Amerika du hast es besser

[Peiresc]

In meinen Augen ist das aber nicht der Punkt. Meine Übersetzung dieser Episode: Er wird gefragt: Wen würden Sie am liebsten los werden? Und seine Antwort ist: Reince Priebus.

I think Reince (Priebus) has been doing an excellent job.

Ja, das klingt fast, als habe er ihn schon gefeuert.

Da sind wir wohl nicht die einzigen, die das wahrgenommen haben:

The looming 100-day marker has sent the White House into overdrive this week. Senior administration officials — chief of staff Reince Priebus, son-in-law Jared Kushner, legislative affairs head Marc Short, chief strategist Steve Bannon and Cohn — have held late-night sessions with reporters to sell the 100 days.
[...]
The fear inside the West Wing, these people said, was that bad news coverage could lead to a staff shake-up, and many live with varying degrees of fear of losing their jobs. Priebus, several administration officials say, has been particularly concerned about the marker and the resulting news coverage.
[...]
Priebus, who publicly said it was unfair to expect the administration to vote quickly, repeatedly told aides there needed to be a quick vote [...]

Übrigens:

A senior administration official, asked why the White House was rushing the vote, responded: " I can't wait for the 100-day shit to be over."

Mein Mitleid hält sich in engen Grenzen. Der nächste shit kommt bestimmt; und da haben wir noch keine Silbe über den Inhalt der geplanten Maßnahmen verloren.

It will not get better.

[Peiresc]

Aber das ist doch der Grund seines Erfolges. Bisher kann man seine Psyche mit einem Flussdiagramm problemlos nachstellen. Das ist doch schon mal was.

,,Ich habe mein früheres Leben geliebt. Ich habe so viele Sachen gemacht", sagte Trump. Er habe nicht erwartet, dass es eine so große Herausforderung wäre, Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten zu sein. ,,Das ist mehr Arbeit als früher. Ich dachte, es würde einfacher sein." Und weiter: ,,Ich vermisse mein altes Leben."

[Peiresc]

Sebastian Gorka, enger präsidialer Berater und Bannon-Komplize, ist offenbar ein eingeschriebener ungarischer Neonazi:

The Forward reported on Thursday that Gorka was a formal member of the Historical Vitézi Rend, a Hungarian far-right group whose predecessor, the Vitézi Rend, was recognized by the State Department as under the direction of the Nazis.

Hier noch mehr Einzelheiten.
http://forward.com/news/national/367937/exclusive-controversial-trump-aide-sebastian-gorka-backed-violent-anti-semi/
Dieser Bericht ist 1 Monat alt. Er hatte nach meinem Eindruck kein größeres Echo, auch nicht in den Fake-News.
Gorka wird wohl das Weiße Haus verlassen (irgendwann im Sommer, genaueres weiß man nicht). Aber es muss offen bleiben warum. Er hat nämlich noch viel mehr Dreck am Stecken: er hat früher Trump als planlos kritisiert.

Asked if he would like to comment on his past criticisms of Trump, Gorka said, "That's fine, no need, thanks," and hung up on a CNN KFile reporter.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/03/politics/kfile-gorka-trump-criticism/

Mein völliger Ernst: ich hoffe, dass Gorka mit seinem Vorwurf recht hat.

-----

Dieweil hat His Trumpiness der Welt in Harrisburg zwei grundstürzende Neuigkeiten verkündet, von denen niemand vorher wusste, dass er sie verinnerlicht hat: Die Presse ist dishonest, Fake News usw., und er hat die Wahl im November gewonnen.
Da hatte Priebus die Erleuchtung. Wenn sein Stand wacklig ist, dann liegt es nahe sich umzusehen, wie andere sich auf den Beinen halten. Und da gibt es ein sicheres Erfolgsrezept: die Stichworte des Präsidenten mit Klauen und Zähnen verteidigen.

Reince Priebus says White House is looking into change to libel laws
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/30/reince-priebus-libel-law-change-media-white-house

Es gibt kein Bundesgesetz gegen Verleumdung. Wie eine Änderung funktionieren würde, hier die NYT:

Since the Supreme Court's 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court has placed constitutional limits on how states can define libel [...]
Changing New York Times v. Sullivan would require either the Supreme Court to overrule it or a constitutional amendment. Neither is remotely likely, though Mr. Trump could try to appoint Supreme Court justices who would vote to overturn the precedent.

[Peiresc]

Noch zu Gorka. Ich war ein wenig unschlüssig, ob ich nicht übertreibe, wenn ich schreibe: er ist ein eingeschriebener Neonazi, statt: er war ein Neonazi. Aber es ist nicht übertrieben. Der eigentlich zitierte Artikel des Forward sagt explizit:

Perhaps most damagingly, leaders of the Vitézi Rend, a far-right Hungarian nationalist order, claimed Gorka as a member of their group who had sworn an oath of lifelong loyalty to their organization and its ideals. The Vitézi Rend is included on a U.S. State Department "watch list" as having been "under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany" during World War II. Gorka was said to have sworn loyalty to a modern-day offshoot, known as the Historical Vitézi Rend.
Read more: http://forward.com/news/370490/what-sebastian-gorkas-ouster-means-for-the-trump-white-house-and-us/

[Peiresc]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/01/trump-starts-dismantling-his-shadow-cabinet-237819
Artikel in Politico über die ,,senior White House advisers", das sind die Politkommissare Trumps in den Ministerien. Sie sorgen für Chaos, aber werden allmählich entsorgt.

The source said Pugliese got off to a rough start when he ordered the blocking of all outgoing mail in the early days of the administration, supposedly to prevent last-minute Obama decisions from going out the door, then neglected to lift the order. The result was a giant stack of mail full of obscure bureaucratic missives that nobody knew what to do with, the source said. A Transportation Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Chao, who already served as President George W. Bush's labor secretary, was also taken aback when Pugliese told her he expected to sign off on all department policies before they went public, the source said.

"He told the secretary that once we both agree on something, then we can push it out," the source said. "The Secretary was like, 'Um, what's your name again?'"

[Peiresc]

Gorka wird wohl das Weiße Haus verlassen (irgendwann im Sommer, genaueres weiß man nicht). Aber es muss offen bleiben warum

- und ob überhaupt, so stellt sich heraus:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that he's not aware of any current plans for deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka to leave his job, despite reports from multiple media outlets that the controversial counterterrorism adviser will be shifted out of the role in the coming weeks.

Natürlich sagt das rein gar nichts darüber aus, ob er tatsächlich geht. Solche Verlautbarungen hat es schon gegeben, auch wenn der Betreffende quasi zeitgleich rausgeflogen war. Aber eins ist klargestellt: Neonazi sein jedenfalls disqualifiziert nicht, Berater mit freiem Zugang zum Präsidenten zu sein.

[Peiresc]

7 Jahre haben die Republikaner gegen den ACA gewettert und getobt – solange wie sie nicht in der Gefahr waren, die Verantwortung dafür zu übernehmen. Es wurden alle Hebel in Bewegung gesetzt; keine Demagogie war zu schäbig (z. B. ,,death panel"). Eine Strategie, die sich ausgezahlt hat, denn auf diese Weise haben sie die Kongressmehrheit übernommen.

Jetzt ist die Zeit gekommen, die Rechnung zu begleichen. Ob sie nun ihre AHCA-Bill durchbringen oder nicht, die Ergebnisse werden gleich katastrophal sein.

Obamacare repeal's biggest obstacle? Sick people

Nur mal ein Beispiel:

The late-night host [Kimmel] used his Monday night monologue to recount his newborn son's emergency surgery. The infant had a heart condition that would likely prevent him from getting health coverage or make his health costs insurmountable for many American families under the GOP health care repeal plan.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/02/barack-obama-jimmy-kimmel-obamacare-twitter-237889

[Peiresc]

It is hard to believe this is happening, but it's real: The US Department of Justice is literally prosecuting a woman for laughing at now–Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year.
According to Ryan Reilly at HuffPost, Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz was arrested in January after she laughed at a claim from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) that Sessions's history of "treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented."
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/2/15518574/desiree-fairooz-justice-department

[Peiresc]

Übrigens:

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney says popular consensus is with comedian Jimmy Kimmel on the issue of covering children with pre-existing medical conditions.
"Everybody, I think, agrees with Jimmy Kimmel," he said Wednesday on Fox News's "Fox and Friends."

Nicht ungeschickt. Ein Angebot an die republikanische Mehrheit, sich an die Spitze der Bewegung zur Rettung von Obamacare zu setzen. Wenn es funktioniert, können sie in einem halben Jahr prahlen, wie großartig sie die Krankenversicherung der Amerikaner gegen die Anschläge der Demokraten bewahrt haben.

[Peiresc]

Übrigens:

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney says popular consensus is with comedian Jimmy Kimmel on the issue of covering children with pre-existing medical conditions.
"Everybody, I think, agrees with Jimmy Kimmel," he said Wednesday on Fox News's "Fox and Friends."

Nicht ungeschickt. [...]

Nochmal übrigens: inzwischen habe ich noch eine etwas ausführlichere Wiedergabe von Mulvaneys Kommentar gesehen. Wirklich, keine Gefahr, dass der Schutz von "pre-existing conditions" in die Bill aufgenommen wird.

Und was sich bei uns im Blog im Kleinen abspielt,

Ironisch finde ich, wenn Kommunist am Klimamarsch teilnehmen [...] Ich bin sicher diese Kommunisten würden jeden töten, der ihnen nicht passten [...] Diese Ökofreaks werden noch einen Staat errichten, der dem von Pol Pot ähnelt. [...] Und ihr seid alle Teil der religiösen Linken

das ist große Politik in Amerika:

Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt unloaded on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel in a recent column, calling the late-night host a "dirty, self-absorbed, narcissistic exhibitionist" for "blubbering about politics" while discussing his newborn son's heart defect. [...]

"Yes, that's right. He just had a kid and the kid nearly died and he wants you to know that if you are not for bloated federal bureaucracy, socialized medicine, higher taxes and tons of more debt piled onto your grandchildren, then you are not a 'decent person,'" wrote Hurt.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/331794-washington-times-hurt-kimmel-a-dirty-self-absorbed-narcissistic-exhibitionist

[Lt.Havoc]

Tja, Hurt hat ja selber keine Kinder, da ist es ja einfach so was vom staple zu lassen, dass es aber eine menge Eltern in den USA gibt, die  Kinder mit angeborenen Krankheiten und Behinderungen haben, die Medizinesche Hilfe und Betreuung benötigen, die, wenn Trumps Plan umgesetzt worden wäre, es nicht mehr geben würde, scheint Hurt nicht einzufallen. Ihm scheint das leben anderer Menschen schlichtweg scheiß-egal zu sein, Hauptsache weniger schulden.

Das ist schlichtweg eine Einstellung, die ich persönlich zum kotzen finde........

[Peiresc]

Ihm scheint das leben anderer Menschen schlichtweg scheiß-egal zu sein

Aber das eigene Leben ist den republikanischen Kongressmitgliedern durchaus nicht egal: https://www.vox.com/2017/4/25/15429982/gop-exemption-ahca-amendment

Die konservative Kunst besteht darin, diese einfache Tatsache in einer Wolke von verlogener Rethorik zu verbergen:

"We're going to have insurance for everybody," Donald Trump told the Washington Post after the election. Under Trumpcare, according to Trump, people "can expect to have great health care. It will be in much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better."

Das war kühner und unverschämter als es die führenden Republikaner gewesen sind, aber im Kern nicht anders, sagt Matthew Yglesias von vox.com.

Vox.com bringt häufig Einsichten in das komplizierte System der amerikanischen Gesundheitswesens, mit Aha-Effekt.

[Peiresc]

Zur Stunde läuft die Abstimmung; die Republikaner sind schon mal in Feierlaune.

Senator Joe Manchin sagt:

"I said, 'Mr. President, 172,000 West Virginians got insurance for the first time,'" Manchin said. "They've got something they never had before. They don't know how they got it, they don't know who gave it to them, they don't know the Democrats, nothing about, 'It's Obamacare.' They don't know any of that. All they know is they've got it."

"And you know what? They voted for you, Mr. President," he said. "They're going to know who took it away from them."

Joe Manchin ist zwar Demokrat, aber alles andere als das, was man hierzulande als links bezeichnen würde.

Dieweil sagt thehill.com: "Vergesst Obama- oder Trumpcare, in Wirklichkeit sind die Arztfehler das Hauptproblem":

ObamaCare v. TrumpCare, medical errors are the real challenge

According to a recent report from doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, medical errors are the third biggest killer of Americans today, behind heart disease and cancer.

Das ist, so formuliert, reichlich schräg (die Todesursachen würden sich auf diese Weise auf mehrere tausend Prozent addieren), und v. a. werden keinerlei Einzelheiten referiert, sondern es wird allgemein schwadroniert, Fehlerkultur und ähnliche Plattheiten (das Problem liegt hier in den Details).

Quellen? Eine einzige, die hier, und dort: wieder ein Referat, ohne Nennung der eigentlichen Literatur (BMJ).

Das Datum wird man wahrscheinlich überfliegen. 3. Mai ist ja auch exakt getimed.

Genial. Unglaublich verlogen.

[Peiresc]

Wie wird es weitergehen?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/01/opinions/trump-as-strongman-democracy-ben-ghiat-opinion/

Ruth Ben-Ghiat beschreibt die Methode im Wahnsinn.

Trump's first 100 days have been a lesson for him in what he can and cannot easily do. He's followed the authoritarian playbook in attacking those sectors of society that uphold the value of evidence (the judiciary, the press, researchers). He's purged the bureaucracy; hired family members (who thumb their noses at conflicts of interest); bullied critics on Twitter; and incited a climate of hatred toward targeted groups (Muslims, Latinos, immigrants, and more).
Many of those attacks have been successfully thwarted thus far. [...]

In der Tat. Wo ist der Unterschied zu Erdogan?

We should get ready for another round of such "shocks": Trump's been sending signals that he's preparing to accelerate his consolidation of personal power. In an interview Friday with Fox News, Trump criticized the "archaic" rules of the House and Senate, saying "maybe at some point we are going to have to take these rules on, because for the good of the nation things are going to have to be different."
His attitude toward filibusters received the most press, but in discussing the "bad concepts" under the current "archaic" system, he also mentioned voting. Perhaps Trump meant voting procedures in the Senate -- here, as so often, he's evasive. In any case, his questioning of a main index of democracy -- allowing our elected representatives to cast votes on our behalf -- should be front-page news.
[...]
But, many might ask, wouldn't government run better in a more streamlined manner, allowing Trump to manage by decree, as he does in his business life? A supporter interviewed by the Washington Post at his Harrisburg, Pennsylvania rally, thinks so. "I wish we had no parties -- they just lock into left or right, and nothing gets done. [Trump] wants to fix stuff." It's a common theme heard among Trump's followers: just let him come in and run things "like a business."
But there's a name for a system with no parties and a strongman leader at the helm: dictatorship.

voting, a bad concept of an archaic system.

edit.
Billy Long, einer der vielen Republikaner, die vor der Abstimmung zu Trumpcare vom Präsidenten angerufen worden waren, gab dessen Worte so wieder "Billy, we need you!, Billy we need you!", und da konnte Billy nicht widerstehen.

[Peiresc]

1) Do you actually understand what happened today? Here's what you probably missed.
2) This victory party was widely seen as ridiculous. At the same time, many top staff lauded the idea. Why? POTUS' ego.
3) Of course POTUS has an unhealthy ego problem. Everyone knows that. Tracking. Here's the thing: People are embracing it.
4) Pence thought this party was a "great" idea precisely b/c fueling POTUS' ego is becoming a key strategy.
5) "Just keep him happy and smiling and the rest of us can work in peace. As long as he's not angry-ranting everything's fine." Says Pence.
6) Happy-ranting POTUS energizes the fringe and gives the party power. That's the emerging face of the GOP establishment.
7) The insane part is that this personality-cult thinking is starting to override people's recognition of political realities.
8 ) A second healthcare failure will be a political disaster, and that is the greatest fear with healthcare at moment.
9) As of yet, this is still not a done deal. Good chance it dies in the Senate. Today made it more embarrassing if it fails.
10) The same voices who tried to steer us away from AHCA 2.0 for political reasons are the same buying into this ego strategy.
11) Somehow, "ACHA failure will be political disaster" turned into "inflating pending failure is good for the party."
12) Previously the #1 goal was to contain POTUS' ego & self aggrandizement. Now, nobody remembers. Like they've been flashed by the MIB.
13) We are now openly embracing a political strategy of appeasing a 3 year old Veruca Sultenfuss b/c people think she's cute.
14) Hate to temp Godwin, but can't help but wonder "is what the Germans meant when saying that Hitler seduced them?"
15) As POTUS gets drunk off his ego, estab is morphing from using him to buying in. Like they want a piece of the delusion pie he's eating.
16) And this seems to be the common thread in POTUS' life. He infects people with some kind of bizarre meal ticket syndrome.
17) Before long he has ppl eagerly harvesting the milk & apples for his dinner b/c he needs it, and they've become convinced they need him.
18) This is the most dangerous stage to normalizing POTUS. If GOP consolidates behind him, any opposition becomes a merely partisan fight.

Die Übereinstimmung mit Ruth Ben-Ghiat in #854 ist gespenstisch.