sunnykerr

I think it was Kasich... Anyway, during the GOP run to the candidacy for the U.S. presidency, one of the candidates that didn't make it revealed they'd been approached by the Trump camp with the idea that this person would run as Trump's VP candidate and that they'd be in charge of foreign policy. Whomever it was turned down the offer, so the Trump camp came back with "he could be in charge of domestic policy, too". At that point, Kasich (if it was Kasich) asked them "if I'm in charge of foreign and domestic policy, what does Trump plan to do as President?" The answer that was given to him? "Make America great again."

All of that to say that many observers believe Mike Pence is already in charge of way more than we officially know, you know? Like, how else do you explain POTUS having that much time to tweet at all hours of the day? The job of President is actually very time consuming.

I'm SO on board with drone technology being used to bring medicine and other ressources to First Nations communities in the United States and, please, Canada. We owe them better services than they're getting.

I've seen bits of a video of a U.S. teacher trying to forcefully cut students' hair. I hope it's the same one, but I won't watch either. The point being that it must have been a pretty traumatic experience for all the students present.

Well, I think what happened with the Brexit vote is that most people were always against it, but they either didn't vote or the way the voting districts are demarcated gave the "Leave" side a false advantage. At this point, though, the EU's kicking them out, so all that the UK can do is try and negotiate a deal of some sort. Because, as anyone with half-a-brain could have told everyone who voted for Leave, the economic consequences alone will be pretty harsh: Pound falls further after Brexit vote delayed

Nearly 85 per cent of UN nations back migration deal; not U.S. Now, here's another classic example of why most of us tend to give the U.S. the side-eye when it goes on the usual "we're champions of individual rights" claim. The U.S. is not the champion of individual rights. Unless you're rich and/or powerful. In the U.S., rich white people will always have their individual rights. If that's not you, good luck Chuck. Of course, this isn't to say that the rest of us do any better. But at least we try or pretend to try.

Anti-Semitism pervades European life, says EU report Again, not shocking, though I wish it were. We've grown complacent to outrages and have bought into the crazy insanity that the majorities have to be defended against the minorities. No wonder minorities are getting discriminated against.

canflam

Thanks for all this news. I wasn't online yesterday & was wondering what you thought of Trump & Tillerson's ''war of words'' I guess it can be called. Here's more on it from The Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/rex-ti...illegal-things

Trump called Rex Tillerson ''dumb as a rock'' & ''lazy has hell''. OK. Now I know this is after Rex said Trump is undisciplined & doesn't like to read. The thing is Rex Tillerson is I think pretty smart actually. I mean he didn't become CEO of Exxon Mobile by just luck if you want to call it that. Calling him lazy also seems odd, since it was Trump last year who was starting Twitter battle with freaking Kim Jong-un instead of doing diplomacy with the D.P.R.K. Also, if Trump thinks Rex Tillerson is so dumb, why did he hire him to begin with?

sunnykerr

Trump sure succeeds at getting people to focus on things that don't matter, doesn't he?

Because, meanwhile: Trump threatens government shutdown in showdown with Democrats Things didn't go his way. (I mean, he's the one who made the last election a referendum on his reign, isn't he?) So now he's threatening to shut down the government, which we know if the GOP's favourite tactic when they don't get their way.

Another thing he's paying zero attention to: No flood of extremist returnees to Canada expected, federal report says I think we all know he's talking out of his butt any time he discusses immigration. I guess I'm just proud to live in a country that won't take his nonsense as fact.

Because this is what happens to us when we act on the U.S.'s behalf: Ex-diplomat who worked on Trudeau's Hong Kong visit detained in China You asked us to detain the Huawei director, so we did. And now this guy's detained in freaking China.

There You'll Be

Nancy Pelosi rocked handling Trump. Chuck Schumer did too-but he can't be trusted. He's given too much to the GOP, and Trump. Trump is supposed to look out for America, not hurt Americans to serve his own ego wall. A wall that is utterly ridiculous.

I'm surprised we are screwing Canada and its citizens. I think y'all really need to start really thinking about moves that are made to help the US. Maybe your leaders do consider it seriously, but, maybe they need to think harder. Because I don't see us doing anything to help get him released.

Michael Cohen has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. I wonder how long it would have been if he hadn't decided against "taking a bullet for Trump". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46546238 He helped betray our country, so it's nowhere near enough, but I'm guessing the return on his information will help imprison the higher ups.

Of course a man won't support Theresa May. The man who bailed on accountability for his part in the Brexit disaster, and left her holding the bag. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-po...eporting-story I'm not sure what a "confidence" vote is, but I'm reading that it's about supporting her, having confidence in, her leadership?

canflam

Well, 1 of the noticeable things that happened in that meeting on camera that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Pence, & Trump had this week was that Pence didn't say anything during that whole conversation. It was quite odd. It makes me wonder was he even there? Very odd if you didn't see it yet.

sunnykerr

Michael Cohen probably didn't get a sentence that you'd expect from the crimes he's committed, but he did help the prosecution... or so I hear. So that's how you get time lopped off your sentence.

Kim, a confidence vote is something that happens in a parliamentary democracy. Theresa May is prime minister of Englans because she's the leader of the party that had the most votes at the last election, not because of a different election for her specific job. Possibly, her party didn't get the majority (or 50% + 1) of the votes. So the other parties can band together and call for a no-confidence vote on her leadership. Had she lost that no-confidence vote, her party would have lost control of government and she would have lost her job as prime minister.

In other words, everyone hates her right now, but they want her in charge when the clusterfudge of Brexit happens, because it's gonna be a massive mess and England is going to experience serious financial consequences. So, you knwow, no one wants to be in charge when that happens, because they'll get blamed for it. That's all that was.

Meanwhile, this is what Canada gets for "obeying" the U.S.'s request to exact an arrest warrant on the Huawei director (whose been released on bail, by the way): Meng Wanzhou: Trump could intervene in case of Huawei executive He claims he'll get involved to protect the trade agreement with China. This is the same man who was all about tarrifs a second ago. And, again, we only arrested her because you guys asked. So, you know... keep up, POTUS.

Speaking of: U.S. weather agency chief: I've never briefed Trump on climate change So why is anyoen taking the claims of that bloated Fuzzy Peach seriously? The man doesn't believe in science. Science!!!

canflam

What was up with that courtroom sketch drawing of Michael Cohen this week? Wow. Did you see that? I guess Cohen got off light. Rudy Giuliani called him a ''serial liar'' & ''feels bad'' for Cohen. Watching this play out makes me wonder who taught these people how to be criminals? Geez.

sunnykerr

I did not see that, no.

canflam

There You'll Be

Sunny, Michael Cohen was also was in charge of the RNC (Republican National Committe), so I'm guessing he's provided stuff there, too. I'll trade of prison time for traitors, for them helping take down the higher ups.

Thanks for explaining confidence voting.

Not surprising Trump screwed you all, again. You are an ally after all. If only Canada could slam the door to the US.

Meanwhile the rest of the world is working on a Climate Change agreement. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46554254 They are working on a decent agreement, while the Trump administration's intentions are to rollback the Clean Water Act. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-...211-story.html

I mean, do they not realize that their future generations are going to have to live on this planet? Or, are they just so out of touch they have zero clue about what-what the results will be? Or both. Is it all about money from companies making more money, therefore donating more?

ETA forgot this. Maria Butina plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States, and is now co-operating with investigators. She's the Russian woman who helped funnel Russian money through the NRA to contribute to the GOP and Trump. I guess that's why the NRA donated an unheard of $30 million to his campaign. https://www.motherjones.com/politics...piracy-russia/

Also, the Trump inauguration spending is being investigated. There is nothing he touches that isn't corrupt. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-i...rs-11544736455

canflam

It's just now being investigated by someone? I do feel bad for Michael Cohen's family. The only clip it seems that's been aired of them is him helping is daughter walk on crutches to a courthouse. Cohen probably should've known better than being associated with Don Trump I suppose. It is odd how Trump does seem so disloyal to people that were apparently loyal to him. I guess he's still loyal to Paul Manafort though.

sunnykerr

I think it's normal to feel bad for the families of criminals. But it is what it is.

Kim, the thing I hadn't realized is that the no-confidence vote against Theresa May was from her own party. So, this wasn't a vote where the other parties in government were testing her leadership. It was a vote where her own party was saying "maybe we need a new leader," which is even worse. But, again, no one wanted to be the one left holding the reins, so it came to nothing.

Trump keeps screwing Canada over. With NAFTA, with our response to Saudi Arabia from way back last summer when they jailed Raif Badawi's sister and now with asking us to detain the Huawei director and then washing his hands of our citizens being jailed by China in retaliation. Not to mention all the crap with the environment.

Trump's the one who rolled back Obama's regulations on farm-water quality. And, a few months later, it's "don't eat the romaine, it's full of crap." Guess who eats California romaine? Canada. And the Clean Water Act is how we stopped getting acid rain on the regular up here. God, I hope that doesn't start again.

You had to know there was something to the Maria Butina arrest. Sometimes they overshoot the reality when they arrest someone with charges like those, but there's no smoke without a fire, you know? Besides, it's not like it's news at this point that Russia, the NRA and Trump all control the elections.

Trump's cabinet is facing changes, again: Trump appoints Mick Mulvaney as acting chief of staff but also Embattled interior secretary Ryan Zinke steps down after series of scandals. I mean, he's essentially playing musical chairs with his staff. I don't know where I saw this, but someone observed that he has turned U.S. government and the White House into a reality tv show, and I have to say that the comment seems accurate to me. I mean, where else to you get so many people whose only commonality is an utter lack of ethics and accountability than on a reality show?

There's an upcoming lawsuit in Britain over immigrant victims of crime that I want to hear more of: Police face first ‘super-complaint’ over immigration referrals I doubt something similar will make its way to North America any time soon, but I was pretty shocked (in a good way) that a Western democracy seems to realize that crimes committed against even illegal immigrants should be treated just as seriously as any other crime for the sake of law and order in the nation. So I hope this follows the judicial route and comes out with good results.

canflam

Big news about healthcare here in the U.S.:

Ruling to strike down health law puts GOP in a quandary


By: RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge's ruling that the Obama health law is unconstitutional has landed like a stink bomb among Republicans, who've seen the politics of health care flip as Americans increasingly value the overhaul's core parts, including protections for pre-existing medical conditions and Medicaid for more low-income people.

While the decision by the Republican-appointed judge in Texas was sweeping, it has little immediate practical impact because the Affordable Care Act remains in place while the legal battle continues, possibly to the Supreme Court.

HealthCare.gov , the government's site for signing up, was taking applications Saturday, the deadline in most states for enrolling for coverage next year, and those benefits will take effect as scheduled Jan. 1. Medicaid expansion will proceed in Virginia, one of the latest states to accept that option. Employers will still be required to cover the young adult children of workers, and Medicare recipients will still get discounted prescription drugs.

But Republicans, still stinging from their loss of the House in the midterm elections, are facing a fresh political quandary after U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor said the entire 2010 health law was invalid.

Warnings about the Texas lawsuit were part of the political narrative behind Democrats' electoral gains. Health care was the top issue for about one-fourth of voters in the November election, ahead of immigration and jobs and the economy, according to VoteCast, a nationwide survey for The Associated Press. Those most concerned with health care supported Democrats overwhelmingly.

In his ruling, O'Connor reasoned that the body of the law could not be surgically separated from its now-meaningless requirement for people to have health insurance.

"On the assumption that the Supreme Court upholds, we will get great, great health care for our people," President Donald Trump told reporters during a visit Saturday to Arlington National Cemetery. "We'll have to sit down with the Democrats to do it, but I'm sure they want to do it also."

Economist Gail Wilensky, who oversaw the Medicare program for President George H.W. Bush, said the state attorneys general from GOP strongholds who filed the lawsuit really weren't very considerate of their fellow Republicans.

"The fact that they could cause their fellow Republicans harm did not seem to bother them," said Wilensky, a critic of President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement.

"The people who raised it are a bunch of guys who don't have serious election issues, mostly from states where saber-rattling against the ACA is fine," she added. "How many elections do you have to get battered before you find another issue?"

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, top policy adviser to Republican John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, said he was struck by the relative silence from top Republicans after the ruling issued.

A prominent example: "The House was not party to this suit, and we are reviewing the ruling and its impact," said AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Republicans are "going to have to figure out what to do," Holtz-Eakin said. "If it's invalidated by the courts, it's not ... 'We're going to do it our way.' They're going to have to get together with the Democrats in the House."

The GOP's failed effort last year to repeal the law showed there's no consensus within the party itself.

Trump tweeted Friday night that "Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions."

"Get it done!" he told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is expected to be speaker in January. But Trump had no plan of his own to offer in the 2017 "repeal and replace" debate.

Two top House Republicans issued diverging statements.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said "Obamacare is a broken law," but added, "I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure America's healthcare system works for all Americans."

The third-ranking GOP leader, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, praised the judge's ruling and made no mention of working with Democrats, whom he accused of "running a fear-mongering campaign" to win control of the House last month.

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that if the law is ultimately overturned, then members of Congress from both parties should start over, working together. He urged maintaining provisions such as protections for pre-existing medical conditions, no lifetime dollar limits on insurance coverage, and allowing young adults to stay on parental coverage until age 26.

Democrats were united in condemning the ruling.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said voters will remember. "What will stand is Republican ownership of such a harmful and disastrous lawsuit," Schumer tweeted.

The next chapter in the legal case could take months to play out.

A coalition of Democratic state officials led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra will appeal O'Connor's decision, most likely to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans.

"The legal merits of the case are frivolous," said University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley. "The notion that the unconstitutionality of an unenforceable mandate somehow requires toppling the entire ACA is bonkers." Bagley supports the law generally, but has been critical of how it has been put into effect.

Trump does not have an alternative idea for healthcare.

There You'll Be

You know, our government is being run on Twitter. From Trump, the VP, etc., on both sides of the aisle. It's insane.

At any rate, the ruling will be overturned. The problem is, they don't want to have coverage for pre-exitsting conditions, and even things like pregnancy, and, well, all women's issues. Including birth control. It's outrageous. I notice no male enhancements, or impotency issues, are on the pre-existing conditions list. I suspect most Trump voters haven't seen the list of what won't be considered pre-existing, because I'm willing to bet, most of them have them. Also, the House and Senate all have the ACA coverage for their insurance.

Sunny, thank you. I didn't realize it was Theresa May's own party. That's gotta suck.

I'm interested to see where investigations into crimes against migrants. I will never understand how people don't look out for any other person.

Speaking of, Trump is trying to deport Vietnamese immigrants who have been here over 20 years. https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18138...eport-refugees Is there a place lower than hell for him?

Gotta worry about anyone who says being the new POTUS chief of staff as an honor. http://https://www.bbc.com/news/worl...anada-46575404 Mick Mulvaney was already part of the administration. He must be desperate, because several people turned down Trump's offer of the job, in humiliating fashion, publicly. But, hey, it's not Ivanka or Jared.

sunnykerr

I'm not sure if there's a place lower than hell for Trump. I don't particularly believe there is a hell, so... But I do wish he'd stick to his own lane, whatever it is. I mean, it's certainly NOT this: Trump 'to review' Mathew Golsteyn Afghan murder case It's a murder case the army investigated. If POTUS gets involved, it amounts to chain of command interference, which means the charges are thrown out. Now, I don't know whether this guy did what he's accused of or not. Maybe he deserves to walk free, maybe he doesn't. The whole point here is that I can't say, and I'm pretty darn sure that Donald Trump can't say anymore than I can. I mean, does he have any particular knowledge of law? Of army rules and regulations? Of what it's like to be in a combat situation? This involvedment is nothing but hubris and none of us needs that.

And, speaking of Trump and his hubris, remember how I mentioned that his deregulation of farm-water safety rules had led to the problem with romaine we experienced a while back? Well, turns out, it's still a problem: U.S. lettuce, cauliflower products recalled in Canada

Also, just so we're clear, a lot of Democrats were elected in the recent midterm elections, but don't anyone start thinking that's led to a balance of power or an ability to limit the GOP's determination to ruin your country, the planet and everyone that's not them: Wisconsin's Scott Walker strips incoming Democrat's powers That's called subverting the people's will, my friends. That's not just gerrymandering. This is outright seeing the results of an election and making sure they don't mean anything.