45th President of the United States, Donald Trump (Vol. 8)

[Byker28i]

trump unleashed - more revenge against witnesses.

The Pentagon's top policy official who warned against withholding military aid to Ukraine last year resigned on Wednesday at the request of President Donald Trump, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by CNN.

John Rood, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, is the latest senior national security official involved in the Ukraine controversy to be forced out following Trump's acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, but sources told CNN that he broke with the administration on several issues, in addition to the handling of aid to Ukraine, leading to a loss of support from leadership.
"It is my understanding from Secretary Esper that you requested my resignation from serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Senior administration officials appointed by the President serve at the pleasure of the President, and therefore, as you have requested, I am providing my resignation effective February 28, 2020," Rood wrote in his letter to President Donald Trump, dated Wednesday.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/19/politics/john-r...

[Byker28i]

Trump going to name Richard Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany, to be the acting director of national intelligence, putting another trump loyalist in place. Can't have the intelligence agencies keep reporting on trumps wrong doing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/us/politics/dni...

[Byker28i]

Another Maga supporter charged for threatened to kill Schiff and Schumer, using trumps nicknames.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/man-arrested-threa...

As Kamala Harris said: Trump doesn’t fire the gun, but he provides the ammunition.
He faces up to 10 years in prision for a threatening voicemail. Now compare that to Roger Stones guilt and suggested sentence from Barr

[Al Gorithum]

Tallow said:

The UK is extremely lucky to have the NHS. I prefer it infinitely to the US model.

Agreed. I have a US friend (gun and Trump supporter) who says that he'd rather trust a paid Doctor than a gov't employed Doctor. That is completely insane, and a perfect example of the mentality we're dealing with.

[hidetheelephants]

Jimbeaux said:

It appears that contrary information, when presented, is treated to the (conceptual examples to follow)"That is not reliable"; "That is a lie"; "That opinion does not matter because Fox", etc & etc.

The groupthink (small group) here has resulted in what appears to be irreversible Myopia in this thread.

The BBC could make a miniseries off of this. "The Myopians"-Volume 8".

You cite one article saying X, it's contradicted by another article saying Y; bottom line is that a country in a shooting war has enough problems without its logistic chain being affected by petulance, it means planned operations can't go ahead and supplies must be husbanded, potentially leaving frontline troops vulnerable in the event of a major assault. The specifics of the electronic equipment is not revealed, it may be countermeasures much needed to blunt Russian aggression. Danylyuk is right that Ukraine can be more or less self-sufficient in rifles, ammunition, tanks and aircraft, but bleeding edge electronics rather less so.

[Challo]

Tallow said:

unrepentant said:

The whole concept of people "losing their plan" is BS anyway. The vast majority of people get their healthcare through their employer. They don't "choose" their healthcare, their employer does. "Millions of people" did not lose the plans they wanted to keep. It's absolute tosh. If your plan was with Anthem or United Healthcare or whoever before the ACA it was with them afterwards. If your doctor was in network before he was afterwards.

I think that the thing of "wanting to keep" their plans for a lot of people is more of a case of "wanting to have" their plans and not lose them (like the window of non-coverage a lot of people face when they change jobs). That combined with people wanting to know it's not going to cost them more.

My insurance comes from being a spouse on my partner's insurance. As you rightly say, it'll be a different insurance provider if they decide to switch of if she changes employer. I see my doctor for about 10 minutes a year given that most of the actual work in American hospitals is done by nurse practicioners and the like.

I suspect as you've correctly identified the real concerns people have about substantial change is loss of coverage, decrease in care quality, increase in out of pocket costs or a combination of all three. People fear change and it's easy to assume that any of these could happen if you're in a state of fear.

To be fair to Jim, I do think it would be nigh on impossible to implement an NHS type of system in the US given the sheer size and scale of private infrastructure that already exists.

The UK is extremely lucky to have the NHS. I prefer it infinitely to the US model.

John Oliver did a really good piece on Healthcare in the states this week and the issues surrounding it. There is lots of confusion on the subject, and a lot of people who either dont have healthcare or are under insured.

[_dobbo_]

Bit of light relief - based on his golfing Trump is the tenth highest paid athlete in the US.

https://www.theroot.com/we-calculated-how-much-we-...

[Ructions]

Roger Stone will be sentenced later today. Pardon?

[pinchmeimdreamin]

Ructions said:

Roger Stone will be sentenced later today. Pardon?

He said "Roger Stone will be sentenced later today."

[stevesingo]

pinchmeimdreamin said:

Ructions said:

Roger Stone will be sentenced later today. Pardon?

He said "Roger Stone will be sentenced later today."

Badumtish

[Byker28i]

Ructions said:

Roger Stone will be sentenced later today. Pardon?

Less than the trump fan leaving a threatening phone call to Schiff?

[Byker28i]

Byker28i said:

Trump going to name Richard Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany, to be the acting director of national intelligence, putting another trump loyalist in place. Can't have the intelligence agencies keep reporting on trumps wrong doing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/us/politics/dni...

In 2018, internal docs from Trump's D.C. hotel listed Richard Grenell as a 'Gold' member of the Trump Org's 'Trump Card' loyalty program.

This is the 2nd time Trump has given a prominent post to a high-level Trump Card member. The other is Kelly Craft.

[Byker28i]

The White House acknowledged what many economists considered obvious through much of last year: President Donald Trump’s trade stance depressed economic growth and business investment.

“Uncertainty generated by trade negotiations dampened investment,” Trump chief economist Tomas Philipson told reporters in a briefing on the annual Economic Report of the President released on Thursday.

The admission contrasted with Trump’s repeated assertions that his tariff tactics hadn’t hurt the economy while swelling the government’s tax coffers.


In a novel analysis, the White House report argues that Trump’s deregulatory efforts will lift household incomes significantly by reducing how much Americans have to spend on such things as health care and access to the internet.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-20...

[Tartan Pixie]

Tallow said:

I think that the thing of "wanting to keep" their plans for a lot of people is more of a case of "wanting to have" their plans and not lose them (like the window of non-coverage a lot of people face when they change jobs). That combined with people wanting to know it's not going to cost them more.

My insurance comes from being a spouse on my partner's insurance. As you rightly say, it'll be a different insurance provider if they decide to switch of if she changes employer. I see my doctor for about 10 minutes a year given that most of the actual work in American hospitals is done by nurse practicioners and the like.

I suspect as you've correctly identified the real concerns people have about substantial change is loss of coverage, decrease in care quality, increase in out of pocket costs or a combination of all three. People fear change and it's easy to assume that any of these could happen if you're in a state of fear.

To be fair to Jim, I do think it would be nigh on impossible to implement an NHS type of system in the US given the sheer size and scale of private infrastructure that already exists.

The UK is extremely lucky to have the NHS. I prefer it infinitely to the US model.

I think Trump genuinely understands that the price of healthcare is a drag on business as he employs people so will have to pay that cost and he's pushed minor reforms in drug pricing.

He made a speech about it that I posted in a previous volume where he sounded confused, talking about how the people he had working on it were very clever people, geniuses! That and his 'who knew healthcare was so complicated' remarks makes me think people around him have bamboozled Trump with minutia and details, which is a shame as it's possibly an area where we could do with more Trump rather than less.

I agree we're very lucky to have the NHS but there's no need for America to follow that model, plenty of countries use private healthcare without the insane costs America imposes, Spain and France come to mind but I'm sure there's more.

Even if America didn't want a single payer system you could do it the free market way. Create a benchmark group of countries and pass a law that says costs above 115% of the benchmark the patient can claim from their insurance company.

There'd be some horrendous squealing as the industry goes through economic liposuction but I guarantee costs would come down to within 115% of the benchmark very very quickly

[Byker28i]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think it's fair to say the old Warren was back, abandoning the 'lets all work together' Warren, but she's slipped significantly in the polls etc. Her campaign have said last night was their best fundraising night.
Has she left it too late though?

[Challo]

Trump is certainly laying the foundations to pardon Stone.



And then pinning this Tucker video https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1230384...

Claiming Stone has been completing stitched up and has to be pardon otherwise its a huge injustice to all Americans.

[unrepentant]

Byker28i said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think it's fair to say the old Warren was back, abandoning the 'lets all work together' Warren, but she's slipped significantly in the polls etc. Her campaign have said last night was their best fundraising night.
Has she left it too late though?

I watched the whole debate. Liz hit him hard and effectively right from the get go but she had no choice. She's being eclipsed by Bernie and there's not room for both of them. She came across as a little desperate at times, trying to interject out of turn and being far more confrontational that she really wants to be.

Bloomberg was clearly a bit ring rusty, it's a long time since he was in a debate. But he's not on the ballot in NV or SC and it probably served him well to get it all out at this stage. His attacks on Trump on twitter are very effective and I think he can bounce back. Interestingly after the Warren exchange, during the next ad break, he and she were the only ones on stage and were chatting and smiling together.

Pete was solid, he and Klobuchar clearly hate each other and it showed. Bernie came over as angry and I was a bit worried for his BP at times, he got very worked up and red faced. Biden was anonymous for much of the debate, he's too much of a gent, standing with his hand up asking to speak rather than getting stuck in like most of the others.

I think warren will be out after NC unless she causes an upset there, which is unlikely. Biden has staked everything on winning there, even if he comes 2nd it may not be enough. Bloomberg will spend a fortune on Super Tuesday and after then we should have a clear idea of who has a chance. A brokered convention looks a distinct possibility and that won't be good for any of them.

[arfursleep]

Challo said:

Trump is certainly laying the foundations to pardon Stone.



And then pinning this Tucker video https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1230384...

Claiming Stone has been completing stitched up and has to be pardon otherwise its a huge injustice to all Americans.

Trump keeps claiming Comey etc are guilty of crimes others are being prosecuted for, he literally owns the Justice Dept. so why doesn't he launch investigations and prosecute based on the evidence found?

[paulguitar]

arfursleep said:

Challo said:

Trump is certainly laying the foundations to pardon Stone.



And then pinning this Tucker video https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1230384...

Claiming Stone has been completing stitched up and has to be pardon otherwise its a huge injustice to all Americans.

Trump keeps claiming Comey etc are guilty of crimes others are being prosecuted for, he literally owns the Justice Dept. so why doesn't he launch investigations and prosecute based on the evidence found?

Because trump is a whining, worthless, lying turd?

[Slaav]

paulguitar said:

Because trump is a whining, worthless, lying turd?

You mean he is just severely 'misunderstood' as some would describe it.....

P