Posted by Rude One
"They really, really hate them some 'niggers,'" my pal told me over the
phone from Virginia. He lives in a small town, and he's just about had
it with the Trump-loving, racist motherfuckers there who pretend to love
Jesus when all they love is their hate. We were talking just before one
of these doughy, deranged cumbuckets on the Confederate/Nazi right (fuck "alt") plowed
his black Dodge Challenger into a crowd of anti-Confederate/Nazi
protesters, killing one and injuring many others, in Charlottesville,
Virginia, on Saturday.
My pal, bringing out his natural Southern accent for the occasion, told
me about neighbors who "love them some Trump," about a woman who said
how she doesn't know how she'll afford her medical bills if the ACA goes
away but stands by her president, about how nothing really matters
except abortion and homophobia. "These people'd live under a bridge," he
said, "as long as them babies get born and two men ain't sucking each
other's cocks."
And racism, he reminded me. Don't forget the racism, the lifeblood of the Trump-loving Confederacy-humpers.
Donald Trump, who looks like a stack of traffic cones topped
with baboon's ballsack, has been justifiably excoriated for his seeming
refusal for two days to condemn the white nationalists responsible for
the violence and murder in Charlottesville. His initial statement
wasn't just milquetoast both-sides-ism. No, it was an implicit wink to
the racist thugs who took it as such. His pissy statement today, where
he finally called out "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other
hate groups," was presented with all the enthusiasm of a man in a
bathroom stall asking for toilet paper.
But his delay empowered these assholes, this savage collection of
bearded rednecks in torn rebel flag t-shirts, batshit militia dickheads
toting assault weapons, golf-shirted and pampered little boys, and
pathetic suit-wearing Nazi wannabes who Hitler would have laughed at as
he had them executed for being too fucking dumb to know how to wrap a
gas-covered cloth around a stick to make a torch. Most of them would
have shit themselves and run for their mothers if they had been actual
Nazis or actual Confederate soldiers, facing the American war machine
that tore the hell out of both those armies of losers.
The most pathetic thing here is how shocked they pretend to be that
their views are attacked, as if no one ever told them that slavery and
genocide (not "white genocide," which is so dumb it barely deserves
mention) are bad things to support. And maybe that's on all of us.
It's certainly on the media. Every time there was an article or CNN
investigation on whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United
States, the media made it seem like it was a legitimate story. Led by
the nose by right-wing bullshit websites and commentators, the
mainstream media gave the spittle-strewn glow of credence to it all,
whether it's ACORN or the New Black Panther Party or the thuggish images
of black victims of violence, like Trayvon Martin. And that's just
recent shit.
Almost all the so-called liberal press places extremism on an equal
plain with rational thought, so we'd get semi-sensible conservatives
like Ana Navarro and hell hounds of insanity like Jeffrey Lord, both
given equal airtime (until Lord finally went full Nazi last week). Van Jones should walk the fuck off the air if CNN makes him debate some reprehensible Breitbart shit-for-brains.
There are some things we need to agree on as a nation to move forward.
The problem isn't that people think they're Nazis or neo-Confederates, per se;
we're never eliminating stupidity. It's that we think there is
something noble about tolerating Nazis; about trying to understand their
ideology in an almost sympathetic way, about writing goddamned profiles
about the new, sexy white nationalist movement,
as if a fucking racist isn't just, in the end, a fucking racist, no
matter how many times he wears an ill-fitting sports jacket.
And it is long, long past time to stop tolerating in any sense the idea
that the Confederacy is a heritage worth honoring. I've said it before
and I'll say it again: Fuck your ancestors who fought to maintain
slavery. I don't give a dry rat turd how nobly they fought. They
believed that human beings were property and could be beaten, raped, and
killed. Fuck 'em. If you think there should be statues to them, then
you're the asshole. If I found out my great-grandfather was a child
molester, I sure as hell wouldn't want to honor him because he built a
nice house. And I'd be appalled if anyone wanted to celebrate his
architectural heritage.
Trump himself appealed to the lies of American history in both his sad
little statements. In the first, on Saturday, Trump said, "We must love
each other, respect each other, and cherish our history." Cherish our
history? Motherfucker, our history is a goddamned horror show with
occasional outbreaks of humanity, like the defeat of the Confederacy and
the Nazis, like the welcoming of immigrants and the civil rights
movement.
And then, today,
he said, "We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are
created equal." No, motherfucker, again, we were founded on the "truth"
that white men are created equal for that's all they considered "men."
It's like Trump is the president of the Confederacy, not the United
States.
If we can't agree on our goddamned American history, if we can't agree
that some ideas don't deserve a hearing beyond the half-human online
scrawlings of some cretinous asshole with a frog avatar and a collection
of concentration camp photos he jacks off to, then we're fucked. I want
people to feel shame for believing these things. I want them driven out
of the public square. I want them fired if they express it publicly,
especially if they're cops or in positions of authority. You're free to
say and believe what you want. And we're free to say your ideas are
barbaric enough to tell you to change or get the fuck out of our
society. This is about who we are as a nation.
You're allowed to hate Hate. You're allowed to be prejudiced against
Prejudice. You're allowed to destroy the monuments to people who tried
to destroy the country. You're allowed to say that support of genocide
and enslavement isn't a position that deserves being heard in the modern
United States.
You're allowed to tell these tiki-torch-carrying vermin
that they can kiss your American ass with their traitorous lips. We
kicked them in the balls before and we'll do it again. Your Robert E.
Lee statues are fucking done.
Go the fuck back underground. And take your shitty president with you.
(Note: For a good rundown on how Republican politics led us to this moment, check out Charlie Pierce, who wrote half of what I was gonna write today.)
(For the record, the only great-grandfather I know about was a leading
rabbi in Poland and did not, as far as I know, molest anyone or build
any houses.)
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
When You Forget Your Klan Hood And The Internet Finds Out
Peter Cvjetanovic didn’t really think this through. Cenk Uygur and Ana
Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss. Tell us what you think in
the comment section below. http://www.tytnetwork.com/join
"They didn't wear hoods as they chanted "Jews will not replace us." They weren't hiding their faces as they waved Confederate flags, racist signs and swastikas. They looked straight at a sea of cameras as they made the Nazi salute.
As Matt Thompson wrote for The Atlantic, the white supremacist march and rally this past weekend wasn't a KKK rally: "It was a pride march."
The bare-faced shamelessness was the point. But it was also an opening.
On the Internet, some people are crowd-sourcing efforts to identify and shame the people participating in the rally. Most prominently, on Twitter, the account called "Yes, You're Racist" has been soliciting help and posting IDs. "I'll make them famous," the account pledged.”
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/14/543418271/on-the-internet-everyone-knows-you-re-a-racist-twitter-account-ids-marchers
"They didn't wear hoods as they chanted "Jews will not replace us." They weren't hiding their faces as they waved Confederate flags, racist signs and swastikas. They looked straight at a sea of cameras as they made the Nazi salute.
As Matt Thompson wrote for The Atlantic, the white supremacist march and rally this past weekend wasn't a KKK rally: "It was a pride march."
The bare-faced shamelessness was the point. But it was also an opening.
On the Internet, some people are crowd-sourcing efforts to identify and shame the people participating in the rally. Most prominently, on Twitter, the account called "Yes, You're Racist" has been soliciting help and posting IDs. "I'll make them famous," the account pledged.”
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/14/543418271/on-the-internet-everyone-knows-you-re-a-racist-twitter-account-ids-marchers
Monday, August 14, 2017
Donald Trump Offers A Weak And Late Statement On White Supremacy Terrorists Who Support Him!
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's LATE and WEAK
statement this morning on hate groups and white supremacy terrorists in
America.
Ex-KKK Leader David Duke Has A Meltdown After Trump Condemns White Supremacists In Charlottesville
By Hayley Miller
Former KKK leader David Duke was none too pleased that President Donald Trump
on Monday finally got around to condemning extremist groups by name ―
including including neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan ― for the deadly
weekend protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Minutes after Trump’s speech, Duke lashed out in a series of tweets, claiming Trump had been manipulated by the media.
“It’s
amazing to see how the media is able to bully the President of the
United States into going along with their FAKE NEWS narrative,” Duke
tweeted.
Soon after that, in an anti-Semitic, racist Periscope video rant,
Duke spoke directly to Trump, claiming white nationalists abhor
violence. He said “it’s just ridiculous” that the president felt he had
to make Monday’s statement.
“President
Trump, please, for God’s sake, don’t feel like you need to say these
things,” Duke admonished in the video. “It’s not going to do you any
good.”
Duke
also stuck up for James Alex Fields, 20, the white nationalist motorist
accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing
Heather Heyer, 32. “When you’re under attack ... you panic and you do
things that are stupid and you do things that are wrong,” Duke said.
Trump
made an address to the nation on Monday, after two days of withering
criticism for a vague Saturday statement that criticized hatred and
bigotry on “many sides.”
“Racism
is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and
thugs, including the KKK, Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate
groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as
Americans,” Trump said.
Lawmakers
from both parties had called Trump out for not specifically denouncing
hate groups in the wake of a white nationalist rally that left three
people dead, including two state troopers, and at least 19 injured.
Some
white supremacist organizations, such as the Daily Stormer, praised
Trump’s vague weekend statement. Duke at the time appeared to warn the
president against calling out white nationalists, a group that has
largely embraced Trump.
Duke said on Saturday that the rally would help fulfill Trump’s “promises.”
“This
represents a turning point for the people of this country,” Duke said.
“We are determined to take our country back. We are going to fulfill the
promises of Donald Trump.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Trump 'seriously considering' pardoning convicted racial profiler Joe Arpaio
According to a report from state news channel Fox News, Donald Trump is “seriously considering” pardoning Crooked Joe Arpaio, who was recently convicted
of criminal contempt of court for his racist and illegal campaign
against Latinos and immigrants in Maricopa County as sheriff.
He faces up to six months for his reign of terror.
Fox says that Trump’s interview took place on Sunday, which means that Trump prioritized speaking out about a possible pardon for Arpaio over finally saying that his KKK and Nazi supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia, were bad. Clearly, “bad hombres” will always defend “bad hombres” when it comes to terrorizing people of color:
He faces up to six months for his reign of terror.
Fox says that Trump’s interview took place on Sunday, which means that Trump prioritized speaking out about a possible pardon for Arpaio over finally saying that his KKK and Nazi supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia, were bad. Clearly, “bad hombres” will always defend “bad hombres” when it comes to terrorizing people of color:
“I am seriously considering a pardon for
Sheriff Arpaio,” the president reportedly told Fox News at his club in
Bedminster, N.J. “He has done a lot in the fight against illegal
immigration. He’s a great American patriot and I hate to see what has
happened to him.”
Arpaio is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5
and could spend up to six months in jail. Though his attorneys are
planning on appealing the conviction, a presidential pardon would be the
swiftest exit from the case.
Trump told the network the pardon could come as early as this week.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/14/1689535/-Trump-seriously-considering-pardoning-convicted-racial-profiler-Joe-Arpaio
With his approval rate now at 34%, the end is near for this cretin. Thank God.
With his approval rate now at 34%, the end is near for this cretin. Thank God.
You will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too: Father of Charlottesville Nazi disowns him
By
Pete Tefft, Charlottesville riot attendee (Photo: Facebook)
One father of a marcher in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend
is denouncing his own son after the young man was seen on national news
spouting hate.
In a letter to Fargo, North Dakota’s Inforum, father Pearce Tefft wrote that his family wasn’t sure where his son Peter picked up his racist beliefs.
“I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son’s vile, hateful, and racist rhetoric and actions,” Tefft wrote, clarifying that he certainly didn’t learn such values at home.
“I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender, and creed. I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same,” he continued. However, he acknowledged, that Peter chose another path.
The family has remained largely silent, but Tefft said these recent events pushed them over the edge.
Remaining silent, he believed, would be a mistake.
“It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now,” he wrote.
He went on to say that his son is no longer welcome in their home or at family gatherings until he renounces the hate. The beliefs of the younger Tefft has also brought hate targeted at his relatives, who are being considered guilty by association.
His father recalled a time when his son joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven,” Tefft recalled.
“Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all,” the father closed.
Peter’s nephew also denounced him, according to local news outlet WDAY 6.
“In brief, we reject him wholly – both him personally as a vile person who has HIMSELF made violent threats against our family, and also his hideous ideology, which we abhor,” his nephew Jacob Scott said. “We are all bleeding-heart liberals who believe in the fundamental equality of all human beings.”
“Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane Internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy Nazi. He scares us all, we don’t feel safe around him, and we don’t know how he came to be this way. My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though he has failed as a father.”
The younger Tefft posted a photo of himself prior to the rally at the base of the statue in Charlottesville.
In a letter to Fargo, North Dakota’s Inforum, father Pearce Tefft wrote that his family wasn’t sure where his son Peter picked up his racist beliefs.
“I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son’s vile, hateful, and racist rhetoric and actions,” Tefft wrote, clarifying that he certainly didn’t learn such values at home.
“I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender, and creed. I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same,” he continued. However, he acknowledged, that Peter chose another path.
The family has remained largely silent, but Tefft said these recent events pushed them over the edge.
Remaining silent, he believed, would be a mistake.
“It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now,” he wrote.
He went on to say that his son is no longer welcome in their home or at family gatherings until he renounces the hate. The beliefs of the younger Tefft has also brought hate targeted at his relatives, who are being considered guilty by association.
His father recalled a time when his son joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven,” Tefft recalled.
“Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all,” the father closed.
Peter’s nephew also denounced him, according to local news outlet WDAY 6.
“In brief, we reject him wholly – both him personally as a vile person who has HIMSELF made violent threats against our family, and also his hideous ideology, which we abhor,” his nephew Jacob Scott said. “We are all bleeding-heart liberals who believe in the fundamental equality of all human beings.”
“Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane Internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy Nazi. He scares us all, we don’t feel safe around him, and we don’t know how he came to be this way. My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though he has failed as a father.”
The younger Tefft posted a photo of himself prior to the rally at the base of the statue in Charlottesville.
Before the liberals tear it down. @POVnow Help us #UniteTheRight ! @ACLU is. pic.twitter.com/KDv62EMba0— Pete Tefft (@TradiPeter) August 11, 2017
This charming Nazi is Pete Tefft of Fargo, ND — spotted in @UR_Ninja‘s video: https://t.co/2oslzXHtRZ #GoodNightAltRight #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/Zqd2gm8mOC— Yes, You’re Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017
GoDaddy dumping white supremacist site The Daily Stormer
The site, which was involved in organizing the white supremacist rally
in Charlottesville, has been given 24 hours to move its domain or have
it cancelled.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/godaddy-pull-plug-daily-stormer-after-article-mocks-charlottesville-victim-n792406
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/neo-nazi-website-daily-stormer-to-lose-domain-name/ar-AAq2Our
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/daily-stormer-being-dumped-by-godaddy-apparently-seized-by-anonymous/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/godaddy-pull-plug-daily-stormer-after-article-mocks-charlottesville-victim-n792406
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/neo-nazi-website-daily-stormer-to-lose-domain-name/ar-AAq2Our
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/daily-stormer-being-dumped-by-godaddy-apparently-seized-by-anonymous/
Trump - "He's One Of Them. Let's Stop Pretending"
By Josh Marshall
As we get underway today, a few thoughts on yesterday. In addition to going out of his way not to denounce the white supremacist and neo-nazi marchers yesterday, for those primed to hear it (which is the point) the President made a point of calling out and valorizing the marchers. In his at length on-camera comments, in addition to bromides and calling for people to love each other, Trump noted that we must “cherish our history.”
Here’s the passage …
Where does this come from? Who knows who wrote this text for Trump. But many of Trump’s most important speeches were written by white nationalist aide Stephen Miller, who came from Jeff Sessions’ senate office. Miller literally worked with Alt-Right leader (he coined the phrase) Richard Spencer on racist political activism when he was in college at Duke (Spencer was a grad student at the time). This isn’t some vague guilt by association. He’s one of them.
When Gabriel Sherman asked what he identifies as a ‘senior White House official’ why the White House didn’t denounce the Nazis in Charlottesville, he got this: “What about the leftist mob? Just as violent if not more so.” Maybe I’ve missed some other background comments out of the White House. But I haven’t heard anything that approaches that level of venom about the nazis or white supremacists. When the top ideologues at Trump’s White House look at yesterday’s spectacle, they instinctively see the counter-protestors as enemies.
Was that official Miller? Who knows? It could have been Bannon or Gorka or frankly a number of others. There are plenty to choose from. That’s the point. This wasn’t resistance to making a conspicuous denunciation or being cute. Those were Trump’s supporters. He recognizes them as supporters, indeed as part of his movement. And he supports them. This is probably largely instinctive on Trump’s part. It’s more ideological and articulate on his aides’ part.
He’s one of them. Let’s stop pretending.
As we get underway today, a few thoughts on yesterday. In addition to going out of his way not to denounce the white supremacist and neo-nazi marchers yesterday, for those primed to hear it (which is the point) the President made a point of calling out and valorizing the marchers. In his at length on-camera comments, in addition to bromides and calling for people to love each other, Trump noted that we must “cherish our history.”
Here’s the passage …
Above all else, we must remember this truth: No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. We love our country. We love our God. We love our flag. We’re proud of our country. We’re proud of who we are. So we want to get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville, and we want to study it. And we want to see what we’re doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.I spent the better part of a decade training as an historian. I’m definitely pro-history. But in context, this is an explicit call-out to the white supremacist and neo-Confederate forces at the march whose calling card is celebrating Southern ‘heritage’ and America’s history as a white country. Zero ambiguity or question about that. And they heard the message. White supremacist leaders cheered Trump’s refusal to denounce them and his valorization of their movement.
My administration is restoring the sacred bonds of loyalty between this nation and its citizens, but our citizens must also restore the bonds of trust and loyalty between one another. We must love each other, respect each other, and cherish our history and our future together. So important. We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other.
Where does this come from? Who knows who wrote this text for Trump. But many of Trump’s most important speeches were written by white nationalist aide Stephen Miller, who came from Jeff Sessions’ senate office. Miller literally worked with Alt-Right leader (he coined the phrase) Richard Spencer on racist political activism when he was in college at Duke (Spencer was a grad student at the time). This isn’t some vague guilt by association. He’s one of them.
When Gabriel Sherman asked what he identifies as a ‘senior White House official’ why the White House didn’t denounce the Nazis in Charlottesville, he got this: “What about the leftist mob? Just as violent if not more so.” Maybe I’ve missed some other background comments out of the White House. But I haven’t heard anything that approaches that level of venom about the nazis or white supremacists. When the top ideologues at Trump’s White House look at yesterday’s spectacle, they instinctively see the counter-protestors as enemies.
Was that official Miller? Who knows? It could have been Bannon or Gorka or frankly a number of others. There are plenty to choose from. That’s the point. This wasn’t resistance to making a conspicuous denunciation or being cute. Those were Trump’s supporters. He recognizes them as supporters, indeed as part of his movement. And he supports them. This is probably largely instinctive on Trump’s part. It’s more ideological and articulate on his aides’ part.
He’s one of them. Let’s stop pretending.
Donald Trump Signs Congress Russian Sanctions Bill Quietly And In Private
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's departure from
his usual trait of bluster and bragging, where he signed the tougher
Russian sanctions bill sent to him from Congress in private rather than
with a public ceremony.
Stephen Miller - Another Racist In The White House?
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's White House
Senior Domestic Policy Advisor, Stephen Miller, and his troubling past.
Including his close relationship with Nazi Richard Spencer.
Steve Bannon To Be Fired Because Of Too Many Donald Trump Jokes?
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses the sideways NON-ANSWER Donald
Trump gave when directly asked about whether or not he still has
confidence in Steve Bannon.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
5 Escape Hatches Republicans May End Up Using To Avoid An Imploding Presidency
It's a very hard thing for a political party to abandon an elected fool, but they may end up doing it.
By Jefferson Morley
While the downfall of Donald Trump is far from assured, the signs are multiplying that the Republicans are preparing for a world in which Trump is no longer commander-in-chief. This is not the dreaming of the liberal resistance or the conservative #NeverTrump crowd; we’re talking about the actions of the Republican leadership, rank and file and Vice President Mike Pence himself.
No, the Republicans are not going to impeach Trump, demand his resignation or invoke the 25th Amendment to say he is incapacitated. But they are preparing escape routes from the fallout from his dismal poll numbers, stalled legislative agenda and mounting legal problems.
Six months ago, Republicans, whatever their qualms, saw no need for such planning. The 45th president, it was assumed, would sign into law the agenda of the congressional Republicans. The GOP would, in return, accommodate the president on his signature issues: jobs, immigration crackdown, revisiting free trade agreements, and restoring friendlier relations with Russia. With complete control of the government, the Republican vision seemed realistic.
Fat chance. Impulsive, unfocused and mendacious, Trump is now treated as an unpredictable menace against whom Republicans must build defenses. These defenses can also serve as escape routes if and when the GOP feels the need to break with the president.
1. The Sanctions Firewall
On July 27, House and Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, dooming Trump's yearning to make nice with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The president's allies originally resisted the additional financial penalties, but caved in under the weight of Trump's repeated lies about his campaign's contacts with Russians and his refusal to acknowledge the U.S. intelligence finding that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's identification with Russia has become so toxic that virtually every member of his party took the opportunity to reject it. The president can be accused of coddling Putin, but all of his putative allies on Capitol Hill have inoculated themselves against the charge.
2. The Sessions Firewall
Trump’s attempts to humiliate Attorney General Jeff Sessions into quitting were a transparent gambit to create a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department. With the Senate out of session in August, Trump could then make a “recess appointment” of a new AG who would not need Senate confirmation. The new AG could then fire independent counsel Robert Mueller, as Trump has made clear he wants to do.
In response, Senate Republicans united to set up a procedure under which the Senate is not formally recessed during the August break. If you check the Senate calendar for August, you will find a succession of days dedicated to "pro forma business," which means “keeping the president from doing something stupid.”
To underscore their resolve, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a stalwart conservative and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added that there is “no way” the Senate would consider confirming a new attorney general if Sessions were fired.
If Trump fires Sessions, Republicans now have a position from which to oppose him.
3. The Mueller Firewall
Two Senate Republicans have gone further to protect Mueller past August.
Thom Tillis, a hard-right Republican from North Carolina, has joined with Delaware Democrat Chris Coons in co-sponsoring legislation allowing the special counsel to make a legal challenge to any dismissal that would be reviewed by a three-judge panel.
Asked by Fox News if the measure was intended to protect Mueller from being fired by Trump, Tillis said, “There's no question that it is.”
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham joined Democrats Cory Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal in introducing the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong,” Graham told reporters when introducing the bill.
If Trump does fire Mueller, the Republicans have established a strategy for separating themselves from the White House.
4. The Pivot to Taxes
Senate Republicans are ignoring Trump’s insistence that they continue the party’s failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan say they are moving on to tax legislation, which they feel offers a better chance of success.
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) rejected Trump's call, saying, “We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the health committee, is working with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Democrats on potential measures to shore up, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act.
When Trump threatened the health care plans of Congress if the Senate didn’t heed his demand, Republicans called his bluff. He predictably moved on to other obsessions.
5. The 2020 Escape Hatch
The New York Times reported that interviews with 75 Republicans at every level of the party reveal “widespread uncertainty about whether Mr. Trump would be on the ballot in 2020 and little doubt that others in the party are engaged in barely veiled contingency planning.”
Pence has set up a presidential political action committee, the first sitting vice president to do so.
Pence’s outraged reaction to the Times story only underscored how threatening the perception of post-Trump planning is to the White House. Yet post-Trump planning is visible everywhere.
Conservative Republicans with presidential ambitions, like Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton, are cultivating donors and advisers as if there were no Republican incumbent in the White House.
Rep. Charles Dent, a senior Republican from Pennsylvania and a relative moderate, said many in the party would welcome Trump’s exit.
“For some, it is for ideological reasons, and for others it is for stylistic reasons,” Dent said, complaining about the “exhausting” amount of “instability, chaos and dysfunction” surrounding Trump.
Six months ago, the Republicans gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. Now they doubt he will benefit them, and they are acting accordingly.
By Jefferson Morley
While the downfall of Donald Trump is far from assured, the signs are multiplying that the Republicans are preparing for a world in which Trump is no longer commander-in-chief. This is not the dreaming of the liberal resistance or the conservative #NeverTrump crowd; we’re talking about the actions of the Republican leadership, rank and file and Vice President Mike Pence himself.
No, the Republicans are not going to impeach Trump, demand his resignation or invoke the 25th Amendment to say he is incapacitated. But they are preparing escape routes from the fallout from his dismal poll numbers, stalled legislative agenda and mounting legal problems.
Six months ago, Republicans, whatever their qualms, saw no need for such planning. The 45th president, it was assumed, would sign into law the agenda of the congressional Republicans. The GOP would, in return, accommodate the president on his signature issues: jobs, immigration crackdown, revisiting free trade agreements, and restoring friendlier relations with Russia. With complete control of the government, the Republican vision seemed realistic.
Fat chance. Impulsive, unfocused and mendacious, Trump is now treated as an unpredictable menace against whom Republicans must build defenses. These defenses can also serve as escape routes if and when the GOP feels the need to break with the president.
1. The Sanctions Firewall
On July 27, House and Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, dooming Trump's yearning to make nice with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The president's allies originally resisted the additional financial penalties, but caved in under the weight of Trump's repeated lies about his campaign's contacts with Russians and his refusal to acknowledge the U.S. intelligence finding that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's identification with Russia has become so toxic that virtually every member of his party took the opportunity to reject it. The president can be accused of coddling Putin, but all of his putative allies on Capitol Hill have inoculated themselves against the charge.
2. The Sessions Firewall
Trump’s attempts to humiliate Attorney General Jeff Sessions into quitting were a transparent gambit to create a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department. With the Senate out of session in August, Trump could then make a “recess appointment” of a new AG who would not need Senate confirmation. The new AG could then fire independent counsel Robert Mueller, as Trump has made clear he wants to do.
In response, Senate Republicans united to set up a procedure under which the Senate is not formally recessed during the August break. If you check the Senate calendar for August, you will find a succession of days dedicated to "pro forma business," which means “keeping the president from doing something stupid.”
To underscore their resolve, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a stalwart conservative and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, added that there is “no way” the Senate would consider confirming a new attorney general if Sessions were fired.
If Trump fires Sessions, Republicans now have a position from which to oppose him.
3. The Mueller Firewall
Two Senate Republicans have gone further to protect Mueller past August.
Thom Tillis, a hard-right Republican from North Carolina, has joined with Delaware Democrat Chris Coons in co-sponsoring legislation allowing the special counsel to make a legal challenge to any dismissal that would be reviewed by a three-judge panel.
Asked by Fox News if the measure was intended to protect Mueller from being fired by Trump, Tillis said, “There's no question that it is.”
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham joined Democrats Cory Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal in introducing the Special Counsel Independence Protection Act.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong,” Graham told reporters when introducing the bill.
If Trump does fire Mueller, the Republicans have established a strategy for separating themselves from the White House.
4. The Pivot to Taxes
Senate Republicans are ignoring Trump’s insistence that they continue the party’s failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan say they are moving on to tax legislation, which they feel offers a better chance of success.
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) rejected Trump's call, saying, “We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the health committee, is working with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Democrats on potential measures to shore up, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act.
When Trump threatened the health care plans of Congress if the Senate didn’t heed his demand, Republicans called his bluff. He predictably moved on to other obsessions.
5. The 2020 Escape Hatch
The New York Times reported that interviews with 75 Republicans at every level of the party reveal “widespread uncertainty about whether Mr. Trump would be on the ballot in 2020 and little doubt that others in the party are engaged in barely veiled contingency planning.”
Pence has set up a presidential political action committee, the first sitting vice president to do so.
Pence’s outraged reaction to the Times story only underscored how threatening the perception of post-Trump planning is to the White House. Yet post-Trump planning is visible everywhere.
Conservative Republicans with presidential ambitions, like Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton, are cultivating donors and advisers as if there were no Republican incumbent in the White House.
Rep. Charles Dent, a senior Republican from Pennsylvania and a relative moderate, said many in the party would welcome Trump’s exit.
“For some, it is for ideological reasons, and for others it is for stylistic reasons,” Dent said, complaining about the “exhausting” amount of “instability, chaos and dysfunction” surrounding Trump.
Six months ago, the Republicans gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. Now they doubt he will benefit them, and they are acting accordingly.
I DENOUNCE Donald Trump
By NanceGreggs
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who cannot – nay, will not – denounce racists, white supremacists, and Nazis, and call them out for who they are and what they represent.
I denounce any man who sees any equivalence between those promoting hatred and violence and those who are willing to stand against them, their ideology, and their tactics.
I denounce ANY American – regardless of their political affiliation or their political position – who is too spineless to speak out clearly and decisively against those who would divide us as a nation, those who would cast our fellow citizens as unworthy of inclusion as Americans based on their race, religion, or ethnicity.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who sees today’s events as being the result of ill feeling “on many sides”, when it is only one side that is promoting violence, and advancing the idea that racism is not only acceptable, but something to be embraced.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who dismisses today’s events as being something that’s “been going on for a long, long time”, as though racism is something we should just learn to live with, rather than unite to eradicate.
I denounce Donald Trump as being a champion of violence, a champion of bigotry, a champion of encouraging division among us.
In addition, I denounce the Republican Party that saw Trump repeatedly incite violence and divisiveness throughout his campaign, and supported him and elected him nonetheless. They knew who he was from the beginning, and their comments today, which amount to Oh, my, we never saw THIS coming, are an insult to every citizen who saw today’s occurrence as an inevitable outcome of putting a self-proclaimed bigot in the Oval Office.
Trump has never been, and never will be, my “president”. And I denounce any and all attempts to portray him as other than what he is: an ignorant, lying bigot desperately clinging to his “base” of knuckle-dragging racists, who have not only been encouraged by his remarks, but ultimately emboldened by them.
I denounce Donald Trump, his racist supporters, and the party that enabled him. There is no place in our country for any of them.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who cannot – nay, will not – denounce racists, white supremacists, and Nazis, and call them out for who they are and what they represent.
I denounce any man who sees any equivalence between those promoting hatred and violence and those who are willing to stand against them, their ideology, and their tactics.
I denounce ANY American – regardless of their political affiliation or their political position – who is too spineless to speak out clearly and decisively against those who would divide us as a nation, those who would cast our fellow citizens as unworthy of inclusion as Americans based on their race, religion, or ethnicity.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who sees today’s events as being the result of ill feeling “on many sides”, when it is only one side that is promoting violence, and advancing the idea that racism is not only acceptable, but something to be embraced.
I denounce a so-called “pResident” who dismisses today’s events as being something that’s “been going on for a long, long time”, as though racism is something we should just learn to live with, rather than unite to eradicate.
I denounce Donald Trump as being a champion of violence, a champion of bigotry, a champion of encouraging division among us.
In addition, I denounce the Republican Party that saw Trump repeatedly incite violence and divisiveness throughout his campaign, and supported him and elected him nonetheless. They knew who he was from the beginning, and their comments today, which amount to Oh, my, we never saw THIS coming, are an insult to every citizen who saw today’s occurrence as an inevitable outcome of putting a self-proclaimed bigot in the Oval Office.
Trump has never been, and never will be, my “president”. And I denounce any and all attempts to portray him as other than what he is: an ignorant, lying bigot desperately clinging to his “base” of knuckle-dragging racists, who have not only been encouraged by his remarks, but ultimately emboldened by them.
I denounce Donald Trump, his racist supporters, and the party that enabled him. There is no place in our country for any of them.
Bush-Era Ethics Czar Says Trump’s Far-Right Staffers Are To Blame for Charlottesville Riot: 'I Will Not Support Fascism'
A panel discussion on MSNBC’s AM Joy on the violence in the streets in the city of Charlottesville turned to the root causes of the rise of white nationalism under Donald Trump.
“This is the face of fascism, this is Breitbart news,” declared former Bush era ethics czar Richard Painter.
As live video of the clashes showed on the split screen, Painter lashed out at President Donald Trump and called for him to fire White House advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.
“I don’t always agree with everything the Republican administrations do but we have never ever seen rhetoric similar to what has come out of this White House,” the clearly disgusted Painter said. “We never had anyone like Steve Bannon or Sebastian Gorka in the Bush White House, to that president’s inauguration.”
“That is disgusting. We never would have tolerated that and we can disagree,” he continued. “I disagree with my own party on some issues, but we never would have had any of this in the Bush White House and these people need to be fired immediately. This is Breitbart News, and Breitbart News is a racist organization and it needs to acknowledge as such, they should not be given preferential access to the White House which is what they’re now getting under Steve Bannon.”
“Bannon needs to be fired, Sebastian Gorka and the rest of the fascists or we have to remove this president,” he said while indicating the violence.
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
Saturday, August 12, 2017
America's Racist Past Is Very Much Alive
Charlottesville is an ugly reminder that America's racist past is very much alive
Dressed in khakis and polos, bearing torches, donning Nazi memorabilia, and chanting anti-black, anti-LGBT, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant chants, white supremacist bigots have descended on Charlottesville, Va., in droves.
America is an ugly place.
Dressed in khakis and polos, bearing torches, donning Nazi memorabilia, and chanting anti-black, anti-LGBT, anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant chants, white supremacist bigots have descended on Charlottesville, Va., in droves in what may very well be the largest public demonstration of its kind in generations.
With almost no resistance from local police, these public bigots have marched and stomped all over town giving Nazi salutes while chanting "fuck you, faggots." They have yelled every racial slur imaginable and have done so with the full knowledge that they were being filmed.
Melania Trump speaks out on Charlottesville before President
They don't the mind the spotlight.
Why would they? Their President, who they love and adore, was voted into office in a white supremacist surge. They attended his rallies and events.
Donald Trump has been an immoral, offensive man for decades, but it was not until he put the very humanity of Barack Obama in his crosshairs that he became a cult hero to white supremacists from coast to coast.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)All of this hate, all of this ugliness, all of this bigotry and racism, didn't come out of nowhere.
White nationalist rally in Virginia triggers state of emergency
Yes, hate and bigotry are baked into the cake that is the United States of America, but ever since this nation, after electing 43 white men as President of the United States, opted to elect and re-elect Barack Hussein Obama, public bigotry and hate crimes have been on the rise.
Not only that, but for years now, Donald Trump has been at the center of that hate — being the most visible spokesman for the racist birther movement that claimed President Obama was illegitimately elected because he's not actually an American, but is a secret African or an undercover Muslim who was determined to ruin the nation from the inside.
No more famous American parroted the talking points of this movement than Donald Trump — even going so far as to publicly claim he had dispatched private investigators to prove Obama was never born in Hawaii in the first place.
Donald Trump has been an immoral, offensive man for decades, but it was not until he put the very humanity of Barack Obama in his crosshairs that he became a cult hero to white supremacists from coast to coast.
Here's why Red Wings forced to denouce white nationalist group
Riding the wave of that newfound notoriety into the White House, Trump appointed two of the most bigoted men in the nation, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, as his Chief Strategist and Chief Policy Advisor.
When you choose to appoint men with lengthy, documented histories of bigotry, men so despicable that they probably could not pass through the human resources of a single Fortune 500 company, to some of the highest available positions within the White House, such a public embrace of bigotry has repercussions.
We are living through those repercussions right now.
This year is on pace to be the deadliest year ever measured for people killed by police in American history. The President of the United States casually announces bans on people — be it Muslims, immigrants, and refugees from certain countries or transgender service members in the American military.
Every single leader I know and work alongside receives regular death threats. They are regularly called every foul, bigoted name imaginable. They are regularly lied on and subjected to some of the most heinous attack I've ever seen. This, too, is my reality.
Tiki torch-wielding white nationalists roasted on Twitter
Whatever you thought about 2017 in America, if ugliness, bigotry, and hatred aren't at the center of your thoughts, then you should think again.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)We are living in a dangerous, unstable time and I'm confident that Charlottesville isn't an outlier, but an indicator of things to come.
If you ever wondered who you'd be or what'd you do if you were alive during other tumultuous periods in American history, just look at your life right now.
If you aren't fighting back and speaking out right now, then that's the best indicator of who you would've been back in the day. The good news is this: you can join the fight against bigotry and hate in America right now.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Trump bowing and scraping...on bended knee...to Vladimir Putin
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse Dollemore addresses Donald Trump and his THANKS
and APPRECIATION to Vladimir Putin after having retaliated against
almost 800 U.S. State Department employees working in Russia.
Why Can't Donald Trump Say a Single Bad Thing About Vladimir Putin?
Nazi Tweet Gets Trump Ally Jeffrey Lord Fired
Trump backer, Jeffrey Lord, has been fired from CNN. Cenk Uygur, Ana
Kasparian, and Brett Erlich, the hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.
"Nazi salutes are indefensible," a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network."
Lord said his tweet was misunderstood. He said he was mocking fascists, not acting like one.
"I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here," he said in a telephone interview shortly after the network's decision was announced.
Lord said his contract was set to expire at the end of the year. He said he greatly respected CNN management despite disagreeing with the decision.
This is not the first time CNN has cut ties with a prominent personality on the network due to an offensive tweet.
Earlier this year CNN cancelled Reza Aslan's documentary series "Believer" after he posted profane anti-Trump tweets.
Read more here: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/media/jeffrey-lord-cnn-ties/index.html
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
***
The Largest Online News Show in the World. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE STREAMING weekdays 6-8pm ET. http://www.tytnetwork.com/live
Subscribe to The Young Turks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ
Like The Young Turks on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theyoungturks
Follow The Young Turks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/theyoungturks
Buy TYT Merch: http://www.shoptyt.com
Download audio and video of the full two hour show on-demand + the members-only post game show by becoming a member at http://www.tytnetwork.com/join/. Your membership supports the day to day operations and is vital for our continued success and growth.
Young Turk (n), 1. Young progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement, or political party. 2. A young person who rebels against authority or societal expectations.(American Heritage Dictionary)
"Nazi salutes are indefensible," a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network."
Lord said his tweet was misunderstood. He said he was mocking fascists, not acting like one.
"I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here," he said in a telephone interview shortly after the network's decision was announced.
Lord said his contract was set to expire at the end of the year. He said he greatly respected CNN management despite disagreeing with the decision.
This is not the first time CNN has cut ties with a prominent personality on the network due to an offensive tweet.
Earlier this year CNN cancelled Reza Aslan's documentary series "Believer" after he posted profane anti-Trump tweets.
Read more here: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/media/jeffrey-lord-cnn-ties/index.html
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Brett Erlich
***
The Largest Online News Show in the World. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE STREAMING weekdays 6-8pm ET. http://www.tytnetwork.com/live
Subscribe to The Young Turks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ
Like The Young Turks on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theyoungturks
Follow The Young Turks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/theyoungturks
Buy TYT Merch: http://www.shoptyt.com
Download audio and video of the full two hour show on-demand + the members-only post game show by becoming a member at http://www.tytnetwork.com/join/. Your membership supports the day to day operations and is vital for our continued success and growth.
Young Turk (n), 1. Young progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement, or political party. 2. A young person who rebels against authority or societal expectations.(American Heritage Dictionary)
Fuck Jill Stein. Fuck her voters. Fuck the Green Party. Fuck Republicans. Fuck Republican enablers.
By Drunken Irishman
Fuck anyone who ever said this past election was the lesser of two evils.
No, you troglodytic shit stain.
And fuck the excusers who still justify their vote for Stein or their vote for Trump or their non-vote in protest.
When the nukes fly, ask yourself how true it was this past election was between the lesser of two evils.
Then go fuck yourself in the final seconds you have on this planet.
Fuck anyone who ever said this past election was the lesser of two evils.
No, you troglodytic shit stain.
And fuck the excusers who still justify their vote for Stein or their vote for Trump or their non-vote in protest.
When the nukes fly, ask yourself how true it was this past election was between the lesser of two evils.
Then go fuck yourself in the final seconds you have on this planet.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Foreign Diplomats Call Trump A Laughing Stock Who Is Obsessed With Obama
According to a new report, foreign diplomats visiting the United States
are less than impressed with Donald Trump. In fact, they can’t seem to
stop laughing about how pathetic he really is, and about the fact that he
won’t shut up about his predecessor, Barack Obama.
When other countries are laughing, we should probably reevaluate our choices.
According to a new report, European diplomats do not have a very flattering image of Donald Trump. In fact, according to these European diplomats, who interviewed with BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity, they actually view Donald Trump as most Europeans do, as a complete laughingstock. The latest available polls show us that 79% of people living in Europe do not trust Donald Trump. They do not think he is an effective leader, and they think he is an embarrassment for the United States, and as a U.S. citizen, you're absolutely right. We agree with you on this.
But the fact that these diplomats, who do have the job of having to meet with Donald Trump, having to work with him when he goes on these overseas trips, the fact that they see him as a laughingstock is not anything that people in the United States should be laughing at. That is a very dangerous situation when nobody among your ally countries respects your leader, that they do not view him as a very serious person, and more important as the interview states, they don't view him as an intelligent person. One of the diplomats said that they actually play a form of word bingo when the president is around because he always uses the same words, over and over, like it's great, it's very, very good, it's tremendous. They say he has such a limited vocabulary, that is one of the sources of ridicule among the other diplomats.
Furthermore, and one of the most dangerous about him they said was that the man is clearly obsessed with President Obama. During meetings, they said Trump would not want to debate issues. He would ask if it was something Obama had supported. If the answer was yes, Obama supported it, Trump would blindly and blankly say, then I do not support it. No debate, no discussion, no understanding at all of what they were actually talking about. He just wanted to be opposed to anything that Barack Obama was for, and that is one of the biggest problems that they see over in Europe. Donald Trump is too obsessed with Obama to be an effective leader.
According to these diplomats, it appears that Donald Trump's only policy goals for the United States are to undo the accomplishments of Barack Obama. And to be honest, from what we've seen so far coming out of the Oval Office, that does appear to be his only agenda. He doesn't care about creating jobs. He doesn't care about protecting the environment or anything having to do with anything related to Americans. He just wants to roll back every single thing President Obama did so that four, eight years down the road, Obama can't look at this country and say, oh, that was the program I put in place, because Donald Trump wants to destroy it all.
And he's not only destroying things over here in the United States, as we see from this story. He's also destroying our image that Barack Obama had rebuilt amongst our allies in Europe, and maybe that's Trump's plan, since everyone in Europe really seemed to like Barack Obama, especially after eight years of Bush and our image overseas declined tremendously. Barack Obama repaired that. So I guess Donald Trump destroying that is just another part of his let's undo all of Obama's accomplishments policy.
When other countries are laughing, we should probably reevaluate our choices.
According to a new report, European diplomats do not have a very flattering image of Donald Trump. In fact, according to these European diplomats, who interviewed with BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity, they actually view Donald Trump as most Europeans do, as a complete laughingstock. The latest available polls show us that 79% of people living in Europe do not trust Donald Trump. They do not think he is an effective leader, and they think he is an embarrassment for the United States, and as a U.S. citizen, you're absolutely right. We agree with you on this.
But the fact that these diplomats, who do have the job of having to meet with Donald Trump, having to work with him when he goes on these overseas trips, the fact that they see him as a laughingstock is not anything that people in the United States should be laughing at. That is a very dangerous situation when nobody among your ally countries respects your leader, that they do not view him as a very serious person, and more important as the interview states, they don't view him as an intelligent person. One of the diplomats said that they actually play a form of word bingo when the president is around because he always uses the same words, over and over, like it's great, it's very, very good, it's tremendous. They say he has such a limited vocabulary, that is one of the sources of ridicule among the other diplomats.
Furthermore, and one of the most dangerous about him they said was that the man is clearly obsessed with President Obama. During meetings, they said Trump would not want to debate issues. He would ask if it was something Obama had supported. If the answer was yes, Obama supported it, Trump would blindly and blankly say, then I do not support it. No debate, no discussion, no understanding at all of what they were actually talking about. He just wanted to be opposed to anything that Barack Obama was for, and that is one of the biggest problems that they see over in Europe. Donald Trump is too obsessed with Obama to be an effective leader.
According to these diplomats, it appears that Donald Trump's only policy goals for the United States are to undo the accomplishments of Barack Obama. And to be honest, from what we've seen so far coming out of the Oval Office, that does appear to be his only agenda. He doesn't care about creating jobs. He doesn't care about protecting the environment or anything having to do with anything related to Americans. He just wants to roll back every single thing President Obama did so that four, eight years down the road, Obama can't look at this country and say, oh, that was the program I put in place, because Donald Trump wants to destroy it all.
And he's not only destroying things over here in the United States, as we see from this story. He's also destroying our image that Barack Obama had rebuilt amongst our allies in Europe, and maybe that's Trump's plan, since everyone in Europe really seemed to like Barack Obama, especially after eight years of Bush and our image overseas declined tremendously. Barack Obama repaired that. So I guess Donald Trump destroying that is just another part of his let's undo all of Obama's accomplishments policy.
FIRE AND FURY ~ The Randi Rhodes Show
Randi Rhodes Number-one ranked progressive radio talk show host,
political commentator, entertainer, and writer. The Randi Rhodes Show
was broadcast nationally on Air America Radio, and Premiere Radio
Networks from 2004–2014. Rhodes represents aggressively independent
media.
The Miami Herald described her as "a chain-smoking bottle blonde, part Joan Rivers, part shock jock Howard Stern, and part Saturday Night Live’s ‘Coffee Talk’ Lady. But mostly, she's her rude, crude, loud, brazen, gleeful self."
Rhodes and her show won numerous awards for journalism and broadcasting, including Radio Ink’s Most Influential Woman, Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women’s list (multiple years), TALKERS magazine’s Woman of the Year, and the Judy Jarvis Memorial Award for Contributions to the Talk Industry by a Woman.
The Miami Herald described her as "a chain-smoking bottle blonde, part Joan Rivers, part shock jock Howard Stern, and part Saturday Night Live’s ‘Coffee Talk’ Lady. But mostly, she's her rude, crude, loud, brazen, gleeful self."
Rhodes and her show won numerous awards for journalism and broadcasting, including Radio Ink’s Most Influential Woman, Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women’s list (multiple years), TALKERS magazine’s Woman of the Year, and the Judy Jarvis Memorial Award for Contributions to the Talk Industry by a Woman.
Is Trump Too Mentally Unstable To Solve The North Korea Issue?
Tensions are heating up between the U.S. and North Korea, and Donald
Trump appears to only want to escalate the situation. After warning
North Korea that they would be met with “fire and fury” like the world
has never seen, he took to Twitter to brag about the state of our
nuclear weaponry. Trump desperately wants to launch a nuclear attack,
and the results will have global ramifications for the U.S. Ring of
Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Link 1 - https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/s...https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895252459152711680
Link 2 – https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895254168570605568
Link 1 - https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/s...https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895252459152711680
Link 2 – https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895254168570605568
Trump’s Nonstop Lies Are Finally Starting To Bother Republican Operatives
GOP strategist Ana Navarro has finally had enough of Donald Trump’s
nonstop lying, and during a recent media appearance she compared the
president to a used car salesperson who just keeps making things up to
make a sale. Trump’s lies are certainly growing out of control, but he
doesn’t appear to be pulling back any time soon. Ring of Fire’s Farron
Cousins discusses this.
Link – http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/345698-gop-strategist-trump-thinks-hes-a-tv-host-or-used-car-salesman-not
Link – http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/345698-gop-strategist-trump-thinks-hes-a-tv-host-or-used-car-salesman-not
Married To The Mob: Investigative Journalist Craig Unger On What Trump Owes The Russian Mafia
https://democracynow.org
- A new exposé and cover story in the September issue of the New
Republic, titled "Married to the Mob: What Trump Owes the Russian
Mafia," examines how the Russian mafia has used the president’s
properties to launder money and hide assets. We speak with the author,
investigative journalist Craig Unger.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Oh Go Fuck Yourself, Glenn Greenwald
Oh golly. That’s a hard one. Let’s get out our abacus and some scratch paper and weigh the pros and cons.Greenwald, who likes to remind his readers every now and then (constantly) that he really really really really really doesn’t like America, and who is in theory a liberal who embraces liberal values, but totally isn’t, is just not sure whether Donald Trump’s plans to rip healthcare away from millions, deport the fuck out of every brown-skinned person he sees, and so on, are worse than the generals — Mattis, McMaster and Kelly — SUBVERTING TRUMP’S AGENDA by sneakily getting appointed to sweet-ass cabinet and White House positions by Donald Trump, and then sort of trying to rein in some of President Fuck-Bonkers’s most dangerous tendencies.
Oh and he’s mad about the Deep State, because of course he is. Greenwald spends a lot of his column beating a straw man to death, claiming that all the sane people who HAAAAAATE Trump, many of them conservatives who worked tirelessly to keep him from getting elected, and who have been in “COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY, MOTHERFUCKERS” mode since Greenwald’s pals at WikiLeaks and the Russians he is SO IN LOVE WITH (he would deny that accusation, but ya know, actions speak louder than words, and also fuck him) helped Trump get elected, think Greenwald and his weirdo friends are dumb for believing there is a “Deep State.” This is a false construct. We very much know there is a Deep State, and we know it makes Greenwald and Sean Hannity shit the bed, so we make fun of them about it.
But he’s really really confused about which is worse: that Trump is in office and beating the shit out of American institutions and the Constitution, or that the so-called Deep State (normal people refer to them as “career public servants”) is trying its damnedest to protect the Republic from Trump’s damage. The horrors! It reminds us of that thing Anthony Scaramucci whined during his 120-some-odd-hour tenure as White House Communications Director, about how there are some White House staffers who “think it is their job to save America from this president.” It’s almost as if there is a wide consensus among thinking Americans that the traditions we hold dear are in danger, and that we should do something about it. (Also, to all those people, thank you!)
But Greenwald can’t abide that, because how DARE the Deep State Military-CIA-Industrial Complex act all high and mighty like they for real care about protecting America from the authoritarian dipshit in the White House, when it’s very clear that #BothSidesDoIt anyway? How could Donald Trump possibly be more evil than the United States Of America has always been since forever?
Is it really hard to imagine any group that’s hurt people more than the Bush era neocons? What kind of pathetic What-About-Ism is this, GLENN? Is it not possible to simultaneously believe that the neocons empowered by George W. Bush did a lot of really bad shit (and that America in general has some blood on its hands), AND ALSO that Russia under Putin, the Rwandan genocide, North Korea, hell, a bunch of Communist governments going way the fuck back, are WORSE? What about ISIS?No matter how much of a threat one regards Trump as being, there really are other major threats to U.S. democracy and important political values. It’s hard, for instance, to imagine any group that has done more harm, and ushered in more evil, than the Bush-era neocons with whom Democrats are now openly aligning. And who has brought more death, and suffering, and tyranny to the world over the last six decades than the U.S. national security state?
The dead exploded babies his beloved Russians killed in Aleppo?
HOW ABOUT FUCKING POL POT, GLENN? IS THAT WORSE?
It’s handy that he only goes back six decades, otherwise he’d have to contend with little things like Hitler and Stalin and oh God what the fuck kind of #SlatePitch would we be reading then?
Don’t get us wrong — we don’t think it’s ideal that generals are in all these positions, or that #DeepState patriots are doing what they’re doing, and during ANY other presidency, we’d probably be appalled. But to use Greenwald’s construction, what president has done more to abuse power and subvert American institutions in his first six months of office than Donald Trump?
Anyway, this is very stupid, and what we’ve come to expect from Greenwald, who also is PRETTY SURE the Trump-Russia story is a buncha lies. As soon as he finds the time, we’re sure his Intercept website will publish a journalism exclusive claiming to have found the 400 pound New Jersey dude Trump always claims REALLY hacked the 2016 election, and we will have to tell him to go fuck himself all over again.
What tedious fuckery.
The Alt-Right And Glenn Greenwald Versus H.R. McMaster
Donald
Trump has scrambled the political spectrum in certain ways, and one of
them has been to introduce a new set of players to the national scene.
“Nationalists” or “populists” (as they now call themselves), or the
“alt-right” (as they used to call themselves), have been vying with
traditional Republicans for control of the Trump administration. The
nationalists tend to be pro-Russia, virulently anti-immigrant,
race-centric, and conspiratorial in their thinking.
Their current
project is a political war against National Security Adviser H.R.
McMaster, a conventional Republican who displaced the nationalist
Michael Flynn. The nationalist war against McMaster has included waves
of Russian social-media bots, leaks placed in the nationalist organ Breitbart, and undisguised anti-Semitism.
Most
observers outside the nationalist wing have treated McMaster as the
sympathetic party in the conflict. The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald is a
notable exception. Greenwald has depicted the conflict, much like the
nationalists themselves have, as the machinations of the deep state to
prevent the authentic, democratically legitimate populist
representatives of Trumpism from exerting their rightful authority.
Greenwald himself is not a nationalist, and is certainly not a bigot,
but the episode has revealed a left-winger’s idiosyncratic sympathy for
the most odious characters on the right.
Greenwald lays out his thinking in a deeply, if inadvertently, revealing column denouncing anti-Trump saboteurs in the deep state.
The
foundation of Greenwald’s worldview — on this issue and nearly
everything else — is that the United States and its national-security
apparatus is the greatest force for evil in the world. “Who has brought
more death, and suffering, and tyranny to the world over the last six
decades,” he writes, “than the U.S. National Security State?” (This
six-decade period of time includes Mao’s regime in China, which killed
45 to 75 million people, as well as the Khmer Rouge and several decades
of the Soviet Union.)
In Greenwald’s mind, the ultimate expression of
American evil is and always will be neoconservatism. “It’s hard, for
instance, to imagine any group that has done more harm, and ushered in
more evil, than the Bush-era neocons with whom Democrats are now openly
aligning,” he argues.
The
neoconservatives have lined up against Trump, and many Democrats agree
with them on certain issues. Since the neocons represent maximal evil in
the world, any opponent of theirs must be, in Greenwald’s calculus, the
lesser evil. His construction that “it’s hard … to imagine” any worse
faction than the neocons is especially telling. However dangerous or
rancid figures like Steve Bannon or Michael Flynn may be, the
possibility that they could match the evil of the neocons is literally
beyond the capacity of his brain to imagine.
A
second source of Greenwald’s sympathy for the nationalists is their
populism. The nationalists style themselves as outsiders beset by
powerful, self-interested networks of hidden foes. And while their
racism is not his cup of tea, Greenwald shares the same broad view of
his enemies.
Trump
“advocated a slew of policies that attacked the most sacred prongs of
long-standing bipartisan Washington consensus,” argues Greenwald. “As a
result, he was (and continues to be) viewed as uniquely repellent by the
neoliberal and neoconservative guardians of that consensus, along with
their sprawling network of agencies, think tanks, financial policy
organs, and media outlets used to implement their agenda (CIA, NSA, the
Brookings/AEI think tank axis, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, etc.).”
It
is certainly true that all manner of elites disdain Trump. What’s
striking is Greenwald’s uncharitable reading of their motives, which
closely tracks Trump’s own portrayal of the situation.
Many elites
consider Trump too ignorant, lazy, impulsive, and bigoted for the job.
Instead Greenwald presents their opposition as reflecting a fear that
Trump threatens their wealth and power. (This despite the pro-elite tilt
of his tax and regulatory policies — which, in particular, make it
astonishing that Greenwald would take at face value Trump’s claim to
threaten the interests of “Wall Street” and its “financial policy
organs.”)
The
opposition to Trump naturally shares a wide array of motives, as would
any wide-ranging coalition. Greenwald’s column consistently attributes
to those opponents only the most repellant beliefs. He doesn’t even
consider the possibility that some people genuinely believe McMaster is a
safe, responsible figure who might help dissuade the president from
doing something terrible.
Greenwald emphasizes, “Hank Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO and George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary, went to the pages of the Washington Post
in mid-2016 to shower Clinton with praise and Trump with unbridled
scorn, saying what he hated most about Trump was his refusal to consider
cuts in entitlement spending (in contrast, presumably, to the Democrat
he was endorsing).” It is true that Trump promised not to cut
entitlement spending. Greenwald’s notion that this promise placed him
“presumably in contrast” with Hillary Clinton ignores that fact that
Clinton also promised to protect these programs.
The
passage about entitlements appears deep in Paulson’s op-ed, which
Paulson began by lambasting Trump for encouraging “ignorance, prejudice,
fear and isolationism,” among other flaws. Greenwald asserts that
Paulson identifies Trump’s hostility to cutting entitlements as “what he
hated most” about the Republican nominee, but nothing in the op-ed
indicates this is what Paulson hated most.
Greenwald just made that part
up.
The
same concoction of motives is at work in Greenwald’s contempt for
McMaster and John Kelly, the new chief of staff. The pair of former
generals “have long been hailed by anti-Trump factions as the Serious,
Responsible Adults in the Trump administration, primarily because they
support militaristic policies — such as the war in Afghanistan and
intervention in Syria — that are far more in line with official
Washington’s bipartisan posture,” he writes.
Note
that “primarily.” Greenwald is arguing that news coverage treating them
as competent managers, as opposed to the amateurish nationalists, is
propaganda by the elite plumping for greater war in Afghanistan and
Syria. He is implying that if Kelly and McMaster took more dovish
positions on Afghanistan and Syria, their public image would be
altogether different. Greenwald supplies no evidence for this premise.
In fact, McMaster’s most acute policy struggle has been his efforts to maintain the Iran nuclear agreement, one which has placed him on the dovish side, against an established neoconservative position. Greenwald does not mention this issue, which fatally undermines his entire analysis.
The
final point of overlap between Greenwald and the nationalists is their
relatively sympathetic view of Russia. The nationalists admire Putin as a
champion of white Christian culture against Islam, a predisposition
Greenwald does not share at all. Greenwald has, however, defended Russia’s menacing of its neighbors, and repeatedly questioned its ties to WikiLeaks.
From
the outset, he has reflexively discounted evidence of Russian
intervention in the election.
“Democrats completely resurrect that Cold
War McCarthyite kind of rhetoric not only to accuse Paul Manafort, who
does have direct financial ties to certainly the pro — the former
pro-Russian leader of the Ukraine,” he asserted last year. (Manafort did have financial ties to that leader, a fact that was obvious at the time and which Manafort no longer denies.) Democratic accusations that Trump had hidden ties with Russia were a “smear tactic,” “unhinged,” “wild, elaborate conspiracy theories,” a “desperate” excuse for their election defeat, and so on.
As
evidence of Russian intervention piled up, Greenwald’s line of defense
has continued to retreat. When emails revealed a campaign meeting by
Russians on the explicit promise of helping Trump’s campaign, Greenwald brushed it off
as politics as usual: “I, personally, although it’s dirty, think all of
these events are sort of the way politics works. Of course if you’re in
an important campaign and someone offers you incriminating information
about your opponent, you’re going to want it no matter where it comes
from.”
This
closely tracks the Trump legal team’s own defense of the Russia
scandal, a fact that is probably coincidental. (There are only so many
arguments to make.) Greenwald is not a racist, and is the opposite
of a nationalist, and yet his worldview has brought him into close
alignment with that of the alt-right. A Greenwaldian paranoid would see
this quasi-alliance as a conspiracy. The reality of his warped defenses
of Trump is merely that of a monomaniac unable to relinquish his
obsessions.
Trump Just Helped Prove How Fake His Twitter Following Is
This is what happens when your biggest fans are bots.
Like pretty much everything else about his presidency, Donald Trump’s Twitter following is a lie. His social media fan base is mostly made of fake accounts; his legion of followers overwhelmingly comprised of automated bots.
This weekend, Trump inadvertently reminded us how phony his social media popularity is when he shined a light on what he erroneously believed was an adoring supporter. That Trump booster turned out be a Twitter bot—just one of the millions of fake accounts that exist solely to bolster the popularity of the most unpopular president in American history.
On the heels of the president basically catfishing himself, Twitter has since suspended the fake account and a slew of others just like it.
http://www.alternet.org/media/trump-just-helped-prove-how-fake-his-twitter-following
Like pretty much everything else about his presidency, Donald Trump’s Twitter following is a lie. His social media fan base is mostly made of fake accounts; his legion of followers overwhelmingly comprised of automated bots.
This weekend, Trump inadvertently reminded us how phony his social media popularity is when he shined a light on what he erroneously believed was an adoring supporter. That Trump booster turned out be a Twitter bot—just one of the millions of fake accounts that exist solely to bolster the popularity of the most unpopular president in American history.
On the heels of the president basically catfishing himself, Twitter has since suspended the fake account and a slew of others just like it.
http://www.alternet.org/media/trump-just-helped-prove-how-fake-his-twitter-following
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)