Trump Order to Gut ACA Rules
Trump to sign executive order to gut ACA insurance rules and undermine marketplaces. WaPo: “President Trump is due to sign an executive order Thursday morning intended to allow individuals and small businesses to buy a long-disputed type of health insurance that skirts state regulations and Affordable Care Act protections. The White House and allies portray the president’s move to expand access to ‘association health plans’ as wielding administrative powers to accomplish what congressional Republicans have failed to achieve: tearing down the law’s insurance marketplaces and letting some Americans buy skimpier coverage at lower prices. The order will be Trump’s biggest step to carry out a broad but ill-defined directive his first night in office for agencies to lessen ACA regulations from the Obama administration.”
Tough Talk on NAFTA
Trump’s tough talk on Nafta suggests pact’s demise is imminent. NYT: “The North American Free Trade Agreement, long disparaged by President Trump as bad for the United States, was edging closer toward collapse as negotiators gathered for a fourth round of contentious talks here this week. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has sparred with American businesses that support Nafta and has pushed for significant changes that negotiators from Mexico and Canada say are nonstarters. All the while, the president has continued threatening to withdraw the United States from the trade agreement, which he has maligned as the worst in history. As the trade talks began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump, seated in the Oval Office beside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, said it was ‘possible’ that the United States would drop out of Nafta. ‘It’s possible we won’t be able to make a deal, and it’s possible that we will,’ the president said. ‘We’ll see if we can do the kind of changes that we need. We have to protect our workers. And in all fairness, the prime minister wants to protect Canada and his people also. So we’ll see what happens with Nafta, but I’ve been opposed to Nafta for a long time, in terms of the fairness of Nafta.’ Mr. Trudeau, in comments later at the Canadian Embassy, said he remains optimistic about the potential for a Nafta deal but noted that Canadians must be ‘ready for anything.'”
House Dem Introduces Impeachment
House Democrat unveils articles of impeachment against Trump, but misses chance to force vote. The Hill: “Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) on Wednesday unveiled articles of impeachment against President Trump in an effort to force a House vote on removing him from office. Green’s articles of impeachment were introduced as “privileged,” meaning that they must be considered on the House floor within two legislative days. But when the GOP presiding officer moved to begin the process to consider the resolution less than an hour later, Green did not show up. The resolution was therefore not offered and is not getting an imminent vote. The House GOP majority presumably would have moved to table Green’s resolution and prevented an up-or-down vote. But Green had said he would force a procedural vote to challenge the GOP’s ruling, which would have served as the first formal referendum in Congress on impeachment.”
Trump’s ‘Mystery Cop’ in Chicago
Trump now says mystery cop claimed he could fix Chicago crime ‘immediately.’ Chicago Tribune: “In President Donald Trump’s retelling, a mysterious Chicago police officer’s plan to solve the city’s crime problem keeps getting better. On Wednesday, the president told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the unnamed Chicago motorcycle cop whom Trump claimed he met on the campaign trail said that ‘if they let us do our job we could stop [violent crime] immediately.’ That’s a quicker turnaround than Trump has claimed was possible when he previously mentioned the mystery cop in his references to Chicago crime, a favorite topic of his since he launched his run for office. In August 2016, he told disgraced former Fox Host Bill O’Reilly that he believed the mystery cop when the officer told him he could solve Chicago’s crime problem ‘within a week’ if he was in charge.”
Eminem Lays Gauntlet for Trump in BET Freestyle Rap
The Rest of America Stand Up: Eminem rips Trump. Common Dreams: “For those who missed it – as in, most of us, who are generally too old for this sort of thing – son of Detroit Eminem ‘came to stomp’ at Tuesday’s BET Hip Hop Awards, delivering an electrifying freestyle rap slamming Trump and his many crimes, from racism to warmongering to malfeasance in Puerto Rico. Unsurprisingly in a largely black industry, Eminem wasn’t the only performer to sound anti-Trump themes: Others blasted “that man out there throwing paper towels – he ought to be ashamed of himself,” and charged the loser-in-chief’s “done everything he can to fuck it up.” But Eminem’s cypher – often so furious he had to pause to chill out – lit up the gloomy underground garage where he recorded it. Dubbed ‘The Storm,’ after Trump’s sinister, nonsensical calm before the storm’ crack, Eminem covered it all – immigrants, veterans, Bannon, Klansmen, the swamp, the ban, gun control, tiki torches, North Korea, Kaepernick, His racist unholy Orangeness. Social media was dazzled. One admirer, ‘Greatest literature of all time: 1) Letter From Birmingham Jail 2) Eminem in the BET CYPHER.’ Another, “Not sure how rap battles work, but we think Eminem is now President of the United States.'”
