The Trump implosion thread!

Just the latest Trump lie:

Quote: Trump

I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.

It's somewhat old news that the American Healthcare Act which passed the house would cut Medicaid funding by $880 BILLION over 10 years.

The newer news is the budget proposal he just made would cut Medicaid by $627 BILLION over 10 years.

How can anyone believe anything that he says? I'm not saying everything he says is a lie, I'm pretty sure he'll try to keep some of his promises, but I think for him promises are made to buy votes, and then be broken.

<sigh>

There's too much virtual ink spilled in the right wing press, especially among Trump's supporters and apologists alike, to the effect that three's no evidence that Golden Boy or his campaign colluded with Russia. They hail this fact as though it were at times an amazing discovery, and at times as though it were blatantly obvious.

Disclaimer: I don't want to see Trump removed from office. I want to see him beaten, humiliated and utterly destroyed.

So let me explain what it looks like:

1) There is no publicly available evidence of collusion, no. But that's why such things are investigated. There's never any evidence to charge anyone with anything prior to an investigation, be it a robbery or tampering with an election. There is enough reason to investigate, given Russia did try to tamper with the election and the trump campaign was the beneficiary. Had the GOP nominated anyone else, say Kasich (whom I think was the best in that field), an investigation of his campaign would have been in order, even if he'd lost the election to Clinton.

In other words, you don't need to prove guilt in a major crime before you're allowed to investigate whether a crime even took place.


2) A number of Trump aides, associates and even cabinet secretaries, "omitted" mention of contact with Russian officials during both background checks and confirmation hearings at Congress. Some may be deliberate, some may be innocent. The point is there are a lot of them at various levels. And that many of these same people were part of the Trump campaign or advised trump during the campaign. It looks like a cover-up. Now, no one covers up innocent actions, but plenty do try to cover up criminal acts or unseemly actions.

In simple terms: where there's a cover-up, there's probably a crime. so even if there had been no reason to suspect the Trump campaign of collusion with the Russians before, there sure was plenty of reasons after so many attempts at obfuscation, misdirection and cover-up.

3) Golden Boy himself has been exposed as trying to shut down the investigation on Flynn, his former National Security Advisor. Here's a rundown:

3.1) He asked FBI director Comey to "let go" of the Flynn investigation
3.2) He sought support from the head of the NSA and the Director of National Intelligence to quash the Flynn investigation. It was refused.
3.3) related to 3.2) he sought from the same people public statements of the fact that Trump himself wasn't being investigated (which of course would be untrue; an investigation of the trump campaign necessarily means an investigation of Trump, even if not a direct one). This was also refused.
3.4) Trump fired Comey due to the ongoing investigation of collusion between his campaign and Russia. He admitted this to the press, and to the Russian officials he met with in the White House.

4) Each of these acts might not be criminal offenses by themselves, except perhaps firing Comey, but they add up to a pattern of obstruction. A prosecutor at a court of law would have a field day securing a conviction.

4.1) Obstruction of justice is a felony. Given that Trump personally has apparently committed a criminal act to cover up an investigation of his campaign, one has to wonder: what crimes did his campaign, of Trump himself, commit, that he has to commit a different crime in an attempt to cover it up?

4.2) There may not be an original crime by the campaign or by Golden Boy. It may just be something embarrassing. Or it may just be that Trump doesn't want even a hint that he had help winning the election. It's not uncommon for criminals to commit a far more serious felony in an attempt to flee the police; like killing a witness to a robbery. Who knows? The point is in an attempt to quash or cover up the mere idea that Russian meddling helped him, or in an attempt to cover up actual malfeasance or a crime, trump has engaged in other crimes.

See?

Quote: Dalex64

Just the latest Trump lie:



It's somewhat old news that the American Healthcare Act which passed the house would cut Medicaid funding by $880 BILLION over 10 years.

The newer news is the budget proposal he just made would cut Medicaid by $627 BILLION over 10 years.

How can anyone believe anything that he says? I'm not saying everything he says is a lie, I'm pretty sure he'll try to keep some of his promises, but I think for him promises are made to buy votes, and then be broken.

He wants to cut FEDERAL funding of Medicaid. If a state wants to include every citizen in Medicaid, go for it. Just pay for it with state tax dollars, not federal. I am sure you are aware that Medicaid heavy populations are in states that did not vote for DJT.
Not saying it is good, but letting the states decide for themselves if their own states taxpayers money should be used for the huge Medicaid expansion will make those in those blue states actually consider if it is worth it. When everyone else is paying for it, or just adding to the deficit, it is easy for the blue staters....

Quote: SOOPOO

He wants to cut FEDERAL funding of Medicaid. If a state wants to include every citizen in Medicaid, go for it. Just pay for it with state tax dollars, not federal. I am sure you are aware that Medicaid heavy populations are in states that did not vote for DJT.
Not saying it is good, but letting the states decide for themselves if their own states taxpayers money should be used for the huge Medicaid expansion will make those in those blue states actually consider if it is worth it. When everyone else is paying for it, or just adding to the deficit, it is easy for the blue staters....

It is disingenuous to suggest that cutting federal funding and leaving it up to the states to decide does not meet the definition of cutting funding.

All I am talking about are his promises, and him breaking them, not the way things should be funded or run.

I wonder if Pope Francis I took the opportunity to sprinkle holy water on Golden Boy, while saying "The power of Christ compels you."

Quote: Nareed

I wonder if Pope Francis I took the opportunity to sprinkle holy water on ...

Quote: Dalex64

It is disingenuous to suggest that cutting federal funding and leaving it up to the states to decide does not meet the definition of cutting funding.

All I am talking about are his promises, and him breaking them, not the way things should be funded or run.

I did not suggest that Trump's proposal is not a funding cut. If he made a promise to not cut funding of Medicaid, then he is breaking that promise. If you can show a link I'd appreciate it. My point is that a funding cut is supported by many Americans (the ones who pay taxes). The states would have to make it up by raising state taxes, as they cannot have a 20 trillion dollar deficit and ignore it like the Feds do.

Quote: SOOPOO

I did not suggest that Trump's proposal is not a funding cut. If he made a promise to not cut funding of Medicaid, then he is breaking that promise. If you can show a link I'd appreciate it.

He said this a million times on the campaign trail...

Quote: Pacomartin

Did you see the rest of the photo, with Melania and Ivanka dressed as widow and bereaved daughter? A little wishful thinking?

Quote: SOOPOO

I did not suggest that Trump's proposal is not a funding cut. If he made a promise to not cut funding of Medicaid, then he is breaking that promise. If you can show a link I'd appreciate it. My point is that a funding cut is supported by many Americans (the ones who pay taxes). The states would have to make it up by raising state taxes, as they cannot have a 20 trillion dollar deficit and ignore it like the Feds do.

In addition to is own tweets, of which there were several different ones, here is an aggregation of the promise:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1350/make-no-cuts-medicaid/

links to the sources that article quotes are at the bottom.

Related, this article discusses the pattern of converting federal programs to block grants, and then eliminating the block grants:
http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/trump-budget-would-cut-block-grants-dramatically-underscoring-danger-of