Misadventures of a minority-elect President 3

Holding Trump accountable for his ethics violations, Trump’s dystopian attributes, questions about Trump’s illiteracy and the miscreants he surrounds himself with, and other pernicious psychoses from those surrounding him in the land of delusion.

In a Time of Executive Orders, Upholding Truth is a Revolutionary Act article from Counter Punch. –
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/14/in-a-time-of-executive-orders-upholding-truth-is-a-revolutionary-act/

“The first month of Trump in office unleashed chaos and turmoil in the nation, creating what some called a constitutional crisis. With a series of executive orders threatening women’s reproductive rights, immigrants and sacred water guarded by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, public outrage galvanized in protests across the country.

This new resistance against Trump’s repressive nationalist agenda is very encouraging. Yet, in order for this spark to become a truly transformative force, we need to take a hard look at how we got here. Trump’s outrageous move barring people from seven majority Muslim nations from entering into the United States sent shockwaves nationwide. The truth is that this didn’t emerge out of nowhere. This controversial list of Muslim countries that Trump is now using in his executive order was created by Obama, who was the commander in chief that had bombed 7 countries and expanded the Bush era ‘War on Terror’.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is now receiving a flood of funding after Trump’s unconstitutional immigrant order, had for a long time been fighting the same battle. This nonpartisan civil rights defender had little support when they fought fiercely against the deportation of over 2 million people under Obama. Also, the ubiquitous illegal drone attacks that are now gaining more scrutiny was Obama’s signature policy. The 8-year-old girl that was just killed under Trump was the sister of a 16-year-old American in Yemen, who was a collateral drone strike victim from Obama’s kill list…”

Runaway Inequality Elected Trump. Here’s How It Can Help Defeat Him article from Common Dreams. –
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/14/runaway-inequality-elected-trump-heres-how-it-can-help-defeat-him

One of the best forms of resistance will be our demand for a more equitable and humane economy.

The Trump Administration’s Other War on the Media article from Common Dreams. –
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/14/trump-administrations-other-war-media

Flynn Resignation Shows Leaks Under Trump Are Working. Keep ‘Em Coming article from Common Dreams. –
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/14/flynn-resignation-shows-leaks-under-trump-are-working-keep-em-coming

Donald Trump is as American as Jim Crow article from the Los Angeles Times. –
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-trump-made-in-usa-20170214-story.html

“To the editor: I’ve been waiting for someone to tell the truth about President Trump. Finally, Adam Johnson said what I’ve been saying for months, even before Nov. 8. (“Stop comparing Trump to foreign leaders. He’s a distinctly American phenomenon,” Opinion, Feb. 10)

Despite not having one grandparent born in this country and having had two immigrant wives, Trump is as American as Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Japanese internment camps.

Our Constitution was built on bigotry. When the founding fathers said that all men were created equal, they meant only white men and no women. They certainly didn’t mean my male ancestors, who were slaves, or the Native Americans, who were targeted for extermination.

I also appreciate Johnson’s point that, unlike the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, Trump wants to use his power to serve the rich and white, not the poor and indigenous…”

How Trump can be held accountable for violating the Constitution, even if Congress doesn’t care article from Think Progress. –
https://thinkprogress.org/how-trump-can-be-held-accountable-for-violating-the-constitution-even-if-congress-doesnt-care-45677e6b85f7#.jov7w4ntm

“Among legal scholars, there isn’t much debate: President Trump is violating the Constitution.

Since Trump decided to retain full ownership of his business empire, he has been receiving a stream of payments from foreign governments, which is prohibited by Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution.

The trickier question is how to hold Trump accountable.

The most straightforward way is impeachment. Virginia Governor Edmund Jennings Randolph, in a debate over the provision, known as the Emoluments Clause, in 1788 put it bluntly: “If discovered he may be impeached.”

Impeachment, however, is an unlikely remedy while Republicans maintain an iron grip on Congress and show little interest in holding Trump accountable for anything…”

Five Faces Of Dystopia article from Common Dreams. –
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/13/five-faces-dystopia

“Based on reliable news sources, his biographer, and his own writings, the most powerful man of his era has been referred to as an “egomaniac” and “narcissist,” possessing a “big mouth” with an “impulsive style,” unable to differentiate between truth and falsehood, preferring emotion over facts, focused on national greatness and law & order, fearful of “foreignization,” prone to coarseness and put-downs in speeches, and fond of “mantralike phrases” filled with “accusations, vows of revenge and promises for the future.”

Depravity

The man described above is Adolf Hitler. All of the descriptions were attributed to the Nazi leader: some of it by news media in the 1930s, some of it by modern historian and biographer Volker Ullrich, some of it by Hitler himself in “Mein Kampf.” Eerily familiar to the present day.

Racism

Donald Trump placed a painting of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, apparently feeling pleased that, in his own words, “a lot of people they compare the campaign of Trump with the campaign of [Jackson].”

Andrew Jackson may have been our most racist president. To him, Native Americans were only ‘savages’ standing in the way of progress. For ten years Jackson arranged ‘treaties’ with Indians in the American southeast, setting up his own friends as land agents, traders, and surveyors while encouraging white squatters to take over the land. Eventually recognizing Florida as vital to “national security,” he initiated raids on Seminole villages, burning down homes and forcing out residents, all in the name of the “immutable laws of self-defense.” The result was a Trail of Tears that led thousands of sick and starving Cherokees across the Mississippi in the middle of winter to unfamiliar and unproductive land far from their home…”

Jeff Sessions began his term as attorney general fear-mongering about crime and Muslims article from Think Progress. –
https://thinkprogress.org/sessions-attorney-general-muslims-crime-714bbd44a9a6#.1np6snu9t

America isn’t as scary and terrible as Trump and Sessions would have you believe.

Many Storms Gathering: Reflections on Trump article from Information Clearing House. –
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46432.htm

“February 12, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – I bow (in case you were wondering) to no one in my loathing for the Clintons, the Establishment, the Beltway Insulates, political correctness, BLM, radical feminists, the controlled media, Obama, Wall Street, neocons, Social-Justice Look-at-Mes, and the New York Oligarchs. After the election, I figured, having no choice anyway, to see what Trump actually did. I have seen. America elected a dangerous curiosity.

Listen to Trump’s Secretary of State Tillerson, his representative, addressing Congress and ordering China around like a misbehaving twelve-year-old: “We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops and, second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”

This amounts to “Do what I say, or else.” It is an ultimatum, a thing to be used gingerly among big powers. The only “else” is war. Yes, he was speaking unofficially, but his interventions are clear.

Ultimata are dangerous. They are insulting. They leave no room for preservation of dignity by compromise, by finding a way to give in without seeming to. They are a way to look for a fight. A Secretary of State who casually issues ultimata to huge and nuclear powers is a symptom of an executive branch utterly out of control…”

Is Our ‘Malignant Narcissist’-In-Chief Also A Functional Illiterate? article from the Huffington Post. –
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/58a1cf81e4b0e172783a9eae

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

There is clear evidence that Donald Trump doesn’t read, doesn’t like to read, won’t read. But is that where the truth stops?

Over the course of several interviews, Trump has said rather disdainfully that he doesn’t need to read extensively because he’s a “very efficient guy” with enormous ability to reach the right decisions “with very little knowledge other than the knowledge I [already] had, plus the words ‘common sense,’ because I have a lot of common sense, and I have a lot of business ability.”

Trump has a seemingly uncontrollable fixation on the media but appears particularly obsessed with watching TV news shows. He rarely browses the Internet — favoring instead Google News printouts. He doesn’t use a computer, reads his own email sparingly, doesn’t even carry a smartphone during daytime hours when he dictates tweets to his assistants.

Trump’s obvious pride in his signature affixed to each executive order is different though. In fact, it is downright strange. “Look, America,” seems to be the overarching message after he scrawls his artwork on each one. “I can sign my name!”

I’m not certain what we are expected to do thereafter — applaud?…”

TRUMP: The ‘real story’ to emerge from Flynn resignation is ‘illegal leaks’ to media article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-real-story-emerge-flynn-151519874.html

Trump’s weak attempt to deflect attention from the shit storm over Russia that is coming:

“President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning assailed government officials who anonymously leaked information about Michael Flynn to the media, his first public comments since the embattled national security adviser resigned from his post on Monday.

“The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?” Trump said on Twitter.

Flynn resigned as national security adviser on Monday night after just 24 days on the job, the shortest tenure anyone has ever served in the role. The resignation came amid an uproar over talks he had with a Russian diplomat, the content of which he didn’t fully disclose to the administration, and followed a Washington Post report that said the White House was warned he could be vulnerable to blackmail…”

Congressional Republicans have finally come up with a strategy to deal with Trump. It won’t work article from the Washington Post. –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/13/the-very-risky-bet-congressional-republicans-are-making-on-donald-trump/

“Congressional Republicans have developed a foolproof two-step plan to deal with President Trump in the White House. Step one: Have their cake. Step two: Eat it too.

Here’s how Jonathan Martin and Matt Flegenheimer described that strategy in the New York Times on Monday:

After three weeks in the White House, Mr. Trump has made clear that he is going to continue promulgating conspiracy theories, flinging personal insults and saying things that are plainly untrue. And the Republican-controlled House and Senate seem to have made a collective decision: They will accommodate — not confront — his conduct as long as he signs their long-stalled conservative proposals on taxes, regulations and health care into law…”

Trump’s Advisers Want You To Believe He’s The Most Productive President Yet. He Isn’t article from the Huffington Post. –
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-accomplishments_us_58a0ccf8e4b094a129ec274d

“President Donald Trump’s advisers have taken to boasting about the flurry of activity that has come out of the White House in the last few weeks. And on Sunday’s political television shows, Stephen Miller, a senior White House policy adviser, made the most audacious version of this claim yet.

According to Miller, Trump has already accomplished more than most presidents achieve over the course of four or even eight years ― even though he has been in office for just three weeks…”

Trump’s unhealthy dependence problem: The president’s at war with courts, press and states article from Salon. –
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/12/trumps-unhealthy-dependence-problem-the-presidents-at-war-with-courts-press-and-states_partner/

“With congressional Republicans in the majority in Congress and unwilling to cross Donald Trump, the job of containing Trump’s incipient tyranny falls to three centers of independent power: the nation’s courts, its press and a few state governments.

This is why Trump is escalating attacks on all three.

The judiciary

After federal Judge James Robart — an appointee of George W. Bush — stayed Trump’s travel ban last Friday, Trump leveled a personal attack on the judge. “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted the following morning.

This was followed by another, late last Sunday: “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system.”

For a president to personally attack a federal judge who disagrees with him is a dangerous overstepping of presidential power…”

White House senior adviser: ‘The judiciary is not supreme’ article from ABC News. –
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-senior-adviser-judiciary-supreme/story?id=45427216

“Challenging a federal court’s ruling, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told ABC News “the judiciary is not supreme” and the president’s powers on immigration “represent the apex of executive authority.”

Asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos about the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ upholding a lower court’s temporary restraining order on President Trump’s executive action that temporarily bars entry into the U.S. of people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Miller said, “We have equal branches of government in this country.”

“The judiciary is not supreme,” he said on “This Week” on Sunday. “A district judge in Seattle cannot force the president of the United States to change the laws and our Constitution because of their own personal views.”

Pressed by Stephanopoulos whether his reference to judges’ “personal” views” was calling into question the legitimacy of the judge, Miller said, “I’m calling into the question the accuracy of the ruling…”

US ethics office: White House should probe Conway’s Nordstrom comments article from AOL News. –
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/14/us-ethics-office-white-house-should-probe-conways-nordstrom-co/21713977/

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House should investigate whether presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway violated government ethics rules when she made a public endorsement of Ivanka Trump products, and consider disciplinary action, the Office of Government Ethics said in a letter on Tuesday.

Conway’s comments last week after retailer Nordstrom announced it was dropping the branded line of Trump’s daughter Ivanka prompted criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers amid concern she may have violated ethics rules.

“There is strong reason to believe that Ms. Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct and that disciplinary action is warranted,” the letter read…”

The Fog of Trump article from Foreign Policy. –
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/14/the-fog-of-trump/

“Stephen Miller, top White House policy advisor and creepy, unblinking throwback to totalitarian propaganda ministries of old, bragged that Donald Trump has gotten more done in his first three weeks than some presidents do in their entire terms of office. Seemingly allergic to facts as this champion of unsubstantiated scare stories is — from those about refugees to the myths of voter fraud — he may be on to something. Trump is already breaking records.

Disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s 24 days in office is by almost half a year the shortest tenure of any national security advisor in history. The scandal that brought Flynn down is almost certainly the earliest of real consequence to hit a fledgling presidency. From Flynn’s apparently illegal communications with the Russian government to Trump’s conducting of what should have been secret business in the middle of a dinner party at his Florida club, no White House has ever shown such contempt for the norms of operational security. Trump’s approval rating is the lowest for a new president in the modern era. His disregard for the Constitution has not only gotten him in trouble with the court system earlier than any president in recent memory, but it quite likely gives him the record for being the earliest serial violator of his oath of office ever. No president has ever been enshrouded by anything remotely like the web of conflicts of interest that envelops Trump, who has made being above the law a foundational principle of his presidency. He has done more to shake the confidence and earn the opprobrium of America’s most important allies — from the U.K. to EU and Mexican leaders to Australia — than any president since the United States became a world power. And as Miller barked out on last Sunday’s morning news shows, this president is just getting started. Attention must be paid…”

Bannon in Washington: A Report on the Incompetence of Evil article from Lawfare Blog. –
https://www.lawfareblog.com/bannon-washington-report-incompetence-evil

“Thank you, Steve Bannon. I mean that sincerely. I’m sleeping better because of you.

Over the first few weeks of the Trump administration, Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon has worked hard to establish himself as the would-be Grand Vizier of the White House. Bannon, the former executive chair of the winkingly white nationalist website Breitbart, was the driving force behind the executive order banning entry into the United States of immigrants and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries and now sits on the Principals Committee of the National Security Council.

And if he had his way, the rest of this piece would be about how frightening he is…”

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