Red_Dragon wrote: 
Took me a few beats but you have the Chrome extension that turns all pix of trump into a pic of a kitten?

All mention of climate change has been removed from the white house web site.

A fraud from Day One.

Slacker...

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
beautiful

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Oh, snap.

Nice filtered picture of kittens, by the way.  

We stand at the doorstep 
of a new millennium.
Our obligation is to reduce
our bloated government...
but at the same time,
restore its creative power...
to reinvigorate our society...
 
 
 

We stand at the birth
of a new millennium,
ready to unlock the mysteries
of space, to free the Earth
from the miseries of disease,
and to harness the energies,
industries and technologies
of tomorrow. 
 
 
 
Also this, which won't embed.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I agree, but I'm just exercising the "turn about is fair play" doctrine here. 

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
Listening to Obama's and Bush2's ethics lawyers on NPR yesterday, they both agree that the instant he took the oath of office, he's in violation of the emoluments clause* and several federal laws. I think 4 years is not likely.
 
*So often mis-typed as emollients that I always think of Mr. Trump's tiny hands when I hear that.

 Skydog wrote: 
perfect

 Proclivities wrote: 
I hear you.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
Oddly, it hasn't been brought up much, but he's the oldest person to assume the Presidency.  Almost a year older than Reagan was on his inauguration.  It doesn't really matter, especially in light of his other aspects, just a side-note.

Time Until Trump Leaves Office

 kurtster wrote: 
"Obama gave Big Pharma a wet kiss in April 2009, if you might remember.  It was his first sell out of us common people."

Welcome to politics, kurtster!  

I assume you're referring to Obama's decision to not seek legislation allowing re-importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and negotiating authority for Medicare regarding Part D drug prices. Obama and his team came to believe that without that concession to pharmaceutical companies, the ACA bill would not have their support and might very well not pass. Politics is the art of compromise; at times one side has to give up some of its goals to get the rest of them.



 Obama Was Pushed by Drug Industry, E-Mails Suggest

Just like that, Mr. Obama’s staff signaled a willingness to put aside support for the reimportation of prescription medicines at lower prices and by doing so solidified a compact with an industry the president had vilified on the campaign trail. Central to Mr. Obama’s drive to remake the nation’s health care system was an unlikely collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry that forced unappealing trade-offs. 

...

But the bargain was one that the president deemed necessary to forestall industry opposition that had thwarted efforts to cover the uninsured for generations. Without the deal, in which the industry agreed to provide $80 billion to expand coverage in exchange for protection from policies that would cost more, Mr. Obama calculated he might get nowhere.


Obama's abandonment of his goal to gain negotiating power over drug prices was necessary to pass the ACA, which helped tens of millions gain insurance coverage. Overall, I'd say he didn't sell out "us common people"—in fact, he worked his butt off for them and got them a huge win. You also might remember that Billy Tauzin was the GOP Congressman who stuck it to "us common people" in favor of pharmaceutical companies...and then quit Congress to head up PhRMA , a trade group representing pharmaceutical companies.


The Legacy of Billy Tauzin: The White House-PhRMA Deal

...PhRMA president, CEO and top lobbyist Billy Tauzin, a longtime Democratic member of Congress who switched party affiliations after Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994. By switching parties Tauzin was able to maintain his influence and even rose to be Chairman of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. Tauzin became the poster child of Washington’s mercenary culture. He crafted a bill to provide prescription drug access to Medicare recipients, one that provided major concessions to the pharmaceutical industry. Medicare would not be able to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs and reimportation of drugs from first world countries would not be allowed. A few months after the bill passed, Tauzin announced that he was retiring from Congress and would be taking a job helming PhRMA for a salary of $2 million.

Finally, kurtster, in response to my words "If you're worried about medical costs and prices, don't expect the Republicans to help you."

you wrote

"True that but Trump will.  One of his goals ...  to negotiate drug prices for government purchases such as for Medicare, Medicaid."




No disrespect, but how exactly are we supposed to know Trump's goals when 

1. he lies all the time

2. he changes his position on issues all the time

3. he offers nothing but the vaguest of promises

4. he has no health care reform plan?

Trump Taps Anti-Gay, Anti-Catholic, Anti-Mormon Pastor Robert Jeffress For Prayer Service | Right Wing Watch

(...)

Jeffress made waves in the last presidential election when, after endorsing Rick Perry, he told Christians that they shouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney because of his Mormon faith, which wasn’t too surprising since he once blasted Mormonism as “a cult” from “the pit of hell.”

Jeffress has similarly stated that Satan created Roman Catholicism, declared that Jews, Mormons, Muslims and gay people are all destined for hell and maintained that President Obama “is paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.”

No fan of the gay community, Jeffress believes that gays and lesbians are “perverse” people who are either pedophiles or likely to abuse children in the future; compared homosexuality to bestiality and called it “a miserable lifestyle”; accused gay people of using “brainwashing techniques” to have homosexuality “crammed down our throats”; said that gay people “are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine”; predicted that the gay rights movement “will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist”; and labeled homosexuality a “filthy practice” that will lead to the “implosion of our country.”

In a statement to CNN, Trump’s inauguration committee stated that “Pastor Jeffress is figure representing a diverse spectrum of Americans” and criticized “any attempt to vilify this religious leader” as “deeply disappointing and misplaced.”

 R_P wrote: 
It seems he might have lit himself on fire and then put it out before the help came.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article127340084.html

15 seconds of f(l)ame...
Protester allegedly sets himself on fire outside Trump’s DC hotel in protest

 kurtster wrote: 
I think so too, but my main hope is that progressive voters will refuse to support the Democrats until they start making themselves useful. If the Dem's loose, and loose, and then loose some more, the old ones might be replaced by politicians who actually are what they say they are.  Yes that is a long shot but it is the only thing I see which could help fix this problem. It is not just about money. High drug prices are a strategic tool of foreign policy, which is why the neocons are all for it no matter how it hurts ordinary citizens.

I think the result of the last presidential election was basically random. It showed what happens when both parties nominate a candidate who can't win. I honestly could not decide which of them was the lesser evil, so I abstained. Don't blame me, I voted for Bernie (TM).

 kcar wrote: 
True that but Trump will.  One of his goals ...  to negotiate drug prices for government purchases such as for Medicare, Medicaid.  Obama gave Big Pharma a wet kiss in April 2009, if you might remember.  It was his first sell out of us common people.