monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) in a recent radio interview said he is concerned that increased Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids under the Trump administration could cause already high tensions in his city to boil over.

“If something goes wrong, I fear a tinderbox out there, you know where people will suddenly say ‘no’ and try to defend. You know, keep that person from being taken,” Garcetti told Latino USA. “That’s a very dangerous situation."

Arab states in row with Qatar laud Trump's supportive stance

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Arab states that have laid virtual siege on Qatar praised U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday for enthusiastically supporting their stance when he called on the Gulf state to stop "the funding of terrorism."

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, Trump said Qatar "has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level. "he time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding — they have to end that funding — and its extremist ideology in terms of funding," Trump said.

Qatar has ties with Iran and has supported Islamist groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood.

Yes, I agree and you are right......McMasters and Mattis ate both highly regarded by DOD and the Intel community. I hope they can steer this ship, but so far they are attempting to appease the ego of a nutcase. However I don't think all hope is lost, there are too many people who have been serving in various Agencies who have devoted their lives to keeping america safe. Trump is an infected carbuncle on democracy, it won't last forever.

It’s the Olympics for Trump Apologists

Well, OK, then!

Quote:

Immigration arrests soar under Trump

Federal immigration agents are arresting more than 400 immigrants a day, a sharp leap from last year that reflects one of President Trump’s most far-reaching campaign promises.

In Trump’s first 100 days in office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 41,318 immigrants, up 37.6 percent over the same period last year, the agency said Wednesday. Almost 3 out of 4 of those arrested have criminal records, including gang members and fugitives wanted for murder.

41,000 fewer criminals on the streets already. This will soon free up a lot of cops to start rounding up cheese-eaters, I figure.

Krupke

Amid growing controversy, Sessions abruptly cancels public testimony

Donald Trump is not a fit and proper person to hold the office of president of the United States. That is a view widely held in the US and among America’s European allies, by politicians and diplomats in government and by rank-and-file voters repelled by his gross egoism, narcissism and what Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has rightly termed his “stupefying ignorance”. It is a view we wholeheartedly share and have repeatedly expressed, before and after Trump’s narrow election victory last November.

Trump is an habitual liar, as evidenced again in last week’s sworn congressional testimony by his sacked FBI director, James Comey. Trump is a bully, as Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, among many others, can testify from personal experience. And Trump is a coward. When put on the spot, as over his authorisation of a disastrous special forces raid in Yemen in January or his bogus claim that Britain’s GCHQ bugged him, his craven instinct was to shift blame to others.
Since taking office, Trump’s dangerous, loutish and irresponsible behaviour has exceeded his critics’ worst nightmares. He has fuelled Islamist extremism by escalating US military involvement in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, at a rising cost in civilian lives. He has exacerbated divisions by his attempts to ban Muslims travelling to the US. He threatens war with Iran while cutting foreign aid and cosying up to autocrats and human rights abusers in Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Turkey.

The list of Trump’s ill-judged actions, reckless comments and destructive policies goes on and on. For Britain, this phenomenon poses particular challenges. The president’s personal failings and damaging policies are combining to threaten Britain’s national interests in fundamental ways. And unless Britain’s leaders and the British people, demonstrating their bottomless opposition in inventive ways, are prepared to stand up to him, the “special relationship” with the US, long seen as the bedrock of this country’s security and prosperity, may be at serious risk.

The Trump threat to Britain takes many forms. It was vividly illustrated by his gratuitous attack on Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, in the wake of the London Bridge atrocities. Trump was not only offensive and wrong. He also showed total lack of understanding of the solidarity required of democratic leaders in such situations.

Trump threatens Britain’s security by refusing explicitly to endorse solemn US treaty obligations pledging the Nato alliance to treat an attack on one member as an attack on all. Trump’s ambiguous flirtation with the aggressive regime of Vladimir Putin, despite what Comey has called irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling in last year’s US election, is inimical to British and European democracy and defence.

British interests are also threatened by his arrogant, unilateral trashing of the global Paris climate change pact. Trump’s deliberate efforts to pick a fight with Germany over trade, and his pathetic, alpha male one-upmanship towards France’s younger French president, Emmanuel Macron, is another disservice to a US-allied, Brexit Britain struggling to remake its relations with the EU. If Trump’s insulting treatment of Sadiq Khan was prompted by the fact the mayor is a Muslim (a suspicion rejected by the White House as “ridiculous”), then it is reasonable to wonder whether his repeated rudeness to Merkel stems from the fact she is a woman. Misogyny is a way of life for Trump, as numerous women testified during last year’s campaign.

Trump’s patronising, manipulative treatment of Theresa May during her White House visit in January, particularly when, uninvited, he took her by the hand, is another aspect of the overall problem. Plainly, Trump is no friend to Britain. On the contrary, he is a menace. His divisive policies, his authoritarian tendencies, his disrespect for the US constitution, his ignorance and fear of the world, his mendaciousness and grubby personal instincts amount to a clear and present danger to British interests.

Trump – not the US – is a hostile, dangerous power. May, or her successor, should recognise the threat he poses and rescind his invitation to make a state visit to Britain this autumn. Contrary to what the two-faced Johnson says, there is every reason to block this visit. The prospect of this loathsome man being afforded the full honours of the British state is quite simply disgusting. It is an affront to the British people and British values. It could cause lasting damage to the Anglo-American relationship. Assuming he is not impeached first, oafish Trump must be told: you are not welcome here.

what Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has rightly termed his “stupefying ignorance”.

Health care programs usually grow faster than other government services. Republicans want to break that decades long trend, although they'd leave Medicare largely untouched for now.

The talk is all about repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act. But the GOP's American Health Care Act would have lasting impact on Medicaid, the federal-state program covering about 70 million low-income and disabled people, including many elderly nursing home residents.

Republicans would phase out richer financing that the Obama-era law provides states that expand Medicaid to cover low-income adults. More significantly, the GOP would limit future federal spending for the broader program. Medicaid has been an open-ended entitlement, with the feds matching part of what every state spends, about 60 percent on average.

The House-passed GOP bill would cut $834 billion from projected federal Medicaid spending over a decade, leading to a reduction of about 17 percent in people covered by the program, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

"There is no capacity at the state level to pick up the slack if the federal government withdraws its commitment," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said at a recent budget hearing. Some Republican governors also question the plan.