Meet The Man Behind Cambridge Analytica, Who Made Trump President

And guess what? HE'S NOT RUSSIAN!

Meet Robert Mercer.

As I keep saying, it's easier to blame Russia than to examine US politics and address its serious internal problems.

RUSSIANS!

Is that like saying "squirrel" to my dogs?

Ever notice that the conversation turns to Russia when any scrutiny is placed on the US factors in the 2016 Election? Especially in the US media, which happens to be fairly incestuous due to media consolidation.

OK, there were some Russians working for Cambridge Analytica, but it is beginning to look like Facebook may be more at issue here. The Guardian has been doing a series on Cambridge Analytica and the Facebook "hack". This is turning out to be like the Democratic e-mail "hack" which was probably more of a leak than a hack.

The real culpability here is with Facebook rather than the Russians, which is pretty much the case with any Russian involvement I've seen.  Unless Russians have managed to infiltrate the US to an extent that would make Ol' Joe McCarthy look askance at the numbers.

Anyway, I turn off when people try to blame the Russians for a situation which is obviously home grown. It's a waste of time to fixate on them when there are easy fixes to the system, but they won't be addressed since the people who run the system are benefiting by this.

As the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, said:“It sounds a dreadful thing to say, but these are things that don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed.”


Let's start with the electoral college, but that is only one a a few problems that need fixing here.
See also:

• Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin on Cambridge Analytica: the real crime was getting caught from First Dog on the Moon

Trumpcare is a big rickety mess

Trumpcare is a giant unwieldy gold plated shit wagon badly overloaded rolling down a steep and rocky hill of reality.

The only real questions are when will it collide with one of the many reality obstacles, how badly the rickety gold plated shit wagon will be damaged ( the shit wagon being here a metaphor for Trump and his administration) and how far the shit on the gold plated wagon will fly.  The shit metaphor here being the impossible to deliver on Trump promises, in this instance Trumpcare.

Arguably the biggest metaphor obstacle in the road down the reality hill is the CBO report released yesterday.  The shit wagon drivers (in this analogy, Trump spokespersons, surrogates, and those in congress supporting Trumpcare like Paul Ryan) trying to circumvent the obstacle of reality.  However their attemp to avoid a reality collision consists of denials the CBO assessment is real.
But there are other less obvious rocks in the road that threaten the rickety gold plated shit wagon like the West Virginia Coal Miners who recently received letters telling them they would no longer be receiving their black lung benefits for the widows and children of miners who died from working in the coal mines or those who had retired and were currently suffering from black lung.  These are angry people who voted for Trump, who believed his shit pile of lies about coal mining jobs coming back, and his lies about better, cheaper health care pots of gold.  These people PAID for these benefits they are now denied by Republicans who control Congress and the White House. These people make a compelling argument to the rest of the minimally educated blue collar white people Trump bigot base who hoped to "get theirs" while taking away from the black and brown Americans they wrongly blame for their problems and for institutional inequity. It remains to be seen if the shiny but unstable shit wagon will steamroll them flat, or if they will sharpen up and obstruct and resist the shit wagon headed their way.

The gold standard for fact checking political claims, factcheck.org, is quite clear that the GOP and their shit shoveling minions are lying (or if you prefer are willfully inaccurate) when they assert that the CBO failed to analyze correctly the costs and benefits of Obamacare. Rather I would argue Obamacare did a good job of performing as predicted, the CBO was correct, and that problems with Obamacare affected relatively few people and could easily be fixed.  I would further argue that the GOP has worked tirelessly to sabotage or otherwise inflict damage on the ACA but have not succeeded beyond their deluded base that dwells on that rarefied hilltop trying to avoid facts and reality that they don't like.

But like the overloaded, rickety, gold plated shit wagon, they are also going to have to head down that reality hill and will collide with sharp and painful pointy facts.

The only outcome waiting to emerge is how deep the shit is spread when it flies, who dodges it or deflects it, and who the casualties are from the collisions. Elections have consequences, and the 2018 round of the next election is looming like a mountain range horizon.

Conned-servatives, Pixie Dust and Unicorn Poop - the issue of Health Care and Government Funding

References to unicorn droppings seems to be a frequent euphemism for unrealistic expectations or ludicrous political promises in the UK.  I have become a big fan of the phrase while reading comments at the BBC web site on a range of topics, including in particular Brexit promises from the right relating to funding the UK National Health Services.

(An aside, gentle readers; be prepared for the unexpected should you choose to google the term Unicorn Poop.)

Similarly we might as well get out the shovels for the unicorn poop when it comes to Donald Rump and his promises of health care and health insurance for everyone, better and cheaper and serving more people than what was provided under the ACA  aka Obamacare.

A recent poll from the Pew Research Fact Tank shows that a sharply increasing number of Americans, including the Conned-servatives who vote Republican, NOW believe that the federal government should ensure Health Care Coverage!  As with the change in public opinion, which the right tends to consistently lag, this reflects a similarly dramatic change which in some respects parallels the shift in public opinion relating to the LGBT community and how they should be treated fairly.  In that regard the shift is both unexpectedly rapid, and likely to be reflected in demands for legislative changes.  This is a dramatic change that the political right would be wise to follow; however they appear hell bent on the opposite.  That doesn't bode well. 

More Americans say government should ensure health care coverage

As the debate continues over repeal of the Affordable Care Act and what might replace it, a growing share of Americans believe that the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Currently, 60% of Americans say the government should be responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, compared with 38% who say this should not be the government’s responsibility.

Just as there are wide differences between Republicans and Democrats about the 2010 health care law, the survey also finds partisan differences in views on whether it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. More than eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) say the federal government should be responsible for health care coverage, compared with just 32% of Republicans and Republican leaners. 

...The survey also finds continued differences on this question by race and ethnicity as well as income. A large majority of blacks and Hispanics (85% and 84%, respectively) say the government should be responsible for coverage, while non-Hispanic whites are split on the issue (49% agree, 49% disagree). And while about three-quarters of those with family incomes of less than $30,000 per year (74%) say the government should ensure coverage, only about half (53%) of those with incomes of $75,000 or higher say the same.

Currently, 52% of Republicans with family incomes below $30,000 say the federal government has a responsibility to ensure health coverage for all, up from just 31% last year. There also has been a 20-percentage-point increase among Republicans with incomes of $30,000-$74,999 (34% now, 14% last year). But there has been no significant change among those with incomes of $75,000 or more (18% now, 16% then).

Those who think government should ensure health coverage for all are divided on a follow-up question about whether health insurance should be provided through a mix of private insurance companies and the government (29% of the overall public), or if the government alone should provide insurance (28% of the public).

...Most of those on the other side of the issue – people who say the government does not have a responsibility to ensure health coverage – say on a subsequent question that the government should continue Medicare and Medicaid (32% of the overall public), while just 5% of the public says the government should have no role in health care.

Among Republicans and Republican leaners, most of whom (67%) say the government does not have a responsibility for ensuring health coverage, there is very little support for the government not being involved in health care at all. Just 10% of Republicans favor no government involvement, while 56% say it should continue Medicare and Medicaid.

While Republicans in Congress have already taken the first steps toward repealing the ACA, Americans remain largely divided on what Congress should do with the health care law. Overall, in a Pew Research Center survey in December, 39% said it should be repealed, while an equal share (39%) said the law should be expanded. Just 15% of Americans said the law should be left as is. Although the public is divided on the future of the law, there is bipartisan support for a number of ACA provisions.

It is dispiriting that there are still so many people, particularly among the conned-servatives, who do not know the ACA / Affordable Care Act IS THE SAME THING as Obamacare.  That we should be assured these people were wiser than the rest of us when they elected Don the Con (T)Rump to office or pretty much ANY of the GOP is ludicrous.

Continuing his con, his direct and ludicrous lies, that any human being either over the age of 4 or with an IQ higher in equivalence than a 4 year old would recognize as impossible BS.  Or should I say US2, for United States of Unicorn Scat?

The current crop of Republicans either don't know or don't care, or more likely don't care enough to want to know, what Americans really want from them and from government.  The next election is coming up fast in 2018, and this looks to be a hot issue, one that will likely fracture support for Republicans and Conservatives.  The next presidential election will be in 2020, the same year that the Census mandated by the constitution will raise the issue of gerrymandering and redistricting.

If the right continues to ignore what "we the people" really really want, to borrow a blast from the past phrase from the Spice Girls,  I think we can realistically hope for some change in those elections, and be confident that the interim not-valid president Rump will provide nothing but unicorn poop and rubbish promises.

I've said it before and I will say it again here now; Republicans do not govern well, and do not correctly grasp the proper function and role of government.