2021-01-26 We're done, nothing else to see in this section...
Joe Biden has won the election fair and square. Before we move on, let's analyze the past 4 years.
Trump's average approval rating has never been over 50%
... while President Joe Biden's currently stands at 63%
"I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf." --Donald J. Trump, August, 2016
"TRUMP GOLF COUNT: 298 - Cost to Taxpayer: About $144,000,000" More than Obama and third out of all presidents on record.
https://trumpgolfcount.com/ https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/donald-trumps-legacy-a-whole-lotta-golf/news-story/6fd97552e91fe42ab1ad7345c2e6074b
Trump's lies: before, during, and after his presidency
"Trump (falsely) tweeted on Sept. 1, 2019, that several southern states, including Alabama, were “most likely to be hit” by the hurricane after its deadly pass through the Bahamas. Three days later, Trump shared a fake map in which a storm track, seemingly drawn with a black Sharpie, showed Hurricane Dorian moving toward Alabama. When a National Weather Service forecaster tried to set the record straight, its parent agency, NOAA, released an unsigned statement disavowing the correction — seemingly to appease the White House."
“What concerns me most is that this Administration is eroding the public trust in NOAA for an apparent political recovery from an ill timed and imprecise comment from the President.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/sharpiegate-fake-hurricane-map-emails
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-fact-checker-tracked-trump-claims/2021/01/23/ad04b69a-5c1d-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html
The Washington Post's database of Trump's 30,000+ lies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?claim=0068
Worst President in History?
The Atlantic Describes their rationale:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/trump-worst-president-history/617730/
Trump promised his supporters ‘everything.’ He didn’t deliver on much of it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/20/trump-promised-his-supporters-everything-he-didnt-deliver-most-it/
In the end, voters just did not like his approach to Covid and the overall policies
"President Trump “suffered his greatest erosion with white voters” that could not be made up for, even with his double-digit boost in support from Hispanic Americans in the 2020 presidential election, new analysis finds."
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000177-6046-de2d-a57f-7a6e8c950000
2020-09-27
2020-09-16 Trump contradicts the C.D.C. chief’s testimony on masks and vaccines.
'President Trump rebuked the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, saying that Dr. Robert R. Redfield offered “incorrect information” when he told a Senate panel earlier in the day that a coronavirus vaccine was unlikely to be widely available before the middle of next year.
“I saw the statement — I called him. I said, ‘What did you mean by that?’” Mr. Trump told reporters during a news briefing at the White House. “And I think he just made a mistake.”
The president also said that Dr. Redfield was wrong to say that a mask is more effective than a vaccine.
“The mask is not as important as the vaccine,” the president asserted, adding: “The mask, perhaps, helps.
“When I called up Robert today, I said, ‘What’s with the mask?’” Mr. Trump said. “He said, ‘I think I answered that question incorrectly.’ I think maybe he had misunderstood it,” he added.
Dr. Redfield had told senators that even if a vaccine were available now, vaccinating enough Americans for widespread immunity could take six to nine months. He estimated that one could be available for limited use by the end of the year, and for wider distribution by the middle of 2021, echoing a timeline that other top health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, had used in recent weeks.
During the hearing, Dr. Redfield also said that masks are “the most important, powerful public health tool we have” in fighting the pandemic.
He said universal mask use could bring the pandemic under control in a few months and said, “I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine.” (Vaccines are not 100 percent effective, whereas masks, worn properly, do what they are designed to do.)
But Mr. Trump asserted several times that his C.D.C. chief was wrong. “I got the impression that he didn’t realize he said what he might have said,” the president said. Asked whether he still had “confidence” in Dr. Redfield, Mr. Trump said, “I do.”
The president has repeatedly claimed that a vaccine could be available before Election Day, a timeline that most health experts say is unrealistic, prompting concerns that the Food and Drug Administration might give emergency authorization to a vaccine before it has been fully vetted for safety and effectiveness. Nine pharmaceutical companies have pledged to “stand with science” and not push through any product that didn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny. The F.D.A. chief Stephen Hahn said last week that the agency would be issuing new guidelines for emergency authorization of vaccines “in the near future.”
“We’re ready to go as soon as the vaccine happens,” Mr. Trump said. Asked how long he thought it might be before every American could be vaccinated, he replied, “I think it will be very soon.”
Mr. Trump said at a town-hall-style event on Tuesday night that a vaccine could be ready within “three weeks, four weeks.”'
2020-JUL-31 Economic disaster
Had Trump shown leadership during the Covid-19 crisis, the U.S wouldn't be in such a dire situation.
2020-JUL-15 Get to know Trump better
Seems that Trump does not want to upset Putin ahead of the November elections...
'Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show.
'Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show.
The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
(...)
The $916 million loss certainly could have eliminated any federal income taxes Mr. Trump otherwise would have owed on the $50,000 to $100,000 he was paid for each episode of “The Apprentice,” or the roughly $45 million he was paid between 1995 and 2009 when he was chairman or chief executive of the publicly traded company he created to assume ownership of his troubled Atlantic City casinos. Ordinary investors in the new company, meanwhile, saw the value of their shares plunge to 17 cents from $35.50, while scores of contractors went unpaid for work on Mr. Trump’s casinos and casino bondholders received pennies on the dollar.
“He has a vast benefit from his destruction” in the early 1990s, said one of the experts, Joel Rosenfeld, an assistant professor at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. Mr. Rosenfeld offered this description of what he would advise a client who came to him with a tax return like Mr. Trump’s: “Do you realize you can create $916 million in income without paying a nickel in taxes?”
Mr. Trump declined to comment on the documents. Instead, the campaign released a statement that neither challenged nor confirmed the $916 million loss.
“Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the statement said. “That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes.”
(...)
The tax experts consulted by The Times said the $916 million net operating loss declared by Mr. Trump in 1995 almost certainly included large net operating losses carried forward from the early 1990s, when most of Mr. Trump’s key holdings were hemorrhaging money. Indeed, by 1990, his entire business empire was on the verge of collapse. In a few short years, he had amassed $3.4 billion in debt — personally guaranteeing $832 million of it — to assemble a portfolio that included three casinos and a hotel in Atlantic City, the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, an airline and a huge yacht.
Reports that year by New Jersey casino regulators gave glimpses of the balance sheet carnage. The Trump Taj Mahal casino reported a $25.5 million net loss during its first six months of 1990; the Trump’s Castle casino lost $43.5 million for the year. His airline, Trump Shuttle, lost $34.5 million during just the first six months of that year.
“Simply put, the organization is in dire financial straits,” the casino regulators concluded.
"President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found.
Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help.
But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.
Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.
These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue Service, The Times found. The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances.
The Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax records show.
(...)
By age 3, Mr. Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s.
Fred Trump’s real estate empire was not just scores of apartment buildings. It was also a mountain of cash, tens of millions of dollars in profits building up inside his businesses, banking records show. In one six-year span, from 1988 through 1993, Fred Trump reported $109.7 million in total income, now equivalent to $210.7 million. It was not unusual for tens of millions in Treasury bills and certificates of deposit to flow through his personal bank accounts each month.
Fred Trump was relentless and creative in finding ways to channel this wealth to his children. He made Donald not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, banker and consultant. He gave him loan after loan, many never repaid. He provided money for his car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him three trust funds. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings.'
Seems that Trump does not want to upset Putin ahead of the November elections...
"WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year. Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion. The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said.
"WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year. Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion. The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said.
An operation to incentivize the killing of American and other NATO troops would be a significant and provocative escalation of what American and Afghan officials have said is Russian support for the Taliban, and it would be the first time the Russian spy unit was known to have orchestrated attacks on Western troops.
Any involvement with the Taliban that resulted in the deaths of American troops would also be a huge escalation of Russia’s so-called hybrid war against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing adversaries through a combination of such tactics as cyberattacks, the spread of fake news and covert and deniable military operations.
The Kremlin had not been made aware of the accusations, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “If someone makes them, we’ll respond,” Mr. Peskov said.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, denied that the insurgents have “any such relations with any intelligence agency” and called the report an attempt to defame them.
“These kinds of deals with the Russian intelligence agency are baseless — our target killings and assassinations were ongoing in years before, and we did it on our own resources,” he said. “That changed after our deal with the Americans, and their lives are secure and we don’t attack them.”'
2020-JUN-27 Justice Dept. Officials Outline Claims of Politicization Under Barr
"Two career officials accused the attorney general and other political appointees of interfering in law enforcement to advance his interests and the president’s.
Two Justice Department officials recounted to Congress in stinging detail on Wednesday how political appointees had intervened in criminal and antitrust cases to advance the personal interests of President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr.
Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, a prosecutor who worked on the Russia investigation, told the House Judiciary Committee that senior law enforcement officials had stepped in to overrule career prosecutors and seek a more lenient prison sentence for Mr. Trump’s longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. “because of politics.”
“In the United States of America, we do not prosecute people based on politics, and we don’t cut them a break based on politics,” said Mr. Zelinsky, who testified by video because of the coronavirus pandemic. “But that wasn’t what happened here. Roger Stone was treated differently because of politics.”
John W. Elias, a senior career official in the antitrust division, charged that his supervisors improperly used their powers to investigate the marijuana industry and a deal between California and four major automakers at the behest of Mr. Barr. He likened their efforts to burdensome harassment meant to punish companies for decisions the attorney general and the president opposed."
2020-JUN-17 Trump and the truth
"Trump Administration Asks Judge to Stop Publication of Bolton’s Book
The Trump administration sued the former national security adviser John R. Bolton on Tuesday to stop the publication of his highly anticipated memoir about his time in the White House, saying it contained classified information that would compromise national security if it became public.
The book, “The Room Where It Happened,” is set for release on June 23. Administration officials have repeatedly warned Mr. Bolton against publishing the book.
Mr. Bolton “had negotiated a book deal allegedly worth about $2 million and had drafted a 500-plus-page manuscript rife with classified information, which he proposed to release to the world,” the Justice Department said in a lawsuit against Mr. Bolton filed in federal court in Washington.
Mr. Bolton’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, has said that his client acted in good faith and that the Trump administration is abusing a standard review process to prevent Mr. Bolton from revealing information that is merely embarrassing to President Trump, but not a threat to national security."
This made me think that Trump's obfuscation of any truth that inconvenience or threatens him, and his propensity to lie almost systematically is very similar to the Chinese Communist Party's.
I was wondering what was the extent of the problem and got my answer:
2020-JUN-15 FDA on hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine: "Unlikely to be effective"
"The F.D.A. withdrew emergency approval for malaria drugs promoted by Trump.
The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it was revoking emergency authorization of two malaria drugs to treat Covid-19, saying that they are “unlikely to be effective.”
The drugs, hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, were heavily promoted by President Trump after a handful of small, poorly controlled studies showed that they could work in treating the disease.
Mr. Trump even took hydroxychloroquine after he was exposed to two people who had tested positive for the coronavirus. The agency said that after reviewing some data, it had determined that the drugs, particularly hydroxychloroquine, did not demonstrate benefits that outweighed their risks. Earlier this year, the F.D.A. issued a warning that the drugs could cause alarming heart arrhythmias.
In March, the F.D.A. authorized stockpiles of the drugs to be used in hospitals to treat patients with the virus. But in a letter Monday revoking the authorization, the agency said that further studies have shown that the two drugs were unlikely to be effective in stopping the virus, and that current national treatment guidelines don’t recommend using them outside of clinical trials."
2020-JUN-10 Dictatorial tendencies...Trump campaign demands CNN apologize for poll that shows Biden leading
"Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's campaign is demanding CNN retract and apologize for a recent poll that showed him well behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The demand, coming in the form of a cease and desist letter to CNN President Jeff Zucker that contained numerous incorrect and misleading claims, was immediately rejected by the network.
"We stand by our poll," said Matt Dornic, a CNN spokesman.The CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released on Monday shows Trump trailing the former vice president by 14 points, 55%-41%, among registered voters. It also finds the President's approval rating at 38% -- his worst mark since January 2019, and roughly on par with approval ratings for one-term Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush at this point in their reelection years -- and his disapproval rating at 57%.
In the letter to Zucker, the Trump campaign argued that the CNN poll is "designed to mislead American voters through a biased questionnaire and skewed sampling."
"It's a stunt and a phony poll to cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for the President, and present a false view generally of the actual support across America for the President," read the letter, signed by the Trump campaign's senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis and chief operating officer Michael Glassner."
2020-MAY-28 Trump says right-wing voices are being censored. The data says something else
"New York (CNN Business)President Donald Trump has angrily complained this week about social media companies, repeatedly accusing them of censoring conservative voices and going as far as to sign an executive order Thursday seeking to limit their power.
2020-MAY-29 Trump Moves to Strip Hong Kong of Special U.S. Relationship
Link to the act:
Mr. Trump’s announcement came largely in response to Beijing’s move this week to put in place broad new national security powers over Hong Kong. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was reporting to Congress a determination that Hong Kong no longer had significant autonomy under Chinese rule. Mr. Pompeo had earlier called the new Chinese law a “death knell” for the territory, a global financial and commercial hub with special status under American law because, in theory, it has semiautonomy until 2047 under an international treaty that Britain and China signed.
Mr. Pompeo’s finding amounted to a recommendation that the United States should reconsider its special relationship with Hong Kong. A 1992 law says the United States should continue to treat the Beijing-ruled territory under the same conditions it did when it was a British colony.
Mr. Trump made clear on Friday that he no longer considered Hong Kong to be separate from China.
“China claims it is protecting national security. But the truth is that Hong Kong was secure and prosperous as a free society. Beijing’s decision reverses all of that. It extends the reach of China’s invasive state security apparatus into what was formally a bastion of liberty,” Mr. Trump said.'
'Hong Kong is well-known as one of the world's most important financial centres. With a free economy and a competitive tax regime, it's attracted many multinational companies to its shores.
It's also an important hub for trade. But all of that could be in jeopardy, if the US changes the way it deals with Hong Kong.
So what is the US threatening?
At the moment, Hong Kong enjoys special trade relations with the US. It operates as a separate customs territory to mainland China. It also has a free port, meaning no tariffs are charged on the import or export of goods.
Those arrangements have helped Hong Kong become a centre for global trade. But now the US is threatening to treat Hong Kong the same as mainland China. That would mean its goods would be subject to additional tariffs, including those extra charges that were introduced as part of the US-China trade war, although some of those have recently been rolled back.
(...)
In 2018, 8% of mainland China's exports to the US and 6% of mainland China's imports from the US, passed through Hong Kong.
This role as a gateway between the Chinese market and the rest of the world has put Hong Kong in a unique position, but different trade arrangements could change that.
"If there's a new trade regime in place, that changes the calculation for companies," said Dr Tim Summers, a Senior Fellow at Chatham House, based in Hong Kong.
Companies could choose to move their goods directly through ports in mainland China instead, and higher tariffs there will mean higher price tags.
"The people who are going to get hurt are businesses and consumers," Dr Summers said.
Will China be worried?
Not so much as it might have been at the time of the Hong Kong handover. Back in 1997, Hong Kong played a much more significant role in China's economy, accounting for around 18% of China's GDP.
"But over the last 25 years China has grown massively," said Dr Summers. Hong Kong now contributes just 2-3% of China's GDP.
"Put that in context of the ocean of trade coming out of China, it's not so significant any more. So if President Trump were to act on trade, Hong Kong would suffer, but it's not a gamechanger for China," he said.
Beijing will however want to maintain Hong Kong's status as a global financial centre. Mainland Chinese companies are among those which choose to list on Hong Kong's Stock Exchange because of its access to global capital. Mainland Chinese companies also benefit from Hong Kong's large financial services sector.
"Shanghai and Shenzhen already have a vibrant financial services sector serving mainlanders," said David Webb, a former investment banker who's lived in Hong Kong since 1991. But so long as Beijing has capital controls on the movement of money in and out of China for investment, "then it can't compete with Hong Kong on international capital," he said.'
2020-MAY-29 Trump’s Order on Social Media Could Harm One Person in Particular: Trump
But the logic of Mr. Trump’s order is intriguing because it attacks the very legal provision that has allowed him such latitude to publish with impunity a whole host of inflammatory, factually distorted messages that a media provider might feel compelled to take down if it was forced into the legal role of a publisher that faced the risk of legal liability rather than a distributor that does not.
“Ironically, Donald Trump is a big beneficiary of Section 230,” said Kate Ruane, a senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which instantly objected to the proposed order. “If platforms were not immune under the law, then they would not risk the legal liability that could come with hosting Donald Trump’s lies, defamation and threats.”
Mr. Trump has long posted false and disparaging messages to his 80 million followers on Twitter, disregarding complaints about their accuracy or fairness. In recent weeks, he has repeatedly issued tweets that essentially falsely accused Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host, of murdering a staff member in 2001 when he was a congressman. Mr. Scarborough was 800 miles away at the time and the police found no signs of foul play. The aide’s widower asked Twitter to delete the messages, but it refused.
Mr. Trump and his allies argue that social media companies have shown bias against conservatives and need to be reined in. While they are private firms rather than the government, the president and his allies argue that they have in effect become the public square envisioned by the founders when they crafted the First Amendment and therefore should not be weighing in on one side or the other.
As a legal matter, Mr. Trump and his allies would be on stronger ground if Congress were to rewrite the law, as some Republicans like Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida are vowing to do.
The order that Mr. Trump is considering was not finished on Thursday morning and may yet be revised before he signs it, aides cautioned. A draft version said that an online provider that “restricts access to content” in certain cases “forfeits any protection from being deemed a ‘publisher or speaker’” under the law.
The Federal Trade Commission would be directed to consider taking action against providers that “restrict speech in ways that do not align with those entities’ public representations about those practices.”
“If @Twitter wants to editorialize & comment on users’ posts, it should be divested of its special status under federal law (Section 230) & forced to play by same rules as all other publishers,” Mr. Hawley said this week on, yes, Twitter. “Fair is fair.”
Mr. Trump on Thursday framed his goal as combating bias. “This will be a Big Day for Social Media and FAIRNESS!” he wrote, also on Twitter.
But even some government officials said his plan was unenforceable. “This does not work,” Jessica Rosenworcel, a member of the Federal Communications Commission who was first appointed under President Barack Obama, said in a statement. “Social media can be frustrating. But an executive order that would turn the Federal Communications Commission into the president’s speech police is not the answer. It’s time for those in Washington to speak up for the First Amendment. History won’t be kind to silence.”
(...)"
2020-MAY-13 Breaking down 'Obamagate,' Trump's latest theory about the 'deep state' and Obama's role in the Russia investigation
2020-MAY-07 Transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee
In a statement after making the transcripts public, Schiff said that they “show precisely what Special Counsel Robert Mueller also revealed: That the Trump campaign, and Donald Trump himself, invited illicit Russian help, made full use of that help, and then lied and obstructed the investigations in order to cover up this misconduct.”
The Intelligence Committee concluded its investigation in 2018 with a report by the then-Republican majority, led by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., finding that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians seeking to interfere in the election.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-newly-released-russia-probe-transcripts-from-the-house-intelligence-committee
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/07/politics/read-russia-investigation-transcripts/index.html
Note that RT is an international Russian government propaganda unit based in France.
https://francais.rt.com/international/74923-collusion-russe-mythe-seffondre-serie-victoires-majeures-trump
2020-MAY-04 The Trump administration projects about 3,000 daily deaths by early June
"As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths over the next several weeks. The daily death toll will reach about 3,000 on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double the current number of about 1,750.
The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases a day currently.
The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, significant risks remain. And reopening the economy will make matters worse.
“There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow,” the Centers for Disease Control warned.
The projections confirm the primary fear of public health experts: that a reopening of the economy will put the nation back where it was in mid-March, when cases were rising so rapidly in some parts of the country that patients were dying on gurneys in hospital hallways as the health care system was overloaded.
“While mitigation didn’t fail, I think it’s fair to say that it didn’t work as well as we expected,” Scott Gottlieb, Mr. Trump’s former commissioner of food and drugs, said Sunday on the CBS program Face the Nation. “We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we’re just not seeing that.”
On Sunday, Mr. Trump said deaths in the United States could reach 100,000, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago. But his new estimate still underestimates what his own administration is now predicting to be the total death toll by the end of May — much less in the months to come. It follows a pattern for Mr. Trump, who has frequently understated the impact of the disease.
“We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” he said in a virtual town hall on Fox News on Sunday. “That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/us/coronavirus-live-updates.html
2020-APR-22 Republican-Led Review Backs Intelligence Findings on Russian Interference
"A new Senate report undercuts claims by President Trump and his allies that Obama-era officials sought to undermine him while investigating Russia’s 2016 election meddling.
WASHINGTON — For years, President Trump has derided the assessment by American intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to assist his candidacy, dismissing it without evidence as the work of a “deep state” out to undermine his victory.
But on Tuesday, a long-awaited Senate review led by members of Mr. Trump’s own party effectively undercut those allegations. A three-year review by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously found that the intelligence community assessment, pinning blame on Russia and outlining its goals to undercut American democracy, was fundamentally sound and untainted by politics.
“The I.C.A. reflects strong tradecraft, sound analytical reasoning and proper justification of disagreement in the one analytical line where it occurred,” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the panel’s chairman. “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.”
The endorsement by Mr. Burr’s committee comes at a key moment for the intelligence agencies. Not only has Mr. Trump moved in recent months to install a loyalist in the top spy position, but Attorney General William P. Barr has also blessed a broad review of possible misconduct by investigators examining the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, apparently including work by intelligence officials.
The federal prosecutor whom Mr. Barr appointed to review the government’s response to Russian election interference, John H. Durham, is examining whether the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies overstated President Vladimir V. Putin’s support of the Trump campaign, a central finding of the 2017 assessment. His team has interviewed intelligence analysts, questioning whether Obama-era intelligence officials hid evidence or manipulated analysis about Moscow’s covert operation, people familiar with the Durham inquiry have said.
Some of Mr. Trump’s allies immediately criticized the Senate report; Fred Fleitz, a former C.I.A. officer who briefly served in the Trump administration, dismissed it as “a whitewash.” Many Republicans believe that the intelligence agencies overstated Russia’s support for Mr. Trump and argue that Moscow was trying to sow chaos in the United States, not support any one candidate.
Thursday’s report was the latest installment in an inquiry by the Senate Intelligence Committee into the broader Russia matter. Senators are expected to release one final chapter in the coming months examining contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.
When the inquiry began in early 2017, it was one of the most closely followed in the history of Congress, casting a cloud over Mr. Trump’s presidency that could not be dismissed as merely partisan. But with the investigation into the same topic by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, long since put to rest; an impeachment fight over a largely unrelated matter behind the country; and a pandemic reshaping nearly every aspect of life, the Russia inquiry has now largely become an afterthought for most Americans.
The Senate Intelligence Committee had already given the work of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. an interim stamp of approval, but the 158-page report released on Tuesday presented new detail about the government’s attempts in late 2016 and early 2017 to make sense of Russia’s attacks. Much of the report’s contents were considered highly sensitive and blacked out by the Trump administration before release.
In their report, senators essentially said they had asked the same questions that Mr. Durham is now examining and found that the intelligence agencies’ work stood up, even if it was conducted in a compressed time frame to be finished before President Barack Obama left office in January 2017.
“The case is closed,” said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine. “I don’t know how you could have a much more credible source than a three-year study by a bipartisan committee that came to a unanimous conclusion.”
Critics of the assessment have focused on the fact that the National Security Agency had a lower level of confidence than the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. on the conclusion that Mr. Putin supported Mr. Trump’s election. Mr. Durham, they believe, can provide proof.
But the committee found that the differing confidence levels among the intelligence agencies were “justified and properly represented.” The report said that both John O. Brennan, then the director of the C.I.A., and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, then the director of the National Security Agency, both “independently expressed to the committee that they reached the final wording openly and with sufficient exchanges of views.”
Senators said their inquiry found that intelligence analysts who worked on the assessment were “under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions.”
“All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process,” the report said.
It also examined the inclusion of material from a well-known dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer whom the F.B.I. referred to by the code name “Crown,” showing purported ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The document included unverified, salacious accusations about Mr. Trump and has become a focus of Mr. Trump’s allies, who have sought to conflate it with the much broader Justice Department investigation into Russia’s election interference.
Though elements of the dossier were included in an annex to the intelligence assessment, it “was not used in the body of the I.C.A. or to support any of its analytic judgments,” the senators found.
Even the decision to include it in the annex was made reluctantly, the senators wrote. The F.B.I. did not want to vouch for its veracity but felt that because Mr. Obama had ordered the assessment to include all relevant material, his directive required the dossier’s inclusion."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/us/politics/russian-interference-senate-intelligence-report.html
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf
WASHINGTON — For years, President Trump has derided the assessment by American intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to assist his candidacy, dismissing it without evidence as the work of a “deep state” out to undermine his victory.
But on Tuesday, a long-awaited Senate review led by members of Mr. Trump’s own party effectively undercut those allegations. A three-year review by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously found that the intelligence community assessment, pinning blame on Russia and outlining its goals to undercut American democracy, was fundamentally sound and untainted by politics.
“The I.C.A. reflects strong tradecraft, sound analytical reasoning and proper justification of disagreement in the one analytical line where it occurred,” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the panel’s chairman. “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.”
The endorsement by Mr. Burr’s committee comes at a key moment for the intelligence agencies. Not only has Mr. Trump moved in recent months to install a loyalist in the top spy position, but Attorney General William P. Barr has also blessed a broad review of possible misconduct by investigators examining the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, apparently including work by intelligence officials.
The federal prosecutor whom Mr. Barr appointed to review the government’s response to Russian election interference, John H. Durham, is examining whether the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies overstated President Vladimir V. Putin’s support of the Trump campaign, a central finding of the 2017 assessment. His team has interviewed intelligence analysts, questioning whether Obama-era intelligence officials hid evidence or manipulated analysis about Moscow’s covert operation, people familiar with the Durham inquiry have said.
Some of Mr. Trump’s allies immediately criticized the Senate report; Fred Fleitz, a former C.I.A. officer who briefly served in the Trump administration, dismissed it as “a whitewash.” Many Republicans believe that the intelligence agencies overstated Russia’s support for Mr. Trump and argue that Moscow was trying to sow chaos in the United States, not support any one candidate.
Thursday’s report was the latest installment in an inquiry by the Senate Intelligence Committee into the broader Russia matter. Senators are expected to release one final chapter in the coming months examining contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.
When the inquiry began in early 2017, it was one of the most closely followed in the history of Congress, casting a cloud over Mr. Trump’s presidency that could not be dismissed as merely partisan. But with the investigation into the same topic by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, long since put to rest; an impeachment fight over a largely unrelated matter behind the country; and a pandemic reshaping nearly every aspect of life, the Russia inquiry has now largely become an afterthought for most Americans.
The Senate Intelligence Committee had already given the work of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. an interim stamp of approval, but the 158-page report released on Tuesday presented new detail about the government’s attempts in late 2016 and early 2017 to make sense of Russia’s attacks. Much of the report’s contents were considered highly sensitive and blacked out by the Trump administration before release.
In their report, senators essentially said they had asked the same questions that Mr. Durham is now examining and found that the intelligence agencies’ work stood up, even if it was conducted in a compressed time frame to be finished before President Barack Obama left office in January 2017.
“The case is closed,” said Senator Angus King, independent of Maine. “I don’t know how you could have a much more credible source than a three-year study by a bipartisan committee that came to a unanimous conclusion.”
Critics of the assessment have focused on the fact that the National Security Agency had a lower level of confidence than the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. on the conclusion that Mr. Putin supported Mr. Trump’s election. Mr. Durham, they believe, can provide proof.
But the committee found that the differing confidence levels among the intelligence agencies were “justified and properly represented.” The report said that both John O. Brennan, then the director of the C.I.A., and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, then the director of the National Security Agency, both “independently expressed to the committee that they reached the final wording openly and with sufficient exchanges of views.”
Senators said their inquiry found that intelligence analysts who worked on the assessment were “under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions.”
“All analysts expressed that they were free to debate, object to content and assess confidence levels, as is normal and proper for the analytic process,” the report said.
It also examined the inclusion of material from a well-known dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer whom the F.B.I. referred to by the code name “Crown,” showing purported ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The document included unverified, salacious accusations about Mr. Trump and has become a focus of Mr. Trump’s allies, who have sought to conflate it with the much broader Justice Department investigation into Russia’s election interference.
Though elements of the dossier were included in an annex to the intelligence assessment, it “was not used in the body of the I.C.A. or to support any of its analytic judgments,” the senators found.
Even the decision to include it in the annex was made reluctantly, the senators wrote. The F.B.I. did not want to vouch for its veracity but felt that because Mr. Obama had ordered the assessment to include all relevant material, his directive required the dossier’s inclusion."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/us/politics/russian-interference-senate-intelligence-report.html
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf
2020-APR-15 Trump halts World Health Organization funding over handling of coronavirus outbreak
"CNN)President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he is halting funding to the World Health Organization while a review is conducted.
Trump said the review would cover the WHO's "role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus."
Trump's announcement comes in the middle of the worst global pandemic in decades and as he angrily defends his own handling of the outbreak in the United States.
Amid swirling questions about whether he downplayed the crisis or ignored warnings from members of his administration about its potential severity, Trump has sought to assign blame elsewhere, including at the WHO and in the news media.
The US funds $400 million to $500 million to the WHO each year, Trump said, noting that China 'contributes roughly $40 million.'"
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/14/politics/donald-trump-world-health-organization-funding-coronavirus/index.html
2020-APR-8 Fact check: Trump makes false claims about his coronavirus record and voter fraud, misleads about the WHO
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/fact-check-trump-coronavirus-briefing-april-7/index.html
Trump falsely claims he 'inherited' the faulty coronavirus test.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/fact-check-trump-inherited-broken-obsolete-coronavirus-tests/index.html
Trump falsely claims he 'inherited' the faulty coronavirus test.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/fact-check-trump-inherited-broken-obsolete-coronavirus-tests/index.html
"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on President Donald Trump to end the vicious attacks on reporters covering the White House’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. RSF also encourages news organizations to assess their live coverage of the COVID-19 briefings."
https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-calls-trump-end-attacks-journalists-encourages-news-outlets-assess-coverage-covid-19-briefings
https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-calls-trump-end-attacks-journalists-encourages-news-outlets-assess-coverage-covid-19-briefings
2020-APR-7 This Is Trump’s Fault
"I don’t take responsibility at all,” said President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden on March 13. Those words will probably end up as the epitaph of his presidency, the single sentence that sums it all up.
Trump now fancies himself a “wartime president.” How is his war going? By the end of March, the coronavirus had killed more Americans than the 9/11 attacks. By the first weekend in April, the virus had killed more Americans than any single battle of the Civil War. By Easter, it may have killed more Americans than the Korean War. On the present trajectory, it will kill, by late April, more Americans than Vietnam. Having earlier promised that casualties could be held near zero, Trump now claims he will have done a “very good job” if the toll is held below 200,000 dead."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/
Trump now fancies himself a “wartime president.” How is his war going? By the end of March, the coronavirus had killed more Americans than the 9/11 attacks. By the first weekend in April, the virus had killed more Americans than any single battle of the Civil War. By Easter, it may have killed more Americans than the Korean War. On the present trajectory, it will kill, by late April, more Americans than Vietnam. Having earlier promised that casualties could be held near zero, Trump now claims he will have done a “very good job” if the toll is held below 200,000 dead."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/
2020-MAR-27 Trump the Keynesian
Not that there's anything wrong with it; Keynes theories have proved working to get the U.S out of the 2008 recession.
But some of Trump's pseudo-Libertarian should take note. Which is unlikely to happen because if they were able to live in economic denial before these measures, they sure will be able to afterwards.
In the prior report, for the week ended March 14, initial claims totaled 282,000.
"This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series," the department said of the latest figure. "The previous high was 695,000 in October of 1982." The Labor Department's records go back to 1967.'
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/26/821580191/unemployment-claims-expected-to-shatter-records
2020-FEB-01 Unbelievable...
This is beyond belief... Listen to Dershowitz's argument.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/opinions/the-king-trump-defense-is-terrifying-avlon/index.html
2019-OCT-02 Trump's misinformation machine...
All of which makes this next fact absolutely mystifying and terrifying: In a new national Monmouth University poll just four in 10 self-identified Republicans believe that Trump mentioned Biden in his call with Zelensky.
Are. You. Kidding. Me.
It is right there in the transcript that the WHITE HOUSE released of the call!
Remember that we aren't talking here about whether Trump pressured Zelensky to look into the Bidens. He did, but there is a little bit of wiggle room there in that Trump didn't say "Unless you do this, I will withhold military aid from you." This poll question deals only with whether Trump actually mentioned Biden's name in the call. Which he 100% did!"
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/02/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript/index.html
2019-OCT-02 Trump, elected by pieces of land...
he map -- in case you can't tell -- is meant to be a county-by-county rendering of the 2016 election. Upon closer inspection, the map turned out to have several mistakes in it -- but its overall point is accurate, as far as it goes. Trump won 2,626 counties to Hillary Clinton's 487 in the last presidential election, according to the Associated Press.
But the map is also quite misleading.
Why? Simple: What it shows is that Trump won more landmass than Clinton, which isn't all that revealing. Lots and lots of those red counties have tiny populations -- a fact you wouldn't know by simply looking at that sea of red.
Remember that Clinton won the popular vote against Trump by more than 2.8 million votes. That's a far larger margin than the 543,000 more votes that Al Gore got than George W. Bush in 2000 even while losing the Electoral College."
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/01/politics/donald-trump-map-2016-election/index.html
Trump unwittingly makes Arnold Schwarzenegger's point about gerrymandering...
Or, more cynically; Trump was not elected by people in 2016, he was elected by dirt...
2019-JUN-16 Say what?
This was the President of the United States -- the man charged with protecting the Constitution, American democracy and the Western world -- sitting at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, saying he would accept damaging information from Russia and China on his 2020 Democratic foe. "I think you might want to listen. There's nothing wrong with listening," Trump told ABC News on Wednesday. Anchor George Stephanopoulos brought up FBI Director Christopher Wray's warning that anyone who received incriminating information from a foreign power should call the bureau.
"The FBI director is wrong," Trump said, anger hardening his voice. He denied that interfering in American elections -- as Russia did in 2016 to help him win -- is even a problem. "It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI, if I thought there was something wrong," the President said. Then again, Trump had said moments earlier: "I don't think in my whole life I've ever called the FBI." On the morning after his interview broke the President launched a sometimes nonsensical Twitter tear, apparently seeking to fog understanding of his remark and to offer his defenders ammunition to push back against his critics. "The fact is that the phony Witch Hunt is a giant scam where Democrats ... and other really bad people, SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!" the President wrote in one tweet.
The immediate political effect of Trump's interview was to fan more Democratic calls for the President's impeachment -- and to make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's life more difficult. "It is past sad. It is past frustration. This is criminal. It is criminal. And we need to hold this president accountable," Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Michigan, told CNN's Erin Burnett. "I feel we have to begin that process," said Lawrence, one of a growing minority of Democratic House members urging more robust action against Trump, referring to impeachment. It would not be farfetched to argue that the President's remarks in themselves might end up as part of an impeachment case if things ever get that far. The Democratic Party's 2020 presidential candidates competed with one another to hit the impeachment talking point -- suggesting the growing power of the argument even though the Russia investigation is not a dominant 2020 issue. "The #MuellerReport made it clear: A foreign government attacked our 2016 elections to support Trump, Trump welcomed that help, and Trump obstructed the investigation," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, tweeted.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he was not shocked since he believed that Trump does not respect the Constitution. "I believe the House should begin impeachment inquiries," Sanders told CNN's Anderson Cooper. And Sen. Kamala Harris of California -- the state's former attorney general -- tweeted: "China is listening. Russia is listening. North Korea is listening. Let's speak the truth: this president is a national security threat."
2019-APR-21 Mueller Report
"Vladimir Putin says that Moscow knew from the start that special counsel Robert Mueller wouldn’t find any connections between Russia and the 2016 presidential election — echoing President Trump’s own verdict on the probe. 'That it [Mueller’s inquiry] would finish in that way — like a mountain giving birth to a mouse as they say — was clear to us in advance. I’ve been telling you this all along,' said the Russian president, speaking Friday in St Petersburg. 'We said from the start that this infamous commission of Mr. Mueller’s would not find anything because nobody knows this better than us. Russia did not meddle in any elections in the United States. There was no collusion, as Mr. Mueller said, between Trump and Russia.' "
https://nypost.com/2019/04/09/putin-says-mueller-report-proves-there-was-no-russian-collusion/
Quite the opposite. Mueller's report quite clearly indicates that the Russian government directly meddled with the 2016 elections. Mueller was not able to find evidences proving there was collusion between the Russian government the the U.S', that is accurate.
Straight from Mueller's report:
2019-APR-05 Reality-bending Trump
Why did Trump say his dad was German? He lies so much he doesn’t know the truth
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/04/trump-dad-germany-lies-orange-stories
2019-MAR-29 Vindictive Trump
"Jessikka Aro, a Finnish investigative journalist with a history of breaking stories on Russian propaganda efforts, had been slated to receive a prestigious award in Washington along with several other women selected by the State Department for their courage in the face of great risks overseas.Suddenly and without warning, the honor to appear at the International Women of Courage awards with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and first lady Melania Trump was rescinded -- with no explanation from the department.
After a Foreign Policy report suggested that the State Department may have retaliated against her because of her criticism of President Donald Trump on social media, State Department deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino asserted it was a miscommunication and that she had been "incorrectly notified" of her award. He called it a "regrettable error," saying Aro actually "had not" been a finalist.
But internal communications reviewed by CNN show that the State Department and US embassy officials in Finland had been in talks with Aro for several months, extensively communicating with her about the award, her travel documents, her itinerary in Washington and her bio, which had been approved by eight State Department officials."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-documents-raise-questions-over-state-dept-move-to-rescind-honor-for-trump-critic/ar-BBVlXG9?ocid=ientp
2019-MAR-21 Comey
"James Comey: What I Want From the Mueller Report
James Comey: What I Want From the Mueller Report
I am rooting for a demonstration to the world that the United States justice system works.
The country is eagerly awaiting the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Many people know what they want it to say — what they feel it simply must say — namely, that Donald Trump is a criminal who should be removed from office. Or that he is completely innocent of all wrongdoing.
But not everyone knows what it “must” say. Even though I believe Mr. Trump is morally unfit to be president of the United States, I’m not rooting for Mr. Mueller to demonstrate that he is a criminal. I’m also not rooting for Mr. Mueller to “clear” the president. I’m not rooting for anything at all, except that the special counsel be permitted to finish his work, charge whatever cases warrant charging and report on his work.
President Trump’s constant attacks on the special counsel, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department over the past two years raised the prospect that he would interfere to stop the special counsel’s work. It is deeply concerning that the president of the United States would try to protect himself by torching the institutions of justice. But he hasn’t used his authority to end Mr. Mueller’s work. (That would have been a crisis of a different order — shutting down the investigation, rather than just trying to undermine its credibility.) So we are in a position to wonder and hope about the report’s content.
Wondering is fine. But hoping for a particular answer is not. The rule of law depends upon fair administration of justice, which is rooted in complete and unbiased investigation. We are best served when an investigation finds all relevant facts and illuminates the fullest possible view of the truth.
I have no idea whether the special counsel will conclude that Mr. Trump knowingly conspired with the Russians in connection with the 2016 election or that he obstructed justice with the required corrupt intent. I also don’t care. I care only that the work be done, well and completely. If it is, justice will have prevailed and core American values will have been protected at a time when so much of our national leadership has abandoned its commitment to truth and the rule of law.
I am rooting for a demonstration to the world — and maybe most of all to our president and his enablers — that the United States has a justice system that works because there are people who believe in it and rise above personal interest and tribalism. That system may reach conclusions they like or it may not, but the apolitical administration of justice is the beating heart of this country. I hope we all get to see that.
The interests of justice will also be best served by maximum transparency about the special counsel’s work. I don’t know all the considerations that will go into deciding precisely what to say about the completion of that work and when to say it. But because the Department of Justice is guided first and always by the public interest, it should provide details about finished investigations when the public needs to know them, as it traditionally has.
I do have one hope that I should confess. I hope that Mr. Trump is not impeached and removed from office before the end of his term. I don’t mean that Congress shouldn’t move ahead with the process of impeachment governed by our Constitution, if Congress thinks the provable facts are there. I just hope it doesn’t. Because if Mr. Trump were removed from office by Congress, a significant portion of this country would see this as a coup, and it would drive those people farther from the common center of American life, more deeply fracturing our country."
2019-MAR-02 Trump Lacks Basic Economic Understanding Says Yellen
"Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says she doubts that President Donald Trump has a good grasp of economic policy or even knows the Federal Reserve’s mandates.
'I doubt that he would even be able to say that the Fed’s goals are maximum employment and price stability,' Yellen said in an interview with radio program 'Marketplace.'
She said Trump has made various inaccurate remarks about the Fed such as that the central bank has an objective for the exchange rate for the dollar that is aimed at supporting the president’s trade policies.
She said comments like that show a 'lack of understanding of the impact of the Fed on the economy and appropriate policy goals.'
Asked in the interview released Monday if she felt Trump had a grasp of macroeconomic policy, Yellen said, 'No I do not.'
'And when I continually hear focus by the president and some of his advisers on remedying bilateral trade deficits with other trade partners, I think almost any economist would tell you that there’s no real meaning to bilateral trade deficits, and it’s not an appropriate objective of policy,' continued Yellen in an apparent reference to Trump's ongoing trade war with countries like Chine and Germany."
https://www.haaretz.com/amp/us-news/trump-lacks-basic-economic-understanding-says-yellen-1.6975548
2019-FEB-27 Trump tax cuts a year later; expected outcome...
- This was a very Keynesian approach to the economy, with the expected results:
- GDP growth was boosted in the short run
- Deficit increased
- The measure doesn't pay for itself (it never does)
- Businesses invested more in the short-run, but the effects have waned
- People consumed more
Typically, expansionist measures are done during periods of economic trouble, then paid back during natural economic expansion. Trump is doing the opposite.
2019-JAN-04 What happens if Mueller comes up empty?
"For liberals, it is an article of faith that Mueller will produce a damning report if only he is allowed to complete his investigation. Conservatives dispute this, but their incessant attacks on Mueller suggest a far more pessimistic outlook. Why try to destroy the man who is about to exonerate you?
This view is broadly shared for a reason. By historical standards, Mueller has run an extraordinarily effective and efficient investigation. He has already indicted dozens of Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 election. More important, he has negotiated plea agreements with senior officials from Trump's campaign, including Paul Manafort's protégé, Rick Gates, and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Experienced prosecutors enter such agreements only when a witness can offer significant ammunition against higher-value targets.
Plenty of evidence in the public record also suggests that Trump's campaign may indeed have sought to collude with the Russian government. The Trump Tower meeting has been hiding in plain sight, despite widespread media coverage, for more than a year, as have Roger Stone's tweets. There is even stronger evidence suggesting that Trump's efforts to stymie federal investigators amount to obstruction of justice. Trump's Twitter feed alone might establish probable cause to bring charges in an ordinary case.
(...)
If Mueller completes his investigation without further interference, that in itself will be a victory for the rule of law. Trump has tried mightily to shut the special counsel down. That he has failed thus far is already something of a miracle. More to the point, it is a testament to the resilience of American institutions under extraordinary strain.
Mueller's defenders should insist upon this. All along, their rallying cry has been the principle that no one, not even the President, is above the law. When the President and his close advisers are credibly implicated in criminal activity, this principle demands a searching and independent investigation, free from political interference. If Mueller succeeds in completing such an investigation, the rule of law will have prevailed, whatever the result. That is something to celebrate.
Won't this also vindicate Trump? It will not. At most, it will establish that he is probably not a criminal -- at least so far as Russian election meddling is concerned. (Campaign finance violations are another story, as Michael Cohen's sentencing memo makes clear.) It will not establish that the investigation was a witch hunt or even a waste of time. The whole point of an investigation is to find answers. Without Mueller's investigation, we would never know if the credible allegations against Trump and his associates were true.
Most important, the rule of law will have prevailed despite Trump's relentless efforts to undermine it -- and only by a hair's breadth. No matter what happens, Trump's behavior sets an ominous precedent. For better or worse, the democratic norms that make up the fabric of our constitutional order are fashioned from -- or eroded by -- historical episodes like this one."
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/03/opinions/mueller-investigation-could-surprise-us-coan/index.html?no-st=1546561134
"Collusion in plain sight"
https://themoscowproject.org/
This view is broadly shared for a reason. By historical standards, Mueller has run an extraordinarily effective and efficient investigation. He has already indicted dozens of Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 election. More important, he has negotiated plea agreements with senior officials from Trump's campaign, including Paul Manafort's protégé, Rick Gates, and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Experienced prosecutors enter such agreements only when a witness can offer significant ammunition against higher-value targets.
Plenty of evidence in the public record also suggests that Trump's campaign may indeed have sought to collude with the Russian government. The Trump Tower meeting has been hiding in plain sight, despite widespread media coverage, for more than a year, as have Roger Stone's tweets. There is even stronger evidence suggesting that Trump's efforts to stymie federal investigators amount to obstruction of justice. Trump's Twitter feed alone might establish probable cause to bring charges in an ordinary case.
(...)
If Mueller completes his investigation without further interference, that in itself will be a victory for the rule of law. Trump has tried mightily to shut the special counsel down. That he has failed thus far is already something of a miracle. More to the point, it is a testament to the resilience of American institutions under extraordinary strain.
Mueller's defenders should insist upon this. All along, their rallying cry has been the principle that no one, not even the President, is above the law. When the President and his close advisers are credibly implicated in criminal activity, this principle demands a searching and independent investigation, free from political interference. If Mueller succeeds in completing such an investigation, the rule of law will have prevailed, whatever the result. That is something to celebrate.
Won't this also vindicate Trump? It will not. At most, it will establish that he is probably not a criminal -- at least so far as Russian election meddling is concerned. (Campaign finance violations are another story, as Michael Cohen's sentencing memo makes clear.) It will not establish that the investigation was a witch hunt or even a waste of time. The whole point of an investigation is to find answers. Without Mueller's investigation, we would never know if the credible allegations against Trump and his associates were true.
Most important, the rule of law will have prevailed despite Trump's relentless efforts to undermine it -- and only by a hair's breadth. No matter what happens, Trump's behavior sets an ominous precedent. For better or worse, the democratic norms that make up the fabric of our constitutional order are fashioned from -- or eroded by -- historical episodes like this one."
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/03/opinions/mueller-investigation-could-surprise-us-coan/index.html?no-st=1546561134
"Collusion in plain sight"
https://themoscowproject.org/
2018-DEC-19 Trump Foundation agrees to dissolve
"The Trump Foundation — the charitable foundation started by President Donald Trump years before he became a presidential candidate, which New York's top prosecutor said exhibited a 'shocking pattern of illegality' — will dissolve according to a court filing.
(...)
'Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more,' Underwood said in a statement.
'This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.' "
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-foundation-agrees-to-dissolve-with-judge-to-oversee-dispersal/ar-BBR800n?ocid=spartandhp
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/sep/01/fact-checking-clinton-foundation-controversy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Foundation%E2%80%93State_Department_controversy#FBI_investigations
(...)
'Our petition detailed a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more,' Underwood said in a statement.
'This amounted to the Trump Foundation functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.' "
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-foundation-agrees-to-dissolve-with-judge-to-oversee-dispersal/ar-BBR800n?ocid=spartandhp
Contrast with this much-hyped by the GOP 'scandal' of the Clinton foundation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Foundation%E2%80%93State_Department_controversy#FBI_investigations
2018-NOV-08 Contempt for the free-press
First, have a look at the full video or at least the first 3 minutes:
https://youtu.be/zdFe-LmFRV8
And that resulted in the complete ludicrous response from the White House:
"President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter's colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Contrary to CNN's assertions, there is no greater demonstration of the President's support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not being supportive of a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of an hour and a half -- including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it is an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration. As a result of today's incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice." -- Sarah Sanders
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/07/media/trump-cnn-press-conference/index.html
The fact that this is a blatant lie that is easily discredited by the video footage but that Trump does not care is really scary... That's
Update: it gets even scarier; Sanders posted doctored footage. Trump was talking about fake news btw...
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/8/18074966/sarah-sanders-infowars-cnn-jim-acosta-banned
2018-NOV-05 Bannon, Trump's brain...
Donald Trump is not an idea man; he is a vehicle for ideas that will give him power and flatter his “yuge” ego. Provided he is willing to lie, and is the ultimate salesman, he naturally appeals to the little-educated masses of disfranchised. He is the ultimate populist tool for a puppet master to leverage. To understand the ideology behind Trump’s brand of populism, you have to know and understand Steve Bannon’s views.
The recent debate between Bannon and Frum offers a great insight into Bannon’s Make America Great populist message.
Since I was already aware of Bannon’s views, nothing in there was much of a surprise expect for a few words he mentioned, quite casually, in his closing statement: (around 1:26) “We have divinely inspired constitution and declaration of independence”. This is quite at the essence of the folly: believing that your guiding principles are literally inspired by god. Then, of course, everything else follows suit as one cannot possibly be wrong; silly fixation on guns, freedom as a be-all-and-end-all (don’t get me wrong, I am for strong institutions supporting freedom, but the limits are clear; no incitation to violence), the American-way or the highway, etc.
The debate also made me realize something critical; just like Trump, Bannon is quite good at making and winning arguments. And it is essentially the problem these days: the average Joe can’t tell the difference between winning a debate, and being right and doing the right thing. That is why Trump supporters ignore the lies, the lack of results and common-sense, and focus on the show, wrongly convincing themselves that he who wins the argument is ‘better’, and therefore better-suited to be granted power.
A few additional follow-up articles:
2018-OCT-04 NAFTA 2.0
Most of the gains are political. Consistent with Trump’s tactic (which seems to work with the gullible Trump supporters), Trump creates a problem where none existed, for which he then triumphally finds a solution.
“President Donald Trump inaccurately described his new trade deal with Canada and Mexico as the biggest ever — it’s not even close — and glossed over some possible consequences of the agreement, such as higher car prices.
(…)
Even the Pacific deal pales in comparison with one that did go into effect with the U.S. on board — the Uruguay Round. Concluded in 1994, the round of negotiations created the World Trade Organization and was signed by 123 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found the following year that the WTO’s initial membership accounted for more than 90 percent of global economic output.
(…)
TRUMP, on overcoming the major hitch with Canada: “Dairy was a deal-breaker. And now for our farmers it’s, as you know, substantially opened up much more. And I know they can’t open it completely. They have farmers also. You know, they can’t be overrun. And I fully — and I tell them that. I say, ‘Look, I understand you have limits.’ But they could do much better.”
THE FACTS: That’s a fair reading of one of the agreement’s most significant changes — though dairy only accounts for about 0.1 percent of U.S.-Canada trade. Canada’s tariffs on dairy imports can approach 300 percent. U.S. dairy farmers have also complained about Canadian policies that priced the U.S. out of the market for some dairy powders and allowed Canada to flood world markets with its own versions.
The new agreement would end the discriminatory pricing and restrict Canadian exports of dairy powders. Still, it’s in some respects an incremental advance from the Pacific deal that Trump walked away from. It would expand U.S. access to up to 3.75 percent of the Canadian dairy market, versus 3.25 percent in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Above that level, U.S. dairy farmers will still face Canada’s punishing tariffs.”
“President Donald Trump distorted some facts about trade in a press conference announcing an agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement, or USMCA:
- The president said the new deal will close “terrible loopholes,” claiming foreign companies ship auto parts to “Mexico and Canada for assembly and send their foreign-made cars into the United States with no tax.” That’s misleading. NAFTA imposes a 2.5 percent tariff on cars made with less than 62.5 percent of auto parts from North America. The new deal increases that to 75 percent.
- Trump said, “Since NAFTA’s adoption, the United States racked up trade deficits totaling more than $2 trillion.” Going back to 1994, when NAFTA went into effect, the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services with Mexico and Canada is $1.58 trillion, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis figures.
- The president suggested that NAFTA was responsible for all of the decline in manufacturing jobs since it took effect — a drop of 4.1 million. But the U.S. gained a net 37 million jobs over that time period, and economic studies say the trade deal had a small overall impact on jobs.
- He claimed that while U.S. companies pay 25 percent to export cars to China, the U.S. has a 2.5 percent tariff on cars imported from China, but “we don’t collect it.” The U.S. does collect it, industry experts told us. And Trump is using outdated figures on the tariffs.
- The president repeated several claims he has made before, such as inflating U.S. trade deficit figures by excluding services, and claiming that U.S. Steel is “building eight or nine plants.” We previously found no evidence of that when the president’s claim was just “seven plants.”
Trump spoke in the Rose Garden at the White House on Oct. 1 about the new trade agreement between the countries. The USMCA deal still will need to be approved by Congress.”
Details of USMCA (NAFTA 2.0)
Full text of USMCA:
Full text of NAFTA:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/20/us/politics/russia-interference-election-trump-clinton.html
2018-AUG-29 Trump... Google is biased against you? Really?
" 'Search is not used to set a political agenda, and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology,' Google told Business Insider in a statement, adding that it prioritized relevancy and quality"
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-responds-to-trump-claim-suppressing-conservative-voices-2018-8
And Trump's State of the Union was indeed linked-to from Google's main page:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/google-denies-trumps-claim-that-it-did-not-promote-his-state-of-the-union-address/
And Trump's State of the Union was indeed linked-to from Google's main page:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/29/google-denies-trumps-claim-that-it-did-not-promote-his-state-of-the-union-address/
2018-AUG-28 Trump's Economic 'not quite a' Miracle
"So is this a strong economy? Yes, with some big caveats. Does Trump deserve much of the credit? That’s a harder case to make, but it’s clear that he hasn’t derailed what growth we’ve had, which is an accomplishment of a sort."
2018-AUG-25
I was watching a video from an ardent Trump supporter who was proposing his definition of ‘Fake News’ as news that is not-important but still focused-on, or what he considered non-news (as opposed to the more literal definition, which is untrue-news). While I disagree for that to be the most appropriate definition of ‘Fake-News’, let’s take it at face value for a minute and test its validity, if only to assess whether there some truth to this at all, or whether it is just another talking-point of the paranoid in this era of post-truth.
Michael Cohen has just pleaded guilty
The president of the most powerful country in the world who lies about what he did during the time leading to his election. Isn’t that front-page newsworthy? Or is it more important to single-out the murder by an ‘illegal alien’ of an American and make it the most prominent item on a paper’s front-page?
CNN’s front-page:
Breitbart’s front-page:
Details of the Cohen’s guilty plea:
“Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to eight criminal counts, admitting that "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office" he acted to keep information that would have been harmful to the candidate and the campaign from becoming public during the 2016 election cycle.
The charges against Cohen, an attorney for Trump until earlier this year and a member of his inner circle throughout his presidential campaign, bring an end to a months-long investigation by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. And they expose, through the criminal information filed against Cohen in court, that he acted with Trump and his allies, including David Pecker, the CEO of the National Enquirer's publisher, American Media Inc., to suppress potentially damaging claims against the now-President.
Though Trump himself isn't named, the court filing refers to an Individual-1, who by January 2017 had become president of the United States.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/16/politics/newspaper-editorials-trump-list/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/us/politics/trump-news-media-collusion.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45204397
Trump's response?
2018-AUG-17 McRaven and Brennan and Trump
"William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.Dear Mr. President:
Former CIA director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked on Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.
Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.
Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs.
A good leader tries to embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself.
Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities. Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.
If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/revoke-my-security-clearance-too-mr-president/2018/08/16/8b149b02-a178-11e8-93e3-24d1703d2a7a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.36a35e4c911f
2018-AUG-09 What voters fraud?
“Before it was disbanded by Trump in January, the panel had never presented any findings or evidence of widespread voter fraud. But the White House claimed at the time that it had shut down the commission despite “substantial evidence of voter fraud” due to the mounting legal challenges it faced from states. Kobach, too, spoke around that time about how 'some people on the left were getting uncomfortable about how much we were finding out.'
Dunlap said that the commission’s documents that were turned over to him underscore the hollowness of those claims: “they do not contain evidence of widespread voter fraud,” he said in his report, adding that some of the documentation seemed to indicate that the commission was predicting it would find evidence of fraud, evincing 'a troubling bias.'”
“Kansas secretary of state and Breitbart columnist Kris Kobach, who frequently pushes voter fraud misinformation on Fox News, spectacularly failed in his effort to mount a defense for his state’s voter registration law in a federal court trial in March. Federal judge Julie Robinson both struck down the Kansas law and ordered Kobach to take remedial classes after repeatedly violating the judge’s orders, including trying to introduce evidence after Robinson had specifically excluded it. Fox, which has pushed the debunked specter of widespread voter fraud for a decade, provided no coverage of the trial as it progressed between March 6 and March 19.
In 2013, Kansas began enforcing the Kobach-backed Secure and Fair Elections (SAFE) law, which required residents who did not have a driver’s license to show proof of citizenship with documents such as a birth certificate or U.S. passport when registering to vote. In May 2016, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson temporarily blocked Kansas from enforcing the law after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit, arguing that the law violated the federal National Voter Registration Act, which requires state voter registration forms to merely “contain an attestation that the applicant meets” eligibility requirements, such as citizenship. According to the ACLU, the law blocked tens of thousands of voter registrations in Kansas.”
2018-AUG-03 Question to Trump supporters
Whether accurate or not, are you comfortable with the idea, and what it means?
It is uncontroversial that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S elections. You can refresh your memory with the details here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Russian_interference_in_the_2016_United_States_elections
Then, this week, this happened:
"Hours after Trump’s joint appearance with Putin in Helsinki was dubbed by some US officials as 'treasonous', the Russian president rejected allegations that his government meddled in the 2016 election as 'utterly ridiculous'.
Trump, meanwhile, claimed without evidence that Putin had essentially absolved his campaign of collusion with Moscow." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/16/vladimir-putin-denies-russia-election-meddling-us-election-trump Actually, you can read the full transcript of the press conference here: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/16/17576956/transcript-putin-trump-russia-helsinki-press-conference The juiciest bits: "PUTIN: Once again, President Trump mentioned the issue of the so-called interference of Russia in the American elections. I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs, including the election process." "REPORTER (Jonathan Lemire from AP): Thank you. A question for each president. President Trump, you first. Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did.
Trump, meanwhile, claimed without evidence that Putin had essentially absolved his campaign of collusion with Moscow." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/16/vladimir-putin-denies-russia-election-meddling-us-election-trump Actually, you can read the full transcript of the press conference here: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/16/17576956/transcript-putin-trump-russia-helsinki-press-conference The juiciest bits: "PUTIN: Once again, President Trump mentioned the issue of the so-called interference of Russia in the American elections. I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs, including the election process." "REPORTER (Jonathan Lemire from AP): Thank you. A question for each president. President Trump, you first. Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did.
My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe? My second question is would you now with the whole world watching tell President Putin — would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again?
TRUMP: So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the democratic national committee? I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? (…)
I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.
(…)
So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that president Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer. Okay thank you."
Then, Trump went to talk to his cheerleader-in-chief, Sean Hannity, an basically made clear that there was no meddling and that it was all Obama's fault:
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/16/17579188/trump-putin-sean-hannity-interview
And the feedback that Trump got from pretty much across the political spectrum:
“Well, let me be really clear. Let me try to be as clear as I can to the world and the country. We stand by our NATO allies and all those countries who are facing Russia aggression. How many times have I stood up here and told you what I think about Vladimir Putin? Putin does not share our interests. Vladimir Putin does not share our values. We just conducted a year-long investigation into Russia’s interference into our elections. They did interfere in our elections. It is really clear.
(…)
Russia did meddle with our elections. Not only did Russia meddle in our elections, but they’re doing it around the world. They did it to France. They did it to Moldova. They are doing it to the Baltics. Russia is trying to undermine democracy itself, to delegitimize democracy.”
- Paul Ryan, Republican speaker of the house
https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/07/17/ryan-russia-is-trying-to-undermine-democracy-itself/ (Or maybe Breitbart is Fake News? ;-) )
Russia did meddle with our elections. Not only did Russia meddle in our elections, but they’re doing it around the world. They did it to France. They did it to Moldova. They are doing it to the Baltics. Russia is trying to undermine democracy itself, to delegitimize democracy.”
- Paul Ryan, Republican speaker of the house
https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/07/17/ryan-russia-is-trying-to-undermine-democracy-itself/ (Or maybe Breitbart is Fake News? ;-) )
"Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.
No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad." - John McCain, Republican senator
And more, there: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-putin-press-conference-republicans-respond-2018-7
But Trump kept the best for last, in a full about-face:
"The president told reporters that he meant to say he doesn't see why Russia "wouldn't" be responsible. I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't' ... sort of a double negative," he said."
I don't believe Trump is stupid, not enough anyway to think that his party will believe his excuse for one second. However, the incident tells a lot about how stupid he believes his followers are...
2018-JUN-26 Solving non-existent issues
The U.S. is essentially at full employment level and has been since the last year of the Obama presidency. The unemployment downtrend has continued unabated from the 10% top unemployment that Obama inherited in 2009 from the Bush administration, into the Trump one.
We know that illegal immigrants are not over-represented in crime statistics. We know that they are part of a diminishing trend over the past decades. We know that they do not compete for jobs that americans want to do.
So, while Trump is indeed making good on "fulfiling his election promises" of tighter borders and stricter immigration policies, his opponents should, instead of focusing on Trump himself, focus on asking his supporters what they are hoping these policies will achieve, then demonstrate that cannot do such things.
2018-MAY-31 The curious case of the White House official Trump says 'doesn't exist'
"The president frequently claims, without evidence, that journalists make up sources. This is widely recognized to be a fib at best and a lie at worst.
He said it again in a tweet against The Times on Saturday: "Use real people, not phony sources."
But members of the White House press corps quickly pointed out that the unnamed "official" met with a roomful of reporters. Trump's claim was easily proven false."
"A new study finds that Trump voters weren’t losing income or jobs. Instead, they were concerned about their place in the world.
(...)
For the past 18 months, many political scientists have been seized by one question: Less-educated whites were President Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters. But why, exactly?
Was their vote some sort of cri de coeur about a changing economy that had left them behind? Or was the motivating sentiment something more complex and, frankly, something harder for policy makers to address?
After analyzing in-depth survey data from 2012 and 2016, the University of Pennsylvania political scientist Diana C. Mutz argues that it’s the latter. In a new article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, she added her conclusion to the growing body of evidence that the 2016 election was not about economic hardship.
'Instead,' she writes, 'it was about dominant groups that felt threatened by change and a candidate who took advantage of that trend.'
'For the first time since Europeans arrived in this country,' Mutz notes, 'white Americans are being told that they will soon be a minority race.' When members of a historically dominant group feel threatened, she explains, they go through some interesting psychological twists and turns to make themselves feel okay again. First, they get nostalgic and try to protect the status quo however they can. They defend their own group ('all lives matter'), they start behaving in more traditional ways, and they start to feel more negatively toward other groups."
NBC releases 200k Russian troll tweets. Read the sample, quite revealing...
2018-FEB-13 That Nunes memo...
Since it made the rounds, let’s do a quick review of the Nunes memo. I am not mentioning it here for the reason that it would be an exceptional instance of a problem with Trump (it is pretty consistent with what he has done before, that is; making connections that aren’t there to arrive at a conclusion that suits him). No, rather, I think it is a prime example of how the fake-news machine functions and how you can fall victim to it if you do not pay attention.
Who are the protagonists:
- Intelligence-Security Agency (ISA)
- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC/FISA)
- Carter Page
- Christopher Steele
- DOJ : U.S Department of Justice
- FBI : U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation
First, what the memo states and what it doesn't...
The disputed findings of the memo are clearly stated in the intro:
“1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and
It makes no claim on the investigation into Russian meddling itself and whether what is still to be revealed on what was found on Carter Page is true or not. Nor does it state whether Trump’s investigation is necessary or not.
"UNCLASSIFIED Declassifed by order of the President February 2, 2018January 18, 2018 To: HPSCI Majority Members From: HPSCI Majority Staff Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of InvestigationPurposeThis memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to theCommittee's ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (F ISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the ISA process.
Investigation UpdateOn October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a ISA probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a US citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §1805(d)(1)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public's confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court's ability to hold the government to the highest standard— particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government's production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.
1) The "dossier" compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump's ties to Russia.This infers that if that bias had been known, the judge would not have granted to warrant, which is, at best, a supposition. Furthermore, Steele's dossier was only part of the information.
a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.
b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.
2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo Newsarticle by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page's July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele's initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.Steele lied to DOJ/FBI, the memo states that as a fact. But it also states that Steele was a longtime FBI source, which, one would assume, made him a reliable source to the DOJ/FBI in the past.
a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September—before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October—but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.
b) Steele's numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling—maintaining confidentiality—and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.
Without a clear timeline of when the DOJ/FBI learned of the unreliability of all or part of Steele's intelligence, drawing conclusion of collusion is unsubstantiated inference. Occam's razor states that the simpler explanation is that the judge was presented with increasing evidence of the necessity to dig into Carter's involvement and approved the following requests on that basis. That also is an assumption, but one certainly less dependent on a concerted conspiracy
a) During this same time period, Ohr's wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife's opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs' relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.
4) According to the head of the FBI's counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its "infancy" at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele's reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was—according to his June 2017 testimony—"salacious and unverified." While the FISA application relied on Steele's past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.
5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel's Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an "insurance" policy against President Trump's election."
I then suggest that you read Chris Cillizza CNN article which analyses the memo. Read it in full. Take each of his statements and assess the questions they raise; is the point valid? Is it providing more clarity or just adding more inferences?
Then read Breitbart’s coverage and apply the same principles.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/02/02/memo-reveals-deep-statemedia-coordination-yahoo-news-article-cited-by-fbi-based-on-steele-leaks/
Just a few abstract with my comments:
"Memo Reveals Deep State/Media Coordination: Yahoo! News Article Cited by FBI Based on Steele Leaks"The title itself is misleading; the memo does not factually reveal anything of the sort. What it does is to make-up a conspiracy out of mostly nothing
"The FBI and DOJ used a news article published on Yahoo! News to bolster its case for surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page, deliberately omitting or unaware that the information in the article had the same source as the infamous “dossier” itself, according to the House Intelligence Committee memo released Friday."That’s two very different claims! The highlighted text removes any credibility to the paragraph and poke a major hole in the conspiracy theory.
"If the memo’s assertions are true, the FBI and DOJ knew that the Democratic National Committee-funded Fusion GPS dossier and its author, former British spy Christopher Steele, were motivated by political bias against Donald Trump. They also likely knew that the article in question, Michael Isikoff’s September 23, 2016 “U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin,” merely repeats the information Steele made in his dossier."
False, memo
doesn’t make such assertions as there no clear timeline. In fact, the
information was concealed from FBI and DOJ as per the memo itself : “
"With the dossier, which also included an outlandish story of Trump committing a series of urological sex acts in a Moscow hotel, increasingly called into question, DOJ and FBI officials backed it up with Isikoff’s story explicitly denying the fact it had the exact same sourcing – Steele – and presented it as corroboration."
Now
come-on, this is like saying that they were either murderers, or not guilty at
all!
My conclusion is that, at best the Nunes memo establishes that Steele was no longer a reliable source of information when he interacted with the FBI/DOJ. At worst, the whole memo is conspiracy theory along-the-lines of chemtrails and 9/11 as an inside job.
This is how fake news work: you make a bold and outrageous statement about a complex situation, pepper your argument with maybes, unsubstantiated statements, questionable associations, and frame all of the parts as being tributary to that statement.
What is critical to understand is that the multiplication of little bits of “possible” do not make facts. Zero multiplied to the infinite, is still zero…
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-02/nunes-memo-is-a-sad-partisan-hapless-effort
Some GOP lawmakers question Trump's claim of vindication from memo
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-memo-20180204-story.html
A guide to the Nunes memo
https://thinkprogress.org/carter-page-admits-he-was-an-adviser-to-the-kremlin-and-trump-a98772ccda8f/
2018-FEB-27 Update: The Democrats' own memo, rebutting Nunes
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/24/17048936/democrat-rebuttal-nunes-schiff-memo
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-02/nunes-memo-is-a-sad-partisan-hapless-effort
Some GOP lawmakers question Trump's claim of vindication from memo
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-memo-20180204-story.html
A guide to the Nunes memo
https://thinkprogress.org/carter-page-admits-he-was-an-adviser-to-the-kremlin-and-trump-a98772ccda8f/
2018-FEB-27 Update: The Democrats' own memo, rebutting Nunes
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/24/17048936/democrat-rebuttal-nunes-schiff-memo
2018-JAN-16 Any excuse to blame others...
Except everything in there clashes with the facts:
1. The Obama administration had nothing to do with this. This was planned and decided during the Bush years, mostly for security reasons (
“This has been a long and careful process,” said Ambassador Robert Tuttle, who has led the search for a new site. “We looked at all our options, including renovation of our current building on Grosvenor Square. In the end, we realized that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally sustainable Embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility. I’m excited about America playing a role in the regeneration of the South Bank of London.”
October 2nd, 2008.
October 2nd, 2008.
2. No new funds were required:
"
Note that the source I am quoting is a U.S. government web site. One would think Trump could do a bit more homework before tweeting nonsense...
2018-JAN-13 A year later, Trump is less popular
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/11/us/politics/trump-approval.html
2018-JAN-10 2000th lie!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/01/10/president-trump-has-made-more-than-2000-false-or-misleading-claims-over-355-days/?utm_term=.547a3ab8058f
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
Contrasts this with other GOP members:
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/paul-ryan/
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/mike-pence/
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/mitch-mcconnell/
2018-JAN-02 Went golfing...
http://www.trumpgolfcount.com/#services
http://www.alphr.com/politics/1008069/donald-trump-s-website-quietly-removes-hypocritical-obama-insult-from-the-code
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/an-average-of-one-day-out-of-every-week-of-his-presidency-trump%E2%80%99s-been-at-mar-a-lago/ar-AAw4lur?ocid=spartandhp
2017-DEC-21 Tax cuts passed, and end of individual mandate sneaked in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
2017-DEC-14 Another day, a crapload more lies...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/14/opinion/sunday/trump-lies-obama-who-is-worse.html
2017-DEC-11 Another day, another lie...
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/AP-FACT-CHECK-Trump-on-economy-monuments-taxes-Moore-on-women-he-knew-before-he-didn-t-/id-85a68ae7524c43c7951ce54c34c6a1ff
2017-DEC-07Another day, another lie...
"Technically, though, it's not even the biggest tax cut of the past five years.
That honor goes to the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was actually signed into law by President Barack Obama on Jan. 2, 2013."
2017-AUG-18 Another day, another lie...
"In an apparent response to the Barcelona terrorist attack on Thursday, President Trump cited an apocryphal story about turn-of-the-20th-century American Gen. John Pershing – and missed its context.
'Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught," Trump tweeted shortly after condemning the attack in Spain. "There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!'
Trump, following up on another tweet condemning the attack in Barcelona, was referring to a story he told on the campaign trail, a legend that began after Pershing served as governor of a heavily Muslim province in the Philippines from 1909 to 1913.
'He caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people,' Trump said during a rally in Charleston, S.C., in February of 2016:
'And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood ... And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem.
Yet there's no evidence this ever happened, and Pershing certainly didn't stop violence in the Philippines."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/08/17/trump-cites-dubious-story-muslims-apparent-comment-barcelona-attack/577381001/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/23/donald-trump/donald-trump-cites-dubious-legend-about-gen-pershi/
2017-JUL-30 Repeal and replace is dead, get over it!
The senate has voted against repeal and/or replace. But Trump threatens to go it alone and cut the $7b a year subsidies which "subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes". This is just a mean-spirited "get back at you" attitude that is typical of Trump, and, incidentally, quite an autocratic approach. You are running Trump Corp, you are running the U.S.A, work with the system or change the system, don't bypass it!
"In apparent frustration over Friday's failure by the Senate Republican majority to pass a bill repealing parts of the Affordable Care Act, Trump tweeted: 'If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!'
(...)
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the bill failed early Friday that he would move to other legislative business in the upcoming week."
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/President-Donald-Trump-is-threatening-once-more-to-end-required-payments-to-insurance-companies-unless-lawmakers-repeal-and-replace-the-existing-health-law/id-31e3a43f7f804e7d8117503cdbd83c70
2017-JUL-12 The bill that wasn't
Excerpt from released Donald Trump's Jr's email exchanges with a Russian attorney:
"Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/11/15953188/donald-trump-jr-russia-emails
https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953800/trump-junior-email-russia
If there was any doubt of Russia's intentions to influence the elections, and in whos favor, I guess this can be put to rest.
2017-JUN-01 The bill that wasn't
"Our tax bill is moving along in Congress, and I believe it’s doing very well."
Trump speech on paris climate agreement withdrawal.
http://www.npr.org/2017/06/01/531090243/trumps-speech-on-paris-climate-agreement-withdrawal-annotated
But, there is actually no tax bill !
2017-MAY-13 Trump, the catapult expert
"The steam-powered catapult systems that are being replaced have been used to launch airplanes from U.S. carriers for some six decades now. Not only are steam systems harder to maintain than electrical ones; they have a lower upper-limit during combat—meaning electrical systems can launch more aircraft in a shorter amount of time. Electrical systems can also better handle smaller aircrafts and drones compared with steam. Steam systems also put more stress on airframes, and make them more prone to corrosion. Not only that, but carriers themselves are exceedingly vulnerable to attack—meaning outfitting them with the modern defense systems is a priority."
It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said—and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said, “What system are you going to be—” “Sir, we’re staying with digital.” I said, “No you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.” - Trump interview to Times
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/trump-wants-goddamned-steam-not-digital-catapults-on-aircraft-carriers/526386/?utm_source=fbb
https://www.navytimes.com/articles/trump-says-navy-should-ditch-carrier-emals
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/11/trump-new-aircraft-carrier-u-s-s-gerald-ford-emals-steam-launch-catapults-navy/
2017-MAY-13
2017-MAY-13 Trump fires FBI head who was investigating his team's involvement in Russia's meddling in U.S elections2017-APR-28 Trump says he thought being president would be easier than his old life
"A new Gallup poll on Tuesday showed just 40 percent of people said Trump has made progress after 100 days when it comes to changing the way Washington works; 54 percent said he hasn’t"
2017-APR-28 Trump says he thought being president would be easier than his old life
2017-APR-28 Despite tough talk and more arrests, deportations slow under Trump
2017-APR-25 State Dept. blog promotes Trump's Mar-a-Lago
"President Donald Trump personally owns Mar-a-Lago, his private club on Florida's eastern coast. But that didn't stop the State Department, in a blog post on the United States Embassy in London's website, from touting the property.
In a markedly promotional blog post from April 5 that could eventually benefit the President's bottom line, should it spur membership or foreign visits, the embassy writes that the property has 'become well known as the President frequently travels there to work or host foreign leaders.'"
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/24/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-state-department-blog/
2017-APR-24 Obamacare more popular than its critics
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8377841/ACA_approval_chart3.jpg)
"House Speaker Paul Ryan sensationally pulled his Obamacare repeal bill from the floor Friday afternoon, a day after President Donald Trump had threatened to walk away from health care reform if he didn't get a vote.
(...)
2017-MAR-16 TRUMP BUDGET
2017-MAR-13 CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the American Health Care Act would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the coming decade and increase the number of people who are uninsured by 24 million in 2026 relative to current law
"CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period. That total consists of $323 billion in on-budget savings and $13 billion in off-budget savings. Outlays would be reduced by $1.2 trillion over the period, and revenues would be reduced by $0.9 trillion.
2017-MAR-07 The Office of Government Ethics isn't happy with the White House's decision not to punish top aide Kellyanne Conway
2017-MAR-07 Republican health plan doesn't deliver health care
"Ryancare doesn't give the neediest families enough help to afford decent insurance while blowing a substantial chunk of change on families who don't really need much help"
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/7/14840646/ahca-marginal-tax-rates-poor
2017-MAR-04 Trump Takes Credit for 2013 Exxon Plans
2017-MAR-04 Trump's rally, 'Spirit of America" 2nd day
"Their predictions appeared to be correct, as they were on Monday when similar rallies were held. In many towns and cities, the rallies did not draw more than a few hundred people, and some were at risk of being outnumbered by small groups of anti-Trump protesters that gathered to shout against the rallies"
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-supporters-idUSKBN16B0O8
2017-MAR-02 Pence used AOL email on governor business, got hacked
2017-FEB-28 Trump's rally 'Spirit of America" seems to indicate faltering support
"An estimated 200 people came out for the Spirit of America Rally on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol building on Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in Denver to show support for President Donald Trump"
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/27/rally-support-trump-colorado-capitol/
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/02/27/trump-supporters-gather-for-spirit-of-america-rally/
"In Brea, California, in traditionally conservative Orange County, about 60 people stood outside a shopping mall chanting 'Build the wall' and 'God bless America, God bless Donald Trump' and carrying sings that read 'Trump loves you' and 'Trump all the way.'"
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-supporters-idUSKBN1661CM
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/27/1638350/-Check-out-these-massive-pro-Trump-rallies-around-the-country-today-Sad
2017-FEB-23 Donald Trump Obliterates the Deficit!
"The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo. "
-Donald Trump on Tweeter
True data but Donald doesn't mention that he has nothing to do with this, and that a month is anyway irrelevant.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/02/donald-trump-obliterates-deficit
2017-FEB-23 US private prison program rebooted by Trump administrationThe gigantic failure which was the U.S.'s for-profit private prison system, gets rebooted by Trump's administration, after having been dismantled by Obama.
"Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general, on Thursday rescinded a six-month-old directive for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to wind down contracts with prison companies, claiming that the measure had 'impaired the bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system'
(...)
Sally Yates, then the deputy attorney general, said in a memo that research had found private prisons 'simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources' and 'do not save substantially on costs' either. Essential government education and training programs for prisoners 'have proved difficult to replicate and outsource' in the private sector, she said"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/23/trump-revives-private-prison-program-doj-obama-administration-end
Additional information:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/proof-mass-incarceration-doesnt-reduce-crime_us_56255cfbe4b08589ef489a3d
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/the-many-causes-of-americas-decline-in-crime/385364/
2017-FEB-23 Nuclear arsenal, trying to solve a non-issue
2017-FEB-23 Air Force Stumped by Trump's Claim of $1 Billion Savings on Jet
"The Air Force can’t account for $1 billion in savings that President Donald Trump said he’s negotiated for the program to develop, purchase and operate two new Boeing Co. jets to serve as Air Force One"
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-22/air-force-stumped-by-trump-s-claim-of-1-billion-savings-on-jet
------------------------
This guy had a similar idea:
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/
---------------------------
2017-FEB-18 Nothing happened "last night in Sweden"
"
- Donald Trump. Rally in Melbourne, Florida
http://www.vox.com/2017/2/18/14659952/trump-transcript-rally-melbourne-florida
Nothing happened "last night" in Sweden.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/19/politics/trump-rally-sweden/index.html
http://www.harpersbazaar.co.uk/culture/culture-news/news/a39992/donald-trump-makes-up-story-about-terror-attack-in-sweden/
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-clarifies-remarks-on-sweden-i-got-it-from-fox-news-story/ar-AAn716Y?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
2017-FEB-17 One more lie, why?
"
- Donald Trump in a press conference in the
Watch the exchange here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/CNN/status/832313098887450625
Now, it is nearly impossible that Trump wouldn't have done some very basic check even before he got elected and fully understand that his victory was by a small margin and nowhere near a landslide that would have warranted a comparison with Reagan's.
It seems consistent with his strategy to keep lying and hope that his supporter will keep discounting truth in favor of the "media is against me" conspiracy.
2017-FEB-09 Oversight chairman requests ethics review of Kellyanne Conway
"The Republican and Democratic heads of the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform filed a letter on Thursday requesting the independent government watchdog begin a review of President Donald Trump's counselor following her endorsement of Ivanka Trump's fashion line
(...)
In a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings wrote that they had "extremely serious concerns" that Kellyanne Conway violated federal ethics rules when she appeared on Fox News on Thursday and explicitly endorsed Ivanka Trump's fashion line"
http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-chaffetz-ethics-review-kellyanne-conway-ivanka-trump-2017-2http://www.businessinsider.com/kellyanne-conway-go-buy-ivankas-stuff-2017-2
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/5/2635.702
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14569590/kellyanne-conway-ivanka-trump-chaffetz
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/02/09/house-oversight-committee-chairman-kellyanne-conways-promotion-of-ivanka-trumps-products-is-unacceptable-n2283752
2017-FEB-13 Trump security adviser Flynn resigns after leaks suggest he tried to cover up Russia talks"The US national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned late Monday amid a flow of intelligence leaks that he had secretly discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington and then tried to cover up the conversations.
2017-FEB-10 A
"To arrive at that decision, the appeals court did something close to what fact-checkers, journalists, scholars and others do every day when Trump and his surrogates make extraordinary claims: It demanded extraordinary evidence — or at least some evidence — for the administration’s arguments.
And it got none, the judges said.
The court asked the government to explain the “urgent need” for the order to be restored, but Justice Department lawyers offered 'no evidence,' the opinion read.
It asked for evidence in the form of legal precedents that noncitizens affected by the order 'have no rights' under the Constitution. The court found the government’s examples unconvincing.
It also asked for evidence that immigrants from the countries named in Trump’s order had committed terrorist attacks in the United States. Instead, the government merely argued that the court 'must not review its decision at all,' according to the opinion.
In court papers, the government argued that the president’s authority to suspend immigration was “unreviewable,” meaning the court couldn’t check his power. That seemed to alarm the judges.
'There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability,' the opinion read, 'which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.'"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/10/travel-ban-ruling-in-court-as-on-twitter-trump-confronts-problem-of-no-evidence-for-claims/?utm_term=.12cc420423cf&wpisrc=nl_most-draw16&wpmm=1
2017-FEB-07 Murder rate; Trump doubling-down on lies
"I'd say that in a speech and everybody was surprised because the press doesn't like to tell it like it is (...)
It wasn't to their advantage to say that. The murder rate is the highest it's been in I guess 45-47 years."
Donald Trump, during a meeting with US sheriffs at the White House
The media wouldn't say that, because that's not true.
While there was a small 3.9% increase in violent crime in 2015 (data here from the "fake news?" FBI), on the contrary, murder rate is actually at over 40 years low.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/donald-trump-murder-rate-fact-check/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2017/02/07/trump-makes-false-statement-about-u-s-murder-rate-to-sheriffs-group/?utm_term=.82bc571154a7
2017-FEB-06 Trump's FSS targets net neutrality
Net neutrality
"In his first days as President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai has aggressively moved to roll back consumer protection regulations created during the Obama presidency.
2017-FEB-06 When is a ban not a ban, or is it?
Which is not surprising because Trump actually asked Gulliani to implement a Muslim ban that would be "legal". You can hear it here in Rudy's own words.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/giuliani-muslim-ban_us_588e25fce4b0b065cbbca59f
(Note that Gulliani's "substantial evidences that these countries are sending terrorists", is, of course, bull. As explained below and risks assessment from Cato
But wait, didn't Obama do the same? Nope...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/30/obama-rejects-comparison-between-trumps-immigration-policy-and-his-own-encourages-protests/?utm_term=.f35e32076d5d&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation
"
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/30/fact-check-trump-refugee-policy-comparison-obama/97247418/
2017-FEB-05 Cozying up to Russia. A concept GOP is uneasy with
Read and watch:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-s-russia-u-s-comparison-rejected-democrats-republicans-n717071
That is because Trump equates being tough, and being effective and smart. So, Putin is tough, then he must be effective and smart. But effective at what? In Putin's case, staying in power via undemocratic means, annexing neighboring countries, etc
Again here, it is all about ego; Trump sees himself in Putin's image to the world and he likes it. I don't think Trump has spend a minute checking into Putin's actions.
2017-FEB-05 Bernie Sanders: Trump is a ‘fraud’ for cozying up to Wall Street
Meant for the Sanders supporter that voted Trump because "at least he won't be cozy-up to Wall-Street like Hillary would"...
"This guy ran for president of the United States saying, 'I, Donald Trump, I’m going to take on Wall Street. These guys are getting away with murder,' Sanders said. 'And then, suddenly, he appoints all these billionaires. His major financial adviser comes from Goldman Sachs. And now he is going to dismantle legislation that protects consumers.”
http://nypost.com/2017/02/05/bernie-sanders-trump-is-a-fraud-for-cozying-up-to-wall-street/?utm_campaign=partnerfeed&utm_medium=syndicated&utm_source=flipboard
I don't have a problem myself with pro-business policies. But I do have a problem with liars...
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/trump-dodd-frank/515646/
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38858009
2017-FEB-02 Trump Vows to ‘Destroy’ Law Banning Political Endorsements by Churches
"WASHINGTON — President Trump vowed on Thursday to overturn a law restricting political speech by tax-exempt churches, a potentially huge victory for the religious right and a gesture to evangelicals, a voting bloc he attracted to his campaign by promising to free up their pulpits.
Mr. Trump said his administration would 'totally destroy' the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that prohibits churches from endorsing or opposing political candidates at the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
'Freedom of religion is a sacred right, but it is also a right under threat all around us,' Mr. Trump told religious leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast. 'That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.'"
Trump now pandering to evangelicals and threatening the all important separation of church and state.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-johnson-amendment-political-activity-churches.html
2017-JAN-27
"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people"
"...a draft of the order called for suspending the issuing of visas to people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 30 days"
http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2017-01-27-US--Trump/id-f3156bbc758043a79be37dc5aed81fe0
Meanwhile, in the real world:
It seems that less than a handful of the perpetrators of terrorists acts on U.S soil in the past 40 years were from
Yet, Saudi Arabia, a state sponsor of radical Islam, is absent from the list.
Furthermore:
"Regardless of the type of terrorist attack — jihadist or right-wing — the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks are committed by US-born citizens"
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/23/9765718/domestic-terrorism-threat
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/dec/29/what-citizenship-status-terrorists-united-states/
More stats from the libertarian CATO institute:
“From 1975 through 2015, the chance of an American being murdered by a foreign-born terrorist was 1 in 3,609,709 a year.”
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa798_1_1.pdf
2017-JAN-25 EPA information suppression averted due to backlash
If Science doesn't fit your alt-reality, prevent information from circulating seems to be the motto...
2017-JAN-25 A Trump Tracker
2017-JAN-25 A Trump Tracker
http://www.track-trump.com/
2017-JAN-23 Blocks funding to international family-planning organizations unless they agree not to promote abortion
Every candidate,
They can be found there:
Trump has committed numerous times on releasing his tax returns:
"I’d love to give my tax returns. I may tie my tax returns into Obama’s birth certificate"
Then, post-election...
" 'The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns,' the counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said in an interview on the ABC program 'This Week.'"
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-tax-returns-will-not-release-under-audit-conflicts-of-interest-a7540621.html
2017-JAN-20 Crowd size at inauguration; a brushed ego
While measuring crowd size at inauguration provides an interesting data point... for 5 minutes, what is telling is the extent at which Trump so wanted his "show" to be bigger than anybody else's that he ordered his minions to question the obvious and provide "alternate facts". That's not a president with a steady hand...
According to the Washington Post, transit ridership before 11am and the whole day was about the same for Trump and Bush Jr's inaugurations, less than half of Obama's 2009's.
Source:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jan/21/sean-spicer/trump-had-biggest-inaugural-crowd-ever-metrics-don/
http://wavy.com/2017/01/20/trump-draws-far-smaller-inaugural-crowd-than-obama/
"After the National Park Service retweeted messages that negatively compared the crowd sizes at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration to Donald Trump's inauguration Friday, representatives from the new administration asked the Interior Department's digital team to temporarily stop using Twitter -- a decision the agency now claims was out of a concern the account was hacked"
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/20/interior-department-banned-from-twitter-after-retweet-of-smaller-than-usual-trump-inauguration-crowd/?utm_term=.9c21e6fd9883
Kellyanne Conway, Trump senior advisor, tried to defend Sean Spicer's false claims about the size of the crowd:
"CHUCK TODD:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/22/politics/kellyanne-conway-alternative-facts/index.html
It should concern even Trump supporters that the leader of the single world's superpower gets triggered so easily, and is willing to use executive powers to bend the truth for a bruised ego. What will happen when he has to deal with actual issues with other nations? Say, if Xi Jingping noticed that Trump does have small hands and made a comment about this in the news? :-)
But then again, it seems that a large portion of Trump supporters also do not care much about the truth:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/25/we-asked-people-which-inauguration-crowd-was-bigger-heres-what-they-said/?utm_term=.bafdcf91dde0
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/an-average-of-one-day-out-of-every-week-of-his-presidency-trump%E2%80%99s-been-at-mar-a-lago/ar-AAw4lur?ocid=spartandhp
2017-DEC-21 Tax cuts passed, and end of individual mandate sneaked in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
2017-DEC-14 Another day, a crapload more lies...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/14/opinion/sunday/trump-lies-obama-who-is-worse.html
2017-DEC-11 Another day, another lie...
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/AP-FACT-CHECK-Trump-on-economy-monuments-taxes-Moore-on-women-he-knew-before-he-didn-t-/id-85a68ae7524c43c7951ce54c34c6a1ff
2017-DEC-07Another day, another lie...
"Technically, though, it's not even the biggest tax cut of the past five years.
That honor goes to the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which was actually signed into law by President Barack Obama on Jan. 2, 2013."
2017-AUG-18 Another day, another lie...
"In an apparent response to the Barcelona terrorist attack on Thursday, President Trump cited an apocryphal story about turn-of-the-20th-century American Gen. John Pershing – and missed its context.
'Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught," Trump tweeted shortly after condemning the attack in Spain. "There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!'
Trump, following up on another tweet condemning the attack in Barcelona, was referring to a story he told on the campaign trail, a legend that began after Pershing served as governor of a heavily Muslim province in the Philippines from 1909 to 1913.
'He caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage and killed many people,' Trump said during a rally in Charleston, S.C., in February of 2016:
'And he took the 50 terrorists, and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pigs’ blood ... And he had his men load his rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem. Okay? Twenty-five years, there wasn’t a problem.
Yet there's no evidence this ever happened, and Pershing certainly didn't stop violence in the Philippines."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/08/17/trump-cites-dubious-story-muslims-apparent-comment-barcelona-attack/577381001/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/23/donald-trump/donald-trump-cites-dubious-legend-about-gen-pershi/
2017-JUL-30 Repeal and replace is dead, get over it!
The senate has voted against repeal and/or replace. But Trump threatens to go it alone and cut the $7b a year subsidies which "subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes". This is just a mean-spirited "get back at you" attitude that is typical of Trump, and, incidentally, quite an autocratic approach. You are running Trump Corp, you are running the U.S.A, work with the system or change the system, don't bypass it!
"In apparent frustration over Friday's failure by the Senate Republican majority to pass a bill repealing parts of the Affordable Care Act, Trump tweeted: 'If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!'
(...)
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the bill failed early Friday that he would move to other legislative business in the upcoming week."
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/President-Donald-Trump-is-threatening-once-more-to-end-required-payments-to-insurance-companies-unless-lawmakers-repeal-and-replace-the-existing-health-law/id-31e3a43f7f804e7d8117503cdbd83c70
2017-JUL-12 The bill that wasn't
Excerpt from released Donald Trump's Jr's email exchanges with a Russian attorney:
"Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/11/15953188/donald-trump-jr-russia-emails
https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953800/trump-junior-email-russia
If there was any doubt of Russia's intentions to influence the elections, and in whos favor, I guess this can be put to rest.
2017-JUN-01 The bill that wasn't
"Our tax bill is moving along in Congress, and I believe it’s doing very well."
Trump speech on paris climate agreement withdrawal.
http://www.npr.org/2017/06/01/531090243/trumps-speech-on-paris-climate-agreement-withdrawal-annotated
But, there is actually no tax bill !
- No tax bill has been introduced to the US House of Representatives.
- No tax bill has been introduced to the US Senate.
- The White House has not released a tax plan that is detailed enough for experts to assess its economic or fiscal impact."
2017-MAY-13 Trump, the catapult expert
"The steam-powered catapult systems that are being replaced have been used to launch airplanes from U.S. carriers for some six decades now. Not only are steam systems harder to maintain than electrical ones; they have a lower upper-limit during combat—meaning electrical systems can launch more aircraft in a shorter amount of time. Electrical systems can also better handle smaller aircrafts and drones compared with steam. Steam systems also put more stress on airframes, and make them more prone to corrosion. Not only that, but carriers themselves are exceedingly vulnerable to attack—meaning outfitting them with the modern defense systems is a priority."
It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said—and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said, “What system are you going to be—” “Sir, we’re staying with digital.” I said, “No you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.” - Trump interview to Times
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/trump-wants-goddamned-steam-not-digital-catapults-on-aircraft-carriers/526386/?utm_source=fbb
https://www.navytimes.com/articles/trump-says-navy-should-ditch-carrier-emals
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/11/trump-new-aircraft-carrier-u-s-s-gerald-ford-emals-steam-launch-catapults-navy/
2017-MAY-13
"Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe Thursday rejected assertions by the White House that FBI employees had lost faith in James Comey and that the bureau's probe into Russian election meddling was one of its most minor concerns.
'I hold Director Comey in the absolute highest regard. I have the highest respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity,' McCabe told members of the Senate intelligence committee.
He said Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, enjoyed 'broad support within the FBI and still does to this day.' He added, 'The majority, the vast majority of FBI employees enjoyed a deep, positive connection to Director Comey.'"
2017-MAY-13 Trump fires FBI head who was investigating his team's involvement in Russia's meddling in U.S elections2017-APR-28 Trump says he thought being president would be easier than his old life
"A new Gallup poll on Tuesday showed just 40 percent of people said Trump has made progress after 100 days when it comes to changing the way Washington works; 54 percent said he hasn’t"
"He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is.
President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.
'I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,' Trump told Reuters in an interview. 'This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."
President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.
'I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,' Trump told Reuters in an interview. 'This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."
2017-APR-28 Despite tough talk and more arrests, deportations slow under Trump
"President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his administration -- but so far his administration is deporting fewer people than his predecessor.
(...)
According to statistics from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) given to CNN, the pace of removals under Trump in his first three months lags behind even the last two years of his predecessor, when then-President Barack Obama ordered his agencies to use more discretion when it came to deporting undocumented immigrants, focusing specifically on criminals."
2017-APR-25 State Dept. blog promotes Trump's Mar-a-Lago
"President Donald Trump personally owns Mar-a-Lago, his private club on Florida's eastern coast. But that didn't stop the State Department, in a blog post on the United States Embassy in London's website, from touting the property.
In a markedly promotional blog post from April 5 that could eventually benefit the President's bottom line, should it spur membership or foreign visits, the embassy writes that the property has 'become well known as the President frequently travels there to work or host foreign leaders.'"
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/24/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-state-department-blog/
 |
| From https://uk.usembassy.gov/mar-lago-winter-white-house/ |
 |
| Story was removed |
2017-APR-24 Obamacare more popular than its critics
2017-APR-08 FIRST GOOD CALL FROM TRUMP
Assad was testing the water, trying to see if he could get away with using sarin gas on his own people. Since Trump was buddy-buddy with Putin, and complained numerous times before that U.S.A. should not engage in Syria, this was a big policy reversal.
But one that was necessary; tyrants needs to understand that there will be consequences to their actions.
Actually, upon more thinking about this, that might well be the best way to set dictatorship straight; intervening when a dictator goes too far, and hopefully, over time, making the dictatorship untenable.
Bombing North Korea's nuclear facilities seem like the next logical step and Trump has already warned Xi Jingping that if he doesn't do anything, the U.S. will.
"
http://www.businessinsider.com/assad-chemical-weapons-attack-testing-trump-2017-4
"
(...)
The Saudi Foreign Ministry expressed its 'full support ... for the American military operations on military targets in Syria,' according to a statement from the Saudi Press Agency.
(...)
"
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/07/world/syria-us-strike-world-reaction/index.html
"Trudeau spoke with U.S. President Trump on Friday morning. According to a readout of that call circulated by the Prime Minister's Office, Trudeau told Trump that Canada fully supports the 'limited and focused action to degrade the Syrian regime's ability to conduct chemical weapons attacks'"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-canada-airstrikes-syria-1.4060061
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/07/politics/new-satellite-imagery-of-bombed-syrian-base/index.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-bashar-al-assad-syria-airstrikes-missile-a7671421.html
2017-MAR-24 RYAN PULLS HEALTH CARE BILL
Assad was testing the water, trying to see if he could get away with using sarin gas on his own people. Since Trump was buddy-buddy with Putin, and complained numerous times before that U.S.A. should not engage in Syria, this was a big policy reversal.
But one that was necessary; tyrants needs to understand that there will be consequences to their actions.
Actually, upon more thinking about this, that might well be the best way to set dictatorship straight; intervening when a dictator goes too far, and hopefully, over time, making the dictatorship untenable.
Bombing North Korea's nuclear facilities seem like the next logical step and Trump has already warned Xi Jingping that if he doesn't do anything, the U.S. will.
"
http://www.businessinsider.com/assad-chemical-weapons-attack-testing-trump-2017-4
"
(...)
The Saudi Foreign Ministry expressed its 'full support ... for the American military operations on military targets in Syria,' according to a statement from the Saudi Press Agency.
(...)
Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said Jordan considers the strike 'a necessary and appropriate response to the non-stop targeting of innocent civilians' with weapons of mass destruction.
Jordan reiterated its rejection and condemnation of the use of weapons of mass destruction, including the recent chemical attack against civilians in Khan Sheikhoun in Syria's Idlib province
(...)
''We welcome the US operation,' said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusogulu.
Turkey called the airstrikes 'a positive response to the Assad regime's war crimes.'
(...)
Iran 'strongly condemns' the military strike, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi in the country's semi-official news agency ISNA
(...)
'China always opposes the use of force in international affairs and we advocate resolving disputes peacefully through dialogues... We always hold that the Syrian issue should be resolved through political means.'
(...)
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said said Australia 'strongly supports the swift and just response of the US' to the chemical attack in Idlib province
(...)
The Prime Minister of Israel account tweeted that 'Israel fully supports President Trump's decision.'
(...)
'The Japanese government supports the US government's resolve that it will never tolerate the spread and use of chemical weapons,' Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters
(...)
'The UK Government fully supports the US action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regime, and is intended to deter further attacks,' a UK government spokesperson said in a statement
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/07/world/syria-us-strike-world-reaction/index.html
"Trudeau spoke with U.S. President Trump on Friday morning. According to a readout of that call circulated by the Prime Minister's Office, Trudeau told Trump that Canada fully supports the 'limited and focused action to degrade the Syrian regime's ability to conduct chemical weapons attacks'"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-canada-airstrikes-syria-1.4060061
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/07/politics/new-satellite-imagery-of-bombed-syrian-base/index.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-bashar-al-assad-syria-airstrikes-missile-a7671421.html
2017-MAR-24 RYAN PULLS HEALTH CARE BILL
"House Speaker Paul Ryan sensationally pulled his Obamacare repeal bill from the floor Friday afternoon, a day after President Donald Trump had threatened to walk away from health care reform if he didn't get a vote.
(...)
The decision to delay the vote marks an acute embarrassment for the President, who had gambled big by presenting holdout House conservatives with a take-it-or-leave it ultimatum Thursday night and put his own credibility on the line.
But Trump repeatedly pointed the finger directly at Democrats, who all opposed the measure, rather than at his own party, which holds a significant majority in the House.
'We had no Democratic support,' he said. 'I've been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we could do, politically speaking, is let Obamacare explode. It's exploding right now.'
(...)
'We came up short,' Ryan told reporters. 'We are going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.' "
"According to the March 13-23 poll, 49 percent of American adults said the AHCA was 'not an improvement' over Obamacare, which helped about 20 million people get insurance coverage. Another 33 percent said the Republican bill was "an improvement" over Obamacare, and the remaining 18 percent did not know"
2017-MAR-22 SURREAL INTERVIEW
President Trump's Interview With TIME on Truth and Falsehoods
http://time.com/4710456/donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/
And for those who think what he said made any kind of sense...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/23/president-trumps-cascade-of-false-claims-in-times-interview-on-his-falsehoods/?utm_term=.0a3892739ab5
And for those who think what he said made any kind of sense...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/23/president-trumps-cascade-of-false-claims-in-times-interview-on-his-falsehoods/?utm_term=.0a3892739ab5
2017-MAR-16 TRUMP BUDGET
Put more money where none's needed, and cut along ideological lines...
(and shows that Americans will pay for that wall afterall)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-presidential-budget-2018-proposal/
2017-MAR-13 Sean Spicer denies wiretapping means wiretapping
“If you look at the president's tweet, he said very clearly, quote, 'wire tapping' — in quotes,” Spicer said during Monday's news briefing, making air quotes with his fingers to emphasize his point. “There's been substantial discussion in several reports. … There's been reports in the New York Times and the BBC and other outlets about other aspects of surveillance that have occurred. The president was very clear in his tweet that it was, you know, 'wire tapping' — that spans a whole host of surveillance types of options.
This is quite a remarkable standard Spicer is trying to set for his boss. None of the “several reports” Spicer referenced actually claim that Trump or his aides were wiretapped, despite claims to the contrary. Fox News Channel's Steve Doocy said on the air Monday morning that “there's no doubt about the fact that at least Michael Flynn was wiretapped,” and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said on CNN a short time later that “we know that General Flynn was wiretapped.”
Wrong. The Washington Post reported last month that pre-inauguration phone calls between Flynn, who resigned as national security adviser, and Russia's ambassador to the United States were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies because the ambassador was wiretapped. That's a key distinction that the president's aides and media boosters seem determined to obscure.
If Trump has evidence that Flynn or anyone else on his team was bugged, he has not produced it, and news reports do not support his charge against Obama."
2017-MAR-13 CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the American Health Care Act would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the coming decade and increase the number of people who are uninsured by 24 million in 2026 relative to current law
“If you look at the president's tweet, he said very clearly, quote, 'wire tapping' — in quotes,” Spicer said during Monday's news briefing, making air quotes with his fingers to emphasize his point. “There's been substantial discussion in several reports. … There's been reports in the New York Times and the BBC and other outlets about other aspects of surveillance that have occurred. The president was very clear in his tweet that it was, you know, 'wire tapping' — that spans a whole host of surveillance types of options.
This is quite a remarkable standard Spicer is trying to set for his boss. None of the “several reports” Spicer referenced actually claim that Trump or his aides were wiretapped, despite claims to the contrary. Fox News Channel's Steve Doocy said on the air Monday morning that “there's no doubt about the fact that at least Michael Flynn was wiretapped,” and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said on CNN a short time later that “we know that General Flynn was wiretapped.”
Wrong. The Washington Post reported last month that pre-inauguration phone calls between Flynn, who resigned as national security adviser, and Russia's ambassador to the United States were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies because the ambassador was wiretapped. That's a key distinction that the president's aides and media boosters seem determined to obscure.
If Trump has evidence that Flynn or anyone else on his team was bugged, he has not produced it, and news reports do not support his charge against Obama."
"CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period. That total consists of $323 billion in on-budget savings and $13 billion in off-budget savings. Outlays would be reduced by $1.2 trillion over the period, and revenues would be reduced by $0.9 trillion.
The largest savings would come from reductions in outlays for Medicaid and from the elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) subsidies for nongroup health insurance. The largest costs would come from repealing many of the changes the ACA made to the Internal Revenue Code—including an increase in the Hospital Insurance payroll tax rate for high-income taxpayers, a surtax on those taxpayers’ net investment income, and annual fees imposed on health insurers—and from the establishment of a new tax credit for health insurance"
"CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law. Most of that increase would stem from repealing the penalties associated with the individual mandate. Some of those people would choose not to have insurance because they chose to be covered by insurance under current law only to avoid paying the penalties, and some people would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums.
Later, following additional changes to subsidies for insurance purchased in the nongroup market and to the Medicaid program, the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would rise to 21 million in 2020 and then to 24 million in 2026. The reductions in insurance coverage between 2018 and 2026 would stem in large part from changes in Medicaid enrollment—because some states would discontinue their expansion of eligibility, some states that would have expanded eligibility in the future would choose not to do so, and per-enrollee spending in the program would be capped. In 2026, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law"
2017-MAR-07 The Office of Government Ethics isn't happy with the White House's decision not to punish top aide Kellyanne Conway
"OGE Director Walter Shaub
In an interview on Fox News Channel on Feb. 9, Conway raved about Ivanka Trump merchandise and encouraged viewers to 'go buy Ivanka's stuff.' A day earlier, President Trump had attacked Nordstrom department stores for dropping his daughter's line of clothes and accessories.
The ethics office recommended discipline because federal rules prohibit executive branch employees from endorsing products. The White House concluded that she was speaking 'in a light, off-hand manner while attempting to stand up for a person she believed had been unfairly treated.'"
2017-MAR-07 Republican health plan doesn't deliver health care
"Ryancare doesn't give the neediest families enough help to afford decent insurance while blowing a substantial chunk of change on families who don't really need much help"
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/7/14840646/ahca-marginal-tax-rates-poor
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/The-House-GOP-health-bill-would-cut-more-than-20-taxes-enacted-under-President-Barack-Obama-s-heath-law-saving-mostly-wealthy-taxpayers-nearly-600-billion-over-the-next-decade/id-ad41408df52041b4be94a7e449b851f3
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/white-house-admits-insurance-is-not-really-the-end-goal
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/the-biggest-criticism-of-paul-ryans-health-care-pitch/519138/
"Everybody has to be covered (...) I'm going to take care of everybody () The government is going to pay for it"
- Donald Trump, before the election
https://youtu.be/TPJfKdp3bDs
"House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican plan's top backer in Congress, said he is 'certain' that the CBO will show a reduction in the number of Americans with coverage.
'You know why? Because this isn't a government mandate,' Ryan told NBC's Meet the Press"
- Paul Ryan, after the election
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-obamacare-idUSL2N1GP0BD
Chart below brilliantly shows how Trump-care fails to achieve the goal of improving coverage by penalizing people who need subsidized coverage the most (the older, and poorer)
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/white-house-admits-insurance-is-not-really-the-end-goal
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/the-biggest-criticism-of-paul-ryans-health-care-pitch/519138/
"Everybody has to be covered (...) I'm going to take care of everybody () The government is going to pay for it"
- Donald Trump, before the election
https://youtu.be/TPJfKdp3bDs
"House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican plan's top backer in Congress, said he is 'certain' that the CBO will show a reduction in the number of Americans with coverage.
'You know why? Because this isn't a government mandate,' Ryan told NBC's Meet the Press"
- Paul Ryan, after the election
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-obamacare-idUSL2N1GP0BD
Chart below brilliantly shows how Trump-care fails to achieve the goal of improving coverage by penalizing people who need subsidized coverage the most (the older, and poorer)
"President Donald Trump is again citing corporate investments planned before he took office as evidence that his policies are growing jobs and business.
'We are already winning again, America!' he tweeted Monday after Exxon Mobil announced the latest details of an expansion initiative that actually began in 2013. 'Buy American & hire American are the principals at the core of my agenda, which is: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS,' he said in another tweet thanking Exxon Mobil for the announcement.
It's the latest in a string of corporate announcements about jobs and investments that date back to plans companies largely made when Barack Obama was president."
2017-MAR-04 Trump's rally, 'Spirit of America" 2nd day
"Their predictions appeared to be correct, as they were on Monday when similar rallies were held. In many towns and cities, the rallies did not draw more than a few hundred people, and some were at risk of being outnumbered by small groups of anti-Trump protesters that gathered to shout against the rallies"
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-supporters-idUSKBN16B0O8
2017-MAR-02 Pence used AOL email on governor business, got hacked
"Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a personal AOL account for sensitive state business, including discussions about homeland security issues, while he was governor of Indiana, the
One of the emails, obtained through a public records request, relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges, the newspaper reported. While the arrangement doesn't violate Indiana law, the state requires all records dealing with state business to be retained and available for public information requests"
2017-FEB-28 Trump's rally 'Spirit of America" seems to indicate faltering support
"An estimated 200 people came out for the Spirit of America Rally on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol building on Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in Denver to show support for President Donald Trump"
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/27/rally-support-trump-colorado-capitol/
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2017/02/27/trump-supporters-gather-for-spirit-of-america-rally/
"In Brea, California, in traditionally conservative Orange County, about 60 people stood outside a shopping mall chanting 'Build the wall' and 'God bless America, God bless Donald Trump' and carrying sings that read 'Trump loves you' and 'Trump all the way.'"
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-supporters-idUSKBN1661CM
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/27/1638350/-Check-out-these-massive-pro-Trump-rallies-around-the-country-today-Sad
2017-FEB-23 Donald Trump Obliterates the Deficit!
"The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo. "
-Donald Trump on Tweeter
True data but Donald doesn't mention that he has nothing to do with this, and that a month is anyway irrelevant.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/02/donald-trump-obliterates-deficit
2017-FEB-23 US private prison program rebooted by Trump administrationThe gigantic failure which was the U.S.'s for-profit private prison system, gets rebooted by Trump's administration, after having been dismantled by Obama.
"Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general, on Thursday rescinded a six-month-old directive for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to wind down contracts with prison companies, claiming that the measure had 'impaired the bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system'
(...)
Sally Yates, then the deputy attorney general, said in a memo that research had found private prisons 'simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources' and 'do not save substantially on costs' either. Essential government education and training programs for prisoners 'have proved difficult to replicate and outsource' in the private sector, she said"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/23/trump-revives-private-prison-program-doj-obama-administration-end
Additional information:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/proof-mass-incarceration-doesnt-reduce-crime_us_56255cfbe4b08589ef489a3d
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/the-many-causes-of-americas-decline-in-crime/385364/
"...concludes that over-harsh criminal justice policies, particularly increased incarceration, which rose even more dramatically over the same period, were not the main drivers of the crime decline. In fact, the report finds that increased incarceration has been declining in its effectiveness as a crime control tactic for more than 30 years. Its effect on crime rates since 1990 has been limited, and has been non-existent since 2000.
More important were various social, economic, and environmental factors, such as growth in income and an aging population. The introduction of CompStat, a data-driven policing technique, also played a significant role in reducing crime in cities that introduced it.
The report concludes that considering the immense social, fiscal, and economic costs of mass incarceration, programs that improve economic opportunities, modernize policing practices, and expand treatment and rehabilitation programs, all could be a better public safety investment"
https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/what-caused-crime-decline2017-FEB-23 Nuclear arsenal, trying to solve a non-issue
“ 'I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power. It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack', Trump said
(...)
The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the United States and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years"
 |
Countries by estimated total nuclear warhead stockpile
|
2017-FEB-23 Air Force Stumped by Trump's Claim of $1 Billion Savings on Jet
"The Air Force can’t account for $1 billion in savings that President Donald Trump said he’s negotiated for the program to develop, purchase and operate two new Boeing Co. jets to serve as Air Force One"
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-22/air-force-stumped-by-trump-s-claim-of-1-billion-savings-on-jet
------------------------
This guy had a similar idea:
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/
---------------------------
2017-FEB-18 Nothing happened "last night in Sweden"
"
- Donald Trump. Rally in Melbourne, Florida
http://www.vox.com/2017/2/18/14659952/trump-transcript-rally-melbourne-florida
Nothing happened "last night" in Sweden.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/19/politics/trump-rally-sweden/index.html
http://www.harpersbazaar.co.uk/culture/culture-news/news/a39992/donald-trump-makes-up-story-about-terror-attack-in-sweden/
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-clarifies-remarks-on-sweden-i-got-it-from-fox-news-story/ar-AAn716Y?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
2017-FEB-17 One more lie, why?
"
- Donald Trump in a press conference in the
"The president earned 306 electoral votes, but technically received only 304 after two electors defected. Three hundred and six is fewer than the electoral votes earned by the winners in 2012 (332), 2008 (365), 1996 (379), 1992 (370) and 1988 (426). NBC News reporter Peter Alexander brought this fact up to the president.
'I was talking about Republican,' said Trump.
When Alexander cited George H. W. Bush’s numbers, Trump said, 'I was given that information, I don’t know. We had a very, very big margin.' He added, 'Actually I’ve seen that information around. But it was a very substantial victory, would you agree with that?'
'You’re the president,' replied Alexander."
 |
| https://mobile.twitter.com/CNN/status/832313547128451075/photo/1 |
https://mobile.twitter.com/CNN/status/832313098887450625
Now, it is nearly impossible that Trump wouldn't have done some very basic check even before he got elected and fully understand that his victory was by a small margin and nowhere near a landslide that would have warranted a comparison with Reagan's.
It seems consistent with his strategy to keep lying and hope that his supporter will keep discounting truth in favor of the "media is against me" conspiracy.
2017-FEB-09 Oversight chairman requests ethics review of Kellyanne Conway
"The Republican and Democratic heads of the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform filed a letter on Thursday requesting the independent government watchdog begin a review of President Donald Trump's counselor following her endorsement of Ivanka Trump's fashion line
(...)
In a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings wrote that they had "extremely serious concerns" that Kellyanne Conway violated federal ethics rules when she appeared on Fox News on Thursday and explicitly endorsed Ivanka Trump's fashion line"
http://www.businessinsider.com/jason-chaffetz-ethics-review-kellyanne-conway-ivanka-trump-2017-2http://www.businessinsider.com/kellyanne-conway-go-buy-ivankas-stuff-2017-2
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/5/2635.702
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14569590/kellyanne-conway-ivanka-trump-chaffetz
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/02/09/house-oversight-committee-chairman-kellyanne-conways-promotion-of-ivanka-trumps-products-is-unacceptable-n2283752
2017-FEB-13 Trump security adviser Flynn resigns after leaks suggest he tried to cover up Russia talks"The US national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned late Monday amid a flow of intelligence leaks that he had secretly discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington and then tried to cover up the conversations.
The resignation, with the Trump era less than four weeks old, is the latest and most dramatic convulsion in the most chaotic start to an administration in modern US history"
2017-FEB-10 A
"To arrive at that decision, the appeals court did something close to what fact-checkers, journalists, scholars and others do every day when Trump and his surrogates make extraordinary claims: It demanded extraordinary evidence — or at least some evidence — for the administration’s arguments.
And it got none, the judges said.
The court asked the government to explain the “urgent need” for the order to be restored, but Justice Department lawyers offered 'no evidence,' the opinion read.
It asked for evidence in the form of legal precedents that noncitizens affected by the order 'have no rights' under the Constitution. The court found the government’s examples unconvincing.
It also asked for evidence that immigrants from the countries named in Trump’s order had committed terrorist attacks in the United States. Instead, the government merely argued that the court 'must not review its decision at all,' according to the opinion.
In court papers, the government argued that the president’s authority to suspend immigration was “unreviewable,” meaning the court couldn’t check his power. That seemed to alarm the judges.
'There is no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability,' the opinion read, 'which runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.'"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/10/travel-ban-ruling-in-court-as-on-twitter-trump-confronts-problem-of-no-evidence-for-claims/?utm_term=.12cc420423cf&wpisrc=nl_most-draw16&wpmm=1
2017-FEB-07 Murder rate; Trump doubling-down on lies
"I'd say that in a speech and everybody was surprised because the press doesn't like to tell it like it is (...)
It wasn't to their advantage to say that. The murder rate is the highest it's been in I guess 45-47 years."
Donald Trump, during a meeting with US sheriffs at the White House
The media wouldn't say that, because that's not true.
While there was a small 3.9% increase in violent crime in 2015 (data here from the "fake news?" FBI), on the contrary, murder rate is actually at over 40 years low.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/donald-trump-murder-rate-fact-check/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2017/02/07/trump-makes-false-statement-about-u-s-murder-rate-to-sheriffs-group/?utm_term=.82bc571154a7
2017-FEB-06 Trump's FSS targets net neutrality
Net neutrality
"In his first days as President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai has aggressively moved to roll back consumer protection regulations created during the Obama presidency.
Mr. Pai took a first swipe at net neutrality rules designed to ensure equal access to content on the internet."
"That’s not a ban" Sean Spicer, about Trump's Executive Order to ban people from 7 countries
But then, in Trump's own Tweets:
 |
| Oh, seems that it is a ban after all... |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/giuliani-muslim-ban_us_588e25fce4b0b065cbbca59f
(Note that Gulliani's "substantial evidences that these countries are sending terrorists", is, of course, bull. As explained below and risks assessment from Cato
But wait, didn't Obama do the same? Nope...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/30/obama-rejects-comparison-between-trumps-immigration-policy-and-his-own-encourages-protests/?utm_term=.f35e32076d5d&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation
"
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/30/fact-check-trump-refugee-policy-comparison-obama/97247418/
Then, it is not a Muslim ban, but Christian will be given priority...
Wouldn't that be offensive and unconstitutional? What do you think, Mr. Vice-President?
Attorney General Sally Yates, doing her duty of check and balance, refused to enforce the ban, on the same basis raised by Pence:
"My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts," she said in a letter. "In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right"
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/donald-trump-immigration-order-department-of-justice/
This got her fired.
Then, George W. Bush appointed judge James Robart "a federal judge in the state of Washington ordered a nationwide temporary restraining order against Donald Trump’s 'Muslim ban'"
http://reverbpress.com/justice/watch-excruciating-moment-trumps-argument-muslim-ban-falls-apart-court-video/
Trump got into a hissy fit and issued these:
Therein lies the problem; he seems oblivious to the fact that separation of powers is germane to the concept of a healthy Democracy and key to the protection of the constitution.
Trump, via the justice department, tried to appeal the judge's decision, and failed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/05/travel-ban-white-house-files-appeal-against-ruling-as-trump-says-well-win
Proving the U.S. democracy is stronger than any single of its constituents, which is something we can all take solace in.
Additional info:
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14455986/trump-not-a-ban-spicer
"My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts," she said in a letter. "In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution's solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right"
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/donald-trump-immigration-order-department-of-justice/
This got her fired.
Then, George W. Bush appointed judge James Robart "a federal judge in the state of Washington ordered a nationwide temporary restraining order against Donald Trump’s 'Muslim ban'"
http://reverbpress.com/justice/watch-excruciating-moment-trumps-argument-muslim-ban-falls-apart-court-video/
Trump got into a hissy fit and issued these:
Trump, via the justice department, tried to appeal the judge's decision, and failed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/05/travel-ban-white-house-files-appeal-against-ruling-as-trump-says-well-win
Proving the U.S. democracy is stronger than any single of its constituents, which is something we can all take solace in.
Additional info:
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14455986/trump-not-a-ban-spicer
2017-FEB-05 Cozying up to Russia. A concept GOP is uneasy with
Read and watch:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-s-russia-u-s-comparison-rejected-democrats-republicans-n717071
That is because Trump equates being tough, and being effective and smart. So, Putin is tough, then he must be effective and smart. But effective at what? In Putin's case, staying in power via undemocratic means, annexing neighboring countries, etc
Again here, it is all about ego; Trump sees himself in Putin's image to the world and he likes it. I don't think Trump has spend a minute checking into Putin's actions.
2017-FEB-05 Bernie Sanders: Trump is a ‘fraud’ for cozying up to Wall Street
Meant for the Sanders supporter that voted Trump because "at least he won't be cozy-up to Wall-Street like Hillary would"...
"This guy ran for president of the United States saying, 'I, Donald Trump, I’m going to take on Wall Street. These guys are getting away with murder,' Sanders said. 'And then, suddenly, he appoints all these billionaires. His major financial adviser comes from Goldman Sachs. And now he is going to dismantle legislation that protects consumers.”
http://nypost.com/2017/02/05/bernie-sanders-trump-is-a-fraud-for-cozying-up-to-wall-street/?utm_campaign=partnerfeed&utm_medium=syndicated&utm_source=flipboard
I don't have a problem myself with pro-business policies. But I do have a problem with liars...
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/trump-dodd-frank/515646/
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38858009
2017-FEB-02 Trump Vows to ‘Destroy’ Law Banning Political Endorsements by Churches
"WASHINGTON — President Trump vowed on Thursday to overturn a law restricting political speech by tax-exempt churches, a potentially huge victory for the religious right and a gesture to evangelicals, a voting bloc he attracted to his campaign by promising to free up their pulpits.
Mr. Trump said his administration would 'totally destroy' the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that prohibits churches from endorsing or opposing political candidates at the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
'Freedom of religion is a sacred right, but it is also a right under threat all around us,' Mr. Trump told religious leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast. 'That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.'"
Trump now pandering to evangelicals and threatening the all important separation of church and state.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-johnson-amendment-political-activity-churches.html
2017-FEB-01
But since Donald J. Trump, who promised to repeal the law, was elected president, that long-held pattern has begun to shift. In a variety of recent polls, with questions asked in different ways, more Americans are now saying they favor Obamacare than oppose it
(...)
The Pew Research Center has found that, for the first time since 2007, a majority of Americans believe it should be the federal government’s responsibility to make sure Americans have health insurance.
Pew found a big shift among low-income Republican voters, a key Trump constituency and a group that has benefitted substantially from the health law"
2017-JAN-27
"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people"
"...a draft of the order called for suspending the issuing of visas to people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 30 days"
http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2017-01-27-US--Trump/id-f3156bbc758043a79be37dc5aed81fe0
Meanwhile, in the real world:
It seems that less than a handful of the perpetrators of terrorists acts on U.S soil in the past 40 years were from
Yet, Saudi Arabia, a state sponsor of radical Islam, is absent from the list.
Furthermore:
"Regardless of the type of terrorist attack — jihadist or right-wing — the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks are committed by US-born citizens"
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/23/9765718/domestic-terrorism-threat
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/dec/29/what-citizenship-status-terrorists-united-states/
More stats from the libertarian CATO institute:
“From 1975 through 2015, the chance of an American being murdered by a foreign-born terrorist was 1 in 3,609,709 a year.”
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa798_1_1.pdf
2017-JAN-25 EPA information suppression averted due to backlash
"Trump administration officials appear to have walked back plans to scrub climate change references from U.S. EPA's website.
'We've been told to stand down,' an EPA employee told E&E News today. That new directive comes after staff were told yesterday to remove the agency's climate change page from its website, worrying climate change activists and sending data specialists scrambling to download files."
If Science doesn't fit your alt-reality, prevent information from circulating seems to be the motto...
2017-JAN-25 A Trump Tracker
Interesting turn of events. Lets see if this is just one more of his bait and switch tactics...
2017-JAN-25 A Trump Tracker
http://www.track-trump.com/
"
2017-JAN-23 Blocks funding to international family-planning organizations unless they agree not to promote abortion
The “Mexico City Policy” prohibits non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. funds – including International Planned Parenthood – from providing or promoting abortions, as a method of family planning, overseas. The policy also bans these organizations from advocating for the passage of pro-abortion laws in other countries.
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/12/11-091660/en/ (research showing that the policy increases the number of abortions)
Every candidate,
They can be found there:
Trump has committed numerous times on releasing his tax returns:
"I’d love to give my tax returns. I may tie my tax returns into Obama’s birth certificate"
""if I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely and I would love to do that" May 2014
"MATT LAUER: Real quickly. When are you going to release your tax returns?
TRUMP: Probably over the next few months. They’re being worked on now." Feb 10, 2016
More exhaustive list: http://www.nationalmemo.com/showusyourtaxes-heres-every-time-donald-trump-has-said-he-would-release-his-tax-returns/"MATT LAUER: Real quickly. When are you going to release your tax returns?
TRUMP: Probably over the next few months. They’re being worked on now." Feb 10, 2016
Then, post-election...
" 'The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns,' the counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said in an interview on the ABC program 'This Week.'"
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-tax-returns-will-not-release-under-audit-conflicts-of-interest-a7540621.html
2017-JAN-20 Crowd size at inauguration; a brushed ego
While measuring crowd size at inauguration provides an interesting data point... for 5 minutes, what is telling is the extent at which Trump so wanted his "show" to be bigger than anybody else's that he ordered his minions to question the obvious and provide "alternate facts". That's not a president with a steady hand...
 |
| Obama's 2009 inauguration, from another angle |
 |
| Supporters have argued that the angle of the first picture was deceiving. While the logic is obviously flawed, as the best picture to assess the crowd size would be at 90 degree angle, even in the picture above, you can see part of empty sections. Can't see much of them... because of the angle! |
Source:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/jan/21/sean-spicer/trump-had-biggest-inaugural-crowd-ever-metrics-don/
http://wavy.com/2017/01/20/trump-draws-far-smaller-inaugural-crowd-than-obama/
"After the National Park Service retweeted messages that negatively compared the crowd sizes at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration to Donald Trump's inauguration Friday, representatives from the new administration asked the Interior Department's digital team to temporarily stop using Twitter -- a decision the agency now claims was out of a concern the account was hacked"
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/20/interior-department-banned-from-twitter-after-retweet-of-smaller-than-usual-trump-inauguration-crowd/?utm_term=.9c21e6fd9883
Kellyanne Conway, Trump senior advisor, tried to defend Sean Spicer's false claims about the size of the crowd:
"CHUCK TODD:
--answer the question of why the president asked the White House press secretary to come out in front of the podium for the first time and utter a falsehood? Why did he do that? It undermines the credibility of the entire White House press office--
KELLYANNE CONWAY:
No it doesn't.
(...)
KELLYANNE CONWAY:
Don't be so overly dramatic about it, Chuck. What-- You're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. But the point remains--
(...)
CHUCK TODD:
Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true. Look, alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods."
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-01-22-17-n710491http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/22/politics/kellyanne-conway-alternative-facts/index.html
It should concern even Trump supporters that the leader of the single world's superpower gets triggered so easily, and is willing to use executive powers to bend the truth for a bruised ego. What will happen when he has to deal with actual issues with other nations? Say, if Xi Jingping noticed that Trump does have small hands and made a comment about this in the news? :-)
But then again, it seems that a large portion of Trump supporters also do not care much about the truth:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/25/we-asked-people-which-inauguration-crowd-was-bigger-heres-what-they-said/?utm_term=.bafdcf91dde0
