President Trump manages to lower the office of the Presidency even more

This is infuriating.
The Grand Old Party offered this stupid jerk up as the best of them.
He barely even tries to govern, delegating key responsibilities like national defense, and spends more time goofing off and trying to line his pockets than actually running the country.
He has attacked the media, the military, and seems incapable of rational debate.  He keeps getting personal and complaining about people complaining about what he himself say and keeps tweeting over and over.
The latest personal attack is still not enough to get the party of rich old white men to do anything.  A cautious platitudes but we can expect no action.  Had this been a Democrat they would be up in arms and calling for impeachment.  Yet we can all see he is using the office to line his pockets, violates the emolument clause, breaks his oath of office on an almost daily basis and is actually trying to destroy this country.
So why does anyone support him?  The only reason is they think they have something to gain and that is more important than the USA.  No wonder most Republicans are afraid to attend Town Halls.

Today's Shooting of Republican leadership

It is still early on in the investigation but it turns out the shooter was a volunteer for Bernie Sanders.

I await the hypocrisy on the Right in this but am sure it will come.

To date most of the shootings and violence are from the conservative and extreme right side of the political spectrum.  The Left side are considered (often derisively) by the Right as weak pacifists.

The Left stand for humanitarian causes and civil liberty so violence form that side is far more rare and surprising when it happens.

It is a sign of the times and the frustration Americans have with our government that even leftist people feel the need to take up arms. I do not condone todays shooting, nor does Senator Bernie Sanders. However it was as predictable as 9/11 (I was in the military a the time and using planes as bombs was something we were briefed on as far back as the early 80s). 

What is good about his shooting and indicates it more an act of patriotism and revolutionary action than terrorism is that he attacked the leadership of our corrupt government rather than a night club or school.

Again I do not condone nor wish to encourage violence, but it is predictable and has been escalating and will likely continue to do so.  In fact the Trump administration is actively encouraging it, not just by its rhetoric and treasonous activity but by defunding and ordering the FBI and intelligence organisations to only investigate Muslim terrorism threats and ignore right wing home grown ones (which kills far more people on an annual basis).

Today's shooting was sad but at least it was done against politicians and not innocent civilians.

It was more an act of revolution than terrorism.

I expect we will see much more and hope that people who do feel they have no option but violence will focus and target it properly and not harm innocent civilians. That is the one good message we can take from today's shooting.

All Hail Trump!

Wow, all that fawning and fake praise to make the president feel good was disgusting.
At least Mattis handled himself like a patriot.

Meantime the draft dodger continues to not care about Russia meddling in our election.
According to sworn Senate testimony by both Comey and Sessions he never asked or brought up anything on this issue. No one except Clinton thinks he won because of that meddling but he is willing to sacrifice our national defense for fear of people thinking he might be illegitimate,
Get over yourself and start defending our country you spineless coward!

The Betrayal of our Government

With the latest scandal coming out on Tuesday I have never felt more betrayed by my government.
To put this in context I served in the military and was almost killed not in combat, but by the laziness and negligence of our medical staff.  I have suffered for over 35 years, almost lost my leg, facing onerous medical bills (Turns out military service is a preexisting condition so not covered by insurance) and requiring ongoing treatment because of that negligence.
I have over the years dealt with thoughts of suicide and murder on an almost daily basis, going from hopeless depression with no good end in sight to blind fury that it happened with such casual indifference.

And yet I have NEVER felt so betrayed by my country as I do right now.
Our corrupt politicians are cheering while America burns and sinks into the swamp.

Health Care Replacement passes the House. What is in it?

Here is the link to what we have so far on HR 1628 American Health Care Act 2017
Washington Post article
I will post the link when they get the full bill up on the site so Americans can read it.

Kind of funny that the GOP who complained bitterly that President Obamas bill did not get enough input and was rushed through Congress even though it took a year and they voted on this one with most of them not even reading it and no CBO score.
This is the main thing I hate about so many of our politicians the blatant hypocrisy and lying to the public. I can handle those who dont agree with my values, Democracy is about compromising and working through disagreements.  However you cant do that if everyone is lying.

President Trump, Jackson could have prevented the Civil War?

Here is commentary from several historians.
The last one was the best as it attempts to explain the reasoning for the comment.

Two Wrongs do not make a Right

Democrats need to start picking their battles more carefully.
Yes it was wrong and a gross dereliction of duty for Republicans to not vote on SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland..  In doing so republicans betrayed the public trust and that they feel their party is more important than America.
However now the Democrats are doing almost as bad, by at least letting the Gorsuch nomination get to a vote they are ahead in the ethics on this but they should go ahead and vote, not filibuster or try to block with tricks.

With the lowest approval rating of any President ever in the United States within the first hundred days and approval on Congress also slipping every day America has shown it is tired and getting more and more enraged at Partisan politics.
Democrats lost the last election and have been steadily losing state and congressional/senate elections for more than a decade due to anti-establishment anger.  Republicans did not win the last election, Democrats gave it away.
Wake up DNC!
Stop playing corporate and partisan politics and start working for your constituents and you may actually reverse that trend.  While big donor money gets you better advertising people are showing they are paying more attention and a catchy ad wont win over integrity and doing what the voters want.

Republicans declare they have given up on Health Care for this Congress.

Think about that.
They have been saying they had a better plan for health care and vowed to repeal and replace for almost 8 years, even risking shutting down the government because the Freedom Caucus wanted to repeal ObamaCare.
Healthcare is a tough issue and the only one who did not think so was President Elect Trump.
Democrats managed to do it, though with all the compromises they had to make to pass it resulted in a less than perfect bill. Everyone says Obama Care needs to be fixed or replaced.
But at least Democarats proved they could organize enough to get some substantial progress.
More people have  health care now than before and though premiums have gone up for many of us they were going p every year anyhow.  I mean really does anyone believe insurance companies were going to lower premiums?  Of course not.

The difference is Democrats worked to get something done and Republicans have just declared that they give up after the first real effort. I am listening to Paul Ryan right now spinning it and saying that Obama Care is failing and horrible.  It is easier to blame someone else than to fix or come up with your own solutions.  Republicans just proved themselves unable to do the latter and prefer the former.

Why were they not able to get enough votes?

Conservative Republicans were saying it did not go far enough and needed to remove all the rules on insurance companies, remove the taxes on the wealthy to pay for it, cut back on Medicare, defund Planned Parenthood, and remove some features like emergency room coverage.

Moderate Republicans were concerned it would hurt the elderly the most (key Republican demographic) and removing Insurance for more than 24 million people were bad ideas.

The blame game has already started but the real failure here is the party had 8 years to plan for this, declared they had one and instead waited till the last minute and tried to rush something through in a few weeks.

President Obama worked on his plan for a year and a half and negotiated with as many people as he could, including doctors, and insurance companies.  He knew it would not be as good as he wanted but that some improvement was better than no improvement. Republicans have declared today on 3/24/2017 after a short effort that they are just giving up and taking their marbles home.
This party ran on this issue as a signature item for the last 7 years, claimed they had a plan but could not get it past President Obama and now having taken control of the House, Senate and the White House showed they are unable to get the job done.

We need real leadership

America deserves a government that will work for America and put it before their party.  America deserves politicians who will think ahead and plan for the long term.

Think about this the next time you go to the polls.  And remember to go to the polls, as part of the problem we have is low voter turnout because most of America is disgusted with politicians.

Ask questions and listen not to tv ads but actual policy choices. America can do better than the current mess of Republicans and Democrats.