The suzerain Trump

[Tero]

Kentucky moving to Trump era
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/08/us/kentuc ... index.html
Mom required to watch fetus waving hand to her.

[Animavore]

WALTER SHAUB’S DESPERATE ATTEMPTS TO MAKE TRUMP ADHERE TO GOVERNMENT ETHICS

On Wednesday, Walter Shaub, Jr., a longtime government lawyer and the director of the Office of Government Ethics, contacted Norman Eisen, an old colleague and the first ethics czar in the Obama White House. Shaub had just finished watching Donald Trump’s press conference, and he told Eisen, now at the Brookings Institution, that he was ready to go public.

Eisen and Shaub, whom President Obama appointed to a five-year term, in 2013, are part of a small confederation of current and former government-ethics lawyers who usually work quietly to help new federal officials untangle themselves from financial conflicts of interest. The O.G.E. oversees a sprawling network of forty-five hundred ethics employees spread across the government. Private citizens, especially wealthy ones, who go to work for the government are often surprised by the stringency of its ethics rules. The O.G.E. spends months preparing for Presidential transitions, when much of the federal government turns over and it’s crucial to vet nominees quickly.

...

Trump’s impulse is to cavalierly disregard ethical and democratic norms that he views as inconvenient. Going forward, government officials like Shaub, who risked a great deal by standing up to his incoming boss, will be more necessary than ever.

They will also have to be ready to pay a price. The day after Shaub’s press conference, he received a letter from Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He was not writing to praise Shaub for pressing Trump to abide by the same standards as his nominees. Instead, Chaffetz issued a veiled threat to cut off funding for Shaub’s agency.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk ... ent-ethics

[Tero]

Sex lies and videotapes?
https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/t ... .aip4YPNx4
Trump enjoying golden showers by Moscow hookers in hotel room that was soiled.

Also gave Ukraine to Putin

[Tero]

Tom Price does not even want a replacement
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/p ... udget.html

The Senate approved the same measure early Thursday by a vote of 51 to 48. The House and Senate votes this week — essentially procedural steps — represented the first of several moves that Republicans plan to make as they work to unwind the health care law.

In the coming weeks, they say, they will try to devise a replacement, working closely with Mr. Trump and his choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Representative Tom Price of Georgia.

He ran an orthopedic clinic in Atlanta for 20 years before returning to Emory as assistant professor of orthopedic surgery. Price also was the director of the orthopedic clinic at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital.

Price is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a politically conservative non-profit association founded in 1943 to "fight socialized medicine and to fight the government takeover of medicine.

As a doctor, he gets plenty of patients from corporate provided insurance plans. Doctors in fact do not need more patients. They can extract all the income they need from the wealthier 2/3 of patients.

[Brian Peacock]

Just 4 in 10 people polled by Gallup say they approve of the way Trump is handling his transition — a stand-in for presidential approval in this odd three-month interregnum. Those are the lowest marks ever measured by Gallup for an incoming president.

Most leaders would kill for a 40% approval rating, particularly if they've been elected by 20% of the population.

[Brian Peacock]

Tom Price does not even want a replacement
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/p ... udget.html

The Senate approved the same measure early Thursday by a vote of 51 to 48. The House and Senate votes this week — essentially procedural steps — represented the first of several moves that Republicans plan to make as they work to unwind the health care law.

In the coming weeks, they say, they will try to devise a replacement, working closely with Mr. Trump and his choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Representative Tom Price of Georgia.

He ran an orthopedic clinic in Atlanta for 20 years before returning to Emory as assistant professor of orthopedic surgery. Price also was the director of the orthopedic clinic at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital.

Price is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a politically conservative non-profit association founded in 1943 to "fight socialized medicine and to fight the government takeover of medicine.

As a doctor, he gets plenty of patients from corporate provided insurance plans. Doctors in fact do not need more patients. They can extract all the income they need from the wealthier 2/3 of patients.

In other words, they don't have a healthcare plan other than to scrap the affordable care act.

[Tero]

Trump rejecting DC and DC rejecting Trump:
Unlike his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who rarely ventured into the city, President and Michelle Obama’s forays to H Street NE and 14th Street NW advertised those hipster-heavy corridors to the world beyond, fueling momentum that developers fear may be lost when the Obamas are no longer the District’s star attraction.

The new president, with his Fifth Avenue triplex and West Palm Beach estate, is unlikely to browse at, say, Politics & Prose, as Obama has.

“We had an influx of young, creative, techie, urban progressives — people who for the first time decided that D.C. was cool,” said Jim Abdo, a developer. “George Bush isolated himself. Obama did not. If we now have a president who takes on a George Bush style, will we see that kind of growth dissipate?”

[Tero]

[pErvinalia]

Not available outside of Trumpistan.

[Tero]

There is the proof for PEE PEE party too.

[Scot Dutchy]

Really? Linky?

[Tero]

Really? Linky?

Not really. It was the running gag through the skit.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/201 ... -pee-party

[Scot Dutchy]

Ta.

[Tero]

Dumb CIA director warns Trump
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN14Z0O4
when he should know by now Trump does the exact opposite of what he is told to do.

[Tero]

Still no plan. Republicans are not able to agree on anything.
“If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare,” Paul wrote in an op-ed. “For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come.”

Paul has not been the only Republican finding merit in Democrats’ warnings. What underlies all of it is a fear that Republicans, if they repeal before they’ve even written a replacement, will never be able to get an adequate replacement through Congress given Democratic opposition and Republican internal squabbling.
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