Trump is Obama’s Legacy. Will this Break up the Democratic Party?

Nobody yet can tell whether Donald Trump is an agent of change with a specific policy in mind, or merely a catalyst heralding an as yet undetermined turning point. His first month in the White House saw him melting into the Republican mélange of corporate lobbyists. Having promised to create jobs, his “America First” policy looks more like “Wall Street First.” His cabinet of billionaires promoting corporate tax cuts, deregulation and dismantling Dodd-Frank bank reform repeats the Junk Economics promise that giving more tax breaks to the richest One Percent may lead them to use their windfall to invest in creating more jobs. What they usually do, of course, is simply buy more property and assets already in place.

One of the first reactions to Trump’s election victory was for stocks of the most crooked financial institutions to soar, hoping for a deregulatory scythe taken to the public sector. Navient, the Department of Education’s knee-breaker on student loan collections accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) of massive fraud and overcharging, rose from $13 to $18 now that it seemed likely that the incoming Republicans would disable the CFPB and shine a green light for financial fraud.

Foreclosure king Stephen Mnuchin of IndyMac/OneWest (and formerly of Goldman Sachs for 17 years; later a George Soros partner) is now Treasury Secretary – and Trump is pledged to abolish the CFPB, on the specious logic that letting fraudsters manage pension savings and other investments will give consumers and savers “broader choice,” e.g., for the financial equivalent of junk food. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos hopes to privatize public education into for-profit (and de-unionized) charter schools, breaking the teachers’ unions. This may position Trump to become the Transformational President that neoliberals have been waiting for.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/105083.html

Why Health Care Can't Be Fixed

Bill Clinton tried to fix America's health care problems and was shot down by Congress. Barack Obama got his solution enacted, only to find most people didn't like it. Republicans who voted repeatedly to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something far better have found it fiendishly hard to agree on how.

It could be that our health care problems don't get solved because of partisanship, incompetence, corruption or dishonesty among our elected officials. Or it could be because those problems are not soluble.

Oh, some of them can be solved, for sure. But not all at once, and not within the constraints of our political environment. We have trouble accepting that. So we muddle along with a system that is riddled with flaws and causes a lot of dissatisfaction.

The changing perceptions of the Affordable Care Act are a marvel to behold. It was so controversial that it barely got through Congress in 2010. Long before it was fully implemented, it was unpopular, and it mostly remained so.

https://townhall.com/columnists/stevechapman/2017/03/26/why-health-care-cant-be-fixed-n2304135

Trump Showed Himself to Be More Responsible Than the Politicians on Both Sides of the Aisle

The simpletons who are gloating that the rejection of the Health Care Repeal and Replace legislation shows that Trump is no longer a master at the Art of the Deal seem to overlook one simple fact. Every deal with a chance of closing has to have two parties with open minds who WANT a deal. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton got things done because they had negotiating partners. The Democrats until the end refused to even consider a deal, which required the Republicans to come up with something close to unanimity in order to close the deal. It is easier to be unanimous against than in favor.

The simpletons who are gloating that the rejection of the Health Care Repeal and Replace legislation shows that Trump is no longer a master at the Art of the Deal seem to overlook one simple fact. Every deal with a chance of closing has to have two parties with open minds who WANT a deal. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton got things done because they had negotiating partners. The Democrats until the end refused to even consider a deal, which required the Republicans to come up with something close to unanimity in order to close the deal. It is easier to be unanimous against than in favor.

The failure of the Republicans to agree on a deal shows that the Republicans consist of people who stand on principle – some on the conservative side of the spectrum, some on the liberal side. The Democrats refused to put principle over party, let alone the interests of their constituents over their party, and allow at least some members of Congress who might find some common ground to at least consider the legislation and strive to improve on it.

http://canadafreepress.com/article/trump-showed-himself-to-be-more-responsible-than-the-politicians-on-both-si

Fake News Is Based on Fake Righteousness

Exodus tells us:

For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. (Exodus 7:12-13)

This verse contrasts phenomena that are very instructive: real miracles vs. fake miracles. The difference lies in the source of the miracle and the power of the miracle. The first serpent which is a transformed Aaron’s rod comes from a holy and just God, and the latter multiple serpents are a species of “magic” or “black arts” worked by devilish magicians. The former are based on righteousness and goals of love, hope, mercy, and deliverance. The latter are performed to protect a wicked status quo. 

Yet, despite the amazing similarity between the two miracles, the serpent of Moses and Aaron swallowed up the other serpents, thereby representing the victory of good over evil, the victory of the true and living God over the false gods of Egyptian polytheism and animism. God’s miracle had power over the pseudo-miraculous work of the magicians, and ate their snakes.

Yet, in an interesting dynamic, after the competing miracles, Pharaoh did not accept Mosaic authority, nor did he even question the authority of his magicians. Instead, his heart was “hardened.” This means that the unbelief he had in the true God not only did not change or even begin to change, but that unbelief deepened. Pharaoh became even more unresponsive to the message from Almighty God.



http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/03/fake_news_is_based_on_fake_righteousness.html

Criminal Immigrants: Their Numbers, Demographics, and Countries of Origin

In his first week in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to deport most illegal immigrants who come in contact with law enforcement.1 His order is based on the widespread perception that illegal immigrants are a significant source of crime in the United States.2 This brief uses American Community Survey data to analyze incarcerated immigrants according to their citizenship and legal status. All immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than natives relative to their shares of the population. Even illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans.

https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/immigration_brief-1.pdf

Do Muslims Commit Most U.S. Terrorist Attacks?

First they ask how many terror attacks have taken place between 2011 and 2015. (The 2016 data will become available later this summer.) The Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland, which catalogs information on over 150,000 incidents since 1970, defines terrorism as an "intentional act of violence or threat of violence by a non-state actor" that meets at least two of three criteria. First, that it be "aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal." Second, that there is "evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) other than the immediate victims." And finally, that it be "outside the precepts of International Humanitarian Law."

The Georgia State researchers report that the database catalogs 110 terrorist attacks in the U.S. over the most recent five-year span period in the database. (Globally, there were more than 57,000 terrorist attacks during that period.) In some cases, the media tended to report several attacks perpetrated by the same people as a single combined story; following their lead, the researchers reduce the number to 89 attacks.

They then set out to answer four different questions: Would an attack receive more coverage if the perpetrators were Muslim, if they were arrested, if they aimed at government employees or facilities, or if it resulted in a high number of deaths?

http://reason.com/archives/2017/03/24/do-muslims-commit-most-us-terrorist-atta

Copies letter to The American Spectator asking for a fair hearing.

he American Spectator is in receipt of a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee — Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff respectively — from Carter Page. Mr. Page is in the news as a figure in the Trump-Russia allegations. He copied the Spectator with his letter because he wanted transparency for the American public. In this letter he volunteers to testify before the Intelligence Committee. While there is much to discuss, American Spectator readers deserve to have Mr. Page’s letter and his request to clear the record printed exactly as written so that readers can judge for themselves and Mr. Page can speak in public for himself.

Here it is.

More to come.

GLOBAL ENERGY CAPITAL LLC

March 23, 2017

BY ELECTRONIC MAIL AND REGISTERED MAIL

The Honorable Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff
U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Capitol Visitor Center HVC-304
US Capitol Building
Washington, DC 20515-6415

Subject: Leakers, liars and reported illegitimate surveillance in response to false evidence

https://spectator.org/carter-page-to-nunes-and-schiff-let-me-testify/