Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, '1984'
 


President Donald Trump handed an influential business advocacy group what should have been a historic lobbying victory when he recently rolled out new rules encouraging small businesses to band together to offer health insurance.

Trump, who’s touted the expansion of so-called association health plans as a key plank in his strategy to tear down Obamacare, even announced the rules at the 75th anniversary party of the National Federation of Independent Business last month, claiming the group’s members will save “massive amounts of money” and have better care if they join forces to offer coverage to workers.

But the NFIB, which vigorously promoted association health plans for two decades, now says it won’t set one up, describing the new Trump rules as unworkable. And the NFIB isn’t the only one: Several of the nationwide trade groups that cheered Trump’s new insurance rules told POLITICO they’re still trying to figure out how to take advantage of them and whether the effort is even worth it.

That could signal there’s minimal early interest in an initiative the administration says will help lower health care costs — and one that Trump himself has prematurely hailed as a wild success. Trump falsely claimed during rallies in recent weeks that “millions” are signing up, though the new health plans can’t be sold until Sept. 1.

Behind the scenes, the NFIB had already been souring on the idea before Trump’s announcement, concluding that establishing an association health plan would be too complex and not worth the effort. The NFIB, which offered only a vague endorsement of the Trump effort last month, now says it’s abandoned any idea of setting up a national plan for its hundreds of thousands of members.
 
THE NRA IS FATALE
https://claytoonz.com/2018/07/19/the-nra-is-fatale/

There are several reasons why Russia targets conservatives and their organizations for disinformation and espionage.

The first reason is they’re stupid. You may think I’m generalizing Trump supporters, but I don’t think I am. These are people who were standing in the rain during Trump’s inauguration and the newly sworn in president told them that it wasn’t raining, and they said, while being drenched, “Yeah…it’s not raining.” So, if you need morons to believe Hillary Clinton is running a child sex slave ring out of the basement of a pizza shop that doesn’t have a basement, look no further than the drenched idiots singing It’s A Sun Shine Day.

Another reason; they don’t care if information is true as long as it confirms their bias. Look at the birther campaign. There is not one tiny fragment of evidence to support that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Yet, many people still believe this debunked lie. Unfortunately, one of them is now president of the United States. It also helps if the targets for your disinformation campaign are racists.

The biggest reason Russian spies target conservative groups is the one rarely acknowledged. Republicans welcomes, encourage, and enable it. You don’t see Donald Trump doing anything to discourage or combat the current disinformation campaign by Russian troll farms. And, yes. They’re still attacking us. Trump was told after the election that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the cyber attack on our election. What did Trump do? He’s spent every day since denying the assault was inflicted by Russia. Even yesterday, he denied they were still attacking us.

Take a look at Jacob Wohl. You may think Mr. Wohl is a bad example as he’s only 20-years-old and runs a fake news site. But, he’s been retweeted by the president, and he has over 154,000 followers on Twitter. Yesterday, this young idiot tweeted, “If Russia assists MAGA Candidates on the internet in this year’s midterms, that’s not the end of the world.” He also tweets a lot of conspiracy theories and fake news, proving my first two examples by his number of followers eating that stuff up.

Enter Maria Butina. Ms. Butina is a young, attractive Russian spy. She targeted conservative groups like the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to influence powerful Republicans. She was secretly in contact with Russian intelligence operatives, a senior Russian official and a billionaire oligarch close to the Kremlin whom she called her “funder.” And, she used sex in her covert operation, which might be what they’re praying for at that National Prayer Breakfast group. Who doesn’t want sex with their pancakes?

Butina lied on her Visa application to attend American University in Washington, D.C. She was living with a Republican operative twice her age that she privately disdained, but he was doing her homework. For a Republican, doing her homework and helping her attack our nation is worth it if the sex is good….or at the very least…it’s sex.

Butina was caught by the FBI while she was planning to leave the country. They’ve charged her with conspiracy and illegally acting as an agent for the Russian government. While she was in Federal Court for a hearing yesterday, Donald Trump was telling journalists that Russia isn’t trying to attack our next election.

While the NRA touts itself as a patriotic organization, they were an easy tool for America’s enemies to be used to sabotage our Democracy. Before Butina moved to the U.S., she was flown over multiple times by the NRA for various gun-nut events. Her contacts with the NRA got her very close to high-level Republicans, evidenced by her Facebook page where she posted photos of herself with former presidential candidates Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, and former US Sen. Rick Santorum. She met Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA convention in Louisville. She even got close to Donald Trump Sr., meeting him on one occasion and asking a question from the audience at another. She attended his inauguration which got her handler to refer to her as a “daredevil.”

In 2015, an NRA delegation including GOP activist Paul Erickson, former NRA president David Keene, NRA Vice President Pete Brownell, major NRA donor Joe Gregory, and Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke traveled to Moscow, where they met with Kremlin officials. It was an event Butina helped organize. Clarke filed a report that Butina’s organization paid $6,000 for his trip. NRA spokesgoon Dana Loesch at first denied there was an official trip to Moscow, and then later said this trip wasn’t “official.”

After Trump won the election, Butina contacted her handler with the message, “I am ready for further orders.”

Currently, the FBI is investigating if Russians illegally funneled money to the Trump campaign through the NRA.

Russians refer to the people in the NRA and other assorted Republicans as “useful idiots,” implying they’re being fooled into helping them. They are idiots, but, what if they’re not being fooled, and they’re going along willingly? According to Mr. Wohl, it wouldn’t be the “end of the world.” It could just be the end of our democracy.

What are you willing to sell your country out for, a conservative Supreme Court, an end to legal abortion, an AK-47 in every home? Sex with a Russian ginger?

Patriotism seems to be a thing of the past for conservatives much like ethics, principles, reading, knowing stuff, etc. A Russian spy in the NRA isn’t a big deal to them, but it’s a big deal to me because the NRA controls Congress and the presidency. What do you want to bet Maria Butina isn’t the only spy infiltrating conservative groups?

I can think of one big orange one currently in the White House.

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