Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[CGVT]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/us/politics/scaramucci-on-white-house-leaks-fire-everybody.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Looks as if Paulie Walnuts is ready to start breaking some knees...

[crashcourse]

gee the press will just have to start making up stuff if scaragucci gets rid of all the leakers

oh wait

[CGVT]

Oh yeah, that pesky fake news.

[Mainevent]

The leaking won't stop as long as Trump continues to throw blame at anyone he can except him and his family. Loyalty is only going to last until maybe the 2nd or 3rd time somebody gets thrown under the bus.

[CGVT]

Maybe they should try governing, honorably and with transparency.

Holy shit! That is even funnier in print than it was in my head. Ha!

[Jeff Buchanan]

The Senate just passed legislation (it was a 50-50 tie with Pence breaking the tie in favor) to resume debating the ACA. The options are (I've reproduced this from a fire-walled subscription medical journal site):

(1) Use the House bill, called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), as an erasable legislative blackboard on which his colleagues can write yet another version of healthcare reform 2.0, one that can win a simple majority for passage. (The McConnell preference)

(2) Senate Republicans could convert the AHCA into a bill that resembles their own Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). Or they could gut all the provisions of the House bill and substitute a repeal of the ACA in its entirety, with a yet undetermined healthcare plan to come 2 years later.

(3) craft a stripped-down version of ACA repeal that eliminates tax penalties for individuals who do not obtain health insurance coverage, and for employers who do not offer it, and the law's tax on medical device makers, as The Hill reported today.

[Jeff Buchanan]

My colleagues and I have some dim hope that something decent is going to come of this albeit the political and practical complexities of that happening seem insurmountable.

What it would take for something good to come out of this is a leader in the WH who could articulate some principles upon which emerging healthcare delivery in the US should look like. Ah, no. Look who's there.

If you visit the NRO web site today there are several good articles posted up this afternoon that pretty much put the finger on the problems being created by Trump's childish narcissism (addressed here a-plenty) and the implications.

[Jeff Buchanan]

One final comment on the state of the Union .......

It is rapidly becoming evident that no substantial legislation is going to come from the current congress with Trump in the WH. The reason for that is that he is so alienating his own party members there by his behavior as The President (see the Dan Rather piece from GVT above) that no one is going to chain themselves to this present version of the Titanic.

Some good stuff has come out lately over the Sessions stuff. Bottom line: He should hang on and make Trump fire him and there are a number of good reasons why not the least of which is that Trump will likely back down and Sessions is one guy who can preserve the buffer that the Justice Department can be to protect the nation from this completely embarrassing President and perhaps in the long run protect the Mueller investigations so that the American people will get what they deserve out of his work - an apolitical report on to what degree and to what impact a foreign country was able to interfere with one of the most improtant aspects of this republic - the vote.

[Jeff Buchanan]

While I've been away in Italy celebrating the last of my 3 daughter's weddings, I've been following here. Got back yesterday afternoon.

I want to address one of Gezzer's comments about the rise in the stock market and what that represents (I believe he was attributing this rise to the President).

I read today that through EO, the Trump administration has dismantled over 800 regulatory processes over the financial industry and banking world which has sparked enthusiasm for a de-regulated business environment and hence the rise in equities overall. This may be true and the article describing this action did not address what the dismantled regulatory processes were all about. It did mention that many of the provisions of Dodd-Frank have been diminished in there impact on making banks keep certain amounts of capital on hand to back speculative undertakings.

One can reasonably assume that most of the dismantled regulations had good intent and some of the sticky parts might have needed fine tuning (I have heard Jamie Diamon talk of these). But, by-in-large, these regulations had a positive impact in preventing future crisis like that which occurred in 2008.

So, I'd say in response to the great market uptick all of our portfolios have experienced since January of this year, I hope all of you are holding plenty of cash and have a plan to weather what is bound to happen, again, in a substantially deregulated financial industry.

[Wild Hoss]

God help us when we are dependent on people like Lindsay Graham and Jeff fucking Sessions to keep this thing afloat.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I gave The Wizard a forum
That has no posts

I hope he goes there and stays there.

You fuckers wouldn't stay away. I'm like a trainwreck. You must look.

[Wild Hoss]

STFU

But...you're right, dammit.

But, STFU.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[Da Geezer]

....and perhaps in the long run protect the Mueller investigations so that the American people will get what they deserve out of his work - an apolitical report on to what degree and to what impact a foreign country was able to interfere with one of the most important aspects of this republic - the vote.

Really? An apolitical report from a group of lawyers, many of whom worked for Hillary, and ALL of whom donated to the Democrat Party. Many of the donors gave in excess of $ 30,000, and only to the Dems. Has anyone on this forum given anything near that much? I'd say it indicates true devotion. In any normal time, this appearance of impropriety would be enough to get the Special Council fired.

The fix is in.

[Ghengis Jon]

It is rapidly becoming evident that no substantial legislation is going to come from the current congress with Trump in the WH.

I disagree. To a point. Tax reform will be up next and it will be just as tough as healthcare. If it stumbles and fails (as I believe Chump really wants) the timing then brings up Infrastructure. Dems will be loudly involved, not being a party of no. The resulting package will sail across Chump's desk and he would be able to claim a bipartisan piece of major legislation going into the 2018 midterms. If by some miracle the GOP maintains majority in both houses, they would be forced to go along with the WH's whims from that point on. Either follow the leader (and gain someone to blame) or watch the ever more unstable buffoonery destroy the party's chances in 2020. McConnell needs to grow a pair and bring infrastructure up next for the good of the country, not Chump's ego.

Stay put Mr Sessions. The rabid dog doesn't like the leash, and eyes chewing through the cord, but is now content with the froth mouthed barking and lunging, hoping to scare you away. I may detest a lot of Sessions' politics, but he might be the one strong enough to be a buffer between the Orange Menace and the DOJ.

I'm interested in what he has to say at his Ohio pep rally tonight. I wonder if he'll crack under his own self inflicted pressure. The more unhinged his tweets become the more I think about the 25th amendment.

[Ghengis Jon]

Really? .... The fix is in.

If they completely exonerate the Chump campaign, will you disregard their findings for the reasons you state above?