"Cats out of the Bag "

AS they say the "Cats out of the Bag " Case in point  the Trump dossier . As we recollect this dossier was during the election a document that contained some damaging but less credible evidence that  Donald Trump secret ties with Russia , or Russian intelligence has attempted to develop a secret relationship with Trump or cultivate him as an asset?  Interestingly with all the Russia hype going about Mr. Trump . (1)>>The Russian media is hammering Trump constantly to the point of ridicule . What the Russian government wanted out of Trump , was Putin's hope that the Sanctions imposed by Obama would be lifted and relations would be normalized . Period the end of a new cold war . It never came about . Donald Trump took a step backward bowing to the  Washington war hawks of the old  guard McCain type cold war era  politicians . Basically it put Donald Trump in a precarious situation , perhaps  betraying any closed door "negotiations" with the Russians.  Recently a Russian politician has threatened to "hit Donald Trump with our Kompromat" on state TV. Speaking on Russia-24, Nikita Isaev, leader of the far-right New Russia Movement, said the compromising material should be released in retaliation over the closure of several Russian diplomatic compounds across the US. When asked whether Russia has such material, Mr Isaev, who is also director of the Russian Institute of Contemporary Economics, replied: "Of course we have it!". So If Presient Trump is loved by any Russians in Putin's cabinet you can forget it   The  big story on Tuesday was saying that (2)>>Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee financed research for the "Steele dossier" — a much-discussed report prepared by a former British intelligence operative. The dossier for me would have been incredibly embarrassing to the American Government if it was true. The fact Democrats were behind the funding for the dossier is not totally new. When Mother Jones first reported on the research that led to the dossier back in October 2016, it said the research effort was originally funded by President Trump's GOP opponents and then, when he won the nomination, by Democrats. So many conservative media figures and GOP politicians have increasingly tried to publicize other Russia-related matters that they say implicate Trump’s political enemies — whether the Obama administration, the Clintons, Mueller, fired FBI Director James Comey, or even the FBI as a whole — in misconduct of some kind.Two of these stories — questions about an Obama-era uranium deal, and questions about the salacious “dossier” on Trump — have been bubbling in conservative media for some time, and have gotten particular attention this week. There is a lot of word play here going on .
Conservative Antics .

The Dossier story gets weirder , besides camp Hillary looking for dirt on Trump in 2016, The Washington Free Beacon says it hired intelligence firm Fusion GPS during the 2016 Republican presidential primary.  the Fusion efforts researching Trump were first funded by Republican foes of Trump, and Democrats began paying the research firm later on, after he became the presumptive nominee. It appears there were Republicans that did not want Trumpas their nominee choice . (3)>>Obviously Trump was already tainted with Connections to the Clinton's . The Republican operatives who ran against Donald Trump — the managers of the Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich campaigns — had not only not heard of any GOP-funded oppo project but did not believe one existed. Neither did some of the NeverTrump activists working outside the campaigns to try to stop the GOP front-runner. So many falsehoods... first Donald Trump was the Republican front runner from the moment he announced his candidacy. Trump led the Republican field in every National poll consistently through the primaries and debates right to the nomination. The BIG question is who groomed Trump for the Presidency ?  It was not the Russians , but the inner circle of Republicans who planned for years for the perfect coup . 

Flake &  Croker. 

The  question is there any unity in the Republican party is fracturing . (4)>>Flake’s remarks followed a series of television interviews in which Tennessee Senator Bob Corker denounced Trump, followed by angry retorts from the president. That all came just hours before Republican senators met for lunch with Trump to discuss the path ahead for their plans to overhaul the tax code.Flake's decision not to run for re-election will have electoral repercussions in Arizona where the GOP is now scrambling to find a new candidate to run in his stead. But, Flake's decision not to run leaves him unencumbered for the next 14 months in Washington: free to speak out or even vote against Trump's agenda if he disagrees without any fear of retribution. Flake also brings the number of ardent (5)>>Trump-defying Republicans to three in the US Senate, a magic number that is enough to block even simple majority votes in the Senate, where Republicans have 52 members.   Corker -- once considered a serious contender to be Trump's secretary of state --has had especially sharp barbs against Trump in the weeks since he announced he wouldn't run for re-election. Corker told CNN's Manu Raju Tuesday that Trump's legacy be "the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth telling, just the name-calling." Mr. Corker, another loud Trump critic, is going home after next year. So are several moderate House Republicans: Charles W. Dent of Pennsylvania, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and David G. Reichert of Washington. Mr. Trump said the turmoil in the Republican Party is nothing compared with what is happening in the Democratic Party, which is still reeling from revelations that party officials conspired to sabotage Sen. Bernard Sanders’ presidential run in favor of Hillary Clinton.“That’s a mess” Mr. Trump said, adding that his lunch Tuesday with Senate Republicans was “a lovefest.”

The End of the Republican party ? .

But defections of mainstream conservatives like Flake and the others foreshadow a splintering of the Republican Party. Trump wants a party not committed to principles or policies, but only to the Trump brand, however he defines it. The "real" conservatives have fled the party to certain point leading to a complete disconnect in Congress . Their rebellion against the power of organized money has upended American politics in ways that may reverberate for a long time. The face of the party today hinges on what next Donald Trump does next . The next four years are going to be a roller coaster ride.  { see this "prophetical" article written in 1955 http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1955/10/11/republican-party-may-fall-apart-after/ } Most recently, deep fissures have been evident in the Republican Party between establishment and insurgent types. This began with the 2010 midterms, when the party’s control over its own nominations slipped away in the Tea Party revolt by conservative voters. Republicans and progressives to proclaim their disgust at what the GOP has become—the party of Trump and Moore, not the Bushes and Romneys. 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>The Russian media is hammering Trump constantly to the point of ridicule . Most of us that are convinced of Russian -Trump Collusion may have missed a valid point right now . Donald Trump is not liked in Russia anymore . Kremlin-controlled news outlets used to root for Donald Trump’s election. Now they’re reveling in the chaos and division of his early presidency.“Sessions Scandal: ‘U.S Headed to Constitutional Crisis,’” reads a March 3 headline on the website of the Kremlin-funded English-language network RT.“Immigrants See American Dream Fade in Wake of Surge in Hate Crimes,” Sputnik News, another English language outlet bankrolled by the Kremlin, reported the same day.“America is in the grips of hatred,” the Russian television commentator Dmitry Kiselyov told viewers of the Rossiya 1 network on Sunday night. The popular host, appointed directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested the political discord could lead to violence in gun-friendly America — “a dangerous combination with free-flowing firearms,” he said.  Some analysts say that the Kremlin doesn't yet know what to make of Mr. Trump, particularly given his habit of saying one thing and then promptly reversing himself – often via a bluntly worded tweet. Politically Trump makes no sense anymore to the Russians, since he's going against what Putin hoped for as a type of alliance in Regards to Syria . It's not the way that Moscow is used to handling relations with its nuclear rival. "Official Russian behaviour since Trump came to power is extremely cautious," says Fyodor Lukyanov, a prominent foreign-policy commentator. "It seems the Russian leadership is starting to understand that the United States is much more unpredictable than anyone imagined it could be." Unless President Trump can kick the old guard war hawks of the 50s to stabilize relations with Russia . Were heading back to the conflicts with Russia mirroring the 1960s.  (2)>>Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee financed research for the "Steele dossier" . The Nation published Patrick Lawrence’s article “A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year’s DNC Hack.” The article largely reported on a recently published memo prepared by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which argued, based on their own investigation, that the theft of the DNC e-mails was not a hack, but some kind of inside leak that did not involve Russia. A new Media Research Center study finds that, since the inauguration, major TV news networks have devoted an astonishing 1,000 minutes out of a total 5,015 minutes of Trump administration coverage discussing speculation that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Moscow in hacking Clinton campaign emails, “which means the Russia story alone has comprised almost one-fifth of all Trump news this year.” In contrast, they so far have devoted just 20 seconds to the more substantive scandal of Hillary and her husband possibly trading US uranium rights for Russian cash.(3)>>Obviously Trump was already tainted with Connections to the Clinton's . Let's take the early '90s, for example: Back then, Trump had taken his two elder sons to the White House with him, and they had met with Hillary Clinton. He would later write, "The First Lady is a wonderful woman who has handled pressure incredibly well." Or how about the time Donald Trump went out of his way to defend the indefensible incident of 1999?Just before the turn of the century – in an interview with The New York Times – Trump tried to downplay the Monica Lewinsky scandal for his old pal, Bill. He said, It's sad because he would go down as a great President if he had not had this scandal. People would have been more forgiving if he'd had an affair with a really beautiful woman of sophistication. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were on a different level.Clearly, Trump was a fan of the Clintons.And it's easy to see why: Trump is a powerful New York businessman, and the Clintons are a powerful New York family.It's no surprise that they'd run into each other at fundraisers, as they did during the summer of 2000. At the time, Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, was running for president.  (4)>>Flake’s remarks . A cordial conservative with a maverick bent, Flake angered Trump’s base by refusing to endorse Trump in 2016. Flake also criticized the president’s order banning people arriving from seven heavily Muslim nations. In Flake’s book “Conscience of a Conservative,” released this year, the senator said it’s time for Republicans to reclaim conservatism from Trump. (5)>>Trump-defying Republicans to three in the US Senate. The Republican Party is divided into four groups. The first two, core conservatives and “country first” conservatives, overwhelmingly approve of Mr. Trump but disagree on immigration and America’s role in the world.The other groups are market-skeptic Republicans and “new-era enterprises ” that are strongly pro-business, according to Pew. Mr. Trump’s base remains energized and mostly intact, and it’s wreaking havoc on the Republican establishment.

Is Trump being treated "fairly"?

Is Trump being treated "fairly"? 

"No politician in history - and I say this with great surety - has been treated worse or more unfairly." -- Donald Trump.

For man like George W Bush to speak out against Trump this week . Former president (1.1)>>George W. Bush on Thursday delivered a rare political speech in which he warned of threats to American democracy and a decay of civic engagement, a message that was interpreted as a rebuke of President Trump’s divisive leadership style. At a New York forum sponsored by his presidential center, Bush offered a blunt assessment of a political system corrupted (1.2)>>"conspiracy theories and outright fabrication” in which nationalism has been “distorted into nativism.” — importantly — President Trump’s  Corner all heard the same thing in Bush’s remarks: “Blah, blah, blah, blah, Trump Bad.” That’s why Bush is suddenly benefitting from a strange new respect from liberals and a strange new hatred from former supporters. Trump would devote much of the substance of his campaign to wild claims and ominous innuendo is not surprising: This is what first made him a conservative star. Five years ago, Trump embarked on a national press tour to question the legitimacy of (2)>>President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Obama, Trump suggested, was actually a Kenyan-born impostor named “Barry Soweto.”Establishment Republicans may have snickered, but Trump’s strategy was an unmitigated success. A CNN poll showed that his support among likely GOP voters nearly doubled once he started talking about the birth certificate. He became a regular guest on Fox & Friends, a sought-after speaker at conservative dinners, and a campaign prop for Mitt Romney, who flew to Las Vegas to accept Trump’s endorsement. In just a few months, Trump showed how intoxicatingly viral the netherworld of conspiracies could be. (Even when he finally conceded that Obama was born in the United States, he claimed the birther rumors originated with Clinton.)  George W. Bush was taking aim at Trump’s “roiling of the traditional institutions of the country and, in particular, demeaning the office of the president by a kind of crude or vulgar bashing of

opponents,” It’s not just the former presidents. Two days ago, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), while receiving the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal, lambasted “half-baked, spurious nationalism” and suggested the United States was abandoning its leadership role, an approach the Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war called “unpatriotic.”McCain’s critique prompted Trump to warn him to “be careful” because he is prepared to “fight back.”The common thread among Bush’s and McCain’s words was a defense of the post-World War II liberal order that America helped build which supported strong security alliances, a defense of human rights and an open economic system of free trade, said Richard Fontaine, who served on the National SecurityCouncil under Bush and was a foreign policy adviser to McCain.While Republicans and Democrats have disagreed over the means to achieve such objectives, Trump has opened a direct assault on many of these ideals, Fontaine said.

Are  we giving Donald Trump a fair chance ?

The Press is ruthless in its
en-devour to uncover the truth ,
but at times can become
a wolf pack to devour a
politician .

Brings this question to mind about how fair our political views are as expressed by the media{ LEFT WING} attacks against Trump. I know right now that there is a anti-Trump craze sweeping the nation . Personally I have been critical about Trump .  I never saw him as qualified for the office . I base that "fact" is that he has never held a political office , he was never a US Senator , or elected Mayor of any city . (3)>>THE REALITY CHECK here is that the Americans some how were duped to elect a Billionaire Showman to the Presidency . THE HONEST as in MY OPINION is that Donald J Trump resonated with a conservative fringe . As I analyzed , there some aspects that I too agreed with Trump . I do agree about getting jobs back to America first .  STOP Outsourcing jobs for example to China , the bad trade deals that resulted in the loss of manufacturing jobs over the decades is something that has blemished both Republicans and Democrats . I blame both parties for the loss of American jobs . The Republican party for decades was for "Faster Cheaper " alternatives to hiring a American for 23 dollars an hour working at a manufacturing plant . Its VARY tricky to say if Trump is right and we the  Trump critic wrong . President Trump has serious problems , he has attracted bigots , every extremist imaginable . Basically, anything they can paint him as a bad president, they put them on front pages and bring them up again and again.Anything he has done that are liked by Americans, they just mentioned them like after thoughts, like his stands against illegal immigrants, against China.Trump's problem is that he screws up about twice a week. (4)>>That means his lies, rudeness and disloyalty are never out of the news. If he could get it down to monthly, people would concern themselves with other things. HONESTLY AGAIN , Trump can't control himself for a popular opinion of him while tweeting something like "rocket man" .  He nearly proved himself a crazy threating to utterly destroy North Korea . I would just call it a quick " strange case of good luck" after Trump blasted away , it seems we have NOT  heard or seen North Korea launch another missile yet despite on going China - USA diplomacy.  Giving Donald Trump a chance is not always easy.  I am starting to feel sorry for President Trump, can he bring some traditional image of the US President back ?  he has  managed and then descended into linguistic and logical chaos.   The president has frequently claimed unfair treatment from the media since his inauguration, but such criticism of news outlets has increased over the last few months . Its the fact that Trump can't say what he says without a challenge by the media . It can only get worse ................

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1.1)>>George W. Bush on Thursday. Neither of them mentioned President Trump by name but two of his predecessors emerged from political seclusion on Thursday to deliver what sounded like pointed rebukes of the current occupant of the Oval Office and the forces of division that propelled him to power.In separate and unrelated appearances, former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both warned that the United States was being torn apart by ancient hatreds that should have been consigned to history long ago and called for addressing economic anxiety through common purpose. While not directly addressing Mr. Trump, neither left much doubt whom and what they had in mind. { FOR a FULL TEXT of BUSH Speech go here : http://politi.co/2yUe34i  } Mr. Bush, the last Republican to hold the White House, spoke out at a conference he convened in New York to support democracy, noting that America first had to “recover our own identity” in the face of challenges to its most basic ideals. While Mr. Trump seeks to raise barriers to trade and newcomers, lashing out at targets with relish, Mr. Bush defended immigration and free trade, denounced nationalism and bigotry and bemoaned what he called the “casual cruelty” of current public discourse.(1)>>"conspiracy theories and outright fabrication"- American politics have always slouched toward paranoia, Why are conspiracy theories are so attractive? says that for a person to buy into one, it has to align with their beliefs. Remember when Jeb Bush tweeted something about a "conspiracy" between Hillary and Trump? “Maybe Donald negotiated a deal with his buddy @HillaryClinton,” Jeb Bush tweeted. “Continuing this path will put her in the White House.” Trump’s candidacy isn’t just suspicious to some because he once belonged to the Clintons’ political party. It’s suspicious because he’s the Clinton’s pal — golfing with Bill and, in 2005, hosting the Clintons at his wedding to Melania Trump. It was an invitation that Clinton had to explain away after Trump announced his candidacy in 2015 . There are a lot of curious things about the 2016 election that boggles the mind . The spin of Russian meddling interwoven with collusion of the GOP marks a sinister chapter in American history..(2)>>President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.  The Election  of Obama is just as curious as Trump's .  Honestly Obama was more sincere in nature as a man who reached the Presidency for Black Americans who this as their triumph  . Mr. Obama was far more open to political opinion  than Mr. Trump . Regarding his birth , I have to recant my theory of where he was born with out being accused of "racism" . As much as the "birth-er" movement . What can't be explained away is the Obama was born a Muslim , there are evidences of it , if you look to his autobiography  Dreams of my Father  he gave himself away searching for his roots in Kenya , where his father lived as a Muslim who married a white woman his Mother Ann Dunham . All this fueled the anti-Obama mob in endless speculation about Obama . Worse as well the Kenyan government "claimed" that Obama was born in Kenya with out proving it as much as the Tea Party - Trump birth-ers trying to push that the Hawaii Certificate was fraudulent .(3)>>THE REALITY CHECK. While most Republicans feel there is so much Trump bashing by the media . ITS only fair to say that Obama suffered the worst criticism ever seen in media history , he was attacked by the far right on practically everything he tried to do . He was painted as "Marxist" from the start . There is a lot of equal hate and loathing for Obama up to this day as the Republican Controlled Congress is dismantling the Obama legacy ., Obama was treated with no respect.The Republicans had a meeting the night of his inaugural to fight Obama on everything. They are all equally responsible for dividing this country. At the time they were the worst Congress in history. There is however a warning to heed politically, what could happen in the future if Trump loses the 2020 election . Trump could face the same backlash to his legacy . LIKE the Ides of March , what goes around comes around . (4)>>That means his lies, rudeness and disloyalty are never out of the news.This week's uproar started Monday, when Trump criticized his predecessor after being asked why he'd waited so long to comment on the Green Berets's deaths, and continued through Wednesday, when he reportedly told one of the soldiers's widows that her late husband "knew what he signed up for." It's just the latest example. The fact that President Trump did not acknowledge the deaths of four servicemen in Niger until asked about it 12 days later was certain to raise legitimate questions regarding his sensitivity. But Mr. Trump seems to have no sense of when and how to put controversy to rest and when not to be combative. The congresswoman who accused Donald Trump of offending the widow of a green beret killed in action says that the administration’s response to her claims included a “lie” and a “racist” insult. Asked about the back-and-forth during a White House briefing Wednesday afternoon, Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the media a “disgrace” and described Wilson as “disgusting” for raising an issue with the president’s tone. Calling the widow, she said, was an “act of kindness.” But Trump’s reflexive posturing about his superior capacity for empathy seems to have proved his critics’ points. 

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.

A Primer on Gun Control.

The "bible" of the Pro- Gun
lobby . A little book
of contradictions .

In 2015 A visibly angry President Obama gave perhaps his most forceful speech on gun violence yet , noting that it wasn't his first speech in response to a mass shooting and probably wouldn't be his last."Somehow this has become routine. The reporting has become routine. My response here, from this podium, has become routine," Obama said. Around 2015 during (➜)President Obama term , there were 11 (1.1)>>mass shootings .But most of them made no mention of guns as a root cause of the violence .A turning point was 2012, when 20 children and six teachers were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Obama created a commission on gun violence, and took some executive actions, but Congress failed to strengthen laws on the background checks. Everything about (⟴)>>"gun control" took a backward step with the election of President Trump . Trump obviously wanted to unravel years of attempts to create some kind of government ruling on guns . (2)>>Even the slightest attempt on how many rounds of ammo was stopped by the NRA Republicans at Congress . President Trump took a evacuative order to reverse a Obama era ruling on (➽)background checks for the mentally ill.The new rule had been intended as one way for the federal government to respond to the very real problem of underreporting of mental health records to the nation’s background-check system for gun purchases. What this has to do with the latest mass shooting ? It's been an on going thing in this country . The facts regarding the massacre at Las Vegas ,there are sill unanswered questions regarding the motives . Like every mass shooting , after the dust & smoke clears the gun debate rages , after its all quiet , everything goes normal .
Its always "LEGAL weapons".
 The Vegas shooter had obtained all his weapons legally . The count of the arsenal is stagging. Forty-seven guns were found in the suspected Las Vegas shooter's hotel suite and two homes, police said Tuesday night at a press conference.Multiple loaded high-capacity magazines were found in the hotel suite, at the (3)>>Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, law enforcement sources said on Monday. A modified bump stock rifle was also found, which allows a gun to simulate rapid automatic gunfire. Law enforcement officials are still in the process of examining firearms to determine if they were capable of firing automatically.At a separate location authorities found tannerite, an explosive used in target practice, sources said.According to a database maintained by Mother Jones, there have been at least 90 mass shootings in the United States since 1982, and most of the shooters got their guns legally. The database focuses on what the publication calls "indiscriminate rampages in public places resulting in four or more victims killed by the attacker," and excludes shootings stemming from more conventional crimes such as armed robbery or gang violence.Of the 143 guns wielded by killers in mass shootings, more than three quarters were obtained legally, including dozens of assault weapons and semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines, according to Mother Jones. Although America’s political debate about guns tends to focus on grisly mass shootings and murders, a majority of gun-related deaths in the US are suicides.this is actually one of the most compelling reasons for reducing access to guns — there is a lot of research that shows greater access to guns dramatically increases the risk of suicide.

The "TRUTH" about the Second Amendment.
The Second Amendment consists of just one sentence: “A well regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Today, scholars debate its bizarre comma placement, trying to make sense of the various clauses, and politicians routinely declare themselves to be its “strong supporters.” But in the grand sweep of American history, this sentence has never been among the most prominent constitutional provisions. In fact, for two centuries it was largely ignored. Its missing a lot more sentences. I think the 2nd Amendment was shorten for an obvious reason . The 1788 Virginia Convention [ http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch14s43.html ] contains the rest of the missing Second Amendment :

"17th. That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."

The BIG QUESTIONS about "militias" (4)>>long ignored by the NRA , was long swept under the rug by our nations history  . Reading the Convention amendments that our nations founders probably had other ideas on why citizens have a right to arms . Its long connection to keep free and standing armies of citizens { if read correctly} . That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural. The whole purpose originally was to have a army of civilians during times of national crisis who would take up arms along side a solider if called . The worrisome dialog in the convention notes as well that the nations founders would never foreseen how over the course of a hundred years that guns would , or could play in its undoing with excessive violence {  in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided } But the  new government would establish a “standing army” of professional soldiers and would disarm the 13 state militias, made up of part-time citizen-soldiers and revered as bulwarks against tyranny. These militias were the product of a world of civic duty and governmental compulsion utterly alien to us today. Every white man age 16 to 60 was enrolled. He was actually required to own—and bring—a musket or other military weapon. However the NRA  to mobilize that passionate membership, over the last four decades, the NRA has used its advertising to change how many Americans see the Second Amendment–from a militia-based policy to one intently focused on individual gun ownership–and a relentlessly aggressive message that American gun rights are under threat.The word "militia" in the 2nd Amendment means the "arms" citizens have a "right" to bear are by definition weapons of war. The Constitution doesn't give us the right to own a BB gun or participate in paintball conflicts.The Constitution gives us the right to own and bear light infantry weapons. As America grapples with a relentless tide of gun violence, (5)>>pro-gun activists have come to rely on the Second Amendment as their trusty shield when faced with mass-shooting-induced criticism. In their interpretation, the amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms—a reading that was upheld by the Supreme Court in its 2008 ruling in District of Columbia. v. Heller. Yet most judges and scholars who debated the clause’s awkwardly worded and oddly punctuated 27 words in the decades before Heller almost always arrived at the opposite conclusion, finding that the amendment protects gun ownership for purposes of military duty and collective security. It was drafted, after all, in the first years of post-colonial America, an era of scrappy citizen militias where the idea of a standing army—while the militias all but disappeared , except for a few "crazies" . The idea of owning & having  a weapon now is more  problematic legally .

My Rational Compromise .

The Las Vegas massacre could have been avoided . It begins at every gun shop . When someone goes to buy massive amount of guns in a short time is a red alert to the gun shop its deeper than going to the gun shop . Now guns can be bought over the internet , crossing state lines .  Every state in the UNION has its different gun laws Nevada's least restrictive gun laws in the country may have contributed to the massacre. The state does not require firearms owners to have licenses or register their weapons and (6)>>Nevada does not limit the number of firearms an individual can possess. The argument is why would any law abiding American citizen would have to own so many weapons ? I can see those who own a gun for self protection , this has been the staple NRA defense for individual rights . Second the field and stream game hunters who have hunting rifles . I understand that , I am not a hunter or care for the sport . Federal law does not limit the number of guns a person may buy in any given time period. However, federal law does require federal firearm licensees (“FFLs”) to report multiple sales of handguns to ATF and other specified law enforcement agencies. Limiting HOW many guns a person could buy varies . I personally believe that gun ownership has to be redefined . I think all semi-& automatic- military style {bump-fire stocks} should have been banned a long time ago. Assembly Bill 1674, or AB 1674, from Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), would prevent Californians from buying more than one rifle or shotgun a month. The Golden State already has a similar restriction on handguns, as does Maryland, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. “Santiago’s AB 1674 would make it a crime for someone to attempt to purchase more than one firearm of any type in any 30-day period,” the Firearms Policy Coalition, a pro-Second Amendment organization, charged. Gun ownership should be a monitored responsibility by the State and Local governments. In conclusion I believe that limiting how many guns a person can buy is the first step to a sane policy while not  infringing on the 2nd Amendment for honest gun owners . 

Our Current Presidential views.
It's unlikely that President Donald Trump will take immediate action on gun control following the massacre in Las Vegas, out of fear that he would distance himself from his base and potentially anger the National Rifle Association, an organization the president has developed a close relationship with because of their staunch support throughout his candidacy.Before he departed for Puerto Rico on Tuesday morning, Trump indicated that it's an issue he may approach "as time goes on." President Donald Trump met with victims of Sunday's mass shooting in Las Vegas Wednesday, three days after the attack that killed 58 and injured hundreds.Trump declined to discuss gun control measures, even as a bill was introduced in Washington, D.C., to outlaw the kind of equipment used by the shooter to accelerate his firing capabilities.Asked by a reporter at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas (7)>>if the United States has a "gun violence problem," the president dismissed the question."We're not going to talk about that today," said Trump. "We won't talk about that."

The gun control 'terror gap': what is it – and why hasn't Congress fixed it?

 

Read more

Because Congress refused to pass updated gun control legislation, Obama was left to tinker around the edges of the existing law, and he directed federal agencies to do a better job reporting records of people with disqualifying mental illnesses to the background-check system.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(➜)President Obama term.The right and right wing media divided this country when President Barack Obama was elected. The GOP unabashedly and publically proclaimed that they were going to do EVERYTHING to bring failure upon his presidency. Former President Obama addressed mass shootings roughly 18 times during his administration, with some of his most damning comments coming exactly two years before this weekend's deadly shooting in Las Vegas.For Obama, it was the shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, where nine people were killed Oct. 1, 2015. President Barack Obama announced a plan for reducing gun violence in four parts: closing background check loopholes; banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines; making schools safer; and increasing access to mental health services. No new federal gun control legislation was passed as a result of these proposals.   And for President Trump, it was the Sunday shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas, where at least 59 people were killed and 527 others injured.(⟴)>>"gun control". Gun politics is an area of American politics that is defined primarily by the actions of two groups: gun control and gun rights activists. These groups often disagree on the interpretation of laws and court cases related to firearms as well as about the effects of gun control on crime and public safety. Huffington Post reported in September

A Dangerous American Institution -
The Free and Unarmed  Revolver 
a cartoon from Puck magazine
shortly after the
 assassination of James A. Garfield

2013 that 48% of Americans said gun laws should be made more strict, while 16% said they should be made less strict and 29% said there should be no change.During a study conducted by The Huffington Post*, state gun laws were examined based on various policy approaches through the states across the US, and scored on a points-based scale to each state. The study was conducted by a non-profit organization named The Law Center to prevent Gun Violence. This is relevant as many nations drastically change their gun laws after any incident that targets civilians, so why not the US? Other high-income countries have much stronger gun laws so why haven’t the US change its laws? The background check in the United States basically just confirms the person is not a convicted felon, and it doesn’t allow for much police discretion. Other countries have a much higher bar to pass. For example, England and Japan and almost all other high-income countries with stricter gun laws require gun training before a person can obtain a gun, and once the firearm is obtained, it must be stored properly, and the applicant must have a valid reason to obtain a handgun. States were given positive points to states with stricter measures and stronger gun laws. Positive points were given for states that required background checks on all firearm sales and limit bulk firearms purchases; prohibiting sales of assault weapons and large capacity magazines; stricter evaluation on applications when issuing a handgun concealed carry license especially prohibited domestic violence offenders. On the other hand, points were deducted from states with expanded access to guns; allowed concealed carry in public areas particularly schools and bars without a permit or passed “Stand Your Ground Laws” — which remove the duty to retreat and allow people to shoot potential assailants, ostensibly in self-defense. Eventually, states were graded indicating the overall strengths or weakness of gun laws. Ten States with the Strongest Gun Laws ranked from strongest starting with California, then New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Maryland, Illinois, Rhode Island and finally Michigan. The states with weakest gun laws were ranked as follow: South Dakota, Arizona, Mississippi, Vermont, Louisiana, Montana, Wyoming, Kentucky, Kansas, and Oklahoma.The study demonstrates a strong correlation between weak gun laws and increased gun violence deaths. The report also found that the gun death rate tends to get higher as firearms laws get weaker. Stronger gun laws can indeed save lives, the Law Center said several states will soon see such benefits(➽)background checks for the mentally ill. Federal law prohibits selling guns to felons or the mentally ill. Background checks are the only way to enforce that law. So, besides criminals and the insane, who could possibly oppose universal background checks?Gun manufacturers ? The NRA ? The NRA’s website on March 12, 2013, posted its firm stance against expanding background checks. As the gun control debate continues in Washington and throughout the nation, so does the notion of the "Gun Show Loophole." According the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the loophole includes mandatory background checks on purchases from licensed gun dealers. However private sellers do not need to complete any formal paperwork and thus do not perform investigations on their customers. Unregulated purchases typically take place at gun expos and shows. 40% of all gun transactions in the country occur under the loophole.The FBI sponsors the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). According to the FBI's website, over 100 million checks have been conducted in the past decade and over 700,000 denials have been made. Prior to the complete sale of a firearm(s), a licensed seller must contact the agency for a check to be performed on the prospective buyer.

(1)>>mass shootings . While the NRA and "other gun rights " advocates cry about their "liberties" are being infringed  . The list of the dead continues to grow . Here from Mother Jones magazine contains a full list of Mass shootings over the decades . { see this LIST here URL : http://bit.ly/1QklBf8 } .     (2)>>Even the slightest attempt on how many rounds of ammo was stopped by the NRA Republicans at Congress . Tell me one reason why any non-military person needs a fully automatic weapon. Frankly, limiting magazines to 10 or even 5 rounds on a semi-auto is fine for me. My logic: if a responsible gun owner can't hit something with 5 rounds, or 10, he should not be allowed to own a gun as he/she is incompetent at shooting.Nevertheless, who are those who really want a fully automatic weapon? 16-23 year old males that, by all appearances and actions, needing to over compensate for other shortcomings. They need to prove they are a M-A-N by having a splatter-shoot auto because it's sooooo maaaanly. Simply pathetic. (3)>>Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.  Mass shootings also effect the stock market. Shares of casino operators fell on Monday after the Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay hotel near where the shooting occurred, fell 5.6 percent Monday. Wynn Resorts slipped 1.2 percent. Las Vegas Sands fell as much as 2.1 percent before closing higher.(4)>>long ignored by the NRA. Hard to believe it’s from the same organization that helped draft the first federal gun controls in 1934’s National Firearms Act, and 1938’s Gun Control Act. In the early 90s, the NRA evolved its Us vs. Them theme, portraying the government as a 1984-like threat to individual freedoms. During the 1992 election, Bill Clinton campaigned against George H.W. Bush by pushing both the Brady Bill, which tightened restrictions on handgun sales, and a national ban on assault rifles. The NRA reacted by warning against an encroaching police state.(5)>>pro-gun activists have come to rely on the Second Amendment as their trusty shield when faced with mass-shooting-induced criticism.  The irrational of the head of the NRA reflects what how the gun culture has brainwashed not only people but many Republicans in Congress bought into it .  Pro gun activists repeat that . "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."  Guns kill people we all know that , the argument that  Guns are like climate change in a way. They both are an issue but the people complaining about them have no solution. They just complain. If you're pro-gun. That's your opinion and you're entitled to it. but for gods sake work toward a solution. All you people do is cry about wanting your guns without a solution that keeps scores of people from dying every couple of months. (6)>>Nevada does not limit the number of firearms an individual can possess. The as Vegas shooter had "weapons of mass destruction " at his disposal . When a person buys a lot weapons always should be a red alert . The challenge to limiting gun ownership to 3 guns . Which is my personal option to the pro 2nd Amenders , banning of certain automatic weapons has been on the table of debates since the 1990s. Laws limiting the number of guns someone can buy within a short span of time helps reduce gun trafficking. Interstate trafficking of firearms flourishes, in part, because states regulate sales differently, and there is no federal limit on the number of guns an individual may purchase at any one time. States with weak gun laws attract traffickers who make multiple purchases, and then resell those firearms in states with stronger gun laws. (7)>>if the United States has a "gun violence problem," Really don't you think ? The obvious answer is that our nations history is rooted in guns , ever since the wild wild west guns , the frontier days have created a somewhat fascination with the gun culture in our society . In our society we don't all have normal people who want guns for self defense, but there are people that should be profiled . There are the "normal" gun collectors , but there are a certain few who are obsessed with guns . They show up at gun shows buying guns by the cartloads with boxes and boxes of ammunition . This video exposes gun shows { http://bit.ly/2fW7nH4 } check out the "weapons" being sold in this video . Watch undercover footage that shines a spotlight on these illegal sales at gun shows below.  Its all military grade weapons . In 2009, the City of New York conducted a multi-state investigation of gun shows to expose the threat posed by the “gun show loophole,” a term often used to describe the fact that federal law allows private sellers to sell firearms without background checks or record keeping. This loophole is closely associated with gun shows because they’re the largest and most central marketplaces for private sellers to connect with purchasers who are trying to avoid detection.