Misadventures of a minority-elect President 16

Trump becomes Kimmel’s punchline at the Oscars, Trump’s state of the union speech could get interesting, the death of Democracy under a Trump administration, be vigilant for a false flag that may serve as Trump’s Reichstag Fire, a secret dinner at his own DC hotel with his daughter and a foreign leader, the potential corruption of Trump’s swamp cabinet, 7 warning signs present when tyrants try to hijack Democracy, Trump as an unhinged puppet, U.S. allies learning that Trump’s America is not the ‘indespensable nation,’ Trump’s oxymoronic public safety and national security budget plan, speculation as to whether or not Trump can give a normal speech without sounding delusional, tax cuts by executive order, buyers remorse begins for some Trump voters, a new leak exposes Trump’s anti-leak campaign, Progressive ‘Justice League’ to counter fact-challenged Trump, Trump’s predatory presidency and more.

Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel turns Trump into recurrent punch line article from Newsweek. –
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-oscars-show-idUSKBN1660B6

“First-time Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel turned President Donald Trump into a comic foil in absentia at the Academy Awards on Sunday, poking fun at the political tumult roiling the United States and the world since the former reality TV star took office.

Aside from a string of running gags throughout the live telecast about Kimmel’s faux feud with his long-time pal, actor Matt Damon, the 45th U.S. president proved to be Kimmel’s favorite leitmotif.

In keeping with his signature deadpan, sardonic delivery, Kimmel’s social commentary was pointed while restrained, and he wasted little time addressing the political furor that has loomed so large over the Hollywood awards season…”

Trump’s speech could be marked by disruptin or decorum article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-speech-could-marked-disruption-decorum-085131875–politics.html

We No Longer Have Three Branches of Government article from Politico. –
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/three-branches-government-separation-powers-executive-legislative-judicial-214812

Quora Question: How Would The Secret Service Handle An Unfit President? article from Newsweek. –
http://www.newsweek.com/quora-question-would-secret-service-serve-unfit-leader-559750?rx=us

Could There Be an American Reichstag Fire? Don’t Underestimate Trump article from AlterNet. –
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/dont-underestimate-trump-could-there-be-american-reichstag-fire

“February 27 is the anniversary of the fire that destroyed the Reichstag and gave Hitler a pretext to seize total power. Could this happen in the U.S.

Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and the court system. — Donald Trump, tweet, February 5

On the night of February 27, 1933, less than a month after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, fire gutted the central chamber of the Reichstag in Berlin, the nation’s parliament building. To this day, historians are still debating whether it was the work of a lone arsonist, the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe, who was caught at the scene and soon confessed, or as journalist William L. Shirer later asserted in his classic Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, that there was “enough evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the Nazis who planned the arson and carried it out for their own political ends.”

But of one thing there was no doubt…”

President Trump has ‘secret’ dinner with Nigel Farage, Ivanka Trump at his own DC hotel article from AOL. –
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/27/president-trump-has-secret-dinner-with-nigel-farage-ivanka-trump-at-his-own-dc-hotel/21722704/

Will Americans Submit to Despotism in an Urge to ‘Escape from Freedom’? Erich Fromm Saw It Coming article from AlterNet. –
http://www.alternet.org/visions/will-americans-submit-despotism-urge-escape-freedom-erich-fromm-saw-it-coming

WATCH: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on the enormous potential corruption of Trump’s ‘Swamp Cabinet’ article and video from Salon. –
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/27/watch-sen-sheldon-whitehouse-on-the-enormous-potential-corruption-of-trumps-swamp-cabinet/

“Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who was our guest last week for a Salon Talks segment in New York, recently got some blowback from his own constituents for deciding to support President Trump’s nominee as CIA director, Mike Pompeo. Without revisiting that decision, Whitehouse made clear that he sees Trump’s Cabinet as rife with the kinds of conflicts of interest and potential corruption he documents in his new book “Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy” (written with Melanie Wachtell Stinnett).

When Trump was first elected, Whitehouse told me, some Democrats felt optimistic “that a lot of that campaign rhetoric might actually yield a president who wanted to govern in a bipartisan way, who was genuinely interested in draining the swamp of special interests and who was willing to be a disruptive presence in a helpful and cleansing way.”

It hasn’t worked out that way, Whitehouse said: “We have seen a real swamp Cabinet if there ever was one…”

Trump plans to cut funding for most government agencies article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-plans-to-cut-funding-for-most-government-agencies-160756646.html

Trump wants to increase the military budget by $54 billion and cut funding for most government agencies – should get interesting.

Robert Reich: 7 warning signs present when tyrants try to hijack democracies article from Salon. –
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/25/robert-reich-lie-exaggerate-blame-here-are-7-warning-signs-of-tyranny_partner/

“As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically do the following seven things.

1. They exaggerate their mandate to govern, claiming, for example, that they won an election by a “landslide” even after losing the popular vote. They criticize any finding that they or co-conspirators stole the election. And they repeatedly claim “massive voter fraud” in the absence of any evidence, in order to have an excuse to restrict voting by opponents in subsequent elections.

2. They turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them “deceitful” and “scum,” and telling the public that the press is a “public enemy.” They hold few, if any, press conferences and prefer to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements (or what we might now call “tweets”).

3. They repeatedly lie to the public, even when confronted with the facts. Repeated enough, these lies cause some of the public to doubt the truth and believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals…”

Trump’s punishment of the press is a gift to his supporters — and a hint of his re-election strategy article from Salon. –
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/26/trumps-punishment-of-the-press-is-a-gift-to-his-supporters-and-a-hint-of-his-re-election-strategy/

Trump: Unhinged puppet of a monster? article from Capitol Hill Blue. –
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/65002

“A growing number of aides to President Donald Trump say privately that he is too often unfocused and acts unhinged. Many also now feel he is a puppet to an even more dangerous master.

Trump, they say, “bellows like a madman” when confronted with information he doesn’t like or when he feels the a level of adoration is insignificant.

“We walk on eggshells,” one aide says. “The slightest little thing can set him off.”

Trump, they say, spends much of his time in the White House alone, watching hours of cable television news shows, sending out angry tweets on Twitter or screaming loudly for someone to tend to an often minor need…”

U.S. Allies Are Learning that Trump’s America Is Not the ‘Indispensable Nation’ article from Foreign Policy. –
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/27/u-s-allies-are-learning-that-trumps-america-is-not-the-indispensable-nation/

Trump is already walking back his most important promise on the economy by Business Insider from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-already-walking-back-most-144357886.html

Trump’s ‘public safety and national security’ budget damages public safety and national security article from Think Progress. –
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-budget-would-slash-diplomacy-and-boost-militarism-3f774418c13f#.6x47hy897

Trump’s duplicitous ‘public safety and national security’ budget makes us less safe.

Trump Tells Large Health Insurers to Expect ‘Something Special’ article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-tells-large-health-insurers-161323385.html

“President Donald Trump told major U.S. health insurers at a White House meeting Monday to expect “something special” to replace Obamacare, as the administration gets more involved in Republican efforts to repeal the health-care law.

“We’re going to be talking about it tomorrow night during the speech,” Trump said, referring to his address to a joint session of Congress scheduled for Tuesday. “I think you’ll like what you hear.”

CEOs from firms including UnitedHealth Group Inc., Aetna Inc., Anthem Inc., Cigna Corp., Humana Inc., Independence Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente and BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina were listed as attending Monday’s White House meeting. Reporters were removed from the session before the CEOs spoke…”

Can Donald Trump give a serious speech? article from the Chicago Tribune. –
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-donald-trump-terrible-speeches-20170227-story.html

Trump Tax Cuts Could Start With Executive Action article from Forbes. –
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2017/02/27/trump-tax-cuts-could-start-with-executive-action/#77c2a35276d7

New leak exposes details of Team Trump’s anti-leak campaign from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. –
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/new-leak-exposes-details-team-trumps-anti-leak-campaign

“The circular logic of Donald Trump’s complaints are routinely lost on the president. Over the weekend, for example, the Republican’s latest online whining was a gem: “Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!”

Yes, of course. The revelations about the Russia scandal, according to Trump, are little more than a ruse intended to obscure the illegal leaks surrounding the Russia scandal.

This, alas, isn’t new. At his CPAC appearance on Friday, the president argued that the reports based on the leaks are made-up by news organizations, which are citing sources that don’t exist. He also argued – in the same speech – that he’s outraged that administration officials are leaking real, sensitive, and at times classified information to journalists, who are publishing reports damaging to his White House. How does Trump reconcile the contradiction? So far, he doesn’t seem to understand that the contradiction exists…”

This small town is having second thoughts about Trump after immigration cops detain one of their own article from Fusion. –
http://fusion.net/story/389023/carlos-hernandez-pachecoa-illinois-ice-raid-trump/

The Predatory Presidency article from Common Dreams. –
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/27/predatory-presidency

“Recent executive orders reveal the Trump White House as a ruthless predator set to prey upon the most vulnerable among us…”

Trump: ‘Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated’ article from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. –
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-nobody-knew-health-care-could-be-so-complicated

Note to Trump: It wouldn’t be if it wasn’t being run by greedy corporations whose only desire is to make egregious profit…

Progressive ‘Justice League’ to Serve as Alt-Cabinet for Fact-Challenged Trump article from Common Dreams. –
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/02/27/progressive-justice-league-serve-alt-cabinet-fact-challenged-trump

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