51 million people uninsured over the next 10 years, if the AHCA is approved.
Incidentally, that's 51 million people not paying into the AHCA as well. Combined with the cuts that the uber-rich are getting, that means you'll be paying more than you did for the ACA. Bottom line here: this isn't about helping you, and it's not about helping healthcare in the US...it's simply about making more money for the uber-rich, incidentally, like our President, and some members of congress. We need to put a stop to this! Yes, let's revisit the ACA, and fix things that are genuinely broken...but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. The rich got rich by selling to the poor. You only get to keep doing that if the poor aren't so poor they can no longer survive. Having an orange buffoon blowing smoke up their skirts will not keep the poor families of the US alive. Contact congress and let them know you're unhappy! Get ready to cast your vote for sanity come the 2018 mid-terms. Let's get these evil bastards out of office where they are doing such damage.
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And, just in case you missed it, here's how the Trump family nepotism is bearing fruit.
Once again, nothing to do with helping people, making the government better/more streamlined, or helping create peace in the mideast. It's simply a grab for more, when the grabber already has more than they could possibly ever chew. Oh, it feels like it was yesterday.
Sure, the investigation into Jared Kushner's ties to Russia were going on in the background, there was the war on people who are poor, and maybe congress was on one of their many recesses (amazing they find time to get /any/ arguing done), and that Melania really, really doesn't much care for Trump any more than any of us. Still, it seemed to be a quiet week over all with Trump gone. After all, the world is only so big, and having him overseas seemed to quiet things more or less because even Trump's donkey-like voice couldn't be heard here. Or so we thought... Sadly, we're now finding out that though we didn't hear all that much from our favourite orange man (hey, it's a short list), it's not because he hasn't been busy. Trump is sawing away at the foundation of western democracy and diplomacy that has been in place for over 100 years. I don't feel I'm being sensationalist here at all. You have China grabbing the South China Sea, despite the rest of the world saying they shouldn't. You have Russia annexing countries, and infiltrating the US election effectively buying Trump. And then you have Trump weakening the relationships that have kept the US and Europe together politically for the last 100 years. I'm not clever enough to see the future. What I do see is that this is putting money into Trump's pocket, and hurting the poor of the US specifically and the poor of other countries indirectly. I see that Europe is now publicly stating that the US cannot be trusted. Trust, though struggling with all the many US mis-steps over the last 77 years, which has given the world its most peaceful period ever. All I really know is...I miss the quiet. The quiet from before this whole messed-up election cycle. Here we go! Bonafide, genuine, real Trump winning. God knows we've been waiting for it long enough.
During his election campaign, Trump became the most divisive and hate-filled politician in decades. He would have been right in place in the turn-of-the-century south. Last century, or the one before, anyway. So, what's the product of Trump's version of hatred and division? The deaths of two men and critical injuries on a third for trying to defend a girl in a hijab against a lunatic. So, well done, Trump. Nobody can say that your mis-guided policies, stupid mistakes, and ancient attitudes have not provided any results. #impeachTrumpAndTheIdiotsOnHisCoatTails Trump has always said that he's innocent, and then done things that make him look guilty, even going so far as to admit his built publicly several times.
This time the Trump administration is trying to find ways to weaken the Special Counsel investigation by Robert Mueller. Despite knowing that they are in very deep trouble, the administration, instead of saying "fine, let's get it all out and clear the air...we'll cooperate fully"...they're saying "we don't want to play. Trust us no matter what the cost." "Trust us". Despite all the conflict of interest, self-enrichment, nepotism, outrageous public spending to play golf or keep family in New York, lies, and deceit. I think it's fairly clear here where the division of our country comes from, Trump. It's not from the people. It's not from the Special Counsel. It's from the idiot who sits in the Oval Office. It's time the administration should shut up, hunker down, cooperate, and accept what comes to them like every other American has to when the law is involved. So, yesterday, in my blog post where I point out how Trump lies, there was a tidbit that was interesting.
Trump has repeatedly and often made the claim that Obamacare (ACA) is about to implode. However, the fact check page on the Washington Post's site says that the Congressional Budget Office says Obamacare will happily continue on without imploding if conditions stay the same. To keep Obamacare working, the White House is paying $7 billion to insurers annually to help pay for the medical costs of 7 million poor people. The insurers are currently forced by contract to pay for those costs whether the White House contributes or not. Trump wants to take those subsidies away. If the insurance companies can't get the money from the White House, where do you expect that the money will come from? YOU! In a mis-guided attempt to get the AHCA passed at any cost, Trump's going to throw the poor to the wolves now as a bargaining tactic. Your medical insurance premiums will rise (as they must for the insurance companies to stay afloat). 7 million poor will immediately lose their care, the cost of the ACA to you will skyrocket. Make no mistake, that will not make Trumpcare a better approach, where costs will continue to stay high and up to 24 million will lose coverage. It will simply mean that Trump is throwing his dummy out of the pram to get his way, whether it's good for the American public or not. Grow up, Trump! To all Republicans backing this insanity: the mid-terms are coming. Over 60% of the American public knows you're complicit with Trump in this. You will feel the outcome come the election. At the moment, it's sounding a lot like "he said, he said" in regards to the whole Comey saga. Trump was, apparently, a creep beyond all reason. Comey wrote about it, apparently, and of course those memos got out.
As Trump jets off to try to convince the rest of the world that he and his administration, despite all the "America First" slogans and attacks on Islam during the campaign, really do have the best interests of the rest of the world at heart ("Make America Great Again!")...while at the same time trying, somehow, to convince us that Comey has made it all up. Problem is...well...his credibility is not the best. Okay, let's be honest, he lies like a rug. He lies like a dog. He lies like a...well...(there's more here if you're interested) If I had money to spend, I'd bet on Trump lying about this too. It's his thing. Politics used to be simple: every 2 years or so, there was something to vote about.
I'd get a vague sense of something from the news, or newspapers. I might go vote, if I was feeling particularly noble, but I was just as likely to not vote. It didn't take up a lot of my time. Mostly, I just got on with my own shambolic, chaotic life, and did the best I could. From the uproar of the 2016 election, and the amount of vitriol and hate spewed back and forth on the waves and the internet, I don't think that's the case for most people any more. Is it a good thing, this sudden and deep political interest from people who didn't really care that much? It's bad enough that whole Departments of the government aren't really functioning because they don't yet have leaders put in place by Trump...or the day to day noise ratio of chaos compared to actual work getting done continues to grow. Worse for me is the fact that this is reflected in my thoughts on a regular and predictable basis. I wake up in the morning, shower, read a little news, and think about it in the journey in to work. I might listen to news as well and get more angry. I usually arrive at work ready to...what? Do battle? How can that be productive? I don't think it can be. Could this be quantified? Could we put a measure on how much of the nation's soul is being eaten up by this last election cycle and the ongoing train wreck of the Trump presidency? What wold we even call it? Trumpsession? (Nah, sounds like Trump and Sessions had a love child.) Trumpcycle? Trumpmania? Trumpychosis? Trumpression? Like depression, but caused by Trump? Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm definitely feelin' it. So, the word impeachment has been said out loud, and in public by both parties. The Democrats have actually called for an impeachment.
Pelosi had it right though: gross incompetence, petty crime, and hearsay are not, strictly speaking, sufficient grounds to remove a sitting president. We might not like it, but that’s not going to get the job done. Given the vicious mood both across the country and in Washington, any impeachment battle is likely to drag on for a very long time indeed, and be a real drain on the country in general. Our allies are backing away because we’re not credible or trustworthy anymore, the markets are reacting badly because they see this could go very wrong, and our enemies are amused because we’re defeating ourselves. Perhaps we’re focusingn on the wrong details, though… Let’s say we drag the country through the muck, (further) damage our reputation, and get into the odd battle here and there. At some point, given Trump’s history and his inability to realise it really is him and his actions the world is unhappy with, he’s going to be replaced. The person that replaces Trump will look Presidential, Smart, Well-Mannered, Polite, and have a certain gravitas, simply by showing up on Monday with a normal-length tie, and not using Twitter. They’re going to look like a hero. For some period of time, if they can calm the open warfare between parties, and try to unify the government into a semblance of common sense, they’ll look like a Nobel peace-prize winner. Who’s the first in line to become this saviour? Michael Pence, the sitting VP. All along, he’s seen the shambolic, chaotic, unknowing groping Trump administration stumble, falter, and shoot itself in the foot, leg, spleen, heart and both lungs. He’s nodded when Trump tried to cut support for ecology, education, and diplomacy, while ramping up pointless things like support for the wall, increasing the military spend by $54B, or trying to take healthcare away from 24 million Americans. He’s gone along with every stupid, crazy, insane declaration Trump made, without standing up for America, Democracy, Human Rights, Truth or anything resembling morality. He’s smiled knowing that in a little while Trump would damage his presidency so much that it would have to be taken from him and delivered into Pence’s hands. He’s not the hero the US needs. Yet again, Trump likes to confess, openly and in public, to illegal activities.
On Friday, Trump threatened Comey saying that Comey had better hope that there were no tapes. For sure, he has threatened Comey via electronic message, which would fall foul of the harassment law. If there were tapes, then Trump is required, by law, to preserve them, and hand them over to congress for investigation when subpoenaed. If he says no, he's guilty of contempt. If he says he doesn't have them, and later does, he's guilty of perjury. Pretty much the only way he can get out of this one is 1) hope Comey doesn't sue for the threat and 2) admit that there aren't tapes (or just be done with it and hand the tapes over to Congress). Bottom line, we've all got better things to be doing than watching Trump Circus. |
AuthorEngineer, Dad, Concerned Citizen. Watching the America I love fading and eroding before my eyes. Archives
November 2018
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