Trump's Coming Storm .

The Trump storm is already coming !

The either the man is a complete moron and he keeps proving it every time he opens his mouth. There was no reason to ask "what this represents"; and when challenged all he can come up with is "the calm before the storm"? Is he announcing a major conflict? If he is then he's worse than an idiot; ( ➤)I wish he'd taken the advice: Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and dispel all doubt. But then again, Trump dispelled all doubt long ago! He just has to keep spouting drivel.It felt like the opening scene of an action movie — the president, stiffly rotating from side to side, surveying the country’s military leaders and providing an ominous hint that something would soon unfold.At 7:18 p.m., reporters were led into the lavish dining room where the military’s senior leaders and their spouses were lined up on either side of the president and first lady Melania Trump in preparation for a formal group photo.“You guys know what this represents?” Trump said gesturing to the commanders surrounding him as he made looping motions with his right index finger.He dramatically paused and then said: “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”   “What’s the storm?” a reporter called out, as the officials and their spouses continued to pose, their faces frozen in toothy smiles, even as many of their eyes began to dart around the room.

(1)>>“Could be the calm before the storm,” the president said. What Trump's hinting at here is impossible to truly discern. One guess: He's going to declare war somewhere. Nothing more presidential than wink-wink, nudge-nudging at a potential international catastrophe.Who will Trump choose to war with? Who knows! He told Rex Tillerson to knock off all the talking with North Korea. He's planning to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. We also know that Trump generally seems to savor looking like a madman with his finger on the nuke-'em-all button. And still no one seems to know what, if anything, he was talking about.  

Gutting Obama-care .

President Trump’s decision Thursday to cut off crucial health-care subsidies has once again revived the long-running debate over the (2)>>Affordable Care Act, increasing the potential for a government shutdown in December and making the issue central in next year’s midterm elections.The move to end insurer subsidies could propel premiums an average of 20 percent higher next year for those who purchase insurance on the individual market, according to a nonpartisan congressional analysis.Trump and Republican allies defended the move as removing a giveaway for insurance companies, and they blame rising premiums on fundamental flaws in then-President Barack Obama’s signature health-care reform law. But Democrats called it an act of sabotage against the ACA for which the GOP will be held responsible at the polls.The dispute sets the stage for another wave of political battles over the nation’s health-care system, as Republican lawmakers will need to decide whether to authorize the subsidies through legislation as well as whether to once again attempt a broader repeal of the ACA, popularly known as Obamacare. Democrats could also use a Dec. 8 appropriations deadline to threaten a government shutdown if the subsidies are not restored.  Trump’s move could increase the chances of a government shutdown in December, when Democrats might demand the inclusion of insurer payments in exchange for their votes on legislation to fund federal departments and agencies through next year. 

Undermining Obama's legacy .

The vary moment Trump took office,  his storm has been to uproot everything Mr. Obama had tried to push through congress . Its vary unorthodox , but makes no sense . It almost sounds like a vendetta  against Obama , to erase everything he ever did . Beside the whole plan to undermine Obama , there may seem revisionist work going on the Republican controlled Congress . But rarely has a new president appeared so determined not just to steer the country in a different direction but to actively dismantle what was established before his arrival. Whether out of personal animus, political calculation, philosophical disagreement or a conviction that the last president damaged the country, Mr. Trump has made clear that if it has Mr. Obama’s name on it, he would just as soon erase it from the national hard drive.  
Gutting the Iran Deal.

Mr Trump has given the US Congress days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran that were lifted in 2016 as part of the deal,  (3)>>and warned that he may seek to terminate the deal completely.However, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that if the US follows through on either of those options, then it could result in Iran developing nuclear weapons and raise the threat of conflict.Speaking to Deutschlandfunk radio, Mr Gabriel said that Mr Trump had sent a “difficult and dangerous signal” when the US administration was also dealing with a crisis over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Trump's UN speech , His claims that “the Iranian regime has committed multiple violations of the agreement” were also misleading at best. On two occasions, Iran’s stockpile of heavy water flowed over the ceiling imposed by the deal, but the situation was quickly rectified and Iran’s reserve is now below the limit.Nor is heavy water a direct proliferation threat. It is used in certain reactors that produce plutonium as a by-product. However, under the deal, Iran has destroyed the only reactor of that type.Trump’s remark that Iran had “failed to meet our expectations in its operation of advanced centrifuges” appeared to refer to an ambiguity in the deal that has since been resolved and was not declared to be a violation.  France and the European Union have criticized Trump’s threat to withdraw from the Iran deal, arguing that the United States should not act unilaterally to jeopardize a deal that was negotiated by multiple powers. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he told U.S. President Donald Trump not to tear up a nuclear arms deal with Iran, as doing so could lead to a standoff similar to the one with North Korea.“What I told him was not to tear up the deal,” Macron told TF1 and LCI in his first live TV interview since taking office. “After that I told him, let’s have a demanding dialogue, let’s continue to conduct checks, but let’s be much more demanding with Iran on its ballistic activity.”

NOTES AND COMMENTS: 

( ➤)I wish he'd taken the advice: By this argument, even if Mr. Trump does disassemble the Obama legacy, it may redound to his predecessor’s historical benefit. Trump's own successor if by chance in 2020 might undo Trump's legacy .(1)>>“Could be the calm before the storm,” "I know something you don't know, and I won't tell you, ha ha ha!" One more evidence of this guy's chronic, childish narcissism. His dramatizing has lost any effect it might have for another, more responsible president.  The White House summoned the media to a last-minute photo op on Thursday evening, during which President Donald Trump made a series of cryptic comments while surrounded by “the world’s great military people.” Leon Panetta, a former defense secretary and CIA director, said Trump's remarks would be something "you'd really worry about" under a previous president. (2)>>Affordable Care Act. Eighteen U.S. states sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday to stop him from scrapping a key component of Obamacare, subsidies to insurers that help millions of low-income people pay medical expenses, even as Trump invited Democratic leaders to negotiate a deal. The ACA requires the insurers to pay for the out of pocket expenses of lower income customers who buy their policies on the exchanges. These policies are subsidized by the way. And If we don't reimburse the insurance companies, and they jack up rates, guess who pays the higher rate? The government! A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 71 percent of Americans would rather try to make Obamacare work than completely upend the current policy. As time goes by, support for Obamacare has only grown, with an April Gallup poll finding that 55 percent of Americans support Obamacare — up by 13 percentage points from November.The GOP has not been able to muster enough votes in Congress to replace Obamacare with their own law, so Trump has used other avenues to essentially kill Obamacare. Most recently the White House announced that Trump would be ending Obamacare payments to insurance companies.Trump does not seem to care who he affects in the process of doing away with Obamacare. A report from The Associated Press concluded that of those who would be most impacted by the Republicans undoing Obama’s healthcare plan, about 70 percent are from states that supported Trump during the election.The AP reported:“An estimated 4 million people were benefiting from the cost-sharing payments in the 30 states Trump carried, according to an analysis of 2017 enrollment data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Of the 10 states with the highest percentage of consumers benefiting from cost-sharing, all but one — Massachusetts — went for Trump.”So why has Trump remained so deadest on ridding the U.S. of Obamacare? Despite support for the healthcare law, and how it would adversely affect his own loyal support base, CNN suggested that Trump has focused more on the name rather than the numbers . (3)>>and warned that he may seek to terminate . In other words, the war would require a multi-year campaign, similar to the one the United States and its European allies mounted over Iraq from 1991 through 2003, involving continuous overflights and intermittent bombing for more than a decade. And even then the U.S. was not confident that it had succeeded in destroying Iraq's nuclear weapons program. But in the Iran case the United States would have no European allies, would not be backed by a United Nations mandate to conduct the military campaign, might not have access to some of the necessary bases, and would be opposed by a much more capable enemy that unlike Iraq is capable of procuring the most modern anti-air defense systems from abroad.