Could Bringing On John Bolton Be a Smart Move?

Nah, A Smart Move Can Only Come From a Smart Person

A case can be made that strategically the elevation of Mike Pompeo to head the State Department and the hiring of crazy John Bolton to be National Security Adviser were good moves to make prior to Trumpie meeting with the North Korean leader.  See both of these people are hard liners, and that could send the message to the North Koreans that Donnie is seriously considering military action of the North Koreans do not stand down their nuclear progam.

Unfortunately, the fact that such thinking would be smart is the very thing that dooms it in the case of Trump.  Instead one has to think he is really considering military action against North Korea and tearing up the Iran deal.  So be afraid America, be very afraid.

Stormy Not a Storm, Just a Few Drops of Rain

Stormy's Attorney Just Spews Hot Air

There was a 'Geraldo Rivera/Al Capone' momment on TV with the 60 Minutes Interview with porn star Stormy Daniels.  All talk, all hype, no evidence that Ms. Daniels was telling the truth.  And the next morning here attorney went on Morning Joe and just said little or nothing.

If Ms. Daniels has something, let's see it.  If Trump is a liar on this subject, let's see it.  If Ms. Daniels wants us to take seriously her report that she was physically threatened she needs to convince us by something other than an accusation, that's the way it works in America.

A plaintiff, an accuser has the burden of proof, or at least the burden of producing something other than just words.  So far, her attorney, the much praised Michael Avenatti is just another blowhard attorney.  Hey Mike, when you got something let us know, otherwise go back to the office.

No Idaho You Cannot Sell Junk Health Insurance

Real News - Administration to Uphold Law

One purpose of health care insurance reform was to get rid of zombie policies, health insurance policies that provided very little benefits other than for policy holders to say they had health insurance.

Idaho decided the law prohibiting these policies did not apply to them.  Well guess what potato heads, it does.

 Medicare Administrator Seema Verma flatly rejected Idaho's plan to allow insurers in the state to scrap the ACA's consumer protection rules.

The ACA, Verma said in a letter to Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, "remains the law and we have a duty to enforce and uphold the law." That put the kibosh on a plan by Blue Cross of Idaho to sell five "state-based" insurance policies that flouted the ACA.

Wow, the rule of law rules in the Trumpet administration. What next, Trumpie will actually meet with the North Koreans!

Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spoke at a 2017 meeting of health officials. On Thursday she ruled Idaho's attempt to circumvent Obamacare out of order. (Alex Brandon / AP)

Yeah, we are just as astonished as she is that the law is the law.

How Many Women Does Trumper Have to Abuse or Exploit

Before the Religious Hypocrites Leave him?

We don't know, but the correct answer is more than 20.

Craving Attention, Donnie Threatens to Veto Spending Bill

Needs Congressional Republicans to Beg Him

The spending bill that will fund government for the rest of its year (its year ends September 30, don't know why) has bloated military spending and then mostly does business as usual.  Trumpet already threatened to veto it, causing Speaker Paul Ryan to rush to the White House to grovel and beg him to sign it and be done with it.  Donnie agreed.

But now he wants another taste of Ryan cowering in front of him, so the veto threat is out there again.

I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded.

Don't worry Paulie, just go up there, get down on your knees and beg some more. That's all he wants.

Andrew Cuomo Gets A Primary Challenge in New York

And It's Both an Opportunity and a Problem

It is not clear if New York Governor Andy Cuomo is Presidential material. A great pedigree, long term government service and a not too bad governor of New York should mean he is a front runner for the Democratic nomination. But the whiff of corruption surrounds him, and he is not the progressive nor the speaker his father was.

Now he has a primary challenge from actress Cynthia Nixon. Yes he leads by 40 points at this point in time, but New York has a very late primary and September is a long ways away. And a Cuomo surrogate did not help things with this comment.

“Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City,” Ms. Quinn told The New York Post, referring to her own candidacy. “Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be the governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience.”

Yeah, pretty offensive and it puts Andy is a difficult position. If Ms. Nixon proves to be a credible candidate, watch out Andrew.  But if Cuomo can show himself to be an articulare campaigner who supports the people Dems must appeal to in order to win elections, then he catapults to the top.

Ball is in your court Mr. Cuomo.

Remember Those Steel Tariffs? Gone

With great fanfare Trumpie announced big taxes on steel imports.  Yes, taxes, let's call em like we see em.  Now, in the middle of news about his extra marital affairs and firing of foreign advisers like the Secretary of State and the National Security Adviser he has dropped tariffs on 'allies'.  Since the tariffs only hit allies, this is the equivalent of dropping them. 

Trumper has a perfect record on keeping his word.  Zero.

Leading Cause of Polarization – Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse ( R) - Writing on Polarization

Rigid, Un-compromising, Ideologue Wants Everyone to Agree with Him

There is no greater hard line vicious conservative than Senator Sasse. A holier-than-thou so called religious man he would drive the nation in a hard right direction in which government would impose value, Ben Sasse values on everyone. Now he wants to write about polarization.

It's going to be titled "Them," with a subtitle of "Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal," Sasse said Wednesday during a telephone interview from Washington.

Of course, how to heal according to Sasse's votes would be to take health care away from tens of millions. In his world of deep faith we guess faith healing along with massive tax cuts for the wealthy will cure cancer, heart disease and fix the opiod crisis.

Trump's Porn Star Paramour Apparently on Double Secret Probation

Who Knew Life Imitates Animal House

The news is that the Trump people sought an arbitration order to silence a porn star who says she had a long term relationship with Donnie.

"A top Trump Organization attorney filed a secret legal document to keep Stormy Daniels from talking about her alleged affair with President Trump, deepening links between Trump’s company and the effort to silence the porn star.

The Trump Organization quickly distanced itself from the document, filed as part of confidential arbitration proceedings in Los Angeles on Feb. 22. The document was made public Wednesday evening by CNN and the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post confirmed its authenticity with Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels."

This places the Trump people in a difficult position, because in order to lie about this, which is what they usually do they would have to deny the existence of a document which exists in physical form. So they make stuff up like this.

In a statement, the Trump Organization emphasized that the company is not representing anyone in the Daniels dispute and “has no involvement in the matter.”

Apparently they forgot to look up what 'representation' means for a lawyer. Among other things it means filing a document in a legal proceeding.

As Sen. John McCain Fades His Wisdom Trumps His Partisan Past

The Senator Continues to Show What He Could Have Been

John McCain is an American hero. As a politician he has had great moments, none greater than when he defended Obama against an attack by a bigoted person at one of his campaign rallies. He has also had moments that did not serve him well. But he still has what it takes, as witnessed by this quote on Trumpie siding with Putin.

"An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections," John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement and on his Twitter account.

We could not have said it as well, which is why we repeat what Mr. McCain has said.

Florida's Pro Discrimination, Anti-African American, Pro Republican Voting Restoration Process for Felons is Struck Down

About Time

It is a generally accepted idea that once a criminal has completed their sentence he or she returns to society with full voting rights. Many states do this automatically. But not Florida. And now its process has been condemned by a federal judge.

Why, here's how the process works.

In Florida, a clemency board including the governor ultimately decides whether to restore voting rights to people with felony records. To get there, applicants must wait five to seven years after completing all terms of their sentences before applying for rights restoration. Then it takes another nine years on average for their petitions to be heard, according to the state office that oversees the process.

And Florida, controlled by Republicans wants to keep it that way. Why? Because some felons are African Americans and Republicans don't really consider them real Americans and besides they tend to vote for Democrats. And the process is corrupt.

The judge referenced one case where a man told Mr. Scott during a 2013 clemency board meeting that he had voted illegally for the governor. Mr. Scott restored the man’s rights. Meantime, plaintiffs identified five other cases where the clemency board denied voting rights to people questioned about illegal ballots.

“It is not lost on this Court that four of the five rejected applicants are African-American,” the judge said.

We will see how this plays, and if it goes to an appeals court with Donnie appointees the prospects for ending Florida's anti-American program will not be good. But this is just another episode showing how conservatives hate the concept of democracy.

Unfair Criticism of Actor Jim Carrey's Portrait of Sarah Huckabee Sanders

But There is Some Criticism Justified

Actor Jim Carrey has painted this picture and



said this about it.

"This is the portrait of a so-called Christian whose only purpose in life is to lie for the wicked. Monstrous!"

No, that is not her only purpose in life. Part of her purpose is to drive the rest of us nuts.

Congressman to Stick It to Trump and Sessions on McCabe Firing

A One Day Hire Would Undo Petty Actions of Donnie and Beau

The White House orchestrated the firing of the number two person at the FBI a day before he was to retire. Why. To punish him for adding legitimacy to the Mueller probe. Mr. McCabe may (or may not) have had a minor violation, but from all reports it was not serious enough to fire him in order to deny him his pension. It was simply a mean, vindictive act by a mean and vindictive administration wanting to punish someone who thought potential crimes should be investigated even if they involved the President and to scare others.

Now a neat solution has arrived that would allow McCabe to keep his full pension.

At least one Democratic congressman has offered McCabe a temporary job so he can get full retirement benefits — and McCabe appears to be considering.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) announced Saturday afternoon that he has offered McCabe a job to work on election security in his office, “so that he can reach the needed length of service” to retire.

And it may work!

McCabe's team is confident that he had at least 20 years of law enforcement work under his belt — defined as carrying a weapon or supervising people who do — which made him eligible to retire on his 50th birthday on Sunday, with full retirement benefits.

With those 20 years, he would need to just go to work with the federal government for another day or so in any job he pleases, whether that's as a election security analyst for a Wisconsin congressman or a typist for a day, to get full benefits, said the former official who spoke to The Fix. The job doesn't matter so much as the fact that he's working within the federal government with the same retirement benefits until or after his 50th birthday.

Let's hope this pans out, if for no other reason than to see the look on Trumpie face when he hears about it. This assume everyone's TV will show that shade of bright red.

Retarded!!!!!

As great a report you will ever find, from Taegan Goddard,  Bless Him

From the New York Times on November 21, 2006:

“I’m at this fashion show,” Vanessa Trump said, recalling their meeting in 2003. “Donald Trump comes up to me with his son: ‘Hi, I’m Donald Trump. I wanted to introduce you to my son Donald Trump Jr.’”

The three engaged in a brief, awkward conversation.

At intermission, the elder Trump again noticed a gorgeous girl nearby.

“Donald comes back up to me again, ‘I don’t think you’ve met my son Donald Trump Jr.,’” Vanessa Trump recalled. She remembers responding, “Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago.”

Six weeks later, at a birthday party at a New York restaurant, they were introduced a third time, this time by a mutual friend. Neither remembered the other. “We talked for an hour,” she recalled.

Then suddenly, something clicked: Wait, you were at that fashion show. Wait, you’re “the one with the retarded dad!” Vanessa blurted out.

Trumpie Cheated on Wife with Porn Star - Maybe, But

How is that News?



60 Minutes is going to have an interview with a porn star who says she had a long affair with Donnie right after his wife gave birth. 60 Minutes is a news program. A story about Donnie cheating is not news, it is business as usual.

Huh.

And despite the hype it may be that this is another Geraldo Rivera story on opening Al Capone's vault. Don't expect to learn to much.

Betsy DeVos is a Billionaire and an Idiot

Two Reasons Why She is in the Trump Cabinet

Appearing on 60 Minutes the current Secretary of Mis-Education showed the nation why should not even be a part time crossing guard.

These are just some of the things that DeVos said — or couldn’t answer — during the interview:

• She couldn’t say whether the number of false accusations of sexual assault on school campuses is lower than the number of actual rapes or assaults.
• Arming teachers “should be an option” for states and communities, she said, even though she couldn’t “ever imagine” her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff, having had a gun.
• “We have invested billions and billions and billions of dollars from the federal level, and we have seen zero results,” DeVos said — a statement Stahl challenged.
• “I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”

Ms. DeVos does not go to poor performing schools because she has no interest in solving their problems, just taking away their funding. At the end of her term in government it will be realized that she made the problems in education worse, not better. See, you go to poorly performing schools to learn what is causing the problem. But if you don't care, then you don't go.

Question From the Washington Post

• 
  Perspective
  Police are still killing black people. Why isn’t it news anymore?

Because it ain't news..News means smething new

French National Front Party Reaches Back to Connect with Nazi Past

They Just Want Everyone to Know Where They Are Coming From

Don't Worry French Nazi Lovers, We Do

The far right party in France known as the National Front is changing its name. The party has been losing favor recently despite the fact that it has tried to rid itself of its anti-Semitic pro Nazi past policies and pronouncements. Since that did not work, it is now changing its name to remind voters what it really is.

The new name, “Rassemblement National,” which translates roughly to National Gathering or National Rally, immediately prompted critics to draw parallels to a World War II-era faction that collaborated with France's pro-Nazi Vichy government. . . .

In 1941, the “Rassemblement National Populaire,” or Popular National Rally, became a major collaborationist party in support of the Vichy government, a regime that controlled France’s “unoccupied zone” but was allied with Nazi Germany, which occupied northern France. . .

Like other Nazi-allied parties during World War II, the “Rassemblement National Populaire” saw the war — and the experience of occupation — as a chance to cleanse and purify France from within. It was no stranger to overt anti-Semitism and open admiration for Nazi Germany.

The party used a logo featuring elements of the Nazi swastika, displayed on a similar red backdrop. One of the earliest members of the “Populaire,” Roland Gaucher, went on to co-found the National Front with Jean-Marie Le Pen.

And further proof of the evil this represents,

Le Pen's announcement Sunday came a day after a visit to a National Front conference in Lille by former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who encouraged the party to stick to its nationalistic roots.

“Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists,” he told an audience Saturday as Le Pen stood alongside. “Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker.”

Heil Bannon!

Democrats, Not Republicans Need to Be Warned by Pa. Election

Will They Learn?  Probably Not


The special election in western Pennsylvania may (or may not, but probably) will go to the Democrat.  Everybody says this is a message to the Republicans, because the district was heavily Republican.  Everybody is wrong.  The message here is for Democrats.

First of all, switch a couple of hundred votes and the story is how the Dems still could not win even with a great candidate and a Repubican hack on the other side.  But most importantly, if the polls were even close to being correct the Dem was ahead by four or five points until Trumpie came into the district and made it a tie.  The point, Trump can motivate his base and the House is not going to be Democratic after the fall elections unless Dems get out and vote.

Are you listening Nancy Pelosi?  If so, are you packing your bags?  You should be.

A Greedy Drug Company Illustrates All That is Wrong with America

Pricing a Critical Drug So High That People Suffer

Capitalism, private enterprise is a great system, but sometimes it doesn't work. A company that has a monopoly on a life saving drug can exploit the market to make huge profits while allowing those who cannot afford the medicine to suffer and die. Such is the case in this nation today.

Since 2013, the price of a 40-year-old, off-patent cancer drug in the U.S. has risen 1,400%, putting the life-extending medicine out of reach for some patients.

Introduced in 1976 to treat brain tumors and Hodgkin lymphoma, lomustine has no generic competition, giving seller NextSource Biotechnology LLC significant pricing power.

Health care workers, you know, the kind of people that actually try and help ailing patients recover are horrified.

Some cancer doctors are taking notice of the price hike. “This is simply price gouging, period,” said Henry S. Friedman, a neuro-oncologist and professor of neurosurgery at Duke University School of Medicine. “People are not going to be able to afford it, or they’re going to pay a lot of money and have financial liability.” He co-wrote an editorial criticizing lomustine’s pricing in The Cancer Letter newsletter in September.

Mallika Weant, a clinical pharmacist in Duke’s brain-tumor clinic, said some of the clinic’s patients have opted for less-costly medications because they can’t afford lomustine. The doses are based on body weight, and some patients must take multiple capsules, adding to the cost. Even insured patients often have to pay for a portion of their medicines out of pocket.

What basically has happened here, as is happening elsewhere, is a greedy uncaring bastard buys the rights to the drug, then raises the price to astronomical levels. If people can't afford, well they should not have gotten a cancer they could not afford to treat.

A nation that allows this is not one that lives up to American ideals. But it is America in 2018.