Happy Thanksgiving, Indeed

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

This President, the Nation, History and Democracy

Truth

Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders·

No figure in history has done more to undermine American democracy than Donald Trump. His "birther" movement tried to delegitimize the Obama presidency. His refusal to accept defeat now is trying to undermine the Biden presidency. 

Goodbye Trump

____________________

#ThrowTheBumOUT

On Trump's Taxes

On Trump's taxes, folks, with that New York Times bombshell article of theirs from this weekend (see link below). This is no small thing. This Republican Party President, Donald J Trump paid almost nothing in personal income taxes for nearly two decades.

The President of the United States.

That is incredible. It's nearly unthinkable. A President? Of the United States? And he PAID NO TAXES? None? And not just one year but for NEARLY 20 YEARS?

Someone wanna' tell us what part of a patriot that is?

Can you imagine the uproar if Barack Obama, the nation's first Black President, didn't pay taxes? And then for nearly two decades, too? The Right Wing and Republicans would have been furious. And livid.

Thanks, Republicans!

86 45

BYEDON

Links:

LONG-CONCEALED RECORDS SHOW TRUMP’S CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE

Five takeaways from NYT Trump taxes bombshell

18 Revelations From a Trove of Trump Tax Records

7 takeaways from President Trump's tax returns

5 Takeaways From NY Times Report on Trump's Tax Returns

Six takeaways from Trump's tax return report

Key Takeaways from Trump’s Leaked Tax Records

Trump’s long-hidden tax returns make him look like a terrible businessman, or a cheat. Probably both.

Quote of the Day -- Possible Supreme Court Hypocrisy Edition

 

Senator McConnell must, must be held to his own standard. As of today, Saturday, September 19, it is 45 days from this next Presidential election. There should be NO NEW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE proposed this year by this President. It was good enough for Senator McConnell and the Republicans in 2016 with President Obama and Merrick Garland. The same should absolutely be held to today.

Fortunately, Senators Collins and Murkowski have both already publicly said they will and can in no way support a replacement for Justice Ginsberg before the election with this President.

This President Steps Into it Again

Did you see his post today, this morning?

Donald J. Trump

4 hrs · 

I know many in business and politics that work out endlessly, in some cases to a point of exhaustion. It is their number one passion in life, but nobody complains. My “exercise” is playing, almost never during the week, a quick round of golf. Obama played more and much longer rounds, no problem. When I play, Fake News CNN, and others, park themselves anywhere they can to get a picture, then scream “President Trump is playing golf.” Actually, I play VERY fast, get a lot of work done on the golf course, and also get a “tiny” bit of exercise. Not bad!

Except...

Wow.

Except the facts.

Not only did President Obama play less, far less golf than Mr. Trump, he also didn't fly Air Force One to his hotel---because he didn't own any---and then bill the US Government for the Secret Service to play at his golf course and resort/hotel.

Secret Service Charged More At Trump Properties Than Previously Known, Records Show

Trump's Golfing Tab Already Dwarfs Obama's 8-Year Bill

Trump’s Golf Trips Could Cost Taxpayers 

Over $340 Million

And that President Obama comparison he makes?

Trump Has Played 138% More Golf Than Obama

He has got some outrageous nerve here.

He isn't even smart enough to not bring this up.  As I've noted and said before, this man, this excuse for a President isn't even smart enough to be still, to be quiet, to not say anything at times.

Thanks, as ever and once again, Republicans.

This President Is An Actual Assault on the Nation, Democracy and Our Democracy

This very false, so transparent "Obamagate" this President has created and thrown out there is one thing, that's bad enough, untrue, empty and shallow as it is. Here is what's worst about all this:

'Obamagate' backfires: Documents show Biden, Obama acted properly

"Trump is weaponizing the American government to distract from his catastrophically incompetent pandemic response and the crushing economic fallout."

It is Mr. Trump's eating away at our Democracy, at Democracy itself, at our Constitution, at our laws and our nation that is most frightening. Check this next one out.

Trump threatens to withhold Michigan, Nevada funding over mail-in voting

He Trump seems to think and act as though this is his own money, that we're not a nation, a Democracy. Sure, he and the Republicans want to get fewer and fewer Americans voting at any time but especially this November. They have no qualms whatever in disenfranchising Americans, American citizens, American taxpayers. More people need to see and know this for the very large problem it is, again, for the nation, for Democracy, for our Democracy, no overstatement.

Even Fox's Neil Cavuto has called him out now.

Cavuto: The president making clear to fact check him is to be all but dead to him

Everyone is either 100% with and for this President or he sees them as against him. It's an insane way to go through life but it's a dangerous way for a nation's leader to view the world.

Vote this Fall, folks. Be sure to vote. And vote blue, naturally.

Additional link:

"He Doesn't Want You to Vote": Trump Threatens to Block Funding to Michigan for Sending Absentee Ballot Forms to All Voters Amid Covid-19

Let's Compare Presidential Administrations, Shall We?

Yes, by all means, let's compare Presidential administrations--and in a couple ways.

First, let's compare the administrations on a one-to-one basis as to which has and has had the most--and least--criminal indictments, convictions and prison sentences.

Then, after that, let's compare them Democrats vs Republicans, shall we?

Illuminating, don't you think?

On Presidents, Honesty and Released Tax Returns

Check out the list.

And clearly Republicans are, to date, okay with this.

To quote another Republican:

"People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook." 

--President Richard Milhouse "Tricky Dick" Nixon. Also famously--or infamously--a Republican it should be remembered.

Remember When Our President Wasn't a Coward--and Had a Sense of Humor?

Really. Remember this?  Remember when our President wasn't a coward and he could, would and did show up at the White House Correspondents Dinner? And he laughed? And laughed at himself, too?

On This President's Latest

Saturday Night Live did a great, timely, even fair and accurate evaluation of this President Trump last evening. Sure, it's easy material, granted but still, they did a great job.



No telling what to expect next from The Orange One.

On Republicans and Hypocrisy

Bill Maher, from his show, "Real Time with Bill Maher." As ever, expletives included.


They've got hypocrisy down pat.

Links:

Republicans reach staggering new heights of hypocrisy

Two-faced hypocrisy of Republican religious freedom

Republican Hypocrisy on Trump's Nominees

Republicans: You're Not Pro-Life, You're Hypocrites

Exposing 5 of the Biggest Republican Hypocrisies

GOP's Constitution hypocrisy: Supreme Court drama

12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from 

Tea Party Republicans

Congratulations, America

Yes, Congratulations, America. For 8 good, strong, building years, you had an intelligent, deliberative, thoughtful, educated leader you elected in the White House representing and leading you nationally and internationally.

Then, you elected and placed in charge a rash and brash, nearly unthinking, blustering, inexperienced, narcissistic, racist, sexist, misogynistic man to lead you who is also nearly completely lacking in nuance and familiarity with politics or international relations.

How on Earth?

Links:

The clear and present danger of Donald Trump

The Dangerous Normalization of Donald Trump

The Dangers of Donald Trump

Donald Trump's Muslim Ban Is Cowardly and Dangerous

Trump has a mental disorder that makes him a dangerous

Inauguration Day: One Last Dig

From here on, God help us.

Number 44 to 45: The Handoff

I never feared a new administration in the White House before. Ever. I may have not liked what was coming but be it Reagan or George W. Bush, no matter how bad I ever thought the person would be there, I never feared for the nation, for us all.

Not in 6 decades. This catches it.

God help us.

This Is It. Final Day

It's like he didn't even try...

Republicans' Plan To Repeal Obamacare---With No Replacement

The media have been reporting that Republicans in Washington have every intention of repealing, at long last, "Obamacare", the Affordable Care Act, also known as the ACA.  They've wanted to for years, of course. They wrote and attempted to pass this repeal at least 60 times in Congress, literally, wasting all that time and energy and so, our American taxpayer dollars, in their efforts.

Meanwhile, more Americans have health insurance for the first time in the nation's history. There are a lot more successes of the program, too.

Obamacare: an unheralded success 

- The Boston Globe

Obamacare Is A Success After All, 

Report Shows Proof

Another Obamacare Success: 

It's Cut Premiums By 30-50%

The success of the Affordable Care Act 

is a hugely inconvenient truth

6 Years After Obamacare's Passage, 

Haters Refuse to Accept Reality

There are rumors out there that the Republicans won't wipe it all away, that they'll keep some of it. It's difficult to tell. What's clear is that, after all these years of not wanting the ACA, they did not have then, nor do they, today, a replacement for it. Likely more than 20 million Americans could, then, lose their health insurance.  Who knows? They surely don't.

What we do know is this, from the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. It was true then, when he said it and it's still patently, sadly true.

I've pointed this out before. We have, beyond measure, the most expensive, exclusive, killing health care system in the world, bar none.

Once again, US has most expensive, 

least effective health care system

It's the most expensive health care system in the world. So much so, it's killing us. We also have the worst, lowest mortality rates of the top 17 industrialized nations.

So yes, we need health care solutions, Republicans.

Please stop putting your political party, your careers and the already-wealthy and corporations ahead of the needs of the American people, the nation.

Link:

GOP launches long-promisedrepeal of Obamacare with 
no full plan to replace it

Medical Bills Are the Biggest Cause of US Bankruptcies: Study

Medical Costs is the Number One Cause of Bankruptcy

Republican Idiocy On American Health Care, Parts I and II

Idiocy, part I

I just learned, this morning, a bit ago, that the Republicans are claiming one reason they want to do away with the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, "Obamacare" is because health care is so expensive under it.

Really.

So health care costs are rising too high---actually, the percent of increased costs with this legislation is far lower than before it--so they want to do away with it.

The fact is, without Obamacare, if they do away with it, this will make it possible to go back the way we were prior to it, when corporations could and would and did raise our prices and costs to the outrageous limits they were already at. There will be no holding back the pharmaceuticals and health insurance companies and all of them, to whatever high amounts they want. The sky will be the limit, if even there. No restraints of any kind.

But they expect lower costs.

Idiocy, part II

The second thing I learned today about the new Republican push on health care, from the morning news programs, is that they want to put the power "back to the individual states." They want to give more "strength", if you can call it that, to the individual statehouses in each state.

Well, first, why wouldn't they? Since they've gerrymandered the voting districts in each state much as they could and put in more voted ID laws and everything else they've done, to disenfranchise as many Americans as possible, they now control more state capitols than the other political party.

Second, since they're the political party of the already-wealthy and corporations, this is magnificent for them and their benefactors, certainly. And it is so strongly.

We're all familiar with "divide and conquer."

Let's not let this happen, America. Let's not let them dismantle the one bit of health care help we've gotten in our nation in the last 50 or more years.

Links:

Obamacare: an unheralded success - The Boston Globe

Six years later, 'Obamacare' gets credit for successes

The success of the Affordable Care Act is 

a hugely inconvenient truth

Why Democrats need to speak with one voice on Obamacare

GOP launches long-promisedrepeal of Obamacare with 
no full plan to replace it

Quote of the Day -- On Hope

"Given that the US just elected an idiotic and incompetent reality-show host, it's almost unimaginable that eight years ago the same country elected an acclaimed author and former president of Harvard Law Review. 

This is a reminder that history does not move in a straight line, and if enough people work hard enough, good times will come again."

--Andy Borowitz

Great Breaking News Out Of North Dakota Today--For Now

Yes, great news:

Army Corps of Engineers Denies Dakota Access Pipeline Route

Mind you, it's temporary. It's great news but it's temporary:

The Army Corps of Engineers has told the Oceti tribe that it will halt work on the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in order to conduct an environmental impact study, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe announced.

We're just a bit over a month away from having a new president installed in the White House, of course, first.  Second, there's the fact that, actually, the president-elect has a financial interest in seeing the pipeline go forward.

Trump Owns Stake In Hotly Disputed 

$3.8 Billion Oil Pipeline

So, no surprise.

Trump stands with Big Oil, backs the Dakota Access pipeline

So sure, it's a win for today. It's good news. I just don't think it's permanent. I expect this pipeline will go forward.

And It's Nearly Over