Trail Mix

Asked on Friday if our president directly authorized the disastrous Niger mission, both Trump and his Press Secretary Sarah Sanders “answered” out of character: They said nothing without spin.

No blame shifting, distractive attacks or the worn-out fake media rhetoric.

Nothing.

Trump often brags, as recently as Monday, that he makes “four or five” decisions a day on covert missions. Obviously, if Niger was one of them, he’s not bragging about it.

By Pogo, a Trail Mix Contributor

Get a cup of coffee, sit back, go read the full article, and consider what happened last night and what its impact and import will be. If you’re anything like me, you are scared shitless about what’s getting ready to happen to the United States.

Wapo PowerPost: Senate approves budget in crucial step forward for Republican tax cut

By Elise Viebeck

The Senate approved the Republican-backed budget Thursday night, a major step forward for the GOP effort to enact tax cuts.

The budget’s passage will allow the GOP to use a procedural maneuver to pass tax legislation through the Senate with 50 or more votes, removing the need for support from Democratic senators.

* * *

The White House, in a statement issued Thursday night, said Trump “applauds the Senate” for passing the budget resolution and “taking an important step in advancing the Administration’s pro-growth and pro-jobs legislative agenda.”

The Senate approved an amendment Thursday night that paved the way for the House to adopt its version of the budget. This could eliminate the need for a conference committee, which might expedite consideration of tax reform by several weeks, according to a House GOP aide.

* * *

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) proposed an amendment to prevent tax increases on people making less than $250,000 a year. The measure would have also required the Senate to approve a tax-reform bill with 60 votes rather than a simple majority. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) called this language a “poison pill,” and the amendment was defeated 51-47.

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The President’s Chief of Staff has fully established himself as a political player by defending, blame shifting and spinning this mess of Trump’s handling of all aspects of dealing with the families of fallen soldiers.

Time to stop giving John Kelly some sort of pass for somehow protecting the nation from his boss.

This makes it clear he’s enabling our President’s disordered mind.

Look no further than our capital for the nation’s most dangerous drug addiction: Our entire lawmaking system’s dependence on drug companies.

Congress passing a law by unanimous consent, signed by President Barack Obama, gutting the DEA’s ability to combat the drug industry’s dumping of opioids into the hands of corrupt doctors and pharmacies? Huh?

This is way bigger than one complicit Trump nominee for drug czar getting canned. The Washington Post/CBS revelation that provoked that nominal personnel change indicts the real Washington swamp — a city so full of bipartisan bribery that even profiteers who caused a deadly drug epidemic get the green light with no objections raised.

All of a sudden lawmakers say they didn’t know what they voted for when the a law was passed to allow this? I’m guessing many knew exactly what the industry’s campaign gifts were meant to accomplish.

Unanimously passed, signed by a Democratic president — if no one knew what they were doing, at best it was pitifully incompetent. Sadly, it appears to be more than that.

[Cross-posted via HuffPost]

By SJWNY, a Trail Mix Contributor

The NPR show On Point featured an interesting interview Tuesday with guest Erick Erickson. He talked about how we can have hundreds of followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook but not know the name of our next door neighbor.

Yep.

As a society we’ve lost the human part of humanity. This isn’t some evil plan by outside forces, this is by our own doing. Technology is grand but at what price?

I tweet very little nowadays, only when the spirit moves me, which isn’t often. Last year’s political hoodoo & ensuing ugliness soured me right quick on social media.

Facebook has no appeal to me. I dabbled just long enough to realize it equaled the worst aspects of the world’s biggest high school. Also the knowledge that many people I know are addicted to this stuff scares me  …. I got out before I really got in.

Do you know your neighbor? Take a walk & see the trees, hear the birds, notice the sunset? Is it too late as a society to realize what really matters: the people around us? The wall we have to worry about isn’t the one built on the border; it is the wall we build around ourselves.

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