was wanting a credit card on daddy's account, like most of her friends had. She went to Ivanka to see how to best approach daddy, and Ivanka ended up intervening, so Tiffany got the card. That was when Tiffany was in high school. As @Cleopatra7 indicated, she probably also wants a little approval from daddy as well.

 

Yeah, this will end well: "To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security"

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The Trump administration, searching for money to build the president’s planned multibillion-dollar border wall and crack down on illegal immigration, is weighing significant cuts to the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies focused on national security threats, according to a draft plan.

The proposal, drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also would slash the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget in 2017 would be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion, while the TSA and FEMA budgets would be reduced about 11 percent each to $4.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively.

The cuts are proposed even as the planned budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees all of them, grows 6.4 percent to $43.8 billion, according to the plan, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Some $2.9 billion of that would go to building the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, with $1.9 billion funding “immigration detention beds” and other Immigration and Customs Enforcement expenses and $285 million set aside to hire 500 more Border Patrol agents and 1,000 more ICE agents and support staffers.

The plan puts the administration in the unusual position of trading spending on security programs for other security priorities at the southern border, raising questions among Republican lawmakers and homeland-security experts.

“The Budget prioritizes DHS law enforcement operations, proposes critical investments in front line border security and funds continued development of robust cybersecurity defenses,” the draft said. “The Budget aggressively implements the President’s commitment to construct a physical wall along the southern border.”

Overall, funding for ICE would grow about 36 percent to $7.9 billion, while the budget for Customs and Border Protection would increase 27 percent to $14.2 billion.

Michael Short, a White House spokesman, cautioned Tuesday that the Trump administration is still early in the process of working on the budget, which the administration will send to Congress later this month. He and a DHS spokesman, David Lapan, referred other questions to the OMB, which did not respond to requests for comment.

...

At FEMA, a corner of the federal government whose budgets were beefed up after the 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, the proposed cuts would slash some programs whose effectiveness has long come under criticism. Research into bio-surveillance threats and other research and development work that gets tens of millions of dollars in federal funding a year would take a 28 percent hit, examples of programs the budget proposal describes as “having failed to show meaningful results.”

But the spending plan — which could cut $361 million from FEMA’s $3.5 billion budget — also eliminates or reduces the federal commitment to helping states and local governments prepare for natural disasters through training, salaries and benefits for staff, coordination and state-of the-art equipment. These grants help communities prepare for emergencies so that local and state governments can coordinate and respond quickly.

...

Homeowners in flood-prone areas of the country also would be levied a surcharge on their flood insurance, according to the document, although the OMB has been asked to come up with a plan to limit the extra payment for homeowners with “lower-value” homes.

So, for this misbegotten wall, we cut valuable Coast Guard, TSA, and FEMA programs. And, as the last sentence indicates, screw over the poor and middle class again.

[Audrey2]

8 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Sadly, it's likely at least partly about the money. She's used to living a certain lifestyle, and I can't see daddy just giving her money for smiling as she gets older. Vanity Fair had an article a month or so ago that featured Ivanka and Tiffany. The article describes an incident where Tiffany was wanting a credit card on daddy's account, like most of her friends had. She went to Ivanka to see how to best approach daddy, and Ivanka ended up intervening, so Tiffany got the card. That was when Tiffany was in high school. As @Cleopatra7 indicated, she probably also wants a little approval from daddy as well.

 

Yeah, this will end well: "To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security"

So, for this misbegotten wall, we cut valuable Coast Guard, TSA, and FEMA programs. And, as the last sentence indicates, screw over the poor and middle class again.

You know, cutting FEMA will be all well and good with Trump and the Congress, until a hurricane hits Mar-A-Lago. Then, FEMA will spend an unprecedented amount rebuilding it bigger and better than ever. I also think red states may get FEMA help. As for my blue state- I really hope the Cascadia earthquake doesn't hit during a Republican controlled administration. It would be their biggest dream- the destruction of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. (According to evidence from trees, coastal evidence, and reports of a tidal wave in Japan, the last huge earthquake out here was in 1700. The effects were strongly in evidence 100 years later, too, when Lewis and Clark came through and saw far fewer Native Americans than expected.)

[47of74]

47 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

You know, cutting FEMA will be all well and good with Trump and the Congress, until a hurricane hits Mar-A-Lago. Then, FEMA will spend an unprecedented amount rebuilding it bigger and better than ever. I also think red states may get FEMA help. As for my blue state- I really hope the Cascadia earthquake doesn't hit during a Republican controlled administration. It would be their biggest dream- the destruction of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. (According to evidence from trees, coastal evidence, and reports of a tidal wave in Japan, the last huge earthquake out here was in 1700. The effects were strongly in evidence 100 years later, too, when Lewis and Clark came through and saw far fewer Native Americans than expected.)

I remember during Katrina they Shrub and the GOP Congress were all about getting Trent Lott's place fixed up but everyone else was supposed to go fornicate themselves. 

I hope blue states all over this country - not just the Pacific NW - are keeping in mind that Agent Fornicate Face and his groupies in Congress will probably stab them in the back if disaster occurs, and I hope these states are  setting money aside for such an eventuality.

[RoseWilder]

I'm losing track of the number of people related to the Trump-Russia scandal have mysteriously died. Here's an article about the latest one: 

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-russia-conspirator-alex-oronov-dies-suspiciously-he-lived-in-donald-trumps-building/1786/

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Yet another individual directly involved in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has dropped dead under suspicious circumstances, and for the first time, the deceased is a United States citizen. Alex Oronov, one of the organizers of a plot that had the Kremlin pressuring Trump to oust the president of the Ukraine, has died. Palmer Report has determined that Oronov lived in Donald Trump’s building.

Alex Oronov was the individual who arranged a meeting between Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen and Trump’s Russian former business partner Felix Sater, with the assistance of Russian-controlled Ukrainian politician Andrey Artemenko. That meeting resulted in Cohen delivering a Kremlin-backed proposal to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s office just before he resigned. The plan involved Donald Trump using Russian blackmail to force out the president of Ukraine, so Artemenko could become president and give Crimea to Russia.

Artemenko announced that Oronov is dead, and he blames the death on the plot becoming public knowledge. The implication seems to be that Vladimir Putin and Russia had Oronov killed after he was outed as a conspirator by the media. It turns out Oronov had direct ties to Donald Trump. Business Insider and Talking Points Memo first reported on the fact that Oronov had died. Palmer Report’s own research team has since determined that Oronov lived in the Trump Hollywood building.

 

[RoseWilder]

Trump has some shady stuff going on in China as well. Is there any country where Trump isn't doing something shady and possibly illegal? 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/02/28/trump_sells_luxury_penthouse_to_china_influence_peddler.html

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A big concern about the Donald Trump administration is that his refusal to divest himself from his international resort/real estate business creates a vast number of opportunities for foreign entities to bribe him and/or for him to set U.S. policy in ways that benefit him personally. Eyebrows were raised, for example, when Trump backed off his support for Taiwanese autonomy just days before the Chinese government approved his company's right to use a particular trademark. For what it's worth, the approval seems to have been in the works since well before Trump signaled his support for the concept of One China, but the potential obviously still exists for POTUS to win favorable treatment for future Trump Organization China business by pursuing policies that the Chinese government approves of. And on that note, here's a fun story from Mother Jones about a Chinese-business-world power broker buying an apartment from Trump for $15.8 million:

New York City property records show that Xiao Yan Chen, the founder and managing director of a business consulting firm called Global Alliance Associates, purchased the four-bedroom, six-bathroom condo in Trump's Park Avenue high-rise on February 21 ...

Chen, who also goes by Angela Chen, did not return multiple calls and emails requesting comment. Her company bills itself as a "boutique business relationship consultancy" for US firms seeking to do business in China. "For a select clientele," the firm says that it "facilitates the right strategic relationships with the most prominent public and private decision makers in China. ... As counselors in consummating the right relationships—quite simply—we provide access," the company's website claims.

 

[candygirl200413]

Nah. Trump doesn't care about the Red states either in regards to storms. There were those storms right when he took office and it was like Georgia and Tennessee I think who begged for assistance from Trump only for it to fall on deaf ears.

Also on my facebook newsfeed this couple I knew from college, the soon to be husband enlisted in the coastal guard and I'm wondering what will happen when the funds come out of there.

 

[Childless]

2 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

I'm losing track of the number of people related to the Trump-Russia scandal have mysteriously died. Here's an article about the latest one: 

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-russia-conspirator-alex-oronov-dies-suspiciously-he-lived-in-donald-trumps-building/1786/

 

I wonder if Trump is at all worried about possibly getting offed by these lunatics.  Sounds like life expectancies for people connected to this Russian scandal are rather short.

[RoseWilder]

GOP strategist points out how stupid Trump's wiretap allegation is: 

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/05/republican-strategist-points-obama-wanted-trump-leaked-tax-returns.html

Quote

Republican strategist Rick Wilson has a notorious dislike for President Trump’s special brand of ignorance. After Trump accused President Obama, without evidence, of personally abusing his power to spy on Trump, Rick Wilson pointed out just how stupid that accusation really is.

If President Obama had wanted to use the government to get Trump, he could have easily leaked his tax returns. You know, the super secret tax returns Trump refuses to provide to the American people even though every other modern presidential candidate has done so.

 

[RoseWilder]

Get your smelling salts out, everyone. This is going to come as a shock. Trump has been behaving like a nap-deprived toddler over the last few days. Startling, isn't it. 

Trump is furious that people aren't buying the bullshit he's trying to sell us: 

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/trump-is-incredibly-pssed-off-no-one-believes-his-obama-wiretaps-story-says-adviser/

Quote

One of Pres. Donald Trump’s top confidants and close White House advisers said on Sunday that he hasn’t seen the president “this p*ssed off in a long time” and that Trump is vowing, “I will be proven right” about accusations that former Pres. Barack Obama wiretapped the phones at Trump Tower in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election.

TheHill.com reported that Newsmax.com CEO Christopher Ruddy published an essay on Sunday attacking Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) and praising his boss’ performance through a week rocked by major revelations regarding Trump and his staff’s communications with agents of the Russian government during the 2016 campaign and White House transition.

“I’ve been watching Chuck Todd’s ‘Meet the Press’ as I write this. There is actually little talk about this unprecedented wire-tapping and even less worry over it,” wrote Ruddy.

On Sunday morning, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told “Meet the Press” emphatically that the wiretapping does not exist. It never happened, he said, “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time as a candidate or against his campaign.”

Ruddy said, “I spoke with the President twice yesterday about the wiretap story. I haven’t seen him this p*ssed off in a long time. When I mentioned Obama ‘denials’ about the wiretaps, he shot back: ‘This will be investigated, it will all come out. I will be proven right.’”

 

 

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Homeowners in flood-prone areas of the country also would be levied a surcharge on their flood insurance, according to the document, although the OMB has been asked to come up with a plan to limit the extra payment for homeowners with “lower-value” homes

I'm going to need a line of credit for my swear jar during this administration, aren't I? 

President Shitweasel, I get that our entire house is probably smaller than the room Melania stores her shoe collection in, but do you have to be such a flaming jackass about it? This neighborhood may not be fancy, but at least our modest ranch houses don't look like someone ate fifty pounds of gold leaf and then vomited everywhere.

This house was built in the 1950s, and even though it has never been flooded, it's in a flood plain, so our mortgage company requires us to have flood insurance. The flood insurance premium is already almost twice the premium we pay for our homeowner's insurance, so fuck you and your administration sideways with an wide variety of farm implements for wanting to raise it even more. 

[47of74]

33 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I'm going to need a line of credit for my swear jar during this administration, aren't I? 

President Shitweasel, I get that our entire house is probably smaller than the room Melania stores her shoe collection in, but do you have to be such a flaming jackass about it? This neighborhood may not be fancy, but at least our modest ranch houses don't look like someone ate fifty pounds of gold leaf and then vomited everywhere.

This house was built in the 1950s, and even though it has never been flooded, it's in a flood plain, so our mortgage company requires us to have flood insurance. The flood insurance premium is already almost twice the premium we pay for our homeowner's insurance, so fuck you and your administration sideways with an wide variety of farm implements for wanting to raise it even more. 

President Shitweasel?  LOL!!!  I am totally adding that to the rotation of terms of endearment to use for that idiot.

I'm surprised that the White House doesn't look like someone ate 150 pounds of gold leaf then had a diarrhoetic episode all over the place. 

 

[AnywhereButHere]

3 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

President Shitweasel?  LOL!!!  I am totally adding that to the rotation of terms of endearment to use for that idiot.

I'm surprised that the White House doesn't look like someone ate 150 pounds of gold leaf then had a diarrhoetic episode all over the place. 

 

Yet... Give it time.

 

Every time you all talk about your swear jars, this goes through my mind. Anyone remember the movie Demolition Man and the swear detector?

 

Spoiler

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trumpism is now getting exposed as a monumental fraud"

Quote

The set of policy proposals and ideas loosely known as Trumpism goes something like this: President Trump is not an ideological fellow traveler of congressional Republicans on the economy, the safety net and immigration. Unlike Paul Ryan Republicans, he sees a robust government role in maintaining protections for the poor, sick and old; and he is much more willing than other Republicans to slam the brakes on immigration to protect blue collar whites from global forces that are making them feel culturally, economically and demographically destabilized.

But little by little, as Trump seeks to make good on his promises, Trumpism — as sold by the man himself — is being revealed as fraudulent to its core.

NBC News reports that health-care experts across the political spectrum agree that the new House GOP health-care plan, which Trump has now endorsed, falls short of his promises:

The bill, experts said, falls far short of the goals President Donald Trump laid out: Affordable coverage for everyone; lower deductibles and health care costs; better care; and zero cuts to Medicaid. Instead, the bill is almost certain to reduce overall coverage, result in deductibles increasing, and will phase out Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

The American Medical Association came out against the GOP bill on Wednesday morning, arguing that its subsidy scheme and rollback of Medicaid expansion would produce a “decline in health insurance coverage,” instead calling on Republicans to “ensure that those who are currently covered do not become uninsured.” The GOP bill would likely result in millions losing insurance, even though Trump himself recently promised that the GOP replacement would mean “insurance for everybody.”

It’s plausible that the GOP bill would hit a lot of Trump voters. A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis concludes that older, lower-income people will likely see a loss of financial support for insurance — many of whom are probably Trump voters. Non-college whites in the Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump saw a big drop in the uninsured rate under the ACA. Meanwhile, the GOP bill would mean cuts to Medicaid over time and potentially a phasing-out of the expansion, something that might also hit many Trump voters.

As Ross Douthat suggests, Trump’s hijacking of the GOP was in part driven by his ability to grasp “the political logic of reconciling his party to some form of coverage expansion” and to a “future in which the GOP accepts a health-care subsidy for the working class.” Indeed, as I’ve argued, Trump sent a strong signal to his white working-class base during the campaign that he is not ideologically like other Republicans on health care. But this is now colliding with the specific challenges attendant on repealing Obamacare and replacing it, which have revealed that there is an irreconcilable split among Republicans over the specific outcome they envision for a post-Obamacare health-care system.

The split was obscured for years, because Republicans could call for repeal, secure in the knowledge that it wouldn’t happen. It is between two camps. There are conservatives (mostly in the House) who actually want repeal, because they don’t think the government should be spending and regulating to expand coverage to poor and sick people, and instead want free markets to fulfill this goal. And there are other Republicans (mostly senators and governors) who want to say they’re repealing Obamacare (since they’ve railed against it for years in the abstract) while actually minimizing just how much of the coverage expansion gets rolled back in their states. Trump is more or less in the second camp, since he doesn’t want to be the guy who kicks millions off insurance or shatter Trumpism’s aura of ideological heterodoxy.

The result is a kind of kludge solution, which tries to give both camps a way to argue that they are getting their way. But the practical result is that it doesn’t actually give either what they want. And there is simply no way of pretending it comes anywhere near what Trump explicitly promised or vaguely signaled in ideological terms. This has left Trump spewing outright gibberish as he tries to sell the plan:

“It follows the guidelines I laid out in my congressional address — a plan that will lower costs, expand choices, increase competition, and ensure healthcare access for all Americans.

“This will be a plan where you can choose your doctor. This will be a plan where you can choose your plan. And you know what the plan is — this is the plan. And we’re going to have a tremendous — I think we’re going to have a tremendous success.  It’s a complicated process, but actually it’s very simple. It’s called good healthcare.”

Thus, Trump’s only play is to fall back on the GOP trick of conflating “health-care access” with coverage and robotically describing the plan as “good health care,” in hopes that his magical Twitter feed and powers of salesmanship can envelop the specifics in impenetrable fog. And the fraudulence doesn’t stop there. But that brings us to our next item.

...

Monumental fraud...yeah, that is an apt description for the tangerine toddler.

5 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

Yet... Give it time.

 

Every time you all talk about your swear jars, this goes through my mind. Anyone remember the movie Demolition Man and the swear detector?

 

  Hide contents

 

 

I'm not a big action movie fan, but like Demolition Man. That scene is so funny.

[Cartmann99]

17 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

I'm surprised that the White House doesn't look like someone ate 150 pounds of gold leaf then had a diarrhoetic episode all over the place

I am too! I remember reading an article just after the election, where two of his fans were excitedly awaiting to see Trump planned to do to the White House.

Now that I've said that, he's probably going to announce his plan to put "Trump" on the White House in huge gold letters that light up. 

[47of74]

51 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

I am too! I remember reading an article just after the election, where two of his fans were excitedly awaiting to see Trump planned to do to the White House.

Now that I've said that, he's probably going to announce his plan to put "Trump" on the White House in huge gold letters that light up. 

If he pulled a Biff Tannen on the White House it would not surprise me in the least.

Does anyone have a time machine I could borrow?  Preferably outfitted on a Tesla?  I could go check and see who fornicated up the timeline to let Pres. Shitweasel win.