Freak Out Friday – March 24

My my my, it’s been quite the week for the Trumpster. Started with a great deal of turmoil over healthcare and then went completely off the rails.

1) Time and Again–Remember how everyone seemed to enjoy making fun of Obama because he spoke so slowly and with hesitations? The reason for that was because he was clearly considering every word he spoke before he said it, and mentally edited himself so he wouldn’t say something stupid. Trump doesn’t possess that capability, and his tendency to say remarkably stupid things was on full display in this week’s Time magazine. The quote that is most making the rounds is this: “I’m a very instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right. Hey, look, in the meantime, I guess I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m President, and you’re not” I think someone should sit him down and tell him a couple of things. First of all, his instincts are typically erroneous. He makes snap judgments in press conferences, in interviews and on Twitter that range from flat out wrong to libelous, and when confronted, his instincts cause him to double down. Second, the fact that he is president has nothing to do with his instincts and everything to do with a two century old institution called the Electoral college that has disenfranchised Democrat majority vote winners twice in this century, and the century is only seventeen years old. And third, yes, he’s doing badly.

2) Healthy, Wealthy, and if you’re not both, screw you–“After seven horrible years of ObamaCare (skyrocketing premiums & deductibles, bad healthcare), this is finally your chance for a great plan!” That is what Trump declared recently on Twitter. Except not so much as recent studies of the new plan indicate that more than 24 million people will lose their health care, and meanwhile everything from maternity leave to hospital stays is targeted for cut backs or elimination. Meanwhile a recent poll indicates that only 17% of those surveyed approve of it. We can assume that one hundred percent of Democrats hate it, but 17% would have to indicate that even some of the die-hard Trumpers are realizing just how thoroughly screwed they are if this goes through. But Trump has taken the ideal stand to deal with it: He insists the GOP, who postponed yesterday’s vote because they knew they couldn’t get it through, get it done immediately or else he’s going to abandon the entire plan. Of course he is: He has come to the realization that Obamacare may not be perfect, but it’s far better than nothing and also miles better than what the GOP has been coming up with. It’s kind of astounding. The guys who criticized Obamacare for it being “rushed through” over a period of months with discussions held behind closed doors are now endeavoring to do the exact same thing only in weeks. Not to mention that they’ve had seven years to come up with something, yet they haven’t. All the GOP has done is establish for once and for all that their party has no worthwhile ideas to put forward for governance, but instead exist only to try and stop the Democrats from accomplishing anything. This is the party of Lincoln? What, Lincoln, Nebraska?

Did he do anything right? Uh…not so much.

PAD

17 comments on “Freak Out Friday – March 24

  1. Peter, you speak as the voice of reason. While I know the heroes history, and the tropes that followed, the point of view shared by people that only Asians should play characters with Asian origin is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I am somewhat sympathetic to charges of “white washing” people forget that marvel’s roots with Iron Fist, go back to the Asian character who was created first, and arguable more popular back in the day Shang-Chi. Would love to see Shang-Chi show up in the MCU, or Netflix universe. That’s a character equally deserving…
    Thank you Peter, your point of view is truly thought out, and not reactionary, like most of the internet…

  2. “Did he do anything right? Uh…not so much.”
    .
    Sure he did.
    .
    He spent another weekend on a golfing vacation that when added to his other golf weekends since being sworn in has cost the taxpayer more in two months than Obama cost the taxpayer on vacation trips in an entire year.
    .
    How is that right in his world?
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    1) The overpriced resort that’s draining so many millions in taxpayer money during each Trump visit is owned by Trump. So Trump is using the taxpayer to pay him to stay at his own resort and to ultimately put money into his own pocket. He likely sees making “the little people” pay for him to stay there and having them pump taxpayer money into his resort as totally right.
    .
    2) Trump has now spent an estimated $16.5 million in taxpayer dollars on traveling to Mar-a-Lago alone. If Trump continues to travel and vacation at this through his first year, it could easily cost taxpayers $120.5 million for just his first year. The Obamas spent $96 million on travel during both his terms (as in all 8 years) in office. But he likely knew the whining hypocrites that wailed and moaned and cried about the “wasteful to the taxpayer” golf trips and vacations by Obama would either be silent over this or even defend Trump doing this. His instincts were right.
    .
    Granted, no one sane or honest would see these as right, but I’m sure both he and his supporters do.

    1. Trump is the definition of the phrase “Conflict of Interest” for a politician?

    1. Yeah, I saw that one the other day. Who could possibly have foreseen that voting for Trump using the modern Conservative/Republican philosophy of “I got mine, now screw you!” could possibly backfire on a Trump voter?
      .
      I mean, you know, besides anyone with working brain cells that is.

  3. 2 things I’d like explained to me by the Republicans.

    1. Why is it that people who get free healthcare get to tell me that I have to spend more on mine?

    2. How is ACA a failure when the cost of my healthcare per month is over a hundred bucks cheaper NOW than when I had healthcare through my job?

    The Republicans should be jailed and tried on charges of treason against the US if they do this crap.

  4. TrumpCare crashes and burns. The Party of No still can’t stop being The Party of No even with their own bills.
    .
    Trump blames Democrats for TrumpCare bill failure, lies about having ever said that they would have the ACA repealed immediately.
    .
    News at 11.
    .
    Or news all night long starting now if you have cable.

    1. Trump has no clue about how to run a country. And, apparently, neither do Republicans in Congress.

    2. Trump blames Democrats for TrumpCare bill failure,

      If EVERY Democrat plus twenty-two (i think that was the number) Republican had voted “No”, the dámņëd thing would have passed.
      .
      SO how is it the Democrats’ fault?
      .
      Perhaps because they didn’t vote for it to compensate for the Republicans voting against it?

  5. Hilary Clinton and Al Gore were not “disenfranchised Democrat majority vote winners.” They were disenfranchised Democrat plurality vote winners.

    1. Did they, then receive less than 50% of the votes cast?

      If they received more than 50% of votes cast, they had majorities.

      “Plurality” means you had more votes than the other guy, but not more than 50%.

      Quoting the Merriam-Webster Law Dictionary:

      2
      a : a number or quantity greater than half of a total — compare plurality
      b : the excess of a majority over the remainder of the total

      vs “plurality”:

      an amount or group (as of votes) that is greater than any other amount or group within a total but that is not more than half; especially : a group of justices on an appeals court who do not form a majority but with whose opinion enough other justices concur to render it the decision of the court

      1. Exactly.

        Gore – 48.4%
        Clinton – 48.2%

        Clinton did have a much larger plurality, despite a slightly smaller percentage of the people’s vote.

      2. However, they had majorities of the votes that actually affected the Electoral College. The third-party votes become irrelevant at that point.

  6. I think it is worth noting that, in the last seven presidential elections, the Republicans have carried the popular vote only once, in 2004.

    And I still say, had Hillary won the electoral vote, but not the popular vote, and there had been even a hint that the Russians had somehow possibly influenced the election, she would’ve been tied to a stake with the biggest pile of firewood you’d ever seen in you life underneath her.

  7. …get it done immediately or else he’s going to abandon the entire plan. Of course he is: He has come to the realization that Obamacare may not be perfect, but it’s far better than nothing and also miles better than what the GOP has been coming up with.
    .
    No, Trump is incapable of realizing anything. (It’s why the “sit him down and tell him a couple of things” in your first paragraph would be pointless.) What has actually happened is that Trump’s been told what said he wanted isn’t going to happen. And, like the toddler he is, he’s decided to pout and whine that he “didn’t want to play in that stupid game anyway, so there!” and go home.

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