[Discussion] The Donald Trump Administration

Let's follow and discuss what our newest presidential administration gets up to, the good, the bad, the lawsuits.

Assuming she's even in power.

Regardless, I find this extremely unsurprising.

Wouldn't it be hilarious (and good) if Trump steps away from all of the crazy he talked about during the campaign and turns out to be a moderate with some very reasonable policies?

Pence will probably run 90% of the things Obama ran...with Trump taking the remaining bit to show how great he is.

TheGameguru wrote:

Pence will probably run 90% of the things Obama ran...with Trump taking the remaining bit to show how great he is.

Trump will just claim everything was his doing, regardless of who was actually running it.

Stengah wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Pence will probably run 90% of the things Obama ran...with Trump taking the remaining bit to show how great he is.

Trump will just claim everything was his doing, regardless of who was actually running it.

I've said elsewhere that the "new ACA" is just going to be The ACA but no one will use the term Obamacare and it's suddenly going to be the most amazing thing to the GOP.

Docjoe wrote:

Wouldn't it be hilarious (and good) if Trump steps away from all of the crazy he talked about during the campaign and turns out to be a moderate with some very reasonable policies?

It would be hilarious if he pulled off his mask, revealing it was Old Man Withers all along... but I'm not holding my breath.

Bloo Driver wrote:

I've said elsewhere that the "new ACA" is just going to be The ACA but no one will use the term Obamacare and it's suddenly going to be the most amazing thing to the GOP.

That won't fix rising ACA premiums though. Scrapping it altogether will. I mean, tons of people will lose insurance, sure, but the important thing is the GOP fixes the rising premiums problem.

Trump Taps Pence To Lead Transition Team, Removes Chris Christie: NYT

Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has removed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as leader of his transition team, handing the reins over to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, a former U.S. lawmaker with deep Washington ties, the New York Times reported on Friday.

Man and after all that cowtowing Christie did!
IMAGE(http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/y/b/6/christie-what-have-i-done.jpg)

farley3k wrote:

Trump Taps Pence To Lead Transition Team, Removes Chris Christie: NYT

Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has removed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as leader of his transition team, handing the reins over to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, a former U.S. lawmaker with deep Washington ties, the New York Times reported on Friday.

Man and after all that cowtowing Christie did!
IMAGE(http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/y/b/6/christie-what-have-i-done.jpg)

Havent laughed much these last few days but that got a good laugh out of me that I really needed.

I read somewhere that the 5th nation leader who Trump called after becoming President-elect was the Australian prime minister.

I'm kinda worried about what that means for us.

Presumably he's planning of putting more military assets and presence in the South Pacific and is worried about losing bases in Philippines etc.

This is going to put Australians between a rock and a hard place. China's our leading trade partner, with Japan and the US not far behind.

Strategically we've kowtowed to the US since Uncle Sam gave more assistance in WW2 than the UK (we had to disobey London to bring our troops back to repel the Japanese). This can only go so far when so much of our economy relies on shipping coal and iron to China in return for cheap goods we no longer have capacity to manufacture ourselves.

I'm very interested to see what replaces the ACA. I agree with the critics that the crippled implementation of that program has failed. It is funny to me that people think that this will reduce their own health care costs but it is a mess. It has been a safety net for some folks, I have had patients who did not have insurance until it was available. But the coverage is bad and the cost has truly spiraled out of control.

It sounds like it will be some sort of HSA that will replace it. Which won't help much if there are no insurance options to purchase.

Bfgp wrote:

I read somewhere that the 5th nation leader who Trump called after becoming President-elect was the Australian prime minister.

I'm kinda worried about what that means for us.

Presumably he's planning of putting more military assets and presence in the South Pacific and is worried about losing bases in Philippines etc.

He actually campaigned on doing the opposite. How much of that he believes today or will try and put into policy is anyone's guess.

CBS News wrote:

The GOP front-runner asserted that the U.S. also "cannot be the policeman of the world" when it comes to allies in the Asia Pacific region, suggesting he would like to see Japan and South Korea develop nuclear weaponry in order to combat North Korea.

"Unfortunately, we have a nuclear world now," Trump said. "Would I rather have North Korea have [nuclear weapons] with Japan sitting there having them also? You may very well be better off if that's the case. In other words, where Japan is defending itself against North Korea, which is a real problem."

He called the current U.S. relationship with Japan "a pretty one-sided agreement" because "if we're attacked, they do not have to come to our defense."

But "if they're attacked," he said, "we have to come totally to their defense. And that is a -- that's a real problem."

Trump would be open to withdrawing U.S. forces from Japan and South Korea if the two nations did not give more to the costs of keeping those troops in the area.

To combat Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, the businessman again said he would use a more corporate, and less diplomatic, strategy.

"I would use trade to negotiate," Trump said. "Would I go to war? Look, let me just tell you. There's a question I wouldn't want to answer. Because I don't want to say I won't or I will."

"I will tell you this," he continued. "This is the one aspect I can tell you. I would use trade, absolutely, as a bargaining chip."

RoughneckGeek wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:

I've said elsewhere that the "new ACA" is just going to be The ACA but no one will use the term Obamacare and it's suddenly going to be the most amazing thing to the GOP.

That won't fix rising ACA premiums though. Scrapping it altogether will. I mean, tons of people will lose insurance, sure, but the important thing is the GOP fixes the rising premiums problem.

Trump's own page on healthcare policy drops preexisting condition coverage, or at best will put them in a high risk category so the cost of coverage for those folks (like myself) can be isolated to their own premiums. This isn't simply a rebranding we're looking at.

Just saw a reference to this (I cant access the article though)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-t...

Lobbyists are going to have a great time with him. Make him change his opinion every 5 minute.
I wish someone could convince him about not screwing over the small attempts at fighting climate change.

I'm going to reiterate what Norman said because a like isn't enough - that banner image is amazing!

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

I'm going to reiterate what Norman said because a like isn't enough - that banner image is amazing!

1812 is the new 2016... both in art and social policy.

Shadout wrote:
RoughneckGeek wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:

I've said elsewhere that the "new ACA" is just going to be The ACA but no one will use the term Obamacare and it's suddenly going to be the most amazing thing to the GOP.

That won't fix rising ACA premiums though. Scrapping it altogether will. I mean, tons of people will lose insurance, sure, but the important thing is the GOP fixes the rising premiums problem.

Trump's own page on healthcare policy drops preexisting condition coverage, or at best will put them in a high risk category so the cost of coverage for those folks (like myself) can be isolated to their own premiums. This isn't simply a rebranding we're looking at.

Just saw a reference to this (I cant access the article though)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-t...

Lobbyists are going to have a great time with him. Make him change his opinion every 5 minute.
I wish someone could convince him about not screwing over the small attempts at fighting climate change.

Someone's going to get him to push Single Payer through.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

I'm going to reiterate what Norman said because a like isn't enough - that banner image is amazing!

Yep. Tagging in.

Anyone else notice that Trump put three of his kids on his transition team? The same kids who are supposed to be running his business through a so-called blind trust (that won't be blind at all, is likely illegal, and opens Trump up to a loads of very real conflicts of interest)?

That means Trump's children will literally be helping to pick the people who will make regulatory decisions that could impact the Trump business.

Docjoe wrote:

I'm very interested to see what replaces the ACA. I agree with the critics that the crippled implementation of that program has failed. It is funny to me that people think that this will reduce their own health care costs but it is a mess. It has been a safety net for some folks, I have had patients who did not have insurance until it was available. But the coverage is bad and the cost has truly spiraled out of control.

It sounds like it will be some sort of HSA that will replace it. Which won't help much if there are no insurance options to purchase.

Wouldn't dropping state restrictions on insurance companies ensure there are plenty of options to purchase?

Y'all worry too much.

He's an outsider. He's going to #draintheswamp.

He's going to completely change his planned healthcare adjustments to adhere to republican convention.

If his transition team and cabinet rumors are any indication, this is looking like we're getting a republican puppet (no you're the puppet. hush, Donald) with Pence running the show.

Except Pence won't officially be running the show so it's the worst of both worlds: An agenda centered around policies that restrict rights and hurt us economically home and abroad with someone who seems pretty unstable at the head.

#draintheswamp

OG_slinger wrote:

Anyone else notice that Trump put three of his kids on his transition team? The same kids who are supposed to be running his business through a so-called blind trust (that won't be blind at all, is likely illegal, and opens Trump up to a loads of very real conflicts of interest)?

That means Trump's children will literally be helping to pick the people who will make regulatory decisions that could impact the Trump business.

Who is going to stop them? It's not like congress will investigate it.

There are a lot of lessons to take away from this election cycle. One of them is that perhaps we're too reliant on tradition and taking people in good faith. How many fundraising violations did that campaign have and yet no word on any kind of punishment?

When the only punishment is bad press and a good chunk of people actively deny that wrongdoing took place, what can we do? Our government has been taken and there seems to be no punishment for breaking the rules we had in place.

liquid wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

I'm very interested to see what replaces the ACA. I agree with the critics that the crippled implementation of that program has failed. It is funny to me that people think that this will reduce their own health care costs but it is a mess. It has been a safety net for some folks, I have had patients who did not have insurance until it was available. But the coverage is bad and the cost has truly spiraled out of control.

It sounds like it will be some sort of HSA that will replace it. Which won't help much if there are no insurance options to purchase.

Wouldn't dropping state restrictions on insurance companies ensure there are plenty of options to purchase?

No. Most or all of them will move to whatever state will give them the greatest ability to charge as much as possible while providing as little as possible. They will claim the law of state they are based in governs what they offer, someone will sue them saying it should be the law of the state where the insured person lives, and the courts will end up deciding it. It seems safe to assume that it would end up at the Supreme Court eventually ... and we can guess how that will turn out.

oilypenguin wrote:

Y'all worry too much.

He's an outsider. He's going to #draintheswamp.

He's going to completely change his planned healthcare adjustments to adhere to republican convention.

So if I understand this correctly, they pretty much combine the worst parts of Trumps plans with the worst parts of republican plans, removing the few positive things you can sometimes find in Trumps policy plans (since he seems to take ideas from lots of different places all at once).

Trump voters want the same things we do, at a basic level - working infrastructure, reasonably priced healthcare that does not disappear arbitrarily or cost a fortune, hope for retirement someday, and some kind of job security. Any policy proposals that really screw with that are going to hit a buzzsaw of bipartisan complaints. And if it's implemented, that's when people start to think "Hey, maybe those other folks will fix this after the next election...".

a woman in the chicago theatre scene, BJ Colangelo wrote:

On my way to work this morning, I saw the grandmother of the Muslim family that lives a few houses down holding a blanket over her head like a scarf walking back from Walgreens. I wished her "Good Morning!" and smiled brightly. She started crying and thanked me for saying something nice. I got out of my car and asked if she was okay and she apologized for the blanket.

"If I cover my head with a blanket, it's easier for me to drop it down to wear it like a shawl. Maybe then people will think I'm just a Mexican and just yell about deportation instead of threatening to murder me."

Day Three.

Shadout wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Y'all worry too much.

He's an outsider. He's going to #draintheswamp.

He's going to completely change his planned healthcare adjustments to adhere to republican convention.

So if I understand this correctly, they pretty much combine the worst parts of Trumps plans with the worst parts of republican plans, removing the few positive things you can sometimes find in Trumps policy plans (since he seems to take ideas from lots of different places all at once).

Correct!

He won't be what his supporters thought he'd be.

At all.

I am willing to bet there will be some reluctant anti-trump allies sooner rather than later.

krev82 wrote:
a woman in the chicago theatre scene, BJ Colangelo wrote:

On my way to work this morning, I saw the grandmother of the Muslim family that lives a few houses down holding a blanket over her head like a scarf walking back from Walgreens. I wished her "Good Morning!" and smiled brightly. She started crying and thanked me for saying something nice. I got out of my car and asked if she was okay and she apologized for the blanket.

"If I cover my head with a blanket, it's easier for me to drop it down to wear it like a shawl. Maybe then people will think I'm just a Mexican and just yell about deportation instead of threatening to murder me."

Day Three.

Clearly the people threatening the grandmother were economically distressed and were worried she would ship their jobs overseas.

My 4 year old's conversation with his mom on how to handle Trump. (I do not personally condone violence except in self defense, but I have no control over the whims of an innocent child.)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/2a86Ee8.jpg)

When is your kid 35? I have a job I want to nominate him for.

Shadout wrote:

Lobbyists are going to have a great time with him. Make him change his opinion every 5 minute.
I wish someone could convince him about not screwing over the small attempts at fighting climate change.

Yep. I have two friends who are lobbyists at the state level and they've told me that there's no way congressmen could write their own legislation. The greener any government official is the more likely the laws are written by lobbyists.

oilypenguin wrote:
Shadout wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

Y'all worry too much.

He's an outsider. He's going to #draintheswamp.

He's going to completely change his planned healthcare adjustments to adhere to republican convention.

So if I understand this correctly, they pretty much combine the worst parts of Trumps plans with the worst parts of republican plans, removing the few positive things you can sometimes find in Trumps policy plans (since he seems to take ideas from lots of different places all at once).

Correct!

He won't be what his supporters thought he'd be.

At all.

I am willing to bet there will be some reluctant anti-trump allies sooner rather than later.

Probably later. One thing I've noticed with Brexit is no matter how dire and idiotic withdrawing from the EU looks (and it looks increasingly nuts with every passing day) the Brexiteers just dig their heels in deeper, insisting that everything will fix itself after Article 50 is declared because we have the EU over a barrel (we REALLY don't) that "the majority has spoken" (it hasn't) and ALL the post referendum problems are caused by "crybaby Remainers" bringing the country down...somehow....

So I wouldn't necessarily assume that Trump voters will be quick to see the light and when they do see problems, that they attribute them to the correct source.