REWRITING DEMOCRACY

As the final stretch of the 2018 Mid-Term campaign comes into view, ALL of what most of the country has been able to see/heard can be summed up in a two words: HATE and UGLINESS.

Over and above the rare sorrow of the 11 deaths in Pittsburgh, and the week-long trauma of packaged mail pipe bombs, from last week, we now have the injected insanity of deepening the divide in the country by Donald John Trump, in the last 36 hours.

In these last days before our congressional elections that could determine the future of his presidency, Trump seems to be throwing almost anything he can think of against the wall to see what might stick, NO matter how untethered from political or legal reality.

Trump declared yesterday, through a delayed interview with Axios, that he would sign an executive order essentially rewriting the Constitution !!! [roll that around for a moment, aunts and uncles] as it has been traditionally interpreted to stop children of undocumented immigrants from automatically becoming citizens just because they are born in the United States, claiming power NO other president has asserted…EVER.

Our 14th Amendment…

Everyday we are witnessing a monster who has NO idea of the responsibilities that go along with the office he holds.

Tragically, the country gave a “carnival barker” enormous public powers to satisfy his private needs and wants…

Nearly 30 other countries also grant citizenship at birth, and most US legal scholars believe the president does NOT have the power to change that in the United States.

If Trump follows through and signs such an order, it would presumably be challenged ALL the way to the Supreme Court, which would then be asked to determine whether the traditional understanding of the 14th Amendment applies.

NO matter what one might say, it has to be exhausting being a Trump supporter.

How do they keep up with the lies and constant drivel?

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, kids

High Fructose Corn Syrup Withdrawal is ugly…

The nation’s dental profession stands ready to serve.

WE ALL HAVE IT in US

Joy is easily spread, isn’t it?

It’s the extension of one’s talents to the needs of another…

Give it a try!

14th AMENDMENT – DJT’s latest issue

The words of the 14th Amendment have now become yet another national issue created by our 45th president.

As a result of an Axios interview, released today, Trump proposed a different reading of the above amendment, one he said would deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants.

Donald John Trump said he was preparing to issue an executive order to that end.

To the old Lobsterman, this latest proposal from Cadet Bone Spurs sounds more like a political stunt than a reasoned legal argument, and its timing, coming a week before the Mid-Term elections, was/is suspect.

The law has NEVER been an obstacle for the inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue… making his living “breaking the law:” Tax codes; literally, ALL norms of human decency;  the Emoluments Clause; and obliterating the separation of powers, ETC., ETC., ETC.

What’s another piece of the law and our Constitution to this bulldozer to add to his demolition pile?

 

ALMOST HEAVEN, WEST VIRGINIA

Within the last hour, most of the Boston media is reporting that notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, 89, was killed earlier today at a West Virginia prison.

The US Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that Bulger, who had arrived at USP Hazelton on Monday, was found unresponsive at the prison at 8:20 am.

A fellow inmate with Mafia ties was/is being investigated for the slaying of Bulger, according to the Boston Globe.

Bulger, who had been serving a life sentence for 11 murders, had been sent to the West Virginia facility after a quick stop at an Oklahoma City transfer site. Before that, he had been incarcerated at a Florida prison.

The former South Boston crime boss and longtime FBI informant was one of America’s most wanted criminals until his capture in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011 after more than 16 years on the run.

He was one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted, with a $2 million reward on his head.

WATCHING GREATNESS

You ALL know, my Boston Celtics can do NO wrong…

But, that doesn’t prevent me from having a deep appreciation, and respect, for the other players in the game.

One of those people is Klay Thompson, from the Golden State Warriors.

Last night, Thompson set an NBA record with 14 3-pointers on his way to 52 points in just 26 minutes of playing time.

Mind-boggling, when you consider it was against some of the best players in professional basketball…

The Warriors beat the host Chicago Bulls, 149-124, dominating so thoroughly that they pulled ALL of their starters with 4 minutes 53 seconds left in the third quarter [ONCE AGAIN, another class move by Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr].

Have you EVER stopped to think how blessed we ALL are to witness so-o-o much talent, in countless professions, throughout the world?

Appreciate it when you see it, and them, aunts and uncles.

 

 

 

WHO KNEW?

“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”

Just one of thousands of infamous quotes from the 45th president.

Yesterday, White House press secretary and current ‘watergirl’ Sarah Sanders reassured ?!?! the public about the issue that has become the Republicans’ premier campaign liability, “The president’s health-care plan that he’s laid out,” she said, “covers preexisting conditions.”

There are several lies embedded in this statement, beginning with the premise that Trump has a true plan at ALL.

He has NEVER come up with any detailed plan that would cover everybody, or anything close to it.

The legislative initiative, and agenda, on this matter has long since died.

If The Weave has such a plan, he has kept it completely secret.

As we ALL know, Trump has made a series of administrative changes designed to cripple ObamaCare in general and, specifically, its ability to deliver affordable coverage to people with “preexisting conditions.”

Second, he denied payments ! owed to insurers under the law, in order to prod some of them to exit the markets. Talk to your personal doctor(s) about how this measure has had a devastating ripple effect on the medical community!

Third, this administration flouted the law’s protections by allowing insurers to sell low-cost, bare-bones plans to healthy people, which can be sold at cheap rates because they exclude coverage !!! for medical care needed by people with preexisting conditions.

These attempts to sabotage ObamaCare did NOT destroy the law.

Instead they merely hampered it, by luring healthy customers out of the exchanges, leaving behind a sicker population, resulting in higher premiums.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis has found that premiums are 16 % higher ! as a result of Trump’s combined sabotage attempts.

If one spends any time at ALL talking to medical practitioners, within the community, what you learn is the Trump Administration’s only verifiable plan is it’s lawsuit to overturn !!! federal regulations protecting people with preexisting conditions.

The law, the true centerpiece of ObamaCare, prevents insurers from either charging higher prices to people with preexisting conditions or denying coverage for treatments they need.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018.

JOY of UNINTENDED CONSQUENCES

 

INCENDIARY ATTACKS…everywhere

Trump and his GOP allies remained defiant yesterday amid allegations from critics that Trump’s vile attacks on political rivals and racially charged rhetoric on the campaign trail bear some culpability for the fervent climate surrounding a spate of violence in the country.

The 45th president who has faced calls to tone down his public statements, signaled that he would do NO such thing – childishly berating billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer, a target of a mail bomb sent by a Trump supporter, as a “crazed & stumbling lunatic” on Twitter, after Steyer said on CNN that Trump and the Republican Party have created an atmosphere of “political violence.”

Late yesterday, Trump lashed out again on Twitter, this time at the media: “The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country.”

“You could say [Democrats are on the] defensive after encouraging the mob scene at the Kavanaugh hearings,” Senator John Cornyn (TX), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, wrote in a Twitter post yesterday, referring to the political showdown over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation this month, in which liberal activists protested outside the Capitol, and, yes, threatened Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) before and after the Kavanaugh confirmation.

With that being said, the vitriol and sheer tragedy, that erupted over the weekend reflected a relatively new front in the country’s partisan divide with just over a week to go before hotly contested Mid-Term elections.

While other mass shootings have typically prompted arguments over gun control, the sorrow in Pittsburgh, coming so quickly after the mail pipe bombs and the killing of two African Americans in a grocery store outside Louisville, has also given way to a more fundamental battle over the rules and standards of political combat.

As I’ve said before, in these posts, when you get HATE at the top, it has a tendency to populate itself at ALL levels…

FULL-SCALE DEPLOYMENT

Moments ago, the cable networks reported that the US military plans to deploy 5,000 troops to the southwest U.S. border in anticipation of a caravan of would-be asylum seekers and migrants currently moving northward in Mexico to our borders.

This new figure is a major increase from initial estimates of 800 troops and would represent a military force equal to about one-third the number of customs officials currently working at the border.

Remember, the military sent about 2,000 National Guard troops to the area earlier this year.

The US and federal law-enforcement officials said troops are likely to be deployed to ports of entry, at least in initial phases of the US military mission, which the Pentagon has named Operation Faithful Patriot.

Under the latest plans, about 1,800 troops will go to Texas, 1,700 to Arizona and 1,500 to California. The troops will be drawn from about 10 US Army installations and consist largely of military police and engineers.

Marines also will be deployed [their designation is NOT specified].