Month: September 2018

Donkey Feed September 6th, 2018

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By Michael Bryan

Welcome back to your Feed for the Week! Slip off your shoes and strap on the feedbag! It’s time for some Feed…

First, some video. Former Reagan Budget Director Stockman warns that the Trump economy is not nearly as strong as it might seem and Trump’s policies are making it worse:

Now some graphical goodness showing just how unbalanced in favor of the wealthy the GOP tax cut was, and how much worse it grows over time:

Next, the book everyone will be talking about this week and next:

Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, will drop on Sept. 11th, everyone will be talking about it (WaPo), and it is already breaking news (CNN), and yet more news (Daily Kos).

Now, just click Continue Reading for the rest of the Feed…

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‘The call is coming from inside the (White) House!’ A bombshell op-ed at The Times

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Bob Woodward’s new book on the Trump administration, Fear: Trump in the White House reveals “an administrative coup d’etat” in White House.

Today we learn, like the horror movie When a Stranger Calls (1979), “The call is coming from inside the (White) House!”

In an unprecedented move, the New York Times has published an op-ed written by an unnamed (anonymous) senior administration official claiming that advisers to the president were deliberately trying to thwart his “misguided impulses” from the inside. Times Publishes Op-Ed From Member of ‘Resistance’ Within Administration. Trump Calls It ‘Gutless’.

Here is this unprecedented essay. I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration:

The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

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GOP AG’s in court today trying to take health care away from millions of Americans

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Evil GOP bastards never stop trying to take health care away from millions of Americans. Today, 20 state attorneys general from red states are in a Texas court that they forum shopped to find a conservative activist judge who may rule in their favor, arguing on specious grounds that the GOP’s tax scam bill this year –  which eliminated the individual mandate – now invalidates the entirety of the Affordable Act aka “Obamacare” (something Rep. Martha McSally (above) and the GOP Congress failed to do by legislation thanks to the late Sen. John McCain).

If these evil GOP bastards were to eventually succeed on this specious argument all the way to the Supreme Court, millions of Americans would lose their health insurance, in particular those with preexisting health conditions who would no longer be protected.

The Los Angeles Times reports, Obamacare returns to court in a new test for the 2010 law and millions who rely on it:

The long national legal war over the Affordable Care Act will resume in a Texas courtroom Wednesday as a federal judge hears arguments in a new lawsuit seeking to wipe out the 2010 law, often called Obamacare.

If successful, the suit — brought by 20 Republican governors and state attorneys general — could upend health coverage for tens of millions of Americans who have come to depend on the law.

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George Cunningham, chairman of the Grand Canyon Institute

State pays $10,700 subsidy for private school students — 75 percent more than their public school peers

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George Cunningham, chairman of the Grand Canyon Institute
“Arizona can’t afford fiscally irresponsible private school subsidies that siphon money away from its public education system,” says George Cunningham, chairman of the Grand Canyon Institute

According to a new policy paper, Arizona’s two private school subsidy programs cost the state $10,700 on average per regular education student who would not otherwise have enrolled in private school. This imposes an additional $62 million cost to the state’s General Fund.

Published by the non-partisan think tank the Grand Canyon Institute (GCI), the policy paper $10,700 Per Student: The Estimated Cost of Arizona’s Private School Subsidy Programs looks at how the state’s two private school subsidy programs — private school tuition tax credit scholarships and Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) vouchers — have affected private school enrollment and then estimated a per student cost to taxpayers. 

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Borderlands Theater presents “Sanctuary” play at Southside Presbyterian Church

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“Based on real people and events Sanctuary chronicles the Tucson birth of the 1980’s Sanctuary Movement.

In 1981, when Carol and Mica find out about detained Salvadorans fleeing civil war, they set out to process political asylum applications. After they meet Victor, a Salvadoran in a Border Patrol detention center, they realize they’re going to need help. They call on Father Hartford, who is first to meet Nidia, another Salvadoran with strong but different opinions on the Salvadoran civil war.

Carol and Mica enlist pastor Jeff Chord of Southside Presbyterian Church, who sits on the National Presbyterian Council and before long Quaker Will Hewitt joins the group with ideas of his own. As the number of detained Salvadorans and Guatemalans continues to grow, the group must choose whether or not to stand up for what they believe. Will they choose the law of man or the law of God?

Sanctuary kicks off a trilogy of plays dealing with immigrants seeking refuge in the U.S., exploring the U.S. involvement in Central America, its consequences, and response.”

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