Horsefeathers

This one takes some sort of cake for hubris. Your President is now blaming democrats for the failure of his precious health bill.

Dems who were never once approached for help by the administration, an administration that would never even consider fixing the problems of Obamacare because they were going to repeal it and replace it and it was going to be so easy.

Guess what, as I called it, it wasn't easy. Because Republican moderates and the hard core conservatives loathe each other like nobody's business. They agreed on one thing, disliking Obama but there is really no ideological there there.

So this is how the great legacy begins. Create a bill that gets 17% support from the American people, which gave rich folks a fat tax break and started the ball rolling to destroy Medicare and leave 24 million American without health care.

The Congressional Budget Office assessed the most recent version of the bill and concluded that it would still take coverage away from 24 million people, like the original version of the bill, but would cost an additional $186 billion to do so. A bill so startlingly bad and ill conceived that it had to be pulled so that the GOP could stem political fallout. Thank god the American people saw through it.

Can't wait to see what he does next.

Unfortunately Obamacare can not survive without the mandate, which Trump is intent on killing. So he will have a direct hand in its failure but will certainly take no personal responsibility for its demise. Because his kind never does.

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Gee Wilbur.

Bankruptcy King Wilbur Ross

Did you read the article in the Guardian about Trump getting loans from a German bank financed by Russian criminal money? Quite interesting. See Bank that lent $300m to Trump linked to Russian money laundering scam.

The German bank that loaned $300m (£260m) to Donald Trump played a prominent role in a money laundering scandal run by Russian criminals with ties to the Kremlin, the Guardian can reveal.
Deutsche Bank is one of dozens of western financial institutions that processed at least $20bn – and possibly more – in money of “criminal origin” from Russia.
The scheme, dubbed “the Global Laundromat”, ran from 2010 to 2014.
Law enforcement agencies are investigating how a group of politically well-connected Russians were able to use UK-registered companies to launder billions of dollars in cash. The companies made fictitious loans to each other, underwritten by Russian businesses.

And who ran the show for Trump with the Russian oligarchs? None other than Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Wilbur Ross, the Trump administration’s new commerce secretary, presided over a deal with a Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin while serving in his previous role as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus.
The transaction raises questions about Ross’s tenure at the Cypriot bank and his ties to politically connected Russian oligarchs. It comes amid confirmation by the FBI that it is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow to influence the outcome of the presidential election.

He's a real beaut, old Wilbur.

Ross is an old school Wall Streeter, someone tied up in their secret societies and rituals. He’s a private-equity baron who scoops up failing companies (much like Mnuchin did with IndyMac), squeezes every last nickel out of them by firing workers and shipping business lines offshore, and manages to profit in the exchange, usually by navigating the companies through bankruptcy. His firm was in charge of the Sago Mine in West Virginia when it blew up, killing 12 workers; the mine had a history of safety problems. He moved Cone Mills overseas, eliminating about 75 percent of its US jobs. He invested in the Greek banking system and encouraged the fire sale of the country’s assets.

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Guess Steve Bannon is taking names of recalcitrant no votes. Let the internecine bloodshed begin.

Aubrey Beardsley

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Donald's worst deal. Must read article on Trump's deal with the Azerbaijanis at the New Yorker.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization lawyer, did not deny that there was corruption involved in the project. “I’m not going to sit here and defend the Mammadovs,” he said. But, from a legal standpoint, he argued, the Trump Organization was blameless. In his opinion, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act doesn’t apply to the Baku deal, even if corruption occurred. “We didn’t own it,” he said of the hotel. “We had no equity. We didn’t control the project. The flow of funds is in the wrong direction.” He added, “We did not pay any money to anyone. Therefore, it could not be a violation of the F.C.P.A.”
“No, that’s just wrong,” Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School, who specializes in the F.C.P.A., said. “You can’t go into business deals in Azerbaijan assuming that you are immune from the F.C.P.A.” She added, “Nor can you escape liability by looking the other way. The entire Baku deal is a giant red flag—the direct involvement of foreign government officials and their relatives in Azerbaijan with ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Corruption warning signs are rarely more obvious.”In May, 2012, the month the Baku deal was finalized, the F.C.P.A. was evidently on Donald Trump’s mind. In a phone-in appearance on CNBC, he expressed frustration with the law. “Every other country goes into these places and they do what they have to do,” he said. “It’s a horrible law and it should be changed.” If American companies refused to give bribes, he said, “you’ll do business nowhere.” He continued, “There is one answer—go to your room, close the door, go to sleep, and don’t do any deals, because that’s the only way. The only way you’re going to do it is the other way.”

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The late Alexander Litvinenko

Russians have been busy. Here are 10 critics of Vladimir Putin who died violently or in suspicious ways