NSFW THE TRUMPOCALYPSE

[Second Summer]

Well, they have for quite some time now.....

And it is not as if they were upstanding pillars of the community known for their strong morality, right?

I think some of the Congress Republicans are afraid they're going lose their re-election bids if Trump turns against them, as he apparently has huge swathes of deeply loyal supporters.

Some might also be worried about what the political landscape is going to look like after this so-called president has been removed from office, as he could still wreak havoc for the Republicans by urging his fan-base to boycott the elections or support some third-party candidate, thereby splitting the party and leaving the door open for the Democrats.

 

[Mischief]

It's a question of time, and that depends on how much longer the Republican party will tolerate a president who behaves like a mad circus clown parody of a president.

I don't know what their breaking point will be, or indeed if they have a breaking point.

IMO, dt is trying to force Sessions to resign, and if he doesn't, he'll fire him. If he can do so by the July recess of Congress, he can make a recess appointment of a new Attorney General, who can serve without necessity of Senate confirmation until the end of the Congressional term, which I think is January 2019.

That will be more than enough time to shut down the Mueller probe, which is dt's end game.

 

[beancounter]

This is unfortunately accurate.

5 Reasons Why Extraordinary Presidential Powers Make It Very Difficult To Nail Trump, His Family Or His Team

 

[PTree15]

I don't know what their breaking point will be, or indeed if they have a breaking point.

IMO, dt is trying to force Sessions to resign, and if he doesn't, he'll fire him. If he can do so by the July recess of Congress, he can make a recess appointment of a new Attorney General, who can serve without necessity of Senate confirmation until the end of the Congressional term, which I think is January 2019.

That will be more than enough time to shut down the Mueller probe, which is dt's end game.

He is just so vile. He keeps trying to deflect everything away from the Russia probe. I mean, seriously, bringing up the Clinton nonsense -- after he said he would drop it? You can't believe a word out of the man's mouth.

 

[Katrina]

Trump's actions are affecting me now, too. From what I've read online, financial analysts think the U.S. dollar is falling partly due to the "Trump discount." Exchange rate to CA dollar used to be 1.29. Last month, it was around 1.25. Today when I went to cash in my pay, it was 1.21. Wtf! I work for a U.S. company. This month I made $50 less than I should have purely because of the effing exchange rate. Thanks a lot, Trump!

 

[MadamSarcastra]

The president apparently had a great day at the Boy Scouts' Jamboree yesterday:

More: 13 increasingly unhinged moments from Donald Trump's speech to the Boy Scouts (25. July 2017)

It has to be said, the president is looking more and more like a parody. Sad! And yet oh-so funny

I'm sure the folks at SNL are already feverishly working on the sketch.... Hell, it practically writes itself! LOL

 

[beancounter]

The president apparently had a great day at the Boy Scouts' Jamboree yesterday:

More: 13 increasingly unhinged moments from Donald Trump's speech to the Boy Scouts (25. July 2017)

It has to be said, the president is looking more and more like a parody. Sad! And yet oh-so funny

The Boy scouts, for the past couple of decades, has been a very conservative organization. So, I'm guessing the majority of the parents were just fine with Trump's speech.

 

[MadamSarcastra]

The 11 Most Bonkers Moments from Trump's Wide-Ranging Interview with the New York Times

 

[MadamSarcastra]

McCain returns — backing and blasting his own party

Scaramucci threatens to 'fire everybody' to stop White House leaks

Live mic catches senators bashing Trump; 'I think he's crazy'

 

[Andy_T]

What’s next for the Senate Republicans’ effort to repeal Obamacare, in one flowchart

 

[Second Summer]

What’s next for the Senate Republicans’ effort to repeal Obamacare, in one flowchart

What is 'the individual mandate'?

 

[Andy_T]

ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate: What is the Tax Penalty for Not Having Health Insurance?

ObamaCare’s individual mandate requires that most Americans obtain and maintain health insurance, or an exemption, each month or pay a tax penalty.

The individual mandate went into effect at the beginning of January 2014 and continues each year. The penalty for not having coverage will be paid on your Federal Income Tax Returns for each full month you, or a family member doesn’t have health insurance or an exemption and is based on your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). The fee went up each year from 2014 – 2016 making it more important to look into coverage and exemptions options each year.

from ObamaCare Individual Mandate


Also:

Skinny repeal: the last-ditch idea to save the Senate health care bill

Sources suggest that Senate Republicans are weighing a last-ditch idea to pass some kind of health care bill in the coming days: a narrowly focused Obamacare repeal bill. A “skinny repeal” measure could eliminate the law’s hated individual mandate to buy insurance, perhaps some of its taxes on the health care industry, and little else.

That policy could prove extremely disruptive to the individual insurance markets, where people buy coverage if they don’t get it through their employers or the government, if it became law. Health insurance works as a business only if as many healthy people buy insurance as possible to offset the costs of paying for sick people’s health care. Getting rid of the Obamacare requirement that people buy health insurance or face a penalty could lead healthy people to avoid insurance altogether.

Politically, “skinny repeal” could be the end game, according to three health care lobbyists. It’s a plan with great peril — putting the individual insurance market at risk of spinning into a death spiral if Senate and House lawmakers can’t reach an agreement on a final piece of legislation.

 

[FortyTwo]

I am so f*cking sick of every minute of this.

It's just... oh, he lied again, he did something that shows how self-absorbed he is, oh man, he did what?, this has to be the nail in the coffin, oh wow he slandered who? there's a committee investigating the latest blatant broken law, this'll be great! Ten ways Trump got owned by so and so foreign ambassador whatever who didn't shake hands or shook hands weird or didn't want to talk to him or looked miserable in a picture.

This whole thing is like a time loop of the same depressing garbage and it's so much easier to follow than it should be. I'm just numb to this entire ordeal. It's like every day the government reveals how much of a sham American politics are over and over again and nobody does jack **** about it.

 

[FortyTwo]

And what's worse is the fact that the ball might never drop. We may be in for eight years of this. I would not be surprised in the slightest.

John Oliver in this clip sums it up pretty well: "Well, this is something, as long as we live in a world where something means anything, and I'm not sure we do anymore. It seems serious, but do we live in a world devoid of consequences now? I forget where we are in human history...This seems like a seismic event, but it might be nothing."

 

[Andy_T]

Something different although unfortunately connected...

I remembered this morning seeing a good movie based on a Stephen King book, called "The Dead Zone", in which a US presidential candidate is featured who IMO is quite similar to the current president of the US.

Ironically, when I googled it today, I found an article about an interview with Stephen King where he mentioned exactly the same thing - that he was not particularly surprised about the election result and how the current US president is very much like the presidential candidate(s) he had written about in this books a few decades earlier.

Stephen King on Donald Trump: ‘How do such men rise? First as a joke’

I had written about such men before. In The Dead Zone, Greg Stillson is a door-to-door Bible salesman with a gift of gab, a ready wit and the common touch. He is laughed at when he runs for mayor in his small New England town, but he wins. He is laughed at when he runs for the House of Representatives (part of his platform is a promise to rocket America’s trash into outer space), but he wins again.

When Johnny Smith, the novel’s precognitive hero, shakes his hand, he realizes that some day Stillson is going to laugh and joke his way into the White House, where he will start world war three.

I am writing the rest in a spoiler for those who have not seen the movie and possibly want to see it …

Spoiler: For the Dead Zone

Johnny Smith is dismayed as so far, all his visions have become reality, and he now has strong reason to believe that Stillson will – against all odds – be elected president and start World War III.

He vows to try to prevent that future and plans to assassinate the candidate, although he is personally opposed to using violence.

However, things don’t go as he had planned. He tries to shoot the candidate at a rallye, but Stillson grabs the baby of a bystander and holds her in front of him as human shield. Smith does not want to endanger an innocent, stands down and is shot by Stillsons bodyguards instead. A photographer captures the scene on a picture.

As Smith lies there mortally wounded, Stillson walks up to him to see who his attacker was, Smith touches him and has another vision. He sees a future in which Stillson does not get elected because of the picture showing his cowardly behavior of using a baby as human shield, and in which a lonely Stillson commits suicide in a grubby hotel room.

Smith dies happily knowing that he was able to prevent World War III, and did not even have to kill another person to do it.

So far for the movie, which IMO is quite good.

And here comes the funny (well, not really) part … I was considering whether this would also be a potential outcome and resolution for the 45th US presidency, and realized, that, if something like that happened, the typical Twimp voters simply would not care.

If anything, they would likely stand even more enthusiastically behind their “president” for “being smart” and using a baby as human shield against an assassin. At least that is what everything I have seen so far about Twimp and his supporters leads me to forcibly believe.

BTW, the interview I linked above is long, but absolutely worth reading. It features a small story by Stephen King about a possible dialogue in which a group of Twimp voters are asked why they voted for him, after being subjected to truth serum.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

Three tweets coming out with a new policy from Trump on twitter.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......
Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.........
victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.

___________________

This has to be one of his worst ever tweets. Absurdly blatant discrimination.

Also completely false argument. If the military doesn't want to pay medical costs associated with surgeries or whatever else that's one thing but to not allow ANY transgender people which is what he's saying. Even if they pay their own medical costs they wouldn't be allow because he is just saying a blanket ban.

As for disruption, what disruption? It would be (and was) disruptive to allow women and bad people into the army because of sexism and racism. This isn't any different.

This one really make me mad! Even by his pathetic standards, this is low.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

"It is estimated as of 2014 that there are approximately 15,500 transgender individuals either serving on active duty or in the National Guard or Army Reserve forces within the U.S. Military."
Source: Gates G.J., Herman J.L., "Transgender Military Service in the United States," (2014) Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
As cited in: Transgender people and military service - Wikipedia
So are they going to get kicked out or what? Or perhaps this just refers to trans people with a low profile being told to keep a low profile?

 

[Jamie in Chile]

In a recent study by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies,[2] of the 103 countries studied, 19 countries allow transgender military personnel, and a further nine countries might allow transgender personnel (but this could not be confirmed by the study).[3] The 19 countries confirmed as allowing transgender people to openly serve in their militaries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

 

[Mischief]

"It is estimated as of 2014 that there are approximately 15,500 transgender individuals either serving on active duty or in the National Guard or Army Reserve forces within the U.S. Military."
Source: Gates G.J., Herman J.L., "Transgender Military Service in the United States," (2014) Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
As cited in: Transgender people and military service - Wikipedia
So are they going to get kicked out or what? Or perhaps this just refers to trans people with a low profile being told to keep a low profile?

I think it means they get kicked out if "discovered." There was some speculation that this administration would implement a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, but this is not it.

 

[Mischief]

I am so f*cking sick of every minute of this.

It's just... oh, he lied again, he did something that shows how self-absorbed he is, oh man, he did what?, this has to be the nail in the coffin, oh wow he slandered who? there's a committee investigating the latest blatant broken law, this'll be great! Ten ways Trump got owned by so and so foreign ambassador whatever who didn't shake hands or shook hands weird or didn't want to talk to him or looked miserable in a picture.

This whole thing is like a time loop of the same depressing garbage and it's so much easier to follow than it should be. I'm just numb to this entire ordeal. It's like every day the government reveals how much of a sham American politics are over and over again and nobody does jack **** about it.

I know. Six months in, and I feel exhausted.