Tag Archives: Donald Trump

national news, political news

Wiretap story damages Trump credibility? No-o-o-o!

This story made me react with a typical, “Well, duhhh!”

It concerns a new Quinnipiac poll that says — get ready this bombshell — Donald Trump’s credibility has been damaged by his bogus assertion that former President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump’s offices in Trump Tower.

Why, I never … No s***?

Who would’ve thunk that?

You get my drift. The president’s ridiculous and, in my view, defamatory tweets about wiretapping have revealed the kind of individual who now occupies the most revered office in the greatest nation on Earth.

Indeed, he has demonstrated even more his unfitness for public office in that astonishing interview with Time magazine in which he dismisses concerns about his honesty with this: “I can’t be doing so badly because I’m president and you’re not.”

There you have it, kids. This guy is clueless in the extreme. He has no understanding of how many Americans — except, of course, for the dedicated Trumpkins — perceive the president of the United States.

The Quinnipiac poll pegs Trump’s standing at 60 percent of voters who don’t think he is believable. Actually, the biggest surprise in that poll in my mind is that the percentage of those who disbelieve Trump isn’t actually greater.

But, hey. I am not going to question the legitimacy of the poll.

What I will continue to question, though, is how in the name of political sanity Donald John Trump got elected to this office in the first place.

International news

Get to work to ‘destroy’ ISIS, Mr. President

As if we needed any reminders …

A terrorist launched an attack in London the other day. Five people died; several others were injured. Police killed the madman (whose name I will not use, per my recently adopted policy of refusing to ID the names of these goons).

He was a British citizen of Middle East descent.

And, oh yes, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, apparently because the bastard was a member of the terrorist organization.

What does this mean? It means the president of the United States — who is mired in the muck of growing controversy and potential scandal at home — has to get cracking with one of his many top priorities.

Which is to “destroy ISIS.”

Just how difficult is it to do what Donald Trump has pledged to do? We’ve just borne witness to the difficulty. The London attacker was a “lone wolf.” He took his vengeance out on innocent bystanders.

Just how does one stop this kind of attack? How does a government eradicate from the face of the planet every single individual who is capable and willing to commit these acts?

This is precisely the kind of act with which the world has lived since the beginning of time. The 9/11 attack on our country launched an new kind of “world war” that many observers said likely never would end. It becomes a war of attrition, except that with a planet full of 7 billion individuals, it becomes problematic in the extreme to eliminate every single person who is committed to some hideous cause disguised as a religion.

The London attack has revealed — as if we needed reminding — the difficulty that stands before those in power.

That includes the head of state of the world’s most powerful nation. Trump has blustered and bellowed since entering the political world about how he knows “more about ISIS than the generals … believe me.” He has vowed to destroy the terrorist organization that grew out of that terrible day on 9/11. Two previous presidents — one Republican and one Democrat — have overseen the deaths of thousands of terrorists around the world.

Have we gotten them all? Of course not. Are we able to get them all? Probably not.

Thus, the fight goes on.

national news, political news

Trump now must get ready to attack other ‘top priorities’

If the Republican plan to overhaul health care fails, the president of the United States will have to face a serious quandary.

Which issue will become his top priority item?

Donald Trump said his first order of business was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. His effort is now gasping for air. A vote on Friday stands as a now-or-never effort. If it fails, which it appears will occur, he will move on to other matters.

What’s next? Let’s see. Building the wall along our southern border? Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement? Bringing back all those jobs that have moved offshore to China?

He won’t deal with Russian aggression in Ukraine, Syria or its meddling with the U.S. presidential election. That’s pretty much a given.

Trump, though, will have to pivot rapidly from health care overhaul.

Heaven knows he’s got a full plate of top-drawer issues to handle.

He did refer to the U.S. economy as a “disaster.” Oh, wait! Then he got that great jobs report for February in which non-farm payrolls grew by 235,000 individuals; joblessness fell to 4.7 percent.

And, no-o-o-o, the numbers weren’t cooked.

I am watching all this flailing right along with the rest of the country. The president cannot get his footing. He has been unable to fill many top administrative posts. He must appoint more than 140 federal judges, which is a consequence of Republicans blocking Barack Obama’s efforts to fill those vacancies when he was president.

And then …

We’ve got all those questions about Russian connections with the Trump campaign, the president’s bogus assertion of wiretapping and whether Donald Trump has any idea of just how he intends to actually govern.

Think of it: We’re only at Day 63. My head is spinning.

medical news

Trump tries to stampede GOP into replacing the ACA

I think I understand what Donald J. Trump is trying to do to persuade his Republican colleagues in Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The president said a vote on Friday is the drop-dead event. If House of Representatives Republicans do not have the votes to enact the GOP alternative, then that’s it.

The Affordable Care Act will stand. President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy initiative will remain. The president will move on. He’s done negotiating.

Don’t you get it?

Trump is now trying to persuade balky Freedom Caucus Republicans to vote for the American Health Care Act, or else face the prospect of failing to deliver on the president’s top-drawer campaign promise.

Will he do it? I have no clue. Whether he goes through with his threat likely depends on whether someone gets his attention long enough to persuade him to keep up the fight.

The AHCA is not an improvement over the ACA. The Congressional Budget Office says the AHCA will throw 24 million Americans off their health care plans. GOP lawmakers have been hearing from their constituents for weeks now about how much they hate the Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

Trump throws down the gauntlet

Now it has come down to whether House Republicans actually care enough about health care “reform” to enact an alternative to what’s already on the books. It’s also an open question about whether the president actually cares about health care — at all!

Does he want to enact an actual improvement over the ACA or does he simply want to replace a health care plan promoted and pushed forward by his immediate predecessor? Does he really care about what the alternative contains?

Trump said he is done negotiating with his fellow Republicans. Either pass what’s on the table, he is saying, or we’ll just forget the whole thing.

What a way to lead.

medical news, national news, political news

GOP turns tables on Democrats

John Boehner was a year away from becoming speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, but he stood on the floor of the House to express his intense anger at his Democratic colleagues.

They were rushing the Affordable Care Act into law, the then-House minority leader declared. Democrats were shoving this “down our throats,” he hollered. He bellowed that no one had “read the bill!”

The ACA passed with no Republican votes.

Now the GOP is in charge of Congress. Boehner became speaker in 2011 and served until 2015. Republicans sought to repeal the ACA many times during Boehner’s tenure. They failed.

Now it’s Paul Ryan’s House. Speaker Ryan is working with a Republican president to enact something called the American Health Care Act.

What is the GOP strategy being mapped out by Ryan and Donald Trump. Why, they’re trying to rush this to a vote. They’re trying to “shove this down the throats” of conservative lawmakers who oppose it. They aren’t bothering to persuade Democrats, who are lined up en masse to oppose the AHCA, just as the GOP locked arms against the ACA in 2010.

Is it good enough now for Republicans to do the very thing they accused Democrats — with good reason, candidly — of doing?

Of course it isn’t!

The president declared that repealing and replacing the ACA was his top priority. The House was supposed to vote tonight on the AHCA. Ryan backed away from the vote. It’s now scheduled for Friday.

The president says a Friday vote — up or down — will be the end of his negotiating a replacement for the ACA. He said today he’s going to “move on” to other issues. Whether he does will depend on who gets to him. Trump does have this way of changing his mind.

Has there been sufficient comment and analysis on this Republican alternative to ACA, which was trotted out less than a month ago?

Nope. Not even close.

One difference between now and 2010: You aren’t going to hear the current House minority leader, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, screaming on the House floor about not having enough time to consider this health care insurance replacement. Rep. Pelosi is actually chuckling at what she calls the president’s “rookie mistakes.”

That’s the major difference. The tactics of today’s Republicans certainly resemble those employed by yesterday’s Democrats.

medical news

Picture speaks volumes about nature of health debate

This might be the most instructive picture taken during Donald J. Trump’s still-young presidency.

It cracks me up!

The picture shows a collection of individuals gathered around a White House conference room table. The topic at hand? Women’s health issues and whether the Republican-sponsored health care overhaul — the American Health Care Act — would cover certain aspects of health issues germane to women.

Pop quiz: Who is absent from this White House meeting.

Time’s up. The answer? Women. There isn’t a single woman present in this meeting of middle-aged men who are talking about whether the AHCA should include women’s health matters.

Media reported today that the white guys stood and gave Trump an ovation as he entered the room. I guess they were offering a show of respect for the president of the United States.

The person who should have gotten an even bigger round of applause would have been any female member of Trump’s policy team.

I have to wonder: What in the world would any of the people in the picture — even those who are actually married to women — bring to any serious discussion about women’s health?

They use a word in Washington to describe how certain gatherings appear to those who see them: They call them “optics.”

The optics of this meeting were stunning.

media news, medical news, national news, political news

Everyone has a limit, right, Sean Spicer?

Every man or woman — even White House press secretaries — would have their limits on the dissembling, confusion and outright lies with which he or she must contend.

Isn’t that right, Sean Spicer.

The current White House flack came to the podium today and declared that the House of Representatives would vote tonight on the American Health Care Act.

Then word came out that, nope, ain’t gonna happen — tonight! It’s been delayed. House Republicans are still trying to gather up enough  votes to send Trump/Ryancare to the Senate, where it faces an even less friendly pool of politicians.

Chaos, anyone?

It’s fair to wonder out loud about Sean Spicer, a man for whom I’m beginning to develop a certain level of sympathy. How much more of this can he take? How much longer will he be able to defend a president’s policies and the seat-of-the-pants process that produces them?

I don’t know much about Spicer, other than he served as Republican National Committee press secretary before joining the White House flackery machine.

Still, is this guy reaching his limit?

national news, political news

Stop the tease, Rep. Schiff, about ‘circumstantial evidence’

Now it’s a leading congressional Democrat who’s teasing the public with something — still unknown — relating to whether the Donald J. Trump presidential campaign was in cahoots with the Russians to influence the 2016 election.

Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC’s Chuck Todd that the committee has “more than circumstantial evidence” that the campaign and the Russians conspired to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

Really, Rep. Schiff? But you can’t tell us anything because it’s, um, classified. Is that right?

Imagine the buzz such a statement is making. No, you don’t have to imagine it. It’s all over the media.

It’s getting a bit testy in Washington, D.C., these days.

Neil Gorsuch is going through a grueling confirmation hearing to become the next Supreme Court justice; the president is twisting arms among House Republicans to get them to approve a GOP alternative to the Affordable Care Act; a terrorist struck in London, killing and injuring several bystanders; Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to examine the Russia story; and the Intelligence Committee’s Republican chairman, Devin Nunes, blabbed to the president that his office in New York might have been the object of “incidental” surveillance by someone.

In the meantime, the FBI director has shot down in flames the president’s assertion that Barack Obama bugged Trump Tower.

Now we hear from the House Intelligence panel’s top Democrat that the committee might have the goods on whether the Trump campaign committed a potentially treasonous act by colluding with Russians goons who attacked our democratic electoral process.

Rep. Schiff has now acted in a sort of Trumpian fashion by teasing us with a morsel that might evolve into a full-course political meal.

Or … it might be a lot of nothing.

Which is it?

medical news, national news, political news

Trump the ‘deal-maker’ faces grievous setback

Donald J. Trump told us — many times — during the 2016 presidential campaign that the greatest skill he would bring to the presidency would be his ability to close the deal.

He made a fortune working out the “best” deals in the history of business … he said.

Here we are. Trump is now the president of the United States. He promised to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act with something more “affordable” and that no American would be left without health insurance.

Trump and congressional Republican leaders have produced something called the American Health Care Act. But there’s this little problem with it.

The Congressional Budget Office’s “scoring” of it pegs the number of Americans who would lose health insurance at 24 million. What’s more, the conservative Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives hates the AHCA. They call it “Obamacare light.”

So do congressional Democrats. No surprise there.

Crucial vote coming up

The AHCA goes to a vote Thursday in the House. Freedom Caucus members aren’t budging. The president went to Capitol Hill to pitch the AHCA. He threatened some House members that they’d lose their seats in 2018 if they oppose the bill.

Freedom Caucus leaders say they now have enough votes to kill the AHCA. Which means that a Senate vote won’t matter.

Wasn’t this supposed to be the president’s main selling point? Is this how he closes the deal?

The Affordable Care Act, which has brought 20 million Americans into the health insurance system who previously couldn’t afford it, appears to much harder to “repeal and replace” than Donald Trump predicted it would be.

I will await the president’s response to what appears to be a stunning political setback in the making. I’m wondering if he’s going to say the House vote was “rigged.”

International news

It’s getting deeper around the president

Is it me or does it seem that the doo-doo is piling up around the president of the United States of America?

* The FBI director says Donald Trump’s allegation that Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of his offices in New York City is bogus.

* Director James Comey then says his agency is conducting an investigation into whether there is possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump presidential campaign to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

Hang with me …

* Trump has contended that former campaign chief Paul Manafort had no contact with Russian officials. Then The Associated Press reports that Manafort got paid $10 million to work for Russian interests.

* House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said today that he has information that suggests Trump campaign officials were subjects of “incidental” surveillance.

* Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff said Nunes didn’t bother to tell other committee members before going public. Then came this from Schiff: The committee has “more than circumstantial evidence” of collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.

* Finally, Sen. John McCain — the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee — said today there needs to be a special counsel appointed to probe this Russia matter. Why? The Senate, he said, is no longer capable of doing the job.

McCain lays it on the line.

My head is spinning. It’s about to explode!

How can it be that we’re only two months into this new president’s administration and it is being eaten alive by these matters of its own making?

In the meantime, the president remains silent about Russia. He won’t acknowledge that the Obama wiretap allegation is as phony as his years-long assertion that Barack Obama was born in Africa and wasn’t qualified to serve as president.

We have a reckless serial liar serving as president of the United States.

However, of all the messiness that has soiled the president — and the presidency — the one that frightens me the most is the possibility that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to influence our presidential election.

I believe the word for that is “treason.”