WHAT THE FUDGE???

This is “what” the result is from a Jesuit education…

Neither the Dominicans nor the Franciscans would have ever allowed such behavior!

CONFESSIONS of a 81-YEAR DEAD GUY?

Who the hell is Peter W. Smith?

Smith died at age 81 on May 14, which was about 10 days after The Wall Street Journal interviewed him.

A longtime Republican opposition researcher [meaning exactly what?], Smith had mounted, says the Journal, an independent campaign to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton’s private server, likely by Russian hackers.

According to their reporting, the Journal had conversations with members of Smith’s circle, and with others he tried to recruit to help him, implying !!! he was working with retired general Michael Flynn, at the time a senior adviser to then-candidate Donald John Trump, months prior to the ’16 election.

What role, if any, Flynn may have played in Smith’s project is unclear.

In the interview with The Wall Street Journal, Smith said he knew Flynn, but he NEVER stated that Flynn was involved.

Flynn did NOT respond to requests by the Journal for comment or confirmation.

Probably smart, Mickey.

The White House declined to comment.

U.S. investigators probing Russian interference in the elections have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Grandma Clinton’s server, and then transmit them to Flynn via an intermediary, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence, as well as confirmation from The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.

Smith said he worked independently and was NOT part of the Trump campaign.

A private-equity executive from Chicago, active in Republican politics, Smith said he assembled a group of technology experts [can you imagine the make-up of these characters?!], lawyers and a Russian-speaking investigator [probably a good family man] based in Europe to acquire emails the group theorized ? might have been stolen from the private server Clinton used as Secretary of State.

Smith’s focus was some 33,000 emails Clinton said were deleted because they were deemed personal [horsepoop!!!]. Smith said he believed that the emails might have been obtained by hackers, and that they actually concerned official matters Grandma Clinton wanted to conceal.

Interestingly, Smith said after vetting batches of emails offered to him by these hacker groups last fall, he could NOT be sure of their authenticity to leak them himself.

“We told all the groups to give them to WikiLeaks,” Smith told The Wall Street Journal.  WikiLeaks has NEVER published those emails or claimed to have them.

Is G. Gordon Liddy available?

Ah, the good old days…

 

ONE DOG NIGHT…

Classical…

I understand the dog’s name is Mendelssohn.

A SHAKY SITUATION

Senate Republicans had hoped to rewrite their health-care bill by today. That way, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) would have time to evaluate the new version while lawmakers are away for the July 4 recess. The continued disputes made that an increasingly unlikely scenario.

The bill’s status appeared shaky as lawmakers left Washington for a week-long break, its fate likely vulnerable to home-state pressures they may face and any deals they can make over the vacation.

The new fights revolved around a group of Republicans who said they were open to preserving ObamaCare Act’s 3.8% tax on investment income, and a Congressional Budget Office report on the bill that said the government would spend 35% less on Medicaid in 2036 than under O’Care, likely forcing states to take steps to curb the program.

The tax position cuts to the heart of longstanding Republican orthodoxy in opposition to such taxes, and conservative senators quickly condemned the idea.

Conservative Republicans said the move would amount to an abdication of pledges they had made to voters to repeal as much of the 2010 health care law as possible.

Under the current House and Senate bills, the investment tax would be repealed retroactively for income received in 2017. The tax applies to capital gains, dividends, interest and certain passive business income for individuals with income over $200,000 and married couples with income over $250,000.

Leaving the tax in place would give Republicans two potential benefits as they try to put together a health-care bill that can attract 50 of their 52 members, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a potential tie-breaking vote.

CHARACTER is DESTINY!

The term “bully pulpit” will forever take on a new meaning.

Donald John Trump, yesterday morning, decided for some grotesque reason to tweet about MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. Trump called them “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and “Psycho Joe” and wrote that they came to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida “3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”

Enough! Just stop it!

The dignity of office is being shredded by the behavior of a child that America elected as the 45th president of the country.

On Wednesday morning’s show, Scarborough called Trump “the greatest liar that’s ever sat in the White House.”

Brzezinski has referred to this current administration as a “fake presidency” and has suggested that the President is “not well” and perhaps even “mentally ill.”

Sadly, early reaction from Trump’s base has shown total support and excitement over Trump’s unhinged and misogynistic tweets about the MSNBC co-hosts.

That alone speaks volumes about “where” we are, NOT only as a country, but as a society.

MOON over D.C.

Newly-elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in and our current president are set to meet in Washington today for the first time, a highly anticipated summit that will serve as an early test of the new leaders’ relationship following several differences over key policies.

Moon, South Korea’s first left-leaning president in nearly a decade, has called for closer ties with North Korea, primarily through economic cooperation, while the present administration has called for tougher sanctions, military pressure and diplomatic isolation.

The discussions between Trump and Moon, who will have dinner tonight at the White House and meet again on Friday, come amid growing urgency about confronting the threat from North Korea. The two leaders have suggested dramatically different approaches to the issue.

Trump’s policy is to apply pressure ! on North Korea “to change their calculus to have substantive talks with us once they show they are willing to reduce the threat.” The White House continues to say Trump sees nothing “problematic” ? with Moon’s positions.

Trump’s sometime inappropriate comments about South Korea and U.S. relations, BOTH as a candidate, and since taking office in January, have roiled South Korea.

Just this past April, he indicated that he wanted to renegotiate a trade deal with South Korea. He said South Korea should pay for a U.S. missile-defense installation known as a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, that is designed to protect against a North Korean missile attack. Days later, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national-security chief, told his South Korean counterpart that the U.S. would pay for the system.

It’ll extremely interesting to see what the disposition of THAAD will be after Friday.

Over the past 12 months, THAAD has become a political football, upending ties between Seoul, Washington and Beijing.

Let’s hope that their discussions focuses on the elephant in the room – China. North Korea is nothing but a military extension of China. Nothing will change if Xi Jinping does NOT want it to, and so far, that’s seems to be the case. We still have enough economic sway to bring pressure to bare, NOT on North Korea, but on China.

Moon and Trump need to discuss plans to NOT only unite our two countries, but the entire western world to force China to take action. If we don’t, we will ALL have to live in fear of China, by its extension of/with/in North Korea.

 

HEALTH-CARE YUKS

Colbert provides a light side on a serious issue…

CARPING from the BACKBENCH is EASY

Two weeks before the election last November…

Reality is a completely different animal…

“We’re going to have insurance for everybody… There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

“I am going to take care of everybody… Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.”

The Kentucky colonel, Mitch McConnell, GOP majority leader of the Senate, purported Zen master, NEVER got close ! to the necessary 50 GOP votes on the Republican health-care bill.

Nine GOP senators opposed some parts or ALL of this bill!

And, we ALL thought, as well as being told, the Colonel could count heads.

Senate Republicans yesterday delayed a vote on their health-care bill until after the July 4 recess.

But, make NO mistake, as of 4:00 pm ET, yesterday, June 27, 2017, while meeting with the principal at the White House, this current administration and the Republican party NOW owns health-care ! in the United States.

Many will pay dearly next November 6th!

This catastrophe also puts a monkey wrench in the Debt Ceiling discussions; the 2018 Budget; and, thoughts of making changes in Tax Reform.

The Health-care bill is NOT just a one-trick pony…

Americans know that Republicans run Congress and the White House, and that they promised to do something !!! about the problems of ObamaCare. Do Republicans really believe voters in 2018 will blame GOP failure on the President who left town two years ago? Democrats can tell you how well that strategy worked in 2010.

Reaching mutually acceptable goals, within the health-care arena, requires hard policy choices on which the parties are philosophically divided. Democrats want to stabilize markets with more taxpayer money and federal rules. Republicans want to deregulate markets and let insurers offer more plans that better suit the variety of insurance consumers.

Democrats want to expand Medicaid to cover ever-more Americans. Republicans, or at least most of them, want to put Medicaid on a budget to provide better coverage to the neediest.

Gulliver is tied down by mental Lilliputians!

MITCH LISTENED to SUSAN?

The story breaking, within the last half hour, is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has halted the train from leaving the station.

Word is that the conductor of the train, McConnell, was told he better NOT leave the station by the station master, Susan Collins (R-ME).

But, we’ll probably never really know the truth behind the caboose.

McConnell, according to the New York Times, has told senators that he will delay voting on his legislation to ‘repeal and replace/repair’ ObamaCare until after the July 4th recess.

Mitch does NOT have the necessary votes, aunts and uncles, in the Senate.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that key senators [still unclear whom] have been asked to report to the principal’s office – the White House – for a 4:00 pm ET meeting with The Weave.

Just think about this whole episode of statesmanship [lack of!] with our GOP-controlled Senate: 8 years in the wilderness bitching and moaning ! about what a disaster O’Care was/is, and there’s NOTHING to show as a viable alternative plan/bill, when push came to shove…

Z-E-R-O!

Simply put, the GOP has become a circular firing squad, day in and day out…

 

WHAT is the RUSH?

TRUMPKINCARE.

We’re in a self-imposed countdown, it appears this morning as regards “repeal and replace.”

There are very few things uttered by Nancy Pelosi, minority leader in the House, that have ever made an ounce of sense to me, including: “We have to pass the bill to know what is in it.” Those infamous words are from 2010 as the House, on pure party lines, jammed ! through ObamaCare.

The country, healthcare facilities, Big Pharma, countless insurance companies, and our individual states have been in a state of healthcare free-fall since its passage.

If you are fortunate enough to have a strong conversational relationship with your family physician, just ask then how happy ? they are, and what the future ? may be like with this new Senate bill…

I think most voters [serious types] would now acknowledge that the long-term effect of O’Care was the ‘socialization’ of the country’s health-care.

Entitlement reform is NOT a comfortable issue for today’s supposed public servants.

Creativity and innovation are NO longer functions/virtues of most of our elected officials.

It’s ALL about about “how” to get re-elected!

Currently Medicaid is so diluted that having it does NOT guarantee healthcare.

Think about the 3 in 4 Americans who are carrying the load of many able bodied individuals. Compassion in healthcare needs to be directed to those who are most in need ! as it was originally intended.

ObamaCare increased Medicaid enrollment by 29% to 74.5 million Americans – one of four citizens – in a program originally meant for poor women,  the disabled and the elderly. Equalizing payments for these traditional beneficiaries and ObamaCare’s new able-bodied adult enrollees above ! the poverty line is uncaring only in liberal caricature.

The real scandal is Medicaid’s poor health outcomes, and a current funding formula that does NOT encourage states to prioritize ! the neediest Americans.

With ALL that having been said, the shameful !!! part of the GOP’s argument is Wealth before Health…demonstrated by the proposed tax benefits for those of obscene well-being. This is where the true ‘profiles in courage’ NEVER seem to want to surface!

Courage and Conscience!

Much of history hangs in the lurch this week, aunts and uncles.