Upstream of the Herd

Republicans Are Trying to Take Away Your Health Care Republicans spent the last several years trying to destroy "Obamacare" and it appears that they may now be succeeding. Amongst other things, the Affordable Care Act's (the ACA's) "mandate" required that all Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty for not doing so. Republicans fought against this ACA mandate, claiming it was "unconstituional" to "force" people to purchase something. The mandate was contested all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was deemed "Constitutional". Since then, Republicans have attempted to halt, alter, undo, change, or otherwise "repeal and replace Obamacare" over 50 times- all unsucessfully. Until now. Trump and the Republican tax reform bill of 2017 ammended the ACA to remove the mandate, or tax penalty, for going uninsured (but kept the requirement that all Americans buy health insurance). http://fortune.com/2017...

Paul Manafort's Sentencing Memo Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tvjar-y3FjDrzT5rXQBRneipnGLjRxjk/view This document doesn't make any recommendations for Paul Manafort's sentencing. It only says that Manafort lied to them all the time. It says that Manafort agreed to cooperate "fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly" with the Special Counse/Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election but that Manafort "failed to perform" and also continued his criminal activities even after agreeing to cooperate. It also says that there are "pending investigations" and/or "uncharged individuals", so some of the information is "sealed". Manafort met with investigators 12 times, but continued to lie "in multiple ways and on multiple occasions", even after agreeing to cooperate with investigators. When Manafort's defense team was informed of his continued lying to the Special Coun...

Michael Cohen's Sentencing Memorandums Cohen had two Sentencing Memorandums filed on Friday (12/7/2018). One was from the Special Counsel/Mueller investigation into Russian interferance in the 2016 US presidential election, here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5453418-Mueller-Cohen-filing.html The sentencing memo says that Cohen lied to the House and Senate investigations and also to the Special Counsel investigators about Russian interferance into the 2016 election, and about the Trump Tower Moscow plans. It notes that the Mocow project was under negotiation with high level Kremlin staffers during and after Trump's election, while Russia was also interfering with our election, that Trump was aware of these things, and that Trump and all those in his orbit hid their knowledge of this meddling and project from voters (leaving him/them subject to blackmail). Page 4 of the memo appears to say that Trump asked Cohen to arrange a personal meeting with Putin about...

There were two parts to the Flynn documents released on December 4, 2018- a Sentencing Memo, and an Addendum. Sentencing Memo here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5425861-Flynn-filing.html#document/p1 The sentencing memo charges Flynn with one count of lying to the FBI. He has pleaded "guilty". The Mueller investigation has been very kind to him and only charged him with one count due to his "substantial assistance" in cooperating with the investigation(s), and has also recommened a very light prison sentence of "0-6 months" in prison. Flynn has been proven to have made "multiple false statements, to multiple Department of Justice (“DOJ”) entities" about two issues: the Russian interference in our election, and about Flynn's role as a paid representative of Turkey (including the possibility of kidnapping Muhammed Fethullah Gülen from Pensylvania and retruning him to Turkey). Both of these issues mean that Flynn was ...

Years ago, I made and sold homeopathic remedies. I know they are useless, but that's what appealed to me about them as a business. They were very cheap and easy to make, and there was zero risk of harming anyone with them. According to "Hahnemann's Theory of Like Cures Like", homeopathic remedies work by introducing minute amounts of a substance that induces the symptoms you want to cure, thus triggering your immune system to cure yourself "naturally". And of course, the smaller the dose, the better it works! Yes! Fewer ingredients to buy! For example a 30x (thirty times diluted) remedy works better than a 10x (or ten times diluted) remedy. The secret in homeopathy is that you only need "minute amounts" to trigger and keep your immune system on high alert for a problem, and to fight that problem off! For example, if you have watery eyes and a runny nose, you would want to take small amounts of something that would cause you...

LOL- so I went to the Cruz/Trump Rally in Houston, Texas today (10/22/2018), with my "Baby Trump" balloon. First, the ballon was a gift. It's the best "Baby Trump" ballon I've seen around with its "I love Putin" tattoo, a cellphone tucked into his (Trump's) diaper, and a hammer and sickle diaper pin! I discovered that not all stores will fill a balloon that you did not buy from them, but I found a store that would. The manager there started to laugh as he inflated it and we had a nice chat about where he can vote this week because he has to work on voting day. He did not know that his employer was required to let him off work on November 6th to vote but I encouraged him to vote early and explained the reasons why early voting would benefit him. But then I had to carry the inflated balloon on the train. I tried to hide it in a 13 gallon garbage bag at first but it was too big for that, so I just carried it. There were MAGATs on the train and th...

I watched most parts of the Ford/Kavanaugh committee hearing and was at lunch when the Senate Judiciary Committe voted to move Kavanaugh out of Committee. What a dramatic day! I was late returning to work because of the delays in voting. I hope my boss doesn't notice. The hearing: I felt that the special questioner, Rachel Mitchell, was fair with Dr Ford. But I wondered why Mitchell was "disappeared" so quickly when it was Kavanaugh's turn to be questioned. I felt that Dr Ford did well and I found her to be credible and honest. I was not impressed withKavanaugh. His claim that everyone is "conspiring" against him is not believable. I found him evasive, angry, argumentative and was surprised that he was so hostile to Democratic questions. He was interviewing for a job here and angering the person/people who is/are responsible for your "hiring" is probably a poor plan. He strikes me as an "entitled frat boy" After Rachel Mitchell disappeare...