In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses the sideways NON-ANSWER Donald
Trump gave when directly asked about whether or not he still has
confidence in Steve Bannon.
Monday, August 14, 2017
Sunday, August 13, 2017
5 Escape Hatches Republicans May End Up Using To Avoid An Imploding Presidency
It's a very hard thing for a political party to abandon an elected fool, but they may end up doing it.
By Jefferson Morley
While the downfall of Donald Trump is far from assured, the signs are multiplying that the Republicans are preparing for a world in which Trump is no longer commander-in-chief. This is not the dreaming of the liberal resistance or the conservative #NeverTrump crowd; we’re talking about the actions of the Republican leadership, rank and file and Vice President Mike Pence himself.
No, the Republicans are not going to impeach Trump, demand his resignation or invoke the 25th Amendment to say he is incapacitated. But they are preparing escape routes from the fallout from his dismal poll numbers, stalled legislative agenda and mounting legal problems.
Six months ago, Republicans, whatever their qualms, saw no need for such planning. The 45th president, it was assumed, would sign into law the agenda of the congressional Republicans. The GOP would, in return, accommodate the president on his signature issues: jobs, immigration crackdown, revisiting free trade agreements, and restoring friendlier relations with Russia. With complete control of the government, the Republican vision seemed realistic.
Fat chance. Impulsive, unfocused and mendacious, Trump is now treated as an unpredictable menace against whom Republicans must build defenses. These defenses can also serve as escape routes if and when the GOP feels the need to break with the president.
1. The Sanctions Firewall
On July 27, House and Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, dooming Trump's yearning to make nice with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The president's allies originally resisted the additional financial penalties, but caved in under the weight of Trump's repeated lies about his campaign's contacts with Russians and his refusal to acknowledge the U.S. intelligence finding that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's identification with Russia has become so toxic that virtually every member of his party took the opportunity to reject it. The president can be accused of coddling Putin, but all of his putative allies on Capitol Hill have inoculated themselves against the charge.
2. The Sessions Firewall
Trump’s attempts to humiliate Attorney General Jeff Sessions into quitting were a transparent gambit to create a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department. With the Senate out of session in August, Trump could then make a “recess appointment” of a new AG who would not need Senate confirmation. The new AG could then fire independent counsel Robert Mueller, as Trump has made clear he wants to do.
In response, Senate Republicans united to set up a procedure under which the Senate is not formally recessed during the August break. If you check the Senate calendar for August, you will find a succession of days dedicated to "pro forma business," which means “keeping the president from doing something stupid.”
To underscore their resolve, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a stalwart conservative and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added that there is “no way” the Senate would consider confirming a new attorney general if Sessions were fired.
If Trump fires Sessions, Republicans now have a position from which to oppose him.
3. The Mueller Firewall
Two Senate Republicans have gone further to protect Mueller past August.
Thom Tillis, a hard-right Republican from North Carolina, has joined with Delaware Democrat Chris Coons in co-sponsoring legislation allowing the special counsel to make a legal challenge to any dismissal that would be reviewed by a three-judge panel.
Asked by Fox News if the measure was intended to protect Mueller from being fired by Trump, Tillis said, “There's no question that it is.”
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham joined Democrats Cory Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal in introducing the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong,” Graham told reporters when introducing the bill.
If Trump does fire Mueller, the Republicans have established a strategy for separating themselves from the White House.
4. The Pivot to Taxes
Senate Republicans are ignoring Trump’s insistence that they continue the party’s failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan say they are moving on to tax legislation, which they feel offers a better chance of success.
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) rejected Trump's call, saying, “We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the health committee, is working with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Democrats on potential measures to shore up, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act.
When Trump threatened the health care plans of Congress if the Senate didn’t heed his demand, Republicans called his bluff. He predictably moved on to other obsessions.
5. The 2020 Escape Hatch
The New York Times reported that interviews with 75 Republicans at every level of the party reveal “widespread uncertainty about whether Mr. Trump would be on the ballot in 2020 and little doubt that others in the party are engaged in barely veiled contingency planning.”
Pence has set up a presidential political action committee, the first sitting vice president to do so.
Pence’s outraged reaction to the Times story only underscored how threatening the perception of post-Trump planning is to the White House. Yet post-Trump planning is visible everywhere.
Conservative Republicans with presidential ambitions, like Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton, are cultivating donors and advisers as if there were no Republican incumbent in the White House.
Rep. Charles Dent, a senior Republican from Pennsylvania and a relative moderate, said many in the party would welcome Trump’s exit.
“For some, it is for ideological reasons, and for others it is for stylistic reasons,” Dent said, complaining about the “exhausting” amount of “instability, chaos and dysfunction” surrounding Trump.
Six months ago, the Republicans gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. Now they doubt he will benefit them, and they are acting accordingly.
By Jefferson Morley
While the downfall of Donald Trump is far from assured, the signs are multiplying that the Republicans are preparing for a world in which Trump is no longer commander-in-chief. This is not the dreaming of the liberal resistance or the conservative #NeverTrump crowd; we’re talking about the actions of the Republican leadership, rank and file and Vice President Mike Pence himself.
No, the Republicans are not going to impeach Trump, demand his resignation or invoke the 25th Amendment to say he is incapacitated. But they are preparing escape routes from the fallout from his dismal poll numbers, stalled legislative agenda and mounting legal problems.
Six months ago, Republicans, whatever their qualms, saw no need for such planning. The 45th president, it was assumed, would sign into law the agenda of the congressional Republicans. The GOP would, in return, accommodate the president on his signature issues: jobs, immigration crackdown, revisiting free trade agreements, and restoring friendlier relations with Russia. With complete control of the government, the Republican vision seemed realistic.
Fat chance. Impulsive, unfocused and mendacious, Trump is now treated as an unpredictable menace against whom Republicans must build defenses. These defenses can also serve as escape routes if and when the GOP feels the need to break with the president.
1. The Sanctions Firewall
On July 27, House and Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, dooming Trump's yearning to make nice with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The president's allies originally resisted the additional financial penalties, but caved in under the weight of Trump's repeated lies about his campaign's contacts with Russians and his refusal to acknowledge the U.S. intelligence finding that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's identification with Russia has become so toxic that virtually every member of his party took the opportunity to reject it. The president can be accused of coddling Putin, but all of his putative allies on Capitol Hill have inoculated themselves against the charge.
2. The Sessions Firewall
Trump’s attempts to humiliate Attorney General Jeff Sessions into quitting were a transparent gambit to create a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department. With the Senate out of session in August, Trump could then make a “recess appointment” of a new AG who would not need Senate confirmation. The new AG could then fire independent counsel Robert Mueller, as Trump has made clear he wants to do.
In response, Senate Republicans united to set up a procedure under which the Senate is not formally recessed during the August break. If you check the Senate calendar for August, you will find a succession of days dedicated to "pro forma business," which means “keeping the president from doing something stupid.”
To underscore their resolve, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a stalwart conservative and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added that there is “no way” the Senate would consider confirming a new attorney general if Sessions were fired.
If Trump fires Sessions, Republicans now have a position from which to oppose him.
3. The Mueller Firewall
Two Senate Republicans have gone further to protect Mueller past August.
Thom Tillis, a hard-right Republican from North Carolina, has joined with Delaware Democrat Chris Coons in co-sponsoring legislation allowing the special counsel to make a legal challenge to any dismissal that would be reviewed by a three-judge panel.
Asked by Fox News if the measure was intended to protect Mueller from being fired by Trump, Tillis said, “There's no question that it is.”
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham joined Democrats Cory Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal in introducing the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong,” Graham told reporters when introducing the bill.
If Trump does fire Mueller, the Republicans have established a strategy for separating themselves from the White House.
4. The Pivot to Taxes
Senate Republicans are ignoring Trump’s insistence that they continue the party’s failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan say they are moving on to tax legislation, which they feel offers a better chance of success.
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) rejected Trump's call, saying, “We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the health committee, is working with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Democrats on potential measures to shore up, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act.
When Trump threatened the health care plans of Congress if the Senate didn’t heed his demand, Republicans called his bluff. He predictably moved on to other obsessions.
5. The 2020 Escape Hatch
The New York Times reported that interviews with 75 Republicans at every level of the party reveal “widespread uncertainty about whether Mr. Trump would be on the ballot in 2020 and little doubt that others in the party are engaged in barely veiled contingency planning.”
Pence has set up a presidential political action committee, the first sitting vice president to do so.
Pence’s outraged reaction to the Times story only underscored how threatening the perception of post-Trump planning is to the White House. Yet post-Trump planning is visible everywhere.
Conservative Republicans with presidential ambitions, like Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton, are cultivating donors and advisers as if there were no Republican incumbent in the White House.
Rep. Charles Dent, a senior Republican from Pennsylvania and a relative moderate, said many in the party would welcome Trump’s exit.
“For some, it is for ideological reasons, and for others it is for stylistic reasons,” Dent said, complaining about the “exhausting” amount of “instability, chaos and dysfunction” surrounding Trump.
Six months ago, the Republicans gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. Now they doubt he will benefit them, and they are acting accordingly.
I DENOUNCE Donald Trump
By NanceGreggs
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who cannot – nay, will not – denounce racists, white supremacists, and Nazis, and call them out for who they are and what they represent.
I denounce any man who sees any equivalence between those promoting hatred and violence and those who are willing to stand against them, their ideology, and their tactics.
I denounce ANY American – regardless of their political affiliation or their political position – who is too spineless to speak out clearly and decisively against those who would divide us as a nation, those who would cast our fellow citizens as unworthy of inclusion as Americans based on their race, religion, or ethnicity.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who sees today’s events as being the result of ill feeling “on many sides”, when it is only one side that is promoting violence, and advancing the idea that racism is not only acceptable, but something to be embraced.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who dismisses today’s events as being something that’s “been going on for a long, long time”, as though racism is something we should just learn to live with, rather than unite to eradicate.
I denounce Donald Trump as being a champion of violence, a champion of bigotry, a champion of encouraging division among us.
In addition, I denounce the Republican Party that saw Trump repeatedly incite violence and divisiveness throughout his campaign, and supported him and elected him nonetheless. They knew who he was from the beginning, and their comments today, which amount to Oh, my, we never saw THIS coming, are an insult to every citizen who saw today’s occurrence as an inevitable outcome of putting a self-proclaimed bigot in the Oval Office.
Trump has never been, and never will be, my “president”. And I denounce any and all attempts to portray him as other than what he is: an ignorant, lying bigot desperately clinging to his “base” of knuckle-dragging racists, who have not only been encouraged by his remarks, but ultimately emboldened by them.
I denounce Donald Trump, his racist supporters, and the party that enabled him. There is no place in our country for any of them.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who cannot – nay, will not – denounce racists, white supremacists, and Nazis, and call them out for who they are and what they represent.
I denounce any man who sees any equivalence between those promoting hatred and violence and those who are willing to stand against them, their ideology, and their tactics.
I denounce ANY American – regardless of their political affiliation or their political position – who is too spineless to speak out clearly and decisively against those who would divide us as a nation, those who would cast our fellow citizens as unworthy of inclusion as Americans based on their race, religion, or ethnicity.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who sees today’s events as being the result of ill feeling “on many sides”, when it is only one side that is promoting violence, and advancing the idea that racism is not only acceptable, but something to be embraced.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who dismisses today’s events as being something that’s “been going on for a long, long time”, as though racism is something we should just learn to live with, rather than unite to eradicate.
I denounce Donald Trump as being a champion of violence, a champion of bigotry, a champion of encouraging division among us.
In addition, I denounce the Republican Party that saw Trump repeatedly incite violence and divisiveness throughout his campaign, and supported him and elected him nonetheless. They knew who he was from the beginning, and their comments today, which amount to Oh, my, we never saw THIS coming, are an insult to every citizen who saw today’s occurrence as an inevitable outcome of putting a self-proclaimed bigot in the Oval Office.
Trump has never been, and never will be, my “president”. And I denounce any and all attempts to portray him as other than what he is: an ignorant, lying bigot desperately clinging to his “base” of knuckle-dragging racists, who have not only been encouraged by his remarks, but ultimately emboldened by them.
I denounce Donald Trump, his racist supporters, and the party that enabled him. There is no place in our country for any of them.
Bush-Era Ethics Czar Says Trump’s Far-Right Staffers Are To Blame for Charlottesville Riot: 'I Will Not Support Fascism'
A panel discussion on MSNBC’s AM Joy on the violence in the streets in the city of Charlottesville turned to the root causes of the rise of white nationalism under Donald Trump.
“This is the face of fascism, this is Breitbart news,” declared former Bush era ethics czar Richard Painter.
As live video of the clashes showed on the split screen, Painter lashed out at President Donald Trump and called for him to fire White House advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.
“I don’t always agree with everything the Republican administrations do but we have never ever seen rhetoric similar to what has come out of this White House,” the clearly disgusted Painter said. “We never had anyone like Steve Bannon or Sebastian Gorka in the Bush White House, to that president’s inauguration.”
“That is disgusting. We never would have tolerated that and we can disagree,” he continued. “I disagree with my own party on some issues, but we never would have had any of this in the Bush White House and these people need to be fired immediately. This is Breitbart News, and Breitbart News is a racist organization and it needs to acknowledge as such, they should not be given preferential access to the White House which is what they’re now getting under Steve Bannon.”
“Bannon needs to be fired, Sebastian Gorka and the rest of the fascists or we have to remove this president,” he said while indicating the violence.
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
Saturday, August 12, 2017
America's Racist Past Is Very Much Alive
Charlottesville is an ugly reminder that America's racist past is very much alive
Dressed in khakis and polos, bearing torches, donning Nazi memorabilia, and chanting anti-black, anti-LGBT, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant chants, white supremacist bigots have descended on Charlottesville, Va., in droves.
America is an ugly place.
Dressed in khakis and polos, bearing torches, donning Nazi memorabilia, and chanting anti-black, anti-LGBT, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant chants, white supremacist bigots have descended on Charlottesville, Va., in droves in what may very well be the largest public demonstration of its kind in generations.
With almost no resistance from local police, these public bigots have marched and stomped all over town giving Nazi salutes while chanting "fuck you, faggots." They have yelled every racial slur imaginable and have done so with the full knowledge that they were being filmed.
Melania Trump speaks out on Charlottesville before President
They don't the mind the spotlight.
Why would they? Their President, who they love and adore, was voted into office in a white supremacist surge. They attended his rallies and events.
Donald Trump has been an immoral, offensive man for decades, but it was not until he put the very humanity of Barack Obama in his crosshairs that he became a cult hero to white supremacists from coast to coast.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)All of this hate, all of this ugliness, all of this bigotry and racism, didn't come out of nowhere.
White nationalist rally in Virginia triggers state of emergency
Yes, hate and bigotry are baked into the cake that is the United States of America, but ever since this nation, after electing 43 white men as President of the United States, opted to elect and re-elect Barack Hussein Obama, public bigotry and hate crimes have been on the rise.
Not only that, but for years now, Donald Trump has been at the center of that hate — being the most visible spokesman for the racist birther movement that claimed President Obama was illegitimately elected because he's not actually an American, but is a secret African or an undercover Muslim who was determined to ruin the nation from the inside.
No more famous American parroted the talking points of this movement than Donald Trump — even going so far as to publicly claim he had dispatched private investigators to prove Obama was never born in Hawaii in the first place.
Donald Trump has been an immoral, offensive man for decades, but it was not until he put the very humanity of Barack Obama in his crosshairs that he became a cult hero to white supremacists from coast to coast.
Here's why Red Wings forced to denouce white nationalist group
Riding the wave of that newfound notoriety into the White House, Trump appointed two of the most bigoted men in the nation, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, as his Chief Strategist and Chief Policy Advisor.
When you choose to appoint men with lengthy, documented histories of bigotry, men so despicable that they probably could not pass through the human resources of a single Fortune 500 company, to some of the highest available positions within the White House, such a public embrace of bigotry has repercussions.
We are living through those repercussions right now.
This year is on pace to be the deadliest year ever measured for people killed by police in American history. The President of the United States casually announces bans on people — be it Muslims, immigrants, and refugees from certain countries or transgender service members in the American military.
Every single leader I know and work alongside receives regular death threats. They are regularly called every foul, bigoted name imaginable. They are regularly lied on and subjected to some of the most heinous attack I've ever seen. This, too, is my reality.
Tiki torch-wielding white nationalists roasted on Twitter
Whatever you thought about 2017 in America, if ugliness, bigotry, and hatred aren't at the center of your thoughts, then you should think again.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)We are living in a dangerous, unstable time and I'm confident that Charlottesville isn't an outlier, but an indicator of things to come.
If you ever wondered who you'd be or what'd you do if you were alive during other tumultuous periods in American history, just look at your life right now.
If you aren't fighting back and speaking out right now, then that's the best indicator of who you would've been back in the day. The good news is this: you can join the fight against bigotry and hate in America right now.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Trump bowing and scraping...on bended knee...to Vladimir Putin
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse Dollemore addresses Donald Trump and his THANKS
and APPRECIATION to Vladimir Putin after having retaliated against
almost 800 U.S. State Department employees working in Russia.
Why Can't Donald Trump Say a Single Bad Thing About Vladimir Putin?
Nazi Tweet Gets Trump Ally Jeffrey Lord Fired
Trump backer, Jeffrey Lord, has been fired from CNN. Cenk Uygur, Ana
Kasparian, and Brett Erlich, the hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.
"Nazi salutes are indefensible," a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network."
Lord said his tweet was misunderstood. He said he was mocking fascists, not acting like one.
"I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here," he said in a telephone interview shortly after the network's decision was announced.
Lord said his contract was set to expire at the end of the year. He said he greatly respected CNN management despite disagreeing with the decision.
This is not the first time CNN has cut ties with a prominent personality on the network due to an offensive tweet.
Earlier this year CNN cancelled Reza Aslan's documentary series "Believer" after he posted profane anti-Trump tweets.
Read more here: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/media/jeffrey-lord-cnn-ties/index.html
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
***
The Largest Online News Show in the World. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE STREAMING weekdays 6-8pm ET. http://www.tytnetwork.com/live
Subscribe to The Young Turks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ
Like The Young Turks on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theyoungturks
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Download audio and video of the full two hour show on-demand + the members-only post game show by becoming a member at http://www.tytnetwork.com/join/. Your membership supports the day to day operations and is vital for our continued success and growth.
Young Turk (n), 1. Young progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement, or political party. 2. A young person who rebels against authority or societal expectations.(American Heritage Dictionary)
"Nazi salutes are indefensible," a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network."
Lord said his tweet was misunderstood. He said he was mocking fascists, not acting like one.
"I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here," he said in a telephone interview shortly after the network's decision was announced.
Lord said his contract was set to expire at the end of the year. He said he greatly respected CNN management despite disagreeing with the decision.
This is not the first time CNN has cut ties with a prominent personality on the network due to an offensive tweet.
Earlier this year CNN cancelled Reza Aslan's documentary series "Believer" after he posted profane anti-Trump tweets.
Read more here: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/media/jeffrey-lord-cnn-ties/index.html
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
***
The Largest Online News Show in the World. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE STREAMING weekdays 6-8pm ET. http://www.tytnetwork.com/live
Subscribe to The Young Turks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ
Like The Young Turks on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theyoungturks
Follow The Young Turks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/theyoungturks
Buy TYT Merch: http://www.shoptyt.com
Download audio and video of the full two hour show on-demand + the members-only post game show by becoming a member at http://www.tytnetwork.com/join/. Your membership supports the day to day operations and is vital for our continued success and growth.
Young Turk (n), 1. Young progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement, or political party. 2. A young person who rebels against authority or societal expectations.(American Heritage Dictionary)
Fuck Jill Stein. Fuck her voters. Fuck the Green Party. Fuck Republicans. Fuck Republican enablers.
By Drunken Irishman
Fuck anyone who ever said this past election was the lesser of two evils.
No, you troglodytic shit stain.
And fuck the excusers who still justify their vote for Stein or their vote for Trump or their non-vote in protest.
When the nukes fly, ask yourself how true it was this past election was between the lesser of two evils.
Then go fuck yourself in the final seconds you have on this planet.
Fuck anyone who ever said this past election was the lesser of two evils.
No, you troglodytic shit stain.
And fuck the excusers who still justify their vote for Stein or their vote for Trump or their non-vote in protest.
When the nukes fly, ask yourself how true it was this past election was between the lesser of two evils.
Then go fuck yourself in the final seconds you have on this planet.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Foreign Diplomats Call Trump A Laughing Stock Who Is Obsessed With Obama
According to a new report, foreign diplomats visiting the United States
are less than impressed with Donald Trump. In fact, they can’t seem to
stop laughing about how pathetic he really is, and about the fact that he
won’t shut up about his predecessor, Barack Obama.
When other countries are laughing, we should probably reevaluate our choices.
According to a new report, European diplomats do not have a very flattering image of Donald Trump. In fact, according to these European diplomats, who interviewed with BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity, they actually view Donald Trump as most Europeans do, as a complete laughingstock. The latest available polls show us that 79% of people living in Europe do not trust Donald Trump. They do not think he is an effective leader, and they think he is an embarrassment for the United States, and as a U.S. citizen, you're absolutely right. We agree with you on this.
But the fact that these diplomats, who do have the job of having to meet with Donald Trump, having to work with him when he goes on these overseas trips, the fact that they see him as a laughingstock is not anything that people in the United States should be laughing at. That is a very dangerous situation when nobody among your ally countries respects your leader, that they do not view him as a very serious person, and more important as the interview states, they don't view him as an intelligent person. One of the diplomats said that they actually play a form of word bingo when the president is around because he always uses the same words, over and over, like it's great, it's very, very good, it's tremendous. They say he has such a limited vocabulary, that is one of the sources of ridicule among the other diplomats.
Furthermore, and one of the most dangerous about him they said was that the man is clearly obsessed with President Obama. During meetings, they said Trump would not want to debate issues. He would ask if it was something Obama had supported. If the answer was yes, Obama supported it, Trump would blindly and blankly say, then I do not support it. No debate, no discussion, no understanding at all of what they were actually talking about. He just wanted to be opposed to anything that Barack Obama was for, and that is one of the biggest problems that they see over in Europe. Donald Trump is too obsessed with Obama to be an effective leader.
According to these diplomats, it appears that Donald Trump's only policy goals for the United States are to undo the accomplishments of Barack Obama. And to be honest, from what we've seen so far coming out of the Oval Office, that does appear to be his only agenda. He doesn't care about creating jobs. He doesn't care about protecting the environment or anything having to do with anything related to Americans. He just wants to roll back every single thing President Obama did so that four, eight years down the road, Obama can't look at this country and say, oh, that was the program I put in place, because Donald Trump wants to destroy it all.
And he's not only destroying things over here in the United States, as we see from this story. He's also destroying our image that Barack Obama had rebuilt amongst our allies in Europe, and maybe that's Trump's plan, since everyone in Europe really seemed to like Barack Obama, especially after eight years of Bush and our image overseas declined tremendously. Barack Obama repaired that. So I guess Donald Trump destroying that is just another part of his let's undo all of Obama's accomplishments policy.
When other countries are laughing, we should probably reevaluate our choices.
According to a new report, European diplomats do not have a very flattering image of Donald Trump. In fact, according to these European diplomats, who interviewed with BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity, they actually view Donald Trump as most Europeans do, as a complete laughingstock. The latest available polls show us that 79% of people living in Europe do not trust Donald Trump. They do not think he is an effective leader, and they think he is an embarrassment for the United States, and as a U.S. citizen, you're absolutely right. We agree with you on this.
But the fact that these diplomats, who do have the job of having to meet with Donald Trump, having to work with him when he goes on these overseas trips, the fact that they see him as a laughingstock is not anything that people in the United States should be laughing at. That is a very dangerous situation when nobody among your ally countries respects your leader, that they do not view him as a very serious person, and more important as the interview states, they don't view him as an intelligent person. One of the diplomats said that they actually play a form of word bingo when the president is around because he always uses the same words, over and over, like it's great, it's very, very good, it's tremendous. They say he has such a limited vocabulary, that is one of the sources of ridicule among the other diplomats.
Furthermore, and one of the most dangerous about him they said was that the man is clearly obsessed with President Obama. During meetings, they said Trump would not want to debate issues. He would ask if it was something Obama had supported. If the answer was yes, Obama supported it, Trump would blindly and blankly say, then I do not support it. No debate, no discussion, no understanding at all of what they were actually talking about. He just wanted to be opposed to anything that Barack Obama was for, and that is one of the biggest problems that they see over in Europe. Donald Trump is too obsessed with Obama to be an effective leader.
According to these diplomats, it appears that Donald Trump's only policy goals for the United States are to undo the accomplishments of Barack Obama. And to be honest, from what we've seen so far coming out of the Oval Office, that does appear to be his only agenda. He doesn't care about creating jobs. He doesn't care about protecting the environment or anything having to do with anything related to Americans. He just wants to roll back every single thing President Obama did so that four, eight years down the road, Obama can't look at this country and say, oh, that was the program I put in place, because Donald Trump wants to destroy it all.
And he's not only destroying things over here in the United States, as we see from this story. He's also destroying our image that Barack Obama had rebuilt amongst our allies in Europe, and maybe that's Trump's plan, since everyone in Europe really seemed to like Barack Obama, especially after eight years of Bush and our image overseas declined tremendously. Barack Obama repaired that. So I guess Donald Trump destroying that is just another part of his let's undo all of Obama's accomplishments policy.
FIRE AND FURY ~ The Randi Rhodes Show
Randi Rhodes Number-one ranked progressive radio talk show host,
political commentator, entertainer, and writer. The Randi Rhodes Show
was broadcast nationally on Air America Radio, and Premiere Radio
Networks from 2004–2014. Rhodes represents aggressively independent
media.
The Miami Herald described her as "a chain-smoking bottle blonde, part Joan Rivers, part shock jock Howard Stern, and part Saturday Night Live’s ‘Coffee Talk’ Lady. But mostly, she's her rude, crude, loud, brazen, gleeful self."
Rhodes and her show won numerous awards for journalism and broadcasting, including Radio Ink’s Most Influential Woman, Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women’s list (multiple years), TALKERS magazine’s Woman of the Year, and the Judy Jarvis Memorial Award for Contributions to the Talk Industry by a Woman.
The Miami Herald described her as "a chain-smoking bottle blonde, part Joan Rivers, part shock jock Howard Stern, and part Saturday Night Live’s ‘Coffee Talk’ Lady. But mostly, she's her rude, crude, loud, brazen, gleeful self."
Rhodes and her show won numerous awards for journalism and broadcasting, including Radio Ink’s Most Influential Woman, Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women’s list (multiple years), TALKERS magazine’s Woman of the Year, and the Judy Jarvis Memorial Award for Contributions to the Talk Industry by a Woman.
Is Trump Too Mentally Unstable To Solve The North Korea Issue?
Tensions are heating up between the U.S. and North Korea, and Donald
Trump appears to only want to escalate the situation. After warning
North Korea that they would be met with “fire and fury” like the world
has never seen, he took to Twitter to brag about the state of our
nuclear weaponry. Trump desperately wants to launch a nuclear attack,
and the results will have global ramifications for the U.S. Ring of
Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Link 1 - https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/s...https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895252459152711680
Link 2 – https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895254168570605568
Link 1 - https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/s...https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895252459152711680
Link 2 – https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895254168570605568
Trump’s Nonstop Lies Are Finally Starting To Bother Republican Operatives
GOP strategist Ana Navarro has finally had enough of Donald Trump’s
nonstop lying, and during a recent media appearance she compared the
president to a used car salesperson who just keeps making things up to
make a sale. Trump’s lies are certainly growing out of control, but he
doesn’t appear to be pulling back any time soon. Ring of Fire’s Farron
Cousins discusses this.
Link – http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/345698-gop-strategist-trump-thinks-hes-a-tv-host-or-used-car-salesman-not
Link – http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/345698-gop-strategist-trump-thinks-hes-a-tv-host-or-used-car-salesman-not
Married To The Mob: Investigative Journalist Craig Unger On What Trump Owes The Russian Mafia
https://democracynow.org
- A new exposé and cover story in the September issue of the New
Republic, titled "Married to the Mob: What Trump Owes the Russian
Mafia," examines how the Russian mafia has used the president’s
properties to launder money and hide assets. We speak with the author,
investigative journalist Craig Unger.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Oh Go Fuck Yourself, Glenn Greenwald
Oh golly. That’s a hard one. Let’s get out our abacus and some scratch paper and weigh the pros and cons.Greenwald, who likes to remind his readers every now and then (constantly) that he really really really really really doesn’t like America, and who is in theory a liberal who embraces liberal values, but totally isn’t, is just not sure whether Donald Trump’s plans to rip healthcare away from millions, deport the fuck out of every brown-skinned person he sees, and so on, are worse than the generals — Mattis, McMaster and Kelly — SUBVERTING TRUMP’S AGENDA by sneakily getting appointed to sweet-ass cabinet and White House positions by Donald Trump, and then sort of trying to rein in some of President Fuck-Bonkers’s most dangerous tendencies.
Oh and he’s mad about the Deep State, because of course he is. Greenwald spends a lot of his column beating a straw man to death, claiming that all the sane people who HAAAAAATE Trump, many of them conservatives who worked tirelessly to keep him from getting elected, and who have been in “COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY, MOTHERFUCKERS” mode since Greenwald’s pals at WikiLeaks and the Russians he is SO IN LOVE WITH (he would deny that accusation, but ya know, actions speak louder than words, and also fuck him) helped Trump get elected, think Greenwald and his weirdo friends are dumb for believing there is a “Deep State.” This is a false construct. We very much know there is a Deep State, and we know it makes Greenwald and Sean Hannity shit the bed, so we make fun of them about it.
But he’s really really confused about which is worse: that Trump is in office and beating the shit out of American institutions and the Constitution, or that the so-called Deep State (normal people refer to them as “career public servants”) is trying its damnedest to protect the Republic from Trump’s damage. The horrors! It reminds us of that thing Anthony Scaramucci whined during his 120-some-odd-hour tenure as White House Communications Director, about how there are some White House staffers who “think it is their job to save America from this president.” It’s almost as if there is a wide consensus among thinking Americans that the traditions we hold dear are in danger, and that we should do something about it. (Also, to all those people, thank you!)
But Greenwald can’t abide that, because how DARE the Deep State Military-CIA-Industrial Complex act all high and mighty like they for real care about protecting America from the authoritarian dipshit in the White House, when it’s very clear that #BothSidesDoIt anyway? How could Donald Trump possibly be more evil than the United States Of America has always been since forever?
Is it really hard to imagine any group that’s hurt people more than the Bush era neocons? What kind of pathetic What-About-Ism is this, GLENN? Is it not possible to simultaneously believe that the neocons empowered by George W. Bush did a lot of really bad shit (and that America in general has some blood on its hands), AND ALSO that Russia under Putin, the Rwandan genocide, North Korea, hell, a bunch of Communist governments going way the fuck back, are WORSE? What about ISIS?No matter how much of a threat one regards Trump as being, there really are other major threats to U.S. democracy and important political values. It’s hard, for instance, to imagine any group that has done more harm, and ushered in more evil, than the Bush-era neocons with whom Democrats are now openly aligning. And who has brought more death, and suffering, and tyranny to the world over the last six decades than the U.S. national security state?
The dead exploded babies his beloved Russians killed in Aleppo?
HOW ABOUT FUCKING POL POT, GLENN? IS THAT WORSE?
It’s handy that he only goes back six decades, otherwise he’d have to contend with little things like Hitler and Stalin and oh God what the fuck kind of #SlatePitch would we be reading then?
Don’t get us wrong — we don’t think it’s ideal that generals are in all these positions, or that #DeepState patriots are doing what they’re doing, and during ANY other presidency, we’d probably be appalled. But to use Greenwald’s construction, what president has done more to abuse power and subvert American institutions in his first six months of office than Donald Trump?
Anyway, this is very stupid, and what we’ve come to expect from Greenwald, who also is PRETTY SURE the Trump-Russia story is a buncha lies. As soon as he finds the time, we’re sure his Intercept website will publish a journalism exclusive claiming to have found the 400 pound New Jersey dude Trump always claims REALLY hacked the 2016 election, and we will have to tell him to go fuck himself all over again.
What tedious fuckery.
The Alt-Right And Glenn Greenwald Versus H.R. McMaster
Donald
Trump has scrambled the political spectrum in certain ways, and one of
them has been to introduce a new set of players to the national scene.
“Nationalists” or “populists” (as they now call themselves), or the
“alt-right” (as they used to call themselves), have been vying with
traditional Republicans for control of the Trump administration. The
nationalists tend to be pro-Russia, virulently anti-immigrant,
race-centric, and conspiratorial in their thinking.
Their current
project is a political war against National Security Adviser H.R.
McMaster, a conventional Republican who displaced the nationalist
Michael Flynn. The nationalist war against McMaster has included waves
of Russian social-media bots, leaks placed in the nationalist organ Breitbart, and undisguised anti-Semitism.
Most
observers outside the nationalist wing have treated McMaster as the
sympathetic party in the conflict. The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald is a
notable exception. Greenwald has depicted the conflict, much like the
nationalists themselves have, as the machinations of the deep state to
prevent the authentic, democratically legitimate populist
representatives of Trumpism from exerting their rightful authority.
Greenwald himself is not a nationalist, and is certainly not a bigot,
but the episode has revealed a left-winger’s idiosyncratic sympathy for
the most odious characters on the right.
Greenwald lays out his thinking in a deeply, if inadvertently, revealing column denouncing anti-Trump saboteurs in the deep state.
The
foundation of Greenwald’s worldview — on this issue and nearly
everything else — is that the United States and its national-security
apparatus is the greatest force for evil in the world. “Who has brought
more death, and suffering, and tyranny to the world over the last six
decades,” he writes, “than the U.S. National Security State?” (This
six-decade period of time includes Mao’s regime in China, which killed
45 to 75 million people, as well as the Khmer Rouge and several decades
of the Soviet Union.)
In Greenwald’s mind, the ultimate expression of
American evil is and always will be neoconservatism. “It’s hard, for
instance, to imagine any group that has done more harm, and ushered in
more evil, than the Bush-era neocons with whom Democrats are now openly
aligning,” he argues.
The
neoconservatives have lined up against Trump, and many Democrats agree
with them on certain issues. Since the neocons represent maximal evil in
the world, any opponent of theirs must be, in Greenwald’s calculus, the
lesser evil. His construction that “it’s hard … to imagine” any worse
faction than the neocons is especially telling. However dangerous or
rancid figures like Steve Bannon or Michael Flynn may be, the
possibility that they could match the evil of the neocons is literally
beyond the capacity of his brain to imagine.
A
second source of Greenwald’s sympathy for the nationalists is their
populism. The nationalists style themselves as outsiders beset by
powerful, self-interested networks of hidden foes. And while their
racism is not his cup of tea, Greenwald shares the same broad view of
his enemies.
Trump
“advocated a slew of policies that attacked the most sacred prongs of
long-standing bipartisan Washington consensus,” argues Greenwald. “As a
result, he was (and continues to be) viewed as uniquely repellent by the
neoliberal and neoconservative guardians of that consensus, along with
their sprawling network of agencies, think tanks, financial policy
organs, and media outlets used to implement their agenda (CIA, NSA, the
Brookings/AEI think tank axis, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, etc.).”
It
is certainly true that all manner of elites disdain Trump. What’s
striking is Greenwald’s uncharitable reading of their motives, which
closely tracks Trump’s own portrayal of the situation.
Many elites
consider Trump too ignorant, lazy, impulsive, and bigoted for the job.
Instead Greenwald presents their opposition as reflecting a fear that
Trump threatens their wealth and power. (This despite the pro-elite tilt
of his tax and regulatory policies — which, in particular, make it
astonishing that Greenwald would take at face value Trump’s claim to
threaten the interests of “Wall Street” and its “financial policy
organs.”)
The
opposition to Trump naturally shares a wide array of motives, as would
any wide-ranging coalition. Greenwald’s column consistently attributes
to those opponents only the most repellant beliefs. He doesn’t even
consider the possibility that some people genuinely believe McMaster is a
safe, responsible figure who might help dissuade the president from
doing something terrible.
Greenwald emphasizes, “Hank Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO and George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary, went to the pages of the Washington Post
in mid-2016 to shower Clinton with praise and Trump with unbridled
scorn, saying what he hated most about Trump was his refusal to consider
cuts in entitlement spending (in contrast, presumably, to the Democrat
he was endorsing).” It is true that Trump promised not to cut
entitlement spending. Greenwald’s notion that this promise placed him
“presumably in contrast” with Hillary Clinton ignores that fact that
Clinton also promised to protect these programs.
The
passage about entitlements appears deep in Paulson’s op-ed, which
Paulson began by lambasting Trump for encouraging “ignorance, prejudice,
fear and isolationism,” among other flaws. Greenwald asserts that
Paulson identifies Trump’s hostility to cutting entitlements as “what he
hated most” about the Republican nominee, but nothing in the op-ed
indicates this is what Paulson hated most.
Greenwald just made that part
up.
The
same concoction of motives is at work in Greenwald’s contempt for
McMaster and John Kelly, the new chief of staff. The pair of former
generals “have long been hailed by anti-Trump factions as the Serious,
Responsible Adults in the Trump administration, primarily because they
support militaristic policies — such as the war in Afghanistan and
intervention in Syria — that are far more in line with official
Washington’s bipartisan posture,” he writes.
Note
that “primarily.” Greenwald is arguing that news coverage treating them
as competent managers, as opposed to the amateurish nationalists, is
propaganda by the elite plumping for greater war in Afghanistan and
Syria. He is implying that if Kelly and McMaster took more dovish
positions on Afghanistan and Syria, their public image would be
altogether different. Greenwald supplies no evidence for this premise.
In fact, McMaster’s most acute policy struggle has been his efforts to maintain the Iran nuclear agreement, one which has placed him on the dovish side, against an established neoconservative position. Greenwald does not mention this issue, which fatally undermines his entire analysis.
The
final point of overlap between Greenwald and the nationalists is their
relatively sympathetic view of Russia. The nationalists admire Putin as a
champion of white Christian culture against Islam, a predisposition
Greenwald does not share at all. Greenwald has, however, defended Russia’s menacing of its neighbors, and repeatedly questioned its ties to WikiLeaks.
From
the outset, he has reflexively discounted evidence of Russian
intervention in the election.
“Democrats completely resurrect that Cold
War McCarthyite kind of rhetoric not only to accuse Paul Manafort, who
does have direct financial ties to certainly the pro — the former
pro-Russian leader of the Ukraine,” he asserted last year. (Manafort did have financial ties to that leader, a fact that was obvious at the time and which Manafort no longer denies.) Democratic accusations that Trump had hidden ties with Russia were a “smear tactic,” “unhinged,” “wild, elaborate conspiracy theories,” a “desperate” excuse for their election defeat, and so on.
As
evidence of Russian intervention piled up, Greenwald’s line of defense
has continued to retreat. When emails revealed a campaign meeting by
Russians on the explicit promise of helping Trump’s campaign, Greenwald brushed it off
as politics as usual: “I, personally, although it’s dirty, think all of
these events are sort of the way politics works. Of course if you’re in
an important campaign and someone offers you incriminating information
about your opponent, you’re going to want it no matter where it comes
from.”
This
closely tracks the Trump legal team’s own defense of the Russia
scandal, a fact that is probably coincidental. (There are only so many
arguments to make.) Greenwald is not a racist, and is the opposite
of a nationalist, and yet his worldview has brought him into close
alignment with that of the alt-right. A Greenwaldian paranoid would see
this quasi-alliance as a conspiracy. The reality of his warped defenses
of Trump is merely that of a monomaniac unable to relinquish his
obsessions.
Trump Just Helped Prove How Fake His Twitter Following Is
This is what happens when your biggest fans are bots.
Like pretty much everything else about his presidency, Donald Trump’s Twitter following is a lie. His social media fan base is mostly made of fake accounts; his legion of followers overwhelmingly comprised of automated bots.
This weekend, Trump inadvertently reminded us how phony his social media popularity is when he shined a light on what he erroneously believed was an adoring supporter. That Trump booster turned out be a Twitter bot—just one of the millions of fake accounts that exist solely to bolster the popularity of the most unpopular president in American history.
On the heels of the president basically catfishing himself, Twitter has since suspended the fake account and a slew of others just like it.
http://www.alternet.org/media/trump-just-helped-prove-how-fake-his-twitter-following
Like pretty much everything else about his presidency, Donald Trump’s Twitter following is a lie. His social media fan base is mostly made of fake accounts; his legion of followers overwhelmingly comprised of automated bots.
This weekend, Trump inadvertently reminded us how phony his social media popularity is when he shined a light on what he erroneously believed was an adoring supporter. That Trump booster turned out be a Twitter bot—just one of the millions of fake accounts that exist solely to bolster the popularity of the most unpopular president in American history.
On the heels of the president basically catfishing himself, Twitter has since suspended the fake account and a slew of others just like it.
http://www.alternet.org/media/trump-just-helped-prove-how-fake-his-twitter-following
Airbnb Has Blocked The Accounts Of Attendees Of A Far-Right Rally
By Shannon Ho
Airbnb has deleted accounts and
canceled bookings of users who appear to be connected to "Unite the
Right," a far-right political rally set for Saturday in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Neo-Nazi and white
supremacist website The Daily Stormer had organized a series of large
rally-weekend gatherings through the home-sharing site, Airbnb told NBC News.
Concerned Airbnb users flagged the thread, leading the company to
investigate potential violations of its user contract, which calls for
unbiased hospitality.
Airbnb said
they decided to remove the far-right lodgers because they were "pursuing
behavior on the platform that would be antithetical to the Airbnb
Community Commitment."
Jason
Kessler, organizer of the "Unite the Right" rally and self-described
"pro-white" activist, said Airbnb's blocking of certain users is
"outrageous and should be grounds for a lawsuit."
Clay
Hansen, the executive director of the nonpartisan Thomas Jefferson
Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville,
said Airbnb's choice to terminate accounts does not violate the First
Amendment.
"I would say that
while Airbnb's actions wouldn't necessarily comport with general free
speech principles, they are a private company and are entitled to enact
and enforce their terms of service as they see fit," Hansen told NBC
News.
The rally, scheduled to take
place Saturday in Charlottesville, is shaping up to be the "the largest
hate-gathering of its kind in decades," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As
of Tuesday, Aug. 8, almost 700 people said they would be attending, and
another 1,200 showed interest in the event on its Facebook link. The
rally aims to "to affirm the right of Southerners and white people to
organize for their interests."
"It's
the racial targeting of white people for their ethnic advocacy,"
Kessler wrote in an email to NBC. "Would Airbnb cancel the service of
black nationalists or Black Lives Matter activists for their social
media activity? Of course not!"
White
supremacists gathered in Charlottesville in May to protest the removal
of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's statue. They chanted "All White
Lives Matter" while carrying torches. Klu Klux Klan members also
protested there in July for the same cause.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
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