US Politics - Trump cancels summit having to do with North Korea

twitter.com/ppppolls/status/887042589622403073

Peter Crisp wrote:It's scary just how willing US police are to draw a firearm and point it at people even against people who are clearly unarmed and no threat.
I don't think Americans realise just how that act is perceived in the rest of the free world where we just have no experience of having guns pointed at us even if we are in an interaction with the police. I'm pretty sure nobody on here outside the US will have had a police gun drawn on them at a traffic stop fort example as 99.99% of the time guns in that situation will just cause more trouble than they solve.
It seems Americans almost don't mind having guns pointed at them which is just plain odd to me.

Two more Republican senators say they oppose their party's replacement for President Obama's health reforms, leaving leaders short of a majority.

Mike Lee and Jerry Moran both announced they could not support the bill in its current form.

Republicans hold 52 seats in the 100-member Senate, and with two other Republicans already against the bill they could not afford more desertions.

President Donald Trump made repealing Obamacare a key campaign pledge.

The current plan retains key Obamacare taxes on the wealthy, while allowing insurers to offer less coverage and imposing sharp cuts to healthcare for the poor.

Moderates worried about the effects on the most vulnerable, while conservatives defended the dismantling of Obamacare.

The two senators simultaneously announced their opposition to the planned reforms.

While saying there were "serious problems" with the Affordable Care Act, Mr Moran said "we should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy".

For Mr Lee, "in addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes [the bill] doesn't go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations."

Republican leaders and the White House were now left with just a few options: try to rewrite the plan, engage in a bipartisan effort to address the flaws recognised by both parties or abandon it altogether and focus on other key issues, such as tax reform.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would try to pass a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay implementation that would provide a "stable transition period" to a new legislation.

Correspondents, however, say that this plan has little chance to pass.

Peter Crisp wrote:I don't think you quite understand just how different US views on healthcare are. US conservatives don't see healthcare as something the government should do or something people should expect to get as a right they think it should be something people pay for like car insurance or food. They have no problem with people going completely untreated for medical issues simply because they lack the ability to pay and that those people should simply work harder (even while cripplingly ill) and stop being so lazy.

It's a completely different mindset and they won't ever change and view any call for government involvement in healthcare as slavery and a slippery slope towards communism so I wouldn't say they're evil just incredibly unsympathetic and uncaring about fellow Americans.
They also have this odd belief that everyone can just get treated by a charity or that hospitals will just magically treat people for free which is just plain odd to see and will claim nobody in the US goes untreated even though millions obviously do.

Moggy wrote: the Republicans/NRA are very good at stopping anything happening.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Moggy wrote: the Republicans/NRA are very good at stopping anything happening.

It appears that the major take away from this administration so far is the the GOP is strawberry floating great at stopping stuff, but strawberry floating awful at creating stuff. They're The Joker of politics.

Peter Crisp wrote:Part of the problem is that a lot of their stronger fans actively hate politics and think politicians are thieves and this includes pretty much all the people who I spent years posting with on the US politics forum. They're on a politics forum and they think all politicians are subhuman scum unless they agree with them 100% of the time.
It's just bloody bizarre.

twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/887123822733914112

President Trump held a second, informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg earlier this month, according to Ian Bremmer, the president of the international consulting firm Eurasia Group.

The meeting took place during the G-20 heads of state dinner, according to Bremmer, hours after Trump's formal bilateral sit-down with Putin.

In that conversation, Trump spoke with the Russian leader for roughly an hour, joined only by Putin's translator. The meeting had previously gone without mention by the White House.

That Trump was not joined in the conversation by his own translator is a breach of national security protocol, Bremmer noted, though one that the president likely would not know about.

Trump and Putin met for a formal discussion during the G-20 summit — a meeting that was scheduled to last 30 minutes but exceeded two hours.

Bremmer said in an interview with Bloomberg's Charlie Rose that the rapport that Trump established with Putin during the summit is "clearly his best personal relationship" with a G-20 leader.

"Never in my life as a political scientist have I seen two countries — major countries — with a constellation of national interests that are as dissonant, while the two leaders seem to be doing everything possible to make nice and be close to each other," he said.

BBC News wrote:Los Angeles' homeless crisis goes from bad to worse - 18-24 year olds fastest growing group of homeless people, up 64%

Los Angeles' entertainment industry nurtures the city's dreamy La La Land image. But while Hollywood laps up the attention, there is a growing crisis in the land of make-believe - a soaring increase in the number of homeless people living on its streets.

Homelessness in Los Angeles County soared by 23% in the past year and it shows. The problem has become tangible and inescapable, with makeshift tent encampments cropping up across the sprawling metropolis.

Tourists are shocked to find themselves stepping over people draped in filthy blankets and begging on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Shop owners routinely swill the pavements to wash away urine and the accompanying stench.

"For the 31 years that I've been involved with homelessness... it has gotten worse far worse than I've ever seen before," says Ted Hayes, a long-time activist.

Hayes says gentrification of the downtown area has begun to scatter a previously concentrated homeless population across the city.

The yearly homeless count in Los Angeles County rose to 58,000 in 2017, up from 46,874 in 2016.
Neighbouring areas, such as Orange County, are also experiencing the same upwards trend.