Trump continues to destroy America
By DOUG THOMPSON
FUBAR, Opinion, White House
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn). (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Donald John Trump, the schizophrenic psychotic who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with a lease he never qualified for or deserves, proved once again Thursday that he doesn't give a damn about the idiots who flocked to his rallies and believed his lies.
With his latest "executive order," Trump wiped out protections for preexisting conditions, increased healthcare deductible to obscene levels, sent premiums soaring and destroyed basic coverage requirements for millions of Americans.
The moron who promised "affordable health care" for "all Americans" instead is destroying it.
After signing his executive order, Trump's current acting head of Health & Human Services ordered a complete and immediate stop to Affordable Care Act subsidies that provided cost-sharing payments that help lower-income Americans.
The move gives insurance companies a chance to back out of any coverage in 2018, leaving millions without insurance.
Open enrollment for 2018 begins on Nov. 1 for a shortened period imposed by Trump to further damage the Affordable Care Act. Many Americans across the nation could find no insurance to apply for.
Trump and his ragtag collection of Republican "yes boss" members of the House and Senate said the ACA, also known as Obamacare, "implode."
To make sure that would happen, the GOP and Trump killed promotion programs and wiped out other incentives for those either seeking or wanting to continue the insurance.
ACA did not "implode." It was sabotaged by an unqualified President and a useless Congress.
Trump is an out-of-control madman who signs "executive orders" that courts find unconstitutional and he continues his madness because he doesn't care about the nation he swore to serve.
Among Republicans, only Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is leaving Congress at the end of his current term, is speaking out about the peril of Trump. He says White House staff spends most of its time trying to keep Trump under some semblance of control.
"I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it's a situation of trying to contain him," Corker says. "I don't know why the president tweets out things that are not true. We could be headed toward World War III with the kind of comments that he's making."
Writes Michael Gerson of The Washington Post:
The time for whispered criticisms and quiet snickering is over. The time for panic and decision is upon us. The thin line of sane, responsible advisers at the White House — such as Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — could break at any moment. Already, Trump's protests of eternal love for Kelly are a bad sign for the general's future. The American government now has a dangerous fragility at its very center. Its welfare is as thin as an eggshell — perhaps as thin as Donald Trump's skin.
Any elected Republican who shares Corker's concerns has a political and moral duty to state them in public. If Corker is correct, many of his colleagues do have such fears. Their silence is deafening and damning.
Deafening, damning, irresponsible and scary
DOUG THOMPSON
Doug Thompson published his first story and photo at age 11 -- a newspaper article about racism and the Klan in Prince Edward County, VA, in 1958. From that point on, he decided to become a newspaperman and did just that -- reporting news and taking photos full-time at his hometown paper, becoming the youngest full-time reporter at The Roanoke Times in Virginia in 1965, and spent most of the past 58+ years covering news around the country and the globe. After a short sabbatical as a political operative in Washington in the 1980s, he returned to the news profession. Today, he is a contract reporter/photojournalist for Lee Enterprises, shoots news and sports video for area TV stations, and owns Capitol Hill Blue.