Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Trump's Big CON: Don't Think He Understands or Even Cares About His Supporters Problems

UPDATE:  This story embodies everything people hate about Washington. It:

Explains the “revolving door” between the industry and those who regulate and legislate it,

Shows the “clear money trail” between the industry and the lawmakers, and

Reveals that Congress glossed over the controversial legislation, never debating it by using a procedural tool to pass it without opposition.

All for a "crisis that left a death toll three times greater than the total U.S. military deaths in the Vietnam War."

Read the Washington Post, Why this investigation into Congress’s ties to the drug industry has Washington’s attention.

One of the issues that The Donald "leveraged" to win the election is the growing and deadly opioid addition crisis.

The Donald then nominated Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) his drug czar.

Now "an investigation by The Washington Post and '60 Minutes' [has] detailed [Marino's] years-long efforts to pass a law that critics say allowed the drug industry to profit off people addicted to opioids. . .

This is the second time in a month that a journalism investigation has cost a Trump administration official his job (or, in Marino's case, his almost-job). Tom Price resigned as health and human services secretary in late September following revelations of an extensive and expensive charter flight habit first reported by Politico. . .

The backstory: In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon to keep prescription narcotics from going straight from major drug companies to the nation's streets. . .

Marino's role in all this: It's hard to overstate. According to the investigation:

Marino wrote the pro-drug industry law that ultimately passed. He spent years pushing versions of it through Congress. . . 

Marino has clear ties to the drug industry. He received nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions from political action committees supporting the industry. . .

Marino asked for (and got) an investigation of a DEA investigator standing in his way. . .

He didn't cooperate with the reporters working on the investigation. . ."

Read the Washington Post, A cheat sheet to the investigation that cost Rep. Tom Marino the nomination to be drug czar.

Trump's Big CON: Teenager or a Toddler?

"Since late April, the hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts has documented more than 135 examples of Trump’s political allies and staffers either describing or treating the president of the United States like a toddler. So, full disclosure, I think the Trump-as-toddler analogy has pretty strong resonance.

On the other hand, the hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts respects Masha Gessen, a staff writer at the New Yorker. Last week she wrote a column titled 'Trump Doesn’t Govern Like a Toddler. He Governs Like a Teenager.'"

Read the Washington Post, Is Donald Trump more like a teenager or a toddler?

"Let the most important political debate of 2017 begin."