Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[Baron Scarpia]

What he has done, and attempted to do, in the past year is way more important than his party affiliation a decade ago. Most of his presidential actions — appointing Gorsuch, expanding oil drilling and approving Keystone XL, cutting immigration, shrinking public lands, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, repealing net neutrality, and shifting economic policies in the trickle-down direction — have been solidly on the right.

His only goal is to be perceived as "winning."  He has no political convictions other than that. The exception is that I do think he has sincere contempt for people who are not white.

[kishnevi]

His only goal is to be perceived as "winning."  He has no political convictions other than that. The exception is that I do think he has sincere contempt for people who are not wealthy.

FTFY

Remember, among the victims of his policies are many of the people he conned into voting for him.

[Christo]

Rise & Fall of another Rasputin:

"While Bannon edited and approved the version that ultimately became public, an associate sent out the statement without his knowledge (...) And when he learned that it had been given to Axios, a website read by Washington insiders, he was furious and blamed his colleagues for overreacting.

Envisioning Breitbart without Bannon — or Bannon without Breitbart — was almost inconceivable a month ago. Inside the 'Breitbart Embassy' on Capitol Hill, where photographs of Mr. Breitbart still hang on the wall and half-filled coffee mugs emblazoned with the website's block "B" logo clutter the kitchen, Mr. Bannon's presence is just as prevalent.

Upon entering, visitors see a table stacked with copies of the Time magazine from last year with Bannon on the cover under the headline "The Great Manipulator," along with other articles that have chronicled his rise to national prominence. On one ground-floor wall is a picture of a honey badger, the animal Bannon has claimed as his mascot because of its savage and relentless pursuit of prey." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/politics/steve-bannon-breitbart-trump.html?smid=tw-share&mtrref=t.co&gwh=DB73651CB97BA90C22743ADBB8872931&gwt=pay

[Karl Henning]

FTFY

Remember, among the victims of his policies are many of the people he conned into voting for him.

Right! Because, even if you're white, if you're poor, you're a loser!

[Karl Henning]

Well, thank goodness he is the world's least responsible (and possibly least sober) tweep:

Trump vs. Trump, again: Judge cites presidential tweets as he blocks DACA phaseout

[Karl Henning]

Republicans must stop excusing [El Tupé's] lack of comprehension

[...] In other words, asked whether he wants chocolate or vanilla ice cream, he responds, in all seriousness: yes. But chocolate means it's not vanilla, sir. Too bad, that's a detail others will work out. We're going to have a magnificent dessert — the best!

[SimonNZ]

Trump sold $35M in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive buyers

"President Trump's companies sold more than $35 million in real estate in 2017, mostly to secretive shell companies that obscure buyers' identities, continuing a dramatic shift in his customers' behavior that began during the election, a USA TODAY review found.

In Las Vegas alone, Trump sold 41 luxury condo units in 2017, a majority of which used limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners' names.

The trend toward Trump's real estate buyers buyers obscuring their identities began around the time he won the Republican nomination, midway through 2016, according to USA TODAY's analysis of every domestic real estate sale by one of his companies.

In the two years before the nomination, 4% of Trump buyers utilized the tactic. In the year after, the rate skyrocketed to about 70%. USA TODAY's tracking of sales shows the trend held firm through Trump's first year in office.

Profits from sales of those properties flow through a trust run by Trump's sons. The president is the sole beneficiary of the trust and he can withdraw cash at any time.

The opaque sales come at a time when Congress and ethics watchdogs have called on Trump to be more transparent about his domestic and foreign customers and partners, including the buyers of his companies' real estate.

At least one of the 2017 sales was to a German couple. His company determined that transaction does not qualify as a "foreign deal," which the president and his lawyers vowed to avoid while he is in office."

[Christo]

He has no more ideologyspine than does a garden slug lying dead in a tray of stale beer.

#fixedit

[bwv 1080]

Common ground in the 2020 Oprah vs Donald election

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/how-oprah-helped-spread-anti-vaccine-pseudoscience/

[kishnevi]

I am wondering who these victims are?  I voted for him and have not been victimized.  Can you demonstrate this in more concrete fashion other than merely stating it?  I actually have been pleased with several of his actions.

Oh, and there was no need to "con" me into voting for him.  Hillary as his opponent was all the inducement I needed.

Hold that thought until you find out how much your health insurance premiums will rise, how much more taxes you will pay, how much more you'll pay for food because migrant labor is not so easily available. Then there's the effects of the inevitable Wall Street crash when the current bubble pops....

Hillary had more than one opponent on the ballot, and no one forced you to take a vote. You, and only you, decided you should assent with your vote to the presidency of a narcissistic ignorant grifter.

[Christo]

Hold that thought until you find out how much your health insurance premiums will rise, how much more taxes you will pay, how much more you'll pay for food because migrant labor is not so easily available. Then there's the effects of the inevitable Wall Street crash when the current bubble pops....

Hillary had more than one opponent on the ballot, and no one forced you to take a vote. You, and only you, decided you should assent with your vote to the presidency of a narcissistic ignorant grifter.

This is what I consider to be the reasonable conservative voice; thanks!

[Pat B]

He has no more ideology than does a garden slug lying dead in a tray of stale beer.

His only goal is to be perceived as "winning."  He has no political convictions other than that. The exception is that I do think he has sincere contempt for people who are not white.

No argument there. I'm talking about the policies he is actually enacting or trying to enact, not how or why he came to them. The policies are not much different than what I would expect from Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, Tom Cotton, or most other right-wingers.

[Pat B]

Health care premiums rose qutie a bit under Obama.  But wait, he was a Democrat so it's okay.  At least Trump is trying to reverse Obamacare - but Dems and even some in his on party are putting up obstacles.

Health care premiums have been going up for decades.

[bwv 1080]

Medicine was cheap in 1960 because there was not that much it could do  - no heart surgery, few cancer treatments, etc. The basic problem with healthcare is not government, its that science has managed to turn formerly fatal conditions like heart disease and cancer into expensive chronic conditions.  Also, medicine requires alot of skilled labor which will never be cheap.  Curing expensive chronic conditions, like Gilead did with Hepatitis C, is the best hope.  Sure there are all sorts of incentive problems in the current healthcare model but those are not easily solved.  Everyone touts Europe and Canada but the US subsidizes drug research for the world, letting everyone free-ride on drug prices as pharma companies can recoup their R&D on US sales then sell overseas at a much lower mark up over marginal cost. 

[Todd]

how much more you'll pay for food because migrant labor is not so easily available.

First this must occur.

Then there's the effects of the inevitable Wall Street crash when the current bubble pops....

Trump will likely receive the political blame for any major downturn, which is fine and predictable, but equity market prices are not determined by the president.

[Baron Scarpia]

True. Ever since LBJ created Medicare/Medicaid and removed health delivery from the marketplace.  But premiums really went up after Obamacare.  Now people have high premiums, high deductables and somehow the idea that as long as people have access to health insurance, they're okay.  Nowhere in that equation is healthcare being delivered at affordable costs.

On average, the statistics show that health care costs have continued to rise under the ACA act at a rate more or less the same as before, and the fact that only 50% of money spent on health care goes to actual health care has not changed. Half goes to health care insurance administration. That is why health care costs twice as much in the U.S. as in other developed countries. Every time health care is delivered, it triggers a complex series of negotiations between providers and insurers as to how much can be billed and paid.

It makes no sense to pretend that health care could form a functioning market. An efficient market has two basic requirements, transparency and real choice. For instance, I have a choice between phones designed and marketed for people with different needs. I can readily find out the characteristics of an iPhone, an Android phone from various vendors, or a flip phone. I can buy whichever makes sense to me. Perhaps I have a similar choice in deciding where I would like to get a flu shot, have a sore throat looked at, or get a general checkup. But if I have a major medical issue I am confronted by a doctor telling me, 'either you do what I say or you will die.'  At that point I do not have real choice and I do not have transparency. Prior to that, when selecting health insurance, I have no idea if my medical costs for the coming year will be $10 or $1 million. What makes sense is spreading the risk over the widest pool of people. A moderately high deductible makes sense because people can manage their routine medical costs, it is catastrophic costs that need to be covered by insurance.

Prior to the ACA I had minor surgery. It took 15 minutes, 30 minutes including measuring my blood pressure and temperature beforehand. I was billed $30,000. My insurance stipulated that for that surgery they would pay $2,000. The bill was adjusted to $2,000. If I didn't have an insurance company to strong-arm the provider, I would be on the hook for $30,000? That sounds like a functioning market to you?

[Karl Henning]

No argument there. I'm talking about the policies he is actually enacting or trying to enact, not how or why he came to them. The policies are not much different than what I would expect from Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, Tom Cotton, or most other right-wingers.

He gets his policies straight out of the box, because he has no grasp of . . . well, anything:

"If anything, the whole mess showed pretty vividly just how utterly disengaged Trump is in the finer details of policy discussions," The Post reports. "Which is exactly the perception that he has recently fought against." The lack of comprehension may be unintentional (i.e., he's trying but can't understand relatively simply policy ideas), or it may be intentional (i.e., he doesn't need to understand policy because he couldn't care less). Either way, his lack of comprehension may not make him insane, but it does make him so unfit to be president that one can understand the uniform dismay that staffers expressed to fly-on-the-wall author Michael Wolff. (The Post continues: "Trump has repeatedly assured us that he knows this stuff better than almost anyone and that he's the world's preeminent negotiator. What we saw Tuesday was neither of those things.")

[bwv 1080]

It makes no sense to pretend that health care could form a functioning market. An efficient market has two basic requirements, transparency and real choice. For instance, I have a choice between phones designed and marketed for people with different needs. I can readily find out the characteristics of an iPhone, an Android phone from various vendors, or a flip phone. I can buy whichever makes sense to me. Perhaps I have a similar choice in deciding where I would like to get a flu shot, have a sore throat looked at, or get a general checkup. But if I have a major medical issue I am confronted by a doctor telling me, 'either you do what I say or you will die.'  At that point I do not have real choice and I do not have transparency. Prior to that, when selecting health insurance, I have no idea if my medical costs for the coming year will be $10 or $1 million. What makes sense is spreading the risk over the widest pool of people. A moderately high deductible makes sense because people can manage their routine medical costs, it is catastrophic costs that need to be covered by insurance.

Prior to the ACA I had minor surgery. It took 15 minutes, 30 minutes including measuring my blood pressure and temperature beforehand. I was billed $30,000. My insurance stipulated that for that surgery they would pay $2,000. The bill was adjusted to $2,000. If I didn't have an insurance company to strong-arm the provider, I would be on the hook for $30,000? That sounds like a functioning market to you?

Not that I am advocating it, but in a purely private pay competitive market for healthcare, hospitals would compete based upon their reputation for service and value - much like plumbers or AC companies do now.   the $30K fake price is an artifact of the artifical market created by employer-paid insurance

[Karl Henning]

Not that I am advocating it, but in a purely private pay competitive market for healthcare, hospitals would compete based upon their reputation for service and value - much like plumbers or AC companies do now.

One obvious difference is that plumbers and AC companies come to your property.  Not every locale has the selection of hospitals that Boston does.  Calling Central Services . . . .

[Baron Scarpia]

Not that I am advocating it, but in a purely private pay competitive market for healthcare, hospitals would compete based upon their reputation for service and value - much like plumbers or AC companies do now.   the $30K fake price is an artifact of the artifical market created by employer-paid insurance

In this model, I'm in the ambulance with a transected aorta and I'm on my iPhone, telling the driver "take me to Kaiser Permanente hospital in Dallas, no, wait, Boise, Idaho, they have a special discount on thoracic surgery this week."