Donald John Trump: 2016 President-Elect

[Duke Silver]

7 minutes ago, MulletorHater said:

 Trumpgrets

[Moose135]

2 hours ago, Lunata said:

Insurance is a bet you make with a large company that something bad will happen to you.

My father would always say to his life insurance agent "I'm betting you I'm going to die sooner rather than later..."  He almost made it to 91, outlived the agent, I'm sure.

 

16 minutes ago, millennium said:

This is not the country I grew up in.   Whether people realize it or not, there has been a coup.

To coin a phrase, I want my country back.

[KerleyQ]

5 minutes ago, stillshimpy said:

So, I'll go off to try and find this clip because it was in Trevor Noah's interview with Obama, I believe, since I swear that's the only one I've seen super recently but in it President Obama states something pretty key to remembering:  the way the ACA is structured, it will take three years to dismantle it entirely.   So even if it is repealed as the very first thing that they do, people who signed up by the last enrollment date (Obama was urging people to sign up) they would still have access to coverage for three years.   

That that was better than nothing.   Now, let me see if I can find the freaking clip anywhere to back me up on that, but that's one source I'm willing to forgo the full vetting treatment on.  

I think you're right, that was on The Daily Show.  My hope is that the Dems finally get aggressive about countering misinformation, and they start spending the next 20-ish months getting the word out to people in each state specifically about what the ACA means for them, what the repeal means for them, and why, if applicable, the ACA hasn't worked for their state (i.e. because the GOP leaders in their state undermined it, often at financial cost to the state, just because they wanted to be contrary to President Obama).  Get the word out, campaign their asses off, and get control of Congress before they finish the three year process of dismantling the ACA completely.  They should also spend this time planning how to fix the areas of the ACA that need some work, and present a complete plan to the voters, explaining the specifics, how it's meant to work, how their state can make it work, and comparing it to their situation if the current Congress is allowed to complete its plan to dismantle the ACA with no plan to replace it beyond "erasing borders" and state pools for pre-existing coverage (both of which are shitty plans that benefit the insurance companies while placing more financial and logistical stress on the citizens).  Make sure the citizens in each state understand that the plan in their state, whatever it's called IS "Obamacare."  (Hi, Kentucky voters!) 

And they absolutely need to hammer away at Ryan's plans for Medicare and Social Security.  Stop letting that lying, disingenuous douchebag get away with things like "Social Security is increasing our defecit" and "Obamacare has almost bankrupted Medicare."  

And, for the love of God, hold Trump's feet to the fire.  He promised over and over that "Obamacare will be replaced with something great."  Harp on that.  Keep calling him out, demanding to know what his "something great" is.  Do not let him turtle up and pretend that Pence, Ryan, and McConnell aren't screwing over citizens of this country with his consent. 

[Padma]

13 minutes ago, MulletorHater said:

That's why it's so hilarious and pitiful when a recurring theme running through many of the Trumpgrets are people who expected the Tang Turd to suddenly start acting like an adult and pivot to acting presidential.  I mean, what part of "He's a 70-year-old man who will NEVER change" didn't they get?

What's even more pitiful is that he never concealed who and what he was, but Hillary's damned emails!  They chose to buy into the tough talk of a punk ass bitch bully who talks trash while hiding behind his stormtroopers hired thugs bodyguards to open a can of whup-ass on protesters and others who displease him.  Why these people fully expected him to live up to the tough guy persona when nothing in his pampered life indicates that he could never, ever win in a fair fight is beyond me.  I understand that he did raise a hand to former wife, Ivana, and allegedly got into a fight so raucous with Marla that it knocked bedroom doors off their hinges.  But, of course, these were wimmen.

Oh, Mulletorhater! Have you never seen our super, uber-macho PEOTUS taking down (literally) Vince McMahon?  This is not some wus!  Our next president is a real man's man--maybe he and Vlad can even duke it out some day just like Rocky v. Drago in Rocky IV.  (Dignity! Class!)

[SoSueMe]

7 hours ago, Lana X said:

better yet, morning joe will be like "we knew that was going to happen. Mika, he called you just before....

mika: I know. we're so connected. *eye rolling* *eye rolling* *eye rolling* *eye rolling *eye rolling *eye rolling *eye rolling*

joe: Mika, stop!

Mika: I can't! *eyeballs get stuck*

Joe: well, I'll have to cancel our meeting tonight with the president.

LOL The eye rolling only ceases when she is not busy engaging in the many scarf stylings in her repertoire. For realsies, sometimes I check it out just to watch how she has changed her scarf styling during each commercial.

[MulletorHater]

11 minutes ago, Duke Silver said:

LOL!  No, you didn't!

[stillshimpy]

Okay, I have partially lost my mind.   At 8:10 he states that people will have access for a year at minimum, if they sign up now.   Then he goes on, at length and eventually speculates that they'll repeal it now and not have the law take effect for three years.   

So three years was his speculation so that will allow them to come up with their own plan in the interim thereby allowing them to repeal it, without it being an issue of taking people's insurance away.  The 1 year of coverage was something he stated.   

I'm sorry guys, I thought I'd lost all hope already but apparently my hearing hadn't gotten word.  

As speculations go, it should be a good one.  In a sane world where they wanted the appearance of keeping their word, while not callously fucking over the people they swear to serve.  It really should be like that, so.....yeah.   It won't in anything resembling any likelihood.  

Edited January 4, 2017 by stillshimpy

[fishcakes]

1 hour ago, kassa said:

I read a story yesterday about a woman in Kentucky who was all ready for repeal of Obamacare, because she has a son with a preexisting condition in his 20s and Obama set it up so that he'd get kicked off her insurance when he's 26.  But the Republicans are going to fix that.

I saw that story. The mother and son were both morons who didn't understand that the only reason he could stay on her insurance until he was 26 was because of the ACA. Once he turned 26, he decided not to enroll in a plan through the Health Care Exchange because he'd heard "bad things" about it. Then he needed tens of thousands of dollars worth of cancer treatments and since he had no insurance, it was all paid for by Medicaid, which he only qualified for because of the ACA. Neither of them voted in the last election (too complicated for them, probably), but they hope that the Republicans will let him stay on Medicaid because he really needs it. (Paul Ryan: "Oh, well in that case ... naaaaah.")

20 minutes ago, stillshimpy said:

Okay, I have partially lost my mind.   At 8:10 he states that people will have access for a year at minimum, if they sign up now.   Then he goes on, at length and eventually speculates that they'll repeal it now and not have the law take effect for three years.   

So three years was his speculation so that will allow them to come up with their own plan in the interim thereby allowing them to repeal it, without it being an issue of taking people's insure away.  The 1 year of coverage was something he stated.

People who sign up now will have coverage through 2017 because the insurance company is contractually obligated to provide that coverage for the calendar year. The three-year period is speculation based on the fact that the GOP wants to repeal, but they don't want it to take full effect until after the midterm elections and possibly until after the 2020 election because they know the effect of repeal is going to be disastrous, with tens of millions of people losing insurance either because they no longer qualify for it or because they can no longer afford it. So they need that three- to five-year period, not to come up with a replacement for the ACA because they care fuck-all about whether Americans have health care, but to figure out how to blame it on Obama specifically and the Democrats in general.

Although as they're finding out right this second, even a repeal of some parts of the ACA through budget reconciliation is no simple matter. Some Republicans are balking at doing it, either out of principle (less likely) or out of self-interest (more likely), and even if they're successful and manage to do away with the subsidies, individual mandate, requirement that companies with 50+ employees provide insurance, and eliminate funding for the Medicaid expansion, which are the elements of the law currently on the table, that is going to collapse the individual insurance market and make employer-based insurance unbelievably expensive. With millions of people getting thrown off Medicaid, they'll go back to using the ER as their primary source of health care, driving up the costs for everyone. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens and by "interesting," I mean, it's going to be a hellish nightmare.

[backformore]

Affordable health care works. or would work, if there was support in making everyone sign up if they have no other coverage.  It's like auto insurance - you pay for it, but hope like hell you won't need it. 

Because of the republicans calling it "Obama care"  and making that a negative, a lot of healthy people didn't sign up.  so costs were higher.  But - employer paid health insurance ALSO is more expensive each year.  People bitch about it, but they don't understand that before ACA, tons of people had no insurance.  If they were poor enough, they got Medicaid.  Working people who didn't qualify for Medicaid, but also didn't have employer based insurance, were screwed.  I lived without insurance for a while.  it was fine - until I had an impacted wisdom tooth.  what a nightmare. 

  For my kids, the law that employer-based insurance kept kids on till age 26 was great for my family.  I was able to keep my kids insured during those weird years between college graduation and full-time employment. 

I have heard two types of people bitch about "Obama care" - those who have it and complain how expensive it is (compared to what?)  and those who think that it's free health care for the "poor and the blacks".  (Not free, and everybody without insurance is eligible).  Now the dame politicians who derided ACA all these years are going to have to pretend that calling it "TrumpCare" makes it better. 

[DeLurker]

2 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

Frontline also had an interesting episode on how their life paths led them running for the president of the United States. Trump has always been a petulant child with no redeeming qualities. Hillary really did have the best intentions starting when she was a child, but perhaps got a bit swayed once she achieved some power. Still, she will never be as corrupt or as deplorable as Trump, never.

Well that is a high bar.

[stillshimpy]

Gah.  I've just realized that I've been on edge all day, thinking that something would happen with the ACA just immediately and that if stepped away for too long, I wouldn't be around to help with some kind of "Halt!! Citizens Arrest!" outcry.    I realize this is almost entirely insane on my part but I'm freaking out a little, clearly.  2017 thus far?  Just delightful.  On the upside, I'm bound to be dead from the stress or aging like someone who takes the office of presidency seriously, so I should probably go stare at a daisy or something for a while.  

Edited January 5, 2017 by stillshimpy

[millennium]

.

Edited January 7, 2017 by millennium

[Ohwell]

2 hours ago, millennium said:

My biggest gripe about Hillary is that she utterly failed to tell the success stories of the ACA.   She could have put a human face on the ACA and made people understand that it's working.  She failed miserably in that regard.  She let Trump and the Republicans destroy its reputation, virtually unchallenged.

And then Bill Clinton went so far as to call it "the craziest thing in the world."  

(But then, personally, I just think it was his jealousy of Obama taking hold of him.)   

[SoSueMe]

37 minutes ago, backformore said:

Affordable health care works. or would work, if there was support in making everyone sign up if they have no other coverage.  It's like auto insurance - you pay for it, but hope like hell you won't need it. 

Because of the republicans calling it "Obama care"  and making that a negative, a lot of healthy people didn't sign up.  so costs were higher.  But - employer paid health insurance ALSO is more expensive each year.  People bitch about it, but they don't understand that before ACA, tons of people had no insurance.  If they were poor enough, they got Medicaid.  Working people who didn't qualify for Medicaid, but also didn't have employer based insurance, were screwed.  I lived without insurance for a while.  it was fine - until I had an impacted wisdom tooth.  what a nightmare. 

  For my kids, the law that employer-based insurance kept kids on till age 26 was great for my family.  I was able to keep my kids insured during those weird years between college graduation and full-time employment. 

I have heard two types of people bitch about "Obama care" - those who have it and complain how expensive it is (compared to what?)  and those who think that it's free health care for the "poor and the blacks".  (Not free, and everybody without insurance is eligible).  Now the dame politicians who derided ACA all these years are going to have to pretend that calling it "TrumpCare" makes it better. 

Your post reminded me of a "man on the street" type interview segment (I can't remember the show) from a few months ago when there was still hope....

The interviewer/host was asking people how they felt about Obamacare, and the great majority of those questioned hated it, it was an abomination (well not usually with polysyllabic words), but you get the drift.  They were then asked how they felt about the affordable care act and wouldn't ya know it, that was an excellent plan, lol.

[millennium]

.

Edited January 7, 2017 by millennium

[Advance35]

So Mr. Trump is planning to "Peel back" US Intelligence agencies.  He feels they are too "bloated", specifically the DNI and CIA.

I'm actually beginning to think China was absolutely right and that "Arrogant US is just a shooting star in the ample sky of history".   The Republican's really are willing to let this man kill us all aren't they?   I hope he and they and everyone who voted for this monster, burn in hell.

I don't even know what to say.   I'm to horrified to even link the articles.

[Lana X]

i would prefer a comet hit the earth than say....us blowing up to kingdom come via nuclear obliteration

come on comet!!! might as well do earth a favor and save us from ourselves. 

........ummmm.....or a meteor? i dont know the difference. yes, i am ignorant on giant space rocks. lmao

Edited January 5, 2017 by Lana X

[KerleyQ]

2 hours ago, fishcakes said:

I saw that story. The mother and son were both morons who didn't understand that the only reason he could stay on her insurance until he was 26 was because of the ACA. Once he turned 26, he decided not to enroll in a plan through the Health Care Exchange because he'd heard "bad things" about it. Then he needed tens of thousands of dollars worth of cancer treatments and since he had no insurance, it was all paid for by Medicaid, which he only qualified for because of the ACA. Neither of them voted in the last election (too complicated for them, probably), but they hope that the Republicans will let him stay on Medicaid because he really needs it. (Paul Ryan: "Oh, well in that case ... naaaaah.")

It amazes me that someone like these two would have an issue that is deeply important to them, like his healthcare, and they don't do the research to make sure that they're voting for the best solution to their issue.  They just listen to whatever propaganda their party of choice puts out and assume they'll be fine.  I can't relate to that at all.  

[DeLurker]

Aw jeez - the title to this thread is going to have to be changed in a few weeks.

Guess I'll start singing that song from Hee Haw

Gloom, despair and agony on me.

Deep dark depression

Excessive misery...

[mustbekarma]

3 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

Aw jeez - the title to this thread is going to have to be changed in a few weeks.

Guess I'll start singing that song from Hee Haw

Gloom, despair and agony on me.

Deep dark depression

Excessive misery...

I'll join you.

[Lana X]

ugh god. what the hell will he say when he is officially president??? ahhhhhh!!!!

DT: cant stand white house. today will meet with contractors to build new hotel at 1600 pen! will be yuge! so great! 

[DeLurker]

He'll have the White House painted gold.

[Lana X]

2 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

He'll have the White House painted gold.

 oh. Right. What was I thinking? duh

[sistermagpie]

11 minutes ago, DeLurker said:

Aw jeez - the title to this thread is going to have to be changed in a few weeks.

Let's just call it Donald J. Trump.

[Lana X]

'Donald Trump: Final president of the U.S.'

??

[Lunata]

3 hours ago, Padma said:

Oh, Mulletorhater! Have you never seen our super, uber-macho PEOTUS taking down (literally) Vince McMahon?  This is not some wus!  Our next president is a real man's man--maybe he and Vlad can even duke it out some day just like Rocky v. Drago in Rocky IV.  (Dignity! Class!)

"In January 2007, McMahon started a (fake) feud with Donald Trump, which was featured on major media outlets. Originally Trump wanted to fight McMahon himself but they came to a deal: both men would pick a representative to wrestle at WrestleMania 23 in a Hair vs. Hair match."

Vince McMahon was lucky that there were enough 'Muricans that believed in such wrestling bullshit. Maybe Donald Trump promised to return the favor by giving Vince's wife Linda McMahon a key cabinet position as head of the Small Business Administration. Oh yeah, I forgot.....Vince McMahon and his wife Linda donated $5 million to the Trump Foundation, which is the largest single 'charitable' contributor to the Trump Foundation. If you want to read about a real freak, read about Vince McMahon in Wikipedia.

[Duke Silver]

There's been some (IMO, fair) pushback WRT lack of specific evidence being presented about #RussianHack.  This linked article highlights some of the issues given the nature of cyber espionage.

[stillshimpy]

Thank you, DeLurker and mustbekarma, I really needed that laugh.  It's the "excessive misery!" that makes it art, really.  

[Padma]

So Trump's going to cut budget and personnel from our intelligence agencies (retribution, Trump-style).  Hopefully, this will flush out some whistleblowers.  Beyond that, can we all keep that decision front and center the next time there's some terrorist act in the U.S.? You know that he will take no responsibility--after blaming Obama for every single thing that went wrong in the past. 

I hope the media and Dem narrative is "Our intelligence professionals were keeping us safe--Trump broke it--this is what happened."

Also, whatever cuts they make to the ACA should make it known as "Trumpcare".  He should like that, right? Another change with his name prominently attached to it/credited.   Very important. 

Edited January 7, 2017 by Padma

[Lana X]

18 minutes ago, Duke Silver said:

There's been some (IMO, fair) pushback WRT lack of specific evidence being presented about #RussianHack.  This linked article highlights some of the issues given the nature of cyber espionage.

yeah, i said somewhere ekse that the evidence needs to be put out for ALL to see. hold a press conference. i dont care

i dont think anyone is lying, but now we live in a 'fake news' society. 

oh heck. doesn't matter what is shown. kellyanne will just go on TV and say it's fake. the media will run with that and it'll be done

gah

[Zuzubee]

Trump and the Republicans are living in a world of "be careful what you wish for". 

Regarding ACA:  Health care is a RIGHT. No one should make billions in profit at the expense of someone health, quality of life or ability to receive treatment. What kind of country are we if we have to choose between bankruptcy or care for love ones who are ill? This happens, in this so wonderful USA. Years from now, we will look at this whole healthcare debacle the same way I look at soup lines during the depression. You mean people actually stood in line so they wouldn't starve? Do you mean people actually died, lost their homes, etc. because they couldn't get health care? We are a sad, greedy country right now.

Regarding Russia: We are on a very scary course if we have lost trust in our intelligence community. 

I will sit back and watch with fascination as to how the majority crew in Washington go forward. Our founding fathers are being tested. I pray they put in the proper safe guards, constitutionally, to prevent the destruction that keeps me awake at night.

On the upside, I hope the inauguration is a bust and the following day's demonstration is a hugh success. I will feel so much better and my faith in humankind will be restored ☺

[Lana X]

8 minutes ago, Zuzubee said:

Trump and the Republicans are living in a world of "be careful what you wish for". 

Regarding ACA:  Health care is a RIGHT. No one should make billions in profit at the expense of someone health, quality of life or ability to receive treatment. What kind of country are we if we have to choose between bankruptcy or care for love ones who are ill? This happens, in this so wonderful USA. Years from now, we will look at this whole healthcare debacle the same way I look at soup lines during the depression. You mean people actually stood in line so they wouldn't starve? Do you mean people actually died, lost their homes, etc. because they couldn't get health care? We are a sad, greedy country right now.

Regarding Russia: We are on a very scary course if we have lost trust in our intelligence community. 

I will sit back and watch with fascination as to how the majority crew in Washington go forward. Our founding fathers are being tested. I pray they put in the proper safe guards, constitutionally, to prevent the destruction that keeps me awake at night.

On the upside, I hope the inauguration is a bust and the following day's demonstration is a hugh success. I will feel so much better and my faith in humankind will be restored ☺

anyone here going to the march in DC??? if so, i will be there! ???

[sleekandchic]

Random thoughts on Trump/Putin/Assange vs Our Intel Agencies:

It doesn't bother me at all that we as private citizens do not know the specifics of the reasons our Intel reached their conclusions.  I don't want to know about our spy networks or our particular methods of hacking and cyber-sleuthing. The second those details are public they're no longer viable.  Real people in the field will be caught, tortured, imprisoned, killed.  And any cyber espionage we've perfected will be extinct.

Suppose Trump were president during the hunt for bin Laden?  President Obama told Intel that finding and capturing or killing bin Laden was his highest priority.  I'm sure everybody here has either read the post-mortems or watched the documentaries about what exactly went down in those years and final days.  The unbelievable dance our agents did with surveillance and undercover snitches and double agents.  The night before Mr Obama had to make his final decision to go, the military told him they could be only 40 percent sure the man in the compound was actually bin Laden.  VP Biden advised against the mission; Secy Clinton argued for it.  

So how would Trump handle such a scenario?  Tweet out that our intelligence officers are incompetent because they couldnt give him better odds?  Call Putin to ask WWVD?  Where does the buck stop, and how can we ever trust Donald Trump to have the country's best interests in the forefront of every decision he makes?

The worst realization for me already -- before the man is even sworn in -- is that I don't believe DT is a patriot.  I think he would betray his country, his military and Intel operatives, and us, his citizens,  very very easily.  His first and only focus is himself.  If I were part of our Intel community, I'd be tortured, absolutely tortured, wondering if the secrets shared with DT would be passed by him to our enemies.  Names, locations, operations.

Don't forget that the FBI already found that a private server used by Paul Manafort while he was campaign manager for Trump and working out of Trump Tower offices had heavy traffic to and from Russia.  I don't think I will ever understand Comey's actions and inactions during the campaign. Can he sleep at night?

We are in trouble folks.

[backformore]

Something that drives me crazy about the rush to "Repeal Obamacare"  is this:  The ACA was health care reform - new rules, that applied even if you weren't on an ACA plan, the rules applied.  even  if you had employer-based insurance.  The reforms got rid of the "pre-existing condition"  clause for employer-based insurance.  This changed a lot of lives.   Basically, on the old system, if you, or one of your dependents had a medical diagnosis and received treatment for it, you might be uninsurable under a new employer plan.   You couldn't switch jobs, because a new job's insurance carrier could determine that you met the criteria for a pre-existing condition, and they didn't want to carry you on their insurance plan. so you were stuck working for the same company.   If you got laid off or fired, you were out of luck  - you could work part-time or do day labor, but you could be turned down for employment which included a health insurance plan.  if you had a child with a chronic illness, you not only would have to pay for treatment, you'd also be turned down for jobs.  Employers couldn't exclude you from insurance coverage, so they just wouldn't hire people with dependents who had chronic illness.      With the ACA, this was ended -  everybody could get insurance.  This changed people's lives for the better. 

It floors me that Obama didn't get more credit for this.   And I'm angry that a lot of the people yelling about how "Obamacare" is so awful, most likely have had someone in their family benefit from the change in insurance for pre-existing conditions. 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, millennium said:

Anyone want to wager that Julian Assange will be granted a Presidential pardon and possibly appointed to the Trump administration?

At the very least, I hope Trump gives him access to his barrel of industrial-strength self tanner. Assange is the product of a marshmallow mating with a snowman who descended from a tribe of Albinos who suffered from chronic anemia. 

[Padma]

On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 10:32 PM, sleekandchic said:

Random thoughts on Trump/Putin/Assange vs Our Intel Agencies:

It doesn't bother me at all that we as private citizens do not know the specifics of the reasons our Intel reached their conclusions.  I don't want to know about our spy networks or our particular methods of hacking and cyber-sleuthing. The second those details are public they're no longer viable.  Real people in the field will be caught, tortured, imprisoned, killed.  And any cyber espionage we've perfected will be extinct.

Suppose Trump were president during the hunt for bin Laden?  President Obama told Intel that finding and capturing or killing bin Laden was his highest priority.  I'm sure everybody here has either read the post-mortems or watched the documentaries about what exactly went down in those years and final days.  The unbelievable dance our agents did with surveillance and undercover snitches and double agents.  The night before Mr Obama had to make his final decision to go, the military told him they could be only 40 percent sure the man in the compound was actually bin Laden.  VP Biden advised against the mission; Secy Clinton argued for it.  

So how would Trump handle such a scenario?  Tweet out that our intelligence officers are incompetent because they couldnt give him better odds?  Call Putin to ask WWVD?  Where does the buck stop, and how can we ever trust Donald Trump to have the country's best interests in the forefront of every decision he makes?

The worst realization for me already -- before the man is even sworn in -- is that I don't believe DT is a patriot.  I think he would betray his country, his military and Intel operatives, and us, his citizens,  very very easily.  His first and only focus is himself.  If I were part of our Intel community, I'd be tortured, absolutely tortured, wondering if the secrets shared with DT would be passed by him to our enemies.  Names, locations, operations.

Don't forget that the FBI already found that a private server used by Paul Manafort while he was campaign manager for Trump and working out of Trump Tower offices had heavy traffic to and from Russia.  I don't think I will ever understand Comey's actions and inactions during the campaign. Can he sleep at night?

We are in trouble folks.

I agree with  you, but maybe we will be saved because at some point, his self-interest (self-preservation) coincides with ours. If he can just be content with monetary corruption and leave the installation of far right politics to Pence & Co....maybe we can, more or less, survive four years (maybe, possibly, get Congress if things get bad enough by 2018). 

Edited January 7, 2017 by Padma

[Lunata]

Tomorrow is the 'Russia briefing' between the representatives of 17 U.S. Intelligence agencies and President-elect Trump and VP-elect Pence. I know that no matter what evidence they receive from these agencies, even if it's a clear smoking gun, that Donald Trump is going to lie and say that the evidence was not clearly indicative of Russia being responsible. The general public wouldn't know whether this is true or not since the evidence is top-secret, so Trump supporters are going to take his word for it and go with whatever he wants to do.

One thing he not only wants to do, but he intends to do is destroy and diminish the legitimacy of the information he's given in order to dissolve, replace and reduce the power of these 17 agencies. Donald Trump will try to invalidate any one of the Intelligence institutions that might be a check on him. He doesn't want these independent agencies that might actually be a truth detector on his own administration, so he's going to target any department that's going to keep him in check. This is truly one of the most dangerous things that could happen to the security of this country. When a seated President has the power to control the information coming into or leaving this country then it's game over.

I'm scared and I am counting on the fact that there are still some reasonable people with enough power to stop him. A declassified version of this report is expected to be released to the general public by next Monday afternoon.

[Sheenieb]

Quote

My biggest gripe about Hillary is that she utterly failed to tell the success stories of the ACA.   She could have put a human face on the ACA and made people understand that it's working.  She failed miserably in that regard.  She let Trump and the Republicans destroy its reputation, virtually unchallenged.

If Obama couldn't sell the success of ACA, could Hilary do it? She could've paraded those whose lives were changed on stage and dumb asses would've still talked shit. Once the messenger is hated, the message itself gets distorted. 

[Chicken Wing]

I do wish Carl Bernstein would appear on every single news show on every single channel in order to speak to every single audience, as it seems he is the only one who cares to call this out for what it is: Donald Trump lives in a fact-free world of his own reality. He only likes facts when they benefit him or fit his agenda and anything that doesn't is to be discredited and disregarded as propaganda and lies. He undermines the credibility of anyone who dares contradict him, his opinion or his agenda as being biased or dishonest or incompetent. He is hellbent on brainwashing the public into distrusting any information or any source of information that says anything negative about him or the things he says and does. He is a narcissistic fascist madman.

[galaxygirl76]

Donald Trump's behavior reminds me to my five year old doing something bad and blaming the cats for it. If every fucking body says it's the Russians,  I think there is a very good chance it's the Russians. 

[backgroundnoise]

8 hours ago, sleekandchic said:

It doesn't bother me at all that we as private citizens do not know the specifics of the reasons our Intel reached their conclusions.  I don't want to know about our spy networks or our particular methods of hacking and cyber-sleuthing. The second those details are public they're no longer viable.  Real people in the field will be caught, tortured, imprisoned, killed.  And any cyber espionage we've perfected will be extinct.

Absolutely.  And wasn't Trump himself the one deriding the IC for not keeping ISIS attacks "secret" enough?

[NewDigs]

12 hours ago, sistermagpie said:

Let's just call it Donald J. Trump.

 

12 hours ago, Lana X said:

'Donald Trump: Final president of the U.S.'

??

You've been Trump'd.

[Chicken Wing]

Trump: Official Thread Title To Be Released In The Future. Really. We Mean It.

[sistermagpie]

8 hours ago, backformore said:

It floors me that Obama didn't get more credit for this.   And I'm angry that a lot of the people yelling about how "Obamacare" is so awful, most likely have had someone in their family benefit from the change in insurance for pre-existing conditions. 

Even worse people love this part of it so much that of course the Republicans are claiming this is one of those parts of the plan they'll keep. People just think you can keep that without a whole lot of the rest. Insurance agencies must hate that rule. Their whole goal is to get people to sign up and pay and then not ever need medical care. Of course they want to refuse service to people they know are going to need care. But if you don't have everybody paying in how can you cover those people? As I understood it, that's the whole logic behind the plan. You can't only have sick people signing up when they need to take money out and wanting to opt out until they need that.

39 minutes ago, Chicken Wing said:

He only likes facts when they benefit him or fit his agenda and anything that doesn't is to be discredited and disregarded as propaganda and lies.

What's even more frustrating is how obvious this is. He's not hiding it. Millions of people point it out every time he says something. There's just a small group of people who for some reason want to support him on this. (Well, for some of them we know the reason--they think it'll bring them some short-term gain.) But you'd think anybody could see that it's too much of a risk no matter what you think you'll get out of it. 

Or at least credible news sources should start reporting it as such. Stop putting this veneer of "president saying serious things" on everything he says.

[Lunata]

29 minutes ago, Chicken Wing said:

I do wish Carl Bernstein would appear on every single news show on every single channel in order to speak to every single audience, as it seems he is the only one who cares to call this out for what it is: Donald Trump lives in a fact-free world of his own reality. He only likes facts when they benefit him or fit his agenda and anything that doesn't is to be discredited and disregarded as propaganda and lies. He undermines the credibility of anyone who dares contradict him, his opinion or his agenda as being biased or dishonest or incompetent. He is hellbent on brainwashing the public into distrusting any information or any source of information that says anything negative about him or the things he says and does. He is a narcissistic fascist madman.

Carl Bernstein, David Axelrod, Robert Reich and Steven Brill are four political commentary contributors that I would trust over anyone else. I've seen hundreds of commentators and contributors on CNN, MSNBC and HLH and have concluded that these four above all are the ones that provide honest and clear information that's based solely on factual information. We've had so many pundits in front of our faces during this past year and they are all anxious to offer their personal opinions but many are tainted by emotions. Bernstein, Axelrod, Reich and Brill are stand-alone men that address things with intelligence and fact rather than preconceived convictions and emotion.

[SoSueMe]

14 hours ago, millennium said:

Anyone want to wager that Julian Assange will be granted a Presidential pardon and possibly appointed to the Trump administration?

I know this was meant to be facetious, and it gave me a chuckle.....but then a shiver.

[izabella]

6 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

Or at least credible news sources should start reporting it as such. Stop putting this veneer of "president saying serious things" on everything he says.

Yes, this.  Media needs to stop pretending his every utterance is Presidential and needs to be reported on seriously.  If they feel they must report, headlines should always read:  Trump's False Tweet of the Day  or Trump Insults America's Intelligence Again with Daily Lie

Edited January 5, 2017 by izabella

[Ocean Chick]

12 hours ago, Zuzubee said:

I will sit back and watch with fascination as to how the majority crew in Washington go forward. Our founding fathers are being tested. I pray they put in the proper safe guards, constitutionally, to prevent the destruction that keeps me awake at night.

They put in safeguards alright.  Trouble is, that those safeguards are meant to be wielded by people with backbones and a sense of what is right.  Morals.  Compassion.  They don't automatically kick in - someone needs to do the work.  And right now, no one in power wants to do that work.  Or has the ability/power to kickstart those safeguards.  The Repubs are happy that America's pocketbook has been opened to them.  The Dems have found out the hard way that being all "hippy dippy" and going high just cost them the power they'd need to kickstart those safeguards.  So we the people are shit out of luck, and will suffer for many many years to recover from what's going to happen in the next four years.  If we don't get bombed to hell before that time is up.

The Constitution is just ink on paper, after all.

[DeLurker]

9 hours ago, sleekandchic said:

Random thoughts on Trump/Putin/Assange vs Our Intel Agencies:

It doesn't bother me at all that we as private citizens do not know the specifics of the reasons our Intel reached their conclusions.  I don't want to know about our spy networks or our particular methods of hacking and cyber-sleuthing. The second those details are public they're no longer viable.  Real people in the field will be caught, tortured, imprisoned, killed.  And any cyber espionage we've perfected will be extinct.

Suppose Trump were president during the hunt for bin Laden?  President Obama told Intel that finding and capturing or killing bin Laden was his highest priority.  I'm sure everybody here has either read the post-mortems or watched the documentaries about what exactly went down in those years and final days.  The unbelievable dance our agents did with surveillance and undercover snitches and double agents.  The night before Mr Obama had to make his final decision to go, the military told him they could be only 40 percent sure the man in the compound was actually bin Laden.  VP Biden advised against the mission; Secy Clinton argued for it.  

So how would Trump handle such a scenario?  Tweet out that our intelligence officers are incompetent because they couldnt give him better odds?  Call Putin to ask WWVD?  Where does the buck stop, and how can we ever trust Donald Trump to have the country's best interests in the forefront of every decision he makes?

The worst realization for me already -- before the man is even sworn in -- is that I don't believe DT is a patriot.  I think he would betray his country, his military and Intel operatives, and us, his citizens,  very very easily.  His first and only focus is himself.  If I were part of our Intel community, I'd be tortured, absolutely tortured, wondering if the secrets shared with DT would be passed by him to our enemies.  Names, locations, operations.

Don't forget that the FBI already found that a private server used by Paul Manafort while he was campaign manager for Trump and working out of Trump Tower offices had heavy traffic to and from Russia.  I don't think I will ever understand Comey's actions and inactions during the campaign. Can he sleep at night?

We are in trouble folks.

@sleekandchic - I love your whole post.  So if every leading cancer specialist at 17 of the top hospitals in the country told Trump he had cancer, would there be any doubt that he has cancer?  No one knows and understands everything, so the expectation that this manchild could understand the complex details of the cyberworld and still has questions about the viability of their findings is ridiculous.  Did his son (Barron?) look into the hacking issue and tell him there wasn't enough proof?  I don't mean to drag the kid into it, because he's really got nothing to do with it other than having his father reference his mad skills while campaigning.

 

7 hours ago, Giant Misfit said:

 Assange is the product of a marshmallow mating with a snowman who descended from a tribe of Albinos who suffered from chronic anemia. 

Sad but true.  Work in advertising?  You should if you don't.

48 minutes ago, NewDigs said:

You've been Trump'd.

We've all been Trump'd.

Quote

Trump: Official Thread Title To Be Released In The Future. Really. We Mean It.

DJT: Tweeter in Chief

Edited January 5, 2017 by DeLurker

[fishcakes]

51 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

8 hours ago, backformore said:

It floors me that Obama didn't get more credit for this.   And I'm angry that a lot of the people yelling about how "Obamacare" is so awful, most likely have had someone in their family benefit from the change in insurance for pre-existing conditions. 

Even worse people love this part of it so much that of course the Republicans are claiming this is one of those parts of the plan they'll keep. People just think you can keep that without a whole lot of the rest. Insurance agencies must hate that rule. Their whole goal is to get people to sign up and pay and then not ever need medical care. Of course they want to refuse service to people they know are going to need care. But if you don't have everybody paying in how can you cover those people?

I am positive they won't keep that part of the law because there's no way to pay for it without an astronomical increase in premiums, higher even than the lies the GOP tells about how much premiums have increased under the ACA. Instead it will revert to what we had before: underfunded high-risk pools and/or being able to buy a plan but only if coverage for the pre-existing condition itself or any complications from the condition are excluded.

Let's just dispense with the fiction that there's going to be a replacement plan for the ACA. The GOP Congress and Trump are going to repeal every aspect that finances health care reform, let the rest of the law collapse on its own because it will be financially unsustainable, and then just quietly let it go back to the system we had before where those who can afford health care can have it and everyone else can go bankrupt, die, or both. The GOP has had the last eight years to come up with a replacement plan (and I'm not even counting the decades they had before that in which all they did was block every Democratic effort at health care reform) and came up with nothing. They're not going to suddenly pull an affordable, universal plan out of thin air, especially now that they don't need to. Their only goal was undoing Obama's signature achievement and now they can do that. If people have to die as a result, they could not possibly care less.

Edited January 5, 2017 by fishcakes