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As America (the former superpower) slowly unravels…

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: January 04, 2017, 06:04:28 am »


from the Los Angeles Times....

Do Americans hate each other too much to find common ground?

By DAVID HORSEY | 12:30AM PST - Tuesday, January 03, 2016



IN early December, a wildfire raged through the Great Smoky Mountains and destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Thousands were evacuated. Close to 200 people were injured or made ill by the blaze. Fourteen were killed.

In the midst of this tragedy, numerous messages appeared on social media that were as despicable as they were dispiriting. One man sent out a tweet that said, “Laughing at all the Trump supporters in Gatlinburg as their homes burn to the ground tonight. Too bad it's not the whole state burning.” Someone else tweeted that “a few confederate flag flying hillbillies losing their mobile homes isn't newsworthy.” Another suggested “maybe it's ‘god’ punishing them for voting for Trump.”

And another seemed to think empathy for one group negates empathy for another: “Honestly? White privilege is mourning Gatlinburg while ignoring Standing Rock and I’m not having any of that shit today.”

Obviously, as conservative commentator Zach Montanaro noted after listing many of the offensive tweets, “not all liberals feel this way. These are just a small group of nut-jobs.” Nevertheless, the “nut-jobs” who are willing to openly say these things represent a malign spirit that seems pervasive from one end of the political spectrum to the other. Far too many Americans are willing, and even eager, to think the worst and often say the worst about their fellow citizens.

It is not just a liberal versus conservative or Republican versus Democrat thing; the level of anger and antipathy between supporters of Hillary Clinton and backers of Bernie Sanders has not abated much over the months since the Democratic nomination was decided. Still, the political madness may have reached a new zenith last month when Edgar M. Welch, an earnest young family man from North Carolina, drove to the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., and began shooting up the place with an AR-15 rifle. His actions were inspired by a fake news story that claimed Hillary Clinton and the Democrats were running a child sex ring out of the pizza shop.

Was Welch alone in his willingness to believe such an outrageously absurd allegation against a politician and a party he did not like? Hardly. A friend with close ties to the Chinese-American community in Los Angeles tells me she has had conversations with a number of prominent, well-educated people in that community who voted against Clinton because they readily accepted as true the fake news stories about the Democratic Party nominee having sex with small children.

America's toxic political climate has been fueled by these kinds of malicious, false stories spread on the Internet, as well as by talk radio hosts, bloggers and TV commentators who profit from broadcasting conspiracy theories and fomenting fear and resentment. Social media has given a very loud megaphone to those on both the left and right who want to turn healthy, sharp discourse into caustic slander. Has all of this changed the way Americans perceive each other, or have such hateful feelings always been a part of who we are?

Responding to one of my recent columns, an American expatriate in Bangkok wrote, “Americans really don't like each other. Pretending that class and racial antipathy doesn't exist is a Pollyanna understanding of how society really is.”

It is not hard to find plenty of evidence throughout this country's history to back up that view, from the Civil War to the civil rights movement, from bloody clashes over workers' rights to pogroms against Irish immigrants in the East and Chinese and Japanese immigrants on the West Coast. We have fought each other about as often as we have pulled together, and the impulse toward separating so-called real Americans from those we do not consider authentic gets passed from generation to generation. A disturbing example of this occurred the Wednesday after election day when white students at Royal Oak Middle School near Detroit began chanting “build a wall!” as two Latino girls — both U.S. citizens — entered the school lunchroom.

I have always chosen to believe that, when it comes down to it, whatever our differences may be, we all stand together as Americans. Am I wrong? One reader sent me a note recently saying that, when he looks at liberals and urban blacks and immigrants, he sees people with whom he has “absolutely nothing in common.” Is the divide really that deep? Judging by those who so quickly seized on the Gatlinburg tragedy as a chance to vilify suffering people for no good reason but politics, maybe it is.

Still, what I do know is that, in all the many times I have traveled to different parts of this country, I have met good people everywhere — people of every political persuasion, of every religion (or no religion), every ethnicity and every race — people with whom I always find common ground. What seems to be disappearing is our commitment to find common ground in our political life.

Perhaps we need to learn from Michael Reed, a man who lost his wife and two daughters in the Gatlinburg disaster. Reed wrote an open letter offering forgiveness to the two adolescent boys who were arrested for starting the wildfire.

“As humans, it is sometimes hard to show grace,” Reed wrote. “We hold grudges. We stay angry. We point the finger and feel we have to lay the blame somewhere. It's human nature and completely understandable. But I did not raise my children to live with hate. I did not teach my girls or my son to point the finger at others.”

I do not know who Reed voted for in the presidential election. I do know he is an example for all of us, an example we need to emulate if we want to have a republic that is worth keeping.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-americans-hate-20170102-story.html
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« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2017, 11:24:02 am »


from the Los Angeles Times....

House Republicans start the new Congress with an assault on federal lands

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM PST - Thursday, January 05, 2017



THIS WEEK, House Republicans got so much blowback from their attempt to neuter the independent congressional ethics office that they quickly reversed course. The tone-deaf assault on ethics oversight was part of a bigger package of rules changes that included another provision that should also have been stopped, but was not: a scheme to give away federal lands.

The change, approved by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday, eliminates the requirement to account for the cost of turning over federal lands to state or local governments. Out of such small revisions are revolutions made.

In this case, the revolt is being led by Republican politicians in the West with the enthusiastic backing of developers, mining companies and oil drillers who have long lusted after the vast areas of land that have been kept as a legacy for the American people. Those business interests know they can far more easily get their greedy hands on these pristine areas if the federal government is out of the picture and the only people they need to influence are malleable state legislators and timid local officials.

The ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Arizona Representative Raul M. Grijalva, issued a statement urging his fellow Democrats to oppose the change — which they did to no avail. “The House Republican plan to give away America's public lands for free is outrageous and absurd,” Grijalva said. “This proposed rule change would make it easier to implement this plan by allowing the Congress to give away every single piece of property we own, for free, and pretend we have lost nothing of any value.”

Republicans argue that folks living in Western states are unduly burdened because the federal government owns so much of the land, a share of territory that ranges from 30% in Washington state to nearly 85% in Nevada. They argue that, with control in the hand of the folks who live nearby, the land would be better managed and put to better use.

Environmentalists counter that cash-strapped local governments would be unable to resist the temptation to make money off the land by selling it to the highest bidder. Somewhat surprisingly, one of the people who has expressed agreement with this view is President-elect Donald Trump. In an interview with Field & Stream magazine, Trump said he feared local and state authorities would unload the land to raise revenue.

“And I don't think it’s something that should be sold,” Trump said. “We have to be great stewards of this land. This is magnificent land.”

Those are encouraging words, but, of course, Trump says a lot of things to please whatever audience he is addressing — in this case, the hunters and fishermen who read Field & Stream. More reassuring is his choice to run the Department of the Interior, Montana Representative Ryan Zinke. A foe of federal land transfers, Zinke may be the best-positioned ally for those who do not want to see tract homes, strip malls, oil fields and mining operations spreading like a stain across undeveloped regions of the West.

The test will be whether Zinke can resist the relentless attacks on federal lands that are sure to be coming from congressional Republicans and whether, when it comes to a fight, he has the backing of his boss.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-federal-lands-20170104-story.html
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« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2017, 11:32:23 am »

.....looks like Trump is doing a good job.....as the fake lefty news site tryhards suggest otherwise🙄


Guest Post – Making America Great and the Draining of the Swamp

The liberals and the media along with some light-weight Republicans and the rest of Trump’s enemies were sure that Trump’s presidency would be a disaster.

A total disaster they all predicted. Not a kind word was said. Which is strange because if the Democrats had tried to work with him Trump’s accomplishments would put him on Mount Rushmore.

The President of the United Sates, Donald Trump, has signed around 150 executive orders, memoranda and proclamations as of July 19th, including:   

Dismantling Obama’s climate change initiatives.
Travel bans for individuals from a select number of countries embroiled in terrorist atrocities.
Enforcing regulatory reform.
Protecting Law enforcement.
Mandating for every new regulation to eliminate two.
Defeating ISIS.
Rebuilding the military.
Building a border wall.
Cutting funding for sanctuary cities.
Approving pipelines.
Reducing regulations on manufacturers.
Placing a hiring freeze on federal employees.
Other Results:


The US Manufacturing Index soared to a 33 year high in President Trump’s first six months which was the best number since 1983 under President Reagan.

The Federal Reserve has increased interest rates three times since President Trump was elected into office in November. The Fed increased interest rates only once in Obama’s 8 Years prior to the increase after President Trumps winning the election in November.

Illegal immigration is down almost 70% under President Trump.

NATO announced Allied spending is up $10 Billion because of President Trump.

After being nominated by President Trump, Constitutionalist Judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed and sworn in as  Supreme Court Justice in early April.

Inflation:

As noted earlier this week, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the US inflation rate decreased to an eight month low in June to 1.6%. This is in part due to President Trump’s energy policies that are helping average Americans with cheaper gas and electricity.

Housing Sales:

Housing sales are red-hot in the US right now. In 2011, houses for sale were on the market an average 84 days. This year, it’s just 45 days.

According to the US Census Bureau, there were nearly twice as many US housing sales in the past couple of months as there were under President Obama in 2009 during the same time period. (The annualized housing sales rate for May 2017 is reported at 610,000 where in 2009 this amount was only 376,000.)

Decrease in Regulations:

One of the first things that President Trump did in office was to reduce the number or burdensome regulations put in place during the Obama era. In January President Trump signed his 2 for 1 executive order mandating that for every new regulation, two regulations needed to be revoked. Even far left Politico notes that significant new federal regulations since Trump’s inauguration have slowed to an almost total halt.

Regulations cost Americans and American companies money to implement and maintain. Reducing or halting regulations allows companies to spend their money on more prudent money making areas.

US Debt:

As of today, the US Debt has decreased under President Trump since his inauguration by (-$103) Billion. (President Obama increased the US debt in his first 6 months more than $974 Billion or nearly $1 Trillion.)  The difference between Presidents Trump and Obama is more than $1 Trillion.

Jobs:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics President Trump added a projected 1,027,000 jobs in his first six months (January through June 2017.) President Obama on the other hand lost more than 3,826,000 million jobs in his first six months.

Unemployment:

Also according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate since President Trump’s inauguration decreased from 4.8% to 4.4% (January through June 2017). The unemployment rate in January 2017 was 4.8% and by June it was down to 4.4%. Unemployment under President Obama on the other hand moved in the opposite direction. In his first six months as President the US unemployment rate increased each month from 7.8% in January 2009 to 9.5% by June of 2009.

Stock Market:

In President Trump’s first six months since the election and since his inauguration the US Stock Markets are at record highs and millions of Americans are benefitting in their retirement savings accounts.

The DOW daily closing stock market average has risen 18% since the election on November 8th. (On November 9th the DOW closed at 18,332 – yesterday on July 19th the DOW closed at 21,641 for another all time stock market closing high).
Since the election the DOW has set a new all time closing high one out of every four days the market is open!
Since the Inauguration on January 20th the DOW is up 9%. (It was at 19,827 at January 20th.)
The DOW took just 66 days to climb from 19,000 to above 21,000, the fastest 2,000 point run ever. The DOW closed above 19,000 for the first time on November 22nd and closed above 21,000 on March 1st.
The DOW closed above 20,000 on January 25th and the March 1st rally matched the fastest-ever 1,000 point increase in the DOW at 24 days.
On February 28th President Trump matched President Reagan’s 1987 record for most continuous closing high trading days when the DOW reached a new high for its 12th day in a row!
The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ have both set new all-time highs during this period.
The US Stock Market gained $4 trillion in wealth since Trump was elected!
The S&P 500 also broke $20 Trillion for the first time in its history.
 Cam slater
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« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2017, 10:53:34 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Welcome to the United States of Anarchy

Stuff happens, but nothing gets done.

By DANA MILBANK | 6:16PM EDT - Wednesday, July 26, 2017

President Trump leaves the Rose Garden at the White House on July 26th after speaking at an event with the American Legion Boys Nation and the American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation. — Photograph: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.
President Trump leaves the Rose Garden at the White House on July 26th after speaking at an event with the American Legion
Boys Nation and the American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation. — Photograph: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.


WELCOME to the United States of Anarchy.

Health-care legislation languishes without presidential leadership. The Senate fails to pass a measure crafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fails to pass an outright repeal and even fails to pass a proposal to go back to the drawing board.

Huge majorities in Congress, declining to bless President Trump's love affair with Vladimir Putin's regime, vote for new sanctions against Russian officials; legislation passes the Senate, 98 to 2, and the House, 419 to 3. The veto-proof rebuke to the president seizes a foreign-policy function from an unreliable commander in chief.

As the deadline looms to avoid a default on U.S. debt, Susan Collins (Republican-Maine), a Senate committee chairman, is heard on a hot mic saying she’s “worried” about the president's stability and calling his administration's handling of spending matters “just incredibly irresponsible”. She says she doubts Trump even knows how the budget process works.

Trump, baffling and alarming allies, goes on the attack against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who was an outspoken supporter of Trump's candidacy. Trump clearly wants Sessions to resign, but Sessions is ignoring him. Sessions's former colleagues in the Senate back him over his boss — and they hope Trump isn't crazy enough to start a crisis by firing Sessions and then special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

Meanwhile, the president continues to sow chaos with perpetual distractions. He fires off a tweet on Wednesday morning announcing he is banning transgender people from serving in the military. The tweet apparently catches even the Pentagon by surprise and draws rebukes from pro-military Republicans who argue that all able-bodied, patriotic Americans should be allowed to serve.

And the ship of state sails on, rudderless. This is what it might look like if there were no president at all: stuff happens, but nothing gets done. Actually, the majority in Congress has great difficulty even doing nothing.

McConnell and his team scheduled a vote on repealing Obamacare for 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday — a proposal that was, by all accounts, destined for failure. But when the appointed hour came, Senator Mike Enzi (Republican-Wyoming), sponsor of the repeal measure, requested a quorum call — a Senate procedure to stall for time.

Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat-Oregon) rose. “Mr. President, I think there was some confusion …” he began.

But Enzi objected, Wyden was forbidden to speak, and the quorum call resumed — for 43 silent minutes.

Senators arrived for the scheduled pre-lunch vote. Senator Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee) went to the clerk's table to give a thumbs up and Senator Heidi Heitkamp (Democrat-North Dakota) went to give a thumbs down, and both were told the same thing: “We're not voting.” Senators milled about the chamber and huddled in clusters while aides and Senate leaders came and went to resolve the impasse, an arcane dispute about points of order and procedures for amendments.

Finally, Enzi spoke: The vote would be postponed for four more hours.

The Sisyphean act, all for a proposal that was going nowhere, encapsulated the whole Dada enterprise of health-care legislation. McConnell, thwarted in his quest to round up votes for the House-passed version of Trumpcare, or for his own Trumpcare alternative, or even for a repeal of Obamacare without a replacement, decided instead to risk everything on a “motion to proceed” — a parliamentary maneuver that allows debate to begin.

McConnell won that vote on Tuesday by the thinnest possible margin, a 50-50 tie, broken by Vice President Pence. But then McConnell was the proverbial dog that caught the car. Hours later, he brought up his health-care legislation, and it went down, 43 to 57, losing nine of his fellow Republicans and falling 17 votes short of what he needed.

On Wednesday came Enzi's repeal proposal, which wouldn't have taken effect for two years to buy lawmakers more time to draft an Obamacare replacement. After the four-hour delay, it went down, 45 to 55, with seven Republicans defecting. Senators then voted down, on party lines, a Democratic proposal to send the whole thing back to committee.

Republicans, after complaining for years that they had been jammed by Democrats on the passage of Obamacare, brought their alternative forward in a secretive, rushed, Republican-only process without hearings. Far from giving lawmakers time to “read the bill”, GOP Senate leaders had them vote to begin debate without knowing which legislation they would be debating.

Soon comes a vote on “skinny repeal”, which, if it became law, would sabotage Obamacare by eliminating individual and employer requirements to provide health insurance. But it won't become law; it would merely become an excuse for more negotiations that would pit Senate GOP moderates against House GOP conservatives.

So it goes when a president doesn't act like one: all fury, no function.


• Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation's capital. He joined The Washington Post as a political reporter in 2000.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-what-it-might-look-like-if-there-were-no-president-at-all/2017/07/26/33f06914-723f-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html
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« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2017, 10:54:36 pm »


Donald Trump is the best thing which has ever happened to the world.

He is hastening the unravelling of the former superpower to a has-been once was superpower status.

Excellent news!!




from The Washington Post....

Welcome to the United States of Anarchy

Stuff happens, but nothing gets done.

By DANA MILBANK | 6:16PM EDT - Wednesday, July 26, 2017

President Trump leaves the Rose Garden at the White House on July 26th after speaking at an event with the American Legion Boys Nation and the American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation. — Photograph: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.
President Trump leaves the Rose Garden at the White House on July 26th after speaking at an event with the American Legion
Boys Nation and the American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation. — Photograph: Alex Brandon/Associated Press.


WELCOME to the United States of Anarchy.

Health-care legislation languishes without presidential leadership. The Senate fails to pass a measure crafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fails to pass an outright repeal and even fails to pass a proposal to go back to the drawing board.

Huge majorities in Congress, declining to bless President Trump's love affair with Vladimir Putin's regime, vote for new sanctions against Russian officials; legislation passes the Senate, 98 to 2, and the House, 419 to 3. The veto-proof rebuke to the president seizes a foreign-policy function from an unreliable commander in chief.

As the deadline looms to avoid a default on U.S. debt, Susan Collins (Republican-Maine), a Senate committee chairman, is heard on a hot mic saying she’s “worried” about the president's stability and calling his administration's handling of spending matters “just incredibly irresponsible”. She says she doubts Trump even knows how the budget process works.

Trump, baffling and alarming allies, goes on the attack against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who was an outspoken supporter of Trump's candidacy. Trump clearly wants Sessions to resign, but Sessions is ignoring him. Sessions's former colleagues in the Senate back him over his boss — and they hope Trump isn't crazy enough to start a crisis by firing Sessions and then special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

Meanwhile, the president continues to sow chaos with perpetual distractions. He fires off a tweet on Wednesday morning announcing he is banning transgender people from serving in the military. The tweet apparently catches even the Pentagon by surprise and draws rebukes from pro-military Republicans who argue that all able-bodied, patriotic Americans should be allowed to serve.

And the ship of state sails on, rudderless. This is what it might look like if there were no president at all: stuff happens, but nothing gets done. Actually, the majority in Congress has great difficulty even doing nothing.

McConnell and his team scheduled a vote on repealing Obamacare for 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday — a proposal that was, by all accounts, destined for failure. But when the appointed hour came, Senator Mike Enzi (Republican-Wyoming), sponsor of the repeal measure, requested a quorum call — a Senate procedure to stall for time.

Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat-Oregon) rose. “Mr. President, I think there was some confusion …” he began.

But Enzi objected, Wyden was forbidden to speak, and the quorum call resumed — for 43 silent minutes.

Senators arrived for the scheduled pre-lunch vote. Senator Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee) went to the clerk's table to give a thumbs up and Senator Heidi Heitkamp (Democrat-North Dakota) went to give a thumbs down, and both were told the same thing: “We're not voting.” Senators milled about the chamber and huddled in clusters while aides and Senate leaders came and went to resolve the impasse, an arcane dispute about points of order and procedures for amendments.

Finally, Enzi spoke: The vote would be postponed for four more hours.

The Sisyphean act, all for a proposal that was going nowhere, encapsulated the whole Dada enterprise of health-care legislation. McConnell, thwarted in his quest to round up votes for the House-passed version of Trumpcare, or for his own Trumpcare alternative, or even for a repeal of Obamacare without a replacement, decided instead to risk everything on a “motion to proceed” — a parliamentary maneuver that allows debate to begin.

McConnell won that vote on Tuesday by the thinnest possible margin, a 50-50 tie, broken by Vice President Pence. But then McConnell was the proverbial dog that caught the car. Hours later, he brought up his health-care legislation, and it went down, 43 to 57, losing nine of his fellow Republicans and falling 17 votes short of what he needed.

On Wednesday came Enzi's repeal proposal, which wouldn't have taken effect for two years to buy lawmakers more time to draft an Obamacare replacement. After the four-hour delay, it went down, 45 to 55, with seven Republicans defecting. Senators then voted down, on party lines, a Democratic proposal to send the whole thing back to committee.

Republicans, after complaining for years that they had been jammed by Democrats on the passage of Obamacare, brought their alternative forward in a secretive, rushed, Republican-only process without hearings. Far from giving lawmakers time to “read the bill”, GOP Senate leaders had them vote to begin debate without knowing which legislation they would be debating.

Soon comes a vote on “skinny repeal”, which, if it became law, would sabotage Obamacare by eliminating individual and employer requirements to provide health insurance. But it won't become law; it would merely become an excuse for more negotiations that would pit Senate GOP moderates against House GOP conservatives.

So it goes when a president doesn't act like one: all fury, no function.


• Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation's capital. He joined The Washington Post as a political reporter in 2000.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-what-it-might-look-like-if-there-were-no-president-at-all/2017/07/26/33f06914-723f-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html
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« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2017, 10:54:57 pm »


from The Washington Post....

The norms of government are collapsing before our eyes

The leaders of the Republican Party are silent in the face of the dangers the president poses.

By E.J. DIONNE Jr. | 7:15PM EDT - Wednesday, July 26, 2017

President Donald J. Trump. — Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press.
President Donald J. Trump. — Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press.

THE NEWS is being reported on split screen as if the one big story in Washington is disconnected from the other. But President Trump's lawless threats against Attorney General Jeff Sessions have a lot in common with the Senate's reckless approach to the health coverage of tens of millions of Americans.

On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, we are witnessing a collapse of the norms of governing, constant violations of our legitimate expectations of political leaders, and the mutation of the normal conflicts of democracy into a form of warfare that demands the opposition's unconditional surrender.

Trump's latest perverse miracle is that he has progressives — along with everyone else who cares about the rule of law — rooting for Sessions. The attorney general is as wrong as ever on voter suppression, civil rights enforcement and immigration. But Sessions did one very important thing: He obeyed the law.

When it was clear that he would have obvious conflicts of interest in the investigation of Russian meddling in our election and its possible links to the Trump campaign, Sessions recused himself, as he was required to do.

Trump's attacks on Sessions for that recusal are thus a naked admission that he wants the nation's top lawyer to act illegally if that's what it takes to protect the president and his family. Equally inappropriate are Trump's diktats from the Oval Office calling on Sessions to investigate Hillary Clinton and those terrible “leakers” who are more properly seen as whistleblowers against Trump's abuses.

Our country is now as close to crossing the line from democracy to autocracy as it has been in our lifetimes. Trump's ignorant, self-involved contempt for his duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” ought to inspire patriots of every ideological disposition to a robust and fearless defiance.

But where are the leaders of the Republican Party in the face of the dangers Trump poses? They're trying to sneak through a health-care bill by violating every reasonable standard citizens should impose on public servants dealing with legislation that affects more than one-sixth of our economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan have little time for worrying about the Constitution because they are busy doing Trump's bidding on health care.

Let it be said that two Republican senators will forever deserve our gratitude for insisting that a complicated health-care law should be approached the way Obamacare — yes, Obamacare — was enacted: through lengthy hearings, robust debate and real input from the opposition party. In voting upfront to try to stop the process, Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski demonstrated a moral and political toughness that eluded other GOP colleagues who had expressed doubts about this charade but fell into line behind their leaders.

The most insidious aspect of McConnell's strategy is that he is shooting to pass something, anything, that would continue to save Republicans from having a transparent give-and-take on measures that could ultimately strip health insurance from 20 million Americans or more. Passing even the most meager of health bills this week would move the covert coverage-demolition effort to a conference committee with the House.

The Senate's unseemly marathon thus seems likely to end with a push for a “skinny repeal” bill that would eliminate the Affordable Care Act's individual and employer mandates and its medical device tax. But no one should be deluded: A vote for skinny repeal is a vote for an emaciated democracy.

A wholesale defeat of what might be described as the Trump-McConnell-Ryan Unhealthy America Act of 2017 is essential for those being served by the ACA but also for our politics. It was disappointing that Senator John McCain's passionate plea on Tuesday for a “return to regular order” did not match his votes in this week's early roll calls.

But McCain could yet advance the vision of the Senate he outlined in his floor speech and rebuke “the bombastic loudmouths” he condemned by casting a “no” vote at the crucial moment. Here's hoping this war hero will ultimately choose to strike a blow against everything he said is wrong with Congress.

And when it comes to the ongoing indifference to the law in the White House, Republicans can no longer dodge their responsibility to speak out against what Trump is doing. They should also examine their own behavior. The decline of our small-r republican institutions can be stopped only if the party brandishing that adjective starts living up to the obligations its name honors.


• E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column at The Washington Post and on the PostPartisan blog. He is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a government professor at Georgetown University and a commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC's “This Week” and MSNBC. He is the author of Why the Right Went Wrong.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-norms-of-governing-are-collapsing-before-our-eyes/2017/07/26/ae32e112-7239-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html
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« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2017, 12:46:25 am »

Ktj..."The norms of government are collapsing before our eyes"

...thank Christ for that eh...a new approach....and the big plus is that there is no Hillary Clinton involved😜

..that would have been a nightmare...thankyou Donald😉
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« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2017, 12:49:06 pm »


Ah, yes....I guess in your eyes anarchy is the preferable way of doing things.

I reckon it could be good too....especially if you are the first clown to be lined up against a wall and shot dead.
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« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2017, 05:49:38 pm »

Ahhhhhh..yeah....be sure to let me know when people are being "lined up against three wall and shot dead"...

...shall I hold my breath🙄

Perhaps you are thinking about the Philippines 😉...
Oh...but it's ok there ....right🙄
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