The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump has proposed a merit-based vetting system for immigrants, yet he obviously isn't using one for his own nominees. He is using a reverse vetting system that rejects the most-qualified and accepts the least-qualified.

Petersen ended up withdrawing. It leads one to surmise the rationale (if any) for Trump's picks, other than expressing a strong desire to make himself a fool.

It also raises concern about how Trump and his people perceive and vet information about dangerous situations in the world and how it would affect their decisions that involve military action. The incident of the North Korea missile launch over Japan while Trump and his agents were mingling with a couple hundred strangers at a party at Mar-a-Largo that resulted in a mad scramble and tripping over the nuclear duffle bag doesn't impart much confidence.

 

Don't need to gag me with a wooden spoon.That scene does it all. As they said in 1984, "I love Big Brother"!

 

Geez Louis! Brown Nosing 400...advanced!

 

128 countries just voted to condemn this abomination of White Nationalism.

 

In spite of financial threats from Trump, he didn't get much help with countries voting 'no' to the U.N. resolution to condemn the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem.

The only other countries to vote 'no' were Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Togo and Tonga, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Honduras. The U.S. and Israel are essentially alone on this issue. 128 voted 'yes'.

Despite Haley threat, UN votes to condemn Trump's Jerusalem decision
By Nicole Gaouette
Updated 5:02 PM ET, Thu December 21, 2017

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/politics/haley-un-jerusalem/index.html\

 

Provisions of the tax bill that flew under the radar.

Legislation that the Republicans had not been able to pass previously in 2017, such as drilling in the arctic wildlife reserve and an effective repeal of the ACA (Obamacare) personal mandate, got incorporated into the tax bill and passed.


Drilling in ANWR, Carried Interest, and 3 Other Surprises Tucked Into the GOP Tax Bill
By John Patrick Pullen
December 20, 2017

The 5 Most Controversial Provisions Tucked in the Tax Bill

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Obamacare’s Individual Mandate Repeal
Trump’s Carried Interest Loophole
Puerto Rico Penalties
The Corker Kickback

 

The new tax bill is a travesty....Greedy pigs at the feeding trough....They are and for the criminally rich.....oink oink.....

Maybe someday America will realize how badly it is shot itself with this administration.

 

Notice that Trump didn't sign the tax bill at the ceremony where he had everyone praising him.

Trump may not sign the tax bill this year unless he can get a waiver on Paygo that allows the Congress to avoid painful spending cuts. .Delaying signing until 2018 would allow Congress to deal with spending cuts after Congressional mid-term elections in 2018.


Trump may not sign tax bill until January to avoid vote on spending cuts
by Joseph Lawler
Dec 20, 2017, 10:23 AM

Trump may not sign tax bill until January to avoid vote on spending cuts

From the article:

"President Trump may not sign the tax bill until January even after congressional Republicans passed it in a rush to get it to the White House before Christmas, his top economic adviser said Tuesday.

Rather, the administration may hold off on signing the bill into law in order to avoid an awkward vote on spending cuts that would be mandated under pay-as-you-go law. If Trump signs the bill in 2018 rather than 2017, he would avoid that vote for another year and take a leverage point away from Democrats."

 

Senators who had previously voted against gutting the ACA (Obamacare) and didn't go along with the budget bill included Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Bob Corker.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was given drilling in ANWR, something that Republicans have been trying to get unsuccessfully for over 40 years. Drilling in ANWR changed Murkowski's vote from 'no' to 'yes'. It mattered to her more than healthcare.

The rationale of Susan Collins is questionable. She had previously voted against the skinny repeal of the ACA and against drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge, yet she voted for the tax bill which does both of what she had previously voted against.

Bob Corker was adamant about not voting for a bill that would raise the debt even by a penny, yet he suddenly changed his mind at the last minute and voted for the tax bill. He liklely won't be running again and has significant real estate holdings which means he will benefit from the tax bill.

 

It's clear to me at this point Trump represents a plutocracy not the common Republican. I think the party has done an excellent job of manipulating the middle class for years and he is just the logical conclusion. Both parties are owned by the wealthy and the conflict is manufactured to keep the poor fighting among themselves. You see it now some Republicans would use the second amendment to shoot a person with an Obama bumper sticker before the corupt goverment. But the Republicans under Trump have taken it to a new level of disregard for the people.

 

The recent tax bill essentially reduces to zero the individual mandate of the ACA (Affordable Care Acf). It will go into effect in 2019. It was a main source of funds for the ACA. The loss may result in an increase in premiums which will affect people who need healthcare the most and who are in the lower income bracket who have the least ability to afford it, the left-behind people that Trump has claimed he would help.

The tax bill lowered the eligibility threshold for being able to deduct healthcare costs from one's taxes from 10% to 7.5% of a person's adjusted gross income for 2018. The threshold goes back up to 10% after 2018. The 7.5% threshold will help some people but for others probably won't make up for the loss of money from the individual mandate. It would tend to help those with significant ongoing heathcare costs that account for 7.5% or more of their income.

The effective outing of individual mandate wasn't an explicit repeal of the entire ACA like Trump had been hoping for, which would have required 60 votes. Because the individual mandate element of the ACA is of a financial nature, it is subject to the budget reconciliation process whereby a passage of a bill requires only 51 votes in the Senate instead of the 60 votes that are needed to repeal an act of Congress.



Tax Reform Bill In, ACA Individual Mandate Out
After 227-203 vote in the House, measure heads to the Senate
by Joyce Frieden, News Editor, MedPage Today
December 19, 2017

Tax Reform Bill In, ACA Individual Mandate Out

 

Well, anything to benefit the master Trump and his dream team, now isn't it?

The almighty dollar is the god....screw everyone and the environment.....it is the dollar that matters most to them folk.

 

Trump conducted a similar ego ceremony in June.


A Trump Cabinet Meeting Turned into a Bizarre Ass-Kissing Contest
"Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda and the American people."
Eve Peyser
Jun 12 2017, 3:45pm

A Trump Cabinet Meeting Turned into a Bizarre Ass-Kissing Contest

"On Monday, Trump took a break from yelling on Twitter about how the "fake media" is against him and found another way to stroke his pathological need for affection. During a televised cabinet meeting, he said he had done as much as any president from FDR, then asked the assembled crew of billionaires, retired generals, and arch-conservative politicians what they thought the administration's accomplishments thus far had been. It was an exercise in attempting to satiate Trump's insatiable ego, and all the officials took the opportunity to kiss as much presidential ass as possible."

 

You're a mean one,Mr. Trump
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel,
Mr. Trump.
You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Trump.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders.
You've got garlic in your soul, Mr Trump.
I wouldn't touch you with a
Thirty-nine and a half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Trump.
You have termites in your smile,
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile,
Mr Trump.Given the choice between the two of you,
I'd take the seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Trump.
You're a nasty wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks.
Your soul is full of gunk,
Mr Trump.

The three best words that best describe you,
Are as follows, and I quote"
Stink!
Stank!
Stunk!

You're a rotter Mr Trump.
You're the king of sinful sots
Your heart's a dead tomato squashed with moldy purple spots
Mr Trump.

Your soul is an appalling dump heap
Overflowing with the most disgraceful
Assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr Trump.
With a nauseous super nos
You're a crooked jerky jockey and,
You drive a crooked horse
Mr Trump!

You're a three-decker sauerkraut
And toadstool sandwich,
With arsenic sauce!

 

You're a Mean One, Mr. Trump (Grinch parody)

 

He must be doing something right, for everyone to be trying to convince the rest of us that he sucks.

This kind of reaction from competition is always a sure sign of people scared of his abilities, trying to stop him, break his momentum.

I have never in 53 years seen such revolution toward a President in office. Nowhere close...whole lotta scared, panicking people. It's truly amazing.