Monthly Archives: March 2017

Misadventures of a minority-elect President 28

Explaining life in Trump’s land of delusion, Trump’s travel ban suffers major legal setback, aiding al-Qaeda by committing more drone strikes in Yemen in one week than President Obama did in a year, Trump’s plan to gut HUD will devastate majority of minions that voted for him, Trump’s hiring freeze hitting military families hard, Ethics office tells Trump and co. they are not above the rules, White House ignorance isn’t limited to our minority-elect President, the joke known as TrumpCare still faces major hurdle, why calling Trump crazy is an insult to crazy people, impeachment not required to remove a jackass president and more.

Donald Trump’s White House bubble presidency explained article from AOL News. –
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/03/10/donald-trumps-white-house-bubble-presidency-explained/21879649/

‘Bomb the Sh*t Out Of Them!’ – Trump Drones Yemen More in One Week Than Obama in a Year article from Information Clearing House. –
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46634.htm

“Undeterred by the disastrous commando raid on Yemen in the first days of his Administration, where plenty of civilians were killed but the target got away, President Donald Trump has escalated US military involvement in the tragic Yemen conflict to an unprecedented level. In fact as Foreign Policy reports, the US President has bombed Yemen more in the past week than President Obama (no peacenik) has bombed in a year.

But although the US escalation in Yemen is sold back home as another aggressive front in the war against al-Qaeda, in fact US operations in Yemen are actually helping al-Qaeda as well as its chief sponsor, Saudi Arabia.

The problem is that because his advisors are increasingly drawn from the neocon camp, the advice he is given is filtered through the “noble lie” that the neocons view as the central tenet of their faith. Thus even though the main enemies of al-Qaeda in Yemen are the Houthis, because Trump has been sold the neocon lie that the Houthis are Iranian proxies Trump is droning Yemen back to the stone age to the advantage of al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabia, who are on the same side.

While it is arguable that the President has authority under the authorization for the use of military force against those attacked us on 9/11 to attack al-Qaeda in Yemen, very few would argue that such authorization extends to actually helping al-Qaeda in Yemen…”

Trump’s revised travel ban dealt first court setback article from AOL News. –
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/03/11/revised-trump-travel-ban-first-setback/21879879/

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 27

New report claims Trump won the election thanks to FBI Director James Comey, more conflicts of interest on their way, despair over Trump is not an option, Trump’s right-wing Obamacare scandal is imploding, Trump’s New Sycophants, hundreds of Trump’s cronies installed in the U.S. Government, for someone who hates the media so much Trump sure does watch a lot of it, making sense of Trump’s conspiracy theories, Trump’s plan to try and blame Democrats if Trumpcare fails, Trump is no friend of liberty, dystopian fiction selling like hotcakes under the Trump administration, the GOP continues destroying America while Trump distracts, questions abound as to why Trump put a foreign agent in a key security post, growing disillusion among Trump voters, pondering what to do with a mentally ill President, cheering February’s strong job report when he probably shouldn’t, Trumpcare will be a political disaster for Trump, who decided to cancel open press events and go into hiding, more on the growing resistance, CIA backlash over Trump’s unfounded claims Obama wiretapped him growing and more.

Say It With Me Again: James Comey Elected Donald Trump President article from Mother Jones. –
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/03/say-it-me-again-james-comey-elected-donald-trump-president

Meet the Hundreds of Crony Officials Trump Has Quietly Installed Across the Government article from ProPublica. –
https://www.propublica.org/article/meet-hundreds-of-officials-trump-has-quietly-installed-across-government

“A Trump campaign aide who argues that Democrats committed “ethnic cleansing” in a plot to “liquidate” the white working class. A former reality show contestant whose study of societal collapse inspired him to invent a bow-and-arrow-cum-survivalist multi-tool. A pair of healthcare industry lobbyists. A lobbyist for defense contractors. An “evangelist” and lobbyist for Palantir, the Silicon Valley company with close ties to intelligence agencies. And a New Hampshire Trump supporter who has only recently graduated from high school.

These are some of the people the Trump administration has hired for positions across the federal government, according to documents received by ProPublica through public-records requests.

While President Trump has not moved to fill many jobs that require Senate confirmation, he has quietly installed hundreds of officials to serve as his eyes and ears at every major federal agency, from the Pentagon to the Department of Interior.

Unlike appointees exposed to the scrutiny of the Senate, members of these so-called “beachhead teams” have operated largely in the shadows, with the White House declining to publicly reveal their identities…”

The Right’s Latest Obama ‘Scandal’ Is Collapsing in Record Time article from AlterNet. –
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/gop-scandals-past

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 26

Trump’s out-of-control wiretapping claims getting worse, Trumpism as an existential threat, his love affair with WikiLeaks appears to be over, more on Trump’s Iranian money laundering scheme, Trump’s Keystone XL story falls apart, White House confusion on Trump being target of investigation, the serious threat Trump poses that no one is talking about, Trump lied about revitalizing inner cities, choosing instead to shred affordable housing, Trump doesn’t want his disastrous Obamacare replacement named after him, it appears Breitbart might be turning on Trump, conflicts of interest Iranian style, double standards in Trump’s land of delusion, anti-Trump resistance groups growing, Trump’s threat to harm Americans if Trumpcare fails and more.

Is Trumpism an existential threat? article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/is-trumpism-an-existential-threat-100032958.html

This may be the worst defense of Trump’s Obama-wiretapped-me claim – literally article from the Washington Post. –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/08/this-might-be-the-worst-defense-of-trumps-obama-wiretapped-me-claim-literally/

“Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which means he’s in charge of investigating President Trump’s evidence-free allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped his offices.

But Nunes doesn’t seem particularly worried that the current president accused the former president of a crime. Echoing so many Republican defenses of Trump’s tweets, he suggested Tuesday that Trump’s allegation simply shouldn’t be taken at face value.

Here’s what Nunes said:

The president is a neophyte to politics. He’s been doing this a little over a year. And I think a lot of the things that he says, you guys sometimes take literally. Sometimes he doesn’t have 27 lawyers and staff looking at what he does — which is, I think, at times refreshing and at times can also lead us to have to be sitting at a press conference like this, answering questions that you guys are asking. But at the end of the day, I think tweets are a very transparent way for a politician of any rank to communicate with their constituents. So I don’t think we should attack the president for tweeting.

There are a couple straw men here. One is the idea that Trump needs “27 lawyers” reading his tweets before they go out. The implication is that Trump didn’t really know what he was saying would be a big deal…”

Donald Trump team attacks WikiLeaks over CIA files, despite President once saying he ‘loved’ them article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/donald-trump-team-attacks-wikileaks-131700701.html

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 25

Trump’s White House denies Trump’s meeting with Russian ambassador during presidential primary despite multiple documented reports of it, Trump’s lies just keep coming, the difficulty of managing the Trump ‘disinformation’ bubble, Trump’s fraudulent enrichment program, Trump lies – tries to take credit – for Exxon’s expansion program, 38 more conflicts of interest for our fraudulent minority-elect President, even pro-Trump media isn’t buying his dubious Obamacare replacement bill crap, Trump prepares to go to war with GOP over Trumpcare, parts of Trump’s Russian dossier have been confirmed, Trump’s betrayal of those who believed his health care promises, echoing Nixon in so many ways for many of the same reasons, why Democrats keep losing to Trump and his miscreants, why it’s important not to get distracted by the Trump sideshow, the frightening truth about Fox News viewers and their support of Trump and more.

White House calls reported Trump meeting with Russian ambassador ‘absurd’ article from GMA on Yahoo! News. –
https://gma.yahoo.com/white-house-calls-reported-trump-meeting-russian-ambassador-035054205–abc-news-topstories.html

Trump live tweets Fox, adding a lie of his own article from Think Progress. –
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-spreads-lie-about-obama-releasing-gitmo-prisoners-b3055dc37e27#.8c9ygnppv

“President Donald Trump began his Tuesday by live tweeting statistics from Fox News?—?and embroidering the media coverage on Fox to spread a falsehood about how which Guantanamo detainees former President Barack Obama released.

While the statistic had appeared on Fox shortly before, the falsehood was Trump’s own extrapolation.

At 6:13 a.m. during a news rundown, Fox News mentioned the death of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Yasir al-Silmi, who was killed in an air strike on Yemen on March 2nd.

“A win in the war on terror, the Trump administration just killed a former Guantanamo Bay detainee released by Barack Obama, Yasir al-Silmi,” the segment went. “He had been released back in 2009 even though the department of defense recommended that he stay behind bars. 122 prisoners released from Gitmo have returned to the battlefield…”

Fact-checking Trump’s tweet about Guantanamo Bay detainees article by GMA from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/fact-checking-trumps-tweet-guantanamo-bay-detainees-161505822–abc-news-topstories.html

Surprise…another Trump lie.

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 24

One semi-coherent speech does not make a President great, protesters have already scored victories against Trump’s policies, liberal elites are Donald Trump’s best friends, bizarre Trump eruptions to deflect attention from his malfeasance, delusional ‘school choice’ plan pushes religious fundamentalism at taxpayer expense, Trumpcare – unsurprisingly – is a bad joke, Trump is panicking because he knows the Feds are closing in on him, Trump’s closest brown shirt friend in the US Congress, so much for Trump being Presidential, incorrectly – again – blaming President Obama for something he didn’t do, simply follow the money to get to the bottom of Trump’s Russia scandal, Park Service releases photos contradicting Trump’s inauguration claims, where alternative facts fail, White House officials reveal their ignorance over Trump’s false wiretap claims, the pending Trump disappointment, information on Trump’s illicit deals and ties coming to light, Trump’s claims about Obama could be grounds for impeachment if it turns out their baseless accusations, White House whines about no one believing them over former President Obama, bets have begun on how long the Trump administration will survive and more.

Poll: Few See Trump’s Address To Congress As A Pivot article from the Huffington Post. –
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/poll-few-saw-trumps-address-to-congress-as-a-pivot_us_58bd9b05e4b033be1467101d

How activists have already scored victories against Trump’s policies article from the Guardian. –
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/07/trump-activists-anti-progressive-policies

Donald Trump’s Greatest Allies Are the Liberal Elites article from Truthdig. –
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/donald_trumps_greatest_allies_are_the_liberal_elites_20170305

“The liberal elites, who bear significant responsibility for the death of our democracy, now hold themselves up as the saviors of the republic. They have embarked, despite their own corruption and their complicity in neoliberalism and the crimes of empire, on a self-righteous moral crusade to topple Donald Trump. It is quite a show. They attack Trump’s “lies,” denounce executive orders such as his travel ban as un-American and blame Trump’s election on Russia or FBI Director James Comey rather than the failed neoliberal policies they themselves advanced.

Where was this moral outrage when our privacy was taken from us by the security and surveillance state, the criminals on Wall Street were bailed out, we were stripped of our civil liberties and 2.3 million men and women were packed into our prisons, most of them poor people of color? Why did they not thunder with indignation as money replaced the vote and elected officials and corporate lobbyists instituted our system of legalized bribery? Where were the impassioned critiques of the absurd idea of allowing a nation to be governed by the dictates of corporations, banks and hedge fund managers? Why did they cater to the foibles and utterings of fellow elites, all the while blacklisting critics of the corporate state and ignoring the misery of the poor and the working class? Where was their moral righteousness when the United States committed war crimes in the Middle East and our militarized police carried out murderous rampages? What the liberal elites do now is not moral. It is self-exaltation disguised as piety. It is part of the carnival act.

The liberal class, ranging from Hollywood and the Democratic leadership to The New York Times and CNN, refuses to acknowledge that it sold the Democratic Party to corporate bidders; collaborated in the evisceration of our civil liberties; helped destroy programs such as welfare, orchestrate the job-killing North American Free Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, wage endless war, debase our public institutions including the press and build the world’s largest prison system.

“The truth is hard to find. The truth is hard to know. The truth is more important than ever,” reads a television ad for The New York Times. What the paper fails to add is that the hardest place to find the truth about the forces affecting the life of the average American and the truth about empire is in The New York Times itself. News organizations, from the Times to the tawdry forms of entertainment masquerading as news on television, have rendered most people and their concerns invisible. Liberal institutions, especially the press, function, as the journalist and author Matt Taibbi says, as “the guardians” of the neoliberal and imperial orthodoxy…”

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 23

Trump is gutting the EPA despite claims of loving clean air and water, escalating his campaign or terrorizing immigrants, destroying laws to increase his profits at everyone else’s expense, Trump’s raging tweets due to growing frustration over his own malfeasance, still trying to deflect attention from his growing scandals, White House backtracking on Trump’s wiretapping claims, the mad insanity of Donald Trump, Trump’s conspiracy theory over wiretapping started by right-wing radio host, another leaked video shows trouble in Trump’s land of delusion, Trump’s team trying desperately to pacify him, some say Trump must be removed from Twitter, Trump signs second attempt at Muslim ban by Executive Order, far-right media gives Trump answers to his questions, more evidence our distractor-in-chief trying to make the public avoid what matters in his lackluster presidency, mistaking his stupidity for cleverness, Trump’s travel ban 2.0 will probably still face legal problems, we’ll soon find out how far alternative facts can take your failing presidency, Trump – the enigma, suffering from an inferiority complex over his predecessor and more.

Trump Says He Loves Clean Air and Water. So Why Is He Gutting the EPA? article from Mother Jones. –
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/02/trump-doesnt-want-give-you-dirty-details-his-clean-air-and-clean-water-promise

“The dirty details of the president’s environmental policies.

Even President Donald Trump likes clean water and air. During his speech to Congress Tuesday night, Trump certainly didn’t dwell on the matter: His pledge to “promote clean air and water” was lumped in a sentence with commitments to work with both parties, push for paid family leave, and “invest in women’s health.” But it was still there.

No matter who you ask—Republicans or Democrats—everyone likes to breathe air and drink water that won’t kill them. Air and water poll so well, in fact, that Republicans will almost never come out and say that their policies might actually make them dirtier. Trump used similar lines about clean air and water throughout the campaign, saying things like, “We are going to work very, very hard on clean air and clean water.” The subject also appears near the bottom of the energy section of the White House website…”

Teed off: Critics say Trump water rule helps his golf links article from the AP on Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/teed-off-critics-trump-water-rule-helps-golf-150135246.html

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 22

Trump incorrectly trying to blame his predecessor – not the FBI – for unsubstantiated claims that he was wiretapped, meaning a FISA Judge found probable cause to surveil him (which of course if bad news for Trump), our liar-in-chief is branded a liar for false ‘watergate’ claims – which is being used to try and deflect attention away from his ever-growing Russian scandal, Trump warned not to tread on State Pot Laws, Breitbart acting as Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda on phony wiretap claims, once again our minority-elect President tweets before he thinks, a short Trump wiretap conspiracy theory short story courtesy of Stephen King, Trump’s baseless wire-tap claims rule Sunday political theater talk shows, media helps Trump deflect responsibility for failed Yemen Raid, some say Trump’s Tweet tantrum was fueled because he knows he has been caught, Fox News and their role in Trump’s delusional fairy tales, fighting brain rot in the Trump era and more.

Trump’s Wiretapping Claim Based on Warrants Granted to FBI article from Fortune on Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-wiretapping-claim-based-warrants-195318817.html

A FISA court, allegedly with probable cause, would have issued the order to wiretap Trump and his ilk, not President Obama.

Even Donald Trump officials ‘do not know’ where he got wiretap claims from article by the Independent on Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/even-donald-trump-officials-not-120500662.html

“White House officials have reportedly said they have no idea where President Donald Trump got his information that his phones were wire-tapped by Barack Obama.

Mr Trump made his latest explosive claims on Twitter without offering supporting evidence, saying he was the target of a Watergate-style plot and his New York office was wiretapped during the election campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Two former senior US officials dismissed Mr Trump’s accusations out of hand as “just nonsense” and “just wrong”, with one telling CNN categorically: “This did not happen…”

Trump accused Obama of ‘McCarthysism.’ But Trump’s lifelong mentor had a crucial role in its rise article from the Chicago Tribune. –
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-trump-obama-wiretap-mccarthy-cohn-20170304-story.html

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 21

Trump’s paranoia takes center stage in his land of delusion, Trump’s lies just keep coming, despite best efforts, Trump still can’t shake the Russia scandal, Trump’s flurry of falsehoods, Trump’s apparatchiks, his flailing attempts to deflect attention away from the Russia scandal, our liar-in-chief wants to talk about who’s lost their grip on reality, the growing list of those wanting to see Trump’s tax return and more.

‘This is Nixon/Watergate’: Without evidence, Trump accuses Obama of wire tapping Trump Tower before election article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/this-is-nixonwatergate-trump-accuses-obama-of-wire-tapping-trump-tower-before-election-131755678.html

Trump increaslingly tries to blame former President Obama for the disastrous decisions of his illegitimate presidency.

Obama’s spokesman responds to Trump’s wiretapping claims: ‘simply false’ article from AOL News. –
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/03/04/obama-s-spokesman-respond-s-to-trump-s-wiretapping-claims-simp/21873447/

Our Nietzschean Struggle article from Counter Punch. –
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/our-nietzschean-struggle/

“In a New Republic article entitled “Apparatchik City: Nobody Here But Us Non-Dissidents” (March 5, 1990), Michael Kinsley wrote:

Is the life philosophy of members of the [Communist] Party Central Committee so different from that of members of Congress? . . . [W]hich people in the Bush Administration and associated circles would be members of the Politburo and which, if any, would be dissidents? . . . The President himself, son of a senior regional apparatchik? James Baker? Can you see our Secretary of State freezing in Siberia for his belief in freedom and democracy?

Exactly 27 years later, the same invective could be leveled against prominent members of the Trump administration, especially Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, and Reince Priebus. These are not John Lewis-es, courageous individuals who would risk their lives for the greater good. On the contrary, they are little more than modern-day Tartuffes, pretending to be righteous while disseminating their boss’s latest lies and denying his obvious immaturity and incompetence. Likewise with most congressional Republicans and the propagandists on Fox News and right-wing talk radio (Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, etc.). None of them would ever give up anything, their lives no less their millions, for the liberty that they constantly profess to cherish. These armchair generals in the modern political and cultural wars are just not the stuff that civil-rights heroes are made of…”

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 20

Trump administration’s attempts to plug leaks is fueling paranoia, Trump has already brought us to the brink of war with Iran, too much media normalizes Trump’s speech, Trump berates media for using anonymous sources while becoming one himself, fraud and ignorance appear to be valued Trump family traits, stupidity is still running rampant in Trump’s White House, Trump still making false claims about the military, breaking promise on Keystone pipeline, Trump starts destroying net neutrality, Trump’s deceptive plan for school vouchers, GOP hiding replacement Obamacare bill, Trump’s justification of travel ban is not credible, Trump’s delusional dipshittery over his ‘great wall’ begins to unravel, another key Trump adviser with ties to anti-Semitic groups, Trump’s preference for ‘alternative facts’ could spark another Iraq – or worse, more on Trump’s ongoing conflicts of interest, Trump administration suspends more Obama-era consumer protections while looking for other Obama regulations to rid themselves of, the racist standards of Trump’s ‘law and order’ and more.

Sources: Trump aides’ bid to plug leaks fuels government paranoia article from AOL News. –
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/03/03/sources-trump-aides-bid-to-plug-leaks-fuels-government-paranoi/21872576/

“WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used his first senior staff meeting last month to tell his new aides he would not tolerate leaks to the news media, sources familiar with the matter said.

Current and former officials said that in a departure from past practice, access to a classified computer system at the White House has been tightened by political appointees to prevent professional staffers from seeing memos being prepared for the new president.

And at the Department of Homeland Security, some officials told Reuters they fear a witch hunt is under way for the leaker of a draft intelligence report which found little evidence that citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries covered by Trump’s now-suspended travel ban pose a threat to the United States.

The clampdown has fueled paranoia among Washington career civil servants who say it appears designed to try to limit the flow of information inside and outside government and deter officials from talking to the media about topics that could result in negative stories…”

Intelligence Experts: Trump’s Adherence to ‘Alternative Facts’ Could Spark Another Iraq—or Worse article from AlterNet. –
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trumps-policies-could-spark-war

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Misadventures of a minority-elect President 19

Trump’s budget destroys America while building up the Military-Industrial Complex, more false fabrications from Trump on the disastrous Yemen raid, more Trump falsehoods about immigrants and terrorist attacks in the U.S., Trump’s political reality convoluted by his dystopian fantasy, how Trump lies about his lies, don’t believe the new Trump, ethics course nixed for White House staff, Trump leak crackdown could backfire, more on Trump’s brown shirts in Congress protecting him, Trump’s campaign took illegal cash, undocumented communities organized and ready to fight Trump’s mass expulsion orders, Trump-Russia scandal growing, crime isn’t nearly as bad as the White House wants you to think it is and more.

Forget Trump’s speech. Look at his budget article from Yahoo! News. –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-central-mistake-in-trumps-budget-100052871.html

New Trump claims about deadly Yemen raid appear to be untrue article from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. –
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/new-trump-claims-about-deadly-yemen-raid-appear-be-untrue

“Following up on a story we’ve been following, Donald Trump continues to face important questions about the first military raid he ordered as president, which tragically turned deadly. The fact that the Republican president is avoiding responsibility for what happened – and doesn’t appear to be telling the truth about the mission itself – makes the questions all the more serious.

As we’ve discussed, the plan was to acquire intelligence and equipment at an al Qaeda camp in Yemen, but the mission quickly went sideways: Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, a member of SEAL Team 6, was killed; several other Americans were injured; and by the end of the operation, multiple civilians, including children, were dead.

It’s been described as a mission in which “almost everything went wrong,” a dynamic made more complicated by U.S. military officials suggesting to Reuters that Trump approved the mission “without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations…”

3 Hard Political Truths That Trump Is Facing article from AlterNet. –
http://www.alternet.org/3-reasons-trumps-grip-power-could-be-more-fragile-it-looks

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