By Agence France-Presse
Billionaire George Soros on Thursday delivered a scathing assessment
of Donald Trump, calling the US President-elect a “would-be-dictator”
who is “going to fail”.
On the eve of Trump’s inauguration in Washington, Soros said Trump
was “gearing up for a trade war” which would have “a very far reaching
effect in Europe and other parts of the world”.
The “would-be-dictator… didn’t expect to win, he was surprised,” the
Hungarian-born financier told an audience of business leaders and
journalists at a Hotel in Davos where the World Economic Forum is being
held.
“I personally have confidence that he’s going to fail… because his
ideas, that guide him are inherently self-contradictory,” said Soros,
adding that members of Trump’s cabinet are each fighting for different
interests.
But he predicted the loss of the US’ “positive influence in the world
in favour of an open society”, which would have “a very far reaching
effect in Europe and other parts of the world”.
Soros, who was a supporter of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton during last year’s campaign, lost nearly a billion dollars as a
consequence of the rally prompted by Trump’s surprise election victory,
according to press reports.
But the positive reaction in financial markets would not last long,
Soros predicted, because ultimately they do not like uncertainty.
US stocks retreated and the dollar fell against most currencies
Thursday in the final session before Trump’s inauguration on Friday.
On Brexit and Theresa May, Soros predicted the British Prime
Minister’s spell in power would not last long and said the UK population
were “in denial” about the financial consequences of leaving the
European Union.
“It’s unlikely that Prime Minister May is actually going to remain in power,” he said.
“At the moment people in the UK are in denial. The current economic
situation is not as bad as it was predicted, they live in hope, but as
the currency depreciates, and inflation will be the driving force, that
will lead to declining living standards.
“It’s going to take some time but when it does happen, they will
realise that they are earning less than before, because wages won’t rise
as fast as the cost of living.”
Friday, January 20, 2017
8 inauguration humiliations Donald Trump has already endured
By Kali Holloway
In addition to trying to destroy civilization through sheer will and profound ineptitude, Donald Trump’s hobbies now apparently include party planning. According to a recent New York Post article, Trump is showing far more interest in inaugural trivialities than he does in government policy.
“He’s into every detail of everything,” Tom Barrack, chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, told the outlet. “I beg him all the time to go back to running the free world and let me focus on setting the tables.”
Maybe all that fuss is to compensate for the fact that Trump’s inauguration will have half the number of attendees as incoming President Obama’s did, and no big-name draw upon which to base a comparison of the two events. You can bet this infuriates Trump. There are other things he’s probably angry about, too. Steam definitely came out of his ears when he learned his team would be buying up Facebook ads to put butts in seats. So the U.S. president-elect and your local jam band are using the same marketing scheme to gain new fans. Think about that for a second.
Here’s a list of eight inauguration humiliations—and a bonus fact—that are infuriating Donald Trump right now.
1. Tickets are in incredibly low demand.
Miami Herald columnist Lesley Abravanel (aka Savvy Gadfly) recently tweeted that she’s aware of at least one person being paid to make the Trump inauguration look a little less empty. “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for already creating jobs!” Abravanel wrote. “My friend is being paid to be a seat filler at your Inauguration! #TuesdayMotivation.” There’s no official confirmation from the Trump team about this, but there are various other signs that conflict with Trump’s contention that “people are pouring into Washington in record numbers.” One scalper complained he’ll have to swallow losses because “nobody wants” Trump inauguration tickets. There are still plenty of tickets available on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks, a fraction of the five figures some Obama inauguration tickets were going for, according to a 2008 CNN article. A spokesperson for U.S. Congressman Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey told a local news outlet, “We had more tickets than demand.” The Trump team is apparently so desperate it’s taken out Facebook and Instagram ads inviting—oh, let’s just call it begging—people to attend. Marina Cockenburg, who works for the Tonight Show, clicked the “Why Am I Seeing This Ad” button and discovered the Trump team had targeted “people ages 27 and older who live in New York.” Another Ohio recipient noted the minimum age had dropped to 18, which suggests they're casting an ever wider net.
2. Women’s March bus permit requests outnumber inauguration requests by 3 times.
As of the last reported count, there were 1,200 requests for bus parking permits for the Women’s March on Washington, being held Saturday, January 21. That’s a little more than triple the number of permit requests the city has received for the inauguration. “All of the city's 1,200 available charter bus parking spaces at RFK Stadium have been filled for the Women's March,” reports the Hill, noting the count might be an underestimate. “There could be more buses coming for the march and parking in other locations.” The president and cofounder of Rally, a shuttle bus company providing transportation to D.C. from around the country told the Chicago Tribune, "In six years of doing business we've never seen buses get sold out so quickly.”
3. Most hotel bookings have been made by anti-Trump protesters.
The Women’s March “is driving significant additional demand” to the Kimpton Hotels chain, according to spokesperson Jack Lindemuth. Elliott Ferguson, who leads the city's tourism bureau, told Fortune that "more rooms being picked up on Saturday than on Friday.” He also noted that with Trump’s inauguration numbers so poor, the Women’s March appears to have unseated it as the main event.
"It's been much, much slower than anyone would have anticipated for a first-term president," Ferguson told the Chicago Tribune, contrasting Trump’s event with the Women’s March. "The moment it was confirmed it was happening in the city our hotels were seeing reservations take place.”
4. Trump is wrong (again): dress shops still have plenty of available frocks.
“All the dress shops are sold out in Washington,” Trump told the New York Times earlier this month.
“It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”
The first sign that this was a lie is the fact that it was uttered by Trump. Boutique spokespeople say they not only have plenty of gowns in stock, but dress sales have been particularly poor for Trump’s big day.
“There’s never been less demand for inaugural ballgowns in my 38 years,” Peter Marx, who owns D.C. dress shop Saks Jandel, told People. “Never ever has it been less for the inaugural.”
Other shops expressed similar sentiments.
“We were expecting heavy traffic and it has not been that way,” a D.C. Bloomingdale’s representative told Elle. “The last inauguration was a lot more people shopping."
A spokesperson from Intermix told the outlet, “Usually, it is really big for us, but this year we haven't seen anything yet, surprisingly.”
Elle notes that “among others we called, White House Black Market and Cusp in Georgetown confirmed they have options in stock. So does Neiman Marcus. And Gucci. And Lord & Taylor. And Nordstrom.”
5. More than 60 Democrats and counting are boycotting the inauguration.
There are a million and one reasons not to legitimize Trump’s presidency, enough that everyone can take their pick and feel more than justified. In addition, add Trump’s recent racialized insults to Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights hero, right in time for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The list of House Democrats sitting the inauguration out now stands at 65, with a chance that number may rise slightly in the next 48 hours. Most of those lawmakers issued statements about their reasons for bailing, many of them sober, well-crafted rebukes of PEOTUS. I was partial to one from Oregon’s Kurt Schrader: “I’m just not a big Trump fan. He hasn’t proved himself to me at all yet, so I respectfully decline to freeze my ass out there in the cold for this particular ceremony.”
6. The list of celebs who said 'no' is much longer and star-studded than the 'yes' list.
Trump’s desperate tweets about how great his inauguration will be seem as authentic as a high school boy's stories about having a model girlfriend who “lives in another town.” For someone whose entire fragile sense of self is based on approval from others, Trump’s done a piss-poor job of playing it cool, or even just, you know, not acting like a maniac when he gets rejected. With every Twitter tantrum he confirms his dejection and anger over the fact that the list of performers at his party is a poor simulacrum of his A-list dreams. Reportedly, Elton John, Garth Brooks, Bruno Mars, Kiss, Celine Dion, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, George Lopez, and Moby all said no. Jennifer Holliday, Paul Anka, and the B Street Band (a cover homage to Bruce Springsteen), all made last–minute cancellations. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Radio City Rockettes are still on the bill, but members of both groups voiced loud opposition to performing, with some defectors refusing to take the stage. The final inauguration lineup now includes 3 Doors Down, the Piano Guys, Toby Keith, Jackie Evancho, Lee Greenwood, DJ Ravidrums, the Frontmen of Country, Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), and Jon Voight. There was also an 11th-hour addition of Chrisette Michele—though Questlove has tweeted that he'd pay the singer money not to perform.
7. The list of celebs attending anti-Trump protest events is quite robust.
One day before Trump’s inauguration, on January 19, Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin, Rosie Perez, Al Sharpton, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will attend a Michael Moore-launched protest in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City. That same day, Common and the National will be playing a free show at D.C.’s 9:30 club to benefit Planned Parenthood and Solange will be performing at the Peace Ball at the National Museum of African American History Culture. Uzo Aduba, Scarlett Johansson, Danielle Brooks, Cher, Julianne Moore, Katy Perry, Samantha Bee, Diane Guerrero, Olivia Wilde, America Ferrera, and Amy Schumer, among others, will reportedly attend women’s marches in states around the country. On inauguration day just after Trump is sworn in, Judd Apatow, Patricia Arquette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest, Jane Fonda, Tim Robbins, and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy will appear on the Love-A-Thon telethon. Proceeds from the event, to be broadcast via Facebook Live, will go to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Planned Parenthood and Earthjustice.
8. He’s the most unpopular incoming president in the last four decades.
On Monday, Gallup released a poll showing 55 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, versus 40 percent (surprisingly high, considering) with favorable views. That’s about half the favorability rating President Obama had at his first inauguration, and 20 percent lower than incoming presidents Clinton and Bush. CNN’s survey results indicate roughly the same: 52 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump and 42 percent give him a thumbs-up. A Washington Post-ABC poll released Tuesday showed 54 percent of respondents are not down with Trump, while 40 percent are.
To put this all in perspective, pollster Will Jordan noted on Twitter that Trump's popularity as he enters the presidency is near the level of President Bush's right after Hurricane Katrina.
Bonus fact: Trump will take a vacation on Day One.
Remember how after Obama won a second term, Trump tweeted criticism about his vacationing, promoting a standard right-wing lie?
Trump’s team has insisted that the inauguration will be short, not for lack of star power or attendees, but because PEOTUS wants to get “to work right away.” Except that Trump recently announced he plans to spend the weekend chilling, instead of starting his new job on the day he’s hired. “My day one is gonna be Monday,” Trump told reporters, “because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration.”
In addition to trying to destroy civilization through sheer will and profound ineptitude, Donald Trump’s hobbies now apparently include party planning. According to a recent New York Post article, Trump is showing far more interest in inaugural trivialities than he does in government policy.
“He’s into every detail of everything,” Tom Barrack, chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, told the outlet. “I beg him all the time to go back to running the free world and let me focus on setting the tables.”
Maybe all that fuss is to compensate for the fact that Trump’s inauguration will have half the number of attendees as incoming President Obama’s did, and no big-name draw upon which to base a comparison of the two events. You can bet this infuriates Trump. There are other things he’s probably angry about, too. Steam definitely came out of his ears when he learned his team would be buying up Facebook ads to put butts in seats. So the U.S. president-elect and your local jam band are using the same marketing scheme to gain new fans. Think about that for a second.
Here’s a list of eight inauguration humiliations—and a bonus fact—that are infuriating Donald Trump right now.
1. Tickets are in incredibly low demand.
Miami Herald columnist Lesley Abravanel (aka Savvy Gadfly) recently tweeted that she’s aware of at least one person being paid to make the Trump inauguration look a little less empty. “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for already creating jobs!” Abravanel wrote. “My friend is being paid to be a seat filler at your Inauguration! #TuesdayMotivation.” There’s no official confirmation from the Trump team about this, but there are various other signs that conflict with Trump’s contention that “people are pouring into Washington in record numbers.” One scalper complained he’ll have to swallow losses because “nobody wants” Trump inauguration tickets. There are still plenty of tickets available on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks, a fraction of the five figures some Obama inauguration tickets were going for, according to a 2008 CNN article. A spokesperson for U.S. Congressman Donald Payne Jr. of New Jersey told a local news outlet, “We had more tickets than demand.” The Trump team is apparently so desperate it’s taken out Facebook and Instagram ads inviting—oh, let’s just call it begging—people to attend. Marina Cockenburg, who works for the Tonight Show, clicked the “Why Am I Seeing This Ad” button and discovered the Trump team had targeted “people ages 27 and older who live in New York.” Another Ohio recipient noted the minimum age had dropped to 18, which suggests they're casting an ever wider net.
2. Women’s March bus permit requests outnumber inauguration requests by 3 times.
As of the last reported count, there were 1,200 requests for bus parking permits for the Women’s March on Washington, being held Saturday, January 21. That’s a little more than triple the number of permit requests the city has received for the inauguration. “All of the city's 1,200 available charter bus parking spaces at RFK Stadium have been filled for the Women's March,” reports the Hill, noting the count might be an underestimate. “There could be more buses coming for the march and parking in other locations.” The president and cofounder of Rally, a shuttle bus company providing transportation to D.C. from around the country told the Chicago Tribune, "In six years of doing business we've never seen buses get sold out so quickly.”
3. Most hotel bookings have been made by anti-Trump protesters.
The Women’s March “is driving significant additional demand” to the Kimpton Hotels chain, according to spokesperson Jack Lindemuth. Elliott Ferguson, who leads the city's tourism bureau, told Fortune that "more rooms being picked up on Saturday than on Friday.” He also noted that with Trump’s inauguration numbers so poor, the Women’s March appears to have unseated it as the main event.
"It's been much, much slower than anyone would have anticipated for a first-term president," Ferguson told the Chicago Tribune, contrasting Trump’s event with the Women’s March. "The moment it was confirmed it was happening in the city our hotels were seeing reservations take place.”
4. Trump is wrong (again): dress shops still have plenty of available frocks.
“All the dress shops are sold out in Washington,” Trump told the New York Times earlier this month.
“It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”
The first sign that this was a lie is the fact that it was uttered by Trump. Boutique spokespeople say they not only have plenty of gowns in stock, but dress sales have been particularly poor for Trump’s big day.
“There’s never been less demand for inaugural ballgowns in my 38 years,” Peter Marx, who owns D.C. dress shop Saks Jandel, told People. “Never ever has it been less for the inaugural.”
Other shops expressed similar sentiments.
“We were expecting heavy traffic and it has not been that way,” a D.C. Bloomingdale’s representative told Elle. “The last inauguration was a lot more people shopping."
A spokesperson from Intermix told the outlet, “Usually, it is really big for us, but this year we haven't seen anything yet, surprisingly.”
Elle notes that “among others we called, White House Black Market and Cusp in Georgetown confirmed they have options in stock. So does Neiman Marcus. And Gucci. And Lord & Taylor. And Nordstrom.”
5. More than 60 Democrats and counting are boycotting the inauguration.
There are a million and one reasons not to legitimize Trump’s presidency, enough that everyone can take their pick and feel more than justified. In addition, add Trump’s recent racialized insults to Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights hero, right in time for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The list of House Democrats sitting the inauguration out now stands at 65, with a chance that number may rise slightly in the next 48 hours. Most of those lawmakers issued statements about their reasons for bailing, many of them sober, well-crafted rebukes of PEOTUS. I was partial to one from Oregon’s Kurt Schrader: “I’m just not a big Trump fan. He hasn’t proved himself to me at all yet, so I respectfully decline to freeze my ass out there in the cold for this particular ceremony.”
6. The list of celebs who said 'no' is much longer and star-studded than the 'yes' list.
Trump’s desperate tweets about how great his inauguration will be seem as authentic as a high school boy's stories about having a model girlfriend who “lives in another town.” For someone whose entire fragile sense of self is based on approval from others, Trump’s done a piss-poor job of playing it cool, or even just, you know, not acting like a maniac when he gets rejected. With every Twitter tantrum he confirms his dejection and anger over the fact that the list of performers at his party is a poor simulacrum of his A-list dreams. Reportedly, Elton John, Garth Brooks, Bruno Mars, Kiss, Celine Dion, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, George Lopez, and Moby all said no. Jennifer Holliday, Paul Anka, and the B Street Band (a cover homage to Bruce Springsteen), all made last–minute cancellations. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Radio City Rockettes are still on the bill, but members of both groups voiced loud opposition to performing, with some defectors refusing to take the stage. The final inauguration lineup now includes 3 Doors Down, the Piano Guys, Toby Keith, Jackie Evancho, Lee Greenwood, DJ Ravidrums, the Frontmen of Country, Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), and Jon Voight. There was also an 11th-hour addition of Chrisette Michele—though Questlove has tweeted that he'd pay the singer money not to perform.
7. The list of celebs attending anti-Trump protest events is quite robust.
One day before Trump’s inauguration, on January 19, Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin, Rosie Perez, Al Sharpton, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will attend a Michael Moore-launched protest in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City. That same day, Common and the National will be playing a free show at D.C.’s 9:30 club to benefit Planned Parenthood and Solange will be performing at the Peace Ball at the National Museum of African American History Culture. Uzo Aduba, Scarlett Johansson, Danielle Brooks, Cher, Julianne Moore, Katy Perry, Samantha Bee, Diane Guerrero, Olivia Wilde, America Ferrera, and Amy Schumer, among others, will reportedly attend women’s marches in states around the country. On inauguration day just after Trump is sworn in, Judd Apatow, Patricia Arquette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest, Jane Fonda, Tim Robbins, and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy will appear on the Love-A-Thon telethon. Proceeds from the event, to be broadcast via Facebook Live, will go to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Planned Parenthood and Earthjustice.
8. He’s the most unpopular incoming president in the last four decades.
On Monday, Gallup released a poll showing 55 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, versus 40 percent (surprisingly high, considering) with favorable views. That’s about half the favorability rating President Obama had at his first inauguration, and 20 percent lower than incoming presidents Clinton and Bush. CNN’s survey results indicate roughly the same: 52 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump and 42 percent give him a thumbs-up. A Washington Post-ABC poll released Tuesday showed 54 percent of respondents are not down with Trump, while 40 percent are.
To put this all in perspective, pollster Will Jordan noted on Twitter that Trump's popularity as he enters the presidency is near the level of President Bush's right after Hurricane Katrina.
Bonus fact: Trump will take a vacation on Day One.
Remember how after Obama won a second term, Trump tweeted criticism about his vacationing, promoting a standard right-wing lie?
Trump’s team has insisted that the inauguration will be short, not for lack of star power or attendees, but because PEOTUS wants to get “to work right away.” Except that Trump recently announced he plans to spend the weekend chilling, instead of starting his new job on the day he’s hired. “My day one is gonna be Monday,” Trump told reporters, “because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration.”
Martin Luther King Would And Did Fuck Trump's Shit Up
Posted by Rude One
As we prepare for an open racist to ascend to the never more aptly-named
White House, we need to remember, as this blog does every Martin Luther
King, Jr. Day, that King wasn't a conservative, as Republicans and, weirdly, the Washington Post
assert. No, King was a radical who made it his job to fuck up the nice
little world that whites had constructed. So forget all that bullshit
trying to make King into Fuzzy Marty, the Dream Hatchanimal, all ready
to cuddle you with his non-violence. And, instead, let King's strength,
power, and lack of fucks to give guide you as we head into the Trump
era.
For instance, back in July 1966, a little over 50 years ago, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led a march and held a rally in support of the Chicago Freedom Movement, which asked that blacks and whites be treated equally when it came to housing in the city. (The play Raisin in the Sun was based in the housing discrimination endemic to the Windy City.) King had moved into a slum in January of 1966, where he lived several days a week, to shed light on the conditions there. He threatened to lead rent strikes if things weren't improved. "We don't have wall-to-wall carpeting to worry about," King said of his apartment. "But we have wall-to-wall rats and roaches."
On July 10, in the midst of a savage heat wave, King held a rally at Soldier Field, followed by a march to city hall to demand that blacks be allowed to rent and buy apartments in white neighborhoods. Only 30,000 of the expected 100,000 came out to see him in the nearly 100 degree temperature, but King gave a rousing and curiously little-quoted speech about the need for fairness in housing as being one more part of the road to a free and equal United States.
King started, "We are here today because we are tired. We are tired of being seared in the withering flames of injustice. We are tired of paying more for less. We are tired of living in rat-infested slums and in the Chicago Housing Authority's cement reservations. We are tired of having to pay a median rent of $97 a month in Lawndale for 4 rooms while whites in South Deering pay $73 a month for 5 rooms." People forget that King could be incredibly specific and localized in his demands, that he wasn't just seeking blanket "rights." No, he wanted definite wrongs corrected.
He continued further in the speech, "Let me say, here and now, that we are not going to tolerate moves that are now being made in subtle manners to intimidate, harass, and penalize Negro landlords who may own one or two buildings while ignoring the fact that slums are really perpetuated by the huge real estate agencies, mortgage and banking institutions, and city, state, and federal governments. This day we must decide that we will no longer use our dollars to perpetuate segregation and discrimination. We must make clear that we will withdraw our money en masse from any bank that not have a non-discriminatory lending policy. We must affirm that we will withdraw economic support from any company that will not provide on-the-job training, and employ an adequate number of Negroes, Puerto Ricans, and other ethnic minorities in higher paying jobs."
Does that sound fuckin' conservative? Does that sound like someone who is kissing the ass of tradition and power structures? How about this: "This day we must decide to give greater support to Negro-owned businesses which will aid in building our economic strength." He implored non-violence. He said that there were whites that supported the cause. But, ultimately, he said that non-whites shouldn't participate in an economic system that dicked them over.
Then King led people to city hall where, among other things, he demanded an end to police brutality in Chicago. We see how that turned out today. Back in 1966, he was mocked by the Chicago Tribune, which said that King's marches and sermons had become "tiresome" and "stale." A march in Marquette Park in August turned violent, with white onlookers hurling rocks and bottles at the marchers, and King was injured. He said later that he had never seen mobs of whites "as hateful" as he saw in Chicago, not even in Mississippi or Alabama.
King always believed that he had failed in Chicago, especially since Mayor Daley didn't abide by promises he made to King about open housing. But his assassination in 1968 was followed almost immediately by President Lyndon Johnson signing the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited housing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. And this is where we get to Donald Trump.
Five years after King's death, in 1973, Trump Management was accused by the Justice Department of violating the civil rights of blacks and Puerto Ricans under the Fair Housing Act. Fred Trump and his son, Donald, were specifically named as defendants. And while the case was settled without an admission of guilt, well, c'mon, the evidence was pretty damning that Trump rental agents deliberately steered non-white clients away from all-white apartment buildings. Trump Management agreed not to discriminate and to advertise that all buildings were open to everyone.
So, remember, on this MLK Day, that when Trump attacks Rep. John Lewis, one of King's closest associates, the President-Elect is also going after the man and the group that fucked his shit up early in his career. That King continues to do so to this day speaks to how much he will always be far more powerful than Trump ever could hope to be.
1/16/2017
For instance, back in July 1966, a little over 50 years ago, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led a march and held a rally in support of the Chicago Freedom Movement, which asked that blacks and whites be treated equally when it came to housing in the city. (The play Raisin in the Sun was based in the housing discrimination endemic to the Windy City.) King had moved into a slum in January of 1966, where he lived several days a week, to shed light on the conditions there. He threatened to lead rent strikes if things weren't improved. "We don't have wall-to-wall carpeting to worry about," King said of his apartment. "But we have wall-to-wall rats and roaches."
On July 10, in the midst of a savage heat wave, King held a rally at Soldier Field, followed by a march to city hall to demand that blacks be allowed to rent and buy apartments in white neighborhoods. Only 30,000 of the expected 100,000 came out to see him in the nearly 100 degree temperature, but King gave a rousing and curiously little-quoted speech about the need for fairness in housing as being one more part of the road to a free and equal United States.
King started, "We are here today because we are tired. We are tired of being seared in the withering flames of injustice. We are tired of paying more for less. We are tired of living in rat-infested slums and in the Chicago Housing Authority's cement reservations. We are tired of having to pay a median rent of $97 a month in Lawndale for 4 rooms while whites in South Deering pay $73 a month for 5 rooms." People forget that King could be incredibly specific and localized in his demands, that he wasn't just seeking blanket "rights." No, he wanted definite wrongs corrected.
He continued further in the speech, "Let me say, here and now, that we are not going to tolerate moves that are now being made in subtle manners to intimidate, harass, and penalize Negro landlords who may own one or two buildings while ignoring the fact that slums are really perpetuated by the huge real estate agencies, mortgage and banking institutions, and city, state, and federal governments. This day we must decide that we will no longer use our dollars to perpetuate segregation and discrimination. We must make clear that we will withdraw our money en masse from any bank that not have a non-discriminatory lending policy. We must affirm that we will withdraw economic support from any company that will not provide on-the-job training, and employ an adequate number of Negroes, Puerto Ricans, and other ethnic minorities in higher paying jobs."
Does that sound fuckin' conservative? Does that sound like someone who is kissing the ass of tradition and power structures? How about this: "This day we must decide to give greater support to Negro-owned businesses which will aid in building our economic strength." He implored non-violence. He said that there were whites that supported the cause. But, ultimately, he said that non-whites shouldn't participate in an economic system that dicked them over.
Then King led people to city hall where, among other things, he demanded an end to police brutality in Chicago. We see how that turned out today. Back in 1966, he was mocked by the Chicago Tribune, which said that King's marches and sermons had become "tiresome" and "stale." A march in Marquette Park in August turned violent, with white onlookers hurling rocks and bottles at the marchers, and King was injured. He said later that he had never seen mobs of whites "as hateful" as he saw in Chicago, not even in Mississippi or Alabama.
King always believed that he had failed in Chicago, especially since Mayor Daley didn't abide by promises he made to King about open housing. But his assassination in 1968 was followed almost immediately by President Lyndon Johnson signing the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited housing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. And this is where we get to Donald Trump.
Five years after King's death, in 1973, Trump Management was accused by the Justice Department of violating the civil rights of blacks and Puerto Ricans under the Fair Housing Act. Fred Trump and his son, Donald, were specifically named as defendants. And while the case was settled without an admission of guilt, well, c'mon, the evidence was pretty damning that Trump rental agents deliberately steered non-white clients away from all-white apartment buildings. Trump Management agreed not to discriminate and to advertise that all buildings were open to everyone.
So, remember, on this MLK Day, that when Trump attacks Rep. John Lewis, one of King's closest associates, the President-Elect is also going after the man and the group that fucked his shit up early in his career. That King continues to do so to this day speaks to how much he will always be far more powerful than Trump ever could hope to be.
Intercepted Russian Communications Part Of Inquiry Into Trump Associates
WASHINGTON
— American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining
intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad
investigation into possible links between Russian officials and
associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said.
The
continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will
take the oath of office on Friday with his associates under
investigation and after the intelligence agencies concluded that the
Russian government had worked to help elect him. As president, Mr. Trump
will oversee those agencies and have the authority to redirect or stop
at least some of these efforts.
It
is not clear whether the intercepted communications had anything to do
with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also unclear
whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the
hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other
attempts to disrupt the elections in November. The American government
has concluded that the Russian government was responsible for a broad
computer hacking campaign, including the operation against the D.N.C.
The
counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the
business dealings that some of the president-elect’s past and present
advisers have had with Russia.
Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his
contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency
for suspected links to Russia’s Federal Security Service, one of the
officials said.
Mr.
Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible
links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a
businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger
Stone, a longtime Republican operative.
The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A.
and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators
have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no
conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said
intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had
been provided to the White House.
Counterintelligence
investigations examine the connections between American citizens and
foreign governments. Those connections can involve efforts to steal
state or corporate secrets, curry favor with American government leaders
or influence policy. It is unclear which Russian officials are under
investigation, or what particular conversations caught the attention of
American eavesdroppers. The legal standard for opening these
investigations is low, and prosecutions are rare.
“We
have absolutely no knowledge of any investigation or even a basis for
such an investigation,” said Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Trump
transition.
In
an emailed statement Thursday evening, Mr. Manafort called allegations
that he had interactions with the Russian government a “Democrat Party
dirty trick and completely false.”
“I
have never had any relationship with the Russian government or any
Russian officials. I was never in contact with anyone, or directed
anyone to be in contact with anyone,” he said.
“On the ‘Russian hacking of the D.N.C.,’” he said, “my only knowledge of it is what I have read in the papers.”
The
decision to open the investigations was not based on a dossier of
salacious, uncorroborated allegations that were compiled by a former
British spy working for a Washington research firm. The F.B.I. is also
examining the allegations in that dossier, and a summary of its contents
was provided to Mr. Trump earlier this month.
Representatives
of the agencies involved declined to comment. Of the half-dozen current
and former officials who confirmed the existence of the investigations,
some said they were providing information because they feared the new
administration would obstruct their efforts. All spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases.
Numerous
news outlets, including The New York Times, have reported on the F.B.I.
investigations into Mr. Trump’s advisers. BBC and then McClatchy
revealed the existence of a multiagency working group to coordinate
investigations across the government.
The
continuing investigation again puts the F.B.I. director, James B.
Comey, in the middle of a politically fraught investigation. Democrats
have sharply criticized Mr. Comey’s handling of the investigation into
Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Mrs. Clinton has said
his decision to reveal the existence of new emails late in the campaign
cost her the election.
The F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring, and was an outgrowth of a criminal investigation
into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the
country’s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. In August, The Times
reported that Mr. Manafort’s name had surfaced in a secret ledger
that showed he had been paid millions in undisclosed cash payments. The
Associated Press has reported that his work for Ukraine included a
secret lobbying effort in Washington aimed at influencing American news
organizations and government officials.
Mr.
Stone, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, said in a speech in Florida
last summer that he had communicated with Julian Assange, the founder of
WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that published the hacked Democratic
emails. During the speech, Mr. Stone predicted further leaks of
documents, a prediction that came true within weeks.
In
a brief interview on Thursday, Mr. Stone said he had never visited
Russia and had no Russian clients. He said that he had worked in Ukraine
for a pro-Western party, but that any assertion that he had ties to
Russian intelligence was “nonsense” and “totally false.”
“The whole thing is a canard,” he said. “I have no Russian influences.”
The
Senate intelligence committee has started its own investigation into
Russia’s purported attempts to disrupt the election. The committee’s
inquiry is broad, and will include an examination of Russian hacking and
possible ties between people associated with Mr. Trump’s campaign and
Russia.
Investigators
are also scrutinizing people on the periphery of Mr. Trump’s campaign,
such as Mr. Page, a former Merrill Lynch banker who founded Global
Energy Capital, an investment firm in New York that has done business
with Russia.
In
an interview on Thursday, Mr. Page expressed bewilderment about why he
might be under investigation. He blamed a smear campaign — that he said
was orchestrated by Mrs. Clinton — for media speculation about the
nature of his ties to Russia.
“I
did nothing wrong, for the 5,000th time,” he said. His adversaries, he
added, are “pulling a page out of the Watergate playbook.”
The
lingering investigations will pose a test for Senator Jeff Sessions,
Republican of Alabama, who has been nominated for attorney general. If
Mr. Sessions is confirmed, he will for a time be the only person in the
government authorized to seek foreign intelligence wiretaps on American
soil.
Mr.
Sessions said at his confirmation hearing that he would recuse himself
from any investigations involving Mrs. Clinton. He was not asked whether
he would do so in cases involving associates of Mr. Trump.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
This 1958 TV western predicted Trump with a character named...Trump
A 1958 episode of the television western Trackdown features a con artist
named Trump who wants to build a wall to protect a town from
destruction.
Walter Trump, a confidence man, puts on a long robe and holds a tent meeting in the town of Talpa. He tells the townspeople that a cosmic explosion will rain fire on the town and that he is the only one that can save them from death. Ranger Hoby Gilman attempts to prove Trump is a fraud.
Walter Trump, a confidence man, puts on a long robe and holds a tent meeting in the town of Talpa. He tells the townspeople that a cosmic explosion will rain fire on the town and that he is the only one that can save them from death. Ranger Hoby Gilman attempts to prove Trump is a fraud.
The Trump Inauguration's No-Star Lineup
Lewis Black breaks down Team Trump's futile attempts to book A-list performers at the president-elect's inauguration.
At least one Democratic congressman is already preparing to impeach Donald Trump
When Freshman congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) spoke at the "Our First
Stand: Save Health Care" at Bowie State University, he got the loudest
cheer of the day when he said he may vote to impeach Donald Trump.
TYT's Eric Byler (www.Twitter.com/EricByler) caught up with them after last of several rallies held to accommodate an overflow crowd, and asked him for the grounds for impeachment.
TYT's Eric Byler (www.Twitter.com/EricByler) caught up with them after last of several rallies held to accommodate an overflow crowd, and asked him for the grounds for impeachment.
Betting Website Gives Trump 4-1 Odds Of Being Impeached Within 6 Months
Photo Credit: Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock
Per the Houston Press, Irish betting website Paddy Power is now putting 4-1 odds on Trump getting impeached within the first six months of his presidency. Additionally, the website thinks it’s even more likely that Trump will not finish his first term, as it gives him just 7-4 odds of completing four years in the White House.
Other popular Trump-related bets on Paddy Power right now include video of his “golden shower” incident leaking onto RedTube (5-1 odds); splitting with wife Melania Trump (15-1 odds); and painting the entire White House gold (500-1 odds).
For what it’s worth, Paddy Power lost a gigantic chunk of money last year after it prematurely paid out money to bettors who picked Hillary Clinton to win the presidency. In total, Trump’s upset victory cost the website $4.5 million, which it said was its “biggest political payout ever.”
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Putin: Obama trying to undermine Trump
Hardball's round table has a heated debate on the state of U.S./Russia affairs and the post-cold war order.
Trump has skin thinner than his wife and an ego bigger than my ass.
By Margaret and Helen
HELEN:
Margaret, somebody called me an elitist because I think Trump and his supporters are morons. I wasn’t’ quite sure what being an elitist means these days and I am pretty sure most people using that as an insult probably don’t either so I looked it up. After all, I’m just a little ole’ gal born in Georgia and I am not sure I qualify to be an elitist.
Now the Oxford Dictionary says an elitist is someone who supports the view that a society or system should be led by an elite. Well that just begged the question: What is an elite? I got confused at first because evidently an Elite is a size of letter in typewriting, with 12 characters to an inch. Of course, for this particular scenario it also means a select group that is superior in terms of their ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society such as an elite athlete or an elite armed forces. My favorite definition of elite, however, is from Merriam-Webster: the choice part or the best of a class. So I guess I am an elitist after all, because I want the best candidate for the job and I know for damn sure I want an elite President and not this orange man-child who is about to take office.
And I am in good company. They said Meryl Streep was an elitist after her speech at the Golden Globes. You remember, don’t you? That moving speech she gave where she dared to say that we shouldn’t mock the disabled and a free press was vital to our democracy… What an elitist that Meryl is. How dare she make speeches about standing up for the disabled and defending the Constitution!
Wait… what’s an elitist again?
You know Margaret, I was feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a ditch after a rain shower about this election. Kellyanne Conway is so good at lying… I mean telling us what is in Donald’s heart. And I thought to myself that maybe I should give the man a break. Maybe Trump deserves a second look.
Maybe I should show some respect for the office to which he has been elected. But then I thought, nah he’s a moron and I’m an elitist who doesn’t think a society or a system should ever be led by a moron.
For goodness sakes, he’s not even trying to rise to the occasion. The man is tweeting about national intelligence agencies one minute and Saturday Night Live the next. And shockingly he is paying attention to the latter and ignoring the former. Damn right I’m an elitist because I actually do think society should be run by someone with superior abilities instead of an idiot who can’t prioritize security briefings over comedy sketches.
And he is surrounding himself with idiots too. Are you really telling me that of all the people he could have nominated for Attorney General, he didn’t know even one without racist attitudes? What does that say? Think about it. What does that say about this man? He appointed a known plagiarist to be a senior communications strategist. And then he asked Omarosa to be… actually I don’t know what he asked her to be. But Omarosa for anything? What does that say? And incoming Press Secretary Sean Spicer actually whined to the media, that Saturday Night Live wasn’t being funny, they were being “mean-spirited”. Oh Really? You know what’s mean-spirited, Sean? Mocking a disabled person. You know what else is mean-spirited? Laughing about sexually assaulting women. You know what else is mean-spirited? Suggesting most immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers. Also, mocking a disabled person. And yes. I know I said that already.
An elite athlete knows how to win a game. An elite army knows how to win a war. An elite President knows how to put down his smart phone and look the nation in the eye and apologize for his inappropriate behavior. Hell. You don’t even have to be elite. You just have to be decent.
Decent enough to admit that it was wrong to make fun of the disabled. Admit that it was wrong to have disrespected and then denigrate women that way. Decent enough to tell the American people that you’re not perfect but you’ll strive to be a better president than you were a man. But we don’t have an elite as President-elect. We don’t even have a decent person about to hold the highest office in the land. We have a buffoon, man-child with skin thinner than that size 2 model/pin-up immigrant he’s married to. And even she doesn’t want to live in the same house with him.
Call me an elitist. It’s a badge I will wear proudly. I’d rather be an elitist than the racist, misogynist, mouth-breathers who voted for Trump. That’s right. I said it. I insulted Trump voters and I won’t apologize for it. We all knew what he did and what he said and what he stood for. There was no mistaking what you were voting for. I have no intentions of pulling punches. You people elected a moron and the rest of us “elitists” get to look down our noses and point our fingers and ask you to explain yourselves. Is it OK to make fun of the disabled? Yes or no? Is it OK to sexually assault women? Yes or no? Is it OK to commit fraud? Is it OK to discriminate against minorities? Is it OK to refer to your daughter as a nice piece of ass? Is it OK to vote for someone who did? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you can kiss my elitist ass.
Trump is not my president. I will challenge him at every turn. I will hold him accountable for every ignorant, vapid tweet. I will hold him to the very highest of standards and ridicule him when he comes up short. Why? You ask. How dare I? You say. Because he made fun of a disabled person and that’s all I ever needed to know about Donald J. Trump. I mean it. Really.
MARGARET:
I understand some folks are planning to wear black on Friday in protest of the inauguration. I will be in black as well as Howard, but we will be attending a funeral of another kind.
HELEN:Margaret, somebody called me an elitist because I think Trump and his supporters are morons. I wasn’t’ quite sure what being an elitist means these days and I am pretty sure most people using that as an insult probably don’t either so I looked it up. After all, I’m just a little ole’ gal born in Georgia and I am not sure I qualify to be an elitist.
Now the Oxford Dictionary says an elitist is someone who supports the view that a society or system should be led by an elite. Well that just begged the question: What is an elite? I got confused at first because evidently an Elite is a size of letter in typewriting, with 12 characters to an inch. Of course, for this particular scenario it also means a select group that is superior in terms of their ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society such as an elite athlete or an elite armed forces. My favorite definition of elite, however, is from Merriam-Webster: the choice part or the best of a class. So I guess I am an elitist after all, because I want the best candidate for the job and I know for damn sure I want an elite President and not this orange man-child who is about to take office.
And I am in good company. They said Meryl Streep was an elitist after her speech at the Golden Globes. You remember, don’t you? That moving speech she gave where she dared to say that we shouldn’t mock the disabled and a free press was vital to our democracy… What an elitist that Meryl is. How dare she make speeches about standing up for the disabled and defending the Constitution!
Wait… what’s an elitist again?
You know Margaret, I was feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a ditch after a rain shower about this election. Kellyanne Conway is so good at lying… I mean telling us what is in Donald’s heart. And I thought to myself that maybe I should give the man a break. Maybe Trump deserves a second look.
Maybe I should show some respect for the office to which he has been elected. But then I thought, nah he’s a moron and I’m an elitist who doesn’t think a society or a system should ever be led by a moron.
For goodness sakes, he’s not even trying to rise to the occasion. The man is tweeting about national intelligence agencies one minute and Saturday Night Live the next. And shockingly he is paying attention to the latter and ignoring the former. Damn right I’m an elitist because I actually do think society should be run by someone with superior abilities instead of an idiot who can’t prioritize security briefings over comedy sketches.
And he is surrounding himself with idiots too. Are you really telling me that of all the people he could have nominated for Attorney General, he didn’t know even one without racist attitudes? What does that say? Think about it. What does that say about this man? He appointed a known plagiarist to be a senior communications strategist. And then he asked Omarosa to be… actually I don’t know what he asked her to be. But Omarosa for anything? What does that say? And incoming Press Secretary Sean Spicer actually whined to the media, that Saturday Night Live wasn’t being funny, they were being “mean-spirited”. Oh Really? You know what’s mean-spirited, Sean? Mocking a disabled person. You know what else is mean-spirited? Laughing about sexually assaulting women. You know what else is mean-spirited? Suggesting most immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers. Also, mocking a disabled person. And yes. I know I said that already.
An elite athlete knows how to win a game. An elite army knows how to win a war. An elite President knows how to put down his smart phone and look the nation in the eye and apologize for his inappropriate behavior. Hell. You don’t even have to be elite. You just have to be decent.
Decent enough to admit that it was wrong to make fun of the disabled. Admit that it was wrong to have disrespected and then denigrate women that way. Decent enough to tell the American people that you’re not perfect but you’ll strive to be a better president than you were a man. But we don’t have an elite as President-elect. We don’t even have a decent person about to hold the highest office in the land. We have a buffoon, man-child with skin thinner than that size 2 model/pin-up immigrant he’s married to. And even she doesn’t want to live in the same house with him.
Call me an elitist. It’s a badge I will wear proudly. I’d rather be an elitist than the racist, misogynist, mouth-breathers who voted for Trump. That’s right. I said it. I insulted Trump voters and I won’t apologize for it. We all knew what he did and what he said and what he stood for. There was no mistaking what you were voting for. I have no intentions of pulling punches. You people elected a moron and the rest of us “elitists” get to look down our noses and point our fingers and ask you to explain yourselves. Is it OK to make fun of the disabled? Yes or no? Is it OK to sexually assault women? Yes or no? Is it OK to commit fraud? Is it OK to discriminate against minorities? Is it OK to refer to your daughter as a nice piece of ass? Is it OK to vote for someone who did? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you can kiss my elitist ass.
Trump is not my president. I will challenge him at every turn. I will hold him accountable for every ignorant, vapid tweet. I will hold him to the very highest of standards and ridicule him when he comes up short. Why? You ask. How dare I? You say. Because he made fun of a disabled person and that’s all I ever needed to know about Donald J. Trump. I mean it. Really.
MARGARET:I understand some folks are planning to wear black on Friday in protest of the inauguration. I will be in black as well as Howard, but we will be attending a funeral of another kind.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Open letter to Trump: You won't set the rules for us
By Kyle Pope
Dear Mr. President Elect:
In these final days before your inauguration, we thought it might be helpful to clarify how we see the relationship between your administration and the American press corps.
It will come as no surprise to you that we see the relationship as strained. Reports over the last few days that your press secretary is considering pulling news media offices out of the White House are the latest in a pattern of behavior that has persisted throughout the campaign: You’ve banned news organizations from covering you. You’ve taken to Twitter to taunt and threaten individual reporters and encouraged your supporters to do the same. You’ve advocated for looser libel laws and threatened numerous lawsuits of your own, none of which has materialized. You’ve avoided the press when you could and flouted the norms of pool reporting and regular press conferences. You’ve ridiculed a reporter who wrote something you didn’t like because he has a disability.
All of this, of course, is your choice and, in a way, your right. While the Constitution protects the freedom of the press, it doesn’t dictate how the president must honor that; regular press conferences aren’t enshrined in the document.
But while you have every right to decide your ground rules for engaging with the press, we have some, too. It is, after all, our airtime and column inches that you are seeking to influence. We, not you, decide how best to serve our readers, listeners, and viewers. So think of what follows as a backgrounder on what to expect from us over the next four years.
Access is preferable, but not critical.
You may decide that giving reporters access to your administration has no upside. We think that would be a mistake on your part, but again, it’s your choice. We are very good at finding alternative ways to get information; indeed, some of the best reporting during the campaign came from news organizations that were banned from your rallies. Telling reporters that they won’t get access to something isn’t what we’d prefer, but it’s a challenge we relish.
Off the record and other ground rules are ours—not yours—to set.
We may agree to speak to some of your officials off the record, or we may not. We may attend background briefings or off-the-record social events, or we may skip them. That’s our choice. If you think reporters who don’t agree to the rules, and are shut out, won’t get the story, see above.
We decide how much airtime to give your spokespeople and surrogates.
We will strive to get your point of view across, even if you seek to shut us out. But that does not mean we are required to turn our airwaves or column inches over to people who repeatedly distort or bend the truth. We will call them out when they do, and we reserve the right, in the most egregious cases, to ban them from our outlets.
We believe there is an objective truth, and we will hold you to that.
When you or your surrogates say or tweet something that is demonstrably wrong, we will say so, repeatedly. Facts are what we do, and we have no obligation to repeat false assertions; the fact that you or someone on your team said them is newsworthy, but so is the fact that they don’t stand up to scrutiny. Both aspects should receive equal weight.
We’ll obsess over the details of government.
You and your staff sit in the White House, but the American government is a sprawling thing. We will fan reporters out across the government, embed them in your agencies, source up those bureaucrats. The result will be that while you may seek to control what comes out of the West Wing, we’ll have the upper hand in covering how your policies are carried out.
We will set higher standards for ourselves than ever before.
We credit you with highlighting serious and widespread distrust in the media across the political spectrum. Your campaign tapped into that, and it was a bracing wake-up call for us. We have to regain that trust. And we’ll do it through accurate, fearless reporting, by acknowledging our errors and abiding by the most stringent ethical standards we set for ourselves.
We’re going to work together.
You have tried to divide us and use reporters’ deep competitive streaks to cause family fights. Those days are ending. We now recognize that the challenge of covering you requires that we cooperate and help one another whenever possible. So, when you shout down or ignore a reporter at a press conference who has said something you don’t like, you’re going to face a unified front. We’ll work together on stories when it makes sense, and make sure the world hears when our colleagues write stories of importance. We will, of course, still have disagreements, and even important debates, about ethics or taste or fair comment. But those debates will be ours to begin and end.
We’re playing the long game.
Best-case scenario, you’re going to be in this job for eight years. We’ve been around since the founding of the republic, and our role in this great democracy has been ratified and reinforced again and again and again. You have forced us to rethink the most fundamental questions about who we are and what we are here for. For that we are most grateful.
Enjoy your inauguration.
—The Press Corps
Dear Mr. President Elect:
In these final days before your inauguration, we thought it might be helpful to clarify how we see the relationship between your administration and the American press corps.
It will come as no surprise to you that we see the relationship as strained. Reports over the last few days that your press secretary is considering pulling news media offices out of the White House are the latest in a pattern of behavior that has persisted throughout the campaign: You’ve banned news organizations from covering you. You’ve taken to Twitter to taunt and threaten individual reporters and encouraged your supporters to do the same. You’ve advocated for looser libel laws and threatened numerous lawsuits of your own, none of which has materialized. You’ve avoided the press when you could and flouted the norms of pool reporting and regular press conferences. You’ve ridiculed a reporter who wrote something you didn’t like because he has a disability.
All of this, of course, is your choice and, in a way, your right. While the Constitution protects the freedom of the press, it doesn’t dictate how the president must honor that; regular press conferences aren’t enshrined in the document.
But while you have every right to decide your ground rules for engaging with the press, we have some, too. It is, after all, our airtime and column inches that you are seeking to influence. We, not you, decide how best to serve our readers, listeners, and viewers. So think of what follows as a backgrounder on what to expect from us over the next four years.
Access is preferable, but not critical.
You may decide that giving reporters access to your administration has no upside. We think that would be a mistake on your part, but again, it’s your choice. We are very good at finding alternative ways to get information; indeed, some of the best reporting during the campaign came from news organizations that were banned from your rallies. Telling reporters that they won’t get access to something isn’t what we’d prefer, but it’s a challenge we relish.
Off the record and other ground rules are ours—not yours—to set.
We may agree to speak to some of your officials off the record, or we may not. We may attend background briefings or off-the-record social events, or we may skip them. That’s our choice. If you think reporters who don’t agree to the rules, and are shut out, won’t get the story, see above.
We decide how much airtime to give your spokespeople and surrogates.
We will strive to get your point of view across, even if you seek to shut us out. But that does not mean we are required to turn our airwaves or column inches over to people who repeatedly distort or bend the truth. We will call them out when they do, and we reserve the right, in the most egregious cases, to ban them from our outlets.
We believe there is an objective truth, and we will hold you to that.
When you or your surrogates say or tweet something that is demonstrably wrong, we will say so, repeatedly. Facts are what we do, and we have no obligation to repeat false assertions; the fact that you or someone on your team said them is newsworthy, but so is the fact that they don’t stand up to scrutiny. Both aspects should receive equal weight.
We’ll obsess over the details of government.
You and your staff sit in the White House, but the American government is a sprawling thing. We will fan reporters out across the government, embed them in your agencies, source up those bureaucrats. The result will be that while you may seek to control what comes out of the West Wing, we’ll have the upper hand in covering how your policies are carried out.
We will set higher standards for ourselves than ever before.
We credit you with highlighting serious and widespread distrust in the media across the political spectrum. Your campaign tapped into that, and it was a bracing wake-up call for us. We have to regain that trust. And we’ll do it through accurate, fearless reporting, by acknowledging our errors and abiding by the most stringent ethical standards we set for ourselves.
We’re going to work together.
You have tried to divide us and use reporters’ deep competitive streaks to cause family fights. Those days are ending. We now recognize that the challenge of covering you requires that we cooperate and help one another whenever possible. So, when you shout down or ignore a reporter at a press conference who has said something you don’t like, you’re going to face a unified front. We’ll work together on stories when it makes sense, and make sure the world hears when our colleagues write stories of importance. We will, of course, still have disagreements, and even important debates, about ethics or taste or fair comment. But those debates will be ours to begin and end.
We’re playing the long game.
Best-case scenario, you’re going to be in this job for eight years. We’ve been around since the founding of the republic, and our role in this great democracy has been ratified and reinforced again and again and again. You have forced us to rethink the most fundamental questions about who we are and what we are here for. For that we are most grateful.
Enjoy your inauguration.
—The Press Corps
Monday, January 16, 2017
Joe Scarborough Rips Trump: This Needs To Stop, You Need Message Discipline; "There Is A Breaking Point"
Posted By Ian Schwartz
Sarcasm by dlevere
President-Elect Trump continues to engage in fights against everyone and anyone who doesn't agree with him, is this really a wise move?
Morning Blow host Joe Scarborough lashed out at Donald Trump for calling out Rep. John Lewis, CIA Director John Brennan and the Republican party over the weekend. On Monday morning's show, Scarborough warned "this does not continue; there is a breaking point." He said this is not like running for president and that Trump needs "message discipline."
From Monday's broadcast of Morning Blow:
Sarcasm by dlevere
President-Elect Trump continues to engage in fights against everyone and anyone who doesn't agree with him, is this really a wise move?
Morning Blow host Joe Scarborough lashed out at Donald Trump for calling out Rep. John Lewis, CIA Director John Brennan and the Republican party over the weekend. On Monday morning's show, Scarborough warned "this does not continue; there is a breaking point." He said this is not like running for president and that Trump needs "message discipline."
From Monday's broadcast of Morning Blow:
SCARBOROUGH: It's exhausting. Speaking of my rules, I also have another rule. We can fight one battle at a time. Don't come at me and tell me that you want to take on this. I tell myself, one battle at a time. Alright? And we clear the decks of that. This weekend alone, I'm sorry. I'm just going to say, I'm just going to say. This does not -- this does not last long. This does not continue. There is a breaking point. It is. He's not even sworn in yet. His numbers will collapse into the 20's if this continues.
Just like Mika and I predicted, we have said it, as you know, just like we predicted he could win the Republican nomination, I'm telling you this will not last. This weekend alone, Harold, he is in fights right now. We have the preeminent civil rights leader in America with the entire intelligence community, perhaps the most important community to have on your side as president, and the most dangerous to cross politically. The single most important military alliance of our time, according to his own Secretary of Defense, NATO, and the single most important leader in all of Europe, Angela Merkel. That's just on this holiday weekend. This will not last. This will not continue. Somebody around him better tell him to focus.
Also, I'm sorry. And he told the Republicans he was going to run them over if they didn't follow whatever he did. This will not continue indefinitely...
If anybody thinks around Donald Trump that he can succeed as president of the United States with no message discipline -- he has no message discipline -- the same way he succeeded when he was running against people like Ben Carson, then they're kidding themselves. They're just kidding themselves... There is no message discipline and there has to be because it matters.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Let's Just Pretend the Russian Dossier Is True Because Fuck That Trump Guy
Posted by Rude One
If you were unfortunate enough, you got to watch or listen to the freak show this morning where President-Elect and human/gila monster hybrid Donald Trump sputtered and free-associated his way through what you might consider answers to the questions in a press conference. It was one of those embarrassing moments for the entire nation that we all better get used to.
At some point, Trump is going to be at a gathering of world leaders and one of them is going to say, "What the fuck are you saying, you fucking brain damaged moron? Fuck, I thought Bush was dumb."
And most of us in the United States will just look away, ashamed of Trump, like he's our boyfriend's racist grandpa who can't stop talking about what "the blacks" need to do.
What Trump said today doesn't matter because he's a filthy liar who traffics in the kind of hyperbole that'd make P.T. Barnum go "Whoa, there, man, calm that shit down." He's lying about the extent of his separation from his business. He forced his tax lawyer to lie about the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Essentially, he said, "You should be so fortunate to have me as president that I shouldn't have to do anything that every other modern president has done, but here's a couple of bones so you can shut the fuck up." Motherfucker, you ran for president. You asked for the office. Divest or get the fuck out. But he won't because truth and honesty don't matter.
What does matter is that he is so obviously deranged, so blatantly incapable of complex thought, that he more or less just repeated everything from his campaign, layering on extra degradation for members of the press that he didn't like. When Jim Acosta of CNN tried to insist on getting in a question because Trump kept attacking his network, I wanted him to keep going until Trump went into a full-blown Captain Queeg-like strawberry-seeking paranoid fit.
Meanwhile, so many questions surround the dossier prepared by a former UK spy as oppo research for some campaign (maybe JEB!'s). It's sopping wet with allegations of Russia trading DNC email releases through Wikileaks in return for Trump backing off criticism of the annexation of Crimea, as well as the desire for Trump to criticize NATO's expansion, both of which he did. There's the corruption, with the allegations of bribes and kickbacks in deals with China. Then there's all the hookers and golden showers and other possible blackmail material, most of which would fall on deaf ears like drops of urine running down Trump's manboobs. God, how the media are flagellating themselves and each other over the material, over whether it should have been released, how it hasn't been corroborated, no matter how reliable the sources are, what it means for future allegations and...
You know what? Fuck it. Let's act like Republicans for a little while and just state everything as if it's true. In fact, even if it's proven to be 35 pages of utter fantasy, let's just keep saying it's true. Because, see, Trump made his political career, fuck, much of his entire career, on lies, and almost all Republicans didn't have the honor to say, "No, sorry, that's just something he's pulling out of his ass."
The mainstream media had no problem doing story after story about whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States, a lie that Trump fingered and humped like it was the American flag with a pussy. Facts are dead, as Reince Priebus and Newt Gingrich and other Trump surrogates told us. We create our own reality, real reality be damned. So fuck it all.
Trump can say he won in a "landslide" (he didn't), he can say he didn't say things that he said on video or that he tweeted, he can push a voter fraud fable like it's beyond reproach, he can claim that inner cities are hellholes of crime, and he can say that his political opponents are doing, have done, or will do things that are not even in the realm of actual. And he just doesn't care if you tell him he's wrong or there are facts that contradict him. It doesn't matter.
And I haven't even gotten into the sea of Republican and nutzoid conservative lies over the decades that drowned Hillary Clinton, up to and including the email controversy and the completely bug fuck insane Pizzagate.
So fuck it. It's time for Democrats to have some fun. Let's not even allow the idea that the Russian dossier isn't true. Let's just go with that it's totally true. It's right there in writing. Page 27: Trump "paid bribes to further his interests" in doing business in St. Petersburg, where he "participated in sex parties. Or page 2: "The Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for several years." Let's just repeat it over and over and demand investigations and more investigations if those don't turn up what we want and let's force the media to keep talking about it and make it the only talking points so that all we can think about with Trump is that he is a corrupt loser who watches hookers piss. It feels like it's true, so let's go with the truthiness instead of the truth. Why should we be left behind in the rush to jump off the cliff of reason?
Trump force-fed us his nonsense. He's still doing that now. Instead, make him choke on this dossier.
(Note: Of course, we won't do it. Because at the end of the day, we sadly still have some sense of devotion to facts. It is our tragic flaw as liberals.)
If you were unfortunate enough, you got to watch or listen to the freak show this morning where President-Elect and human/gila monster hybrid Donald Trump sputtered and free-associated his way through what you might consider answers to the questions in a press conference. It was one of those embarrassing moments for the entire nation that we all better get used to.
At some point, Trump is going to be at a gathering of world leaders and one of them is going to say, "What the fuck are you saying, you fucking brain damaged moron? Fuck, I thought Bush was dumb."
And most of us in the United States will just look away, ashamed of Trump, like he's our boyfriend's racist grandpa who can't stop talking about what "the blacks" need to do.
What Trump said today doesn't matter because he's a filthy liar who traffics in the kind of hyperbole that'd make P.T. Barnum go "Whoa, there, man, calm that shit down." He's lying about the extent of his separation from his business. He forced his tax lawyer to lie about the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Essentially, he said, "You should be so fortunate to have me as president that I shouldn't have to do anything that every other modern president has done, but here's a couple of bones so you can shut the fuck up." Motherfucker, you ran for president. You asked for the office. Divest or get the fuck out. But he won't because truth and honesty don't matter.
What does matter is that he is so obviously deranged, so blatantly incapable of complex thought, that he more or less just repeated everything from his campaign, layering on extra degradation for members of the press that he didn't like. When Jim Acosta of CNN tried to insist on getting in a question because Trump kept attacking his network, I wanted him to keep going until Trump went into a full-blown Captain Queeg-like strawberry-seeking paranoid fit.
Meanwhile, so many questions surround the dossier prepared by a former UK spy as oppo research for some campaign (maybe JEB!'s). It's sopping wet with allegations of Russia trading DNC email releases through Wikileaks in return for Trump backing off criticism of the annexation of Crimea, as well as the desire for Trump to criticize NATO's expansion, both of which he did. There's the corruption, with the allegations of bribes and kickbacks in deals with China. Then there's all the hookers and golden showers and other possible blackmail material, most of which would fall on deaf ears like drops of urine running down Trump's manboobs. God, how the media are flagellating themselves and each other over the material, over whether it should have been released, how it hasn't been corroborated, no matter how reliable the sources are, what it means for future allegations and...
You know what? Fuck it. Let's act like Republicans for a little while and just state everything as if it's true. In fact, even if it's proven to be 35 pages of utter fantasy, let's just keep saying it's true. Because, see, Trump made his political career, fuck, much of his entire career, on lies, and almost all Republicans didn't have the honor to say, "No, sorry, that's just something he's pulling out of his ass."
The mainstream media had no problem doing story after story about whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States, a lie that Trump fingered and humped like it was the American flag with a pussy. Facts are dead, as Reince Priebus and Newt Gingrich and other Trump surrogates told us. We create our own reality, real reality be damned. So fuck it all.
Trump can say he won in a "landslide" (he didn't), he can say he didn't say things that he said on video or that he tweeted, he can push a voter fraud fable like it's beyond reproach, he can claim that inner cities are hellholes of crime, and he can say that his political opponents are doing, have done, or will do things that are not even in the realm of actual. And he just doesn't care if you tell him he's wrong or there are facts that contradict him. It doesn't matter.
And I haven't even gotten into the sea of Republican and nutzoid conservative lies over the decades that drowned Hillary Clinton, up to and including the email controversy and the completely bug fuck insane Pizzagate.
So fuck it. It's time for Democrats to have some fun. Let's not even allow the idea that the Russian dossier isn't true. Let's just go with that it's totally true. It's right there in writing. Page 27: Trump "paid bribes to further his interests" in doing business in St. Petersburg, where he "participated in sex parties. Or page 2: "The Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, for several years." Let's just repeat it over and over and demand investigations and more investigations if those don't turn up what we want and let's force the media to keep talking about it and make it the only talking points so that all we can think about with Trump is that he is a corrupt loser who watches hookers piss. It feels like it's true, so let's go with the truthiness instead of the truth. Why should we be left behind in the rush to jump off the cliff of reason?
Trump force-fed us his nonsense. He's still doing that now. Instead, make him choke on this dossier.
(Note: Of course, we won't do it. Because at the end of the day, we sadly still have some sense of devotion to facts. It is our tragic flaw as liberals.)
Donald Trump Is A Liar And You're A Chump If You Listen To Him
Posted by Rude One
Today, President-Elect and bloated basketball of buffoonery Donald Trump finally made some kind of statement about what he'd like to see happen with the Affordable Care Act. He wants it repealed and then quickly replaced - not at the same time, but "Long to me would be weeks...It won’t be repeal and then two years later go in with another plan." As the New York Times points out, essentially Trump is telling House Speaker Paul Ryan to suck his tiny bleached and bare balls. Ryan, who looks like he jacks off to tumor porn, wanted to take a couple of years after sowing immediate chaos into the health care system. Or so he says this week.
Either way, both Trump and Ryan are pretty much guaranteeing that once the ACA is repealed, it won't be replaced by anything that is close in comprehensive coverage because that's how shit goes.
Remember the sequester? That was supposed to be a budget threat that would force Congress to come up with something before automatic funding cuts kicked in. Instead, they just said, "Ah, fuck it" and let it stand.
But, really, who the fuck cares what Trump has to say? Motherfucker is such a compulsive liar that he probably tells Barron that all the stylish 10 year-old boys wear suits like they're Richie Rich. Ask Senator Rand Paul. In one of those moments that really is like the apocryphal Neville Chamberlain/Hitler story, Paul tweeted just a couple of days ago that "I just spoke to [Trump] and he fully supports my plan to replace Obamacare the same day we repeal it."
And now, today, Trump pretty much just said that either he lied or Rand Paul lied. That'd be fuckin' hilarious if it wasn't so goddamn pathetic. Peace in our time, eh, Senator?
There is no promise Trump will not break, no opinion he will not reverse when convenient. Ask his contractors. Ask his ex-wives. On his ludicrous border wall, now he's saying Mexico will pay for it in the future but we'll pay for it now. Whatever the fuck that means. We're all still awaiting his revelations about the Russian hacking that he supposedly was going to tell us a week ago. When he holds his press conference tomorrow, it's gonna be a fucking farce of overstated promises, lies, and masturbation, so much masturbation.
So when you hear "Democratic" Senator Joe Manchin claim that "Today, I spoke with President-Elect Donald Trump and he assured me that he will help fight to secure a permanent health care solution for our retired miners, as guaranteed in the Miners Protection Act," you can pretty much be sure that the sick miners are fucked. Trump won't do shit for them unless there's an angle, like he can get wheezing black lung sufferers to gasp out song praising him before he signs any legislation. What a fucking credulous goon Manchin is.
Back to the Affordable Care Act, in that drama queen/Willie Loman way of his, Trump declared, "We have to get to business. Obamacare has been a catastrophic event." You got that? According to the incoming president, providing people with access to health insurance despite pre-existing conditions is akin to a meteor hitting the earth, a tsunami, or an ignorant madman becoming our leader. You know, the real catastrophes.
Today, President-Elect and bloated basketball of buffoonery Donald Trump finally made some kind of statement about what he'd like to see happen with the Affordable Care Act. He wants it repealed and then quickly replaced - not at the same time, but "Long to me would be weeks...It won’t be repeal and then two years later go in with another plan." As the New York Times points out, essentially Trump is telling House Speaker Paul Ryan to suck his tiny bleached and bare balls. Ryan, who looks like he jacks off to tumor porn, wanted to take a couple of years after sowing immediate chaos into the health care system. Or so he says this week.
Either way, both Trump and Ryan are pretty much guaranteeing that once the ACA is repealed, it won't be replaced by anything that is close in comprehensive coverage because that's how shit goes.
Remember the sequester? That was supposed to be a budget threat that would force Congress to come up with something before automatic funding cuts kicked in. Instead, they just said, "Ah, fuck it" and let it stand.
But, really, who the fuck cares what Trump has to say? Motherfucker is such a compulsive liar that he probably tells Barron that all the stylish 10 year-old boys wear suits like they're Richie Rich. Ask Senator Rand Paul. In one of those moments that really is like the apocryphal Neville Chamberlain/Hitler story, Paul tweeted just a couple of days ago that "I just spoke to [Trump] and he fully supports my plan to replace Obamacare the same day we repeal it."
And now, today, Trump pretty much just said that either he lied or Rand Paul lied. That'd be fuckin' hilarious if it wasn't so goddamn pathetic. Peace in our time, eh, Senator?
There is no promise Trump will not break, no opinion he will not reverse when convenient. Ask his contractors. Ask his ex-wives. On his ludicrous border wall, now he's saying Mexico will pay for it in the future but we'll pay for it now. Whatever the fuck that means. We're all still awaiting his revelations about the Russian hacking that he supposedly was going to tell us a week ago. When he holds his press conference tomorrow, it's gonna be a fucking farce of overstated promises, lies, and masturbation, so much masturbation.
So when you hear "Democratic" Senator Joe Manchin claim that "Today, I spoke with President-Elect Donald Trump and he assured me that he will help fight to secure a permanent health care solution for our retired miners, as guaranteed in the Miners Protection Act," you can pretty much be sure that the sick miners are fucked. Trump won't do shit for them unless there's an angle, like he can get wheezing black lung sufferers to gasp out song praising him before he signs any legislation. What a fucking credulous goon Manchin is.
Back to the Affordable Care Act, in that drama queen/Willie Loman way of his, Trump declared, "We have to get to business. Obamacare has been a catastrophic event." You got that? According to the incoming president, providing people with access to health insurance despite pre-existing conditions is akin to a meteor hitting the earth, a tsunami, or an ignorant madman becoming our leader. You know, the real catastrophes.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
INTEL CHIEFS PRESENTED TRUMP WITH CLAIMS OF RUSSIAN EFFORTS TO COMPROMISE HIM PER CNN
By DemocratSinceBirth
Suggestion they have compromising information on him !!!
Communications between Trump and Russian officials.
This is beyond huge !!!
Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him
The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.
One reason the nation's intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN.
These senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This synopsis was not an official part of the report from the intelligence community case about Russian hacks, but some officials said it augmented the evidence that Moscow intended to harm Clinton's candidacy and help Trump's, several officials with knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials.
Sources tell CNN that these same allegations about communications between the Trump campaign and the Russians, mentioned in classified briefings for congressional leaders last year, prompted then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to send a letter to FBI Director Comey in October, in which he wrote, "It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States."
CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump but cannot confirm if it was discussed in his meeting with the intelligence chiefs.
The Trump transition team declined repeated requests for comment.
CNN has reviewed a 35-page compilation of the memos, from which the two-page synopsis was drawn. The memos originated as opposition research, first commissioned by anti-Trump Republicans, and later by Democrats. At this point, CNN is not reporting on details of the memos, as it has not independently corroborated the specific allegations. But, in preparing this story, CNN has spoken to multiple high ranking intelligence, administration, congressional and law enforcement officials, as well as foreign officials and others in the private sector with direct knowledge of the memos.
Some of the memos were circulating as far back as last summer. What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations to the President and President-elect a few days ago.
On the same day that the President-elect was briefed by the intelligence community, the top four Congressional leaders, and chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees -- the so-called "Gang of Eight" -- were also provided a summary of the memos regarding Mr. Trump, according to law enforcement, intelligence and administration sources.
The two-page summary was written without the detailed specifics and information about sources and methods included in the memos by the former British intelligence official. That said, the synopsis was considered so sensitive it was not included in the classified report about Russian hacking that was more widely distributed, but rather in an annex only shared at the most senior levels of the government: President Obama, the President-elect, and the eight Congressional leaders.
CNN has also learned that on December 9, Senator John McCain gave a full copy of the memos -- dated from June through December, 2016 -- to FBI Director James Comey. McCain became aware of the memos from a former British diplomat who had been posted in Moscow. But the FBI had already been given a set of the memos compiled up to August 2016, when the former MI6 agent presented them to an FBI official in Rome, according to national security officials.
The raw memos on which the synopsis is based were prepared by the former MI6 agent, who was posted in Russia in the 1990s and now runs a private intelligence gathering firm. His investigations related to Mr. Trump were initially funded by groups and donors supporting Republican opponents of Mr. Trump during the GOP primaries, multiple sources confirmed to CNN. Those sources also said that once Mr. Trump became the nominee, further investigation was funded by groups and donors supporting Hillary Clinton.
Spokespeople for the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. Officials who spoke to CNN declined to do so on the record given the classified nature of the material.
Some of the allegations were first reported publicly in Mother Jones one week before the election.
One high level administration official told CNN, "I have a sense the outgoing administration and intelligence community is setting down the pieces so this must be investigated seriously and run down. I think concern was to be sure that whatever information was out there is put into the system so it is evaluated as it should be and acted upon as necessary."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html
Suggestion they have compromising information on him !!!
Communications between Trump and Russian officials.
This is beyond huge !!!
Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him
By Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein, CNN
Updated 5:15 PM ET, Tue January 10, 2017
(CNN) Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.
Updated 5:15 PM ET, Tue January 10, 2017
(CNN) Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.
The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs -- Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.
One reason the nation's intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington, multiple sources tell CNN.
These senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This synopsis was not an official part of the report from the intelligence community case about Russian hacks, but some officials said it augmented the evidence that Moscow intended to harm Clinton's candidacy and help Trump's, several officials with knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.
The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials.
Sources tell CNN that these same allegations about communications between the Trump campaign and the Russians, mentioned in classified briefings for congressional leaders last year, prompted then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid to send a letter to FBI Director Comey in October, in which he wrote, "It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States."
CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump but cannot confirm if it was discussed in his meeting with the intelligence chiefs.
The Trump transition team declined repeated requests for comment.
CNN has reviewed a 35-page compilation of the memos, from which the two-page synopsis was drawn. The memos originated as opposition research, first commissioned by anti-Trump Republicans, and later by Democrats. At this point, CNN is not reporting on details of the memos, as it has not independently corroborated the specific allegations. But, in preparing this story, CNN has spoken to multiple high ranking intelligence, administration, congressional and law enforcement officials, as well as foreign officials and others in the private sector with direct knowledge of the memos.
Some of the memos were circulating as far back as last summer. What has changed since then is that US intelligence agencies have now checked out the former British intelligence operative and his vast network throughout Europe and find him and his sources to be credible enough to include some of the information in the presentations to the President and President-elect a few days ago.
On the same day that the President-elect was briefed by the intelligence community, the top four Congressional leaders, and chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees -- the so-called "Gang of Eight" -- were also provided a summary of the memos regarding Mr. Trump, according to law enforcement, intelligence and administration sources.
The two-page summary was written without the detailed specifics and information about sources and methods included in the memos by the former British intelligence official. That said, the synopsis was considered so sensitive it was not included in the classified report about Russian hacking that was more widely distributed, but rather in an annex only shared at the most senior levels of the government: President Obama, the President-elect, and the eight Congressional leaders.
CNN has also learned that on December 9, Senator John McCain gave a full copy of the memos -- dated from June through December, 2016 -- to FBI Director James Comey. McCain became aware of the memos from a former British diplomat who had been posted in Moscow. But the FBI had already been given a set of the memos compiled up to August 2016, when the former MI6 agent presented them to an FBI official in Rome, according to national security officials.
The raw memos on which the synopsis is based were prepared by the former MI6 agent, who was posted in Russia in the 1990s and now runs a private intelligence gathering firm. His investigations related to Mr. Trump were initially funded by groups and donors supporting Republican opponents of Mr. Trump during the GOP primaries, multiple sources confirmed to CNN. Those sources also said that once Mr. Trump became the nominee, further investigation was funded by groups and donors supporting Hillary Clinton.
Spokespeople for the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment. Officials who spoke to CNN declined to do so on the record given the classified nature of the material.
Some of the allegations were first reported publicly in Mother Jones one week before the election.
One high level administration official told CNN, "I have a sense the outgoing administration and intelligence community is setting down the pieces so this must be investigated seriously and run down. I think concern was to be sure that whatever information was out there is put into the system so it is evaluated as it should be and acted upon as necessary."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Monday, January 9, 2017
Mitch McConnell makes his supreme hypocrisy
Chris
Matthews and his round table discuss Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
criticizing Democrats for potentially challenging a Trump Supreme Court
nominee.
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