monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

For some damn reason, the shrill cries and denials of the cheese-eaters has not made this whole scandal just magically disappear, eh?

They shoulda thought a little further ahead when they were demanding investigations into russian connections, eh? Too late now, chumps.

A population density about 3.3 times that in the United States makes public transport a good deal more efficient. Beyond that the only thing that distinguished France is that about 80 % of their electrical power is supplied by Nuclear reactors, compared to about 28% here.

Which is why they should take the global lead on CC.

This really pisses me off. The Rice lynching party was a clear example of an opportunistic "let's-change-the-subject" program comprised of lies, smears, and innuendo.

President Trump’s promise to enact a sweeping overhaul of the tax code is in serious jeopardy nearly 100 days into his tenure, and his refusal to release his own tax returns is emerging as a central hurdle to another faltering campaign promise.

As he nears 100 days in the White House, Mr. Trump has demonstrated that while he won office on a populist message, he has not consistently governed that way. He rails against elites, including politicians, judges, environmentalists, Hollywood stars and the news media. But he has stocked his administration with billionaires and lobbyists while turning over his economic program to a Wall Street banker. He may be at war with the Washington establishment, but he has drifted away from some of the anti-establishment ideas that animated his campaign.

...Even some of Mr. Trump’s friends worry that he has gotten away from the policies that fueled his success in the campaign. “He ran as a populist but so far has governed as a traditionalist,” Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media, said. “They might break out and do some more populist stuff, but I wouldn’t call his presidency so far populist.”

Trump’s no populist. He’s a swamp monster.
See what President Trump has been doing since taking office

Benghazi-obsessed Trump MIA on key security post
After criticizing Hillary Clinton relentlessly, the president has yet to nominate a State Department official charged with keeping diplomats safe.

Trump is now the only leader in the Western world to congratulate Erdogan on the election results, effectively endorsing the outcome and extending the imprimatur of the United States government on democracy’s slow demise in Turkey.

...There’s no great mystery about Trump’s motivations: the White House wants Turkey’s help in Syria. But the U.S. president didn’t have to go quite as far as he did in touting the results, which had the unfortunate effect of reminding the world of Trump’s affinity for authoritarian rulers.

The most interesting policy argument in America right now is the debate between conservatives’ real position on health care and their fake position.

The fake, but popular, position goes something like this: Conservatives think everyone deserves affordable health insurance, but they disagree with Democrats about how to get everyone covered at the best price. This was the language that surrounded Paul Ryan and Donald Trump’s Obamacare alternative — an alternative that crashed and burned when it came clear that it would lead to more people with worse (or no) health insurance and higher medical bills.

Conservatives’ real, but unpopular, position on health care is quite different, and it explains their behavior much better. Their real position is that universal coverage is a philosophically unsound goal, and that blocking Democrats from creating a universal health care system is of overriding importance. To many conservatives, it is not the government’s role to make sure everyone who wants health insurance can get it, and it would be a massive step toward socialism if that changed.

This view provided the actual justification for Ryan and Trump’s Obamacare alternative — it’s why they designed a bill that led to more people with worse (or no) health insurance and higher medical bills, but that cut taxes for the rich and shrank the government’s role in providing health care.